We have just put up our first video Christmas message from Bp. Gary Lillibridge. Go to the homepage at www.dwtx.org and click on the Bishop's Christmas Message.
Blessings to you all this joyful season,
The Communications Department
Episcopal Diocese of West Texas
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Bp. Lillibridge’s Christmas video message
December 22nd, 2009The Medicine of Hope
November 25th, 2009 My personal theology includes the strong conviction that God’s reign arches over all of life, so when I face difficulties the question is not "Is God here during this difficult time?" but rather, "How shall my faith in God help me through this trouble?" And my answer usually comes back to "hope," for it is a great medicine of faith.
"Where can I go then from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?" is one of the verses from Psalm 139. It is a familiar starting point for me in times of difficulty. The writer of this psalm has quite a bit to say about the conscious recognition that God is always nearby, come what may....
No Hands but Ours
November 25th, 2009Recently I went through a very dispiriting week. Three of my friends have been struggling with cancer. The husband of my oldest friend in the world is being treated for bladder cancer at M.D. Anderson. Another very close friend had just been diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer. That same week, my cousin was treated for the fourth reoccurrence of thyroid cancer.
Each of them has been enduring that ghastly, medieval horror we so unhelpfully call a "treatment": chemotherapy. Two have adopted children and taken them into their homes. One of them is a single parent. One of them has no insurance, so I have a little skin in the health care debate and I’m terrified for what this...
Praying the Psalms
November 25th, 2009
Praying the psalms? We recite them, yes. Some of us chant them or sing them (sometimes). But praying the psalms as a spiritual practice? We turn prayerfully to Psalm 23 for comfort in times of fear, despair, or sorrow; and we have other familiar or favorite psalms: "I lift up my eyes to the hills" (121) or "O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation" (95). Many lines and phrases from the Book of Psalms are also familiar: "Be still and know that I am God," or "The earth is the LORD’s and all that is in it" or "Your word is a lamp to my feet and...
Responding to Abundance
November 25th, 2009
One of the most life-changing gifts our family has ever received came as a result of a capital campaign asking at our church over 15 years ago. Yes, you read correctly -- a capital campaign asking was a gift. A friend from our parish called to see if she could visit with us one evening in our home about the upcoming capital campaign. Before she left, she asked us to pledge a hysterical amount as part of the advanced gift part of the campaign. Well, at least hysterical to us. My husband and I burst out laughing, sure that we had misheard the amount. She calmly asked us to pray about it and what it could mean for our family...
For God all Things are Possible
November 25th, 2009 Over the last three-and-a-half months I have become increasingly aware of just how much grief and loss this parish has suffered and how difficult those three and one-half months have been. In that short time we have had five deaths of our friends, family, and parishioners. That is a lot of death and sorrow, a lot of pain and tears. Many of us are left with unresolved feelings and a multitude of questions:
What do I do next?
Where do I go now?
How do I – or even, will I ever – live, love, laugh again?
I am also aware that these deaths are the more visible and public losses and sorrows. I suspect many, maybe most...
Chicken Little and the Falling Economy
November 24th, 2009
Chicken Little was in the woods one day when an acorn fell on her head. It scared her so much she trembled all over. She shook so hard, half her feathers fell out.
“Help! Help! The sky is falling! I have to go tell the king.”
“Slow down there, Chicken Little. Do your breathing exercises. The sky is not falling.”
“It’s not?”
“No. Not the sky. Just the budget.”
“Just the budget! Just the budget!”
“Yes, just the budget. We’ve cut programs by $100,000.”
“SQUAWK! $100,000! The sky IS falling!”
“Look, I don’t have time to argue. Let’s just say, for the sake of your amazing lack of vision, that the sky IS falling. So what if it is?”
“So what if the sky is falling? So what! But...
Last Dance at the Pool
November 24th, 2009
We marked the end of summer at our house by taking down the pool schedule from the refrigerator. It was the day after Labor Day. The pool was closed. Summer was over.
But I lingered a while in my bare feet in the kitchen resurrecting all the past summers of my life.
I grew up in Florida, back when the sun was still our friend, and as teenagers we spent three months lying on the beach in the hot, hot sun, trying to get as tanned as we could. Baby oil with iodine in it was our favorite concoction to slather over our bodies. The purpose of the torture was, of course, to attract THE BOYS. Does anyone remember the movie “Where...
Religious or Spiritual?
November 24th, 2009
When I think of the words “Spirituality and Religion” I think of them as two sides of one coin. And I believe that when we separate them we actually weaken our spirituality.
Bill Hybels, the pastor of Willow Creek Church, said that for many years when people told him they did not believe in God he tried to persuade them about the existence of God. But then it dawned on him one day to ask those people, “Tell me what this God you don’t believe in is like.”
He discovered that for many people their image of God was not the God he believed in either!
Almost 20 years ago, Dr. Robert Bellah, a sociologist, did a sweeping analysis of religious life in...
Update
November 24th, 2009
Dear DWTX RSSers. We are in the process of converting our outdated General Convention 2009 blog to a more comprehensive media center called DWTX Interactive. We are moving into new territory and hope to have some exciting offerings for you, including live streaming. For the next few days, I will be doing a lot of editing on the blog. I apologize for the inconvenience if you get a lot of feeds. I invite your comments at Read More »