Epiphany News

Those who attended Sunday School this morning at Epiphany had the rare privilege of hearing the results of the painstaking scholarship of The Rev Brandt Montgomery, growing from his careful analysis of the civil rights record of the Alabama Diocese under the leadership of Bishop Charles Colcock Jones Carpenter, during the years 1938-68. Father Brandt has graciously agreed to allow us to host his master’s thesis here so it can be available to the public. Fascinating reading about a pivotal time in our church’s history.

Montgomery Thesis on Bishop Carpenter

Many thanks to Bill Shell for taking Father Arnold’s picture to post in the hallway of the nave and join our cavalcade of priests. Thought you’d like to see the one we’re going to use. Nice, huh? I love the purple Chasuble! Click on the image for a high-res version you can download.

Thanks to Jimmy Weldon for doing a great job lining up supply priests for us.

The Rev Dr Wells Warren, whom we know well, will teach Sunday School (a day-by-day chronology of Holy Week) and celebrate the Eucharist with us on Palm Sunday, March 24.

We will mark Maundy Thursday with a silent come-and-go silent prayer vigil, running from 3:00 pm until 8:00 pm. At 6:30 pm, the altar guild will strip the chancel silently. We will begin Sunday signing up volunteers to serve as hosts during the prayer vigil.

We will worship Good Friday at 6:30 pm as prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer. We will relive the passion narrative from the Gospel of John. All leadership in this service will be from our church members, with no priest.

We will not have any worship events on Holy Saturday.

The Rev Brandt Montgomery will teach Sunday School (on the role of Bishop Charles Carpenter in the Alabama Diocese) and celebrate the Easter Eucharist with us. We have not met The Rev Montgomery before, so I’ve added a link to his resume below. After the Eucharist we will take a group picture and then prepare for our annual Easter Egg hunt and lunch.

Brandt Montgomery resume

Here’s Father Arnold’s letter announcing his resignation as priest in charge at Epiphany. His last day with us will be March 17.

Father Arnold’s resignation letter

This beautiful prayer appeared in the Morning Prayer on DailyOffice.org this morning. It seems particularly relevant to us here at Epiphany as we contemplate our future. Dare we dream of great love?

Disturb Us, O Lord
By Archbishop Desmond Tutu, adapted from a prayer by Sir Francis Drake

Disturb us, O Lord

when we are too well-pleased with ourselves
when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little,
because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, O Lord

when with the abundance of things we possess,
we have lost our thirst for the water of life
when, having fallen in love with time,
we have ceased to dream of eternity
and in our efforts to build a new earth,
we have allowed our vision of Heaven to grow dim.

Stir us, O Lord

to dare more boldly, to venture into wider seas
where storms show Thy mastery,
where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.

In the name of Him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes
and invited the brave to follow. Amen.

Father Arnold e-mailed this message to the congregation yesterday:

Memorandum
To: Congregation of Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, Tallassee
From: The Rev. Arnold A. Bush, Priest in Charge
Date: Monday, November 5, 2012
Subject: Official announcement of Annual Meeting of the Congregation, Sunday, November 18, 2012
At the monthly vestry meeting, Sunday, November 4, decided to have the

Annual Meeting of the Congregation
Sunday, November 16, 2012
At 11:45 am in the Parish Hall
Lunch will be served following or during the meeting

Schedule for 25th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 28B)
9:30 am Eucharist and Sermon (highlights of written report from the vestry) followed by refreshments
10: 40 am Adult Class in the Parish Hall
11:45 am Call to order of Annual Meeting with Prayer and a Hymn
Agenda:
(1) Minutes of last Annual Meeting
(2) Nomination of three vestry positions and elections
(Nominations will be announced, November 11). If you believe in democracy, where voting influences the future, then show up to cast your vote)
(3) Canon 8, Section 3 “Parish Meeting” “Require a written report from the work of the vestry for the past year; a financial report and the proposed program for the following year”. A excel spread sheet from Long Range Planning in August/September will be presented plus “brain storming” on a Master Site Plan for our 5.57 acres at 2602 on Gilmer Avenue.
(4) Reminders: Bring a side dish for the luncheon; welcome our newly confirmed members; wear a name tag; rejoice how the Holy Spirit has manifested himself to us; Bishop Marray said,” Think what ministries may be on this campus in next 12 years or 2030; and we welcome friends of Epiphany to come to this “non-boring” meeting; let us step into the future with confidence and faith in Christ who is alive and well.

Bishop Marray sent Father Arnold a hand-written note after his visit with us. Here’s what it said:

October 30, 2012
Dear Fr. Arnold!
This is a short note to convey our deepest Appreciation to the
parish and yourself for our inspiring visitation. I left there thanking God
for the ministry of everyone and “behold” the witness of the Church in
that community. I am thankful we have a congregation of such deep
faithfulness and commitment in Tallassee. It is our prayer for the
continual growth and vitality of the Church.
Baby Dezsel Anthony Oliver is in our prayers for a successful
surgery.
Every Blessing!,

Santosh

I found this piece in the Episcopal Cafe interesting and relevant to us: Is Organ Music Killing Our Churches? Continue reading “Are We Hurt Because We Have No Organ?”

A friend of mine who’s an Episcopal priest at another church passed along a short article he read with the above title. He calls it “a recipe for humble pie.” Here’s the link so you can read it for yourself. Briefly, what the author found in his unscientific survey of non-Christians is that they are often genuinely interested in what Christians believe and in how their faith affects their day-to-day lives. They are often interested in learning more about the Bible. So far so good.

On the downside, though, the non-Christians thought that Christians were against more things than they were for, didn’t seem to live differently from non-Christians, and tried to act like they didn’t have any problems. The non-Christians often longed for a Christian to take them to his or her church but had never been invited.

Do you see the pattern? Non-Christians want to interact with Christians. They want to see Christians’ actions match their beliefs. They want Christians to be real.

The spot you see below, with the addition of a sponsorship tag before and after, appears on the Tallassee Chamber of Commerce web site.