Author: Lee Borden

It’s taken some gentle cajoling, but Father Wells has begun providing us with outlines of his sermons and has provided manuscripts for the last four weeks. You’ll find them by searching on the column to the left for the word “Sermons.”

We will commemorate All Saints Day on November 3, and we will call out the names of those dear to us who have died. Here is our list based on submissions so far. Please check me for spelling and let me know what names we need to add.

Margie Abbott
John H Austin
Maude Beatty
John Borden
Winifred Borden
Ondi Cain
Adam Davis
Joli Davis
Ronnie Duck
Imogene Eaton
Pauladene Edwards
Fred Evans
Darrell Guilliams
Pat E Harper , Sr
Stanley Harper
Alice Haynie
Fancher Haynie
Jack Heil
Vina Hembree
Alice Henderson
Floyd Horn
Harold Johnson
Kenny Keck
Paul Kerr
Beverly Knighten
Denise Mote
Buddy Oliver
Larry Oliver
Sherry Palmer
Mike Phillips
Robert Phillips
Ann Rand
April Rand
Joe and Celia Rand
Ronnie Ryder
June Soan Sims
Betty Somerset
Clyde Somerset
Michael Stewart
James Taylor
Frank Gordon Tucker
Lisa Hargrove Wallace
Ann Warlick
Katie Warren
Julian Welch
Wallace Welch
Harold Weldon
Mary Ellen Weldon
Dorothy S Whitehurst
George D Wilkinson
Gene Ronald Williams
Maldon Williamson
Warren Williamson

Have you seen the changes in the Little House and the nave? Thanks to ALL who have worked so hard to freshen up our church home!

I found this explanation of Why Millennials are Leaving the Church fascinating. The author, a woman of 33, is the age of my children, and her statements ring true for me. She says what her friends want and need from the church is not about style. The typical church response when working to attract younger members of “edgier music, more casual services, a coffee shop in the fellowship hall, a pastor who wears skinny jeans, an updated Web site that includes online giving” don’t help, she says. Instead, she suggests, millennials are often drawn to high-church traditions (and she specifically mentions the Episcopal Church) when they sense the members of the church have the right substance:

We want an end to the culture wars. We want a truce between science and faith. We want to be known for what we stand for, not what we are against.

We want to ask questions that don’t have predetermined answers.

We want churches that emphasize an allegiance to the kingdom of God over an allegiance to a single political party or a single nation.

We want our LGBT friends to feel truly welcome in our faith communities.

We want to be challenged to live lives of holiness, not only when it comes to sex, but also when it comes to living simply, caring for the poor and oppressed, pursuing reconciliation, engaging in creation care and becoming peacemakers.

You can’t hand us a latte and then go about business as usual and expect us to stick around. We’re not leaving the church because we don’t find the cool factor there; we’re leaving the church because we don’t find Jesus there.

I hear much in her words that encourages me and much that convicts me. How about you?

Jimmy and Betty Weldon have been working hard as usual to line up our supply priests. As we’ve all discussed, our main focus during the remainder of the summer is to get to know The Rev Dr Wells Warren better and to let him get to know us. Toward that end, Jimmy and Betty have scheduled Father Wells for three Sundays each during July and August. Our hope is that during this period Father Wells and all of us will be in prayerful discernment about whether he should become our permanent part-time priest. The search committee will be spending time with him, of course, but we hope that all the Epiphany folk will spend time with him as well. Take him to lunch; chat with him; find out what kind of man he is and what makes him tick, and let him find out the same things about you.

Here’s our schedule:

July

• July 7 – Father Wells
• July 14 – Father Wells
• July 21 – The Rev Ben Alford
• July 28 – Father Wells

August

• August 4 – Father Wells
• August 11 – Father Wells
• August 18 – Father Wells
• August 25 – Open

I was intrigued by this article on the Seven (Plus One) Deadly Sins of Church Websites. I’d love to know your thoughts. In what ways does our church web site enhance our ministries? How might we change it to make it more effective?

As I read it, we’re guilty of three of the eight sins. What do you think?

Jimmy and Betty Weldon continue to keep the phone lines hot with calls all over Alabama as they work to line up supply priests for our worship. Here’s what they’ve come up with for May and June:

May 5 (morning prayer, Jean Kerr)

May 12, Bill Blackerby

May 19, Bill Blackerby

May 26, Charles Womelsdorf

June 2, OPEN (we could do morning prayer again unless someone calls and commits to this day)

June 9, Wells Warren

June 16, Bill Blackerby

June 23, Charles Womelsdorf

June 30, Wells Warren

A couple of days ago I came across the musings of a new Episcopalian that I thought you might appreciate. Writing on his site Tertium Squid, Gordon Atkinson describes his adventures as a newbie becoming adjusted to the rhythm of Anglican worship. The part I found intriguing is in his piece called Let the big people say what needs to be said. After poking some fun at our constant processing and recessing and our standing, kneeling, and sitting, he defends a worship service that’s not immediately an open book:

Because here’s the deal: do you really want to go to a church for the first time and understand everything that’s going on? Do you really want to walk into the most sacred hour of the week for an ancient spiritual tradition and find no surprises and nothing to learn or strive for? Do you really want a spiritual community to be so perfectly enmeshed with your cultural expectations that you can drop right into the mix with no effort at all, as if you walked into a convenience store in another city and were comforted to find that they sell Clark Bars, just like the 7-11 back home?

I do hope you’ll give this a little more effort than that. Because something wonderful can happen when you stop trying to figure out what you should be doing in a worship service. When you admit to yourself that you don’t know what’s going on, you’ll just sit and listen. Because that’s really all you can do. And that’s actually a very nice spiritual move for you to make.

I highly recommend a spiritual exercise that I made up myself. I call it, “Closing your eyes and listening to an entire Episcopal worship service without speaking.” Without your eyes to mislead you, the room will shrink to its actual size. Everything will feel like it’s happening right at the end of your arms. Which of course it is. And you might even begin to feel that God is at the end of your arms. Which of course God is.

Let the big people carry the service for you. Let them say what needs to be said. Let them kneel and stand in all the right places. In this humble, listening space that you have entered, every small thing can become sacred. Even the sounds of the kneelers popping back into place can break your heart as you come to see that God lives in these moments.

I first tried the eyes closed listening exercise at Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church here in San Antonio last year. All the things I’ve just described happened to me. At the end of the service, my mind heard a voice that said, “See with what beauty and grace my children are caring for these tender mysteries of worship.”

I think I may try this. I may choose a worship service during which I sit quietly and keep my eyes closed and listen for what God wants me to hear. I promise, I won’t be sleeping.

Here’s a quick update on our supply priests for the next three weeks. Charles Womelsdorf will celebrate the Eucharist with us this Sunday, April 7. Wells Warren will be back with us April 14, and Rob Morpeth will be with us April 21. Each of these priests will teach Sunday School before the worship service. Should be fun!

A hearty and continued thank you to Jimmy Weldon for doing such a great job lining up supply priests for us. Keep up the good work, Jimmy!

Thought you might enjoy seeing the picture we took on the church steps after the Easter Eucharist. What a fun day! Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to share Christ during Holy Week. And a special thanks to Randy for doing the swayback so we could see Lavonne’s beautiful face!