446 N Seguin Ave, New Braunfels, Texas 78130
Catholic in Tradition, Biblical in Faith, Sacramental in Worship
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On Sundays Morning Prayer is read at 9.00 AM, the Holy Eucharist offered at 9.30, and Evening Prayer is at 1.00 PM.
On Wednesdays, Thursday, and Fridays, Morning Prayer is read at 11.45 AM, the Holy Eucharist is offered at noon, and Evening Prayer is at 7.00 PM
Our Sunday morning Liturgy (Morning Prayer followed by the Holly Eucharist) is live streamed on our parish Facebook page beginning at 9.00 AM each Sunday morning. www.facebook.com/stjosephsnewbraunfels
Our Sunday Schedule is:
9.00 AM Morning Prayer
9.30 AM Holy Eucharist (sung with sermon)
10.45 AM Fun, Food and Fellowship
As much fun, food and fellowship as Anglicans allow themselves to have
11.15 AM Class (first, second, fourth and fifth Sundays; the parish Vestry meets on the third Sunday)
1.00 PM - Evening Prayer during the summer
4.00 PM - Evening Prayer rest of the year
4.00 PM - Evensong on the Second Sunday of each month
Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays
11:45 AM - Morning Prayer
12:00 noon - Mass
7.00 PM - Evening Prayer
Holy Days as above
For each weeks schedule of Saint's Days and Holy Days, see the schedule on our "About Us" page
The Epistoller’s Schedule for September and October
September 26 – Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
Ephesians 4.1-6 Jan Baertl
October 3 – Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity
1 Corinthians 1.4-8 Lindsey Schaub
October 10 – Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity
Ephesians 4.17-32 Sharon McAllister
October 17 – Twentieth Sunday after Trinity
Ephesians 5.15-21 Tanya Wilcox
October 24 – Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity
Ephesians 6.10-20 Jan Baertl
October 31 – the Feast of our Lord Jesus Christ the King
Colossians 1.12-20 Jan Bates
St Francis Blessing of Animals – Saturday, October 2
On Saturday, October 2, at 11.00 AM, we’ll have a service of Blessing of Animals outside the front doors of the church. All pets of all sizes are welcome (we’ve blessed everything from horses to black widows – which we ask you to keep inside their enclosures for the service). There will be photos before, during and after, treats for the animals (with bowls of water just in case), and St Francis medals for your pet’s collar.
Thanks for Your Help with The Nazarene Fund
In the rush to evacuate Afghanistan, the Nazarene Fund (“Nazarenes” are what Arabs call Christians), with the help of donations like ours, rescued more than 5,000 Christians from Afghanistan. The Taliban announced that after they assume full control of Afghanistan, all Christians will be exterminated. Over the past few weeks, TNF raised money to airlift as many of these Christians as possible to safe havens in the Middle East.
Two Sundays back I asked you to help raise $500 for this effort. You gave almost $1,000. Last week we collected more both from our parishioners in New Braunfels as well as contributions from some of our parish’s “friends-at-a-distance.” This Sunday Jan, our treasurer, will tote it all up and send off a check to TNF. I wish I could report to you all is well and the danger is past, but as many of our fellow countrymen are stranded in Afghanistan, many Christians remain, too. We’ll continue to monitor their situation and offer help as we can. At all times and in all places, we can pray for them; we’ll be doing so at Mass, please do so at home, too.
Thank you again for all the help you’ve given and your prayers on their behalf. And I owe a special debt to Joe Gardner for pushing me where I wasn’t especially interested in going.
Charity Navigator, which rates the integrity of charitable organizations, gives an Accountability & Transparency rating to The Nazarene Fund of a positive 96%.
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Blessed Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, 1626
Lancelot Andrewes was born into an English seafaring family and as a child grew up in the docks of London. Unlike his twelve brothers, Lancelot showed no interest in going to sea; he preferred books and long, quiet walks outside the walls of the city. His “bookishness” attracted the attention of his schoolmasters, who found the boy had an aptitude for languages and logic. With their help, Andrewes won a scholarship to Pembroke College in Cambridge when he was 16. By the time he’d finished his Bachelor’s Degree there, Andrewes read fifteen languages.
He went on to take a degree in theology and was appointed a fellow of the College at his graduation. Ordained in 1580, when he was twenty-five, he gained a reputation as an excellent preacher at university pulpits and attracted the attention of members of Queen Elizabeth’s court. He became chaplain to the Earl of Huntingdon and within a few years he was appointed to the staff of St Paul’s Cathedral in London.
His rise through the ecclesiastical hierarchy had little impact on his life. Andrewes continued to prefer the solitude and long walks of his youth. He avoided the politics and personalities of his day, finding, he wrote a friend, “companionship with the past as a sure guide to friendships of the present.” One of Andrewes’ modern biographers, an admirer who is also a Jesuit, put Andrewes’ mindset best: “Andrewes believed himself the heir of the Christian past, and it was largely in his appeal to it that he rejected the then-dominant Protestant principle of regarding the Scriptures as the sole source of Christian teaching. He ranges through the fathers, the early Christian writers, and the medieval scholastic theologians with a sense of possession and familiarity. Augustine, Chrysostom, Basil, Gregory, Eusebius, Aquinas, Bernard—these as well as the sacred Scriptures were all his to use, and use them he did. It is as if he should say: These men are Christians, and a living part of my heritage; not Roman Catholics, or Anglicans or Protestants, but Christians. Christianity is the great fact in history, and for Andrewes Anglicanism is but the best – and most English – expression of it.”
In 1590 he fell grievously ill, largely attributed by his doctor to his long fasts and nights spent in prayer and study. When he gradually recovered, the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Whitgift, named Andrewes his personal chaplain and the Queen followed suit. Over the next few years, Elizabeth offered him two bishoprics, both of which he refused.
After the Queen’s death in 1603, the new king, James I (the King James of Bible fame) had Andrewes brought to court and announced to him that he intended to have his chaplain made bishop and the king would brook no refusal. In 1605 he was consecrated Bishop of Chichester. Over the ensuing years he would be “advanced” to bishop of Ely and finally bishop of Winchester.
In his day, Bishop Andrewes was regarded as the greatest preacher in England. It was said that Queen Elizabeth herself nicknamed him her stella predicantium (“star of preachers”). But he was also England’s preeminent theologian and scholar. When King James commissioned the new translation of the Bible that bears his name, Bishop Andrewes’ name headed the list of translators. He contributed more to the work than any of the other sixty translators to the “King’s Great Work.”
His preeminence as a theologian and scholar ensured that Andrewes was involved in the great controversies of his time, though he was often dismayed at what he thought was “the love of controversy seems to care little for the love of Truth.” He engaged the day’s most prominent Puritan and Roman Catholic authors, defending Anglicanism as the Church “Catholic and Reformed,” and won accolades from his most ardent of opponents for his learned yet modest approach. Near the end of his life, writing a friend about the controversies in which he’d entered, Andrewes said “Mercy leads to Truth, and the knowledge of it; and Truth to Righteousness, and the practice of it; and Righteousness to Peace, and the ways of it. This was ever my method and my goal.”
In 1625 the bishop’s health began to deteriorate and he retired to his residence in Winchester, He died there, quietly, on September 26, 1626. He was buried in Southwark Cathedral under a polychromed sarcophagus which is still the site of his veneration. Pictures of it are on display this Sunday in the narthex at St Joseph’s.
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The Bell of St Joseph's and Other Fun & Fascinating Facts
Parish Food Closet
We collect non-perishable food items throughout the year and every two months we caravan the donations to the New Braunfels SOS Food Bank. Our current food collection is continuing till Sunday, September 5, so please remember to bring something for one of our collection baskets by then. We have one collection basket by the front entrance of David Hall, just ot the right of the door. The other basket is in the back of the church on the Gospel side. Thanks to your ongoing generosity, st Joseph's is one of the major contributors to our local food bank.
Options for Life
Throughout Lent we've been raising money for an annual gift to the New Braunfels "Options for Life" Program, supporting young, single mothers struggling to raise their children. The garishly-colored plastic baby bottles lined up on the narthex table are for you to take home and fill up as part of our common parish Lenten Alms program. We also have an OfL Collection Jar in our parish hall for through-the-year donations. We'll being collecting bottles on Easter Day and on Whitsunday present our check to the office of OfL.
Veterans' Charities
On Memorial Day and Veterans' Day we take up special collections for the "Wreaths Across America" program. At Christmastime, we participate in this by laying wreaths at the graves of veterans in New Braunfels and Comal County. For more information, contact Tanya Wilcox. In 2021, wreaths will be laid on Tuesday, December 21.
Most-Needed Items at Food Bank
The brochure for our local Food Bank lists the following items as their greatest needs: Canned meats, tuna, chicken or salmon; Meals in a can (soup, stew, chili); Low-sodium canned vegetables; Canned fruit in its own juice or water; Peanut butter; Olive or canola oil; Spices (cinnamon, chili powder, cumin, salt-free spice blends); Canned foods with pop-top lids; Low-sugar whole grain cereals; Healthy snacks (granola bars, nuts, dried fruit).
Their brochure goes on to say: “Please avoid items packed in glass. No candy or sugar-sweetened drinks. We request that you do not donate bulk quantities of rice, flour, or sugar. Although we appreciate and can utilize every donation we receive, the Food Bank does not have the repackaging facilities needed to properly distribute such items.”
How does a well-informed Anglican greet a bishop?
So, we now officially have a “Bishop-in-Residence” here at St Joseph’s now that Bishop Ng’ang’a is formally a member of the parish and on the staff. We’re accustomed to his presence here and he’s much-loved at this parish. But now and then somebody will take me aside and ask, “What’s the proper way to address a bishop?”
Without getting too complex, Bishop Ng’ang’a isn’t our diocesan bishop: that’s Bishop Millsaps in far-off Tennessee. Bishop Ng’ang’a is what is called a “suffragan bishop,” a bishop who assists a diocesan (that’s why Bishop Millsaps appointed him: the Vestry and I requested the appointment, but only Bishop Millsaps could approve it). Before I actually answer the question posed above, I need to explain that though we are Anglicans, we’re not (most of us, anyway) British. A bishop in the Church of England is a member of the House of Lords. As such, English bishops are properly addressed as “Your Grace.” Anglican bishops elsewhere are not. Nor do we Americans say, “My Lord,” when addressing a bishop. We fought a couple of wars in order NOT to have “Lords” and “Graces” amongst us. Another similar term is “your Excellency.” This, again, isn’t an ecclesiastical title but a political one. Many Roman Catholics habitually address their bishops as “Excellency,” but in the official protocols of the Roman Church, the only “excellencies” are Roman clergy who happen to be ambassadors of the Vatican to other countries.
So, what do we say? We call our bishops “Bishop.” A bishop is a successor to the Apostles. I don’t think there can be a better title than that. If you write the bishop a letter or print something about him, Anglicans in such a case write “the Right Reverend Joe Schmo,’ or, if he is an archbishop, “the Most Reverend Joe Schmo.” The Prayer Book formally refers to the bishop, when he is addressed during the Liturgy, as “Right Reverend Father in God.” You all knew Bishop Ng’ang’a before his consecration as “Father Ng’ang’a.” To refer to a bishop as “Father” is no insult. Though he’s a bishop, he never ceases to be a priest.
The Bell of St Joseph's and Other Fun & Fascinating Facts
This Sunday at St Joseph's - September 26, the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
The Bell of St Joseph's and Other Fun & Fascinating Facts
When you come by the church, take a look at our "new" old bell, a bronze 100 -year-old beauty with a rich tone that carries all the way down to the river when it rings! The stained glass windows in the church are less than 20 years old, but are closely-patterned after stained glass seen throughout the South from about 1870-1920 (St Joseph's boasts the only Men's Room in central Texas with its own stained-glass window). St Joseph’s chalice and paten were originally given as a gift to the first Episcopal Bishop of Quincy, Illinois, the Rt Rev Thomas Burgess, in 1878. As the hallmark under the base of the chalice shows, it was made by the Gorham Manufacturing Company, the leading silversmiths of 19th century America. How St Joseph’s came into the possession of a chalice & paten owned by a former Yankee chaplain in the War Between the States is a tale worth hearing (but at another time and in another place).
Receiving Holy Communion at St Joseph’s
At St Joseph’s, any baptized person is welcome to receive Holy Communion. We have a kneeler in front of the table we are using for an Altar. At communion-time, form a line and approach after the person in front of you has received the Sacrament. If you cannot kneel (or get up easily), please remain standing and receive. The priest will place the Sacrament in your hands (it is customary to support your right hand with the left): simply lift the Sacrament to your mouth. It is the sacramental Body of Christ. Please do not handle the consecrated Bread with your fingers. If you prefer to have him place the Host directly on your tongue, simply open your mouth as you approach and he will place it there. If you would like to have the Host dipped in the chalice rather than drink from it, continue to hold it in your open hand and the priest will take it, dip it into the chalice and then place it directly in your mouth. Please do not dip the host into the chalice yourself.
If you wish to drink from the chalice, the Chalice-bearer will be standing beside you at the kneeler and will help you drink from it directly.
If you do not wish to receive Holy Communion (or are not eligible to because you are not baptized), but would like a blessing, stand in line until your time comes, approach the kneeler and either kneel or stand and the priest will bless you. To let him know you wish to be blessed, cross your arms over your breast when you approach. He will make the sign of the Cross on your forehead as he blesses you.
Any baptized person is welcome to receive Holy Communion, but not everyone always should. If you are in a state of serious sin, it would be best not to present yourself for Holy Communion, here or elsewhere, until you have confessed your sins, resolved “to live a new life,” and received absolution. Anyone, baptized or not, can always come forward to receive a blessing.
– Fr Gregory Wilcox
This Sunday at St Joseph's - September 26, the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
This Sunday at St Joseph's - September 26, the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
This Sunday at St Joseph's - September 26, the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
Sunday, September 26- the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity and the commemoration of Blessed Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester
9.00 AM - Morning Prayer
9.30 AM - the Holy Eucharist
10.45 AM - Treats and Tea in David Hall
1115 AM - Vestry Meeting in David Hall
1.00 PM - Evening Prayer
This Sunday...
...our parish Vestry meets after a brief time for snacks and socializing; among other topics on the Vestry’s agenda, we’ll continue our discussions on the prospects for a parish school…on the wall of the narthex, look at the photographs of the tomb of Blessed Lancelot Andrewes, today’s saint. He is buried in Southwark Cathedral (on the south side of the Thames) in an impressive poly-chromed tomb. As a long-time student of his writing and admirer of his theological insight, one of the great joys of my life was to be invited to celebrate the Eucharist at his tomb during my first visit to the UK back in 1991 on his feast; I’m giving the flowers at our parish Altar this Sunday in thanksgiving on the thirtieth anniversary of that celebration… Clare Murrays’ birthday is Sunday: in addition to the prayers we’ll offer for her, don’t forget to sign a card for her on the narthex table…in this Sunday’s bulletin, a few things to note: part five of Fr Trueman Dicken’s Living with God; a brief life of Blessed Lancelot Andrewes, this Sunday’s saint, and yet another installment of the book I’m working on, Notes on the Sunday Collects; there is an announcement about the Francistide Blessing of Animals this coming Saturday morning (see more below)...
Upcoming in October…
…we’ll begin the month celebrating the pets of the parish, with our annual St Francis Blessing of Animals outside the front doors of the church on Saturday, October 2 at 11.00 AM. All pets of all sizes are welcome (we’ve blessed everything from horses to black widows – which we ask you to keep inside their enclosures for the service). There will be photos before, during and after, treats for the animals (with bowls of water just in case), and St Francis medals for your pet’s collar…the next day, Sunday, October 3, we’ll have our monthly service of Prayers for the Sick and Unction following the morning’s Eucharist…later that day, Bishop Ng’ang’a and Deacon Lee will travel to Lindsey Schaub’s new home for a formal blessing… the next luncheon for the Women of St Joseph’s is on Saturday, October 9 at 12.15 PM, so note the day; Fr Wilcox will be providing (not preparing!) the lunch…the next Men’s Breakfast will be on Saturday, October 23, at 10AM in David Hall, and our next parish Big Breakfast will be Sunday, October 31. The parish Vestry will meet in October on Sunday the 17th…that same day we’ll begin our Food Bank Collection drive for Thanksgiving…
See this week's Liturgical Schedule on our "About Us" page
Octiober, 2021 at St Joseph's
This Sunday at St Joseph's - September 26, the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
This Sunday at St Joseph's - September 26, the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
October Parish Calendar
Dates to Note in October:
Parish Women’s (Healthy!) Luncheon:
Saturday, October 9, 12.15 in David Hall
Men’s Breakfast: Saturday, October 23, 10 AM David Hall
October Vestry Meeting: Our next regular meeting will be on October 26, 2021. All are welcome.
Parish Breakfast: in October, our Big Parish Breakfast will follow the 9.30 Eucharist on October 31
Bishop Peter Ng'ang'a will be with us as our preacher on October 3.
With the exception of Sunday, October 19 (because of our Vestry Meeting), Fr Wilcox will be teaching a class every Sunday in October on the Apostles' Creed. These will be live-streamed on our Facebook page.
New in the Tract Rack
New on the narthex table are copies of Fr Moss's classic booklet "A Summary of the Faith," Fr Dearmer's "Life of St Aidan," and "St Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria and Doctor of the Church," a brief biography of the saint.
Autumnal Diversions
Now that fall is officially here (and there is a hint of a change in the weather, believe it or not!), it’s time to get back into things after the long, hot summer. The Comal County Fair opened Friday and before too long, the signs of Wurstfest will be here, too. In the spirit of autumnal diversion, let me share a few delightful prospects: first, I’ve managed to buy (after more than a year’s waiting) a pristine copy of a long-unavailable recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy and performed by the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. This is hands-down the best recording ever made of “The 1812”, featuring a superb Russian choir, the actual bells from the Cathedral in St Petersburg and the cannon-fire from the old Peter and Paul Fortress in the city. If you’d like to BORROW the CD, just ask. As splendid as the whole piece is, the final two-an-a-half minutes of the recording will leave your hair standing on end. One more fall pleasure: I’m still reading (but will be through within a week) a very well-written, marvelously researched and thoughtful book, The Light Ages. The title is a deliberate contrast to the “Dark Ages” which usually refer to the Middle Ages. It details the life and thought of a medieval monk who is devoted to the pursuit of scientific knowledge. It may sound deadly dull, but reads almost like a mystery novel. It also is a healthy antidote to our modern hubris that we’ve scaled the heights of knowledge. That’s what I’ve been reading and listening to for sheer pleasure at the turning of the season. How about you? Let me know what you’re reading and listening to!
Fight the good fight with us!
Your prayers, support and contributions will help us keep a faithful Anglican presence and traditional Anglican worship alive and kickin' here in the Texas Hill Country. We have a lot to do to bring our parish mission to this part of God's world: to be "Catholic in Tradition, Biblical in Faith and Sacramental in Worship." Your generous (and tax-deductable!) donations will help fund that mission and keep us movin'!
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