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St Thomas

The Courage to Change What We Can

By Christian Formation

September is National Recovery Month. Through the years, I have been inspired and learned so much from my friends in recovery. Recently several of them have shared with me that what they have learned in their journey of recovery is serving them well as they now face the many losses and challenges brought about by the pandemic. A few weeks ago, a friend told me that he printed the first three lines of the Serenity Prayer, a prayer that is beloved by many people in recovery, and posted them next to his computer. Because his work requires him to spend so much time on his laptop, these words are a constant reminder to accept the limits of what he can control and what he cannot. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference….

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September 11, 2020

And With the Fall Comes Change!

By News

Labor Day marks the giving way of summer to the beginnings of fall, even in the age of “Corona-tide,” and as is the custom of St. Thomas the Apostle, we mark that passage with changes to our liturgy. There are several things that deserve your knowledge and attention. Our Song of Praise will be Canticle 13, “Glory to you, Lord God of our fathers,” which we will initially speak, but in the coming weeks will be sung by all. We will reintroduce the intonation of the psalms, led by a cantor. In conjunction with the book study we are undertaking on Monday evenings (“Caste,” by Isabel Wilkerson), we are reintroducing Prayers of the People composed by the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, at the request of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, written specifically to address the issue of racial reconciliation and social justice. And, this Sunday, it…

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September 10, 2020

The cry of justice and peace and dignity

By Rector's Corner

Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being? I will, with God’s help! My Dear Doubters of Great Faith, It was over ten years ago that I began my official journey toward ordination in the Episcopal Church, and one of my first assignments was the penning of a “spiritual autobiography.” I crafted my work around the touchstone of our particular Episcopal tradition, the Baptismal Covenant, specifically the questions that get asked of or on behalf of candidates. These questions really are foundational to our Christian identity, because they reflect the ways Jesus lived out his human, and yet divine existence, thereby modeling goals for our own behavior. As such, they are (or should be) the lenses through which we view all of life. But this question of justice, and peace, and dignity, particularly when coupled with the seeking and serving…

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September 10, 2020

Say Yes to the Mess

By Christian Formation

In 1959 Miles Davis and a group of musicians recorded the album Kind of Blue, which became the best-selling and one of the most influential jazz albums of all time. The remarkable thing about this album is that the musicians had very little preparation time, not knowing what they would be playing until they walked into the studio to record. The original liner notes for the album said that the musicians were only given a few scales and melody lines on which they were to improvise. There were no rehearsals beforehand. All of this was by design to create a genuinely spontaneous, improvised experience co-created in the moment. And the results of what happened in that studio in 1959 are captured in the words of musician Carlos Santana, “They went into the studio with minimal stuff, and came out with eternity.” While you have quite likely heard of Miles Davis,…

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September 6, 2020

Sermon for Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

By Sermons

The Rev’d Virginia Holleman Year A, Proper 18 – September 6, 2020 Exodus 12:1-14 Psalm 149 Romans 13:8-14 Matthew 18:15-20 In the Name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN. If ever I thought my faith was a matter just between me and Jesus, this story from Matthew’s Gospel would surely correct my thinking. Faith, my faith, is a community affair. So is yours; so is every other person’s who professes to be a Christian. Sure, we do need time alone to ponder the things in our hearts and lay them at the feet of our Lord. It’s why people have special places in their homes for private prayer; it’s why we go on retreat – either by ourselves or with a small group or even with a trusted friend. We do need time to spend in quiet and reflection with our Lord; we need Sabbath time. It recharges…

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September 6, 2020

Fall Book Study | Sept 14-Nov 9

By Christian Formation

Everyone is welcome to join our Fall Book Study, featuring Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson. It is an engaging and compelling read that I believe will help provide us a structure to give voice to some of these systems of injustice, a starting place for dialogues of change. The course will run 9 weeks, in Zoom, on Monday evenings, September 14 – November 9, from 6 pm – 7 pm. It will be facilitated by Father Christopher, seminarian Allen Junek, and Mother Sandi Michels, St. Elisabeth’s/Christ the King, Fort Worth. Email Father Christopher for the Zoom meeting link. Read the New York Times book review of the book, and to read the book in advance of the course. Please join us in this. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/books/review-caste-isabel-wilkerson-origins-of-our-discontents.html

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September 5, 2020

Vote Faithfully

By Rector's Corner

My Doubters of Great Faith, We find ourselves on the horns of another national holiday, Labor Day, the veritable conclusion to the trilogy of summer’s secular holiday Trinity. This Labor Day finds us all in a place that feels in many ways so different than Labor Days past. The things upon which we reflect this year are not the adventure-filled excursions, time away with family and friends, and the joyful returns, recanting stories of the road. Those things were much fewer and farther between, if at all this year. Instead, themes of this year’s reflection all seem to revolve around strife, division, and “apart-ness.” A virus necessitates much of the physical separateness. Deeper wounds of ongoing racial injustice are exacerbated by COVID-19, and by political and economic responses to and around the pandemic. But there is something we as Christians can, should, and must do, as a part of our…

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September 3, 2020

The Best Time to Start a Difficult Conversation

By Christian Formation

Whenever I begin a process of counseling with a person, couple, or family they almost always say something like this in the first meeting, “I/we should have started this conversation years ago. I/we have known ‘this” was a problem for a long time and guess I/we somehow believed that it would simply go away or get better on its own if ignored.” The “this” they are referring to is whatever issue it is that has brought them to counseling. The “this” of course varies, but could include issues such as a growing tension or distance in a relationship, unhappiness at work, concern about a drinking problem, concern about issues related to sleep or eating, worry about a child, a health or financial concern that has been ignored, or sometimes a growing spiritual crisis. I am reminded of the proverb stating, “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years…

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August 30, 2020

Sermon for Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

By Rector's Corner, Sermons

Christopher Thomas Sermon for Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A – 8/30/20 Exodus 3:1-15 Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c Romans 12:9-21 Matthew 16:21-28 Once upon a time… In a land far, far away, Far from anything that we might possibly imagine, or even conjure up today, There lived saints. Saints that roamed the earth, to and fro, hither and yonder, leading lives that, on the surface, seemed so ordinary, so plain, so simple. And yet, come to find out, they were anything but, ordinary! They were, in fact, extra-ordinary! And there they were, roaming, to and fro, fro and to, saintly acts they performed, some not even realizing it. (You have memorialized many of those saints in this room, in this very ceiling, in these very walls, in that very garden, and maybe even below us!) Make no mistake, these saints were not perfect. These were people, after all, people like…

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August 30, 2020

We’ve got some bridge-building to do

By Rector's Corner

My Doubters of Great Faith, Downtown areas, the central business districts of major metropolitan areas, are, in many ways, the heart and soul, the very canvas upon which the art of life gets played out. Ticker-tape parades and fireworks accompany victory, signaling joy; angst and sorrow are punctuated by protest and lament. The ebb and flow of the homeless population indicates how we do, or do not, take care of our sisters and brothers. For better or worse, downtowns are statements of our communal life together. And so, it is fascinating to me, as I hold a bit of a unique view of this statement, at this particular junction in history, having chosen to locate my home-life in the central business district of our community, Dallas. My reasoning for this is rooted in my deep sense of calling to urban social justice ministry, these dense urban areas so often being…

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August 27, 2020