Monthly

I pray everyone is well at the start of this Lenten season, a time for reflection, penitence, and fasting. The journey through Lent into Easter is a journey with Jesus. We are baptized into his life, self-giving, and death; then, we rise in hope to life transformed. This Lent, everyone is invited to walk with Jesus in his Way of Love and into the experience of transformed life. Together, we will walk through the depths of salvation history into the fullness of redemption.

I pray everyone is having a joyous Epiphany! Fr. Dexter provided blessed chalk and a prayer card for parishioners to Chalk their front door, invoking Christ’s blessing not only on the physical house but on the people who live there and those who visit.

 We had our annual meeting which was also on zoom for out-of-town parishioners. We went over all of our many community activities for last year, passed a budget, announced Karen and Joe as our delegates for the annual Diocesan Council Feb 16-18, and introduced our New Bishop’s Committee for 2023: Harry as our Bishop’s Warden, Erika as our Jr. Warden, with members Joe and Allison. Cassandra is our treasurer and Meg is our clerk

I pray everyone had a Merry Christmas. We had wonderful Lessons & Carols Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services. Thank you everyone who donated for the purchase of the beautiful Poinsettias. Folks were able to make their own Advent wreaths for our December POSM event. We held our Consecration Sunday on December 4th. We still are waiting on a few pledge cards. If you need a pledge card, (or just send Meg the information) please let us know so we can work on next year’s budget.

Busy, busy, busy! November at St. Matthias was exciting! After an absence of over 25 years, we had an entry in Devine Cactus Festival parade. Allison, John, Esme, Kaylynn, Olive, Meg, Amber, Rob, Erika Ryska and Luna either drove, waved, or tossed goodies to the spectators. We had lots of positive comments showcasing how St. Matthias is a thriving and exciting church in the service of Jesus Christ! I served as Chaplain for the 3-day Veterans Day weekend Wounded Warrior and Veteran Family Camp at Mustang Island. Harry, JoAnn, Karen, and Joe were also in attendance. We had a wonderful POSM event making family Advent wreaths. We did experience our Sanctuary heating system go down and held one service in the Parish Hall.

The Holy Spirit is really moving at St. Matthias! We had an incredible October and are looking forward what surprises are in store for November. We had a great Blessing of the Animals, fun filled Halloween Murder Mystery, and our Halloween Trunk or Treat. We’re excited to participate in the Devine Cactus Festival parade, November 5th. After an absence for over 25 years, we’re looking forward to showcasing how St. Matthias is a thriving and exciting church in the service of our Lord, Jesus Christ! I’ll be serving as Chaplain for the 3-day Veterans Day weekend Wounded Warrior and Veteran Family Camp at Mustang Island. Harry, JoAnn, Karen, and Joe will also attend. We’ll have our next POSM event November 20th with Advent wreath making and the hanging of the greens.

Wow! We have an action-packed October to get excited about! We’ll have our Annual Blessing of the Animals, October 4th, Halloween Murder Mystery October 8th, and our Annual Trunk or Treat October 31st. We’re also preparing to enter a float in the Devine Cactus Festival November 5th.

Fr. Dexter attended a Gathering of Leaders conference for Bi-Vocational priests from across the country. He was asked to share the concept and what how our St. Matthias digital vergers (Rob and Amber) engage our online community.

Worship God, Be Transformed in Christ, Change the World

We’re excited! We’ve going through a resurrection! St. Matthias is blessed to have been part of The Episcopal Church Foundation’s Pivot Pilot Program. Our Pivot team has been hard at work for the last few months, and they’ve compiled an incredible amount of ideas for St. Matthias and our community of faith. One of the highlights was St. Matthias being interviewed and recorded to show future teams how we accessed and discussed our neighborhood data.

We presented many of the ideas at our ice cream social after the Blessing of the Back Packs service. Some of these items we’ll begin implementing immediately and others will be presented to our Bishop’s Committee and parishioners for feedback. Folks have already seen some of our ideas taking root. When you get a chance, please give a special thank you to Pat, Karen, Erika, Rob, and Meg for all of their hard work and continuing efforts.

This has been a very hot summer. We’re in the process of beautifying the front of our St. Matthias property, I’m getting estimates to remove several trees that are either dead or blocking the street view of our beautiful church. We’ll include photos once the work is finished.

We are seeking committee volunteers for our St. Matthias 50th anniversary, May 7, 2023 (only 9 months away). We had a full house at our 40th in 2013. We have all the checklists, timelines, invites, etc. we created for our last anniversary celebration that just need updating. I’ll see if we can get Bishop High or our new Bishop for our annual visit during our celebration.

I pray everyone is having a blessed summer. We had a busy June and I appreciate everyone’s support with our activities and the time spent making sure everything ran smoothly.

We had a very successful yard sale to help our outreach ministries. Special thanks to Erika, Rob, Allison, Harry, Rick, Dora and Carlos for all of their help.

We’re excited St. Matthias is one of 8 churches selected in the U.S. to be Beta testers for the Episcopal Church Foundation PIVOT Pilot Program. PIVOT: Addresses the needs of the underserved Episcopal faith communities in the digital world. Karen, Pat, Erika, Rob, Meg and I will be involved in online modules and zoom meetings June – August, before the full year program is tweaked and rolled out for other churches. We’ll be concentrating on congregation, neighborhood, and our niche.

What a glorious Easter celebration we had at St. Matthias. Special thanks for folks who provided eggs for the children’s egg hunt after the service. I thought everyone would enjoy seeing last month’s St. Matthias activities through our photos. Enjoy!

We have an action-packed April planned. Holy Week begins with: Palm Sunday, April 10th, 10:30am, Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and Jesus’ Passion on the cross. Palm branches will be distributed and waved during the procession. The liturgy of the palms will start outside the church then we’ll process into the church. For the Passion gospel, some folks in the congregation will have specific roles to read with the congregation taking the part of the crowd.

I pray everyone will have a reflective Lenten Season. The highlight of February was the annual Diocesan visit, this year by Bishop Reed. He confirmed Brooke Walters and Allison Soret. Bishop Reed saw the many improvements we’ve made to our buildings and grounds. He was very happy with our church family atmosphere with children running and having fun. Bishop Reed was able to hear our Psalmist, Pat Leece from New York, who is one of our online church family. Erika did a fantastic job serving as the Bishop’s Chaplain.

I pray everyone is having a wonderful Epiphany season. We had a great Annual Meeting. We reviewed all our many accomplishments for the past year (We were very active and busy), passed this year’s budget and discussed upcoming month by month services, outreach and opportunities to gather with many fun activities planned. We also enjoyed a delicious potluck of a wide variety of delights.

I pray everyone is having a joyous and Merry Christmas. We continue to attract new parishioners and have seen some long-term folks return. I want to thank everyone who submitted pledge cards for 2022. The pledges will help the Bishop’s Committee plan our 2022 budget that we will present for your approval at our Annual Meeting and dinner January 16th. We will share our accomplishments for 2021 & plans for 2022. There’s still time if you haven’t submitted your 2022 pledge. We hope you can join us on this special day.

I pray everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are excited as we enter this Advent season. The season of preparation and expectation for the coming celebration of our Lord's nativity, and for the final coming of Christ “in power and glory.” We have a wonderful Christmas Eve Family service planned December 24th, 4pm. We will have Lessons and Carols with a Eucharist service. An important day is coming up soon. Please ensure we receive your estimate of giving pledges for 2022, for our Consecration Sunday on Dec 12th.

We had a busy October. I attended our Diocesan Clergy Conference at Camp Capers. It was great to get updates on ministries and see fellow clergy. Bishop Reed will visit St. Matthias June 19th, which is Father’s Day. I also met with the Diocesan Archdeacon, the Venerable Mike Besson to begin a 5-yr plan for St. Matthias to become a Parish instead of a Mission as we are now. As the number of parishioners continues to grow, I want to be ready. I was honored to be the Chaplain for the Wounded Warriors and Veteran’s Family retreat at our Diocesan Mustang Island Conference Center and thank Meg for leading our Morning Prayer Service while I was away.

I attended a World Missions Symposium and received lots of wonderful information on how we can help. I also attended a presentation by Navaho speaker Walter Shorty. He shared how we can help which I’ll be sharing with the congregation soon. Rob and I made another trip to the Diocese to drop off large bags of donated clothing and two baby strollers.

It’s wonderful to see all the new folks at St. Matthias. We had our largest turnout this year on August 22nd, surpassing our Easter service. A special thank you to Rene and Erika for filling in as Chalice bearers. With all the new folks attending St. Matthias, please consider being part of our lay leadership. We can use more Altar Guild members, Lectors, Lay Eucharist Ministers, acolytes, buildings & grounds. If interested in helping, please let me know.

Water, water everywhere! Oh No! When I arrived at the church on the 19 of July, I saw a broken water pipe under the Parish Hall. The lawn behind the Parish Hall was flooded. I was able to get a plumber to fix an elbow joint that came apart. I’m not sure how many gallons leaked or what our water bill will be like but praise the Lord, at least the inside of the building was spared.