St. Thomas' Back to the Bayou Fish Fry

St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church will hold its Back to the Bayou Fish Fry on Saturday, May 4, 2013 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on their back patio. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for those under fifteen.

The Back Pew Pickers will entertain us and games are planned for all ages.

Join us for great food, fun and music! 

This Week

   

As usual,

Tuesday, 5 - 6 p.m.

Student Center 163

What makes you angry?

What do you do with your anger?

This will be our last regular session this semester, but we'll talk about our year end party! 

Come one, come all. Bring a friend.

                 
                     

Lenten Gift

 Jesus said, "Feed my sheep."

 Back at the beginning of Lent, we decided to forgo food at our meetings during Lent in order to make a donation toward feeding hungry people locally. So, I calculated the average amount we had been spending from the Canterbury budget for food, and it was $17 per meeting.

We also put out a little wooden box at our meetings for those same five weeks that we met without food, and a total of $25 cash was put in the box.

Therefore, I have just composed a memo to the St. Thomas' treasurer asking him to deposit the cash and write a check in the amount of $110 to the Desiard Street Shelter.

Yaaay! Thank you for answering the call.

Burke on Evil

St. Benedict, Abbot

In light of our most interesting discussion of Boenhoffer last week, I was struck by this quote of Edmund Burke that showed up in my inbox this morning.

A Year with St. Benedict: April 27, 2013

 

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for the good to do nothing," Edmund Burke wrote. But if that's the case, then all the evil in the world belongs to us. Now what do you think about that? 

 

This "year with St. Benedict" meditation comes to me each day from Trinity Wall Street/Forward Movement <news@forwardmovement.org> via <forwarddaybyday.ccsend.com>. The meditations are from the book The Radical Christian Life: A Year with Saint Benedict by Joan Chittister, OSB.

This Week: Boenhoffer

 

Yes, Canterbury@ULM meets this week!

Tuesday

5 - 6 p.m.

Student Center 163

We'll discuss Dietrich Boenhoffer, on of my favorite saints of the church. His life enables us to discuss some interesting ethical issues, like:

Are we as Christians obligated to speak truth to power, even when it might cost us our life?

When is silence or inaction just as evil as evil?

Can a noble end justify an evil means?

See you tomorrow!

Common Cathedral video

Transforming Churches - Ecclesia Ministries Common Cathedral, Boston 

from The Episcopal Church on Vimeo.

Rosine and I watched this video at Canterbury last week. I encourage the remainder of you to watch it so we can talk about it this week. And what else we'll talk about, I'm not sure, but we'll meet!

Tuesday, 5 - 6 p.m.

Student Center 163

 

This Week

Tuesday, April 9, 5 - 6 p.m.

Student Center 163

So....  our post-Easter, post-Spring Break meeting and I have a video for us to watch and discuss. And that's all I'm sayin' right now! See you there.

Bishop Jake's Wednesday Thoughts

Dear Sisters and Brothers,                 

Happy Easter!

The Great Fifty Days of Easter began last Sunday and continue through the Day of Pentecost. Among the Sunday readings for Eastertide you will be hearing selections from The Acts of the Apostles and from The Revelation to John.

It probably comes as no surprise to you that these readings represent more than a haphazard choice by the lectionary committee. On the contrary, these biblical books teach us that the resurrection is at once about today and about eternity.

The Acts of the Apostles traces the remarkable growth of the earliest Church. It recounts the perils and power of following Jesus right here on earth. The Holy Spirit creates a new kind of community and transforms individual lives. Love, faith, and hope break out in the unlikeliest places.

All of this are the shockwaves of the resurrection. And those same shockwaves are still rolling through our lives today. Reflect on these lessons from Acts as a vision of what we can be together in Western Louisiana today.

Revelation reminds us that our ministries today take place within an eternal framework. The Lord feeds us each Sunday with his Body and Blood to nourish us for service in the world. He sends us out to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, visit the prisoner, tend the sick, and defend the weak. We live every day with the desire for God's reign on earth as it is in heaven.

Revelation reminds us that God-and only God-will actually bring in the kingdom. Our good works-motivated and empowered by the Holy Spirit-provide a sign that God is at work, and one day his work will be complete. Jesus feeds and sends us to do the good we can do in anticipation that, when he comes again, his Kingdom will be perfectly established.

Being resurrection people means that we live in love, peace, and joy today and anticipate with confidence that the best is yet to come.

In Christ's Love,

The Rt. Rev. Jacob W. Owensby, PhD, DD

 

Bishop Jake on Prayer, Part 2