Monthly

I pray everyone is enjoying the cooler weather of the fall in Central Texas. We hope you like the new format of our newsletter. We haven’t received any complaints and we received one positive comment. We reopened to in person worship services 6 weeks ago and everyone enjoys being back. Our online community continues to grow and I’m so happy to see everyone engaging with each other during the services.

I pray everyone had a wonderful summer as we look forward to cooler weather in Central Texas. We’ve received some feedback about our newsletter and as a result we are making some changes. This is our new format. It’s been a slow but exciting start since we reopened in person worship services. We welcomed Rene, Rob and Erika’s and her sister Jessica’s family. We are so thankful for Rob and Erika. They both volunteer many hours each week at the Food Pantry and have both been elected to the Food Pantry Board representing St. Matthias.

I want to thank Robert and Sandra for hanging our new St. Matthias sign as well as laying cable for the church internet. It was a big improvement until we were able to get the highspeed internet installed with Doug’s help.

ST. MATTHIAS NEWS: I pray everyone is enjoying their summer as we prepare for the start of the school season. We continue to provide online Sunday Morning Prayer and Wednesday Evening Prayer on our Facebook page. We had our first Deacon’s Mass and will continue to have them on the 1st and 3rd Sundays. As usual, if you can’t watch the services live, they can be viewed anytime on our St. Matthias Facebook page. We continue to make deliveries to the Women’s Shelter, Food Pantry and HANK (Helping Abused and Neglected Kids). Thank you everyone who donates items especially during these times. I’m back at the Food Pantry now that I can concentrate more time on our outreach ministries. We can always use more volunteers to help stock shelves, unload deliveries and help clients shop. Please let me know if you’d like to help. We’ve had a drop in our church income due to the suspension of in-person worship services but the mission of St. Matthias continues.

ST. MATTHIAS NEWS: I pray everyone is enjoying their summer as we prepare for the start of the school season.

We continue to provide online Sunday Morning Prayer and Wednesday Evening Prayer on our Facebook page. We had our first Deacon’s Mass and will continue to have them on the 1st and 3rd Sundays. As usual, if you can’t watch the services live, they can be viewed anytime on our St. Matthias Facebook page.

We continue to make deliveries to the Women’s Shelter, Food Pantry and HANK (Helping Abused and Neglected Kids). Thank you everyone who donates items especially during these times. I’m back at the Food Pantry now that I can concentrate more time on our outreach ministries. We can always use more volunteers to help stock shelves, unload deliveries and help clients shop. Please let me know if you’d like to help.

St. Matthias’ News: I pray everyone continues to do well during this Ordinary Time. Oh, how I wish these times were back to ordinary. Here’s the latest on our plans to reopen. We originally planned on reopening July 5th but had to continue to postpone reopening due to the surge of Covid 19 cases that hit Devine and the surrounding communities. We do have an approved plan for reopening once we feel it is safe to do so.

We continue to provide on-line Sunday Morning Prayer, Wednesday Evening Prayer, and Children’s Story time on our Facebook page. Starting July 5th, we will have a Deacon’s Mass on the 1st and 3rd Sundays. We’ve never had a Deacon’s Mass at St. Matthias before and we are looking forward to it. As usual, if you can’t watch the services live, they can be viewed anytime on our St. Matthias Facebook page.

ST. MATTHIAS’ NEWS

I pray everyone will have a blessed Pentecost season. Here’s the latest on our plans to reopen. Since the Diocese has not extended the suspension of in-person worship services, the decision to reopen is now on the individual parishes. On May 17, 2020, the Bishop’s Committee approved the "Phase II Reopening Plan for St. Matthias and it’s been submitted to the Diocese for approval. Our reopening date is still dependent upon: the Diocese approving our plan for phased reopening, the Bishop not extending the diocesan suspension beyond this date, and the current local and state health statistics related to Covid-19 as monitored by our Bishop’s Committee. I understand the frustration of not having in-person services and ask for your patience.

BISHOP’S WARDEN NEWS
I pray everyone will have a blessed Lenten season. We will have a pancake breakfast after the service on March 1st. Meg and I attended the DWTX Council 2020 in Corpus Christi. The theme for this year is “with the eyes of our hearts enlightened.” It was such a wonderful experience meeting everyone from throughout the Diocese. It was like a big family reunion. Meg attended two workshops and I helped lead two Military Ministry workshops. We have lots of information at the church to share with everyone. We had a fun POSM family event last month. Meg had painted a large tree on one of the Parish Hall walls and we had everyone paint the palms of their hands and place them on the tree.

BISHOP’S WARDEN NEWS
I pray everyone will have a blessed Lenten season. We will have a pancake breakfast after the service on March 1st. Meg and I attended the DWTX Council 2020 in Corpus Christi. The theme for this year is “with the eyes of our hearts enlightened.” It was such a wonderful experience meeting everyone from throughout the Diocese. It was like a big family reunion. Meg attended two workshops and I helped lead two Military Ministry workshops. We have lots of information at the church to share with everyone. We had a fun POSM family event last month. Meg had painted a large tree on one of the Parish Hall walls and we had everyone paint the palms of their hands and place them on the tree.

BISHOP’S WARDEN NEWS
I pray everyone will have a blessed Lenten season. We will have a pancake breakfast after the service on March 1st. Meg and I attended the DWTX Council 2020 in Corpus Christi. The theme for this year is “with the eyes of our hearts enlightened.” It was such a wonderful experience meeting everyone from throughout the Diocese. It was like a big family reunion. Meg attended two workshops and I helped lead two Military Ministry workshops. We have lots of information at the church to share with everyone. We had a fun POSM family event last month. Meg had painted a large tree on one of the Parish Hall walls and we had everyone paint the palms of their hands and place them on the tree.

BISHOP’S WARDEN NEWS
I want to thank everyone for your prayers while I was taking the General Ordination Exams. I felt the Holy Spirit with me as I took each exam. Thank you. I pray everyone is having a blessed Epiphany season. We had a great annual meeting. We shared a pot luck, reviewed all of our accomplishments for the past year, shared our plans for this year and voted on a 2020 budget. We are having our monthly POSM family event on Sunday, February 9th after the service. We will have a family craft with the theme of “Love”. We made several deliveries to the Hospice Thrift Store, Women’s Shelter, Food Pantry and HANK (Helping Abused and Neglected Kids). Thank you everyone who donated items.

BISHOP’S WARDEN NEWS
I pray everyone is having a blessed Christmas season. We had a wonderful Consecration Sunday service that capped off our annual stewardship campaign with lunch afterwards. Thank you everyone who pledge to support St. Matthias. Instead of our monthly POSM family event on the 3rd Sunday, we will have our annual meeting and pot luck lunch January 19th. We enjoyed our beautiful new advent wreath that sits on the Paschal Candle stand. We purchased it with the donation from Rev. Wayne Bower’s previous church, St. John’s in New Jersey. We had a great Christmas Eve service with Rev. Eric Fenton.