Incarnation missioners clear debris in Joplin, Missouri following 2011′s devastating storm.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Our hearts are heavy as stories of devastation begin to unfold from tornado-stricken Oklahoma. As families are suffering unthinkable tragedy, we are called to share Christ’s love and hope. We will do just that!

As we pray fervently for God’s loving direction, we are beginning to map out a plan for what we as a parish can do to help:

Prayer is our most powerful weapon. Please join us in prayer for those whose lives have been impacted. Do you know of someone who needs our prayer? Please let us know right away.

Mission teams will be needed for weekend work trips to help clean up debris and to help rebuild. Once the news media and the national attention fade away, we have opportunities to show that we continue to care about these families. Our initial trip will most likely be over Labor Day Weekend (depart after work August 29 and return September 1). Please stay tuned for more information.

God bless you now and always, confident that He is always with us!

The Right Reverend Anthony Burton

Bishop Anthony Burton, along with Lift High the Cross captial campaign co-chairs Jean Barrow, George Rynolds, Susan Beecherl and Stuart Bush, announced that we exceeded our $25 million goal! In addition to the video above, we’ve posted 27 photos on Facebook!

What an amazing night! We’ve posted 66 photos on Facebook of our Lift High the Cross Kickoff Event! Bishop Burton regaled the crowded church with the needs of our growing parish — the “need for a bigger boat” in which to minister, and showed the vision of the campaign that will answer those needs.

Sermon recordings for Holy Week:

Easter Day, March 31
Traditional Service, Bishop Burton
Uptown Service, Fr. Methvin

Holy Saturday, March 30
Bishop Stanton

Good Friday, March 29
Fr. Olver

Maundy Thursday, March 28
Fr. Hermerding

The Marmion Library has many excellent titles to enhance your Lenten rule. Check our upstairs display windows and join us downstairs in the library for further recommendations, such as:

A Season for the Spirit: Originally commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1991, A Season for the Spirit provides forty daily meditations for Lent, leading us on a journey of discovery in which we find that Christ, through the Spirit, embraces every aspect of our humanity. Each meditation concludes with a prayer and passage of scripture or quotation for further reflection and study. While it aims to assist a daily practice of personal prayer, it is also widely used by groups who pledge to meet regularly so that members can share their thoughts, reactions, and spiritual experiences.

The Desert: A Lenten Anthology: The desert, with its great emptiness and silence, has long been a symbol of solitude. In our spiritual lives, we sometimes seek such isolation as a means of abandoning ourselves completely to God. At other times, solitude comes upon us uninvited and unwelcome, as we find ourselves totally alone and desolate. In facing the silence and the vast expanses of loneliness, we test our courage, deepen our faith, and hear the voice of God anew.

A Joyful Heart: Meditations for Lent: Through Lenten meditations such as “The Woodlouse Sermon,” “The Thomist Football League,” and “The Girl in the Bikini,” Martin Thornton pursues the somber spirituality of Lent with an air of lightheartedness. In the spirit of G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis, Thornton points to the humor of Jesus’s parables as he devises his own homespun tales that make a lasting impression with their casual, amusing charm.

Join us as we commemorate the holiest week of the Christian year and walk with Jesus as he makes his way to cross. The Sacred Triduum – the three sacred days – are basically one continuous liturgy that begins with the institution of Holy Communion on Maundy Thursday and concludes with the most important liturgy of the year: the Great Vigil of Easter.

Monday & Tuesday, March 25 & 26

Wednesday, March 27

SACRED TRIDUUM: The Three Sacred Days

Maundy Thursday, March 28

Good Friday, March 29

Holy Saturday, March 30

The Sunday of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ

Easter Day, March 31

* Nursery available for these services.

Ash Wednesday & the Disciplines of Lent

Fr. Matthew Olver

The Season of Lent, given to us for the preparation of our celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection, is a marvelous opportunity to take the next step forward in your spiritual life. The Book of Common Prayer designates the weekdays of Lent and Holy Week (except March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation), along with all Fridays of the year as days of “special devotion” with “special acts of discipline and self-denial,” which would normally include fasting (p. 17).

Some form of fasting is one of the central ways that Christians have done this. Jesus began his ministry by fasting (Mat. 4:1-11) and teaches about it in the Sermon on the Mount, just after discussing repentance and forgiveness, saying, “When you fast…” (Mat. 6:16).

Fasting can be either a whole or partial abstinence from food and its purpose as a Christian discipline is always spiritual: to learn the most difficult spiritual truth, the “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Mat. 4:4).

What is most helpful is to think first about your Lenten fast, and second about what discipline you might take on. Here are some of the traditional methods of fasting:

When looking to take on a discipline, take an inventory of your spiritual life and prayerfully ask what the next small step might be:

Any of the clergy would be pleased to provide further direction.

Ash Wednesday is one of the two days of the Church’s year — the other being Good Friday — when all Christians who are physically able to do so are urged to engage in a total fast: abstaining from all food (solid or liquid, but not from water) during the day, eating only a simple, meatless meal sometime late in the day (after receiving Holy Communion, if possible).

Lenten Worship

The Church’s worship during the season of Lent is simpler and more austere. Alleluia is not said and the Gloria in excelsis is not sung. There are no flowers at the altar. The color purple is used, which is both a sign of penitence and an expression of hope. All of these measures are meant to help us focus more intently on the spiritual disciplines to which the Church calls us in Lent: self-examination and repentance, prayer, fasting, self-denial, and reading and meditation on God’s holy Word.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation – Confession

One of the gifts of our spiritual tradition in the practice of sacramental confession (see James 5:12), where one makes a concerted effort to examine one’s life honestly and then names those sins in the presence of a priest for the purpose of receiving counsel and direction, and absolution (the authority given by Jesus to declare God’s absolute forgiveness; see John 20:23).

Anglicans have always understood confession as a gift to be received and not something to be required. There is tremendous freedom and healing that comes when we bring our sins into the Light (see I Peter 2:9) and name them in the presence of a Christian minister. Priests will be available this Lent to hear confessions by appointment, as well as Monday–Wednesday in Holy Week, from 5-5:45 (come to the Good Shepherd Altar in the main church).

The liturgy for Confession can be found on page 447-48 in The Book of Common Prayer. Guides to help in preparing for Confession can be found on the website.

Related video

More from the 2012 Lenten Video Series

7 am – Imposition of Ashes & Holy Communion with organ and hymns
Noon – Imposition of Ashes & Holy Communion with choir
6 pm – Imposition of Ashes & Holy Communion with choir
6 pm – Children’s Service (details)

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

January 18-25

The institution of the Week of Prayer derives from a recommendation from the Lambeth Conference in 1878 for “the observance of a special season for [prayer for reunion] round about Ascension Day.” A particular date was chosen for this observance by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1894 and it was observed by the Church of England on Whitsunday – Pentecost – in both 1894 and 1895.

In 1895, the Roman Catholic Church in England joined their Anglican neighbours in this observance in obedience to the request of Pope Leo XIII, who had already “enjoined upon Catholics throughout the world the first octave or novena of prayer for Christian Unity to be observed from the feast of the Ascension to Pentecost.”

It was not until 1908 that the octave was observed on the January dates with which it is commonly associated. Spencer Jones, a Church of England clergyman, and Lewis Thomas Wattson, Episcopal clergyman (and founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement), jointly initiated the observance as January 18 to 25, the feasts of the Confession (or Chair) of St. Peter and the Conversion of St. Paul. In 1909, Pope Pius X approved the observance of the new octave, and extended its observance to the whole Roman Catholic Church the following year.

Though the modern dates of the Week of Prayer were established in the U.S.A. in 1908, it was Paul Couturier (right) in France who popularized its observance. In 1935, Couturier appealed for a universal week of prayer “for the unity Christ wills by the means He wills.” It is for this that he is known as the father of the Week of Prayer.

One of the major steps in the Ecumenical Movement came from the House of Bishops in the Episcopal Church in the year 1886, when they adopted the following resolution:

We, Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, in Council assembled as Bishops in the Church of God, do hereby solemnly declare to all whom it may concern, and especially to our fellow-Christians of the different Communions in this land, who, in their several spheres, have contended for the religion of Christ:

1. Our earnest desire that the Saviour’s prayer, “That we all may be one,” may, in its deepest and truest sense, be speedily fulfilled;

2. That we believe that all who have been duly baptized with water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, are members of the Holy Catholic Church;

3. That in all things of human ordering or human choice, relating to modes of worship and discipline, or to traditional customs, this Church is ready in the spirit of love and humility to forego all preferences of her own;

4. That this Church does not seek to absorb other Communions, but rather, co-operating with them on the basis of a common Faith and Order, to discountenance schism, to heal the wounds of the Body of Christ, and to promote the charity which is the chief of Christian graces and the visible manifestation of Christ to the world;

But furthermore, we do hereby affirm that the Christian unity… can be restored only by the return of all Christian communions to the principles of unity exemplified by the undivided Catholic Church during the first ages of its existence, which principles we believe to be the substantial deposit of Christian Faith and Order committed by Christ and his Apostles to the Church unto the end of the world, and therefore incapable of compromise or surrender by those who have been ordained to be its stewards and trustees for the common and equal benefit of all men.

Two years later in 1888, the Lambeth Conference (above) of all Anglicans bishops adopted the following, known as the “Lambeth Quadrilateral,” as “a basis on which approach may be by God’s blessing made towards Home Reunion,” visible unity between Christians:

(a) The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as “containing all things necessary to salvation,” and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith.

(b) The Apostles’ Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and the Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.

(c) The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself—Baptism and the Supper of the Lord—ministered with unfailing use of Christ’s words of Institution, and of the elements ordained by Him.

(d) The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the Unity of His Church.

Fr. Greg Methvin (email)

Recognizing God’s Presence, Part 2

When some speak of God’s presence, they will often mention a word. God gave them words, not from an angel or writing in the sky, but through Scripture reading, prayer, or another person.

The words come with power to comfort or guide, and feel different than say a weather report or a commercial. God’s words get under our skin and fortify and nourish our souls.

The Bible reflects God’s preferred means of working and making Himself known. God creates with world by speaking words, and when He comes to earth, the Bible refers to Jesus as the Word made flesh.

So if God is speaking, why aren’t more people hearing? Part of the problem I think is that we have such a difficult time listening. Paying attention and listening for God’s word does not come easily to us.

In the Book of Isaiah we read of a person fully devoted to God and trying to live out God’s direction for their life. This serious follower of God writes, “Morning by morning, he (God) wakens my ear to listen…” Apparently, listening is so difficult it requires an act of God to unstop our ears.

What’s blocking our hearing? Jesus points out the problem is not with God’s ability to speak. In fact, God’s word is like a farmer trying to get a harvest. The farmer scatters the seed, but in some cases, hits hard ground. A person is completely closed, and in some cases resistant to God’s activity. They don’t hear because they choose not to listen.

Sometimes the listener is like a plot cluttered with rocks and debris. The word just doesn’t have enough room, time or opportunity to be received and take root in a person’s heart. At other times, the seed gets going but is stunted by weeds that steal nutrients and crowd out the crops ability to grow. Such a listener hears God’s word, but allows other priorities to overshadow and supersede God’s wisdom and direction. So in the end, nothing much changes.

Listening is tough and is challenged by numerous demands and distractions. So how can God get his word to us? Are we willing to carve out a bit of time to be exposed to God’s words as found in Scripture and experienced in prayer? The British preacher, F.B. Meyer once said, “God’s word most often travels along the thin wire of Scripture.” The least we can do is pick up the phone on the other end of the line and listen.

Our tradition provides daily readings of Scripture through the Daily Lectionary and Sunday readings. Apps and online guides make it easily available. What if you were to discover that God has been calling all these years and is merely waiting for us to learn to listen?

Blessed Lord, your Word is life. Unstop our ears, de-clutter our calendars, and silence the meaningless noise that keep us from hearing your voice, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Uptown Sermon Series: Jan 13-Feb 3

Fr. Greg Methvin (email)

Recognizing God’s Presence

In last Sunday’s sermon, I remarked what a difference God’s presence makes when we are struggling. If God is with you, He is for you, and will lead you through whatever valley you happen to be shuffling through at the moment. The hard part is noticing God’s presence. Believe it or not, it’s easy to overlook God, even when He is near.

One way that God makes His presence known to us is through, what I call, believing backwards. Our faith is energized not by the new thing God has done, but by recalling the ways He has comforted and cared for us in the past.

That great theologian Barry Manilow sings to his old girlfriend, “Maybe the old songs will bring back the old times. Maybe the old lines will sound new…” The old songs CAN bring a strong sense of the old times, can’t they? We hear a song, catch a fragrance, see an old photo and suddenly the past is present. We’re not time-travelling in these moments, but we are touched and affected by something we assumed was long gone.

Our encounters with God are similar in that our brushes with God can powerfully stir and sustain us in the present. In the Old Testament we find a pattern of marking the physical places where God did something amazing. Stone altars are erected and special names are given to places that seemed completely ordinary.

Jacob is running away from a terribly deceitful and hurtful act that has cost him his relationship with his father and brother. All alone in the wilderness he tries to get some sleep and finds a rock to serve as a pillow. While asleep he has a marvelous dream where he sees angels ascending and descending from Heaven at the very place where he slept. When he wakes up, he builds an altar and names the place, Bethel, “house of God” because of an experience that convinced him of God’s presence.

Why do that? Fear of amnesia? A trophy-place to show others later? Not at all. He will return to that very place repeatedly to find encouragement and spiritual strength.

A young woman was headed to the doctor’s office to get the report on a lump the doctor had previously found. She was very nervous and anxious as most of us would be. Her friends and I reminded her to take her “Bethel” with her. Remember the times when God was near, and when she felt panicky, to mentally go that place.

The doctor delivered the bad news and did his best to comfort. He stepped out of the examining room, and my friend mentally raced to her Bethel. She said while it was hard to explain, she sensed God’s nearness as though He was standing with her, and when the nurse dropped in to check on her, she asked, “You seem so calm and at peace? I’ve never seen a patient get that kind of news and have that kind of response.”

My friend answered, “I feel God is close and everything will be ok.” My friend was telling the truth.

I pray you will find your Bethel, and remember that God has never left you, and loves and leads you still.

Uptown Sermon Series: Jan 13-Feb 3

JESUS CALLING
Enjoying peace in His presence: Devotions for Every Day of the Year, $15.99

Candidates Nominated* for the Five Open Vestry Positions

* Candidates are nominated by the Nominating Committee. Qualifications for Vestry: Any confirmed communicant in good standing who is at least 18 years of age and who has been a financial contributor of record for one year before the election takes place is eligible to serve as a Vestry member.

MICHELLE ANDERSON

A community volunteer, Michelle was raised in the Episcopal Church and joined Church of the Incarnation in 2007. Her introduction to this church was Father Philputt’s Bible study and after being asked to participate in a Cursillo Weekend, made COTI her new church home. She was a participant and later facilitated the Alpha Course and the Alpha Marriage Course.

She is a current member of Daughter’s of the King and volunteers as a “Big” with the “Big Brother Big Sister” Outreach program at North Dallas High School. She takes great pleasure in working with the women of the church as a member of the Altar Guild team and is one of the organizers of Incarnation’s First Friday “40’s and over” fellowship.

Michelle enjoys attending the traditional services and also operates the audio-visual equipment for the Uptown service. After a successful 3 years, she continues to co-chair the Incarnation Health Fair which provides hundreds of immunizations and much needed sport physicals for local school-age children. A highlight of her year is the 8 days she spends with the Honduran mission team working with a local dentist and the wonderful Honduran people. Michelle is married to Dr. Richard Anderson and the proud mom of three adult children. Michelle is honored and humbled by her nomination to serve this church on the vestry.

GIL BESING

Chief Executive Officer and founder of Cardinal Capital Partners, Inc., a national commercial property investor. In addition to his core business of acquiring corporate real estate assets, Mr. Besing also develops commercial properties through Cardinal Paragon, a partnership between Cardinal Capital Partners and The Paragon Group. Cardinal Paragon’s most recent development was recognized by the Austin Business Journal as “The Best Retail Real Estate Project for 2009.”

A University of Texas graduate, Mr. Besing holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree. He is a member of the South- western Medical Foundation Board of Trustees, the AT&T Performing Arts Center President’s Advisory Council, and the University of Texas Real Estate Finance and Investment Center Executive Council.

Mr. Besing and his wife, Tricia, reside in Dallas, Texas, where they are actively involved in a variety of community and charitable activities, including Union Gospel Mission, Inter-faith Housing Coalition, The Rise School of Dallas and Crystal Charity. Mr. Besing and his family are members of the Church of the incarnation. He has two children, Brent (24) and Allie (21).

CARLA BUSH

Carla Bush was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She graduated from Vanderbilt University and moved to Dallas in 1981. A cradle Episcopalian, she has been a member of this parish since 1985 when she married her husband Stuart at the Incarnation. She is active in the community having served as Armstrong Elementary School PTA president, La fiesta de las Seis Banderas social chairman and board secretary, and is currently a member of the TCU Chancellor Advisory Committee.

At Incarnation, Carla is a long time member of Altar Guild, having served as Directress from 2004 until 2010. She has taught 4th grade and Middle School Sunday School and she and Stuart were members of the 2010 Belize Mission team. She is a team captain for the Dick Granger Neighborhood Ministry and she works as a coordinator for the Pre Marriage Ministry. She also volunteers as a reading Buddy at JW Ray. Carla and Stuart have two grown children: Erika, 23; and Jack, 21.

GEORGE LONGINO

George Longino is a long time member of the Church of the incarnation. He and Lisa have been married for 30 years and have four grown children and three granddaughters.

George graduated from Georgia Tech in 1962 with a degree in Industrial Management. His career started with IBM and eventually he moved to the investment business with Robinson Humphrey in Atlanta. In 1981, George moved to Dallas where he served as Managing Director of Smith Barney and retired from the firm in 2001.

Having been involved in numerous areas of the church, George has served as a Chalice Bearer, Usher, Lay reader and Sunday School teacher. He was one of the original members of the Incarnation Foundation and chaired the Investment Committee. He and Lisa have also chaired the Stewardship Campaign. When father Paul Pritchartt was rector, George served on the vestry as Senior Warden. George also served on the vestry with Father Larry Smith.

George is a former board member of Presbyterian Village North and Presbyterian Communities and Services, and is currently involved with Camps Sea Gull and Seafarer serving on the Board of Visitors. He was recognized as Volunteer of the year at JFK Learning Center, where he mentored fifth grade boys. Since retirement, George enjoys fly fishing, Lake Rabun, traveling and piloting light sport aircraft.

CHASE SKORBURG

Chase was born and raised in Dallas and has spent most of his life here, short of six years studying philosophy and theology in the Northeast. Chase joined Incarnation in 2007 and has served in various capacities, including as a chalice bearer, Diocesan Convention Delegate, Growth Group leader, 20s/30s Committee member and Hello Fellow. He also began the Incarnation SAT Prep Program, which has served underprivileged students in the Dallas area for approximately four years.

Away from Incarnation, Chase works in commercial real estate at Hillwood and spends time with his wife Wendy. They consider themselves blessed to be part of such a Spirit-filled parish and feel fortunate to have the opportunity to serve the church with their gifts and time.

Diocesan Convention Delegation

Convention delegates will also be voted on at the Annual Parish Meeting. Seven members of the Parish will be elected to accompany the Senior and Junior Wardens, representing our parish, at the 2013 Annual Convention of the Diocese. The same requirements for electing vestry apply to electing our diocesan convention delegates:

Sermon recordings for the week of Sunday, December 23, 2012:

Sunday
Traditional Service, Dr. Denison
Uptown Service, Ryan Waller

Christmas Eve
Traditional Service, Bishop Burton
Uptown Service, Fr. Greg
Children’s Homily, Fr. Joe

Sermon Recordings

Public Radio International recorded our Lessons and Carols and will broadcast the service around the country over the next two weeks. Click here to listen to the broadcast — and remember WRR 101.1 FM will carry the program at 6 pm on Christmas Eve!

As a special Christmas gift from the choir to the parish, please enjoy this free download of The Infant King (4:05), arranged by David Willcocks, as recorded at the 2012 Lessons and Carols.

Download: Right-Click and “Save as … “

Visit Choir of the Church of the Incarnation on Facebook

We’ve posted 11 photos on Facebook from the first night of Lessons & Carols.

View Lessons & Carols photo gallery

We’ve posted 32 photos on Facebook from the Children’s Christmas Pageant presented by the Children & Family Ministries department, and starring Incarnation girls and boys. Great job, kids! Special thanks to Steffanie Methvin and Sheri Crandall for all their hard work!

View Children’s Christmas Pageant photo gallery

Please note the Dallas Marathon will be run this Sunday (Dec 9). This may impact the commute of some parishioners due to road closures. Please consult the map below for route details.

Click for fullsize PDF

Here’s the final number of the Incarnation Carol Sing-Along with all the kiddies up to join the band! It was a great evening led by Justin Brooks and the Uptown Worship Band!

We’ve posted 26 photos on Facebook from the official release concert for HYMNS AND PSALMS! What a great tremendous performance by Justin Brooks and Uptown Worship Band in a different context!

View Hymns and Psalms Concert photo gallery

More on Hymns and Psalms