Author: FELC Office

On a beautiful, breezy, Sunday evening, 50 or so neighbors, members, & friends gathered at FELC for our Fall Festival. We celebrated our community of faith: past, present, & those yet to come. We enjoyed brats, schnitzel, & many trimmings & desserts prepared by folks. And, this year, there were a variety of potato salad recipes to try! Our great thanks to Herr Randy Baden (and Herr Terry Porter) for coordinating & welcoming us – and to all the hands & feet that served. Das leben ist gut! La vida es buena!

Sunday November 3, 6-8pm

The FELC Fall Fest returns on Sunday, November 3, 6pm in the FELC parking lot & fellowship hall. We’ll celebrate the fall, our founding heritages, & our community of faith. The cooks will provide brats with brotchen & schnitzel.  We’ll also enjoy the sides that you choose to bring! A Karlihaus Brew will also be on site; feel free to bring your favorite beverage.  Contact Randy Baden (towbarcity@yahoo.com) to let him know you’ll be there and what sides you’d like to bring.  It will be helpful to have a head-count for purchasing purposes.  See you then!
 

FELC Book Club will meet Sunday, November 10, 1:00 pm, at the home of Vincent Hill and Anne Wiebe. Potluck lunch, followed by a discussion of A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers. Copies are available (but in high demand) at Austin Public Library and available for purchase at Ebay and Bookfinder.

Here’s a summary: In A Psalm for the Wild-Built, bestselling Becky Chambers’ delightful new Monk and Robot series, gives us hope for the future. It’s been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend. One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of “what do people need?” is answered.

The book for December 8 is The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, available at Austin Public Library.

Join Oliver Rajamani with Sitar Maestro Pandit Rajib Karmarker & Tabla Maestro Pandit Gourisankar Karmarker for an evening of extraordinary music from world class artists: Friday, November 8 at 8pm. This evening of music will be at “The Rosette” – another jewel setting of Austin. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit: https://oliverrajamani.com/events/

It’s that time again!  Join Texas Early Music Project (TEMP) for the fall edition of our TEMP-Oh Community Madrigal Sing on Monday, November 11, at FELC!  No experience is required for this “TEMP-orary choir”—just a love of singing madrigals!  For more information, including upcoming holiday events, visit: 2024-2025 Concert Season — Texas Early Music Project (early-music.org).

On Sunday, November 3 we celebrate the Feast of All Saints’ – a time to remember and give thanks for saints near and far, famous and familiar only to us, those who died long ago, and those who have died recently. As part of the observance we will read the names of those from FELC who have died during the past year.  We invite and encourage everyone to bring photos, drawings, and/or mementos to place on our sacred space of remembrance in the Chapel of the Saints, and to write the names of anyone who has died in the past year in the Book of the Dead. The sacred space of remembrance will remain in the Chapel through November. (Daylight Savings Time ends at 2am on Nov. 3.)

Back in September, we held a God’s Work. Our Hands. project at Casa Marianella, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping refugees. As part of that, we cleared weeds and solarized four neglected garden beds with black plastic to prepare them for planting in October.

On October 19 a small group of enthusiastic people from First English revisited Casa Marianella and planted a number of beautiful succulents, perennials, roses, and spring flowering bulbs. First English members donated plants from their own gardens, others purchased plants and bulbs. The beds have been enriched with compost and covered with mulch. Casa Marianella has committed to watering the beds.

Special thanks to Barbara Schutz, Andy MacLaren, Anne Wiebe, Paul Barlow, Kathleen Boas, and Nancy Baden for donating plants and materials.  Thanks also to Merrily Porter, Terry Porter, Claudia Barlow, and Anne Wiebe for planting. It was so delightful that plants from our own gardens should brighten Casa Marianella! Thanks to everyone who participated!

As we enter the last weeks of this general election season, it is good that we should come together in prayer. Click here for a list of daily prayers.

These prayers come from our Christian tradition. 

You’re invited to share these prayers with others along the way.

May God continue to bless and love this whole world, as God has promised.

Repertory Chorus is the newest addition to the choral area at UT’s Butler School of Music, and the concert on Monday, October 21 at 8pm will be its debut public performance! This new choir serves as a laboratory chorus for the master’s and doctoral students in choral conducting at UT, along with some upper division undergraduate students majoring in music education. FELC is excited to collaborate with UT in this new music and teaching endeavor. This concert is free-of-charge. 

Join the Chamber Ensemble of Chorus Austin in concert at FELC on October 20 at 4pm for the Community Outreach Sunday. Artistic Director Ryan Heller leads a cappella classics from the renaissance to today as Chorus Austin continues the celebration of 60 years of harmony in Austin. This concert is a pay-what-you-can event. For information, including other Chorus Austin performances this weekend and upcoming concerts, visit https://www.onthestage.tickets/chorus-austin-inc/season.