From the Rector

Fr. Len Giacolone

Two Special Services in November

Thursday, November 1, is All Saints Day, a day of obligation in our Anglican Liturgical Calendar.  That means that we are supposed to attend a worship service on that day.  It is a day to remember all the men and women who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith.  It is especially for all those who do not have a particular feast dedicated to their memory.  Scripture tells us that we are “surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1).  These are the people who have kept the faith throughout the centuries and passed it on to us.  It is appropriate to honor them with a special celebration.  Our Holy Communion service will be at 12 noon that day and everyone is encouraged to attend.

Thursday, November 22, is Thanksgiving Day.  While not a day of obligation, it is the closest thing we have to one in our secular calendar.  I realize that in recent years there has been a lot of push back on this day for one reason or another (in my opinion, due mostly to political correctness).  The reason for the day, however, is to give thanks.  That may sound a little trite. But if that's the case we may not either be giving thanks enough or we don't understand the meaning of giving thanks.  Our Eucharistic liturgy is, by its nature, directed to thanksgiving to Almighty God for his great goodness to us.  Between now and Thanksgiving Day, we should spend some time meditating on who and what there is for which to be thankful.  It would make our celebration of Thanksgiving Day a great deal more important and powerful for us. Our Thanksgiving Day Holy Communion service will be at 10 am.
During the month of November, the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth holds its annual convention in order to deal with the business end of the diocesan entity.  This year the convention will be held on Friday evening November 9 and Saturday, November 10 at St. Peter and St. Paul Anglican Church in Arlington.  There will be an opening Eucharistic celebration on Friday evening at 5:00 pm followed by a banquet for the delegates and others who wish to attend.  Usually, the business meeting on Saturday morning lasts from about 8:00 am to noon.  There may be some additional business this year having to deal with the election of the new Bishop Coadjutor.  The nominating committee may have a report to make to the convention, but I don't know that yet.  I will be representing the parish as a member of the clergy and Amy Crandell will be our lay delegate.  Please pray for the Holy Spirit to guide the deliberations of the meeting. 

The other matter of concern in the diocese is the bishop's health.  Recently, Bishop Iker spent some time in the hospital due to complications from his chemotherapy.  It is increasingly important to keep up the prayers for our bishop while he is undergoing his treatment.  I am grateful to all of you who signed up to pray on Saturdays for his health.  And, of course, to every one of you who is praying but didn't sign up. 
Finally, Operation Christmas Child is in full swing.  This is our outreach to children in other countries who are less fortunate.  I know that there is additional information elsewhere in the newsletter, but I wanted to put in my own plug for your cooperation in this annual appeal.    

Building Fund Update

Mark Rambin

As most are aware, St. Francis incurred a $605,000 mortgage to provide the funds needed to complete our current church building and grounds.  This mortgage has a twenty five year term with monthly payments of around $3,600 per month.  Thanks to some generous special donations and the faithful monthly contributions of your building fund pledges, our current mortgage balance now stands at $508,000, placing us around five years ahead of our scheduled repayments and saving us many thousands of dollars in future interest expense!  Thank you for your continued faithful support towards retiring this mortgage obligation.

Oak Creek Site Plan Extension Approved

Mark Rambin

I am pleased to report that one of our interactions with The City of Austin has resulted in a complete success!
The back story:  In 2013, St. Francis received approval of our original site plan for the current church building and grounds as well as a two-story parish hall and classroom addition to be constructed on the south wall of the existing building.  This site plan approval was scheduled to expire in 2018. The expiration of the site plan could have resulted in the rollback of certain “grandfathered” development rights impacted by changing zoning and building code ordinances as well as the loss of the benefit of the engineering and other professional costs that went in to developing the original site plan.
The vestry approved seeking an extension of the site plan.  This process required additional engineering work, city permit fees and forms, notification of our neighbors and the neighborhood association, review by city staff, and ultimately, public hearings before the Zoning and Planning Commission and an appeal process.  We requested a ten year permit extension with the expectation that our extension request would be cut to five years.
Our application received no adverse comments from our neighbors, city staff was supportive of the request, and our extension was approved on the consent agenda of the Zoning and Planning Commission and no appeals were filed.  Accordingly, and while I am hopeful that we will not need this many years for our construction to be completed, our existing site plan and related development rights are in full effect until 2028.

Anglicans for Life

Submitted by Steve McCown

"Don't talk about religion or politics.” And why shouldn't we? Because religion and politics generate arguments, and arguments aren't fun for anyone. Human beings in general do not handle conflict well—because, let's face it, we love to be right. Add to that our increasingly polarized society, where dissention on a particular point of view can end friendships, and we have a world that cannot discuss difficult issues. So can you have challenging conversations about something like abortion in this climate? Yes, and it's important that we as Christians do so. A 2015 Vox study found that 39% of people in America say that they are neither pro-life nor pro-choice. That's 39% who aren't sure if ending the life of an unborn child in the womb is right or wrong. And if we can't have reasonable discussions with uncertain people about something as important as that, we need to rethink how we communicate. Here are a couple of tips for starting meaningful discussions. Begin a dialog with a person. Listen to that person—really listen, not just prepare rebuttals in your head—explain why he or she thinks a certain way. Once you have listened and understood the defense, you can respond with truth. But it requires us to think beyond ourselves and perceive what is at the heart of another's view of the world. And we can only reach that heart by starting with civility and graciousness. We won't be able to convince everyone. But we are called to speak the truth—not just because we're life-affirming people but because that is what Scripture calls us to do. “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” (Eph 4:15)
From: https://anglicansforlife.org/take-action/

Operation Christmas Child

Each year, the children in the Sunday School classes participate in the packing the Operation Christmas Child boxes.  Members of the congregation are asked to donate the items to go in the boxes or to help defray the shipping costs.  Items are being collected until 9:30 a.m. on November 19. There is a table in the narthex set up for the donations. Check out the gift suggestions. Contact Missy Bernard at nelson44@gmail.com with any questions

Daylight Saving Time Ends

Don't forget to set you clock back an hour when you go to bed on Saturday, November 3.  Daylight Saving time ends at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning.  We get back that hour we lost in March. Some day, we may stop this nonsense of changing the time twice a year.

Diocesan News

• News From Bishop Iker can be found at (http://www.fwepiscopal.org/bishop/bishop.html)
• The Diocesan web page can be found at http://www.fwepiscopal.org/.

The Diocesan Convention provides much more information about the happenings in the Diocese, so stay tuned.
 

Readings

11/1 All Saints Day

• Ecclesiasticus 44:1-10, 13-14
• Psalm 149
• Revelation 7:2-4, 9-17
• Matthew 5:1-12

 
11/4 23 after Trinity Proper 26

• Deuteronomy 6:1-9
• Psalm 119:1-16
• Hebrews 7:23-28
• Mark 12:28-34

 
11/11 24 after Trinity Proper 27

• 1 Kings 17:8-16
• Psalm 146:4-10
• Hebrews 9:24-28
• Mark 12:38-44

 
11/18 25 after Trinity Proper 28

• Daniel 12:1-4a
• Psalm 16
• Hebrews 10:31-39
• Mark 13:14-25

 
11/22 Thanksgiving Day

• Deut. 8:1-3,6-10,17-20
• Psalm 65
• James 1:17-18, 21-27
• Matthew 6:25-33

 
11/25 Christ the King, Proper 29

• Daniel 7:9-14
• Psalm 93
• Revelation 1:1-8
• John 18:33-37

Notes on the Readings:

• St. Francis follows the 1979 BCP Lectionary for the lessons (We are in Year B) with the text read from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible.
• Each of the Sunday's readings are linked to the page on LectionaryPage.net.
• The Sunday collects and text of the psalms are from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
• On the second and fourth Sundays, the psalm is chanted at the 11:00 service. The psalm markup is based on the Cathedral Psalter and is a part of the St. Francis Psalter posted on our webpage.

Calendar

Sundays

• 9:30 a.m. Said Holy Communion
• Sunday School for Youth
• 10:00 a.m. Choir Rehearsal
• 11:00 a.m. Holy Communion with music. On the first Sunday of each month, the service is Morning Prayer with Holy Communion

Thursdays

• 7:00 p.m. Evening Prayer (not on Thanksgiving)

Nov. 1, All Saints' Day

• Noon Holy Communion with homily

1st Friday, Nov. 2

• 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Games Night

1st Saturday, Nov. 3

• 9:00 a.m. Prayer Service for our Nation

Friday - Saturday, Nov. 9 - 10

• Diocesan Convention at St. Peter and St. Paul in Arlington.

2nd Sunday, Nov. 11

• 3:30 -4:30 p.m. Retirement and Nursing Home Visit

2nd Monday, Nov. 12

• 6:00 p.m. Vestry meeting

3rd Sunday, Nov. 18

• 12:30 p.m. Anglicans for Life Meeting

3rd Monday, Nov. 19

• 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. Readers of First Things group meeting

3rd Friday, Nov. 23

• Noon Mothers' Prayer Group

Nov. 22, Thanksgiving Day

• 10:00 a.m. Holy Communion

Anniversaries

22         David & Adriane Kristo-Reinking
30         Glenn and Rebecca Hunt

Birthdays