446 N Seguin Ave, New Braunfels, Texas 78130
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About Us
Anglican, Catholic or Protestant??
“What’s the difference between your Church and the Catholic Church? Are you Catholics or Protestants?"
In our everyday speech here in America, when most of us say the word “Catholic," we mean by it Roman Catholic. The use is more sociological than religious; it comes from a time when we used to divide people up into categories such as Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. A little investigation reveals to us, though, that the word “Catholic" is much more than a sociological term. It comes from two Greek words: kath holon, which means “according to the whole." In other words, Catholic means “complete" or “full." The Catholic Faith, then, is the whole Faith, undiminished, unaltered, undiluted. The Catholic Church is the whole Church, teaching and practicing the whole Faith. In the Creeds of the ancient Church, she defines herself as One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.
Through the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance more and more ecclesiastical power came to be centered in Rome; with the centralization of power, as often happens, abuses arose. While these abuses are often exaggerated, some were quite real and they provoked a crisis. People began to lose faith in the Church as an institution, and the result was the convulsion we know as the Reformation. The Reformers, men like Martin Luther and John Calvin, protested against abuses in the Church. Each of them soon developed a vision of his own of what the Church should be, and soon the Reformers could find little unity among themselves except that they disagreed with the Church in Rome. Individually they came to be called after their founders, Lutherans, or Calvinists, or after their more particular doctrines, Anabaptists, Adventists and so on. Collectively they came to be called Protestants, that is, those protesting against Rome.
The Reformation affected all Europe in the 16th century, and England was no exception. King Henry VIII, a lecherous and ambitious man, severed the ties that bound the Church of England to Rome. But for all his self-centeredness, Henry was a conservative. He didn’t like unnecessary change. As a result, aside from breaking the connections between the English Church and the Roman Church, he insisted that the Faith and practice of the Church of England remain what it had been before. Henry got his way. He burned up those who disagreed with him, loyal Romans on the one side, dedicated Protestants on the other.
Not long after King Henry died and went to whatever awaits him eternally, his daughter Elizabeth succeeded to the English throne. Under Elizabeth, the Church of England understood itself as both Catholic and Protestant: Catholic in holding the fullness of the ancient Faith, Protestant in rejecting the abuses and growing power (worldly and religious) of the Renaissance Popes. Elizabeth referred to the religion of the English Church as “Reformed Catholicism."
As we’ve seen, the main notion “Protestants" have in common is their rejection of Roman Catholicism. This is hardly a good way to define anything; it’s like a farmer giving his vocation as “not a banker." Anglicans don’t refer to themselves as Protestants because our understanding of Catholicism is not sociological but religious.
Anglicans hold the Holy Bible, the unbroken succession of Bishops from the Apostles till now (called Apostolic Succession), the Sacraments, and the Creeds as essential signs of the Catholic Faith. We disagree with our Roman Catholic friends who are supposed to believe, according to the official teaching of the Roman Church, that “it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff,” but we are glad to share with them the essentials of the Catholic Faith. We differ with our Protestant friends in that we believe Jesus Himself founded the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, with its Scriptures, Sacraments, Creeds and Succession as essential to the salvation of mankind. The Church is not a human institution. We didn’t make it. Jesus Christ Himself founded it and we believe His Holy Spirit lives within it. As it belongs to Him, we are not free to change it in any essential way. We receive it as a precious gift and as such, God willing, we pass it on to others. For this reason Tradition (which comes from the Latin word meaning “to hand over") is very important to us. The Holy Spirit works through the Church’s Tradition to ensure that the Faith is passed on it all its power, the power to make men and women fresh and new and alive in Christ. We want to be sure we hand on that same Faith to those who come after us in all its fullness, all its Catholicity.
The Creed teaches us the Lord Jesus founded One Church. That Church is not the Anglican Church or the Roman Catholic Church or any of the Protestant bodies coming out of the Reformation. The Creed teaches us that the Church is the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church. The Book of Common Prayer (echoing Scripture and Tradition) teaches us that the Church is “the Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head, and all baptized people are members." Sadly these baptized people have fragmented themselves into all sorts of groups with all sorts of names. But, thank God, we cannot destroy what God has created. The Church is one, as our Lord Himself said, because God is One. We must continue to pray that the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost will hasten the day that the visible unity of His Church will be restored: the day there will be no more Protestants, or Roman Catholics, or Anglicans, but only Catholics united in unbreakable bonds of faith and charity.
by the Rev Canon Gregory Lee Wilcox
Bowing the Head at the Mention of Jesus Name
“…when in time of Divine Service the Lord Jesus shall be mentioned, due and lowly reverence shall be done by all persons present, as it hath been accustomed; testifying, by these outward ceremonies and gestures, their inward humility, Christian resolution, and due acknowledgment that the Lord Jesus Christ, the true and eternal Son of God, is the only Saviour of the world…” – from the 1604 Canons of the Church of England issued by order of King James I (of King James’ Bible fame)
Archbishop Fisher on Anglican Doctrine
“Anglicanism has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in Holy Scripture and the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ’s Church from the beginning.” – The Most Rev Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1952
The Bell of St Joseph's and Other Fun & Fascinating Facts About Our Church
(No, we don't have the Liberty Bell. That's not actually a picture of our bell.) 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).
Help Us Help Others
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 to 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 raise 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.
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.”
Summertime Food Bank Ingathering
Our Summertime SOS Food Bank Ingathering has begun and will continue until Labor Day weekend. Food donations should be of canned goods and nonperishable items. The Food Bank prepared a list of their special needs which is on a green sheet on our narthex table. We have wo stations for the Ingathering, the wicker basket in the back corner of the church (on the “Gospel Side”) and the large white basket in David Hall to the right of the front entrance as you come in the front door. Thank you for your ongoing generosity to this worthy cause.