Food Pantry Donation Sunday February 5th
January 30, 2012
Our last All Saints Food Pantry Donation Sunday on January 1 was a blessing for our food pantry. 50 bottles of salad dressing were donated for those in need. Praise the Lord! Thank you to everyone who donated to support our food pantry needs.
Our next Food Pantry Donation Sunday will be on Sunday, February 5, 2012. Our All Saints Food Pantry is asking for donations of cereal, rice, and beans. Donations can be placed in the donation bin in Ballard Hall.
For more information, contact Carter Dreesman, outreach@allsaintsanglican.net.
Liturgy Lesson for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany: Showing Forth
January 29, 2012
We’re in the ancient Feast of the Epiphany, meaning “manifestation” or “showing forth,” and followed specific devotions for the octave, or eight days, of the Festival, which celebrates the day the Lord first revealed Himself to the Gentiles, in the persons of the Magi (Wise Men) from the East, who traveled to Bethlehem to see Him following His birth. This “showing forth” meant non-Jews could now share in the Gospel and privilege of membership in God’s family. The Magi presented Him gifts—gold, recognizing His royalty; frankincense, recognizing His divinity; and myrrh, an embalming spice, prophesying His death as mankind’s Sacrifice. Originally called the “Epiphanies,” in ancient times it also commemorated the finding of the Boy Christ in the Temple, His Baptism, and First Miracle. We sustain this ancient remembrance in the Gospels we read on the Sundays to follow. Epiphany begins on January 6th—12 days after Christmas—and extends to Septuagesima Sunday, the third Sunday before Lent.
Slavery and Abortion: Moral Relatives by Lillie Ammann
January 28, 2012
*Editor’s Note: With the 39th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade falling on January 22nd, it seems appropriate to include an article reminding us of the atrocity of abortion and the millions of innocent babies that have been murdered since this Supreme Court action.
Adapted from A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye
No, I’m not talking about moral RELATIVISM, but the relationship that those of us who believe in absolutes of right and wrong see between slavery and abortion.
Some time ago, I edited a book written by a man who is a descendant of a slave and a slave owner. He is writing the book as fiction because, of course, he doesn’t know the details of what transpired several generations ago. In his research, he determined who his ancestors were and some things about them, but he can only imagine emotions and thoughts.
His writing is powerful, and I identify strongly with his great-grandmother, the slave. I cry with the mother and daughter when the young girl is torn apart from her mother and sent to another plantation far away. I feel with her when her master shows up at her door.
Slavery is abhorrent in many ways; one human being “owning” another is incomprehensible to me. But of all the evils of slavery, what I find the most difficult to understand is slave owners fathering children that they then considered less than human. The children were slaves—forced to work in the fields or the house, subject to being sold on the whim of the master, and in some cases physically abused, even killed.
How can one human being do that to another? How can one human being do that to his own child—flesh of his flesh, blood of his blood?
Then I realized that thousands of mothers are killing their babies every day. More than 53 million abortions have occurred in the US since the Supreme Court legalized the murder of unborn babies on January 22, 1973.
Abortion is justified by saying the aborted fetus is not a human being, just a blob of tissue. Slavery was justified was saying that the slave was not a human being, but something less than human.
We all recognize that the people who were enslaved in the United States and Europe a couple of hundred years ago were human beings. We recognize that the people in modern day slavery, especially sex slavery, are human beings.
Why do so many women not recognize that the life conceived and trusted to their body for nurturing until birth is a human being?
Only a few years after the infamous Roe v Wade decision, someone close to me (I’ll call her June to protect her privacy) became pregnant. She and her husband, an enlisted man in the Army, had three children already, and the youngest child was profoundly handicapped. Doctors tried to convince June to have an abortion. They couldn’t explain why her two-year daughter was born with multiple birth defects, and they suggested another child might have similar handicaps.
The doctors pressured June to have an abortion. After all, it was legal now, and she had her hands full with a small child in a wheelchair who required constant care plus two older, active youngsters. June, naturally, was worried about her family’s ability to care for another handicapped child, but as a Christian, she believed in the sanctity of human life at every stage—from conception to natural death. Although she went through extreme emotional distress in making the decision, she refused the abortion.
Thanks be to the God, her son was a completely normal baby, and today he is a completely normal adult. He’s not rich. He’s not famous. He’s not a political leader or a brilliant scientist. He’s not necessarily considered successful by the world’s standards. But he is a man with a family and friends who love him, a man who works and pays taxes and lives an ordinary life, like most of the rest of us. And he deserves to live his ordinary life as you and I deserve to live our lives.
The Bible says:
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be. ~ Psalm 139:13-16
This is what the LORD says—he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you. ~ Isaiah 44:2, NIV
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. ~ Genesis 1:27
Before I was born the Lord called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name. ~ Isaiah 49:1b
You shall not murder. ~ Exodus 20:13
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart. ~ Jeremiah 1:5a
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. ~ Jeremiah 29:11
I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. ~ Deuteronomy 30:19b-20
May the Lord bless and keep each and every one of His people — born and unborn, healthy and sick, rich and poor, free and slave. And may we pray and work for the day when all slaves are free and all babies are allowed to live.
Liturgy Lesson for the Third Sunday after Epiphany: Summary of the Law
January 22, 2012
At every Holy Communion service we review the basics of God’s Law by rehearsing the Ten Commandments or the Summary of the Law. Both are at the heart of our Faith. In today’s service, we recite the Summary, which is “Cliff’s Notes” of God’s ordinance to us, as provided by the Lord Himself. A brief summary of the Divine Law, it conveys Christ’s own condensation and instruction for Christians. First, it sets forth our duty towards God—to love Him with everything we are—our heart (spirit), soul, and mind. This means we value God ahead of everything else—including our own selves. The second part is similar— we must love our neighbors as ourselves, valuing them, being just and unselfish toward them, and desiring their welfare as we desire our own. Jesus concludes His summary law class by telling us that “…on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets,” meaning God’s rule and intention for us rests on our obedience to the Summary. No wonder we review them so often—they describe how God wants our attitudes to be for Him to properly bless and interact with us. This is the conclusion St. Paul came to at his conversion to the Faith— that the Law could not be kept outside a heart changed by God the Holy Ghost and the Blood of Jesus and that our Father wanted the attitudes of our hearts and not just our outward service in worship and lifestyle. In short, we cannot fool God with outward actions, but, must ask Him to change us to His own image, as captured by the Summary of the Law. Come, Holy Spirit—change our lives!
Drivers Needed for Food Pantry Ministry
January 18, 2012
The All Saints Food Pantry is an important part of our outreach ministry and blesses those who receive food and those who volunteer to help.
We are in need of drivers to pick up food from Daily Bread downtown and deliver it to the food pantry at Elisha House. Drivers must have a truck, van, or large SUV. Pickups are Thursday and Saturday mornings.
This is our main need at the present time, but other volunteer opportunities are food prep Thursday and Saturday mornings at 9:30 am and food distribution from EH food pantry from 2:00 to 4:00 pm Saturdays.
For more information or to volunteer, contact Carter Dreesman, outreach@allsaintsanglican.net.
Liturgy Lesson for the Second Sunday after Epiphany: The Mass
January 15, 2012
In today’s worship, we will celebrate the Holy Communion, also called the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, or the Mass, where we partake of the Lord’s nature to feed us spiritually. We are sometimes asked why we celebrate this feast so often. It’s by Christ’s instruction to us! “Do this to have life,” He said. In obedience to Him, the ancient Church met daily to share their experiences in the Lord that day, fellowship among each other, rehearse the stories of the Gospel, and share the Lord’s Real Presence in the Holy Communion, using much the same form as we use today. They would also pray for each other and talk of how they would work for the Lord the next day. But above all, they strove to love each other, in obedience to our Lord’s repeated command, to “…love one another.” In this way, they modeled the Lord’s sacrifice of Himself and lived the Scriptural teaching that Christians would be known by their love for each other. Likewise, we should all meet as often as possible with like-minded Christians, taking the Sacrament and practicing His love among us all, as empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Annual Parish Meeting and Potluck Lunch on January 15th
January 13, 2012
Join us for a potluck lunch after the 11:15 AM service. Bring your favorite dish to share and enjoy the great food from other fabulous All Saints cooks.
Then take part in the Annual Parish Meeting. Get updated on what happened last year, elect new vestry members, and learn the plans for 2012.
Transformation, Not Just Information
January 12, 2012
“An Eastern view of discipleship seems far more in keeping with the gospel. The Eastern view encompasses the understanding that Jesus died for our sins and that belonging to him involves repenting and receiving him as Lord. But it also recognizes that Jesus lived transparently in front of his disciples in order to teach them how to live. They, in turn, were to live transparently before others, humbling teaching them the way of Christ. This approach involved not just information but transformation. God’s goal isn’t simply to fill the world with people who believe the right things. It is to fill the world with people who shine with the brilliance of Christ.” Ann Spangler, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus
Liturgy Lesson for the First Sunday after Epiphany: Confirmation
January 8, 2012
Confirmation is administered to those who are baptized and have come to the “years of discretion”—meaning they can understand and answer the questions contained in the Catechism and are willing to renew and ratify the promises made at their Baptism. The word confirmation means to seal, sign, or make strong—and is the outward and visible means God employs to convey to us the empowerment and inward, spiritual grace of the Holy Ghost via the Apostolic ministry of our bishop’s laying on of hands, as first mentioned in Acts 8. It’s our license to take the Holy Communion, which is limited to those who have been confirmed or are ready and willing to be confirmed. Sometimes referred to as the “ordination of the laity,” this rite is best described by the bishop’s prayer for the confirmand, “Defend O Lord, this thy Child with thy heavenly grace; that he(she) may continue thine forever; and daily increase in thy Holy Spirit, more and more, until he(she) come unto thy everlasting kingdom, amen.” Likewise, we lay hands to receive into our communion those who were already confirmed in other apostolic faiths—not just formally admitting them to fellowship, but asking God the Holy Ghost to empower them to His purpose in the Kingdom of God. May God be now, and evermore, our home and defense and may the Holy Ghost increase in us all!
Episcopal Visit and Confirmation January 8th; Reception 6 PM
January 6, 2012
Bishop Felix Orji will make his first episcopal visit to All Saints on Sunday, January 8th.
He will confirm and receive new members at the 11:15 service.
Everyone planning to be confirmed or received should contact the office at 210-344-1920 or admin@allsaintsanglican.net right away.
There will be a reception for all confirmands and their families following the 11:15 AM service.
Updated 1/6/12: Bishop Orji’s travel plans have changed, and he will now be able to join us at Koinonia. Therefore, the reception for the confirmands and their families will take place at Koinonia at 6 PM.
