SEPTEMBER 2022 • Volume 24, Number 5 What are you made for?: 3 Halloween Changes: 7 Can you hear the music?: 8 Music Here and Around the World: 10
Charissa Fenton, Receptionist
The Rev. Patrick Gahan, Rector
Lily Fenton, Nursery Director Avery Moran, Youth Minister Susan Lindstrom, Director of College Ministry
Donna Franco, Financial Manager
Elizabeth Martinez, Kitchen Manager
Robert Vallejo, Facilities Manager
Rudy Segovia, Hospitality Manager
Gretchen Comuzzi Duggan, Director of Communications Monica Elliott, Executive Assistant to the Rector
The Rev. Brien Koehler, Associate Rector for Mission and Formation
The Rev. Justin Lindstrom, Associate Rector for Community Formation
Joshua Benninger, Music Minister & Organist
Contents: From Our Rector ............................. 3 Music Ministry ............................... 8 Youth Ministry 9 Family Ministry 10 World Missions ............................. 11 Outreach Ministry .......................... 12 Page Turners 13 Photo Album 15 In Person Services: 7:30Sundaysa.m. - Rite I 9 & 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. - Rite II Sunday School 10:00 a.m. Christian Education for Children, Youth, and Adults 11Wednesdaysa.m.-Eucharist with Anointing and Healing Prayers Front cover photo: Avery Moran Tina Scott and her daughter serve communion Back Cover photo: Monica Elliott EFM celebration Editor: Gretchen Duggan Visit us on-line at www.cecsa.org Follow Thefacebook.com/ChristChurchSATXus:@christchurchsatx@cecSATXMessage thisAVERYmonth:MORAN 2022 Vestry: Andy Anderson, Senior Warden Margaret Pape, Junior Warden Doug CatherineDanielde Marigny Rick DavidSpencerFosterHillMcArthur Lisa ScottJulianneGarnettGarryMillerSchnelzerWietbrockReevesRose Live Stream Services: 11:009:00www.cecsa.org/live-stream&11:00a.m.Sundaysa.m.Wednesdays PATRICK GAHAN HALLETA HEINRICH JOSHERICBENNINGERFENTONRUTH BERG CYNTHIA MCWHIRTER
The Rev. Scott Kitayama, Associate Rector
Karen Von Der Bruegge, Director of Vocational Discernment and Pastoral Care
Halleta Heinrich, Director of Family Ministry
Joe Garcia, Sexton
Contributors: Christ Church Staff:
Darla Nelson, Office Manager
Robert Hanley, Director of Campus Operations
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Jennifer Holloway, Assistant Music Director, Children’s Music Director & Social Media Manager
‘The M-16 A1 rifle is an air cooled, 7.9 lb. weapon with a maximum effective range of 450 meters and a maximum lethal range of 900 meters. It fires a 5.56 mm NATO round from 20 or 30 round magazines and its maximum rate of fire is 700 to 950 rounds per minute.’ I have no idea how many times I had to recite those facts in the chow line or while in formation. I do know that I only called the M-16 A1 rifle a “gun” once. I was immediately on my belly doing pushups and then on my back emulating a “dying cockroach,” but those humiliations were not the worst of it. I had to stand in the middle of the mess hall, cradle my M-16, and sing at the top of my lungs: ‘This is my weapon; this is my gun. This is for killing; this is for fun.’
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M16 training circa 1960s https://www.historicalfirearms.info/post/116333305624/m16-m16a1-the-xm16e1-was-first-adopted-in-1962
men and boys would go bird hunting at daybreak and attend the early service before returning home – often rewarding Kay and me with waterfowl or quail. Five years in Beaumont moved me to attest repeatedly, “Boys who grew up hunting and fishing with their dads are the most well-adjusted men I know.” I stand by that.
What We Were Made For
My experience with the M-16 A-1 rifle bears no connection to early morning family bonding in a duck blind. I had been at Ft. Jackson, SC for two weeks, learning to dress, salute, march, shine brass, spit polish shoes, do hundreds of push-ups, and eat breakfast in three minutes while standing at attention – when we paraded out to the firing range. After a pointed safety briefing by that towering African American, crisply starched drill sergeant, we were handed our own M-16s and ordered to memorize: The imposing 6 ft. 6 black drill sergeant held up the weapon and said, “The M-16 A1 rifle is made for one thing – to kill the enemy.” Returning to the barracks that night, I wrote a desperate letter to my mother. “I now carry around a 7.9 pound killing machine.” To be fair, I did not grow up hunting with my dad. My father had no interest in hunting, nor in me. Besides, by the time I turned ten, he was gone. It is also fair to add that I have served five parishes in Texas, and all have been filled with men, boys, and some women and girls who immensely enjoy hunting birds, deer, and, on occasion, wild hogs. In the two East Texas congregations I served, by Patrick Gahan
Twelve children die due to “gun” violence every day. 948 school shootings have occurred since the Sandy Hook massacre on December 14, 2012. Those children in Newtown, CT should have been preparing for Christmas vacation, just like the 2nd through 4th graders at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, TX should have been preparing for summer break.
The remedy is not for all Christians to agree, but for us to take our eyes off ourselves and step out as healers. A truth that proceeds from the Incarnation is that Christ is the walking around blueprint of how we Christians are to live.’
I will save the reader from the lewd hand gestures that accompany the ditty. However, I will tell you that I never had to repeat the song again. The M-16 is a weapon. It is not a shotgun for hunting birds or a rifle for shooting deer. It is a weapon made expressly for killing people. In fact, the light, highly pressurized 5.56 mm round is designed to ricochet throughout the body after impact to cause maximum damage to the individual. That is why it was so difficult to identify many of the Robb Elementary School victims in know the lethality of the weapon far more personally than memorizing its specifications. On the same day that daunting drill sergeant held up the M-16 and rattled off facts about it, all thirty men in my platoon took our places in foxholes situated in a straight line along the small arms firing range. First, we learned how to use the two simple sights on the M-16, by placing our nose on the “charging handle,” keeping both eyes opened, and placing the sight on the end of the barrel within the circle above the trigger. Then we learned how to breathe, by taking a regular breath, exhaling, and then gently pulling the trigger, so that we did not jerk the barrel in any direction. We next “zeroed” our weapons – that is aligning the sights for the individual shooter’s use. After “zeroing,” we were shown how the human torso silhouettes would randomly pop up for five seconds anywhere from 50 to 450 meters on the firing range in front of us. I hit every silhouette in the first two rounds. I had been in the foxhole less than an hour. I had never been hunting, been to a shooting range, or fired a rifle of any kind, save for a BB-gun. After that day, without the aid of a scope, I could kill any man at four football fields distance from That’sme.
Thus, this essay is about what we should become, what we are made for. It is not about weapons or “gun rights.”
Nevertheless, I would be irresponsible as a Christian pastor if I did not point out that the much-discussed AR-15 is the elder cousin of the M-16 with almost identical performance specifications. No amount of massaging can obscure the fact that the AR-15 has been made for same purpose as the M-16: to kill human beings. It is a weapon, not a gun. That begs the question as to why we have 20 million AR-15s in American homes? Is that a right or is it the necessary instrument for another massacre already percolating in someone’s head.
Of course, the problem is that we don’t know how Christ literally becomes the blueprint for our life. We are accustomed to objectively admiring Christ from afar, like an action hero or Jedi knight, whom we venerate but regard as “light years” beyond us in substance and ability. The Bible describes our relationship with Christ very differently – ‘If we have become one with Christ in His death, we will be one with Him in being raised from the dead to new life’ (Romans 6:5 NLV). Our relationship with Christ was never meant to be kept at arm’s length. Even more broadly, the Bible explicitly states that God, from creation, intended to indwell humanity. To better explain this, I will rely on the work of Andrew Murray (1828-1917), the South African Dutch Reformed pastor, teacher, and writer. Monica Elliott gave me a text of his work, Within: Or the Kingdom of God Is Within You, which is a transcript of his three addresses given at the Mowbray Convention at the Cape of Good Hope (c.1895?). The text Monica acquired was taken from Bodleian Library, Oxford’s main research library. She became interested in Murray because he is regularly credited as one of the main spiritual influences on C.S. Lewis (18981963). Lewis, who inspired his countrymen with his fresh, inventive wisdom during the torturous fifteen weeks of the Battle of Britain and throughout the remainder the key question beFore us is not so much what an m-16 or an ar-15 is made For, but what are we made For?
while packing a Smith & Wesson on her hip
why, in some desperation, I wrote my mother that night while sitting on the wool olive drab blanket atop my bunk. What would I become with this 7.9 lb. black instrument in my hands?
From our rector...
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1 The AR-15 generally uses a .223 Remington round, which is not as pressurized as the 5.56 mm NATO round.
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I wrote a friend at Christ Church a few weeks ago about how I have been shaken, both as an American and a Christian, at the response to the tragedy at Robb Elementary: ‘We are a nation of people obsessed with self — both on the left and on the right. In the case of the massacre in Uvalde, the children had not all been identified before we jumped from emphasizing our collective children’s safety to demanding individual adult rights. What has happened to the pursuit of the common good? When did “love your neighbor as yourself” disappear? We have replaced the love of God with the idolatries of identity, property, guns, libido, power, security, and entertainment. The result of our disordered love is that we suddenly think it is altogether fine for a 2nd grade teacher to coach a seven-year-old to read
If ‘Christ is the blueprint of how we are to live,’ then Christians are in the best position to at least show America how we can exit this madness and heal our country. The key question before us is not so much what an M-16 or an AR-15 is made for, but what are WE made for? The answer to the latter question is that Christ must become the blueprint of our lives. Once he does, we will refocus our political discourse and redirect our personal actions.
Murray explodes our understanding of the Incarnation – God becoming flesh, becoming human – means so much more than what we have heretofore comprehended. In Jesus Christ, Murray insists, God was painting us an indelible portrait of the persons we will become if we trust in God’s salvation through his Son. In Christ, “God proves that a man in whom God dwells will be ready to suffer
God’s plan to share His divine life with us is almost too generous to be believed. Thus, we are not terribly surprised when the serpent seduces the first couple of creation with the temptation to reject God’s offer and, instead, become “full of self” instead of God. We, like the first tragic couple, strive to be masters of our own lives only to discover that our light quickly goes out from lack of light-giving fuel, as Murray observes, “All the sin and sorrow of this life, of each one of us, has nothing but this: you are not what you were created to be—you do not have God dwelling in your heart to fill it with His life and peace and love.”
The result of our choice is evident to all around us. Instead of sharing light, darkness pervades much of our common life. Violence is not only erupting in the places we may expect – battlefields, of WWII, is an ideal Christian witness to recollect when our own nation is under siege by violence from another source.
third-world countries, bars, and inner cities, but now terrible violence is consistently breaking out in those places we once thought off limits for assaults and murders – schools, churches, synagogues, and workplaces. Formerly, we dropped our child off at school and prayed they would make a friend or pass a spelling test. Now, we beseech God that they will make it home alive! And who would have imagined that a church covered dish supper in prosperous, suburban Birmingham, AL would provide an ideal killing field for a deranged septuagenarian. The darkness is clearly spreading. The heavy blanket of humanity’s fall is suffocating us. In the ugly face of this, John the Evangelist’s prophecy of Jesus Christ’s advent stands tall like the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor: ‘What has come into being in him was life, and his life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1:3-5). Murray, steeped in the Reformed Christian tradition, does not dilute the power of Christ’s coming to redeem us, but he goes further still: “What was the object of Christ’s coming? It was to show us the possibility and the blessedness of being a man with God living in him Jesus said, ‘I do nothing of Myself—the Father in Me doeth the work.’ Here is no question of abstract thought or deep theology—here is a true man, sleeping, hungering, wearied, tempted, weeping, suffering like ourselves, telling us that the Father dwells in him, and this is the secret of His perfect, blessed life. He felt it all just as we feel it, but He could bear all because the Father was in Him. He showed us how a man can live and how He would enable us to live.”
From our rector...
The son of a French Huguenot mother and a German Lutheran father, Murray opened his keynote speech to fellow presbyters, missionaries, and religious illuminati with a bombshell: “This is my message this evening: God wants your heart; if you give it to Him, he will dwell in it. Do you not think it would make a wonderful difference in our life if we really believed this, and in believing received the blessing it speaks of? What a holy awe there would be in us.”3 At that, more than one well-schooled prelate sat up in his seat at the conference and jeered, “Who does this man think he is telling us who should fill us and what should happen to us?”
Undeterred, Murray begins…at the beginning. He asserts that when God created humanity ‘in our image, according to our likeness’ (Genesis 1:26), God was demonstrating how He could come to life in a created being. God’s plan was to share Himself fully with man, without reservation. Using a common article from his day, Murray held up an oil lamp for the crowd. He stated that the lamp is filled with oil, which is the source of its light, yet through the globe of the lamp, the light 2 The second sentence of 2 Corinthians 6:16 is taken from Leviticus 26:11-12 3 Rev. Andrew Murray, Within or The Kingdom of God Is Within You (London: Service & Paton, 1897), 46. Because this book is no longer than a pamphlet, I will not cite each quote.
Temptation of Adam and Eve, Adriaen Isenbrandt, first half of 16th century, Berkshire Museum, New York 5 is shared to those all around the lamp. Human beings, who are in concert with God, are like that oil lamp. We desire to be filled with the light of God so that light, which is entirely a gift to us, radiates to others. In so doing, the One who gives the gift is glorified as Jesus instructed: ‘Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven’ (Matthew 5:16).
If we want to understand how Lewis was ultimately inspired to write Mere Christianity, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Four Loves, and Out of the Silent Planet, we do well to take a closer look at Andrew Murray’s writing and speeches. Thus, for his Mowbray Conference address at the turn of the twentieth century, Murray took 2 Corinthians 6:16 as his central text: ‘How can the house of God get along with false gods? We are the house of the living God. God has said, “I will live in them and will walk among them. I will be their God and they will be My people.”’2
glory of God filled the Temple on the day of its dedication, the glory and presence of God fills those first believers assembled in Jerusalem: ‘And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each one of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability’ (Acts 2:1-4). We are, as Paul contends in 2 Corinthians, the house of the living God, yet it is here that Murray turns candidly critical of the Church. “How many believers there are of whom one would never say that their hearts are a temple that God has cleansed, and where He dwells? How much there is of coldness and worldliness, and selfishness and sin, and inconsistency of profession, that makes one sometimes doubt whether they are Christians at all. The state of Christ’s Church is sad indeed.”
That, it seems would be enough, but Murray does not stop there. He now declares that every Christian should personally experience Pentecost. To do so, Murray returns to St. Paul’s dramatic declaration in 2 Corinthians: ‘We are the house of the living God.’ Murray insists that the working of the Holy Spirit within the believer is not only for “conversion and regeneration,” but also for the “Spirit’s Pentecostal indwelling.” The first believers’ ecstatic experience on the Day of Pentecost is directly connected to God filling the first Temple in Jerusalem once Solomon built it. On the day of the formal dedication ceremony of the Temple, which was carefully choreographed with speeches and prayers, all heaven breaks loose: ‘When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offerings and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the temple’ (2 Chronicles 7:1). In the same way that the presence and From our rector... “every christians needs to know himselF. not only his own sinFulness and helplessness, but much more, the divine miracle that has taken place within him and made him the dwelling oF the three-one god…”
The pressing question is how we rise from this “sad state”? How do we become the Church promised and experienced on the Day of Pentecost? Murray begins his last talk at the Mowbray Conference with another trenchant quotation from the Second Letter to the Corinthians: ‘Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ is in you? —unless you fail to meet the test.’ 2 Corinthians 13:5 Explaining the text Murray told the conference attendees: “Every thoughtful Bible reader knows that the state of the Corinthian Church was a very sad one. There were terrible sins among them, and both epistles are full of sorrow and reproof. At the close of the second epistle, Paul sums up his pleadings in one question. ‘Do you not know? I fear you do not, or you would live differently.’” Then turning his gaze upon his peers in the audience, Murray continues, “Know ye not your own selves? Every Christians needs to know himself. Not only his own sinfulness and helplessness, but much more, the divine miracle that has taken place within him and made him the dwelling of the three-one God… There are in every 6 anything and give his life, even to the death, that he may enter into the fullness of the life of God.” Clearly, Christians can become the antithesis of those who take lives by becoming the countering holy force of those who dare to give their lives Now imagine if an entire congregation trusts that the Father indwells them as He does Christ. The community surrounding that congregation would undoubtably be deeply affected by this countercultural group of people living, working, and praying in their midst. Recall that Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened’ (Matthew 13:33). Our Lord is stressing that a congregation of believers initially may seem invisible to the community surrounding them, but God steadily works His life into them. Over time, these persons in the Church become the great contaminant of the prevailing culture. The culture of death and violence is weakened and mortally wounded by the kingdom of life. To those of us who complain, “Why doesn’t God just zap the bad guys and get on with it?” God is not Zeus hurling thunderbolts. Our Father works through us, and we well know that takes time. Jesus illustrates this painstaking, often invisible, process with another one-line parable: ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how’ (Mark 4:26). Jesus declares that God is at work, even when we cannot see that He is. He is at work within us; although, the growth that is germinating within us may be imperceptible for long stretches of time. We must face the ugly fact that most of us have spent a lifetime forging a kingdom of self; it will take some time to surrender and honor God on the throne of our individual lives and longer still to see the fruit of our conversion in our family and community. Yet, as God indwells one individual after another, the collection of us will leave no doubt in our neighborhoods that the kingdom of God has come near. Reading Murray, I am beginning to understand why his words resonated so convincingly with C.S. Lewis. The passionate South African believes that once one becomes a Christian, he or she undergoes a radical reorientation of life, one that is dramatically demonstrated for us in Christ’s incarnation and subsequent crucifixion and resurrection. St. Paul, in the first letter he penned, candidly declares this reorientation in his letter to the Galatians: ‘I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’ (Galatians 3:20). In his very first epistle, Paul insists he is inhabited by Christ such that Christ’s characteristics have been shared with him.
The indwelling of Christ leads to the transformation of our life; if not, we have settled for only half a Christ.
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To remedy our listless Christianity, Murray makes four suggestions: #1 Believe and accept the indwelling of Christ. To “believe” in the Biblical sense of the word is to “trust.” Each Christian must trust, not only that Christ was born to teenage Mary on a particular night in history, that he walked the earth for a short time teaching, healing, leading, and confounding people, that he died on the cross to show his love for us and reconcile us to God, and that he rose from the dead, utterly breaking the power death and sin once held over us. If we believe those things, let us also believe in Christ’s ascension, for in the ascension, Christ has broken the spacetime continuum and can be anywhere. His presence no longer has physical boundaries. Therefore, he can and wants to fill us with himself. Trust it! Accept it! #2 When you trust Christ dwells in you, be sure to accept the whole Christ. Murray warns Christians to quit being content with “only half a Christ.” Most Christians readily accept Christ as our Savior, and yet we do not receive him as our King. We are eager for the happiness Christ gives, but shy away from the holiness he demands. We speak easily of forgiveness, while ignoring his insistence that we are cleansed from all unrighteousness.
From our rector...
Pentecost, 1030-1040,OttonianRegensburg,Benedictional,Bavaria
Trunk or Treat Fall Festival
Saturday, October 29 5 - 7 p.m. at CEC Christian community numbers who are living a low and feeble life, without joy or power over sin, or influence to bless others.”
#3 If you accept the whole Christ, accept him with the whole heart. To receive Christ in our heart means that we welcome him into the seat of love. While it is true that we must trust in Christ and obey Christ, it is altogether more important that we love him, and our love is ignited by his personal presence within our being.
#4 Count on the indwelling of Christ to do all in your heart that needs to be done. As the Mowbray Conference concludes, Murray trumpets one last time: “It is utterly vain for us to think of following Christ’s steps, or imitating his life, by any effort of ours… What folly for us to think now we are Christians, that we can or shall approach anything like his life. It is impossible. We are, indeed, called to it. It is our first duty. But it can only be if we let Himself live that life in us.” Faith in Christ is not a task but a gift. Even the desire to receive Christ is a gift. If you sense in your heart that the Greatest Gift of all is being offered to you, trust and receive. At the present time, I know our problems seem too big to solve, and we wonder when Jesus Christ will show up and set things right. Thaddeus, the disciple, wondered the same thing, and, after the last supper, he pressed him, “Lord, why are You going to reveal Yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him’ (John 14:22-23). Christ will show up in us, for that is what we were made for, and how we heal the world.
Remember, how Paul confessed, ‘I resolved to know nothing among you except Christ and him crucified’ (1 Corinthians 2:2). He is telling the confused Corinthian Christians that above all Christ on the cross reveals the immeasurable love of God. Eleven chapters later Paul will conclude, ‘Faith, hope, and love remain, these three, but the greatest of these is love’ (1 Corinthians 13:13). Long-suffering, sacrificial, empathetic love for others is the evidence of Christ’s presence in us.
After nearly seven years of service as your music director, I’ve gotten to know each choir member on a profoundly personal level. They come from diverse backgrounds, live in various ZIP codes, hail from different denominations, and have differing political views. However, they all sing with purpose and passion for making music to glorify God.
they can hear the music
The following list provides a glimpse into the personal lives of the choir. The things you don’t see: their unique backgrounds, differences, and ever-changing life circumstances make the Christ Church choir a remarkable group of individuals that come together to sing praises to our ALord.member of the Christ Church choir is/ are the… …nurse coming off an exhausting 12hour shift but still makes time for choir
Then I heard every creature in Heaven and earth, in underworld and sea, join in, all voices in all places, singing:
…professionalrehearsal. singer whose friend’s husband is undergoing excruciating medical …gentlemantreatment.whose father died but calls to say he will return to the choir as soon as …daughterspossible. of mothers that also sing in the …busychoir.real estate agent that goes above and beyond preparing for special choral …collegeevents. graduate working out of state who rejoins the choir whenever she is in town. …woman fighting painful health issues.
Angelic voices cascade from the loft, passing the word of God over our ears. With their vocal instruments tuned as one, the adult choir leads us in worship with anthems and hymns of praise to our Creator. Merriam-Webster defines a choir as an organized company of singers (as in a church service). While the Christ Church choir meets that basic criterion, there is much more going on you don’t see. On any given Sunday, it’s no accident these committed voices impact us in such powerful ways. Whether it’s the Hallelujah chorus at Lessons and Carols with full-scale orchestra or an intimate solo with a simple piano accompaniment, the choir faithfully supports our church’s vision: Drawing, changing, and sending people through the power of Christ. They excel at this for two reasons, and no, the guy waving his hands in front of them is not one.
…generous lady cooking fabulous meals for the …retiredchoir.Methodist minister that now makes Christ Church her home. …military …schoolteacher.veteran. …high school graduate heading off to …youngcollege. man who has never sung in …seniorchurch. associate at a children’s cancer research …creatorinstitute.ofagroup that meets weekly to find the best margaritas. …older gentleman whose wife recently
“To the One on the Throne! To the Lamb! The blessing, the honor, the glory, the strength, For age after age after age.” (Revelation 5:13)
8 music ministry by Josh Benninger
Sometimes shallow is OK. We don’t necessarily need to have a personal relationship with every single person we meet in life, and to be honest, it would be exhausting. But being able to open ourselves up, or allowing someone else to open to you, can have a lot of impact on someone’s life.
passed …marriedaway.couple busy juggling careers while raising children. Ask anyone in the choir why they enjoy what they do, and they’ll likely tell you that the choir does more than sing; it is a full-fledged renewal group. It is a family that prays and cares for each other. It’s not simply their differences that make this choir unique. It’s what they have in common. They can hear the music They know God’s call and act on it, letting Him use their talents and voices to share His mercy, love, and grace. Any group can come together and sing. But can they hear the music?
People want to know that we care about them. When we look back at our own time in grade school and college, the teachers that we could tell cared about us are typically the ones that we remember. It’s quite easy for us to overvalue what we know. The reality is that most people we interact with will appreciate our ability to remember their name, or what their job is, more than they will appreciate our ability to breakdown the book of Romans.
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To help make an impact in Youth Ministry contact Avery at averym@cecsa.org who cares?
I feel it’s appropriate to close with a message from our sponsor. We would love to have you be part of the choir family. We meet at 5:30 for dinner on Wednesday evenings in the Parish Hall, with rehearsal beginning at 6:30. If you’ve felt a calling to join the choir, please contact Jennifer Holloway or me for more information. Do you hear the music?
When I was in college, I worked at a camp in Medina called Deer Creek. I was there for four years filling in separate roles: musician, counselor, leadership, and even chef when necessary. I learned a lot while I was there, but above everything I soaked in while there is a piece of advice that has carried me through ministry. “People don’t care what you know, until they know that you care.”
The late American scholar and theologian Eugene Peterson, in his 2001 book Living the Message, offers this as the reason we sing to God: The people of God sing. They express exuberance in realizing the majesty of God and the mercy of Christ, the wholeness of reality and their newfound ability to participate in it. Songs proliferate. Hymns gather the voices of men, women, and children into century-tiered choirs. Moses sings. Miriam sings. Deborah sings. David sings. Mary sings. Angels sing. Jesus and his disciples sing. Paul and Silas sing. When persons of faith become aware of who God is and what he does, they sing. (p. 75)
Josh Benninger, Director of Music
Jenniferjoshb@cecsa.orgHolloway, Assistant Director of Music – jenniferh@cecsa.org
Think about all our relationships on a sliding scale. On one side, we have a shallow relationship, a relationship that we don’t really invest any more time than we youth ministry by Avery Moran must in it. Shallow relationships are fast, easy, and safe. We don’t open ourselves up, we don’t put too much thought into it, and we don’t open ourselves up to much of an opportunity to get hurt. On the other side we have a personal relationship, the relationship that you might have with a significant other, or with your kids, family members, anyone that we would consider ourselves close to. Personal relationships take time, they do not just form overnight. Personal relationships are also complicated, messy, and a little bit risky.
Love, Halleta Message from Ruth Berg
Our high energy and very creative Ruth Berg is writing a new Christmas Pageant for our children to star in on Sunday, December 4. She was truly inspired to do this, and our Rector, Patrick Gahan, has given his blessing. Below you will find a message from Ruth regarding this new work. Ruth, Patrick, and I are excited about this new and unique offering. We think you will be too. The story of the first Christmas will be the heart of the pageant, but the setting will be very different and fun! We will be starting to practice for “Under the C” in early October, so make sure your children are at church on the Sundays before December 4.
One of Jim’s and my treasured pictures is of our sons waving to us as they entered the church to be little angels and stars for the Christmas pageant at Christ Church. That was nearly forty years ago (when we ordered double prints from HEB, anxiously waiting to see if we “got the shot!”). Now, here we are, blessed as two of our grandchildren are reaching the ages of pageant participation (thank you, Halleta, for keeping the tradition going!). Having been involved since the very first pageant, last December I asked our granddaughter Lacey if she was excited to be a sheep in the event. Her answer was, “yes, but next year I want to be an octopus!” That was when the idea of an “Under the Sea” Christmas pageant began. With Halleta’s creativity and heavenward focus, she quickly changed the title to “Under the C.”
So, this December 4th, our youngest members—from toddlers to teens—are invited to participate in a new underwater setting of Christ’s birth, complete with modified songs and carols. And now, the work begins… Whether you have always – or never-participated in this Christ Church family event, there is a way for you to help. The pageant will be followed by the Annual Parish Christmas Dinner. So, if you can serve a dish, cut a pattern, use a sewing machine, master a glue gun or even a glue stick, it’s time for you to surface and dive into Contactaction!!Halleta Heinrich to get involved in our newest Christmas Pageant –halletah@cecsa.org. by Halleta Heinrich & Ruth Berg
10 get ready For under the c a new christmas pageant written by ruth berg cec Family ministry
Packer, the percussion instructor observed, “Working with the students on this mission trip is always a breath of fresh air as they are not only receptive but all very committed to their service to God. Although they lack many worldly possessions, the Ugandans are very rich in faith. As steel sharpens steel, the Band & Bible Mission trips continue to help build my faith.”
Professor Greg Wene brought his historical expertise. He presented a lesson about the brutal Ugandan tyrant Idi Amin. Many had no awareness of that terrible time in their history and were very attentive. Greg said, “Everyone made us feel welcome. Observing the hope, love for one another, and the sacrifices that are made under extremely difficult circumstances has deepened my faith.”
The Nebbi Diocese Brass Band has grown with the addition of a number of younger players. Their joyful spirits were very contagious and inspiring. A significant part of this change could be attributed to the leadership of Bishop Pons Ozelle since his investiture in January.
We cannot minimize the impact these missions have on those who go. Everyone returns with a renewed faith and love for RobertJesus.
cec world missions by Eric Fenton
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Felix Kasumba, the director of the Bunyoro-Kitara Brass Band, has managed to keep the band functioning very well during the pandemic. Although the band was somewhat smaller than the last mission, they had also improved a great Thedeal.greatest surprise was with the Namirembe Cathedral Boys and Girls Brigade Band. They had requested four challenging musical selections to be added to their concert. The band managed to breeze through all of them in the first rehearsal. All that was left was to polish the selections. You should know that this group has no adult leadership. They range in age from 10 to 20-years-old. They elect their Band Captain and are very organized. They manage to achieve this level of performance on their own. It is truly impressive and inspiring! For the Bible part of the mission the Reverend Eric Fenton brings a different Bible Study every year. This time he introduced the Discovery Method discussion questions we are using at Christ Church. They studied Colossians: Meeting Jesus, Walking with Jesus, and Our Future with Jesus. The questions were translated into the tribal languages of Alur and Munyoro. The surprise was how engaged they were in their small groups even continuing into the evening.
Band and Bible Going Strong
The Band and Bible Mission has been going to Uganda every summer since 2013. This was to be the 10th mission. COVID shut it out for the last two summers. So, three years after the last mission in 2019, the team happily Thereturned.realtest of a successful mission is if the work continues after the missionaries go home. The band director Richard Wallace observed, “We were afraid of finding out what the state of the three bands we had been working with would be. We were more than pleasantly surprised. All three bands performed at the highest level that we had ever heard. The rehearsals and performances were awe inspiring.”
We will never see those two men again. We pray that their new lives will bring them peace and that they will be surrounded with people who wish them well and are kind to them. For ourselves, we considered it money well spent. If you are interested, I encourage you to stop by Plaza la Paz currently located in the fellowship hall of Beitel Lutheran Church at 2515 Austin Highway – just south of Loop 410 on the west side of the street. Visit with Eddie, visit with the people he is serving; you’ll be glad you went.
“Come to me,
12 Finding peace
https://www.dwtx.org/blog/imm-march2022-update
” – Matthew 11:28
christ church outreach to asylum seekers
Note: Asylum seekers are not “illegal aliens.” They do have the right to seek asylum in the United States having been cleared for that process at the border.
Last week, I took my cousin Carolyn, who was visiting from Manhattan, to see Plaza de Paz, the Diocese of West Texas’ respite center for asylum seekers traveling to their next destination. The city and Catholic Charities run a much larger center on San Pedro, but the travelers are allowed to stay with them for only three nights. Plaza de Paz also accepts people each day who are being driven in from the border. After three nights at the City/ Catholic Charities Center, if they have not been able to make arrangements to travel on, they are taken to Travis Park where they are dropped off. They spend their nights at Travis Park Methodist while they try to figure out how to get funds to travel on to their family/sponsors. That’s where Plaza de Paz comes in. Eddie Rocha who runs the center, makes three or four runs a day down to Travis Park to pick people up and bring them to Plaza de Paz where there is air conditioning cec outreach by Cynthia MigrationMcWhirter,Liaison all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest
during the daytime. Thanks to a generous gift from Christ Church, the DWTX has enough money now to purchase a van (they have been renting) and one is on Atorder.Plaza de Paz the asylum seekers are usually more than willing to lend Eddie a helping hand in exchange for a cool place to stay, food, and just feeling welcomed. They have learned “the drill” and are able to help new arrivals figure out how to find clothes that fit them, where to take showers, food, etc. The day Carolyn and I were there, Eddie explained that a couple of guys had been in San Antonio for three weeks trying to get to their destinations. One, a Venezuelan with two children back home, had a job waiting for him in Indianapolis managing a bike shop with a room above the shop with a bed and other basics. All he lacked was the money to get there. The other man was from Cuba. He was trying desperately to get to his brotherin-law in Phoenix. Carolyn and I looked at each other. “Eddie, what does it cost for a one-way ticket?” Tickets were under $300 each. Talk about an opportunity for hands-on outreach! I purchased the ticket for the gentleman going to Phoenix. He began to cry. Carolyn bought the ticket for the man from Venezuela. He, too, got tears in his eyes. We sat and visited with them and learned a little about their hopes and dreams, their families, and their struggles to get this far (which were mighty).
I don’t have to wonder what people in the crowded Boeing 737 thought of the 67-year-old man crying his eyes out in the aisle seat on the sixth row. My defenses were completely down as I came to the end of The Adventurer’s Son, by Roman Dial. Kay bought the book for me at the White Birch, our favorite bookstore in North Conway, NH, where we were hiking in the foothills of the Presidential Mountains. (How we can call 2,000 foot vertical ascents “foothills” baffles me!) She didn’t realize how appropriate the selection would prove as a Father’s Day gift. Dial’s book is a memoir, and a hiking memoir, at that – a favorite genre of mine.
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How is that done? One Dairy Queen after another! I thank the Rev. Joan Ahrens for her gift of this book. I am giving fair warning: “Do not read this book on prayer unless you want to be disturbed.” As for me, I sauntered right into JohnJulian’s Letters to Jacob: Mostly continued....
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About Prayer without a trace of apprehension. I found it in one of my favorite book catalogs. For goodness sakes, Archbishop Desmond Tutu commends the book on the front cover. If only I had spoken to Brien Koehler, who knows the hermit monk John-Julian well, I could have danced past this one. Instead, I read and marked every page, and typed parts of every chapter into my journal. So, what’s the problem? John-Julian strips bare the shallow, self-centered encounters I have heretofore settled for as personal prayer – or as he terms it “still prayer.” The most disturbing part of the book are his thirteen shrouds that impede prayer. I will rattle off a few: emotions, boredom, expectations, ignorance, spiritual privacy, literalness, practicality, and the one that rocked me the most –consciousness of sin. It is a short book that will take you a long time to read. Dig out your pencil, put a notebook on your lap, and get ready to be rattled all the way down to your toes. My nerdiness has struck again. Because I have always loved words and recall with fond nostalgia my long hours studying Latin, I picked up the book, Long Live Latin: The Pleasures of a Useless Language, by Nicola Gardini. The author maintains an almost rapturous love of Latin, and, at the same time, he has an intricate knowledge of the development, cadence, and beauty of the ancient language. He describes in detail the unique usage of Latin employed by Cicero, Julius Caesar, Catullus, Virgil, Tacitus, Juvenal, and Horace. I haven’t seen so many lines of Latin since I was burning the midnight oil translating Caesar’s De bello Gallico (Commentary of the Gallic Wars), Virgil’s Aeneid, and Plautus’s eleven, occasionally ribald, comedies. After tremulously wading through so many words and constructions I no longer recognize, I think I had better reconsider taking up turners
– From the rector’s book stack he was in office. The plan, known by its homonymic acronym DC2DQ, stood for Hurd’s commitment to leave Washington, DC each year and travel to all towns and cities of the vast 23rd District, meeting his constituents at the local Dairy Queen. Even though half the people he visited did not support him and would never vote for him, Hurd considered it his elected duty to represent ALL the people in the 23rd Congressional District. Reverence for American governance, his deep love of the United States, and undaunted devotion for Texas, is inspiringly related in his newly released book, American Reboot: An Idealist’s Guide to Getting Big Things Done Hurd, for his part, spent ten years in clandestine service in the CIA and was the only Black Republican congressman in the House of Representatives. Those two experiences gave him a deep understanding of national security on the one hand and of the needs of minorities and migrants on the other. Furthermore, Hurd is a successful businessman, who believes in the unparalleled opportunities that free markets and hard work bring about. Hurd’s foundational conviction is that our nation must reignite the concept of pragmatic idealism, which he defines using computer imagery, “An American Reboot of moving beyond political contempt— fueled by only focusing on, listening to, and interacting with people who believe and act the same—will allow us to update our operating system with what I like to call pragmatic idealism: achieving what is actually achievable while improving life for the greatest number of people possible.”
The story, however, is about a father, Roman Dial, one of the most storied National Geographic Explorers in history, searching for his missing 27-year-old son Cody in the dense, frightening, and remotest jungles in Costa Rica. Cody, like his intrepid father, hiked, paddled, skied, rappelled, caved, and snorkeled where “angels fear to tread.” Dial’s descriptions of the jungle paths, the towering trees, the dark water, and the deadly snakes –the three most deadly on earth – draws the reader into the bowels of a world we’ll never visit but see distinctly through Dial’s eyes. Equally graphic, is Dial’s love for a son, which cannot be exhausted throughout the agonizing months or even amidst the densest, most unforgiving jungles on the planet. Only one Texas politician memorizedcompletelyhasthe Dairy Queen menu – former CongressmanU.S. Will Hurd. Hurd, who served Texas’s 23rd District,Congressionalmaintained an unusual strategic plan all six years
Travel as close to the equator as you like, but the most southern place in the U.S. is inEpiscopaltoIMississippi.Natchez,WhenwascalledthereserveTrinityChurchthesummer of 1975, I suspected Scarlet O’Hara or Ashley Wilkes would pop out on the front porch or from the garden of one of the city’s dazzling ante-bellum homes. So smitten was I by the city’s beauty, that I proposed to Kay in the music room of one of those glittering citadels. Natchez, however, is not the place I would suspect of progressivism in any category – especially race. I was wrong. Thanks to Nita and Ken Shaver, I was loaned the book, The Barber of Natchez, by Edwin Adams Davis & William Ransom Hogan, a biography of William Johnson, who was a free, highly regarded black man and prominent business owner in the heart of that city in the years leading up to the Civil War. Hogan’s and Ransom’s book is the articulation of Johnson’s 2,000page diary found in his three-story home, situated less than a block from the county courthouse. Johnson was most often termed “citizen” by his neighbors – black and white. Amongst other revelations, Johnson actually hired white men to oversee some of his properties and endless enterprises, and, most disturbingly, Johnson owned slaves himself. Not all was smooth sailing for Johnson, but his ceaseless innovations and accommodations kept him afloat and respected. All this goes to prove, our first impressions are often wrong. Losing track of our nation’s history leads us to imagine our uniquestrugglespoliticalaretoour time. Jackson Riddle knows better and illustrates that fact vividly and intricately in his latest novel, A Potter’s Vessel. As if reading our minds, Riddle’s story opens in the office of a Supreme Court Justice. Sarah Polk (1803-1891), the widowed former first lady, has written a letter to Justice John Catron (term, 1837-1865), who is married to her first cousin, Matilda Childress Catron. Sarah urges John to maintain his stand for individual state’s rights to secede peacefully from the Union and for him to accept the upcoming Democratic nomination for President. (Suddenly, you may have flashes of Elizabeth Thomas dancing across your eyes.) Agonizing over the contents of the letter, Catron is interrupted with the delivery of an urgent letter announcing the unexpected death of Justice Peter V. Daniel (term, 1842-1860), a staunch supporter of slavery, one of the earliest powerful voices calling for secession, and, interestingly enough, an avowed Episcopalian. With that news, the novel’s plot rolls like an enormous boulder toward page turners – continued continued....
14 Latin after my 59-year absence. Veni, vidi… dedi. “I came, I saw… I surrendered!” God’s declaration to Adam makes us sound so simple – ‘Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return’ (Genesis 3:19). But we’re hardly areHumansimple.beingsintricately constructed, such that our physiology is layered with protective skin, invisible microbes, minute capillaries, finely tuned organs, coordinated muscles, cartilage, and ligaments, reconstituting bones, and a supercomputer brain that operates with an agility unapproachable by the most advanced machines of science. What’s more, our body is a castle defended by an army of antibodies, lymphocytes, cytokines, chemokines, histamine, neutrophiles, B cells, T cells, NK cells, macrophages, phagocytes, granulocytes, basophils, interferons, stem cells, prostaglandins – and that’s just the front-line troops. The reserve troops number more still. I learned all this and volumes more from The Body: A Guide for Occupants, by Bill Bryson. Now Kay can talk to me about anatomy and physiology, and I don’t feel like an alien life form. You probably know Bill Bryson from his hilarious book, A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail. (The film version with Nick Nolte will literally have you falling off your sofa – trust me!) I found every chapter of The Body immensely interesting and helpful; however, the most important understanding I drew from Bryson’s book was what really happens to you and me in the aging process. It’s not all pretty, but it’s good to know since all of us are in the thick of it. After reading the book, I feel less like a dust ball and more in line with the Psalmist’s evaluation, ‘I am fearfully and wonderfully made’ (139:14). Because Bill Bryson taught me so much about my body, I turned next to A Short History of Nearly Everything, which is his attempt to tell us – “How we went from being nothing at all to there being something, and then how a little of that something turned into us, and also what happened in between and since.” Bryson, in 478 pages, writes a history of all life on our planet from the single atom to homo sapiens, and he does an across-the-board, in-depth job of it. My repeated mantra throughout all thirty chapters of the book is one that I stole from Edgar in King Lear, “Thy life is a miracle.” And it is. Consider that human beings, as we know ourselves, have only existed for .0001 percent of earth’s history. Consider, too, that 99.99 percent of all living things that have appeared on earth –animals and plants – are now extinct, and we come to understand the precariousness of life on earth and the intricate forces that had to combine perfectly to make you and me. Bryson allows us to see ourselves on the immense mural of life and thereby keeps us from ever taking life for granted.
15 photo album civil war or, if cooler heads prevail, a political and constitutionally legal Theresolution.latter hope is not buttressed by the fact that James Buchanan (term 18571861) is in the White House. Utterly desperate, President Buchanan tries to prevent the secession of the southern states. Sadly, his seesawing between neutrality on the institution of slavery and his apparent corroboration with slave-holding states incited the northern states to move ever closer to war. Adding romance to the story is Tennessee’s Jerald Scott, whose pursuit of Buchanan’s niece, Harriet Lane, “Hal,” draws him into the orbit of the White House and Buchanan’s advisors. Jerald’s indispensable counselor is his brilliant former slave, Gamaliel. As the nation teeters on the edge of war, Scott and Gamaliel set their standard, not on the battlefield, but on the floor of the Supreme Court. The case that looms as precedent for their deliberations is Florida v. Georgia 1855, where a slim majority of the court, five against four, ruled that the United States could determine a state’s boundary line. Interestingly, Tennessee Justice Catron voted with the majority. Daniel, the newly deceased justice, dissented. Will their deliberations lead to restraint or to Shiloh? I won’t tell you the ending, but I will tell you about Jackson Riddle. He is none other than J. Scott Rose, esteemed attorney, devoted Sunday School teacher…and an avowed Episcopalian, as well.
Group
The Message (USPS 471-710) is published bi-monthly by Christ Episcopal Church, 510 Belknap Place, San Antonio, TX 78212. Periodical postage paid in San Antonio, TX. Postmaster: Please send address changes to Christ Episcopal Church, 510 Belknap Place, San Antonio, TX 78212. Volume 24, Number 5.
www.cecsa.org78212TheEFM (Education for
EPISCOPAL Christ Episcopal Church 510 Belknap Place San Antonio, TX Ministry) celebrates the end of the semester
