Fr. Isaac’s Pastoral Letter June/July

Dear members and friends of All Saints,

We are solidly into the hot Texas summer. Many people are traveling on holiday. Some people are moving. This means we’ve seen a steady stream of new faces at All Saints, even as we’ve missed some of you in the past few weeks. As promised in my previous pastoral letter, here is the latest bi-monthly update on our unfolding implementation of our five-year vision.

• Up – our worship life and relationship to God
  • A commitment to the rhythms of the Daily Offices
    • I have begun to regularly stream a chanted Matins on Tuesday or Thursday mornings at about 9am via FaceBook live so that folks can listen or participate even when they can’t make it to a weekday morning service. As part of this, I will be reading historic homilies, from the Fathers, Reformers, and Anglican Divines from previous generations. On today’s stream we began with the 1st part of the 1st Homily in the 1st Book of Homilies, one of the most important and overlooked texts in classical Anglicanism.  In the future, I will be working on broadcasting this through YouTube live as well. So far, it has been well received, but I encourage your feedback.
    • As we finish our trek through the ACNA Catechism, we next take up a Sunday School class on using the Prayer Book in regular life. If you don’t know about the Offices or other aspects of the Prayer Book, this will be a good series to tune into.
  • Expanding lay participation in worship
    • We have seen some new faces among the lay readers, and are in the middle of an experimentation with using the English Standard Version for our public Scripture readings. The main reason we are considering this is to make sure that everyone is understanding the proclamation of God’s Word. The ESV is being considered for several reasons: 1) It is loftier than most modern translations and was meant to be both heard and read. 2) Resources such as pulpit bibles and Gospel books are available in the ESV. 3) Crossway, the ESV’s publisher, is working with the ACNA liturgy taskforce to create an Anglican edition of the ESV with the Apocrypha as an appendix. Again, I encourage your feedback during this process, as no decisions have yet been made.
  • Local Anglican Connections for worship
    • Fathers Marcus and Barry are spending several Sundays this summer “supplying” for our sister parishes as their rectors go on vacation. Fr. Barry will also be supplying for the Lackland chapel next month. Finally, I will also be supplying one Sunday in July. It is nice to see us work together to give each other well-needed breaks.
    • Last weekend Three Streams hosted an ordination as part of the cross-diocese 35-for-35 church planting initiative. All of the All Saints Clergy were present.
• In – our life as relates to each other; building up the body of Christ
  • Investment in Nursery, Children, and Youth Ministries
    We are thankful for several new nursery volunteers! My lovely wife has been able to sing with the choir most every week in the last couple of months!
  • More fellowship opportunities
    Since the last pastoral letter, we have had two First Friday Fellowships, both of which have been tremendous successes. Thanks to Tracy Kowald and John Mack (respectively) for organizing the May and July fellowships! If you haven’t come out for one of these, consider doing so for the next one!
  • Christian Education Variety
    We recently began a Wednesday night class on the Seven Ecumenical Councils that has been very informative for both the teacher and the students! It has been well-attended. Additionally, as mentioned above, we will soon be starting a Sunday School unit on using the Prayer Book in everyday life that promises to be very helpful for those who are interested in following an Anglican approach to a “rule of life.”
  • Parish family care and cultivating
    Thanks to all of you who helped out with Ron Dodds’ funeral last week, and thanks to all who have been there to comfort the family. It was one of our biggest services since I have been the rector, and was very touching. There are many more opportunities for pastoral care. If you are interested in helping, please contact Pam Lampe at the office Tuesday through Thursday afternoons.
• Out – our life as relates to outsiders; outreach and evangelism
  • Involvement, awareness, and support of World Missions
    • Many of us supported Kayleigh Deffendall on a short-term mission trip overseas. She recently gave a report during Sunday School on the trip. It was very encouraging.
    • We are booking Jordan Enloe, a missionary for Evangelism Explosion and a former All Saints member, to bring a Share Your Faith Workshop to our parish this fall. Stay tuned for details!
  • Partnering with local ministries
    • Fr. Barry and I have been in talks with Congregation Beth Simcha about hosting our future church plant, St. Benedict’s Anglican Church, on the northwest side of town. The elders are very excited about partnering with All Saints and our St. Benedict’s launch team for the sake of the Gospel.

We look forward to the Gospel going forward, and covet your prayers and participation in the ministry of our parish!

In Christ and His Service,

The Rev. Canon Isaac J. Rehberg
Rector, All Saints Anglican Church

P.S. It has been my pleasure to be part of a new podcast through the North American Anglican that discusses classic texts of the Anglican tradition. Check it out here! I have been on the even-numbered episodes so far. You can download it through iTunes as well.

Photo “Pen on Paper” by Unknown Author is licensed CC BY-NC