Category: News

The survey on interests in adult forum topics and formats ended on August 29. Thanks to everyone who participated.

Here are the results that will be used for planning this fall’s adult education opportunities:

What topics interest you?

• 75% Spirituality / faith / personal growth
• 75% Social issues
• 68% Theological topics
• 62% Individual books of the Bible
• 50% Learning about other religions
• 37% New Testament
• 25% Old Testament
• 25% Whole Bible survey
• 25% Community organizations

What evenings work best for you for Zoom meetings?

• 60% Tuesday
• 60% Thursday
• 53% Monday
• 40% Wednesday
• 26% Sunday

Would you be interested in a monthly adult forum after worship and hospitality featuring one-time topics or guest speakers?

• 88% Yes
• 12% No

Searching for a Churchwide Assembly summary? Here’s one! Lots of great work was done by our voting members in Columbus, Ohio on behalf of the whole church.

View here for churchwide assembly highlights

View here about Imran Siddiqui who was elected Vice President of the ELCA. Mr. Siddiqui, a lay person, will serve a six-year term.

From Pastor Coffey

As I’m making plans for the fall, I’d like to hear from you what topics and formats interest you for adult forums — whether you’re a long-time or first-time participant. I’m also making plans for a monthly adult forum after worship and hospitality, and hope to bring in guest speakers on occasion. Your input on this will be helpful for planning. This is a short survey that should take only 2 minutes to complete.

Here is the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2HZCBW5

Our sixteen saints icons by Kelly Latimore are a beautiful addition to our Chapel of the Saints and facilities. There are many more saints icons and images from the life of Christ in the artist’s series available. They are wonderfully diverse and include saints contemporary and ancient from Asian, Native American, Hispanic, European, African, and American heritages.

We would love to expand our collection. Additional icons will be displayed in the parlor and rotated through the chapel during the year. If you are interested in donating one to add to the collection, they are $150 for the framed prints.

If you are interested in donating one, please contact Pastor Coffey to make arrangements.

Below is the list of images available. You can also view all of the images here.

Christ Breaks the Rifle

Christ in the Wilderness

Christ Swords into Plowshares

Christ the Light

Dorothy Kazel

Etty Hillesum

Flannery OConnor

Henri Nouwen

Holy Family of the Streets

Homeless Christ

La Presentacion de Cristo en el templo

Madonna and Child

Mahalia Jackson

Mama

Mary Oliver

Maya Angelou

Mother Jones

Mother of God Protectress of the Oppressed

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of the Journey – Mothers

Our Lady of the Journey 2

Our Lady of the Journey

Pedro Arrupe SJ

Pops Staples

Refugees La Sagra Familia

Refugees The Holy Family

Saint Dulce of the Poor

Saint Therese of Lisieux

St Nicholas Patron of Mariners

The Crucifixion

The Good Neighbor

The Good Shepherd

The Resurrection

The Transfiguration

The Trinity

Thomas Merton

The following have already been donated:

Fred Rogers

John Lewis

John Muir

Marsha P Johnson

Nicholas Black Elk

Pauli Murray

St Seraphim and Bear

On Sunday evening, August 7, FELC hosted the Eagle Scout Ceremony for three young men from our troop. FELC members Nancy & Randy Baden and Tim Atkinson participated.

Nancy Baden writes: “It was really nice. Nice bunch of people. And delicious potluck to boot. Tim Atkinson shared a little history of his time with the troop. He explained how Herb Walenta took him out to our family farm in Pflugerville and taught him how to build a pit fire in prep for Tim taking over the troop. Fun facts.”

Congratulations, Eagle Scouts!

Four years after founding First English Lutheran Church, church members organized and chartered Boy Scout Troop 28 (1940). Cub Scout Pack 28 was chartered in 1951. Since the 1990’s the Pack & Troop have gone through different iterations. Boy Scouts of America is now “Scouts BSA”. Elementary age girls may now join Cub Scouts, and Scouts BSA is chartering Scout Troops for older girls.

We are grateful to FELC Scout Representative Charlie Boas for his leadership.

We have a new fellowship hall AC unit. The previous one was in its last stage of life. Entering the hottest month of the summer in this impressive heat wave was rightly making folks concerned. So, with funds from the church operating budget, the church endowment funds, and the child development center operating budget, a new, 12.5-ton unit was installed on the roof. We are grateful to the child development center board for supplying one-half of the total cost. Special thanks to Terry Porter for coordinating site work with Tal Wiginton of Central Texas Mechanical. We are grateful for the continued generosity that facilitates our church, child development center, and community ministries.    

FELC music director and office administrator Bryan Rust has been away for health issues. As it turns out, both of Bryan’s surgeries were postponed and are begin rescheduled. Bryan will be back with us on Sunday, August 7, then away the following Sunday, August 14, for vacation time with family. We continue to hold Bryan in our prayers and support.

Vicar # 46 (2012-2013), Alex LaChapelle, is returning to FELC to be our guest preacher Sunday, October 9. Alex is currently serving as pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Harvey, Michigan. Previously Pastor Alex served as associate pastor of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Park Ridge, Illinois; as country coordinator in Southern Africa and Tanzania for the ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission program; and as pastor of Nairobi International Lutheran Congregation in Kenya.

We are excited to welcoming Pastor Alex back to FELC and celebrating his ministry to the church.

Artwork for the Chapel of the Saints

Our Chapel of the Saints now includes saints icons by artist Kelly Latimore. Using FELC memorial funds, we purchased sixteen icons of diverse saints ancient and contemporary. Eight of the icons are now installed in the Chapel of the Saints. Eight more are installed in the hallway outside the north transept entrance. The icons will be rotated into the Chapel of the Saints.

You can see all sixteen saints icons here.

This Summer Adult Forum with Pastor Michael Coffey has concluded

“I have been pondering for a long time how to write a theology that does not make use of the ancient Greek metaphysical assumptions that undergird the Christian dogmatic tradition. There’s nothing wrong with that tradition, but those assumptions are not necessary to faithfully express our faith.

As I work on giving this theology content, I invite you to join me for a series of adult forums as I explore with you how our Christian faith can be expressed in a way that is meaningful, active, and faithful. Your thoughts and questions will help shape my work and will give me much needed insight.

While we will touch on some philosophical and theological big ideas, we won’t spend too much time on those. Rather, we will explore what it means to live our Christian faith as we experience God on the way with Jesus.

I hope you’ll consider joining me as we explore this topic together and offer your feedback to help guide me in this writing project.” — Pastor Michael Coffey

Find forum materials at the links below:

The presentation from the class can be found here.

On the Way with Jesus Bibliography