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St Thomas

Deciding to Live and Love as Jesus Did

By Christian Formation

Every morning before 5 a.m., my great aunt Gladys rises to bake bread for the small island of Green Turtle Cay in the Bahamas. She’s been doing this six days a week for some 50 years. She shapes loaves in a small bake house behind her home and makes enough coconut bread, cinnamon raisin, and white sandwich loaves to sell at the store near the ferry’s dock. While the loaves rest during the first rising, Aunt Gladys goes off to Bible Study. When she returns, the loaves are prepped for the second rise and finally baked, bagged, and sent off to be sold. Aunt Gladys has put her children through school, supported missionary needs around the globe, and will tell you without prompting that she has never wanted for anything. When I think of sacrificial love and sacrificial giving, her strong hands kneading pounds of dough before sunrise come to…

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November 1, 2018

All Souls Day Remembrance Service – Nov 4

By Upcoming Events

On Sunday, November 4 at 9:00 a.m. we will have our annual All Souls Day Remembrance Service in the Interior Garden (or in the Parish Hall if it is raining). This is a brief and quietly reflective service when the names of those who have died will be read aloud and an opportunity to light a candle of remembrance is offered. Please submit the names of those you would like remembered on the All Souls Envelope found in your bulletin and place it in the offering plate. The last day to submit names is Tuesday, October 30 by noon.

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October 31, 2018

We Are Christ’s Healing Hearts in This Community

By Christian Formation, Upcoming Events

On All Saints’ Sunday, November 4, we hope to begin a new tradition here at Saint Thomas. This new tradition I speak of is rooted in our motto “Helping Hands, Healing Hearts, Welcome All”. As baptized Christians, our role is to serve as Christ’s healing hearts in this community. By “healing hearts”, we live out our mission as Christ’s Church “to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” As we pursue this mission, we pray and worship, proclaim the Gospel, and promote “justice, peace and love”. (BCP 855) You know of our efforts including our support of such ministry partners as The Gathering and Austin Street Center, our support of the LGBTQ community through efforts such as Lifewalk, as well as the welcoming of visitors to our Sunday worship services. But there is another way we can serve as Christ’s healing hearts: we can help…

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October 31, 2018

St Thomas Book Club – Richard Rohr – Nov 6

By Christian Formation

A question was raised about our upcoming selection Richard Rohr’s From Wild Man to Wise Man: Reflection on Male Spirituality…is this book only for men? The short answer is “no”. It is inclusive to all, and I encourage you to come, regardless of gender. Join our lively bunch at 10 am, each Tuesday, in the South Room. Now, the more in-depth answer is this… In Rohr’s own words, there is no such thing as male spirituality, just spirituality. Thus a discussion on so-called “male spirituality” is not exclusive and is, in fact, an approach many women are more in touch with today than men. Rohr comments: Women have been long encouraged and even forced to work on their inner lives more than men in our culture… In general, women are ahead of men in recognizing the so-called “feminine” and “masculine” parts of themselves. Their inner journeys and outer scholarship have…

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October 31, 2018

Proper 25B Sermon

By Rector's Corner, Sermons

Proper 25 B, October 28, 2018 Job 42: 1-6,10-17,Psalm 34 Hebrews 7: 23-28, Mark 10: 46-52 St Thomas the Apostle The Rev’d Joy A. Daley It was raining. Sound familiar? The rainy period I’m referring to was a while back in 2005. I was serving with a mission team of folks on a small island. We actually had 3 teams one was tending to the medical needs of people. Another team was doing construction I think that year we were putting toilets in the little hand made huts in the Colonia. The team I was serving with was the Christian Ed team trying to give kids a sense of Christ and his love. As I walked into the space where we would be having class with the children, I realized that the roof was leaking (That also might sound familiar) and I needed to do something before the children arrived….

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October 28, 2018

Interfaith Academy – Nov 8

By Christian Formation, Upcoming Events

Join us for our third session, Thursday, Nov. 8 from 7- 8:30 pm at St. Thomas in the Parish Hall. The Interfaith Academy is an interfaith dialogue program where members of different faith groups come together and discuss different subjects in an effort to get acquainted with one another’s faith and culture. This is an effort to enable people of different faith and cultural backgrounds to engage in a deep and meaningful conversation. This enriching experience will not only enable participants to develop their interreligious and intercultural competency, but foster interfaith understanding and friendship among the society that we live in. At the monthly sessions, representative of each faith group will give a short (10-15 minutes) presentation on the topic of the month from their respective religious traditions and it will be followed by round table discussions. At the end of the table discussions, one person from each table will…

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October 26, 2018

Stewardship Ingathering – Nov 11

By News

Our Annual Stewardship Ingathering will be on Sunday, November 11 at both services. It is that sacred time when we bring our pledge cards to the altar as a symbol of giving back to God from what God has generously given to us. If you have already turned in your pledge card, great! At the time of the procession bring a blank card to the altar as a symbol of your commitment. After the 10am service on that same day, we will host the recipients of our 2018 Outreach Grants. This year your Outreach Committee distributed funds to Promise House and to Legacy Counseling Center. Come and hear about how your generosity is transforming our community.

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October 25, 2018

Thanksgiving Potluck – Nov. 18

By Upcoming Events

Everyone is invited to our annual Thanksgiving Potluck Lunch on Sunday, Nov. 18 in the Parish Hall, immediately following the 10am service. Look for the sign-up sheet in the Narthex. Again this year we are excited to welcome Honduras Threads who will have their beautiful embroidered merchandise for sale. Honduras Threads’ supports embroidery cooperatives in rural Honduran villages to enable the women to earn money to help themselves and their families.

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October 25, 2018

Team Harvie

By News

Harvie and I have spent the better part of 2 years in training, preparing to be a Therapy Dog Team. We are so excited to announce that WE MADE IT! My friend and trainer Susan Geib is also certified as a handler. We will be working together as “Team Harvie.” We are very excited to be volunteering at Vogel Alcove, a school for homeless children, where we can play and entertain the children and staff. Another volunteer opportunity that fits us is, Our Friends Place, an Alzheimer’s daycare in Richardson. In this environment the clients sit in a circle in one big room. We go person to person for hugs and petting then we get in the middle of the circle and perform tricks. We love this new and rewarding ministry, and we look forward to years of being a Therapy Dog Team. – Lisa Cain and Harvie

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October 18, 2018

Remembering Matthew Shepard – Oct 26

By News

Last week I had the opportunity to read a poem published by my cousin Ryan’s husband, Richie Hofman. Richie is an accomplished poet and I share this poem with his permission: Book of Statues Because I am a boy, the untouchability of beauty is my subject already, the book statues open in my lap, the middle of October, leaves foiling the wet ground in soft copper. “A statue must be beautiful from all sides,” Cellini wrote in 1558. When I close the book, the bodies touch. In the west, they are tying a boy to a fence and leaving him to die, his face unrecognizable behind a mask of blood. His body, icon of loss, growing meaningful against his will. As you may have surmised, the poem is about Matthew Shepard who died on October 12, 1998 after being beaten, murdered for who he was, a gay man. One of…

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October 18, 2018