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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
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The Nineteenth Sunday After Trinity
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Spring Cleaning in the Fall
Please join us on Saturday, 20 October for a Parish Cleaning Day! Our annual spring event had to be postponed this year because of critical volunteers taking early vacations. Now that the summer heat is lifting, it's time to lift up our shirtsleeves and get the parish ready for the many holidays ahead of us. If you can help clean our beautiful new windows in the chapels and transept, or give the sanctuary a good dusting, vacuuming, and mopping, please join us! Donuts and coffee will be available in the morning, and pizza for lunch. We'll start at 10:30am, but feel free to come by whenever it is convenient for you. There will be plenty to do! If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact Ken Koonce, People's Warden (kkoonce@roadrunner.com/323-856-5844)
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Potluck Garden Party!
 On Saturday, 27 October following the 5pm Vigil Mass, join us for a Potluck Garden Party! This is a wonderful opportunity to meet with Clergy, Parishioners, the LASchola singers, and new faces! Please tell your friends and family. For more info, contact David Silvas (626) 818-5128 or CLICK HERE to send an email!
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All Souls' Day
On Friday, 2 November three Requiem Masses will take place (8am, 12pm, 7:30pm). Every name in the Parish Chantry Book will be prayed for during the course of the day, and at the 7:30pm Mass, the Parish Choir will be singing a Requiem Mass.
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Thanksgiving Eve
 On Wednesday, 21 November at 7:30pm on the Eve of Thanksgiving, St. Thomas Parish will be celebrating a Solemn Mass with Guest Organist Paul Meier accompanying traditional Thanksgiving hymns. All are encouraged to attend.
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Stewardship Reflection
Reflection #6
St. Matthew 5:1-3
Blessed are the poor in spirit...
The Sermon on the Mount contains many of the sayings of Jesus that we say we believe in, but we don't really believe in them. Did you really hear what he said in the Beatitudes: "Blessed are the poor in spirit"? Or would you rather hear the version of it in St. Luke's gospel, which puts it more bluntly, "Blessed are the poor..." Well, I've been poor, and I've been poor in spirit, and I can honestly tell you that I didn't feel very blessed in either of those states! There was a brief time in my life when I didn't have the money to buy a decent meal, when I had to go downtown in the city where I lived to give blood for money, sitting embarrassed in a run-down room along with all the other poor souls there, where we couldn't look each other in the eye. This is what being poor does to you. Blessed?My parents could tell you something about being brought up poor. They don't want to return to those days, believe me. And yet, there was something about the simplicity of those times for them that they miss, when they knew that they would be all right if they could just "keep on keeping on," even in the face of injustice and material deprivation. They migrated from the poverty and virulent racial segregation of rural North Carolina to Washington, DC in 1951, searching for a way to live their lives in dignity despite their dark skins. They came to that urban environment with nothing. Well, they did have one thing: faith. Faith in God, faith in themselves, and faith that if they risked everything they had in order to seek a better life for themselves and their children here, then something good would happen. So with little money, little formal education, and zero connections in the nation's capital, they worked and prayed and saved and prayed and persevered and really prayed and invested their energies to succeed in their jobs. They raised my brother and me to do the same in our own way. Their values are my values. They have been incredible role models for me in how to live this life, and while not rich and famous in the world's terms, they are the most successful people I know. There were many rough times for them, I know, but in those moments at their darkest hours, I know that our Lord came to them in the middle of many fearful nights, telling and consoling them, "Do not fear. Trust in me, do the right thing. Things will be okay." And they prevailed. Poor? Check. Poor in spirit? Check... meaning that they had a humble sense of their own righteousness before God. And in giving everything they could back to God and to others, they lived Christian stewardship. Were they "blessed"? Check.The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor SuttonBishop, Diocese of Maryland
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The Guibord Center Presents
"Jesus and Family Values"
with Dr. Amy-Jill Levine
Sunday, 4 November 1:30pm
St. John's Pro Cathedral 514 W. Adams Blvd.
People espousing "Family Values" may well look to the Bible for instruction. What are Jesus' views of gender roles and sexuality, marriage and divorce, health care and child raising, and how can a historical understanding of Scripture lead to peace in the culture wars?
Join the discussion being led by Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, popular lecturer and professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. A reception will follow.
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The Twentieth Sunday After Trinity
Lections
Job 38:1-7, 34-end
Psalm 104:1-9
Hebrews 5:1-10
St. Mark 10:35-45
Celebrant and Preacher
Fr. Ian Elliott Davies
Deacon
Choir Master
Mr. James Keltner
Organist
Mr. Jeffrey Parola
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Support a Seminarian
One of our Parish Seminarians, Shireen Baker, has been given a chance to study at St. George's College in Jerusalem this January. The great thing about this adventure is that a large portion of the trip, like tuition and room & board, is paid for by her seminary, but she is expected to raise the money for airfare and a bunch of other incidentals, which is estimated to cost around $2000.
If you would like to contribute, please make your check payable to St. Thomas the Apostle and write "Scholarship Fund" in the memo section.
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Diocesan AIDS Mass
On Sunday, 21 October at 5pm, St. Marks, Upland (330 E. 16th St.) will host the Diocesan AIDS Mass. Bp. Mary Glasspool will Celebrate and Preach at the annual service for remembrance and intercession on behalf of all those who have died, and those who are still living with HIV/AIDS in the Diocese of Los Angeles. The first panel of a Diocesan AIDS Quilt will be displayed and ready for attendees to add their loved ones' names and memories. A reception in the Parish Hall will follow the service.
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On This Day in
Christian History
On this day in 1856, a Sunday evening service led by Charles Haddon Spurgeon turned tragic when someone shouted "Fire!" in London's enormous Surrey Hall. There was no fire, but the stampede left 7 people dead and 28 more hospitalized. Though the episode plunged Spurgeon into weeks of depression, it also catapulted him to overnight fame. In his lifetime, Spurgeon would preach to around 10,000,000 people and become highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he would become known as the "Prince of Preachers".
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Please join us for many Parish activities. Here's a sampling of upcoming events - a full list is available online
20 October @ 10:30am
Newcomer Orientation Series
22 October @ 9:30am
County-USC AIDS Clinic Feeding Program
27 October @ 7:30am
Homeless Feeding & Outreach
27 October @ 5:00pm LASchola sings the Mass
10 November @ 7:30am
Homeless Feeding & Outreach
12 November
Parish Office Closed
28 November @ 7:30pm
Vestry Meeting
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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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