Monthly

Winter Freeze repairs continue. We had plumbers working very hard to repair the broken waterlines from last winter. They spent several days but now we have water in the Parish Hall. We were able to remove the very old organ and the piano from the Sanctuary and Sacristy. They both served the congregation well in years past (before my time). St. Matthias will be getting an electronic keyboard system in the near future with the hopes we will have someone who’s musically inclined to play (it is being donated by a sister church). With our newly created space, Meg moved all the sound and music equipment to the wall behind the last pew. This will allow Meg and Rob a direct view of the service to be able to see anyone needing help and an easier time giving me hand signals as needed. We also rearranged the Sacristy to be more functional.

I pray everyone had a joyous Easter season. As you all know, we received exciting news about the relaxed Diocesan Covid guidelines. Masks are no longer required for fully vaccinated but may still be worn if desired. We will begin using a chalice with wine for intinction (dipping) for anyone who wants to.

Receiving just the host is considered one in kind and full communion. We will also begin using the Parish Hall for our Social hour and POSM family events. We will resume Godly Play with the start of the new school year (August 2021). Looking for ideas for the Annual Church Picnic! Let us know what you would like to do. Hope to see you in church soon.

Alleluia! The Lord is Risen! He is risen i.ndeed! I pray everyone is well. I think we’ve all been waiting for this Easter system to arrive. I want to give a big thank you to Erika and Rob who handled all of the audio/video for our services while Meg was out of the state. I’m personally grateful I could concentrate on the liturgy without worry about all the technical things they did. I also want to thank Rene who filled in as Lector and has agreed to be one of our regular Lectors along with Phyllis and Kenneth

Lent - Lent is normally our wilderness time but I’d say the last 12 months of Corona-tide has been our wilderness time. Last month, we had extended bitter single digit cold, 2 snowstorms, extended loss of electricity, no running water, burst water pipes, no way to get gas, food, cell service, etc., we have given more and have done without to last a long time. We had several parishioners with flooded homes from burst water pipes, even our own Parish Hall had a water pipe burst, people toasted a slices of bread with a stick over the fireplace, scooping snow to melt to flush toilets.

As your Vicar, I would like for St. Matthias to get more parishioners involved in the spiritual life of the church as well as personally. We will have 2 new Lenten bible studies this year, “The Wisdom Years” Feb 4th - March 25th and The Society of St. John the Evangelist Feb 17th - Apr 1st. Please let me know if you’d like to be part of one of these studies. Meg and I will be part of both studies.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve Service as well as a Lessons and Carols service.

We are happy to be able to use our Parish Hall again. We hope to have all kinds of events scheduled for next year when it’s safe to do so.

Our Annual Meeting will be after the service on January 10th. A zoom option will be available for folks who can’t attend.

It’s wonderful to see our congregation grow. We have a new Acolyte, Tristan Puente. We’ve been looking for Acolytes for several years and have our first one. Thank you, Tristan for stepping forward in a leadership role. We have several new folks attending who bring a new energy and vitality to our congregation. It’s wonderful to see so many children at church.

I pray everyone is enjoying the cooler weather of the fall in Central Texas. We hope you like the new format of our newsletter. We haven’t received any complaints and we received one positive comment. We reopened to in person worship services 6 weeks ago and everyone enjoys being back. Our online community continues to grow and I’m so happy to see everyone engaging with each other during the services.

I pray everyone had a wonderful summer as we look forward to cooler weather in Central Texas. We’ve received some feedback about our newsletter and as a result we are making some changes. This is our new format. It’s been a slow but exciting start since we reopened in person worship services. We welcomed Rene, Rob and Erika’s and her sister Jessica’s family. We are so thankful for Rob and Erika. They both volunteer many hours each week at the Food Pantry and have both been elected to the Food Pantry Board representing St. Matthias.

I want to thank Robert and Sandra for hanging our new St. Matthias sign as well as laying cable for the church internet. It was a big improvement until we were able to get the highspeed internet installed with Doug’s help.

ST. MATTHIAS NEWS: I pray everyone is enjoying their summer as we prepare for the start of the school season. We continue to provide online Sunday Morning Prayer and Wednesday Evening Prayer on our Facebook page. We had our first Deacon’s Mass and will continue to have them on the 1st and 3rd Sundays. As usual, if you can’t watch the services live, they can be viewed anytime on our St. Matthias Facebook page. We continue to make deliveries to the Women’s Shelter, Food Pantry and HANK (Helping Abused and Neglected Kids). Thank you everyone who donates items especially during these times. I’m back at the Food Pantry now that I can concentrate more time on our outreach ministries. We can always use more volunteers to help stock shelves, unload deliveries and help clients shop. Please let me know if you’d like to help. We’ve had a drop in our church income due to the suspension of in-person worship services but the mission of St. Matthias continues.

ST. MATTHIAS NEWS: I pray everyone is enjoying their summer as we prepare for the start of the school season.

We continue to provide online Sunday Morning Prayer and Wednesday Evening Prayer on our Facebook page. We had our first Deacon’s Mass and will continue to have them on the 1st and 3rd Sundays. As usual, if you can’t watch the services live, they can be viewed anytime on our St. Matthias Facebook page.

We continue to make deliveries to the Women’s Shelter, Food Pantry and HANK (Helping Abused and Neglected Kids). Thank you everyone who donates items especially during these times. I’m back at the Food Pantry now that I can concentrate more time on our outreach ministries. We can always use more volunteers to help stock shelves, unload deliveries and help clients shop. Please let me know if you’d like to help.

St. Matthias’ News: I pray everyone continues to do well during this Ordinary Time. Oh, how I wish these times were back to ordinary. Here’s the latest on our plans to reopen. We originally planned on reopening July 5th but had to continue to postpone reopening due to the surge of Covid 19 cases that hit Devine and the surrounding communities. We do have an approved plan for reopening once we feel it is safe to do so.

We continue to provide on-line Sunday Morning Prayer, Wednesday Evening Prayer, and Children’s Story time on our Facebook page. Starting July 5th, we will have a Deacon’s Mass on the 1st and 3rd Sundays. We’ve never had a Deacon’s Mass at St. Matthias before and we are looking forward to it. As usual, if you can’t watch the services live, they can be viewed anytime on our St. Matthias Facebook page.

ST. MATTHIAS’ NEWS

I pray everyone will have a blessed Pentecost season. Here’s the latest on our plans to reopen. Since the Diocese has not extended the suspension of in-person worship services, the decision to reopen is now on the individual parishes. On May 17, 2020, the Bishop’s Committee approved the "Phase II Reopening Plan for St. Matthias and it’s been submitted to the Diocese for approval. Our reopening date is still dependent upon: the Diocese approving our plan for phased reopening, the Bishop not extending the diocesan suspension beyond this date, and the current local and state health statistics related to Covid-19 as monitored by our Bishop’s Committee. I understand the frustration of not having in-person services and ask for your patience.

BISHOP’S WARDEN NEWS
I pray everyone will have a blessed Lenten season. We will have a pancake breakfast after the service on March 1st. Meg and I attended the DWTX Council 2020 in Corpus Christi. The theme for this year is “with the eyes of our hearts enlightened.” It was such a wonderful experience meeting everyone from throughout the Diocese. It was like a big family reunion. Meg attended two workshops and I helped lead two Military Ministry workshops. We have lots of information at the church to share with everyone. We had a fun POSM family event last month. Meg had painted a large tree on one of the Parish Hall walls and we had everyone paint the palms of their hands and place them on the tree.

BISHOP’S WARDEN NEWS
I pray everyone will have a blessed Lenten season. We will have a pancake breakfast after the service on March 1st. Meg and I attended the DWTX Council 2020 in Corpus Christi. The theme for this year is “with the eyes of our hearts enlightened.” It was such a wonderful experience meeting everyone from throughout the Diocese. It was like a big family reunion. Meg attended two workshops and I helped lead two Military Ministry workshops. We have lots of information at the church to share with everyone. We had a fun POSM family event last month. Meg had painted a large tree on one of the Parish Hall walls and we had everyone paint the palms of their hands and place them on the tree.

BISHOP’S WARDEN NEWS
I pray everyone will have a blessed Lenten season. We will have a pancake breakfast after the service on March 1st. Meg and I attended the DWTX Council 2020 in Corpus Christi. The theme for this year is “with the eyes of our hearts enlightened.” It was such a wonderful experience meeting everyone from throughout the Diocese. It was like a big family reunion. Meg attended two workshops and I helped lead two Military Ministry workshops. We have lots of information at the church to share with everyone. We had a fun POSM family event last month. Meg had painted a large tree on one of the Parish Hall walls and we had everyone paint the palms of their hands and place them on the tree.

BISHOP’S WARDEN NEWS
I want to thank everyone for your prayers while I was taking the General Ordination Exams. I felt the Holy Spirit with me as I took each exam. Thank you. I pray everyone is having a blessed Epiphany season. We had a great annual meeting. We shared a pot luck, reviewed all of our accomplishments for the past year, shared our plans for this year and voted on a 2020 budget. We are having our monthly POSM family event on Sunday, February 9th after the service. We will have a family craft with the theme of “Love”. We made several deliveries to the Hospice Thrift Store, Women’s Shelter, Food Pantry and HANK (Helping Abused and Neglected Kids). Thank you everyone who donated items.

BISHOP’S WARDEN NEWS
I pray everyone is having a blessed Christmas season. We had a wonderful Consecration Sunday service that capped off our annual stewardship campaign with lunch afterwards. Thank you everyone who pledge to support St. Matthias. Instead of our monthly POSM family event on the 3rd Sunday, we will have our annual meeting and pot luck lunch January 19th. We enjoyed our beautiful new advent wreath that sits on the Paschal Candle stand. We purchased it with the donation from Rev. Wayne Bower’s previous church, St. John’s in New Jersey. We had a great Christmas Eve service with Rev. Eric Fenton.