Education
The Move from the Church to the Parish Hall
On the last day we were in the church I found myself welling up with tears when I should have been singing songs of praise and thanksgiving. When I wasn’t wiping tears I kept looking at our beautiful wooden cross and wondering if The Trinity of Crosses would be in the new church. I noticed that one of the spot lights wasn’t reflecting all three crosses as it hadn’t for several Sundays.
I remembered our three children’s and one daughter-in-law’s confirmations, one son’s wedding, three grandson’s and one daughter-in-law’s baptisms, and wondered if I would ever feel those special wonderful times again in a “new “ church. I remembered so many funerals that I had attended and said goodbye to so many wonderful members of my church family.
We were asked to come and write prayers on the floor with a black Sharpie pen. If it hadn’t been a Sharpie I’m sure my tears would have washed my prayer away. Good-bye to lots of memories.
The next week we were in the parish hall and I was shocked and lost. Where was my pew on the left near the middle? Where was the middle? Where was left? We were in the round. I looked across and saw faces instead of backs of heads. Dana was playing her flute just for me.
The prayers of the people were being read and there was my prayer scattered through out. The name “The Prayers of the People” suddenly meant something new.
They say you can’t take it with you and I have always joked – well I just won’t go. But I may enjoy this great transition in me as well as the church and what a wonderful journey with some lovely God-loving people.
- Martha Elliott
(Had I not been a part of The Ink Slingers /Journaling Group I probably wouldn’t have given this subject that much thought. This self discovery group is lead by Dana Persels. We meet in the library on Tuesday evening from 7 to 8. Please join us.
The Enduring Grace Chapter of the Order of the Daughters of the King
The Enduring Grace Chapter of the Order of the Daughters of the King continues to grow at St. Bartholomew’s. There now are three more women-Martha Elliott, Mary Kay Mortimer and Kathy Sladek- preparing to become members of the order.
Following a prescribed 90-day preparation and study period, they are scheduled to be admitted to membership in the order during the 9 a.m. service on December 14, 2008.The study is designed to build a foundation for Daughters in the chapter to build on.
Meanwhile, St. B’s DOK chapter members will join chapters across the wider church in observing what is known as DOK Sunday this All Saints’ Sunday. It is the day that members are encouraged to take Communion together.
The Daughters of the King is a religious order for laywomen, who have taken a lifetime vow to live by a Rule of Life, which incorporates a spiritual discipline of daily prayer, service and evangelism.
St. B’s DOK Chapter of Enduring Grace most notably serves this parish through its intercessory prayer ministry.
“I am always humbled by the requests for prayer our chapter receives from parishioners as well as those from people outside of our parish from time to time,” said Thurma Hilton, president of the DOK chapter. “I believe that people have developed a high level of trust in us because they appreciate that we keep their requests confidential,” she said.
The DOK chapter also engages in outreach projects. It makes quarterly donations to the Timons Ministries. Recently, members answered a request from the diocesan Disaster Relief office to provide hygiene kits for the diocesan hurricane relief project. The chapter purchased supplies and assembled kits for the San Antonio based operation, on behalf of the St. B’s congregation. DOK members have also assembled hygiene kits and distributed them from the Salvation Army canteen truck. They have donated money to several projects, including providing food for several families. St. B’s DOK chapter also purchased the latest Gospel Book for the altar.
Money for their outreach projects comes through personal donations given by the DOK members, themselves; according to their national by-laws they cannot hold fundraisers.
Membership in the Daughters of the King is open to women communicants of the church. Please let us know if you feel drawn to this ministry. You are most welcome to join us on the 4th Saturday of each month at 10 AM in the library.
For all the Saints
As I am tying up all the loose ends of my life here in Corpus Christi, I have reflected mostly on my time spent with the St. Bartholomew’s Family. I have been witness to a church on the precipice of change, growth, and, yes, even greatness. I would be lying if I said my heart isn’t completely broken to be leaving such a great Christian community, because it is. I will tell you why I feel like I am leaving home for college again – because my life has been so shaped and wrapped around everyone in this church. I love being able to get to know people on a deeper level. I love being able to call the senior warden and ask for advice or prayer or just take a moment with her to cry in complete humility. Opening my heart, my life, my soul to the people of this church allows me to be brought up even when things are spinning out of control around me. When we do relationships here at St. B’s, we do them very well. We do not exist simply to have something to do on Sunday mornings. We exist to bring a life changing, world altering message to our section of this world. That’s where our excitement stems from – the grace given to us so that we can reconcile the world through Jesus back to God. This is what we do, day after day, moment by moment at St. Bartholomew’s.
With change, growth and greatness comes sometimes unpleasant and uncomfortable realities. These unpleasant and uncomfortable realities have a long tradition in the salvation narrative. After all, we did hang a man on a cross for saying things like “love your neighbor”, not just the ones that look or act like us, but those that make us MOST uncomfortable. I am sure that most of the problems facing this world today stem from us not following what Jesus told us to do – Love. Remember all the law and prophets hang on this! Love is not a feeling, it is action – it is something we do.
When dealing with change, we humans do not always accept it so well – which I think we all understand because it is comforting to have continuity in our lives. However, we live in a very different world that is changing every day at almost alarming rates. As Christians, we should be better equipped for any and all change that takes place, precisely because we know that “all things work together for the good of those that love the Lord”. We know that even when disaster is all around us and death sneaks up on us like a thief in the night that we can stand and proclaim “Alleluia, He is Risen indeed!”. Proclaiming new life where none existed before is the business we are in!
For example, a dream took place in the early 1950’s of a new Episcopal church for Corpus Christi. In 1959 the mission of St. Bartholomew’s Church was established and in 1963 on an empty plot of land that the Heldenfels family donated to the mission church, ground breaking occurred. Something out of nothing – empty land, a hand full of committed Episcopalians, and a dream. You are that dream. I am sure there was much anxiety about how to raise money to build a church, how to find land to build it on, how to set up and take down the altar at Cullen Middle School each week – it must have been a little bit chaotic for a while. But that chaotic change was necessary for the dream known as St. Bartholomew’s Church to come to fruition – and I thank God for that legacy of change and challenge. They did it, we are doing it, and we must continue doing it because it is a charge that we have from heaven to do the work we have been given.
As I transition into a new part of my journey, I want to share some things I have picked up here along the way:
1 - St. Bartholomew’s People know how to love,
2 - St. Bartholomew’s People are committed to working for the kingdom,
3 - There is much work to be done.
The first two things are pretty obvious; all you have to do is look around you to see love and commitment to the kingdom bursting from our seams! But the twist to this is that there is much work to be done and we need more people to help with that work. We must recommit ourselves as a parish to Christian education. I want our children to know all the stories of the Bible and why they are so important to our salvation history AND future. The next generation must be superbly prepared for the challenges of life – don’t just read them the Bible, tell them YOUR stories. Tell them how you found God, tell them how you found St. Bartholomew’s, and tell them how you see God in everyday life. These personal stories will do more for building up their faith than a discussion on the current sexuality debate. Do this because the world does a good enough job of telling us what’s wrong with the church – and they do a very good job of putting it on FOX, CNN, and other media outlets for the whole world, including our children, to see.
Something that I always try to keep in mind when discussing the church and disagreements is this: “Will what I have to say build up this community or will it only exacerbate the current situation?” This is the crucial question for us, and trust me, it isn’t anything new. “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another…If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another” (Gal. 5:13, 15). The early Christians struggled with in-fighting and disagreements, so get used to it: we are all sinners, we all have opinions, and we all are in need of the same grace that our neighbor needs. This grace is costly. So we must be ready for whatever this life throws our direction. Our children are watching what we are doing and how we respond to those we disagree with – so what will be your legacy? Only you can decide this legacy by how we talk about those we most strongly disagree when our future generation is listening – and trust me, they are always listening. They have a dream for this world; will you help them visualize that dream?
My dream for St. Bartholomew’s is that we will have too many people signing up to teach Sunday morning Christian Education, K-12. I have a dream that we will be able to put on our sign “This Episcopal Church Welcomes You” and really mean everyone, even if it makes us wildly uncomfortable. I dream that we will be even more committed to College ministries because we are the closest Episcopal Church to the Texas A&M Campus. I would love to hear that the college ministry grew so large, that we built a Canterbury house to gather up the masses! Wouldn’t it be great if all our of graduating seniors received a care package from St. B’s each new semester in college? I would love to have a women’s ministry that takes warm coffee and food to homeless women on Leopard during the coldest months, just to let them know that someone loves them. I would love to see that St. Bartholomew’s began a “Campaign of Kindness” in which people would bake dozens and dozens of cookies for women to take to the lost with a simple note card for them that says “St. Bartholomew’s Church Loves and Welcomes YOU!” With whom did Jesus do ministry? The answer: sinners, tax collectors, and those that society deems the lowest of the low. “The harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few.” As we become the 21st Century Church that we are called to be, look for new and VERY different ways to do ministry. There is a whole city that needs what St. Bartholomew’s has to offer, only, we don’t have enough people willing and able to take that excitement and message to them, except, of course, you. Will you take on the work for the kingdom? I promise it will be hard, exhausting, and uncomfortable, but the rewards are most assuredly eternal.
Thank you, St. Bartholomew’s, for investing your trust, time, talent, and treasure in me. I could not be who I am today without you.
- Brandon Travis Coreale