TTU Canterbury Students Do Mission Work
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On February 23-25 a group of students from Texas Tech Canterbury forsook the opportunity to stay in Lubbock for ESPN's
Game Day
and TTU vs KU in order to journey south for a mission and service trip to Sweetwater and Colorado City. They were warmly welcomed by the good people of St. Stephen's and All Saints' missions, as well as Fr. Jared and the entire Houze family. In addition, the Hoskins family were delighted to let them bunk at their 101 Ranch. The students were fed WAY too much delicious home cooking in the midst of working various service projects in these two towns, including lunch near a unique deer blind and stock tank on the Gervin farm.
They were accompanied by the Canterbury chaplaincy team, Fr. Jim and Renee Haney, and Dcn. Becky Orem, who was surprised to meet Bob Lemons, a TTU alumnus whose first college class was taught by Becky's mother back in 1956 (and whose son was the Masked Rider in 1990). The students on the trip included Glenn Green, Zoe Johnson, Maura Hunter, Lisa Haney, Taylor Grandorf, Christina Saccio, and Jimmy Haney.
The main projects were helping with outdoor work in Colorado City for the Heritage House, and building a Gaga Ball Pit for The SHOP (Sweetwater House of Peace). Thankfully one of our students is working on his second degree in Architecture, so he was able to make sure all the angles and measurements were correct.
The students who participate in Canterbury activities are mostly from larger metropolitan areas in Texas, so they were fascinated by small town, farm, and ranch experiences. They were pleased with the opportunity to serve, as well as by getting to bond with some of their fellow Canterburians.
Click
here
for pictures from the weekend.
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Spring Fling! Don't Miss It!
Youth in grades 2-5—come join us at St. Christopher’s in Lubbock for our primary retreat. The theme is “The Lord’s Prayer.”
We will gather on Friday, March 23
rd
at 7:30 p.m. We will spend the weekend learning about the Lord’s Prayer and what it means to us. We will play, worship, make crafts—you don’t want to miss it. It is a great time for youth who have never attending the week long summer camp to come for a weekend to “see what it is all about.” Registration forms available from your church office or
here
.
Camp is Coming!
Our two summer camps will take place this June!
Camp Quarterman will be held June 10-16 in Colorado and Camp Quarterman Jr. will take place June 24-30 at Ceta Glen near Happy Texas. Camp Quarterman is for youth in grades 7-12 and Camp Quarterman Jr. is for youth in grades 2-5. Youth in 6
th
grade may choose either camp.
This year’s theme for camp is “Who Dat Saint?: Stories of Some Heroes of the Faith?” What is a saint? How do you become one? Why do we need to learn about them? Am I a saint?
Campers will spend a week having fun, hanging out together, hiking, playing games, worshiping, singing, and making cool crafts. It is a busy week. Campers make friendships that will last a lifetime. Camp is one place campers can be themselves and experience unconditional love. As one camper said, “I get to be me at camp! No judging my clothes or me there! Pretty cool isn’t it?!”
Registration forms are available
here
or from your church office, the diocesan website, or by emailing Renee Haney, diocesan youth coordinator, at
nwtxyouth@suddenlink.net
or on our youth facebook page at DNWTX Youth Program.
Volunteers and Staff for Summer Camp…
We are accepting applications for volunteer and paid staff for this summer. It is a lot of work and loads of fun. You get to hang out with some great kids and work with awesome clergy and counselors. You get to share God’s love with the youth who attend. Are you a nurse who would like to spend time with our diocesan youth? This is the place. You dispense medication during the day, take care of any accidents or illnesses and hang out with the youth.
If you have questions about any of the events or the youth program in our diocese, please contact Renee Haney, Diocesan Youth Coordinator at 806-445-3667, or email her at
nwtxyouth@suddenlink.net
.
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Bishop Mayer's Appeal for Camp
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Dear Friends in Christ,
We continue our excellent youth summer camp programs this year. The time spent experiencing God’s love in an outdoor setting is meaningful, valuable and life changing. This year’s theme for camp is “
Who Dat Saint?: Stories of Some Heroes of the Faith!
” The campers will spend a fun, activity-filled week learning about different saints and their impact on the world.
We try to provide the best experience possible for our campers while also maintaining affordable tuition costs. Even so, the cost of attending summer camp can be prohibitive to some of our youth, especially if there is more than one child in a family.
I am, once again, appealing for contributions to help with summer camp tuition for youth who would otherwise be unable to attend.
Donations
to assist with the cost of summer camp should be sent to the Episcopal Diocese of Northwest Texas, 1802 Broadway, Lubbock, TX 79401. Please notate “summer camp donation” on your check.
Your generosity in helping us provide these opportunities truly makes an important difference in the lives of our youth, for which we are all very grateful.
Faithfully,
J. Scott Mayer
Bishop
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Don't forget to sign up for the upcoming Women's Retreat!!
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Spiritual Guidance from Julian of Norwich
The ECW of the Diocese is sponsoring a women's retreat June 22-24, 2018 at Christ the King Retreat Center in San Angelo. The retreat will be led by The Rev. Mary Margaret Earle and will focus on a variety of topics essential to understanding Julian's mysticism.
Registration deadline is March 15, 2018. A registration form can be downloaded
here
. Cost for the retreat is $152 for a shared room, $170 for a non-shared room, and $70 for those attending during the day only.
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Church of the Heavenly Rest announces The Very Rev. Doug Travis has been called to serve as Interim Rector of Church of the Heavenly Rest, Abilene. Father Travis officially began his duties on Ash Wednesday.
Dean Travis served for six years as Dean and President of the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, where he led a $12 million capital campaign and built a nationally recognized faculty. He also has served as Rector of Trinity Church in The Woodlands, near Houston, and St. James Church in Dallas.
Ordained in 1988 in the Diocese of Dallas, Dean Travis has earned four graduate degrees in theology including a Doctorate of Ministry from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity and a Master of Sacred Theology in Spiritual Direction from The General Theological Seminary in New York, and a Master of Arts degree from The Divinity School at the University of Chicago.
He and his wife, Pamela, an attorney with the Environmental Protection
Agency, have been married for 40 years and have a home in Dallas. They
have two adult daughters.
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Argos Brewhouse and Bookseller is a public space ministry co-founded by St. Stephen’s, Sweetwater and two local lawyers. The business opened on September 5
th
of last year and in the past six months Argos has been embraced by the community. The building, which dates back to 1902, belongs to Rod Wetsel and Jeff Allen. Rod Wetsel and his family are long time members of St. Stephen’s, where Rod served as Senior Warden for many years. Argos is part bookstore and part bar, which serves coffee, craft beers and wines. Through its live music events, showcasing of local artists and authors, and hosting private receptions and parties, Argos has raised over $1000, which has gone to regional non-profits and relief efforts in the state of Texas.
The underlying hope from the beginning was that Argos would be a place where the sanctuary of the church could be extended to the public square. This past Ash Wednesday the people of St. Stephen’s and All Saints began to see that hope realized as they used the Argos space to hold an Ash Wednesday service. Twenty-three people from the community gathered at noon. For most of them, this was their first Ash Wednesday liturgy experience. The response was wonderful, and people communicated a desire for more creative expressions of worship to be held at Argos in the future.
This is one of the many ways St. Stephen’s and All Saints desires to reach out to their community in offering them the love of God and the gifts of the Episcopal tradition. If you haven’t visited Argos yet, they are at 209 Oak St. on the west side of the square in downtown Sweetwater. If you drop by in the morning for coffee, you’ll most likely be served by Ericka Houze or Fr. Jared Houze. They’d love to see you. Also, be sure to like Argos Brewhouse and Bookseller on
Faceboo
k
– once they have one thousand “likes” they’re going to kickstart a non-profit focused on community renewal.
Additional pictures from Ash Wednesday can be found
here
.
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If your congregation elected new vestry members at its annual meeting, or has new Sunday School teachers or nursery workers, they are required by the Diocesan Safeguarding Policy to participate in Safeguarding God’s Children and submit to a background check. The safeguarding course modules can all be accessed online. The modules required for volunteers are as follows:
Meet Sam
It Happened to Me
Keeping Your Church Safe
Your Policies
(this is the most current copy of the diocesan policy for the protection of children and youth)
Abuse Prevention Refresher (
for renewals only)
For more information on how to create a login and access the courses, click
here
.
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Episcopal Church Foundation’s
Vital Practices
site includes “Vestry Papers,” a compilation of articles and other resources for best practices shared by vestry members in churches all across the Episcopal Church. You can
subscribe to their emails
to keep up to date.
Watch a
webinar
, live or archived, on topics from creating endowments to planting churches.
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Partners in Response and Resilience
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Episcopal Relief & Development's US Disaster Program is currently accepting applications for persons interested in becoming a Partner in Response and Resilience.
Partners play an essential role in accompanying US dioceses as they recover from disasters. Their work includes: aiding dioceses in discerning their response, caring for caregivers, assisting with grant administration, facilitating preparedness and response trainings, and much more.
Applications will be accepted until March 23, 2018. Selected applicants will participate in a discernment retreat May 14-16th.
To learn more, click
here
.
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UPCOMING EVENTS for the DIOCESE
(Items in Purple indicate the Bishop's Presence)
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March
2 Commission on Ministry, HEC, 10:00 am
2-4
SOM, St. Paul’s, Lubbock
3 Diocesan ECW meeting, St. Christopher's, Lubbock 10 am
6-10 House of Bishops Meeting, Camp Allen
11
Daylight Savings Time begins
19 Standing Committee, HEC, 10:00 am
23-25
Primary Youth Retreat, St. Christopher's, Lubbock
25
Palm Sunday
25 Visitation, St. Mark's, Plainview
29
Maunday Thursday
30
Good Friday, HEC closed
APRIL
1
Easter Sunday
1 Visitation, Heavenly Rest, Abilene
2
Easter Monday, HEC closed
6-8 SOM, St. Paul’s, Lubbock
10-13 Project Resource 2.0, Camp Allen
16-19 Presbyter’s Conference, Christ the King Retreat Center
22 Visitation, St. Andrew’s, Amarillo
23 Visitation, St. Peter’s, Amarillo
24 Celebration of New Ministry, St. George’s, Canyon
28
Provincial Synod online meeting for GC Deputies
The full events calendar for the Diocese can be viewed
here
.
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Episcopal Diocese of Northwest Texas
Attn: Elizabeth Thames
1802 Broadway
Lubbock, Texas 79401
806-763-1370
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