A big thank you to Jeremiah Mustered, our own postulant for Holy Orders, for preaching this morning. We have missed Jeremiah lately. This is because, as a part of his process toward ordination, Jeremiah has been serving as a ministry intern at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Ardmore. He is also taking a class on Modern Anglican Theology with the rector of St. George’s, The Rev. Dr. Joel Daniels. You should ask him about the differing eschatological visions of William Temple and Rowan Williams some time and see his eyes light up! God willing and the people consenting, Jeremiah will take the General Ordination Exams this coming January and will be ordained a transitional deacon next June. This is truly an exciting time. As his sponsoring parish, it is our responsibility to hold Jeremiah and his family in prayer during this time. When the time comes, it will also be our solemn and joyous duty to celebrate what God is doing with and in him and his family. Please take this opportunity to catch up with Jeremiah and encourage him on his journey.
You will notice that the “Acts of the Apostles” looks a bit different this week. In an effort to more clearly communicate about the various important roles, activities, and events that make our parish a wonderful place to belong, we will publish the schedule of readers, intercessors, acolytes, chalice bearers, and coffee hour hosts four weeks in advance. This information will also be published in the weekly email (if you don’t receive our email and would like to, let me know!)
This also gives us the opportunity to expand the Intercessions section and make it more useful for your daily prayer and devotion. I have been talking about our formation as disciples using the image of a tapestry. Different threads weave together to make us who we are in Christ. One of those threads is personal devotion, time set aside in our daily life outside of church to connect with God. One way to cultivate personal devotion is to set aside time every day to pray for ourselves and others. So, in addition to the intercessions presented how they normally look, we will be experimenting with ways of breaking up the intercessions into daily chunks, so that it will be easier to have a consistent prayer practice day by day, lifting up to God the needs of this parish. I trust that this will improve my own prayer life, and the corporate offering of Morning Prayer (Tuesday to Friday at 9:15AM). It may take a few weeks before we settle on a consistent pattern for this, so bear with us. Christian formation and discipleship (must like ordination to the priesthood) is a journey. We are always on the way toward becoming who God wants us to be. Our parish communications systems are part of that journey of discipleship, and they too are always in the process of becoming better and more effective.
In Christ,
James +
Church of the Holy Apostles 