Posts from February 2017

Posts from February 2017

Martin Smith to lead retreat exploring “Who We Really Are”

Refresh your spirit and your mind during Lent. Episcopal priest, author and retreat leader the Rev. Martin L. Smith will offer a retreat in our diocese on Saturday, April 1. Smith will lead participants in reflecting on “Who We Really Are: Exploring Our Baptismal Identity.” Thomas Merton reminds us that “in prayer we experience what we already possess. We start where we are and deepen what we have, and we realize we are already there.” In this quiet day of reflection and prayer,…
Lenten Programs in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth

Join us for Lenten programs

The liturgical season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and continues for approximately 40 days before culminating in Easter Sunday. Ash Wednesday was on March 1 this year. On Ash Wednesday, priests take ashes made from the burning of palms from the previous Palm Sunday and make the sign of the cross on people’s foreheads as a symbolic reminder of our mortality. Lent traditionally has been a time of retreat, reflection, and repentance, a time to clear away the distractions of…

Join diocesan choir for presiding bishop’s visit

Can you carry a tune without a bucket? Join a diocesan choir now forming to participate in the Eucharist with Presiding Bishop Michael Curry on Saturday, April 8, at 11 am at University Christian Church. David Lindsey, music director at St. Christopher Episcopal Church in Fort Worth, is coordinating the choir. Anthems will be selected from 8 Anthems for About 12 Singers: Easy-to-Prepare Gospel Songs and Spirituals for SAB Choirs. Lindsey is ordering copies; however, if you already own a copy of this collection and…

4Saints blessed and officially opened

Bishop J. Scott Mayer and Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price joined with Bo Soderbergh, director  of the Tarrant Area Food Bank, and Patricia Callahan, president of the 4Saints Episcopal Food Pantry board, to cut a bright red ribbon tied to two fully loaded food carts. With that symbolic act, they officially opened the food pantry, which has been functioning since mid-January. Prior to the ribbon cutting, the Rev. Karen Calafat, priest in charge of St. Luke’s in the Meadow, Fort…

Observe Episcopal Relief & Development Sunday on March 5

The first Sunday in Lent is Episcopal Relief and Development Sunday as designated by the General Convention of The Episcopal Church. The plate offering on the first Sunday in Lent will go to Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD). Individuals can also write a check to your church with “ERD” in the memo line or give directly to ERD online. Lenten Meditation booklets from ERD have been ordered for the diocese, and you should be able to pick one up at your…

Bishop Mayer baptizes, confirms, receives at St. Luke’s, Fort Worth

Bishop J. Scott Mayer visited St. Luke’s in the Meadow, Fort Worth, on Sunday, February 12. He baptized Daun Harner-Weeks and confirmed Tracy Bechtel and Amanda Harner-Weeks. Patrick Callahan reaffirmed his Baptismal vows. See more photographs at the Diocesan Flickr Gallery. Read the bishop’s sermon: St Luke’s in the Meadow 2017 6 Epiphany – Year A February 12 Watch a video of the bishop’s sermon below or on YouTube.  

Star-Telegram covers refugee family being helped by Episcopalians

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram published a story on Friday, February 2, 2017, about the family of Syrian refugees who arrived late Wednesday night. Read excerpts from the story below. Syrian refugee family arrives in Fort Worth during pause in travel ban Fahmi Mousa Al Kazma has been looking for a safe place to raise his six children since 2011, when militias forced the farmer out of his village near Aleppo, Syria. The family’s new safe haven is a four-bedroom apartment…

WFAA Channel 8 covers Episcopalians helping refugees

Reporter Lauren Zakalik of WFAA interviewed the Rev. Tracie Middleton as part of her report on a refugee family settling in Fort Worth. Watch the news story and read the transcript below. Since 2011, the Mousa Al Kazma family has been looking for a place to call home because the place they called home isn’t safe enough to call home any longer. The family of eight, including two sets of twins, is from Aleppo, Syria. After years of living as refugees…

National Cathedral to offer Holy Eucharist for Peace

A Holy Eucharist for Peace will be offered at the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, also known as the Washington National Cathedral, at noon on Friday, February 10, 2017. This service includes hymns, readings from Holy Scripture, a sermon, and Holy Communion. The Most Rev. Michael Bruce Curry, Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church, will preach and preside. All are welcome. The service will be live streamed here.

Solemn Evensong at All Saints’ Fort Worth February 12

All are invited to experience Solemn Evensong at All Saints’ Episcopal Church at 6 pm on Sunday, February 12. The All Saints’ Choir will sing under the direction of Frederick Grimes, organist and choirmaster. In a fully choral service of evensong, all of the service except the penitential introduction, lessons, and some the final prayers are sung or chanted by the officiating cleric (or a lay cantor) and the choir.

Faith leaders plead for refugees

On Wednesday, February 8, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram published an Op-Ed article from several local faith leaders opposing a religious test for admitting refugees and offering reasons for offering them succor. The signatories included Episcopalians: the Rev. Carlye Hughes, rector of Trinity, Fort Worth; the Rev. Canon Janet Waggoner, canon to the ordinary; the Rev. Gayland Pool, retired priest of the diocese; and the Rev. William Stanford, rector, St. Christopher, Fort Worth. You can read the article below or at…

All are invited to food pantry opening

The blessing and grand opening of 4Saints Episcopal Food Pantry will be at 10 am Thursday, February 16, at St. Luke in the Meadow Episcopal Church, 4301 Meadowbrook Drive, Fort Worth, 76103. The Rt. Rev. J. Scott Mayer, bishop of Fort Worth, will bless the space. Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, Bo Soderbergh, Executive Director Tarrant Area Food Bank, and Jeanette Scott of the Tarrant Area Food Bank also will speak briefly. Fort Worth Bishop Scott Mayer said, “The Episcopal Diocese…

Interfaith Prayer Vigil: Standing with Refugees

In collaboration with Tarrant Churches Together, University Christian Church is opening its doors and welcoming people from across Tarrant County to reflect and pray for those needing refuge at 7 pm Thursday, February 9. All are invited to gather for an interfaith prayer vigil led by local religious leaders seeking an end to terrorism and violence in our own country and around the world. For more information call UCC at 817.926.6631. Valet parking at University Christian Church will be available in addition to open parking…

February 7: anniversary of reorganization of diocese

On February 7, 2009, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori called a special meeting of the convention of the diocese to order at Trinity Episcopal Church, Fort Worth. The goal: the election of a bishop and the reorganization of the diocese after the bishop and other officials left The Episcopal Church  to form new churches outside The Episcopal Church. As we celebrate the resurrection and continued growth of the diocese, we continue to patiently await a decision from the Second Court of…

Deputies invited to “Stand with Refugees”

The Rev. Gay Jennings, president of the House of Deputies, has issued a letter calling for deputies to General Convention and other Episcopalians to stand with refugees in the wake of the recent Executive Order instituting a travel ban on residents of seven Muslim-majority nations. She invited them to join in the Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations new advocacy initiative called the 2×4 Fight for Refugees Campaign. Participants in the campaign will commit to calling national, state, and local elected…