Author: FELC Office

Masks Optional Beginning March 27, 2022

We are glad to be in Stage 2 for Covid risk in Travis County. While the current recommendations say that masks indoors are optional for vaccinated persons, we have waited until after spring break and SXSW to change our protocols at FELC.

Assuming the situation continues to remain stable or improve, masks will be optional at FELC beginning this Sunday, March 27. We continue to encourage vaccinations for all who are eligible. We will keep every other pew blocked off for now. We ask everyone to continue to respect each individual’s safety needs, especially children who cannot yet get vaccinated and anyone at high risk for Covid complications.

We offer outdoor hospitality with food and drink, masks optional.

We will continue monitoring the risk levels in Travis County weekly. We will adjust our safety protocols as needed.

Serving with Neighbors

Our congregation council has approved two organizations be named as the recipients of benevolence giving for the year 2022:  Micah 6 and Eagle Pass Frontera Ministries.

Many are familiar with the mission of Micah 6 and its service to those experiencing homelessness and/or poverty in the university area, especially young people.  As one of its founding congregations, our commitment to Micah 6, including the time and financial resources of individual members of our community, remains an important outreach of the First English Community.  Our commitment to Micah 6 is still strong and Micah 6 should remain as one of our benevolence partners. 

Eagle Pass Frontera Ministries is an initiative and ministry of the Southwestern Texas Synod of the ELCA.  Frontera ministers to migrants and asylum seekers, serving alongside a Methodist ministry, Mission Border Hope.  Approximately 300 people seek support each day as they cross the border into Texas.  Frontera is there in Eagle Pass to provide essential needs:   food, water, shoes, basic clothing, hygiene equipment, and other necessities to sustain life.   Other organizations, like Mission Border Hope, work with Frontera to provide housing and transportation beyond the border after initial and urgent needs have been addressed by Frontera.

Part of the FELC intentional outreach vision includes service to neighbors.  The people crossing the Texas border are our neighbors.  People cross the border for many reasons – to be with family, to access educational and job opportunities, to escape violence.  But all are neighbors in need of kindness and respite and the basics of life that come so easily to most of us.  Eagle Pass Frontera meets these folks where they are and provides those basics; this is “boots on the ground” work.  Along with our support of local organizations like Casa Marianella, supporting the work of Eagle Pass Frontera Ministries can be an expression of our love for our neighbors.  The desperate plight of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers all over the world, whether related to Ukraine or the southern border of Texas, shows us that the need for neighborly love and practical care will always be present and should always be a part of the mission of the church. 

Let’s do our part to support this necessary work in all the ways we are able and to share God’s grace in all the ways we can.  

Monday, April 4 at 6:30 PM

We’re inviting all young adults to join the pastor and vicar for a dinner gathering. We’ll connect, enjoy a great dinner together, and brainstorm ideas for the young adult group at FELC. Who counts as a young adult? Anyone from early to late 20’s/early 30’s is welcome. There will be no cost to attendees.

RSVP to Pastor Coffey (pastor@felcaustin.org) by Sunday, April 3.

We’re Working on It! And It’s Working

We have been having trouble with our livestream computer crashing during livestreams. We have been working on finding a solution but have not yet been able to fix it. This week we are getting assistance from Dell. We hope to have it resolved before this coming Sunday. Look here for more updates on the issue.

When the livestream does crash we try to resume the livestream as quickly as possible. This often takes several minutes, but if you keep lookint at our YouTube channel you should see the livestream return. Thank you for your patience.

After getting tech support for the laptop, it appears to be working better. There have been no crashes for the past two Sundays.

March 16, 23, and 30 at 7 PM on Zoom

The Bible includes many stories about people wandering: Abraham and Sarah, the liberated Israelites, the exiled community, Jesus in the wilderness, and more. This adult forum will help us explore our Lenten theme of wandering toward God by drawing us into these stories and reading poetry that explores similar themes. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on their own stories of wandering in life.

Join Pastor Coffey for this Lenten conversation over 3 Wednesday evenings on Zoom. The link for the FELC Community Zoom meeting is always at the end of our weekly emails. You can subscribe to our weekly emails on our website.

The slides from the class are available here.

Women’s History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as Women’s History Week. For more information, discussions, and events, visit: https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/womens-history-month

Let us pray. Thank you for all the cherished women in our lives and in our histories: friends, siblings, mothers, and neighbors. God, may women across the globe continue to be empowered, and may we gladly receive the leadership and witness they offer, knowing your love for all. Amen.

Let us pray and move our prayers into action

The community of First English Lutheran Church will keep the people of Ukraine and the people of Russia in our prayers and light a candle (with the colors of Ukraine) in worship until there is peace. 

On February 24, Russian forces invaded Ukraine, launching land, sea and air attacks. Russia has launched air strikes across the country, including on the capital of Kyiv and other major cities. There are major humanitarian concerns for both internally displaced people and refugees. Many of these Ukrainians fleeing their homes need shelter and such basic necessities as food, water, and toiletries. Care for people also includes pastoral and psychological support to address the trauma they’ve endured.

Lutheran Disaster Response is accompanying our companions in Ukraine, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, as well as such ecumenical partners as Lutheran World Federation and Church World Service, in their humanitarian responses to the crisis. These partners provide refugees with immediate support and supplies such as food, blankets, water and hygiene kits. As you are moved, please give, and directly, to Lutheran Disaster Response at: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (elca.org)

Let us pray. Almighty God, kindle in every heart the true love of peace, a peace without oppression and war. Guide with your wisdom those who take counsel for the nations of the earth, that in justice your love may increase until the earth is filled with your peace. Amen.

Transfiguration of Our Lord: February 27

Transfiguration Sunday is a bridge between the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany cycle that comes to a close this Sunday and the Lent-Easter cycle that begins on Ash Wednesday, March 2. 

We reflect on the scripture story from Luke 9:28-36. Witnesses to the glory of God in the face of Jesus reflect that glory in the world. It was true for Moses. It was doubtless true for Peter, James, and John. We pray that it will be true of all of us who experience God’s glory and who are being “transformed into the same image” by God’s Spirit.

Throughout the liturgy we offer our “alleluia” which expresses resurrection in a variety of ways. Hallelujah is from a Hebrew word meaning “God be praised.” This word of joy is omitted during the season of Lent and will be sung again at Easter.

Lent began on Ash Wednesday, March 2, and continues for five weeks and Holy Week. We are inviting everyone to contemplate the theme Wandering Toward God. We often use the theme of a journey to describe life, but that journey is not usually a clear and straight road. Like the Israelites we wander the wilderness. Sometimes we wander away from God, and sometimes we move closer to God. The heart of the Lenten season is to contemplate how God moves close to us and wanders with us in Christ no matter which way we wander.

One way to focus on how we wander toward God is through engaging with one of the core Lenten spiritual practices: giving to the poor. ELCA World hunger has created a 40 Days of Giving calendar, and a Lent study booklet called A Way in the Wilderness. These printed resources are available at the church for you to use at home throughout the Lenten season.

You can learn more about ELCA World Hunger ministries here: https://www.elca.org/hunger

If you are moved to give financially, please donate directly to the ELCA World Hunger. Information is found at the link above.