Published by and for The Members and Friends of
St. Augustine by-the-Sea Episcopal Church

May, 2009 - Vol. 40, No. 05 - Archive - Search

Attend Pentecost Sunday, May 31 Baptisms; biggest birthday celebration; picnic and cook out; Doyle McKinney Band returns. Wear Something RED!

Why I Attend Church
by Steven Harris
I grew up in a Christian church, and I started attending church regularly when I was in my early thirties. I've continued that practice for about thirty years. I came to the Episcopal church in about 2002 because a friend, a semi-retired priest, introduced me to our generally unconditional acceptance of all people. MORE…

Regular Attendance at Saint Augustine's
by Ken Phillips
Hartshorn's question about regular attendance at St. A's is most interesting as I'd frankly never given the matter much thought before. I suppose regular church attendance reflects one's journey and might best be viewed as a snapshot extracted from a longer period of time−continuing for a while, stopping on occasion and perhaps starting again when conditions warrant. Maybe a change in attendance (up or down) signals a shift in priorities serving a greater purpose. MORE…

Maundy Thursday Sermon
by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy
As Jesus and his inner circle gather for the Passover supper – an occasion of great joy as the Jews remembered the deliverance of their ancestors from tyranny and slavery in Egypt by God's intervention in human history through his servant Moses – and simultaneously, looked forward to God's intervening again, through his servant Messiah, to deliver them from the tyranny of the Romans – perhaps this year, perhaps this very Passover season –as they gathered to sing the well beloved psalms and hear again the Exodus story; the twelve are –well, grumpy. And they had been grumpy for awhile now. MORE…

Suit up and Show up?
by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy
I don't know if many of you read the Living Church magazine. It is a rather conservative Episcopal news publication whose masthead's subtitle reads: "an independent weekly supporting Catholic Anglicanism." It's an old publication, beginning in 1878, and often it seems determined to fight battles long lost but it, along with the Anglican Digest, speaks nostalgically to a past which I too once valued. MORE…

Celtic Prayers
by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy
(Includes many prayers written by St. A's congregation (CLICK HERE)
Unlike the Roman Church, there was a great valuing of the mystical vision. Second, the Celts saw the world as the transformed image of God and that the whole world was charged with God's goodness and grace – a world created profoundly good. These strands made for an earthy and homey Christian expression in which a mindfulness of God's presence in everyday activities is a key expression. Thus the Celts developed prayers for milking a cow, prayers for washing the face, prayers for nursing a child etc. – any and all activities were opportunities to recognize, acknowledge and praise God for God's grace experienced in everyday life. MORE…

Scratching Underneath the Surface: Ideas for Using a Journal
Every stroke of my brush/Is the overflow/Of my inmost heart. – Sengai, 17th C. Zen Master
Just as every calligraphic stroke of the brush expressed the heart of the Zen Master, so every scratch of our pen on the empty page before us can be an articulation of the overflow of the reflections of our heart. MORE…

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