Mardi Gras!

Tuesday, February 21, 6:00-8:00 pm, Parish Hall.

Safeguarding God’s Children

At Epiphany and at Christ Church, we take the holistic safety of our children very seriously. That’s why we are proud to be part of a diocese which requires that all adults who come into repeated contact with children to be trained & licensed to do so.

As our diocesan website states,

Safeguarding God’s Children is a training program for the prevention of sexual abuse of children and youth. The training informs participants of the ways predators gain access to and groom children for abuse and it outlines the safeguards the Church has put in place to protect children and youth in our churches, schools and diocesan institutions.

The Diocese of Texas requires this training for all employees (full or part-time) of churches, schools and Diocesan institutions and for all volunteers who work with children and youth in any ministry setting. The three hour trainings are scheduled in churches, schools and Diocesan institutions as needed to be in compliance with the SGC policy standard that requires training within thirty days of beginning employment or ministry with children and youth.

For more info see here.

Vino & Video

Join us for a viewing & discussion of the acclaimed Danish film “Babette’s Feast”,  a lavish & sensual affirmation of the joy of feasting.

Interspersed throughout the film we will be pairing & sampling various types of wine, allowing the film & the wine to mingle and stimulate.

Fri, Feb 17 (last weekend before Lent!) @ 7PM

Childcare provided

Home of Dan & Stephanie Felsenthal

571 Contenders Way

Tyler, TX 75703

Meet the Finneys!

John and Mindy Nelson will host a “Meet & Greet” over wine & dessert on February 4th* from 6:30-9:30 PM at their home at 6720 Cherry Hill Drive in Tyler.  Come and get to know our new college ministers, Robert and Cally Finney, and their boys, Sampson and Oliver!

Please bring a finger food item or a beverage to share!

*(please note that the date has been changed from the 3rd to the 4th)

“Theology of Gender: Man & Woman in Scripture, Church, and Society” (Fr. Matt’s Sunday Morning Class)

During the Spring semester, Fr. Matt will be hosting a class on the theology of Gender.

The class will not be held this coming Sunday, January 14th, but will resume the following Sunday, January 21st.

Beginning with God’s creational design in Eden, we will be looking at male & female throughout the story of the redemption. How do they relate to each other? How do they relate to the world? We will also consider how the church has viewed these matters down through the centuries, together with a view toward sexuality & gender in contemporary society.

“Reason for God” (Fr. Matt’s Sunday Morning Class)

During the four Sundays of Advent (2011) Fr. Matt (& Rev. Peete) will be leading a discussion based on the DVD series “A Reason for God” by Timothy Keller. Beginning on Sunday, November 27.

Session Titles:
1. Isn’t the Bible a Myth?
2. How Can You Say There Is Only One Way to God?
3. What Gives You the Right to Tell Me How to Live My Life?
4. Why Does God Allow Suffering?
5. Why Is the Church Responsible for So Much Injustice?
6. How Can God Be Full of Love and Wrath at the Same Time?

Watch the DVD trailer here.

Becoming Like Jesus (Renovare & Spiritual Formation)

Note: this article is also published on Fr. Matt’s blog.

Do you desire to be more holy? Do you have a longing to be more like Jesus?

My wife Bouquet is from a land locked country (Laos). I myself grew up in the Texas Panhandle, a region about as remote from the life of sea and sailing as I can possibly imagine. Therefore neither my wife nor I have much experience at all in sailing (although the idea of sailing quite intrigues me!).

When Canon John Newton (our Diocesan Canon for Lifelong Spiritual Formation) was at our parish a few weeks ago, he used an excellent analogy to describe the life of the Christian. He likened our spiritual life to sailing on the open sea. No matter how hard the captain of a vessel wishes that the wind would blow, there is absolutely nothing he can do to make it blow. So what does he do? The only thing he can do is to put of the sails, and create the right conditions for wind-propelled motion.

In the same way, Canon Newton reminded us, in our spiritual lives, we cannot force the Holy Spirit to do his work of transformation in our lives, changing us into the likeness of Christ. Rather all we can do is to “put up our sails,” and let the Spirit blow. After all, it is the nature of the open sea for the wind to be blowing. It happens naturally, organically.

Now, of all the amazing speakers I heard at clergy conference last week at Camp Allen, none was more thought provoking, none more deeply encouraging, than Christopher Webb. Chris, the President of Renovare, spoke to us of the “means of grace.” After, all, in our office of Morning Prayer, we read “We bless thee for … the redemption of the world … the means of grace, and the hope of glory.”

What are these “means of grace?” Much like the action of “putting up our sails,” when we practice the means of grace (prayer, bible study, fellowship, worship, and various other disciplines) .

Webb clarified: “The means of grace are not disciplines that make us into more holy people. They are disciplines or practices that make our lives as open possible to the grace of God, so that we can stop trying to make ourselves into more holy people, and let God do it instead.”

Such is the deep, rich, practical theology behind spiritual formation. Would you like more of this? I have two invitations for you.

1. Consider joining a Christ Church neighborhood group in the Spring. In those groups we will be going though the book of one of Chris Webb’s colleagues at Renovare: The Good and Beautiful God by James Bryan Smith. These books are packed with wisdom and practical steps to make us more like Jesus. When read in community … sit back, and feel the Spirit blow!

1. Consider attending (and bringing a friend or two!) to my Christian Formation class on Sunday, November 13. The title of this event is  “Christian Spiritual Formation: Becoming Apprentices of Jesus - A Conversation with Fr. Matt and Lyle SmithGraybeal, the coordinator of Renovare, on small groups and the theology behind The Good & Beautiful book series by James Bryan Smith.”

“Becoming Apprentices of Jesus.” This is what we are about at Christ Church, under the leadership of our Bishop and our Rector.

Our Sunday morning classes, our emerging small group ministry, our worship, our prayer, our fellowship … transformative means of grace which allow the Spirit “naturally” to blow through our lives!

Top 5 Reasons to Attend Choral Evensong (Sun, Oct 9)

5. There is childcare provided!

4. There is a wine & hors d’doeurve reception afterward!

3. Many Epiphany folks have never worshipped in the beautiful, historic Christ Church nave!

2. You will meet many wonderful Christ Church people whom you have never met!

1. You will experience a different “service of worship” besides Holy Eucharist, which comes from the Daily Office of the Book of Common Prayer!

A Word about our Worship (What is “Rite III?!”)

In the Epiphany Eucharist we strive to worship the Living God in ways that are thoughtful yet reverent. We are trying to give folks a taste of liturgy that is ancient and substantial, yet accessible. Just as we don’t worship in Latin(!), so also we look for ways to foster peoples’ ability to connect with what we are doing in the liturgy, and why.

Why do we make the sign the cross, for example, and how and when?

The music in this service is more contemporary than most traditional Episcopal Eucharists.

As for the Scripture lessons, our practice is to include two lessons (a “first lesson,” either from a New Testament letter or the Old Testament or the Apocrypha and a Gospel lesson) and a psalm (or canticle) in response to the first lesson. Of these three readings (including the Psalm) two of the them will match the lesson from the lectionary used by the other services of Christ Church on any given Sunday. In this way the entire Christ Church community is worshiping together to a large extent.

As for the liturgy, the Epiphany Eucharist is (what is colloquially known as) a “Rite III” Eucharist. (See page 400 of the Book of Common Prayer.) However, in an effort not to “reinvent the wheel,” what we are doing is borrowing liturgies from around the Anglican Communion. For example, in Lent we worship with a liturgy from the Church of Ireland. In the Sundays in Eastertide we use a liturgy from Australia. In ordinary time we use two liturgies: one from Kenya and one from New Zealand.

In this way we celebrate our worldwide, sacramental communion of believers!

Soul Friends

I recently reviewed George Hunter’s The Celtic Way of Evangelism. (See here and here.)

The Celtic way of evangelism was all about bringing people into a new kind of community, through such practices as radical hospitality as well as “soul friends” (anamchara). These people would engage the visitor or stranger in “the ministry of conversation,” and involvement in small groups of fellowship. In all these ways and more, the Celtic Christians practiced evangelism in a way which many “postmodern” Christians have come to embrace, that is, in recognition that many times “belonging precedes belief,” that before many people can begin to believe in Jesus, they must feel that they belong to a community of his followers.

This kind of evangelism, based in a ministry of hospitality, is (among other things) what we are doing in the Epiphany Community of Tyler.