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St Thomas

The Rev. Raymond Carl Ball

By News, Rector's Corner

My Dear Doubters of Great Faith, It is with great sadness that I must announce the passing into the company of the angels and saints my fellow priest and our beloved brother Doubter on the journey here at St. Thomas the Apostle, the Rev. Raymond Carl Ball. In a year already full of sorrow and loss, the swiftness of Fr. Ray’s transition into God’s greater glory seems to sting even more. The outpouring of love in the form of tributes of fellow clergy, parishioners, and folks from across the Diocese of Dallas and beyond, in the form of e-mails, cards, notes, and Facebook posts, attest to the impact that Fr. Ray has had (and will continue to have) on countless numbers of lives, within our Church family, and far beyond. I did not have the privilege of knowing Fr. Ray until I showed up at St. Thomas in February of…

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October 22, 2020

God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and Its Aftermath

By Christian Formation

Doubters Book Picks: N.T. Wright, God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and Its Aftermath (Zondervan Reflective, 2020). ISBN-13: 978-0310120803. “What should the Christian response be to the novel coronavirus pandemic?” “How are we to think about God in the midst of a plague?” “How do we live in the present moment during this lengthening crisis?” “What can the Holy Spirit teach us about ourselves as COVID-19 confronts us?” “How will we recover personally and collectively?” N.T. Wright, Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St. Andrews (UK), and former Anglican bishop of Durham, tackles these questions and more in his newest book. Renowned for authoring over eighty previous books, Wright demonstrates why his readers are so loyal to him. God and the Pandemic is written clearly and is chocked full of nuggets of insight into how the resurrection of Jesus from…

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October 22, 2020

A Closer Listen

By Christian Formation

In the middle of a Zoom call that my wife and I recently had with some friends, I had a genuine aha moment, one that reminded me of an important lesson I had learned years ago. Knowing that my wife is an avid reader, my friends asked her what she was currently reading. She explained that she has just finished an excellent book entitled, The Housekeeper and the Professor, written by Yoko Ogawa. Our friends were curious to hear more, and so they asked her lots of follow up questions. The more questions they asked, the more details she shared. And that is when I had my aha moment. After we ended our call, I shared my insight with my wife. I explained that I had, of course, noticed her reading the book about which she had just been talking. Until the Zoom call with our friends, though, I hadn’t…

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October 20, 2020

Sermon for Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

By Rector's Corner, Sermons

Christopher Thomas Sermon for Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost Year A – 10/18/20 Grandparents are an amazing, unequaled gift of God’s divine presence to, in, and of the world. They really are. I had the great good fortune to know, have relationship with, and be deeply impacted by the two best grandmothers that I believe God ever produced. I like to say that if there’s something you like about me, you can probably trace it back to one of them. If there’s something you don’t like about me, you can probably trace it back to one of them. For the purposes of today’s message, I’m going to focus on one Johny Frank Thomas. Now, you might think that was a man, but that in fact was my father’s mother (named after her two grandfathers). I haven’t spent much time sermonizing about Johny Frank in my short time as priest, because, as…

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October 18, 2020

All Saints/All Souls Days

By Upcoming Events

If you would like for your loved ones to be honored in the Nov. 1 Doubter for All Saints/All Souls Days, please email the names to pam@thedoubter.org by Noon on Wednesday, October 28. If you would like to make a memorial donation, please note on the memo line of your check “All Saints” and mail to: St. Thomas Episcopal Church 6525 Inwood Rd. Dallas, TX 75209

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October 15, 2020

O magnum mysterium

By Rector's Corner

My Dear Doubters of Great Faith, This week I had conversation with a friend about what Episcopalians believe (scary thought!) regarding the presence of Jesus Christ in communion. Of course, we believe in Christ’s “real presence” in the elements, bread and wine, but what does that really mean? Are these things transformed, in some way, because of the words that a priest breathes over them? Our Articles of Religion, the basic footprint of Anglicanism, while not clear what “real presence” is, is definitive about what it is not – transubstantiation. The beauty is in the mystery! O magnum mysterium. She knows that Christ is there; she can feel his imprint. This outward, visible sign of an inward, spiritual grace. If Christ falls to the floor in distribution, she quickly bends to pick him up, and consumes. Christ IS there. Presence, real presence is this glorious mystery of words and Word…

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October 15, 2020

Sermon for Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

By Sermons

October 11, 2020 The Episcopal Church of St. Thomas the Apostle Dallas, Texas The Reverend Stephen J. Waller In the Name of the One God: As usual, friends, I will begin my homily today with something very personal, but also very much a part of the Parish we all love… On the 11th of October in the Year of Our Lord 1989, I was installed as the Third Rector of St. Thomas the Apostle…having been the Rector since my arrival in Dallas on September 1st. Bishop Patterson had selected the day… I doubt that the good Bishop knew that October 11th is National Coming Out Day. The Interim priest, Ernie Bell, was the preacher. Ernie and I had both served in the Diocese of Louisiana before and sort of knew one another…still, that he preached at that service means I had not yet made him mad enough to send me…

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October 11, 2020

Liturgy isn’t liturgy, without each and every one of us!

By Rector's Corner

Dear Doubters of Great Faith, On Wednesday of this week, Fr. Stephen Waller and I were honored to be guest lecturers in Dr. Stephen Sprinkle’s Doctor of Ministry class at Brite Divinity School, “The Ministerial Leader as Practical Theologian.” Steve specifically tasked us with leading a conversation around the practical implications of liturgy. What does our liturgical life as Episcopalians have to say about or to do with our lives lived out in the world? In short, so what? It was a fascinating, humbling time together, as we found ourselves surrounded by those who were every bit as schooled in their own liturgical practice, of so many different varieties, shapes and sizes. I started my part of the discussion by waging what we subscribers to Anglican theology uphold in our liturgical practice, the three-legged stool of “scripture, tradition, reason,” and what that looks like when praying really does shape our…

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October 8, 2020

Sermon for Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

By Rector's Corner, Sermons

Christopher Thomas Sermon for Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A – 10/4/20 Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 Psalm 19 Philippians 3:4b-14 Matthew 21:33-46 Breathe… Breathe…in Breathe…out Breathe… Breath. It is the universal symbol of presence. Neither you, nor I can be present, without breath. If we are present, breath is ever present. We can only go, maybe seconds, without, breath. In our finiteness, it is, in fact, the alpha, and the omega, the beginning, and the end. Light and dark, day and night, good and evil, right and wrong, up and down, everything that we consider, it seems, is rooted in breath. Even God. Even as we consider God, God, Godself seems rooted in-spiration. Inspiration! Then God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery…” God’s presence in breath begins the holy covenant of…

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October 4, 2020

Choosing to Be Response-able

By Christian Formation

There have been occasions during this pandemic when I have been less response-able than I wish I had been. Note that I wrote response-able, not responsible. It’s the former, not the latter, that I have struggled with on occasion. I define response-able as the capacity to respond calmly and thoughtfully to others even when under pressure, rather than mindlessly reacting, in a way that is rarely helpful. Stress significantly increases the chances of our being reactive, and there has been no shortage of pressure in most of our lives and our world lately. There is a significant difference between reacting and responding to stress. When we are reactive, we often feel out of control and then typically blame someone else, or something other than ourselves, for our reactivity. “If you hadn’t said that, I wouldn’t have reacted that way,” is a common excuse—certainly one I have used myself at times….

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October 3, 2020