The Liturgy 101 Revisited (Say it Loud)
by the Reverend Hartshorn Murphy
The Eucharistic worship service, as revised for the current Book of Common Prayer in 1979, recaptures the structure of the primitive worship of those early Christian communities. And while the service as we experience it on a Sunday today feels like a "unitary whole", in a sense it was experienced by attendees in the 1st-4th centuries as a service with two distinct parts −and that was intentional.
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Stewardship Reflection Three −
The Tithe
by the Reverend Hartshorn Murphy
Before we can talk about the "tithe", we need to understand the difference between law and legalism. Random House defines "legalism" as "a strict adherence to the law, especially to the letter rather than the spirit of the law." Laws are created when people need guidance or protection or instruction.
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Stewardship Reflection Four −
The Law of Jubilee
by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy
We end this series by reflecting on the Law of Jubilee. This Law is found in the 25th Chapter of Leviticus. We read: "You are to count seven weeks of years − seven times seven years, that is to say a period of seven weeks of years, forty-nine years. And on the 10th day of the 7th month, you shall sound the trumpet; on the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout the land. You will declare this 50th year sacred and proclaim the liberation of all the inhabitants of the land. This is to be a Jubilee for you, each of you will return to his ancestral home, each to his own clan. This 50th year is to be a Jubilee for you … the Jubilee is to be a holy thing to you …" (Leviticus 25:8-12) MORE…
Thanksgiving Day and the Sin of Ingratitude
by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy
"God help us to be grateful for our blessings, never to be guilty of the sin of ingratitude, and to instill this same attitude in the lives of our children. Someone has said that an ungrateful man is like a hog under a tree eating apples and never looking up to see where they come from." − Ezra Taft Benson (1899-1994) MORE…
Rector's Search Team's Interim Report
We received the following memo from our consultant concerning our request for a guarantee in our search for the perfect Rector for St. Augustine's.
The perfect Rector preaches exactly 10 minutes. She condemns sin soundly, but never hurts anyone's feelings. She works from 8 a.m. until midnight, and also is the church janitor.
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Calling You Righteous Ones!
A Meal at Christmas for Persons without Homes
by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy
The 25th annual Mimi Adams "Holiday Luncheon for those without Homes" will be held at St. Augustine's on Thursday, December 24th from 11-1 p.m.
The late Mimi Adams was Paul Cummings' sister. Paul was the last headmaster of St. Augustine's Parish Day School at the time of the great fire and subsequently opened on this site the Crossroads School. The luncheon provided an opportunity in those early days for the church and school to together serve the larger community of needy people in downtown Santa Monica. To this day, a number of private and public schools are involved in this effort as well as the church community of St. A's.
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