The ELCA’s Truth & Healing Movement is an opportunity for this church to increase our understanding of our colonizing impacts on Indigenous people in the past and present. There will be opportunities to learn, raise awareness and engage in other ways to impact hearts and lives across this church. We believe that the truth, and our knowing and embracing it, is the first step toward healing for all of us.
At the gathering of Sunday morning worship, we will be offering a land acknowledgement as part of our welcome.
“We acknowledge the presence of God having existed before this region’s conquest in ages past, on land once belonging to the Coahuiltecan, Comanche, Tonkawa and Jumanos peoples; land where we now live, move, and have our being, striving to honor the land and lifting up histories beyond our own.”
On Pentecost Sunday, we bid farewell to Cassie Smith and Matthew McDaniel as the leave our community of faith. When members and friends transition from our fold, we offer each the opportunity to acknowledge the leave-taking in a way that they choose. On Sunday, we prayed:
Bless Cassie Smith and Matthew McDaniel as they move from our community for Matthew’s continued service in the armed forces. Thank you for Cassie’s passion for reconciling work and the full inclusion of all people in life and in community. Send them your blessing, and new friends to greet them in their new home.
Holden Jacob Fuerst affirmed the promises of holy baptism in the rite of confirmation on Pentecost Sunday,
Holden affirmed his baptismal promises on April 16 in the community of First United Methodist Church in Austin, where Holden also engaged learning and formation. Holden’s mom, Taylor Fuerst, serves as head pastor at FUMC. We welcomed Holden’s family, including his godfather and uncle, David Fuerst, as our guest preacher. David Fuerst serves with Lutheran World Relief as associate vice president for global relationships and resources.
Holden Jacob Fuerst | born: May 20, 2009 | baptized: Easter Vigil, April 3, 2010
Family: parents Taylor and Brad and siblings Hadley and Harper
Godparents: Leah Wilson King and David Fuerst
Holden will attend McCallum High School and Fine Arts Academy this fall where he will focus on theater arts and orchestra.
Holden’s favorite bible story: the Prodigal Son. Why? God’s unwavering grace for all.
Stir up in Holden Jacob the gift of your Holy Spirit . . .both now and forever. Amen.
There continues to be transition in congregations; events we are growing to experience as both never ending and good, in one way or another. Whether evidenced by pastors retiring or taking new calls, transition is a key time for all of us to be intentional with the Holy Spirit to discern who we are now vs. who we were pre-pandemic (or the last time we called a pastor).
Looking at transition as a constant, in both large or small parts in every community, we invite ourselves to be open to where God is calling us as an invitation to change. The Southwestern Texas Synod accompanies congregations in the transition process with resources and counsel, including consultations on how we can all become more inclusive and vibrant as we move into the future.
In a traditional sense we have some congregations that move from transition to call processes with an intention to tweak what they have been doing and continuing on. Increasingly, we are finding many of us are at what we are calling a Holy Fork in the Road: “business as usual” is no longer an option.
Through a grant from Lord of Life in Austin, which closed earlier this year, we are able to have two part time staff people: Pastor J. Mills and Pastor Johnene Cunningham who invite our congregations in transition to explore what it might mean to be a resurrection people, in earnest. Holy Fork in the Road Ministry is asking the question of legacy as a precursor to letting go of (flipping) barriers between God and God’s people.
Focused on engaging congregational agency, community networking, and corporate healing through deep discernment in the Word, we are uplifting our baptismal journeys: as stewards of ministry in our contexts; as communities of faith reconnecting with our neighbors for ministry. that focuses outward; and as groups of saints and sinners that need healing in order to renew our baptismal joy in service to God and those God calls us to love.
Holy Fork in the Road Ministry invites us to explore invitations to Rebirth (radical change) or Resurrection (holy closure).
You are invited to experience this ministry through perspectives of those who have made, or are familiar, with that journey.
Our thanks to the staff and congregation of First English in Austin for offering space and hospitality for the recording of these outreach resourcesas they live into this radical welcome, reconciliation, and rebirth.
The theme for the 2023 Southwestern Texas Synod Assembly is “Mientras Tanto,” a Spanish phrase meaning “Meanwhile” or “In the Meantime” in English. At the 2022 synod assembly, we dwelt in the story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-40). This year we dwell in the story of the conversion of Saul (Acts 9:1-19). These two stories at first seem in many ways unrelated but are connected in Scripture, being written one after the other and connected by the word “mientras tanto,” “meanwhile.” This year, while dwelling in one story, we also dwell in the reality that many stories are occurring at the same time, that God’s presence is in many places and the Spirit working within many people and communities. The synod assembly comes together as voting members from congregations and worshiping communities of this territory of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to pray, listen, learn, celebrate, and plan for mission in all the places where we witness Christ – and beyond.
At the annual congregation meeting of FELC in January, the congregation elected Nancy and Randy Baden as our voting members to the synod assembly. Voting members are just that: voting members. They are not representatives from FELC. We vote to send these members to join with others to constitute the assembly, which is gathered by the Spirit. The assembly becomes a body and expression of the church together when it gathers. Together that assembly discerns God’s will in that time and space and offers leadership for God’s future among us.
Because of emergent commitments, we are grateful that Henri and Tim Atkinson have agreed to participate in the assembly this Saturday, May 6 as the Baden’s are away.
The assembly this year is in two-parts, and this Saturday is on Zoom.
We anticipate hearing more of the experiences of God’s presence that we might better share the ways that God is working across Southwestern Texas -and throughout the world.
Marcia Houtman Kline served as vicar #24 at First English from 1989-1990.
Rev. Marcia Kathleen Houtman Kline was born on September 3, 1952, one of five children. She graduated from South Dakota State University in 1974 with Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and Theater; and 1978 with a Master of Arts Degree in English Literature. Marcia then taught in several positions at colleges in Illinois and Iowa before entering seminary at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, graduating with an MDiv in 1991. Upon receiving a call from American Lutheran Church in Castlewood, South Dakota, Marcia was ordained on February 7, 1993. Following her engagement and marriage to The Rev. Kevin H. Kline in April of 1995, she relocated to Kimball, South Dakota, where she served the Kimball Protestant Parish comprised of Immanuel Lutheran, First Presbyterian, and Kimball Uniter Methodist Churches. Even after her husband’s death in January of 1996, she continued to remain in Kimball until receiving a call to St. John’s Lutheran Church in Bishop, TX, in 2002. In 2008 Marcia left parish ministry to do advanced work in Clinical Pastoral Education with the goal of becoming a hospital chaplain. For the remainder of her ministry, and despite repeated health struggles, Marcia worked at various health care centers in the Corpus Christi area as a chaplain. In those years and beyond her retirement in 2014, she also served under contract with the congregations of St. Paul, Tynan, and Grace, Mathis. Most recently Marcia has been providing support to St. Mark’s, Corpus Christi. Marcia died in her home the week of March 20th. A memorial service was celebrated on April 26.
If you wish to send personal cards and words of sympathy to family, cards can be sent to Marcia’s sister: Eleanor Enright 1077 Sycamore Avenue Brigham City, UT 84302
We remember Pastor Kline’s family and friends in our prayers and trust that the promise of the resurrection of Christ is true and sure.
Everyone is invited to the longest-running community & social event of FELC (since 1964): our annual chicken BBQ, to be held in our parking lot (weather permitting)! Our pit masters will start smoking chickens in our outdoor smoker pit in the afternoon, and our potato salad and beans team will be getting the sides ready.
You’re welcome to come and visit beginning at 4 PM. BYOB.
Dinner will be served around 6 PM, and includes BBQ chicken, beans, potato salad, drinks, and ice cream. All are welcome!
Thank you for your input to identify organizations and agencies our community of faith will support in 2023. The task force and council considered organizations that reflect our biblical and congregational values; some organizations that are local and others that are global in their outreach and witness. The money has been approved by the congregation in the 2023 ministry budget.
At its March 18 meeting, the congregation council enthusiastically approved organizations that we will support and advocate with this year. Please click here to read this report.
photo: FELC sponsored Tailgate Tuesday at LuMin on April 18.
Holy Week & Easter liturgies invited us into the central story of our faith: the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that renews our lives. We hope you made the most of these worship opportunities for your own spiritual renewal and our community connections. Below you’ll find the worship services archived on our YouTube channel.
The Easter season is the church’s fifty-day celebration of the resurrection of Christ. It is the time of greatest joy as we gather in the good news of God’s victory over death and the power to renew our lives in Christ. It is the counter-balance to the forty-day season of Lent that prepared us for such great celebration. In the tradition of the whole church, it was also the time for the newly baptized to deepen their connection to Christ through sharing in the resurrection meal of communion, and to experience the mystery of new life in Christ as a gift of grace. A Paschal candle is a central symbol in the church’s worship life. The paschal candle, newly made and lit throughout the Easter season, shines forth with the light of Christ’s resurrection, reminding us that we have new life in resurrection love.
Pastor J. Mills is moving into his office at FELC! But, where’s the pastor today? Out in the community meeting folks. He joyfully anticipates being welcomed on Sunday morning, March 26 in worship and hospitality. Be at FELC at 10 AM – onsite or online.
