Orange County Superior Court Judge Kim Dunning yesterday granted a motion for summary adjudication in favor of the Episcopal Church declaring the church properties in Long Beach and North Hollywood are held in trust for the current and future mission of the Diocese of Los Angeles and the general church.

 

"I give thanks for this ruling. After nearly eight years, we appreciate the Court's conclusion confirming the church properties of All Saints and St. David's belong to the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles," said Bp. J. Jon Bruno.

 

John R. Shiner, lead counsel for the Diocese added, "Today's ruling marks the third occasion that a Court has determined property under the control of a departing parish rightfully belongs to the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles."

The annual St. Thomas Ministry Fair will be held on Sunday, 27 May after the High Mass. Tables with representatives and information about various ministries and guilds will be placed throughout the Parish Hall. This will be an excellent opportunity to thank all of those who contribute so much to St. Thomas as well as an opportunity for Parishioners to contribute time and talents.

 

 

 

The Feast will be celebrated on Thursday, 31 May, with Holy Rosary at 6pm, Evening Prayer at 6:30pm, and a Solemn Mass at 7pm. All are welcome!

 

The Didache (Didache means "teaching") is a brief early Christian treatise, dated at about the turn of the 1st century and is considered part of the category of second-generation Christian writings known as the Apostolic Fathers.

It is an anonymous work that reveals more about how Jewish-Christians saw themselves and how they adapted their Judaism for gentiles than any other book in the Christian Scriptures. The contents may be divided into four parts, which most scholars agree were combined from separate sources by a later redactor: the first is the Two Ways: the "Way of Life" and the "Way of Death"; the second part is a ritual dealing with baptism, fasting and Communion; the third speaks of the ministry of how to deal with traveling prophets; and the final section is a brief apocalypse.

The first section begins "There are two ways, one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between these two ways." The Two Ways material appears to have been intended as a summary of basic instruction about the Christian life to be taught to those who were preparing for baptism and church membership. In its present form it represents the Christianization of a common Jewish form of moral instruction. 

The second part begins with an instruction on baptism, which is to be conferred "in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" in "living water" (that is, natural flowing water), if it can be had - if not, in cold or even warm water. According to this text, Fasts are not to be on Monday and Thursday "with the hypocrites" - presumably non-Christian Jews - but on Wednesday and Friday, and the Lord's Prayer is to be recited three times a day. 

The Didache makes no mention of Jesus' resurrection, other than thanking for "immortality, which Thou hast made known unto us through Thy Son Jesus" in the Eucharist, but the Didache makes specific reference to the resurrection of the just prior to the Lord's coming. 

The work is considered by some of the Church Fathers as part of the New Testament but rejected as spurious or non-canonical by others, eventually not accepted into the New Testament canon.

Lost for centuries, a Greek manuscript of the Didache was rediscovered in 1873, and a Latin version of the first five chapters was discovered in 1900. 

To read the Didache as translated by Philip Schaff CLICK HERE!

If you would like to read further commentary, consider purchasing THOMAS O'LOUGHLIN'S BOOK

On Sunday, 27 May at 4pm, Fr. Davies will lead a Vespers for Healing service for Bishop J. Jon Bruno sponsored by the Program Group on Black Ministry at the Cathedral Centre of St. Paul (840 Echo Park Blvd). All Parishioners are invited.

 

Several services of healing prayer for Bishop J. Jon Bruno have been scheduled around the diocese. For a complete list of all scheduled services around the diocese, CLICK HERE!