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Advent/Christmas at St. Matthew’s – 2006

Dear Friends,

As I write on November 19, 2006, we await the report from Cargill Associates relative to the feasibility of a Capital Funds Drive.  Many of you filled out and forwarded your questionnaire to Cargill or were interviewed by their representative.  Thank you for your participation to this point.  I have tried not to over-focus on this significant decision until your input from questionnaires and personal interviews is analyzed and then presented to St. Matthew’s by Cargill Associates.   The Vestry is scheduled to receive the report by November 28 and will make a decision about going forward with a funds drive by mid-December.  Please continue to pray for your church. We will keep you posted!

Music Ministry

As we have now said “good bye and God speed” to Tim Smith as our Music Director, it is important to look to the future of our Sunday services and other liturgies, with the recognition that it is a new day for St. Matthew’s.  Last month I wrote you a lengthy letter telling you about our Acting Music Director, Jim Henderson.  We use the term “Acting” director quite deliberately.  This means that he is not serving as an interim director while we search for a permanent director.  Jim is a graduate student at UT and his work load will reduce as he gets closer to earning his doctorate.  He will then be able to serve as our full-time director, assuming he is enjoying his work and we are satisfied and thriving under his leadership.    In other words, we want this arrangement to have a chance to eventually become permanent and we will discern the appropriateness of that over the next several months.

Jim and I are happy to announce that we have called an organist to serve alongside Jim.  Her name is Jean Fuller and she has been the organist at St. David’s Episcopal Church, Austin for the last 17 years.  Jean came to a point in her life that she needed a fresh start in church music and we are so fortunate to have her working with us.    Here is a note to you from her:

Dear St. Matthew’s Parish Family:

            I am very much looking forward to beginning my new ministry with you on December 3 which is Advent I -- the beginning of the new church year.  I already know we are going to make beautiful music together as well as participating in our great Anglican liturgy we all love.  I hope I can be of service in many capacities to each of you and my door will be always open.  If I am not downstairs in the Music Offices, I will be upstairs practicing.  And by the way, children are welcome to come play the organ with me anytime!    Soli deo Gloria,  Jean Farris Fuller

Jim will begin his duties as Acting Music Director on November 20, and Jean Fuller will begin her work as Organist, as she states above, on the First Sunday of Advent, December 3.  Please give Jean and Jim a warm St. Matthew’s welcome!

Bishop’s Visit, December 10 – 10:30AM

Bishop Dena Harrison, the newly consecrated Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Texas, will make her first visit to St. Matthew’s on Sunday, December 10.  The schedule for the day is as follows.  She will meet with those being confirmed and received before the service and will be the Celebrant and Preacher for the 10:30AM service.  After the 10:30AM service, we will have a reception in Huffman Hall honoring the newly confirmed and received, and Bishop Harrison.   The visit of a bishop to a parish is one of those “command performance” events in the life of the church and I urge you to make every effort to be present to greet Bishop Harrison on her first visit to St. Matthew’s.

Annual Meeting

Elsewhere in this edition of the Word you will find an announcement for the Annual Meeting of St. Matthew’s on Sunday evening, January 7, 2007.  I remind you that the Annual Meeting is a democratic and elective opportunity.  This is the time we gather, make a review of the prior year, elect new leadership and focus on the work at hand.  We also enjoy a wonderful chili supper and I’m just delighted that Jack Ryfle will be back on duty as our chili cook-off organizer!  Please mark your calendar now to be present for the Annual Meeting.  It is yet another one of the few events in the life of a parish that I believe attendance should be deemed “mandatory”.

Capital Funds.  Bishop Visit.  Annual Meeting. Changes in Musical leadership.  Changes and expectations seem to pile up, as is always the case when we are seeking to be faithful, responsible members of the Body of Christ.  We are each called to serve, to do our part.  Please consider NOW if you are called to serve on the Vestry, or serve on our Endowment Committee, or to represent St. Matthew’s at Diocesan Council in February. 

If you are willing to consider such service, please speak to me or to our Wardens or a member of the Vestry.   

Advent Reflections

As Episcopalians we seek to conserve the very best of our past and reach out to what God might be doing in the next moment, day or year.  We hold fast to revealed truth and expect God to expand our vision of that which is true and good and beautiful.  Change is inevitable, though often painful.  Some times our expectations must die before we can allow God’s new revelation to sink in for us.  Such was the case in 1^st Century Israel.  God chose to come to Israel as Redeemer, as Savior.  Yet God’s arrival lacked flair.  God chose to come close, as Emmanuel – God with us – without overwhelming Israel or robbing her leaders and people of their will to accept or reject, love or hate.  We know the story all too well.  God is manifested in a little vulnerable child.  Helpless and dependent.  And God’s salvation motif does not change as Jesus ages.  Jesus lacked “credentials”.  He was a peacemaker, not a Davidic warrior.  Jesus shattered the expectations of those in charge and they could not handle it.  They persecuted him and he died after state sanctioned torture and crucifixion.  What expectations are you clinging to that inhibit you from seeing how the Lord might be revealing himself to you?  Perhaps our expectations of God need to change from time to time.  Perhaps our expectations need to die that we might see with fresh eyes.  Perhaps, as the late Will Spong was known to say, “We need to know that God is God, and we are not.”  Advent is a season of contemplation – a time to come to grips with anything that inhibits us from trusting God – in order that we might hear the glorious and mighty preaching of the prophets like John the Baptist, and so that we might prepare a place for the birth of Jesus, to be born afresh in our hearts. 

With great affection,

Merrill