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Greetings!
St. Thomas the Apostle is an Episcopal Parish in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. We are called by God to be a holy place where love is found, where all are named and where hearts are freed to change the world.
St. Thomas has a great respect for both the rich liturgical heritage of the church and for living the message of social justice proclaimed by Jesus Christ. Whether you are young or old, gay or straight, single, married or in a relationship, female or male, poor or wealthy, you are welcome at St. Thomas just as you are...a child of God and an inheritor of God's grace. |
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Sermons
 | | The Third Sunday of Easter |
 | | The Second Sunday of Easter |
Did you know that all of the Sermons from March 2011 on are available online at our website and on our YouTube channel?
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A Letter from Bishop J. Jon Bruno
My dear friends,
As we move close to the 12th anniversary of my consecration on April 29, I am looking forward to the future, yet any time we make too many plans, we have to wait and listen for God.
Having had what I thought was a bout of pneumonia since the House of Bishops last met in March, I have gone back into the hospital to determine what this nagging problem has been.
With the great assistance of Dr. David Cannom of Los Angeles Cardiology Associates, Dr. Glenn Hatfield of The Medical Group, Dr. Lasika Senevirante of the Los Angeles Cancer Network, and the staff of Good Samaritan Hospital, I have discovered that this nagging problem is more than I thought it was. But I have been convinced by Dr. Cannom and Dr. Senevirante that I am too stubborn to let this go by the wayside, so we will start immediately to begin aggressive treatment for Acute Monocytic Leukemia (AML M5).
I don't do anything lightly, and I am never surprised that when God calls me, it is to do more than I asked or thought. The doctors are of a mind that we can beat this, but I want to be honest with you: I am frightened. Not unlike the amputation, or the metabolic staph infection (MRSA) that I experienced, or the court cases, a few challenges have come across our path.
I want you folks to be as positive as you can be, and I need your prayers and support at this time. I want you to know that I have raised all of these concerns with my colleague Bishops, Diane Jardine Bruce and Mary Douglas Glasspool.
I will continue to serve as Bishop of the Diocese of Los Angeles with the able assistance of the Bishops Suffragan and the Executive Staff. I, together with Bishops Bruce and Glasspool, Canon David Tumilty, the Rev. Canon Joanna Satorius and Canon Robert Williams, will continue to be the management team of the Diocese.
This will require some changes for us to continue to serve you in the life of this Diocese, and we will remain faithful. We will not hold things back from you, and we will remain in regular communication.
If it should be that my health does take a turn for the worse, I will do what is needed to accomplish the election of the next Diocesan Bishop. I have notified Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, Bishop Stacy Sauls, and the Rev. Canon Chuck Robertson, and they have all assured me that they will do all they can to be of assistance.
I want to assure you all of the depth of love, respect and grace that I feel from this Diocese each day of my life. My love to you, my appreciation, and forever my dedication.
Yours in Christ,
+ J. Jon Bruno
Sixth Bishop of Los Angeles
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The Feast of Bl. Christina Rossetti, Poet, 1894
 | | Portrait of Christina Rossetti by her brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
Christina Rossettia was born in London to Gabriele Rossetti, a poet and political exile from Vasto (Italy) and Frances Polidori. She had two brothers and a sister: Dante, who became an influential artist and poet, and William & Maria both of whom became writers. Christina, the youngest, was a lively child. She dictated her first story to her mother before she had learned to write.
Rossetti was educated at home by her mother, who had her study religious works, classics, fairy tales and novels.
All three Rossetti women, at first members of the evangelical branch of the Church of England, were drawn toward the Tractarians in the 1840s. They nevertheless retained their evangelical seriousness: Maria eventually became an Anglican nun, and Christina's religious scruples found her giving up chess because she found she enjoyed winning, pasting paper strips over the anti-religious parts of Swinburne's "Atlanta in Calydon" (which allowed her to enjoy the poem very much), objecting to nudity in painting (especially if the artist was a woman), and refusing even to go see Wagner's Parsifal because it celebrated a pagan mythology.
In her late teens, she became engaged to the painter James Collinson, the first of three suitors. He was, like her brothers Dante and William, one of the founding members of the avant-garde artistic group, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (founded 1848). The engagement was broken in 1850 when he reverted to Roman Catholicism. Later she became involved with the linguist Charles Cayley, but declined to marry him, also for religious reasons. The third offer came from the painter John Brett, whom she also refused.
Her most famous collection of poems, Goblin Market and Other Poems, appeared in 1862 when she was 31. It received widespread critical praise, and, with the death of Elizabeth Barret Browning in 1861, Rossetti was hailed as her natural successor.
Rossetti maintained a very large circle of friends and correspondents, including Whistler, Swindburne, F.M. Brown, and Lewis Carroll, and she continued to write and publish for the rest of her life, primarily focusing on devotional writing and children's poetry.
In later decades of her life, Rossetti suffered from Graves Disease. In 1893 she developed breast cancer and though the tumor was removed, she suffered a recurrence in late 1894 and died that year.
During Lent this past year, several poems of Rossetti were published in the eNewsletter.
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The Fourth Sunday of Easter
Lections
Acts 4:5-12
Psalm 23
I St. John 3:16-end
St. John 10:11-18
Celebrant & Preacher
Choir Master & Pianist
Mr. James Keltner
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Music for this Sunday
Prelude
"Second Movement" from Trumpet Concerto
by Johann Hummel
Postlude
Variations En Re Bemol
by Henri Busser
Mr. Kurt Leingang, trumpet
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Tuesday Night Confessions & Mass CANCELLED
On Tuesday, 1 May, Fr. Davies will be attending the Diocesan Black Ministries meeting on which he is a representative of the Diocesan Council; therefore, Confessions and the Mass have been cancelled for this evening.
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On This Day in Church History
On this day in 1667, John Milton -blind, bitter and poor- sells for ten pounds the copyright for Paradise Lost, a book that would influence English thought and language nearly as much as the King James Bible and the works of Shakespeare.
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Please join us for many Parish activities. Here's a sampling of upcoming events - a full list is available online
28 April @ 7:30am
Homeless Feeding & Outreach
28 April @ 5:00pm
LASchola sings the Mass
7 & 8 May
All Clergy in the Diocese of Los Angeles will be attending the clergy conference; therefore the Masses on these two days have been cancelled.
12 May @ 7:30am
Homeless Feeding & Outreach
16 May @ 7:30pm
Vestry Meeting
19 May @ 10:30am
Newcomer Orientation Series
28 May - Memorial Day
The Parish Office will be closed
25 June @ 9:30am
County-USC AIDS Clinic Feeding Program
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ePrayer
Prayer is at the center of our worship and binds us together as a community of faith. This week we commenced our electronic prayer chain email. A list of persons on the prayer list is sent weekly.
The prayer chain email is an opt-in list only - it will not be sent unless you sign up for it. If you'd like to be on this distribution list, please update your profile (please use link at the bottom of the email, customized with your email) or contact the office.
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