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Welcome to St. Augustine's Church! by The Rev. Laura Queen Whether you have already walked through our downtown Santa Monica doors and have been attending our church for several years, receive the Ebb and Flow or are simply "church shopping" on the web, we are very glad to welcome you to this diverse and vibrant community of faith. Most of us are searching for something larger than ourselves−for connections that are real and meaningful. We invite you to explore further. St. Augustine's offers many ways to go a bit deeper and discover a warm caring community and a place of belonging while you get to know us and what we stand for. You will be warmly welcomed and shown full respect for where you are in your faith journey, whether that means you want to take it slowly and tentatively, or jump right in. Again, welcome to St. Augustine's! Here are some ways to connect: Attend one of our Sunday Services (at 8:00 am or 10:30 am) and the bagel and coffee fellowship afterward. There you will meet the clergy and other members, newcomers, and seekers. Or come to our Market Mass on Wednesday mornings at 8:30 am then go to the wonderful downtown farmers market only a block away. Fill out a Welcome card (found throughout the church) or e-mail saint-augustine.org with questions. Come to a Newcomer's Class. These are informal opportunities for the clergy to get to know you a bit better as well as a chance for other newcomers to meet each other and learn what it means to become a member and to belong to St. Augustine's Church. This class will help you identify "where you are" in your faith journey in relation to what it means to be a member of St. A's. The session is for anyone. The next Newcomer's class is scheduled for February 23, 7-9 pm and 25th 12-2pm. Join the clergy and other new members for a time of fellowship and fun and learn more about St A's. For more information contact saint-augustine.org or call St. A's at 310/395-0977. Sign up for one of our Adult Education classes. During a six-seven week course respectively we will discuss a particular topic or book. The courses seek to provide adults with a chance to learn about matters of faith, bring questions and deepen their commitment to the Christian life. Courses include, a talk and group discussion, check out our website for the current offering. How Are We Different? Good question. One answer is that our history, our particular challenges, our location and our dreams have led us in some distinctive directions. The other simple, honest answer is that we aren't very different from any local Christian congregation. We seek faithfully to offer the worship of God and service to others in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are Anglicans, members of a worldwide communion of Christians whose customs and understandings of the Christian way developed from the Church of England. Anglicans have always been an interesting blend of the necessity in England of somehow providing a church roomy enough for Christians with conscientious differences in practice and belief to live together in love. Some interesting introductory material reflecting that diversity is found here. We practice radical welcome. For us that means living as a community the way Jesus lived in his life and ministry. Above all, we welcome everyone in spiritual and practical ways. Spiritually, we welcome people by living beyond the categories of race, ethnicity, citizenship, religious identity, sexual orientation, age, class. We aren't perfect at this, but our conscious self-examination has built a congregation that looks more like the city we serve and the world we live in. We find it both a joy and a challenge to learn to live together. Practically, we welcome people by thinking through the usual physical and emotional obstacles church seekers, "shoppers" or visitors have. We have clear, up-to-date signs. Lots of readable material. Clergy and ushers who are at the doors at service times to offer a hand of greeting. User-friendly church bulletins to make our liturgical (worship) customs easier to follow. Open access to clergy and other leaders. Timely follow-up on your question and concerns. We gather at an open table. At the heart of things, our life centers on our worship of God. At the Eucharist (Lord's Supper, Holy Communion, Mass), we make a consistent and risky invitation: all who come to us, no matter where they are on the spiritual journey, can receive the sacramental bread and wine with us. We see the gifts on the altar as God's gifts to us, not our possessions. Ancient tradition teaches that the Eucharist is the meal for baptized church members. We simply say that there is more than one path to baptism and membership, and sometimes that begins in a holy and unrehearsed moment in actual worship. We care for one of Santa Monica's most treasured landmark buildings. As our parish history, we've been on a 132-year journey to get where we are. A significant part of our identity is now bound up with the remarkable building we use every day. We are not afraid to grow and show a bias toward the next person who walks through the door. We are not a club of link-minded, self-focused members. We do care for one another, of course. But we tilt our work and mission toward those who might want to hear the Good News of God in Christ. We are ready to welcome them. We offer a diversity of worship styles. Our Sunday services run from traditional to innovative, we use inclusive and traditional language; contemplative harp and organ with choral music sometimes blending ancient and contemporary forms in the same service. Not everyone responds spiritually to the same stimuli; we respect that and work creatively with the possibilities. Fifty-two equal Sundays: Every Sunday is a little Resurrection, tradition teaches, so we put out of best offerings−worship, education, hospitality−every Sunday of the year. We aren't afraid of growth. The need to grow in order to have a faithful and viable ministry has called out of us a creativity we didn't always know we had. We work to get our growth going, and we work to deal with the anxiety of change, which is always part of growing. We challenge one another, we welcome many into leadership, we practice a loving candor about money issues, and we are always looking for the next thing God is calling us to do. Whether you are a long time member, a long time recipient of the Ebb & Flow or just visiting us for the first time. Welcome home to St. Augustine's. Nothing we do changes the past, everything we do changes the future. − Joan Chittister Copyright © 2007 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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