Category: News

The FELC Racial Justice Action Team invites you to join us during Hospitality after worship beginning Sunday, September 15, to address postcards to new and inactive voters. The message on the postcard is non-partisan. It just encourages people to VOTE! We will provide postcards, pens, stamps, and addresses. In the previous two elections we have written 300 postcards that are mailed two weeks before the election! 

We will meet each Sunday until our 300 are ready for mailing. Donations toward the high cost of postage would be appreciated. It’s an enjoyable time to spend together doing something really important for our country. Hope to see you there!

On Sunday, September 8, 17 FELC members and friends gathered at Casa Marianella, a local non-profit which helps immigrants resettle in the US, for the ELCA’s annual service day, God’s Work. Our Hands. The group brought and sorted donations to help refugees get on their feet and cleaned out several flower beds.  Jennifer Long, Casa’s executive director, shared the organization’s history, educated the group about the realities of refugees coming to the US, and introduced current residents and alumni who frequently visit the East Austin location.  Thanks to everyone who participated in God’s Work. Our Hands. this year!

You are invited to become a part of our congregation’s Prayer Circle. This a special invitation and opportunity.

The Prayer Circle gathers Tuesdays at 12:30 pm via ZOOM.  Our gatherings last about an hour. We share prayer concerns that we are aware of, then offer our prayers.  Prayers can be spoken aloud or silently as we feel moved. Some prayers are printed, which we pray every week. Prayers may be for personal needs, local//national/international concerns, ministries and care groups, congregational issues, and in thanksgiving. As always, prayer requests are welcome and are kept strictly confidential. To learn more or to experience the Prayer Circle, contact Barbara Schutz,  bschutz@sbcglobal.net

We have received five pastor candidate names thus far. Two of the candidates have been prayerfully released from further consideration and the interviewing and discernment process continues to unfold with the remaining candidates. Thank you for your prayers as we seek to do the work that God would have us do. Feel free to contact the Call Committee at: felctransitionministry@felcaustin.org. 

We are grateful to Nikki Northcutt and Betsy Appleton for leading Children’s and Adult Faith Formation respectively on September 1. Children started their sessions following the lectionary and prepared a delicious “first fruits” contribution for Hospitality. Betsy Appleton started a series of Faith Formation Sessions on the ELCA Social Statements and Messages, with the current draft statement that will be voted on at the 2025 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. The draft’s comment period is open until September 30. 

Sunday, September 8, is God’s Work. Our Hands. Sunday. Learning Ministry is coordinating the light lunch after worship, so we will not be convening at 9 am. For lunch we will be enjoying a play on our Stone Soup lesson from August. So enjoy sleeping in a little, and bring your favorite salad ingredient to share with all God’s Work. Our Hands. participants after worship on Sunday, September 8.

On Sunday, September 15, Leigh Northcutt Benson will be leading Children’s Faith Formation on the topic, Peter’s Faith, at 9 am in the Library. 

Pastor Bob Karli will be starting a three-part series, “Prepare to Die! Funeral Planning and Making Final Arrangements,” at 9 am in the Parlor.  Why a forum on this topic? Because we’re all going to die, and someone will need to make final arrangements, be it planning a service or making end of life decisions. Give a gift to your family/survivors by making arrangements in advance. Do it now, because none of us knows when death will come. Far from being a topic from which we should shy away, this can be a thoughtful, even enjoyable, journey. 

A service to celebrate the life of Dr. Sacha E. Kopp (1967-2024) was held on Sunday, September 1 at First English Lutheran Church, Austin.

We hold Sacha’s family, friends, colleagues, and students in our prayers as he is commended to God’s eternal embrace.

Sacha’s obituary, including links to offer memorial donations, is here

The worship service was livestreamed here

The worship bulletin for Sacha Kopp’s Memorial Service is here.

Rest eternal grant him, O Lord; and let light perpetual shine upon him.

Learning Ministry will start the programming year this Sunday, September 1. Nikki Northcutt will be leading Children’s Faith Formation with a session on First Fruits from 9 – 9:45 in the FELC Library. Betsy Appleton will be leading Adult Faith Formation from 9 – 9:45 in the FELC Parlor. 

Next Sunday, September 8 is God’s Work. Our Hands. Sunday. Learning Ministry is coordinating the light lunch after worship, and we’ll be enjoying a play on our Stone Soup lesson from our last Intergenerational Faith Formation session in August.

Please bring your favorite salad ingredient to share with all God’s Work. Our Hands. Sunday participants after worship on Sunday, September 8.

We rejoice that Pastor Taylor Dieringer has been called to serve our neighbors at Faith Lutheran Church at 6600 Woodrow Ave in central Austin. Pastor Taylor was an associate member of FELC, with her home congregation of Christ Lutheran in Georgetown. Taylor is a 2017 UT graduate, and she received a Master of Divinity degree in 2021 from United Seminary in Gettysburg, PA. Everyone is invited to celebrate with Faith Lutheran in Pastor Taylor’s service of installation on Sunday, September 22 at 3:00 pm. Wear Green!  

Learning Ministry closed the 2023-2024 programming year with an Intergenerational Faith Formation lesson on August 18, where we learned about being in community through the story of Stone Soup. We had a rollicking good time, discovering that while absolutely no one in attendance knew how to juggle alone, we could juggle many balls as a group. We learned that working together enables us to do amazing things that none of us could have done alone. This truly has been the lesson I’ve learned through the past year of leading the Learning Ministry Team: we are learning in Community and doing amazing things together.

While Faith Formation will not be meeting on August 25, Learning Ministry is hard at work preparing for the 2024-2025 programming year, starting September 1. You can see a sneak preview of what is in store for the coming months on our Calendar. Thanks to Nikki Northcutt and Leigh Northcutt-Benson, we have a full curriculum mapped out for Children’s Faith Formation for the upcoming year, and they are working to create more robust materials to support our Children’s Faith Formation leaders. If you have been willing to teach but uncertain how to start, this is your year to try it! Contact Betsy Appleton, betsy.appleton@gmail.com.