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St Thomas

Sermon for Ash Wednesday

By Rector's Corner, Sermons

Christopher Thomas Sermon for Ash Wednesday, Year A – 2/26/20 Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 Psalm 103 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Have you ever had the opportunity to touch and to feel ashes? Ashes are kind of grainy, but as they get smeared around, they tend to have a kind of oily, greasy type quality. Ashes are the vestiges, the remains, of something that was. In their very creation, ashes have given up everything that identified what they were in their previous form and content, retaining only their most basic, elemental content. Something that was, at once, distinctly identifiable, say, maybe, a palm branch, woven by human hands into a palm cross, carried around or displayed somewhere for a year, meets the fire of furnace, and, in an instant, forfeits it’s green or brown shaped cross identity, returning to…

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February 27, 2020

Wednesdays in Lent – Mar 4 through Apr 1

By Upcoming Events

**IN-PERSON EVENTS ARE CANCELLED THROUGH MARCH 27** Enrich your Lenten practice! Everyone is invited to join us each Wednesday evening during the season of Lent for an evening Eucharist at 6:00 p.m., followed by a community dinner and education. Program will run from Wednesday, March 4 through Wednesday, April 1.

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February 27, 2020

Sermon for the Last Sunday after the Epiphany

By Rector's Corner, Sermons

Christopher Thomas Sermon for the Last Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A – 2/23/2020 Feast of the Transfiguration Exodus 24:12-18 Psalm 99 2 Peter 1:16-21 Matthew 17:1-9 “I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light, things that have saved my life over and over again, so that there is really only one logical conclusion. I need darkness as much as I need light.” – Barbara Brown Taylor, “Learning to Walk in the Dark” Transfiguration. The notion, why, the very idea, that something, or someone, or some ones, can come into contact with another something, or someone, or some ones, and be changed. Fundamentally, radically, altered, changed, meta-morphosed, from a cellular level, out, is mind-boggling to me. My brain dances with excitement. Transfiguration. Things are moving in ways we cannot begin to ask or imagine, but we should, and we must imagine! Why…

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February 23, 2020

Practicing Courage

By Christian Formation

Think of a time when you demonstrated courage in your life. What did you feel? What did you do? What gave you the strength to speak or act in this way? How did others respond? Now think of a time when you struggled or failed to demonstrate courage. Again what did you do (or not do)? What did you feel? What barriers (internal or external) hindered your ability to act more courageously? If you are engaged by these questions, then you will want to be sure to join us for our upcoming series of daily readings for the season of Lent from Living Compass entitled: “Practicing Courage with All Your Heart, Soul, Strength, and Mind.” The daily reflections start on Ash Wednesday, February 26, and conclude on Easter Sunday, April 12, and feature the writings of nine different authors. (See below for the variety of ways you can receive the…

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February 22, 2020

The Dallas Voice features Father Christopher

By News, Rector's Corner

Openly called — The Rev. Christopher Thomas becomes first rector hired at St. Thomas the Apostle as an openly-gay man. When Christopher Thomas was hired as the new rector at St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church in Oak Lawn, he was not the church’s first gay pastor, but he was its first pastor who was openly gay when he was called as pastor. Thomas credits that to last year’s compromise for churches in dioceses headed by bishops who don’t approve of same-sex marriage, such as the Dallas diocese. But that wasn’t Thomas’ only first. When he was ordained in Fort Worth, right after that diocese split over the issue of welcoming LGBT rectors and same-sex marriage, he was that diocese’s first openly gay pastor. Thomas grew up in Sugarland outside Houston and spent part of his professional life in Houston and New York. In Dallas, he’s probably best known for…

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February 21, 2020

Our own transfiguration story

By Rector's Corner

My Dear People of St. Thomas, This Sunday is the last Sunday of the season of Epiphany, the final Sunday before we begin our observance of Lent, our holy journey toward the passion, resurrection, and ascension. It’s on this day that we mark and consider the transfiguration of Christ, his journey up the mountain with Peter, James, and John (and all of us) to see and to witness a foretaste of the heavenly banquet to come! Transformations like this are exciting, and scary because they are exactly that, journeys. Journeys that we enter into with open hearts and open minds are life-changing and world-changing. They change who we are, in ways big and small. We don’t know all the twists and turns, but we have some idea of the end point, the goal, and we trust and have faith that our God will lead us there, again, as always! And…

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February 20, 2020

Bishop’s Prayer Breakfast – Feb 29

By Upcoming Events

Daughters of the King, invite you to the Bishop’s Prayer Breakfast on Saturday, February 29 from 9:00 A.M. – 11:30 A.M. at the The Cathedral Church of St. Matthew (5100 Ross Avenue, Dallas 75206). The Guest Speaker will be Marian Taylor, a professor at Wycliffe, Toronto who teaches Old Testament with a special research interest in women expositors of the Bible from the 19th century who have been forgotten. She is an exciting speaker, an evangelical and has a passion for her subject. This is a special invitation from Bishop Sumner who is a personal friend of Marian. Breakfast begins at 9:00 A.M. and Guest Speaker begins at 10:00 A.M. There is no charge, however a love offering will be collected to help defray costs. PRE-REGISTRATION is REQUESTED since breakfast will be provided. Simply email your NAME and PHONE to: DallasDOK@gmail.com Linda Shehee Order of the Daughters of the King…

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February 20, 2020

Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany

By Rector's Corner, Sermons

Christopher Thomas Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A – 2/16/2020 Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Psalm 119:1-8 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 Matthew 5:21-37 Because in my weakness (really, it’s my humanness), I can do nothing (nothing good, that is) without you. Give me the help of your grace, that I may keep our covenant, thereby pleasing you in both my intention and in my action. Amen. Intention, and action, and grace. So, as I have said before, it is my great privilege to go, to use Tom Long’s metaphor, to the well of scripture, week after week, to see what the Great Good News, the Word (Capital W, Logos) has to say to us, for you and my individual lives and contexts, and also for the wider setting of our communal life that we can and will live together here not only on our corner of Inwood and Mockingbird, but…

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February 16, 2020

Loving Your Neighbor As Yourself

By Christian Formation

All of the world’s major religions have some version of the teaching, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That teaching is certainly at the core of my own spirituality, and I strive (but often fall short) to live out this ideal every day. I imagine the same is true for many of the readers of this column. Some time ago, as I was reflecting on this teaching about loving your neighbor as yourself, it occurred to me that, in fact, this is precisely what most of us do. We actually do love them as we love ourselves. Last week I wrote about self-compassion and how our well-being is enhanced when we can tame our inner critic, and then truly feel love and acceptance toward ourselves. A common reaction I get when I write or talk about self-compassion and self-care is questioning whether what I’m talking about is encouraging someone to become…

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February 14, 2020