The Canticle

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C February 2013

CALENDAR Sunday Schedule

8:30 am Rite I Morning Prayer & Eucharist 10:45 am Rite II Celebration Service Rite II

Wednesdays

12 noon Stations of the Cross & Communion from Reserved Sacrament 5:30 - 7:00 pm Simple Supper and Lenten Study subjects listed below

February 17 — Sunday 1st Sunday in Lent

February 19 — Tuesday 6:30 - 9:30 pm Affinity Evening

February 20 — Wednesday

Simple Supper/Lenten Study ''God'

February 24 — Sunday 2nd Sunday in Lent

February 27 — Wednesday Simple Supper/Lenten Study "Salvation"

March 3 — Sunday 3rd Sunday in Lent

March 6 — Wednesday

Simple Supper/Lenten Study ''Jesus''

March 10 — Sunday 4th Sunday in Lent

March 13 — Wednesday

Simple Supper/Lenten Study ''The Bible"

March 17 — Sunday

ASH WEDNESDAY

5th Sunday in Lent

March 20 — Wednesday

Simple Supper/Lenten Study ''The Cross"

March 24 — Sunday

Reading of the Passion Narrative during both services

March 27 — Wednesday

Simple Supper/Lenten Study '' The Church and Religion" 14700 North May Ave. Ì Oklahoma City, OK 73134 405.751.7874 staugustine.episcopaloklahoma.org

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What Are You Giving Up? Lent is upon us once again; the time each year when we are called to slow down and take stock of our lives and what we have been up to for the past eleven months. Curiously there are several themes that have been running through my mind about this liturgical time. Tradition states that this is a time of cleaning, of nesting, of rebirth and hope. Cleaning means sweeping in the corners, picking up what has accumulated, weighing its worth, and either giving it the heave-ho or putting it back where it really belongs.

Maybe the cleaning that needs to take place in your spiritual house centers on the act of Reconciliation. The goal of reconciliation is not just to think better of another or have another think better of you, but to live differently. If I have caused harm, I need to look at the situation, see what I did wrong, and then take that knowledge into new situations. So when the one I wronged and I finally reconcile, good can come, indeed already is coming, from the reconciliation. God is working in the midst forgiving us, helping us to forgive others and lighting the way for us to forgive ourselves.

Some of you may remember that on Ash Wednesday at the Noon Liturgy, I spoke about the concept of engaging in the various spiritual disciplines during this holy season. The subject matter evolved from a conversion I had with a family who has been attending our church recently. ''What is this Lent thing really all about?'' they asked. Some in our society believe ''It is all about fasting — giving up something like: sweets, chocolate, alcohol and other things we love, right? I would challenge us to look a bit deeper into the meaning of the season and see if there isn't something more substantial to gain.

For forty days, we give up something we possess too much of or do too often. This interpretation of fasting, depending as it does on excess, strikes me as privileged. It tends to exclude those who have little while easing the conscience of those who have much. What if fasting, instead of being a temporary modification of lifestyle for the relatively well-to-do, were a deliberate change of heart undertaken by us all? What if it were less about giving up red meat or cigarettes or clothes shopping for a few weeks and more about giving up, bit by bit, our rigid expectations of what the future should hold. Giving up our fixed assumptions about how the world should operate, our categorical judgments of how people should act, or who they 14700 North May Ave. Ì Oklahoma City, OK 73134 405.751.7874 staugustine.episcopaloklahoma.org

should be? Considered this way, fasting isn't a privileged practice; all of us can do it. Nor is it restricted to Lent but a daily challenge that we should ''take on'' and not ''give up."

So, why should I engage in some or any of these disciplines? Because I believe it must be said that all of this is to prepare us to live into the bounty that is to come. Maybe by taking a good hearty look back and feasting on a dose of humble pie we will finally be able to stand with Christ at Easter, look at the open tomb, and consider what this new resurrected life will bring! Blessed and holy Lent to you all Father Joseph+

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Sunshine Committe

Cindy Ginsburg, bigal8255@cox.net

The purpose of the Sunshine Committee is to help people when they need a meal because of illness, surgery, or loss of a loved one. Committee members also help provide rides on an as-need basis.

This past year the committee provided meals and transportation to several families and individuals.

The Sunshine Committee is always seeking additional members. It is a unique ministry that is both necessary and quite rewarding. If you are interested in more information or serving on this important ministry please contact Cindy Ginsberg.

The Prayer Shawls are given to those facing an illness or perhaps in Hospice. The yarn is especially soft and washable so they can be used in sick rooms if needed. The shawls are provided for anyone in our church to take for someone in need.

Some meet and work on the shawls together while others prefer to do this work at home. If you are interested, see the patterns, get copies of prayers, and decide where this ministry would fit in your life.

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Manville (Manny) Duncancson, Jr. For almost 21 years Manny has been a member of St. Augustine. He remembers being especially pleased with the friendliness and acceptance exhibited when he first visited the church so many years ago.

Manny always enjoys the music and hymns of the Episcopal church that are evident during the traditional 8:30 service on Sundays. Over the years he’s been able to depend on receiving excellent support and friendship from the other members at St. Augustine.

A retired professor from the OU College of Dentistry, he enjoys reading, music, mathematics and the study of American History.

Manny has a son that used to attend church with him until he married and moved to Duncanville, Texas.

He’d like to see St. Augustine continue to grow in the coming years.

Judy Moon

You may have noticed the knitted shawls draped across the Altar rails on occasion.

These are provided by the Prayer Shawl Ministry, open to all who can either knit or crochet or would like to learn to knit or crochet.

If you are a bit rusty, have no fear, the patterns are very simple. The focus is on prayer while making the shawls not on the knitting or crocheting.

The Byrd’s are a family of five rounded out by their children Tres 13, Kyt 8, and Dot 6. They enjoy doing things as a family and that includes the 10:45 Sunday service at St. Augustine’s.

Anne is a sign language interpreter and Tom is a landscaper. Additionally, Tom enjoys hunting and other outdoor activities while Tres’ favorite is karate and gaming.

Kyt and Dot like soccer and basketball respectively.

The friendly atmosphere and the Christ focused sermons encouraged them to join the church in August of 2011. Their favorite parts of the Sunday service are the Children’s Moment and the music.

Anne and Tom would like to see further development of youth programs over the next five years.

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Our gratitude to the men of the Brotherhood for their excellent job in the kitchen for both the Pancake Supper and the Mardi Gras party.

Traditional with a twist is her description of Sundays at the 10:45 service. She loves the ambiance created by the vestments, the colors, the participation of the congregation and the reverence embodied by our unique church. The service is thought provoking while remaining uplifting and joyful.

Ann and Tom Byrd

Prayer Shawl Ministry

Augustine. She's been a member since the church was conducting services in a warehouse prior to building our current structure. She loves the sense of family and caring that is so very evident in all St. Augustine activities.

Margaret stays busy reading, traveling with her husband, and enjoying their five grandchildren! With a combined family total of five adult children who are all married, employed, and insured she counts her husband and herself very lucky.

In years to come "the church should continue to grow, not just in numbers, but spiritually", says Margaret, "it should be a multi-racial, multi-cultural reflection of the community we live in."

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Whatever harm I may have done In all my life in all your wide creation If I cannot repair it I beg you to repair it, And then there are all the wounded The poor the deaf the lonely and the old Whom I have roughly dismissed As if I were not one of them.

Where I have wronged them by it And cannot make amends I ask you To comfort them to overflowing,

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And where there are lives I may have withered around me, Or lives of strangers far or near That I've destroyed in blind complicity, And if I cannot find them Or have no way to serve them Remember them I beg you to remember them When winter is over And all your unimaginable promises Burst into song on death's bare branches.

-Anne Porter

Margaret Kahn Retired, but not retiring, Margaret is not at a loss for words when discussing St.

14700 North May Ave. Ì Oklahoma City, OK 73134 405.751.7874 staugustine.episcopaloklahoma.org

14700 North May Ave. Ì Oklahoma City, OK 73134 405.751.7874 staugustine.episcopaloklahoma.org

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