Author: FELC Office

The FELC transition ministry began on January 16, 2003 and has two parts: the transition itself and then the call process.

The executive committee talked with Bishop Sue Briner of the Southwestern Texas Synod about our hopes and needs during this ministry transition. We determined that we need a part-time transition pastor, and we will consider adding additional staffing and volunteer positions to enhance our ministry.

Bishop Sue and her staff contacted several potential transition pastor candidates. Bishop Sue made a recommendation to the Church Council in early February, 2023 and the executive committee and council had Zoom meetings with that transition pastor. The transition pastor began the week of March 20.

In the time following the arrival of the transition pastor, we will form a transition committee from members and participants of the congregation. This transition committee seeks to clarify our ministry and shape our direction for the future. That process takes purposeful time and care. There will be opportunities to gather as a congregation in large and small group settings to work on this together. This is an important part of our future. From that work, a profile will be created seeking a new, called pastor.

Following the transition committee work, a call committee is formed from members of congregation by vote of the congregation council. That work will be explained in further detail as we move through this year and beyond. The call committee will offer a candidate to the congregation. As a congregation, we decide who our next pastor will be in a called congregation meeting.

FELC is a community of faith: spiritually, emotionally, and financially. We have opportunities to grow. We can dig deep in prayer and listening to form the ministry to which God is calling us in these next stages of our life.

We are not alone. The Holy Spirit holds us.

Let us pray. O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot know the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through things unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we’re going, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Our new Lent paraments and vestments were dedicated to the glory of God on February 26, the first Sunday in Lent.

They were designed and hand-crafted by Jeff Wunrow Designs, St. Louis, MO. Jeff Wunrow Designs also created our recent paraments for Advent, Christmas, Pentecost, and Ordinary Time.

The funding for this addition was from the Margaret Berg Memorial Endowment Fund, generous gifts given to FELC for liturgical beauty.

The chasuble in this photo (a liturgical vestment used during a eucharistic liturgy) is worn by the Rev. Robert Karli, one of our supply pastors during our transition ministry. Bob was also the fourth pastor of FELC.

Send your blessing on these paraments and vestments, which we set apart; may they adorn this house, show us the beauty of holiness and humility, and so proclaim the glory of your majesty and love.

People with trucks and/or strong backs are being recruited to help move donated furniture into storage and then into new apartments for recently housing insecure folks. A team from St. Martin’s Lutheran has been doing this for several years, operating out of the basement of their church.  A “ACL Summit” of this “Move-In” Ministry Team and related organizations will be held at St. Martins Lutheran Church, 606 W. 15th Street on Sunday Feb 26, 2:30-3.45 PM. For more information, contact Derek Bridges at bridges@ieee.org

Here’s a link to a story from Austin City Lutherans : https://breadforall-atx.org/acl-move-in-ministry/

Monday, March 6, 2023 from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM

Oblate Renewal Center, 5700 Blanco Road, San Antonio, TX

BioSpiritual Focusing is a way of opening the whole of ourselves—mind, body, and spirit—to a deeper connectedness with God, others, and self. Join together with Spiritual Director Deborah Sheehan, MA (highly recommended by former FELC member Gretchen Olson-Kopp) to learn more about how gently being with what is present within your embodied self can open the door to a deeper story—and to a greater sense of wholeness. This practice is simple yet profound. It can be helpful for anyone—young child to senior. It requires no more than showing up and a willingness to engage contemplatively with what is within. And the potential for transformation and growth unfolds in the process.

The retreat is a fine way to engage the reflections and disciplines of the season of Lent.

More information is at links below. You may also contact Barbara Schutz at bschutz@sbcglobal.net

BioSpiritual Focusing: Praying with the Whole Self

On Sunday, January 15, 2023, FELC gave thanks to God for the 14+ year ministry of Pastor Michael Coffey.

For information about Pastor Coffey and the farewell celebration, click here.

Pilgrims from FELC journey to Montgomery, Alabama, February 18-20 to visit “The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration” and “The National Memorial for Peace and Justice” sponsored by The Equal Justice Initiative.

Gracious God, we ask your blessing on those who make pilgrimage from our community of faith to Montgomery this week. Guide their minds as they learn of those who came before us, traveling the pilgrims way. Give them a hunger to seek your face in paths before them,
along roads trod by many seeking the blessing of your presence. Nurture their fellowship and help them to recognize the signs of you in those they meet, sharing the journey to your blessed kingdom. May they safely return to us, renewed, inspired, and called to share what they have experienced so that we may all journey the pilgrim’s way. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.

A daily log of this pilgrimage will be published on the First English Lutheran Church-Austin Texas Facebook page. Check it out beginning February 18th.

For information about our 2023 Annual Meeting held on January 22, including highlights and actions taken, click here.

Closing prayer for the meeting, offered by Erin McCracken:

Gracious God,

We give you thanks for this church family. You have drawn us together in this moment in time so that we may live out the Gospel in new and bold ways. So that we might reflect your love in fellowship with and in service to our siblings both inside and outside of the church.

We are grateful for this time of reflection; of question-asking and answering; of leading and being led; of sharing and of vulnerability; of listening and hearing; of discernment and renewal.

We may not know how things will unfold but we can be comforted by your constant presence in this place and in our hearts; we can be inspired by the magnitude of the love you have for your creation; and we can be guided by your infinite wisdom and grace.

Paul reminds us in his letter to the Corinthians that “there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone is the same God at work.” (1 Corinthians 12:4-6)

Let us go and do, knowing you are at work in us.

In your Holy name we pray, Amen.

A small subset team of the First English Racial Justice Action Team was formed in January 2022 to do a focused evaluation of the whiteness of First English Lutheran Church and seek meaningful ways in which this church can strive for and embody both strategic and authentic diversity.

The FELC Diversity Development Team shared its report with the Congregation Council at their August 15, 2022 meeting. Team members also offered report highlights in Sunday worship over the summer months. We share the report with the community now.

The report encompasses the call by the ELCA to exhibit authentic diversity–demographically matching the ethnic and racial composition of our context (Austin) and recognizes that First English Lutheran Church is overwhelmingly white. While we acknowledge that there isn’t a prescribed formula for achieving an authentically diverse community, we know there are direct actions to take, within our control, to relate to and live out the gospel message with a fuller expanse of God’s beloved community and creation. Our prayer is that this effort continues to unfold throughout the life of the whole church and in this church community of First English. 

The Diversity Development Team members are: Nancy Baden, Erin McCracken, Bryan Rust, Cassi Smith, and Barbara Wiederaenders. If you would like to join in this work or have more questions, please feel free to contact Erin McCracken at: erin922@gmail.com.  

View the report at the link below:

FELC Diversity Report + “How Strategic and Authentic is Our Diversity: A Call for Reflection, Confession, and Healing Action” (ELCA, 2019)