Watch for the Light: Preparing to Welcome Christ into the World Each year, we begin the Christian calendar with the celebration of Advent as we recall and prepare again for the coming of Emmanuel, God with Us. Despite how similar and familiar the Advent and Christmas season feels, each year we approach it as different and changed people from the experiences gleaned from the year before. This year, we invite you to join our Spiritual Formation class as we read together the book of daily Advent and Christmas focused devotions, Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas (the book can be purchased at: www.amazon.com/WatchLight-Readings-Advent-Christmas/dp/087486917X/ref=sr_1_1? crid=2O4SE5AVJE185&dchild=1&keywords=watch+for+the+light+readings+for+advent+a nd+christmas&qid=1634657545&qsid=144-6564208-6229959&sprefix=Watch+for+the+Lig ht%2Caps%2C188&sr=8-1&sres=087486917X%2CB01JQEJ9QQ%2C178498289X%2C1 62698123X%2C0143133780%2C149641909X%2C0874869269%2C1973345544%2C142 6790171%2C0664234291%2C1647221579%2C0736980601%2C1433556693%2C06642 62279%2C1683594223%2C1683837983&srpt=ABIS_BOOK ). The class will start Wednesday, December 1 at 6pm in the South Classroom and via Zoom and continue each Wednesday through January 5 at 6pm for roughly an hour and fifteen minutes. The readings in the book…
November 11, 2021 Ecclesiology – The study of the Church, the origins of Christianity, its relationship to Jesus, its role in salvation, its polity, its discipline, its eschatology, and its leadership. from Wikipedia Dear Doubters of Great Faith, I did a (somewhat) exhaustive search of my theological library to find a good working definition of “ecclesiology,” and the most concise commitment I could find actually came from the source of all modern wonders, Wikipedia. It may be because talk of “ecclesiology” is about as fungible, moving from left to right when you try to nail it down, as the body of Christ itself. But, to put it plainly, ecclesiology is the role the gathered body (the Greek “ecclesia”) plays in the doing of theology, or the work of God in the world. Every time the body comes together, the work of God is lived out, in one form or another. …
Christopher Thomas Sermon for The Feast of All Saints, Year B – 11/7/21 Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9 Psalm 24 Revelation 21:1-6a John 11:32-44 I AM. I AM. I AM. Immortality Do not stand at my grave and weep I am not there, I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the softly falling snow. I am the gentle show’rs of rain I am the fields of ripening grain. I am in the morning hush, I am in the graceful rush of far-off birds in circling flight I am the starshine of the night. I am in ev’ry flower that blooms I am in still and empty rooms I am the child that yearns to sing: I am in each lovely thing. Do not stand at my grave and cry, I am not there, I did not die. Clare Harner Lyon I am Resurrection and…
November 4, 2021 Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you. From the Collect for the Feast of All Saints Dear Doubters of Great Faith, This Sunday we will once again celebrate the feast of All Saints, the time we gather up into our collective consciences those we love who have gone on before us, those upon whose shoulders we stand. I like to think that, in addition to Christmas and Easter, All Saints Sunday and Palm Sunday are “High Holy Days” of the Episcopal Church. Real Episcopalians make their way to church on those days because there is something about the draw of singing the familiar hymns and hearing the familiar readings that help us to feel the deeper sense of connection to those…
Respectfully submitted by Paul McCright, Clerk
St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church
Stephen Waller Homily for Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost, Year B, Proper 26 – 10/31/21 Ruth 1:1-18 Psalm 146 Hebrews 9:11-14 Mark 12:28-34 From the Book of Ruth: “Where you die, I will die — there will I be buried.” Can you see them? Do you sense their presence among us here this morning? My friends in Christ and Thomas the Apostle they are, indeed, here with us today for our Eucharist…they are here with us for every Eucharist. The Book of Common Prayer tells us that “Life is changed, not ended” when we die to this life. We are today and always are surrounded by a great Cloud of Witnesses…by those who have entered into the nearer Presence of God. They show up at every Eucharist…not sleeping in as some of us are on occasion tempted to do. Can you see them? Have you ever seen them? Can you? The…
