Category: News

A service in remembrance of Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador will be held at Casa Marianella on Sunday, March 26 at 5:00 PM. The liturgy will be presided over by St. James Episcopal Church. Casa Marianella is located at 821 Gunter Street in Austin.

FELC has long accompanied residents of Casa Marianella who welcomes displaced immigrants and provides shelter and support services.

Archbishop Romero (1917-1980) was assassinated on March 24, 1980 while celebrating mass at the Chapel Hospital de la Divina Providencia in San Salvador. Archbishop Romero is a martyr of the faith, who strove for inclusion, liberation theology, and advocated publicly for the marginalized. Romero spoke out against social injustice and violence amid the escalating conflict between the military government and insurgents that led to the Salvadoran Civilian War.

After the service of remembrance, there will be a meal prepared and served by the residents of Casa Marianella.

For more information, please contact Todd Jermstad at tjermstad@austin.rr.com

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

Travelers will be sharing highlights of that pilgrimage in April, including:

–on Sunday, April 16: a three-minute video during Sunday worship describing the message of the legacy museum;

–on Sunday, April 23: highlights of The National Memorial for Peace and Justice will be shared during Sunday worship;

–on Sunday, April 30: an Adult Forum will follow Sunday worship & hospitality at 11:30 AM. All are invited and encouraged to attend to participate in conversation around issues of social and racial justice.

For more information on this pilgrimage sharing, contact Nancy Baden at nkab13@gmail.com.

March 17, 18, 19, 2023 at Camp Lutherhill, 3782 Lutherhill Road, LaGrange, Texas

“What is it we cannot see about racism?” is the central question of The Awakening Retreat, a 10-hour weekend entry-point to a deeper dive into racism awareness. Speakers include the Rev. Ele Clay and the Rev. Austin Nickel. Group activities, narratives, and conversations will provide participants a welcome and safe place to question their certainties as well as their doubts alongside fellow strugglers. Come and place your key within the grand circle: “… everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light.” Ephesians 5:13–14 (NRSVUE) 

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 Erin McCracken at erin922@gmail.com

The Awakening Retreat Information 

Lutherhill.org

Color of Grace website

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.