The Episcopal Diocese of West Texas
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Vol. 5, No. 3, June 2010

The Bishop's Monthly Video Reflection
Bishop Gary Lillibridge discusses the season of "Ordinary Time" as a season for growth. Watch the video here.

Bishop Lillibridge June 2010 from Nancy Stinson on Vimeo.


  
In this Issue
(scroll down to read all the news)
  • The Spirituality of Stewardship Focus of August Conference
  • Episcopalians Removed from Anglican Ecumenical Commissions
  • Connecting to the Tragedy in the Gulf (including a prayer for Prayers of the People)
  • New Study says they May Not Return
  • News Wrap Up
  • From Our Churches
  • Calendar 

The Spirituality of Stewardship Focus of August Conference

“Faith raising, not fund raising” is the theme of the 2010 stewardship conference to be held in two locations in August. Church of the Good Shepherd, Corpus Christi, will host the August 21 day, and St. Mark’s, San Antonio, will host the August 28 day.
  
In his address to the 2010 Council this past February, Bishop Lillibridge said that “Christian stewardship demands the best we have to offer, all the time” and urged congregations to think about their budgets as the “common purse” for doing Christ’s ministry. Financial stewardship, said the bishop, “does not stand in isolation from the rest of a congregation’s life.  The resources that are available for ministry are connected to the rest of your congregation’s purpose, life, and ministry.”
  
The content of the stewardship conference has been gleaned largely from responses to a survey sent to clergy and stewardship chairs last month. “About 70 percent of our churches responded to the survey,” said Nancy Stinson, diocesan development and stewardship officer. “Many of them want to know more about taking a missional approach to stewardship, as opposed to just creating a budget. So we will discuss topics like year-‘round stewardship and ways to implement a mission-based budget.”
  
Implementing the Consecration Sunday Stewardship Program, which the diocesan stewardship department is recommending this year, will also be covered in the day. Afternoon breakout sessions will include tithing and proportional giving, generational giving patterns, writing a narrative budget, planned giving campaigns, capital giving programs, financial planning courses, and other topics. The mornings will be given over to a plenary session that will include Bishops Reed (in Corpus Christi) and Lillibridge (in San Antonio) leading a session on the spirituality of stewardship.
  
“It is my expectation that the clergy and stewardship chairs from each congregation will attend the conference,” said Lillibridge, “along with all vestry/bishop’s committee members and stewardship committee members.” He added, “This will be a good time for us to be together and to focus on the theological understanding of good stewardship, as well as to focus on practical ways to move forward with a stewardship campaign.”
  
Each day will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The cost of $20 will include lunch; online registration will be available after June 28 at www.dwtx.org.
  
For more information, contact Nancy Stinson at nancy.stinson@dwtx.org or at 210/888 824-5387. 

Episcopalians Removed from Anglican Ecumenical Commissions

In a June 7 letter, The Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, wrote to Episcopalians serving on the communion's ecumenical dialogues informing them that their memberships have been discontinued.
  
The action came after Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams requested the move in his May 28 Pentecost letter to the Anglican Communion. In the letter he specifically referred to the May 15 consecration of Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles Bishop Suffragan Mary Douglas Glasspool and the ongoing activity across provincial boundaries. Glasspool is the Episcopal Church's second openly gay, partnered bishop.

When a province "declines to accept requests or advice from the consultative organs of the communion, it is very hard to see how members of that province can be placed in positions where they are required to represent the communion as a whole," Williams said. "This affects both our ecumenical dialogues ... and our faith-and-order related groups.” For the full letter, click here http://www.aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2010/5/28/ACNS4704

In response, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, issued a Pastoral Letter on June 2 in which she said, “The Spirit does seem to be saying to many within The Episcopal Church that gay and lesbian persons are God’s good creation, that an aspect of good creation is the possibility of lifelong, faithful partnership, and that such persons may indeed be good and healthy exemplars of gifted leadership within the Church, as baptized leaders and ordained ones.”
 
Jefferts Schori added that, “The Spirit also seems to be saying the same thing in other parts of the Anglican Communion, and among some of our Christian partners, including Lutheran churches in North America and Europe, the Old Catholic churches of Europe, and a number of others.” She acknowledged, however, “That growing awareness does not deny the reality that many Anglicans and not a few Episcopalians still fervently hold traditional views about human sexuality.” For the full letter: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_122615_ENG_HTM.htm

Episcopal Church members who were serving on the Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue are the Rev. Thomas Ferguson, the Episcopal Church's interim deputy for ecumenical and interreligious relations, and Assistant Bishop William Gregg of North Carolina.

Bishop C. Franklin Brookhart of Montana had been a member of the Anglican-Methodist International Commission for Unity in Mission.

The Very Rev. William H. Petersen, professor of ecclesiastical and ecumenical history of Bexley Hall, Columbus, was serving on the Anglican-Lutheran International Commission.

The Rev. Carola von Wrangel, rector of Christ-the-King in Frankfurt, Germany, a parish in the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, had served on the Anglican-Old Catholic International Coordinating Council.

The Rev. Katherine Grieb, an Episcopal priest and professor of New Testament at Virginia Theological Seminary, was the IASCUFO (Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity Faith and Order) member who has been invited to serve as a consultant.

Kearon said he has also written to Archbishop Fred Hiltz of the Anglican Church of Canada "to ask whether its General Synod or House of Bishops has formally adopted policies that breach the second moratorium in the Windsor Report, authorizing public rites of same-sex blessing," and to Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone, "asking him for clarification as to the current state of his interventions into other provinces."

Some dioceses in the Canadian church have made provisions for blessing same-gender unions, and Venables has offered oversight to conservative members of parishes and dioceses breaking away from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.

For a report from the Anglican Communion News Service, click here http://www.aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2010/6/7/ACNS4707

For a report from Episcopal News Service, click here http://www.episcopalchurch.org/episcopal_life.htm

Connecting to the Tragedy in the Gulf

Resources from The Episcopal Church that connect all of us to the oil spill in the Gulf are now available.

In bulletin inserts that can be downloaded for your use, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori says a lesson can be drawn from the still-unfolding oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico – that all are connected.
The presiding bishop, who was a research oceanographer before entering the ministry, writes of the devastating effect of the flood of oil on the ecology and economy of the entire region, the nation and the world.
  
"The Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) charge human beings with care for the whole of creation, because it is God's good gift to humanity," Jefferts Schori writes. "Another way of saying this is that we are all connected and there is no escape; our common future depends on how we care for the rest of the natural world, not just the square feet of soil we may call 'our own.'"
  
For the full text, click here http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_122724_ENG_HTM.htm .
  
To download bulletin inserts that are ready for your use, click http://www.episcopalchurch.org/95270_98366_ENG_HTM.htm

The following prayer was written by The Rev. Canon Beverly Gibson, Sub-Dean of Christ Cathedral in Mobile, Alabama. It is offered for any who wish to include it in the Prayers of the People.
  
We pray today for the preservation of our natural environment, especially the Gulf of Mexico and the lands and waters it touches: Guide those who labor to contain the oil that endangers the creatures of sea and land; Strengthen those who work to protect them; Have mercy on those whose livelihoods will suffer; Forgive us for our carelessness in using the resources of nature, and give us wisdom and reverence so to manage them in the future, that no one may suffer from our abuse of them, and that generations yet to come may continue to praise you for your bounty; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

New Study Says they May Not Return


It used to be an old saw that if children wandered from their religious upbringings during the college and young adult years, not to worry – they would find their way back to church when they married and had children. But a new study by the Barna Group says that is not necessarily so.

In a nationwide study among nearly 700 parents of children under the age of 18, 50 percent of respondents said having children had no influence on their connection to a church.

Of those who church-life was influenced by having children, 17 percent of respondents said having children reconnected them with church after a long absence, and 20 percent said it made them become more involved in the churches they were already attending. Five percent said that having children motivated them to become active in a church for the first time. But 4 percent of respondents said having children made them less active in their church.

“Many religious workers assume that parenthood motivates people to return to their spiritual traditions and to church attendance,” said David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group. “This perspective is especially common when it come to justifying the frequent disengagement among young adults.” Some faith leaders simply wait for parenthood to occur in dealing with young adults. However, said Kinnaman, “The survey calls that strategy into question.”

The perspective that having children had no effect on their lives was most common among parents in the Northeast and West as well as among college graduates. Among Christians (as opposed to other faith groups) the percentage was lower than the average at 47 percent.

To read the complete results of this survey, and for more information about the state of faith  in the world today, visit the Barna Group at http://www.barna.org

  

News Wrap


Society Needs to Return to Community, Says Elliott Lecturer
The annual spring Bishop Elliott Society lectures, May 7-8, featured ample hospitality offered by the people of St. Mark’s Church, Corpus Christi, and intriguing, packed-with-insight lectures from the Rev. Dr. Leslie Fairfield, retired church history professor from Trinity School for Ministry.
   
On Friday evening, Dr. Fairfield’s lecture was entitled, “Me, My IPod and I,” and he took participants on an amazing journey that charted the Christian story through Western civilization from the Garden of Eden to Woodstock.  He noted the increasing emphasis in Western culture on the “lonely, pioneering individual.”  God, if he is recognized at all, is a “vague, distant, uninvolved, non-personal spirit.”  Thus, nothing in the universe says one has to be neighborly, and community becomes optional.  Many now live in a lonely, individualized, highly acquisitive, addictive society.
  
The next morning, Fairfield described “The Dance of the Trinity,” noting the living relationship between the co-eternal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which is characterized by love, mutual honor, complementarity, and joy-filled delight.  As we are made in God’s image, we also are created to be in such living relationship.  The third lecture, “Colonies of Heaven,” lifted up the cathechumenate as a way to build colonies of heaven on earth; to help us reject the Western culture of acquisitive individualism, and live into the understanding that the true goal of human maturity is interdependence. 
    
The Bishop Elliott Society, founded in 1993, is a ministry of laity and clergy upholding and teaching the historic faith and mission of the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion in our diocese.  This is accomplished, in part, through a yearly lecture series.  Recent lecturers have included the Bishop of Durham, N.T. Wright; the current deans of the Schools of Theology of both Sewanee and Seminary of the Southwest; a New Testament professor from Sewanee (Christopher Bryan); and Bishop Gary Lillibridge.  The current President of the Bishop Elliott Society Board is the Rev. John Badders, Associate, St. Luke’s, San Antonio.  For information about the Bishop Elliott Society, visit online at www.bishopelliott.org.

Walking for Mental Health
Included in the 1,300 walkers and runners who clocked off 3k for NAMI on May 15 was a team of eleven from the diocesan staff. Bishops Reed and Folts, along with diocesan personnel and family members, helped raise the $75,000 that went to support the mission of NAMI – the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Teams from St. George, San Antonio, and St. Peter’s, Kerrville, also participated.
  

Car needed
Betty Chumney, diocesan world mission officer, reports that the Rev. Benjamin Gutierrez of Saltillo, Mexico, desperately needs a car. He has a wife and four children and very little income. He could use any serviceable vehicle – car or truck -- that anyone wants to donate. To get through customs, it must be a 2001 or newer model. If you have a vehicle to contribute, contact Betty Chumney at the Bishop Jones Center, 210/888 824-5387 or chumneyb@aol.com.  
   
Sites for Leadership Summit in Four South Texas Cities
Saying there’s “no better conference on leadership anywhere,” the Rev. Chuck Sharrow, St. Paul’s, Brownsville, urged other Diocese of West Texas clergy and lay people to participate in the 2010 Global Leadership Summit being offered via satellite August 5 and 6 at cities around the world, including San Antonio and Corpus Christi.
  
The Summit was started in 1995 and presented in one city with 2,200 leaders from 300 churches in attendance. This year it will broadcast to 225 satellite sites across North America from the campus of Willow Creek Church near Chicago. The 2010 summit faculty includes Bill Hybels, founder and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church; Jack Welch, author and former chairman and CEO of General Electric; and T.D.  Jakes, author and chief pastor of The Potter’s House, as well as many more. 
  
In the Diocese of West Texas, the Summit will be presented in San Antonio at Bandera Road Community Church and Grace Point Church; in Corpus Christi at Yorktown Baptist Church; or in Austin, at Westlake Hills Presbyterian Church.  For those in the Brownsville area, there is a separate registration available for a showing at Central Christian Church which will be presented in both English and Spanish.  To register for the Brownsville event go to  www.cccbrownsville.org.
For additional  information on the Summit, or to register, visit www.willowcreek.com/events/leadership/2010/.  
For a brief bio on all of the speakers, select this link: http://www.willowcreek.com/events/leadership/2010/speaker_bill_hybels.asp, or for a free download of various Summit speakers from previous years, click here: http://www.willowcreek.com/events/leadership/2010/summitsunday.asp.  
   
West Texans Invited to Summer Choir Camp
The Diocese of West Texas has received an invitation from the Diocese of Texas Music Commission for children to join them in attending Summer Choir Camp in Brenham, Texas, July 18-24. Children in grades 4 to 8 (fall 2010) will work with guest conductor Courtney Daniell-Knapp. Children are housed in dorms at Blinn College. At the end of week, a Broadway-themed show and family closing Eucharist showcase all that the children have learned. Cost is $450 inclusive per camper with scholarship assistance available. For an application, visit the Church and Other Events section of the diocesan website or click here. For more information about the choir camp, contact Linda Patterson at choircamp@sbcglobal.net or David D. Eaton at eaton@stlukes-sa.net.

Gather at the Ball Park
Episcopal Night at the Ball Park takes place in two cities this year: July 8 in San Antonio at Wolff Stadium and July 20 in Corpus Christi at Whataburger Field.
For the San Antonio night, participants can enjoy a picnic supper and the game for $15.50 ($12.50 children 3-12) or game only for $6.50. Picnic starts at 6 p.m.; game starts at 7:05 p.m. To order tickets, contact Leigh Saunders in the diocesan office at leigh.saunders@dwtx.org or 210/888 824-5387.
For the Corpus Christi night, participants should come out for the game at 7:05; ticket price of $12 covers the game and a t-shirt.  To register, contact Wayne Sykora at 361-877-6983 or register through your church office.
   
Symposium Speaker to Urge Independence
The 2010 Annual World Mission Symposium takes a look at how good works by well-intentioned organizations sometimes leave third-world countries worse off. Dates are Friday, August 13, 7 to 9 p.m. and Saturday, August14, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Mission Room at the Bishop Jones Center, San Antonio. This year's theme is "Thinking New Thoughts, Spiritual Renewal and Empowering People in Short Term Mission." Symposium speaker Glenn Schwartz is founder of World Mission Associates, a mission consulting organization that focuses on seeing that local Christians in every culture are able to take ownership for their church work. “When outside money and other material things accompany the spread of the Christian gospel, sometimes people get the wrong impression about the gospel itself,” says Schwartz. “If those to whom the Gospel is preached begin to receive material things, they may become more interested in those things than in the gospel,” says Schwartz. Schwartz’s book on the subject is When Charity Destroys Dignity. $20.00 donation includes lunch and materials.
To register online, click here.
  
When Does a Water Well Become a Bakery?
When the women of Guyacan, a village in the Danli area of Honduras, were freed from the burden of constantly hauling water because of the new water well built by the Texas Water Ministry, they discovered they had time and talent on their hands. So they started a small baked goods business and began selling their products in a nearby, larger town. The extra money helped the families achieve a higher standard of living and improved the women’s self-esteem. Guyacan is one of 12 locations where water wells were drilled in the 2005-2007 time period through the work of the Texas Water Mission (TWM) and the diocesan Honduras Water Ministry, in partnership with Rotary Clubs in San Antonio and Alamo Heights. The 12 wells brought fresh water to more than 8,000 people. Children in the village are no longer sick and dying, but are thriving and able to attend school.  
  
But the story did not end there; on a May 2010 trip to Guyucan, TWM board members learned that the women have been approached about exporting their baked goods to another country half a world away. The village has come full circle, from clean water and improved health to micro-enterprise and self-sufficiency, and it all began with one water well drilled by the Honduras Water Ministry.
  
A Matter of Teeth
“Charlie” retired to Cuautepec, Mexico, but needed something to do. She began tutoring the children of her gardener so they’d be at grade level and prepared for standardized testing. As she worked with the children, she became aware of an obvious deficiency: extreme dental problems.
  
"Why do these little children have black teeth, or, even worse, missing teeth?" she wondered.
  
The simple question launched Charlie’s ministry, an organization she dubbed “Kids’ Foundation.” Charlie learned that Coca Cola is cheaper than milk in her part of Mexico, so mothers wean babies with Coke, but only when they go to bed, resulting in cavities, necessity for root canals, and seriously bad teeth in children below age five.

Charlie found two dentists and an anesthesiologist who would provide treatment pro bono for the increasing numbers of children she found in the barrios. Hospitals required token payments, and Charlie provided dental hygiene education for the children and their parents. Now Charlie, Beth and Tony Price, and the Diocese of West Texas partner together for the benefit of little ones reached by the Kids’ Foundation.
The story is one of the articles in the June 2010 edition of the Diocese of West Texas World Mission Newsletter. To read more about diocesan World Mission, including a list of summer mission trips you can pray for, go to: http://www.dwtx.org/var/files/File/World%20Mission/Newsletters/June%202010%20newsletter%202.pdf
  
Bible Studies Tie to Diocesan Theme
In keeping with the 2010 diocesan theme of "Bear One Another's Burdens," Bishop Lillibridge asked all congregations to study Paul’s epistles to the Galatians and the Thessalonians this year. The study for these books is currently being crafted by the Rev. Drs. Jane Patterson and John Lewis. As of early June, the diocesan website has an introduction and sessions 1-5 that are available for you and your congregation to download. To view the 2010 diocesan bible study, go to http://www.dwtx.org/index.php/prayer/Galatians_and_Thessalonians_Bible_Study
  
Discussing the Church of the Future
Phyllis Tickle, an internationally renowned expert on church growth, will share her incisive perspective on the trends and transformation of our time, October 8-9, at St. Luke’s, San Antonio. Tickle’s wisdom stems from her own faith and decades of observation and analysis that have led her to chronicle our pivotal time in the church’s history.
  
Tickle will speak on Friday, Oct. 8, from 5 to 7 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 9, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cost of $50 includes both sessions and Saturday lunch. The event is co-sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas Department of Christian Education.
  
Online registration will be available at a later date. For more information, call Lou Taylor at 210 824-5387. To learn more about Phyllis Tickle and her work, visit online at www.phyllistickle.com.
    
Christ Church Rector Retires
The Rev. Chuck Collins, who has served as rector of Christ Church, San Antonio, for nine years has retired. Collins had already planned to take a two-month sabbatical in June and July and vacation in August. He told his congregation in May that he will not return after that. Bishop Lillibridge has appointed the Rt. Rev. William Frey as interim rector as the congregation prepares to move forward in its life. For Collins’ letter to his congregation as well as other documents that chronicle events at Christ Church over the last several months, visit their Forum at http://www.cecsa.org/templates/System/details.asp?id=44722&PID=629505



From our churches

Getting in Touch When it Counts

The congregation of Trinity by the Sea, Port Aransas, has started an emergency phone service for their members who live alone. The church provides a telephone, on loan, connected wirelessly to a pendent worn around the neck. When a button on the pendent is pressed, the telephone dials “911” and delivers the caller’s pre-recorded message if the caller is unable to speak. The service is provided through the local telephone company.
  
The idea, says Trinity parishioner Dr. Bill Lehmann, actually originated with former vicar the Rev. Bill Calhoun, who was familiar with the service from his days serving at St. Helena’s in Boerne. “Bill felt it was a real help to his parishioners who lived alone,” said Lehmann.
  
The phone also works as a regular telephone with a 60-number programmable phone book. When the pendent button, or a button on the telephone instrument, is pressed, the phone emits a 15-second alert to draw the attention of others in the home. Calls can be canceled within the 15-second period, in case a button has been pushed in error.
  
A speakerphone allows users to talk to callers without having to pick up the telephone instrument.
   
Church Bell Tolls Again

Photo: Zach Herbst (far left) and his crew work on the Trinity bell.


It took eight months of concentration and muscle, but the church bell at Trinity Church in Junction is now back in its place, looking brand new. Parishioner Zach Herbst and his co-workers undertook to remove the bell, sand it, repaint it, and place it back in its “home” as Herbst’s Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project. To make the bell easier to ring, its pulley system was re-invented. The participants also sanded and repainted the steeple and the cross that stands at the peak.
  
Herbst’s project consisted of a written detailed plan and his leadership of others while performing a project for his church. Following the completion of the project, the young Scout had to update his report with information about how he gave leadership, ways in which the plan may have had to change, and the benefits of the project to the community.
Zach is 14 and will be a freshman in high school next year. His parents are Charles and Randi Herbst. Story from the Junction Eagle. Used with permission.
   
Save Those Trees

The children at St. Paul’s Montessori School in San Antonio took on city council in May to lend their support for a stricter tree ordinance that would make it more difficult for developers to cut down trees. The children of both the upper and lower elementary levels wrote letters to city council voicing their opinions. “This town needs trees, not ugly, indistinctive houses or a mall,” said one student. “Trees give us oxygen,” said another student. “We are children, and we know that.” The writer added a P.S.: “There are animals up there.” The students spent one of their recesses marching with placards to protest cutting down trees. “Maybe you heard us,” suggested a student in her letter.
  
Two of the girls – Genevieve, age nine, and Angeline, age 10 -- even went to a city council meeting and spoke in favor of the ordinance. Genevieve said she asked council members to “imagine life without trees, imagine the world without trees, and how dull it would be.” The girls said it was a little scary and the mayor was “very serious.”
   
A few weeks after their letter-writing campaign, the students received a letter from the mayor – with his gold seal on it – thanking them for their involvement. But the students have since moved on to protesting British Petroleum.
  
Photo: The letter-writing gang from St. Paul's, out to save the trees.

Calendar

For details on all events, as well as online registration when available, log on to the diocesan website and click on Special Events http://www.dwtx.org/index.php/events/Special_Events for events sponsored by the Diocese of West Texas and on Church and Other Events http://www.dwtx.org/index.php/events/Church_and_Other_Events for events sponsored by our churches and our ecumenical partners.


June

June 21-23, The Rev. Mary Earle and the Rev. Drs. John Lewis and Jane Patterson will lead breakout sessions during Oblate Seminary’s Summer Institute. Theme of the institute is Ancient Biblical Voices Speak Today, and keynoter is Walter Brueggemann, well-known scholar and lecturer. Both clergy and laity will enjoy.
  
June 25-26, the annual diocesan fishing tournament, Fishin’ for Mission, hosted by St. Peter’s, Rockport. Proceeds support world mission projects throughout the Diocese of West Texas.
      
July

July 8, Episcopal Night at the Ball Park in San Antonio

July 20 Episcopal Night at the Ball Park in Corpus Christi.

July 30-31, the 2010 TENS (The Episcopal Network for Stewardship) annual conference in Indianapolis, IN. For experienced leaders and new recruits.
 
  
August

August 5-6, the 2010 Global Leadership Summit will be offered via satellite at cities around the world, including San Antonio and Corpus Christi. See article above in the "News" section.
   
August 6-8, Happening #116 happens at St. Alban's Harlingen. The weekend is a spiritual renewal event for high schoolers. 
  
August 13-14, the annual World Mission Symposium at the Bishop Jones Center.  Speaker is Glenn Schwartz, author of When Charity Destroys Dignity.
  
August 21, at Church of the Good Shepherd, Corpus Christi and August 28 at St. Mark’s,  San Antonio, a diocesan Stewardship Conference for stewardship chairs and committee members, vestry and bishop’s committee members, church wardens, and clergy.
  
  
September

September 11, a Centering Prayer Workshop from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at St. Boniface Church, Comfort.   
  
September 24-26, EFM (Education for Ministry) Mentor Training at the Mustang Island Conference Center.  Both a Basic and Formation session will be offered.
  
    
October

October 1-3, the 96th Spiritual Retreat for Recovering Alcoholics, Al-Anons and Adult Children of Alcoholics at Camp Capers.
  
October 2, the Rev. Canon Sally Bingham of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, is the featured speaker at a St. Francis Day retreat at St. Mark’s, San Antonio.
  
October 8-9, Phyllis Tickle will speak at St. Luke’s, San Antonio. Tickle’s work has chronicled the evolving church of today.
  
October 8-10, “Soul at Work: Discerning God’s Will in Daily Life” presented by the Work+Shop and the  Revs. Drs. John Lewis and Jane Patterson at the Mustang Island Conference Center.  Retreat leader will be Margaret Benefiel, CEO of ExecutiveSoul.com.  http://www.theworkshop-sa.org/cgi-bin/kingdomtools/ktpublic.rb
  
October 14-17, Cursillo #250 will be held at Mustang Island Conference Center.  Lay rector will be Rachel Davies, St. John’s, McAllen.  Spiritual Director will be the Rev. Scott Penrod, Trinity, Pharr.
October 15-17, the annual World Mission Art Festival will be held at the Bishop Jones Center. Artwork of all sorts, created by Episcopalians from our own diocese, will have their wares available for display and sale.
  
October 17-22, Three-day Intensive Contemplative Christ-Centered Prayer Retreat at Mustang Island Conference Center. Led by the Rev. Sandy Casey-Martus.
  
October 22-24, Food for the Soul, A splendid weekend of tasting, chopping, preparing, learning, laughing, eating, and praising God for our many blessings. Enjoy jazz, learn about wine and knives, and work with our own Kathy Jansen and Sandra Schneider, preparing and acquiring favorite Mustang Island Conference Center recipes in your island kitchen.  Music provided by Gene Dowdy and The Rev. Matt Wise.  Chaplains for the weekend will be The Revs. Lisa Mason and Ed Dohoney.  Escape to the island during its most beautiful time and let the welcoming MICC staff take care of you.  For more information, contact Nita at nita.shaver@dwtx.org or 361.749.1800.  Cost:  $248 per person for Double Occupancy and $295 Single Occupancy. The complete balance is due by September 22.
To register online, click here.
  
October 22-24, the Women’s Fall Gathering is at Camp Capers.  Spiritual Director is the Rev. Suzanne Guthrie from St. Aiden’s House in Brewster, New York. 
  
October 25 – 27, Fall Clergy Conference at Camp Capers.
   
     
November
November 5-7, Clergy Spouses Retreat at Camp Capers.
  
November 11-14, Cursillo #251 will be held at Camp Capers.  Lay rector will be Joyce Gray, and Spiritual Director will be the Rev. Nancy Coon, both from Holy Spirit, Dripping Springs.
  
November 12, Bishop’s Golf Classic at Canyon Springs Golf Course in San Antonio.
  
November 12-14, the Diocesan Silent Retreat for Men and Women at Moye Center in Castroville.
  
November 13, the Diocesan Daughters of the King will have their Mini Fall Assembly at Mustang Island from 10 am to 4 pm.
  
November 13, National Alliance on Mental Illness offers training for clergy and lay leaders at St. George, San Antonio.
  
November 17-20, the National Association of Episcopal Schools (NAES) will meet this year in San Antonio for their annual conference.
  
November 19-21, Happening #117. A spiritual renewal weekend for high school students.
  
November 24-27, the annual Thanksgiving on the Island will be held again at Mustang Island Conference Center.
  
   
2011 Council: 
February 17-19, 2011, Diocesan Council (in San Marcos)

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