Saturday, October 23^rd, 1:00-2:00, gathering at Cornhusker Conference Center, Lincoln

We understand that not everyone can attend Annual Council this year. If you would like to watch Bishop Barker’s annual address to the diocese or the presentation of the Bishop’s Cross LIVE, please tune into our diocesan Facebook page. Approximate times for these broadcasts may be found here, but our Council is a “living event,” and some items of business may happen a little bit earlier or later than we are currently predicting. The videos will be saved for later viewing. 

October 27--Boo Bash Halloween Party

October 31--Halloween Activity during Sunday School

November 7--Chili Cook Off

November 13--High School Outing to serve at the Benedictine Food Pantry and for lunch and to pray at Fontenelle Forest

Thursday, October 21, 2021

The Councils of the Church

This week on Friday and Saturday is the Annual Council of the Diocese of Nebraska. Like our parish’s Annual Meeting (which is held in January), this is something established by the canon law of the church as part of the structure of how we keep ourselves organized around everything from liturgy to finances to various resolutions around formation. This is a part of the tradition of Christianity that goes back to the early centuries of the Church, in which councils of Bishops (the traditional bearers of the authority of the apostles, handed down generation by generation) would gather to pray together and take up questions of theology – often with ideas in conflict with each other – and hope to be guided by the Holy Spirit. (Perhaps the most familiar fruit of those meetings is our Nicene Creed, which was an early set of affirmations about God, laid out in the formula of the Trinity: God the Creator and father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We repeat this creed, which is named for the town of Nicaea where the Council that adopted it was held, every week.)

Church councils can still be places where the topics of the day are discussed and resolutions are adopted. Most often, these are about planning for the year to come, and a great deal of preparation for those takes place before the Council. For example, our budgeting process sets the resources for our Diocese of Nebraska summer camp, which about two dozen youth and adult counselors from St Augustine’s usually attend! Or sometimes we hear about new ministry initiatives, such as the Magdalene Omaha program that was launched several years back, or the Sacred Ground curriculum that has begun to run groups throughout Nebraska.

But for all of that “business of the church” side of a Council …

Almost everyone who attends winds up valuing the time gathered together most.

That’s probably less surprising this year than most: after a season of privation, we’re in a time of really recognizing how important it is to be with friends, family, neighbors. In Christian worship, we’re very aware of how different it is to gather in person than to connect via Zoom or a Facebook feed. And at St A’s, where we’ve just begun to return to an updated physical space with much more room for fellowship, learning, care, and fun, we’re very aware of the value of being in the same room.

Annual Council lets us do that with Episcopalians from across Nebraska – fellow disciples of Jesus who share a tradition of worship, draw from the same prayers and songs to celebrate the life of our communities as we give thanks to God and seek to be guided by the Holy Spirit, and work together in common projects of ministry that go beyond our walls, our state, and even this nation to do work throughout the world. Annual Council lets us “meet new friends and keep the old,” as the saying goes.

There will be some business – nothing as controversial as the heresy investigations of the early centuries! But mostly, we’ll be gathering to be together, as one more sign of the importance of renewing our prayers with friends from different parts of the diocese, taking comfort and joy in the diversity of Christ’s Body the Church throughout Nebraska, even in just our own Episcopalian ways.

Please spare a prayer for those attending. Erin Rhian, Ali Threlkeld, Sandra Squires, and Barb Hall are our delegates, together with myself, Mother Ruth, and Deacon Dave who attend as ordained clergy. In addition, Carol Ott is attending with the Diocesan Daughters of the King group, Noelle Ptomey to promote the Sacred Ground series of classes led by DioNeb, Rebecca Smith is attending as a guest (and someone sponsored for ordination as a deacon by our church!), Kate Kielion to help promote and recruit for our diocesan summer camp, and Jay Hammond (our parish administrator) is attending as a part of the delegation for All Saints, where she is a member.

May God be present, fill us with joy and purpose, and guide our conversations!