If there was ever a time to pray, it's NOW. There are so many things that need prayer coverage that it's hard to know where to start. First of all, it's vital that you start by enriching your own prayer life. During this time when we are quarantined at home, perhaps you can increase your dedicated time with Him in prayer....
In the midst of this time of uncertainty, I hope you are well. May you find safe shelter not only in “social distancing,” but especially in drawing close to Him who is our true Dwelling Place...
St. Philippians and Friends, Even though we "broke the Internet" last Sunday when we, along with members of other churches across the country, went online in droves to worship, we are going to give the same streaming platform another shot this Sunday, the Fifth Sunday in Lent! Here is a link to the stream, which will begin a few minutes before 10:30 a.m. with the prelude....
Click the link below to read the St. Philip's eSPIRE, the email version of our weekly inSPIRE newsletter, which is packed with information about all that's going on in the life of our parish....
Dear Saint Philippians, Many of you have written and emailed to thank us for last Sunday’s online service; we are delighted that it was a blessing. As we move forward, still uncertain as to how long we will be prevented from worshipping together in the church, I want to provide you with some sense of what you may expect in the weeks to come. Because the situation is fluid, these plans are subject to change, but for now they represent the thinking of the clergy and lay leadership. ...
St. Philip’s is assembling a response team for our church members while we are all experiencing the challenges of COVID-19. This is a united effort of the Compassion Committee, the Home Missions Team, the Disaster Relief Committee, and our clergy. We are here to help each other!...
Dear St. Philip’s family, This past week of social distancing has been a surreal and difficult experience for the majority of Americans. Many are beginning to think that if the coronavirus doesn’t get them, “Cabin Fever” will. Not since World War II or the polio epidemic of the 1940s and 50s have the American people been so inconvenienced or threatened with long-term confinement and financial ruin. It reminds me of the following story shared by the Very Reverend Laurie Thompson, Dean of Trinity Seminary. ...
We celebrated Mission Sunday last week and had the opportunity to highlight the many ways that we as a congregation at St. Philip's are “doing mission,” or reaching out to others with the love of God in the name of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. Mission is an integral part of what God calls us to do as Christ-followers. While the Great Commission is commonly thought to be the Bible’s one mandate to mission, if we read scripture carefully, we will hear God’s heart for the world woven powerfully throughout all of the Bible. Jesus’ command that we take the Gospel to those who have not yet heard it was not simply an afterthought at the end of his earthly ministry. It was a continuation of the message we find consistently throughout Scripture: God loves us. Despite our rebellion, He went to unfathomable lengths to make it possible for us to know Him and His great love for us and for us to be with Him for all eternity. ...
We dotted all our I's and crossed all our T's; we had every hair in place and all our ducks in a row, but we weren't prepared ... for breaking the Internet! Thanks to everyone who joined us for worship on Sunday! Even though the service didn't come to your living room in quite the mode we were expecting, you were unfazed, and most of us were able to worship together just as we'd planned. Praise God!! Here's a note we received from our streaming platform on Sunday afternoon: Church Online Platform When the Church broke the Internet. This is an unprecedented time for the global Church and for online ministry. For most churches running the Church Online Platform, services went smoothly, and we praise Jesus for the lives that were forever changed! For some churches, though, services went out around 9:15 a.m. CDT/10:15 EDT. In anticipation of the highest-traffic weekend in history, the team had done in-depth load testing and purchased additional server and database capacity to meet the projected demand. But, with today’s traffic, an unanticipated variable arose that caused some issues with chat and with pages loading....
St. Philippians, we are pleased to announce that we are all set for online worship on Sunday, March 22, at 10:30 a.m.! Here are a few things to note: 1. The service will remain available online after the stream is over. This means that should you miss the service for any reason, you will still be able to watch later. 2. A service bulletin is available for you to view or print now. We have reformatted our traditional bulletin so that you may print it at home. There is a complete version which looks just like what you're used to, and there's an abbreviated version that you may print using a single sheet of paper (front and back). ...
From Monday, June 17 to Wednesday, June 19, the Anglican Church in North America held its Provincial Assembly on the heels of Provincial Council. Assembly, which meets at least once every five years, is the largest governing body of the province. With it comes a conference that brings the Church together for prayer, praise, fellowship, and teaching. At this Assembly, the p...
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We thank God for the safe return of our first group of St. Philippian pilgrims, who journeyed in the footsteps of St. Paul May 28 through June 7. Our second group began the journey June 11 and will return June 21. Please pray for their safety as they travel and that they, too, would experience a deepening sense of God’s mission for the church....
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As many of you know, the Canterbury and St. David Choirs will be traveling on their European tour July 20 to August 6, 2019. The Canterbury Choir will be singing in Canterbury and London, England, for the International Children’s Choir Festival, and then they will join the St. David Men’s Choir in Paris on July 27. What you may not know is that these choirs were schedu...
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The St. Philip’s clergy, Vestry, and staff are delighted to report that we have successfully completed our 60-day “$198 to be Great” debt retirement campaign, and we would like to thank everyone who has so generously provided! While we’ve reached our goal, the church prayerfully requests that the 43% of our regular givers who have yet to make a contribution please ...
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At the end of 2018, Water Mission’s staff in Mexico connected with ASELSI (Associa- tion Equipping the Saints International), a nonprofit organization based in Guatemala. In partnership with Water Mission, ASELSI provides basic theology training to new believers in communities we are serving with safe water projects....
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From June 10-July 26 (8:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m.), St. John's Chapel, one of St. Philip's Home Missions partners, is hosting a summer camp that will help children ages 6-15 and their young adult counselors develop academic and social skills outside of a traditional classroom setting....
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As many of you know, Suzy McCall’s beautiful 16-year-old, Sallie, died suddenly on Sunday, May 12. Experiencing a heartbreak beyond words, Suzy, the founder and spiritual director of LAMB, has been shatterred, as any mother would be. She had raised sweet Sallie since she was six months. Sallie was one of our very first “God’s Littlest Lambs” that the Lord used to l...
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This morning as I went out the front door briefly on an errand and came back in, my eyes were drawn to our piano. So, I sat down on the bench. There was music there, but just to my left, on the candle stand, there was a service leaflet ... not sure how it got there. I picked it up and saw the familiar words of Psalm 134....
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This past Wednesday, the young adults of College Fellowship came together to celebrate Ryan’s birthday. As I was looking across the table at everyone in attendance, I came to realize that we were celebrating so much more than Ryan’s birthday. ...
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I am proud to be a member of the St Philip’s family of volunteers that took part in preparing and serving lunch at Tricounty Family Ministries last Wednesday. Marc Boutan, Ben Hagood, and Andrew O’Dell provided beautiful praise music along with a rendition of “Happy Birthday” to Ryan Streett. The diners enjoyed the music as well as a fabulous barbecue meal donated ...
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