Dear St. Bart’s Family,
About two years ago I began to sense a shift in my vocation. What had been a decade-long season focused on church planting and growing in leadership skills to facilitate that work seemed to be coming to an end. As I prayed and discerned with those close to me, I sensed a need for training and focus on working with individuals in counseling in some capacity, using tools for healing found in Holy Scripture, the Church’s Tradition, and empirical psychological methods.
Given my need for further discernment and given the effort that will be needed coming out of COVID as 2021 progresses, Bishop Philip Jones has invited me to work at All Saints in order to continue this work of discernment and serve in a pastoral role on their staff.
So it is with sadness that I am writing to tell you I will be stepping down as Rector of St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church. The Rev. Chris Myers is at the ready and steady to continue to lead here at St. Bart’s. The Vestry is working with Bishop Jones and the Anglican Mission to bring a priest from All Saints Dallas to take my place as rector at St. Bart’s on an interim basis. Stay tuned for these developing details.
St. Bart’s means the world to me. The Church - You - and the work God has undertaken in and through each of us is the fulfillment of much prayer, dreaming, and vision. The bonds you all have formed and the resulting community has been remarkable to experience. Continue steadfastly in that community, hospitality, and flourishing that you’ve come to know at St. Bart’s. For these and so many other reasons, it gives me great to sorrow to say good bye to you, God’s beloved, and the beautiful work He is doing in and through you.
St. Bart’s began as a dream and vision for a living, three-stream Anglican Church in East Dallas. I know she will continue to be that. I know the Vision and values that you all have discerned and articulated will continue to shape and guide St. Barts’ mission and ministries. I am confident that St. Bart’s will thrive in the coming weeks, months, and years, by God’s grace.
Undoubtedly you will have all sorts of feelings about this transition, many of them associated with unwanted change. I encourage you to pay attention to these feelings, and talk about them with someone you trust. I will be available to talk and process with you as well. Email Becki to set up a time to visit. In addition, I will be talking about this transition at this Sunday’s service, January 17, and Bishop Jones will be present as well.
Thank you for the ways each of you have leaned into the community at St. Bart’s. You have made it the place I love so very dearly. And thank you for the ways you’ve helped me lean into the process of becoming fully human. We are all on that journey together in Christ.
Sincerely yours,
Jay+
The Epiphany
Yesterday was the Feast of the Epiphany. This feast marks the end of the season of Christmas and revels in the revelation of Jesus as God to all the earth, particularly the Gentiles, those nations who are not Jews. The wise men from the east were not part of God’s covenant people, yet because they saw his star when it rose, they followed God’s leading, and they came to worship the child. It is God’s gracious invitation to these wise men that he extends to us, our friends and neighbors, and people all over the world still today.
St. Paul describes this mystery and grace with the word “access.” He says that in Christ Jesus, this baby born to Mary and Joseph at Bethlehem, we have “boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him” (Eph 3:12). We have a way to God - a way to pray, to appeal to his goodness and light in the midst of the suffering and darkness all around us. We have access to the riches of God’s mercy in the face of situations that offer no mercy. We have confidence in his redemption and deliverance when there seems to be no rescue in sight.
I pray we have finished this Christmas season on this note of boldness and access remembering God’s goodness and mercy revealed to us, embodied in the Word made flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jay+
Say Goodbye to 2020
Dear People of St. Bart’s,
If you’re like me, you’re ready to send 2020 to pasture. “So long, little fella,” you might mutter while a tear streams down your face. Or, maybe you’d like to take 2020 behind the woodshed and show it a thing or two. No matter, you’re probably highly conscious of what went wrong this year - rightly so because it was a lot.
And yet, I wonder what it would be like for us to take this final day of this unforgettable year and remember what God has done in us. Did you grow in prayer? Were you able to forgive someone? Did God unexpectedly provide? Have you grown in generosity towards others? Even your immediate household or family?
Reflect on some of these questions and see where they take you. I encourage you to take a pen and paper - maybe even a journal if that’s part of your daily routine - and write some thoughts down. Pay attention to what you feel, what you experience, and write about that as well. It might be that 2020, while a bear of a year, wasn’t as bad as we remember it after all. It might be that poised beneath the brokenness and heartache of a year gone wrong, there are buds ready to sprout. God only knows what fruit will be borne, what righteousness will be called forth. For, “weeping lasts for the night, but joy comes in the morning.”
You are a dear people to me, St. Bart’s. Here’s to a blessed new year!
Jay+
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays for several reasons. Memories of food, football, family, and fun abound, though these memories are dulled a bit by the malaise of pandemic stress. Though this particular time is marked by stress, anxiety, uncertainty, and fear, the sacred time of Advent and Christmas lie before us giving rise to hope and expectation.
As we have seen in our “Being Christian” sermon series, the essence of our weekly worship at St. Bart’s is “thanksgiving,” or “eucharist” in Greek. And that’s the heart of what we celebrate this Thanksgiving Day.
Sunday night Chris encouraged us all to come to the eucharistic Table as if we are beggars, completely relying on God’s gracious provision for every need - spiritual and physical. As you celebrate today, in this strangest of years, remember that the impulse to give thanks is drawn from our being made in God’s image thus owing our very existence to his kind and gracious love. Join me in giving thanks this week to the Father of heavenly lights from whom every good and perfect gift proceeds, in whom there is no shifting of shadow (James 1:17).
See you Sunday -
Jay+
Christ the King (of the feast)
We call this coming Sunday Christ the King Sunday, and it marks the end of the liturgical year. The confession that Christ is King is not only a fitting end to the church year, but it is also the true end (goal) of all Christian worship.
To say that Jesus is king, that he is Lord, is to say that Jesus is the empowered one, the enthroned one, the one to whom we are all accountable. And indeed this is where the confession of Jesus' kingship will always take us--to our knees where we confess that Jesus Christ is the one true Lord of all.
Last week Jay spoke about the Eucharistic feast in terms of God's welcome of us. This week I will continue that theme by speaking about the character of Christ our King and seek to show why it is good news indeed to say the Jesus is the Lord of the Eucharistic feast.
Please register ONLINE if you plan to join us for in person worship.
Also, remember that we have childcare available for children 4 years and younger. You can register for childcare HERE.
Thanks,
Chris+
Closing of the Year
This coming Sunday marks the penultimate Sunday of the Church year. We continue our sermon series on Rowan Williams’s book Being Christian and turn our focus to Eucharist, the Lord’s Table, Holy Communion. It will be very good for us to spend a few weeks meditating on this great feast that God invites us into.
And at the same time, we draw close to the close of the liturgical year when we celebrate Christ the King. So this Sunday you’ll hear lessons that hearken forward to Advent where we’ll refocus our expectation on Christ’s second coming in glory as we prepare to celebrate His first coming in humble obscurity.
Don’t forget to register, and I hope to see you soon!
Jay+
As We Wait, We Pray
As we wait for the elections results, patiently or anxiously or otherwise, we must never forget our call to pray. In that spirit, here are a couple of prayers for us to pray together as we wait.
For an Election
Almighty God, to whom we must account for all our powers and privileges: Guide and direct, we humbly pray, the minds of all those who are called to elect fit persons to serve. Grant that in the exercise of our choice we may promote your glory, and the welfare of this nation. This we ask for the sake of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
For our Nation
Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure conduct. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom, in thy Name, we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Public Theology
For Public Theology, Nov. 16 at Cane Rosso White Rock, 7pm, we are planning to discuss two essays by Tim Keller around the question of race and justice. If you would like to get started on the readings, here are the links.
Tim Keller, The Bible and Race
Tim Keller, The Sin of Racism
See you soon,
Chris+
All Saints' Day!
Early on in the Church’s life, people of heroic faith were lifted up and celebrated. Because many of them were martyred for their faith, they began to occupy special days of remembrance in the Church’s calendar. All Saints' Day serves to celebrate all of those who’ve followed Jesus no matter the public significance of their faith - people just like you and me. Because of that we will name those who are close to us who have died over the past year, and those who have been part of our parish and gone on to be with the Lord.
It’s a perfect day for baptisms because this day is the annual feast where we celebrate every saint, known and unknown, living on earth and in heaven. We’re excited to welcome 4 young people into Christ’s Church this Sunday by Baptism.
In addition we'll continue our sermon series on Rowan Williams's book Being Christian, transitioning from the essential of Baptism to the Bible.
Jay+