Education for Ministry is a 4 year program from the School of Theology at University of the South in Sewanee. We meet at St. Michael’s on Thursday evenings 6:30-9 pm, every week, August – May, with breaks following the school year.

The class for 2013-2014 is forming now and we welcome your questions and interests in this program which explores the old testament, new testament , church history and theologians. Each week, we worship, explore what the Bible says, take in what the world around us says, consider our own lived experiences, and unpack how those sources affect our beliefs.  We invite you to explore with us!

Have questions, want to enroll?  Please feel free to contact Sara Mullarkey or Meredith Landry.

A Stephen Minister Can Help

If you are experiencing difficulties–illness, loneliness, troubled relationships, financial setback, or losses due to death, divorce, or aging–our Stephen Ministers are prepared to bring God’s love and warmth to you with confidential, one-to-one Christian care.   To learn more about Stephen Ministry and how you or someone you know could be matched with a Stephen Minister, talk with one of the clergy or contact one of our Stephen Leaders:  Peter Mullarkey, Joyce Miller, or Patricia Newton. Our Stephen Ministers are ready to care for you!

Recovery Groups at St. Michael’s

St. Michael’s hosts both AA Groups (open meetings) and Al-Anon Groups (for family and friends of alcoholics and other addicts). You are invited to come anytime:

• AA Group meets Mondays at noon in the Library/Cry Room
• Men’s Al-Anon meets Tuesdays, 7:30-8:30 pm in the Parish Hall
• Recovery Communion Service meets Thursdays, 7:00-7:50 pm in the Chapel/Bride’s Room
• Open AA Group-11th Step Prayer & Meditation meets Thursdays, 8:00-9:00 pm in the Chapel/Bride’s Room. All spiritual seekers welcome
• Al-Anon meets Fridays at 12:45 pm in the Library/Cry Room
• Women’s AA Group meets Saturdays at 10:30 am in the Parish Hall

Please pray that anyone suffering from alcoholism and/or other addictions will find help.

Open registration for the 2013-2014 school year will continue through the summer.  Interested families should contact Dana Carvalho, Director by email or at 512-327-0591.

Thoughts from the Associate Rector …

Every summer St. Michael’s Youth go on one or more mission trips.  Past years have included cleaning and rebuilding work in Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina and restoring homes in Galveston following Hurricane Ike. Our Youth have led Vacation Bible Camp in housing projects, painted, cleared brush and trash, built playground equipment, worked at food banks, visited with elderly persons, the list goes on and on.  Dozens and dozens of young people have had their hearts opened to the plight of others, experienced the joy of helping and reaching while enjoying fellowship and fun.

This year two trips are happening. Callie Healy and I are going to Corpus Christi area with Mary Conkling and 21 young people. Steve Logan, Kirsten Caldwell, and Robby Vickery are going to New Orleans with Mary Conkling and 15 young people. Both trips could use one more sponsor!

Who volunteers to be a mission trip sponsor?

• parents of youth participating in the trip
• parents whose own young people went on trips years ago
• young adults who remember their own mission trips
• parents whose children will go on future trips
• folks who know how important mission trips are … for the individual young person and for the whole church community

Last year's sponsors had a lot of fun ... just ask Jean Perdicaris, Roger Foreman, Kolleen Blanton, Steve Logan or me, and we'll tell you all about it!

The Rev. Janne Alrø Osborne, Associate Rector

Please stay for a few minutes following the 11:00 service this Sunday and help turn our Education Wing into a welcoming home for multiple families for one week.

To sign up directly, follow this link Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN).  There are also signup sheets available in the church entryway.

More than a month ago in my sermon I (joined by Janne) called for St. Michael’s to enter a period of discernment.  The discernment is to be in two parts:

1. Is St. Michael’s now called to state explicitly in our appropriate publications that we are supportive of couples in same-sex loving, life-long, faithful and monogamous covenant relationships?
2. Is St. Michael’s now called to apply to the Bishop of Texas to be authorized by him to bless couples in such relationships?  (N.B.: This would not be marrying such as same-sex marriage is illegal in the State of Texas.  Hence, the liturgy would be clear that it was not marriage.)

We have invited people to respond to clergy and vestry about this.  So far, there has been little response.  What responses we have had have been about four to one (4-1) in favor of deciding that now is the time for both parts above.  Some have eloquently expressed passionate feelings on one side; others have been equally eloquent and passionate on the opposite side.  I join our Bishop in hoping that, regardless of differences on these controversial issues, members of our parish and members of our diocese can work together for the mission of Jesus Christ, crucified and raised for the coming kingdom of God.  To this end, I invite you to read Bishop Doyle’s objective paper on this controversy, Unity in Mission. See the e-Trumpet or go to the church website www.st.michaels-org. for a quick link to this paper.

The vestry will host two more opportunities to give face-to-face feedback, both in Room #8:

*  Saturday, June 29, 9:00 a.m.

*  Monday, July 1, 7:00 p.m.

You are also welcome to send you feedback to me or either of our wardens, Lee Crawford and Ron Olson, (see contact information on back page) and we shall see that you feedback is disseminated to the whole vestry.  Keep our parish family in your prayers as we pray our way through this.

The Rev. Robby Vickery

• The worship space is decorated in green.
• The “Alleluias” are gone at the dismissal.
• The first reading, which had been from the Acts of the Apostles during Eastertide, is from the Old Testament once again.  Note how the OT reading links to the Gospel reading.
• We no longer track the Sundays as being the Xth Sunday of Easter, but the Yth Sunday after Pentecost.

This is the season when the emphasis is on the Church, led by the Holy Spirit, taking its mission of reconciliation to the world.  In this Sunday’s Epistle, Paul greets,

To the churches of Galatia:

Grace to you to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age.”

By “present evil age” was Paul just talking about 50 A.D. or was he including 2013?

Do you think this present age is evil?

If so, what does the evil look like?  War?  Cancer?  Hunger?  Dementia? Climate change?

Do you have any sins binding you to evil from which you need to be set free?

Thoughts from the Rector…

You have probably noticed that symbol around St. Michael’s.  Some folks think it is trees.  Others think it is people holding hands.  When I arrived at St. Michael’s in 1990, this symbol had already been here a long time.  It went with a vision statement of early St. Michael’s: “Every human relationship is an eternal responsibility.”

Look closely at the very stylized people.  They are not holding hands but rather are reaching out with their hand to touch the head of the other, an ancient sign of blessing.

This symbol of mutual blessing is surrounded by a very stylized circle, a common symbol of eternity.

But hey, if you want to see trees in it, go ahead.  St. Michael’s has long been blessed with great trees.

The symbol should challenge us:

• Are we reaching out enough to others with the Good News that Jesus forgives, reconciles, and heals.
• Are we reaching out enough to others that are hungry, homeless, or abused?
• Are we reaching out enough to others who are “not like us”?
• In the paradox of the Gospel of Jesus, would we ourselves be more blessed if we did?

In 2004 in Manchester, England Michael Harvey co-founded an initiative called “Back to Church Sunday.”  What began as a simple, localized effort to invite friends to church has grown beyond all expectations.  It is now the largest single local-church invitational initiative in the world, taking place every year in churches across denominations worldwide.

Seeking to unlock the potential in personal invitation, “Back to Church Sunday” is an opportunity to act together and take the simplest and shortest step in evangelism – inviting someone we already know to our church.  Overwhelmed by the success of this simple approach of bringing people back to church – particularly the younger generation – Harvey says, “We are now 8 years into invitation and we still have thousands of people accepting an invitation to church.  It is simply stunning.”

The Episcopal Diocese of Texas has embraced “Back to Church Sunday” and has invited the churches in our Diocese to participate starting this year.  Your Vestry decided at our Workshop last month to accept that invitation and to lead a Back to Church ministry at St. Michael’s as part of our focus on becoming an Inviting Church.  We are targeting September 15 this year and inviting all members of St. Michael’s to invite a friend or family member to come to church with them that Sunday.

We’ll talk more about the why and the how of “Back to Church Sunday” over the coming weeks, starting with this Sunday’s sermon.

IN A NUTSHELL – WHAT’S “BACK TO CHURCH SUNDAY” ABOUT?

Back to Church Sunday is all about the people who are not currently part of a church community. We aim to reach these people through the people who are part of our St. Michael’s community. We believe success isn’t a percentage, a number, or a line on a graph.  Success is one person inviting one person.  We best support success when we act all together as One Big Church.  When that happens, we are an Inviting Church.

–Lee Crawford, Sr. Warden

This past Sunday my sermon considered how God’s grace is poured upon us at St. Michael’s by being part of the Anglican Communion.  These pictures illustrate this.  The Easter cards shown were made by our Kids’ Intermission children (elementary school aged).  They went to Holy Cross School, Grahamstown, South Africa where like aged children received them.  Cameron Spoor, who grew up at St. Michael’s, is currently serving as a young adult Episcopal missionary at the school.

The Rev. Robby Vickery

• “St. Michael’s Episcopal Church wishes to affirm its support of the BSA and of Troop 30, to encourage Troop 30 to strongly consider accepting members and selecting leaders without regard to sexual orientation if permitted under BSA membership rules, and to affirm its willingness to continue as the sponsoring organization of Troop 30 in the event Troop 30 accepts is members and selects its leaders without regard to sexual orientation.”

2. I concluded the sermon by calling upon the entire St. Michael’s community to enter into a period of discernment that I hope will result in the St. Michael’s Vestry supporting us being clear in our publications that we welcome those in same-sex covenants who intend their relationship to be loving, life-long, monogamous and faithful.  Furthermore, I called upon a similar period of discernment for the St. Michael’s community that I hope will result in our Vestry supporting our blessing such same-sex unions.  Our Associate Rector, Janne, joins me in this calling.

I have been asked how long this period of discernment will be and what it will look like. I do not have a pat answer.  It will be a matter of weeks or months, not days.  It will give everyone who wants to be heard a chance to be heard.  The duration and shape of the period of discernment will depend upon the feedback received.  I have already been on the receiving end of many conversations and many emails.  The members of the Vestry and their email addresses may be found on our website .

– The Rev. Robby Vickery

Sunday, April 28, 8:30 am – 12:45 pm

Faith Renewal

Spiritual Growth

Adult Confirmation

• Have you been thinking about making a mature, Christian, public commitment to your baptism?
• Are you brand new to the Christian faith or to church attendance?
• Have you recently “found your way” back to church?
• Perhaps you are a long time church goer looking for a “refresher”?
• Have you attended St. Michael’s or another Episcopal church for a while, but have never been confirmed or received?
• Are you someone who simply likes to gather with other folks to talk about faith, Bible, prayer, worship, church?

If you find yourself nodding “yes” to any of the above questions, please click here to learn more. ]]> http://www.st-michaels.org/looking-for-some-god-time/feed/ 0 http://www.st-michaels.org/sermon-follow-up/ http://www.st-michaels.org/sermon-follow-up/#comments Mon, 15 Apr 2013 18:16:24 +0000 AdminAssist http://www.st-michaels.org/?p=5185 The sermon this past Sunday was the second (and last) in a two-part series entitled “Towards a Christian Understanding of Sexuality.”  It is highly unusual for me to do a sermon series, particularly on a controversial topic.  (Both sermons can be listened to by downloading them from our website.)  The first sermon described the scriptural position that sex is a good gift from God and sacramental, an outward and visible sign of the one-fleshing of a husband and wife physically, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, and financially.

The second sermon wrestled with the difficult question of what should be the St. Michael’s community’s response when the desire to one flesh is not directed toward the opposite sex but the same sex.  The sermon acknowledged that no teaching of Jesus has come down to us regarding homosexuality, but then it carefully examined two passages in which Paul spoke of some homosexual behaviors.  In 1 Corinthians 6 Paul PROPERLY denounces both a passive and an active participation in exploitive male-on-male sex.  However, there is nothing in the passage to indicate that Paul was remotely considering the kind of same-sex relationships we have seen at St. Michael’s in which, far from being exploitive, the couple enter into a covenant with the intention for the relationship to be loving, life-long, monogamous and faithful.

In the sermon I also considered Paul’s reasoning in Romans 1.  In this passage Paul describes both women and men being given up to lust for persons of the same sex because they were idolaters (that is, they exchanged the glory of God for images of creatures).  Have I ever known of folks who idolized sex and thus fell into horrible distortions of it because of this idolatry?  Certainly, both homosexually and heterosexually.  However, again there is nothing in the passage to indicate that Paul was remotely considering the kind of same-sex relationships we have seen at St. Michael’s in which, far from growing out of idol worship, the couple enter into a covenant with the intention for the relationship to be loving, life-long, monogamous and faithful.

I concluded the sermon by calling upon the entire St. Michael’s community to enter into a period of discernment that I hope will result in the St. Michael’s Vestry supporting us being clear in our publications that we welcome those in same-sex covenants who intend their relationship to be loving, life-long, monogamous and faithful.  Furthermore, I called upon a similar period of discernment for the St. Michael’s community that I hope will result in our Vestry supporting our blessing such same-sex unions.  Our Associate Rector, Janne, joins me in this calling.

The Rev. Robby Vickery

–The Rev. Robby Vickery

But, as with all things in life, there are times of transition and change and I find myself in such a season.  I feel that it is time for me to step aside and leave a ministry that I dearly love.  It is time for me to have more time to spend with family and friends.  As most of you know, our three sons now live in Austin plus our daughter-in-law, 2 sweet little grandsons and Rob’s mother.  I want to have more time to spend with all of them and with my parents.  I try to live my life very intentionally and right now, it feels like I am missing out on opportunities that will only be made possible by freeing up time in my daily life.

I will stay in this position until Robby  finds a new Children’s Education Minister. I plan to stay at least through Vacation Bible Camp 2013.  I look forward to an overlap with my replacement and a transition that is smooth and meaningful.  And, I look forward to being in the pew on Sundays, being involved in other ministries at St. Michael’s and being a parishioner alongside you because You Are Very Dear To Me.

I pray that when you think of my ministry, you will remember that I always searched for the best curriculum, the best methods to present the stories and the best volunteers to mentor our children and youth.  For as I say, “If we don’t tell them the faith stories, how will they know?”

I also hope you will smile when you think of the Day School, a mission that this community brought to fruition.  I was truly honored to be a part of its beginning.  I love hearing those little voices down the hallway as I work during the week, including my own grandson’s – gosh, what a blessing!

–Debbie Vickery, Children’s Christian Education Minister

Remember that we also pledged to tithe on campaign giving to the Building Fund to two Episcopal agencies in Austin: El Buen Samaritano and St. James Episcopal School. So, last month we sent $14,712 to each of these institutions. Hence, this seems like a good time to review their ministries.

The vision statement of El Buen Samaritano, located in south Austin, is “a hand up, not a hand-out.” Many St. Michael’s parishioners have served on its board. In 2012 EBS served over 12,000 people. It offers a low-cost, on-site medical clinic for those with no medical insurance. This spring EBS taught classes for English as Second Language (ESL), Spanish literacy, conversational Spanish, Community Health Worker certification, technology, citizenship class preparation, GED exam preparation, youth after-school programs, and Health & Wellness (e.g. nutritional cooking, fitness, and prenatal classes). EBS also offers a food pantry.

St. James Episcopal School offers educational opportunities for children 18 months to 6 years of age in east Austin. It is open 7:15 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. to serve working families. Its strengths are its Episcopal identity, flexible programs, modern facility, and a community that is diverse religiously, ethnically, and economically. St. Michael’s members have served on its board for years.

–The Rev. Robby Vickery

Thoughts from the Rector…

1. Lent has brought some changes to worship at St. Michael’s.  The first thing folks probably notice is that the altar is rotated a few degrees eastward (choir pews too).  This is to remind us that in Lent we are not home but on a journey.  The decorating principle is K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Saint): a purple swath of cloth across the south wall, no frontal (decorated cloth hanging) on the altar, pottery chalices, officiants sitting in a different spot, and instead of flowers a simple arrangement of wooden stems.  Some churches veil their decorative crosses with purple in Lent.  We have turned the center cross from its decorative side to its simple “musculature” side.  At the 9:00 service we are exploring projecting the entire service on the wall.  (There are no plans to do this at the 11:00 service.)
2. On March 3 I am going to preach the first of a two-part series “Towards a Christian Understanding of Sexuality.” This first part will be an updated version of a sermon on heterosexuality that I have done twice before in my 22 years at St. Michael’s, but not recently.  The second part will be a sermon on homosexuality on April 14 (3^rd Sunday of Easter).  As St. Michael’s decides as a congregation if we wish to bless same-sex unions, it seems “meet and right” to prayerfully consider this controversial topic in light of the three guides of Anglican ethics—scripture, tradition, and reason.

The Rev. Robby Vickery

— Thoughts from the Associate Rector

Lent is a great time to shape up — mentally, physically, spiritually! Consider getting rid of practices that keep you from spending time with God and your brothers and sisters in Christ and consider adding practices that bring you closer to God and your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Take a walk

• Stations of the Cross on the holy hill – entrance at southwest corner of parking lot (purple ribbon)
• Station of the Cross in worship space
• Labyrinth in our courtyard

Read a book

• The Bible makes great Lenten reading – are you reading something from it every day? Get a Bible app for your phone or tablet! Use it.
• Join the Sunday morning/Monday evening Bible Study
• Join the Sunday morning or weekday book study

Pray and Meditate

• Our Book of Common Prayer has simple morning, noon, evening and night prayers (pp. 137-140)
• Pray the prayer requests you receive in this Trumpet or in the e-Trumpet
• Pick up a Lenten meditation book from the entry way or check out erd.org.
• Use a mite or alms box for your coins (various ones available in entryway)

Go deeper.

If you’re involved in a ministry, go the extra mile. If you’re not involved, get involved. If you pray weekly, change it to daily. If you make it to church twice a month, make it three or even four times during the month of March. If you occasionally glance at your Bible, read a whole chapter or even a whole gospel account.

Many folks give up chocolate, alcohol, caffeine, sugar, red meat, or other specific items – others give up TV watching, Facebooking, or playing Solitaire! How about giving up (or reducing) your carbon foot print?

Right now my favorite Lenten website is Forward Day by Day. Check it out. This takes you to a daily reading and gives you a link to Lent Madness and a link to the prayer chapel.

With my prayers for a most holy and blessed Lent,

Janne Osborne, 2/24/12 ]]> http://www.st-michaels.org/lent-is-a-great-time-to-shape-up/feed/ 0 http://www.st-michaels.org/ash-wednesday-services/ http://www.st-michaels.org/ash-wednesday-services/#comments Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:13:16 +0000 Mary Healy http://www.st-michaels.org/?p=4846 Ash Wednesday Liturgy and Eucharist

with optional imposition of ashes

Wednesday, February 13

6:45 a.m.  -  12 noon  -  6:30 p.m.