News

“Your church is very busy!” I heard someone say this as we finished up the discussion portion of our Liturgy Lab on Sunday evening. I ended the discussion at 7:00 pm because I knew that AA would be there soon to set up for their meeting at 7:30, and sure enough, just as we were pushing back our chairs, someone came in to begin setting up.

Our church is busy. Both AA and Al-Anon have weekly meetings in the Parish Hall, as do quilters and beaders. In addition, there are yoga classes that meet twice a week and our grief group that meets once a week.

Tomorrow we will celebrate Lunar New Year with a delicious dinner and a wonderfully fun auction, and on Saturday we will have a celebration of music put on by David Knight, Alex Sams, Kathy Capellino, and multiple other people. Saturday’s musical celebration will be raising money for Harbor Connects and our music program.

The Lunar New Year’s party raises money for St. Teresa’s, one of our many guilds at St. Francis. The money raised by St. Teresa’s is used to fund various charitable projects in and out of the church.

On Monday, February 9, the Friars will be hosting a dinner that begins at 6:00 pm.

On our last Sunday service before Lent, we will have an instructed Eucharist, a chance during worship for people to learn why we do what we do.

There is a lot happening at St. Francis – we ARE a busy church! Come and see!

The Rev. Jason Shelby
Rector
jason.shelby@stfrancispalosverdes.org

What is the mission of the church? According to our catechism, it’s to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ, through prayer, worship, proclaiming the gospel, and promoting peace, justice, and love. This is accomplished through the ministry of all its members. How well are we fulfilling this mission at St. Francis?

From January to December, we had the following events (please excuse any omissions): Lunar New Year hosted by St. Theresa’s, Mardi Gras, Lenten Program and Dinner, Jesus Christ Superstar watch party, the Antiques Show, Art Camp, the Rummage Sale, Women’s Lectionary Study, Trunk-or-Treat with Ancient Ways Karate, Christmas Celebration with Ancient Ways Karate, St. Anne’s Auction, Nativity Set Construction, and Christmas Cookie Exchange. We also hosted the Bishop on Palm Sunday, a confluence of events that was incredibly challenging, and executed perfectly; numerous baptisms and funerals, an Agape Meal/Foot Washing on Maundy Thursday, cinnamon rolls and mimosas on Mother’s Day, delicious BBQ on Get Connected Sunday, and our coffee hour treats after church get better and better. We have the weekly healing service, monthly Taizé service, and our annual Blessing of the Animals. We also have the weekly grief group, Women’s Lectionary Study, and Youth Group. Both St. Anne’s women’s group and the Men’s Group meet monthly. Nearly every week, there is a chance for us to invite someone to an event that isn’t church, though my hope and prayer is that you feel comfortable enough to ask people to “come and see” what is happening at St. Francis.

We also offer a number of opportunities to serve the outside community. We serve breakfast six times a year at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Long Beach, make quarterly collections and deliveries of items for families at Camp Pendleton, and sort through the clothing and other items in the Blue Bin every other week. Last January, we collected food and supplies for firefighters and rescue workers, food for people who otherwise wouldn’t have Thanksgiving, gifts for children in foster care, and gift cards and supplies for a young man aging out of foster care. We are a community striving to live out our baptismal creed: to seek and serve Christ in all persons, respect the dignity of every human being, and promote justice and peace among all people. This is not something any of us does alone, but together, as a community, and always with God’s help.

The Rev. Jason Shelby
Rector
jason.shelby@stfrancispalosverdes.org

Jesus said to his disciples, “Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one,” (Matthew 6:9-13, NIV).

“Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Your will be done…Is there anything more difficult than thwarting our own will, or putting the will of another ahead of ours? In twelve-programs the third step is: [We have] Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. When I pray the third step, I simply say, “I give you my life and my will.” I do this every night before I go to sleep; I pray the Lord’s Prayer, the Jesus Prayer (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God the Father, have mercy on me a sinner), and the first three steps of the twelve steps. In the space of a few minutes, I say to God that I want God’s will to be done, and on the best of days, I give God my will, and then take it back again shortly afterwards. What is the will of God? To love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself. That is the will of God – that we love, and as Thomas Aquinas said, to love means to will the good of the other.

Willing the good of the other is incredibly disruptive to my life, especially if the others I am willing the good to are not willing the good of me, like my children. They don’t wish me ill (though I am the worst father in the world, according to at least two of them), but they do demand a lot. Usually, they wait until I sit down, at which point they will ask me for something to eat or drink, or to go play with them in the backyard. I usually try to accommodate them, though not as quickly as they would like. I don’t want to spoil them, but I do want to model what it means to help others. It’s been slow to stick…when asked to put their candy wrappers in the trash, there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth, which only increases if we threaten to remove candy from the house. But it’s starting to work too…they both want to help unload/load the dishwasher, sweep the floor, and wash/dry clothes.

Willing the good of the other takes practice; it’s not something that will happen all at once. There will never be a time we don’t need Jesus – we will never become perfect at being selfless. But we can definitely improve from where we are. When I pray the Lord’s Prayer, I want to be genuine – I want to mean it when I say, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” God’s will in heaven is that we willingly and lovingly follow the first two commandments, that when everyone is seeking the good of the other—when everyone is loving one another—then no one is left out. But every day, there is a significant gulf between praying the words and living the words, and it is this gulf that reinforces my need for Christ and his grace.

We are blessed (or cursed, depending on your view) to be able to hold opposing viewpoints in our minds at the same time. Yes, I pray and want to do God’s will, but I do not do God’s will, and because of this, I need God’s grace, provided through the love of God’s son, Jesus. It’s as Paul says in his letter to the Romans, “I do not do the good I will, but I do the very thing I hate.” Recognizing our sin is the first step to working through it. We can’t help everyone, though we may will the good of everyone we see, we cannot make it a reality. But we can pray for everyone we see, recognizing that Christ dwells within all people, and that when we serve one another, we are serving Christ.

The Rev. Jason Shelby
Rector
jason.shelby@stfrancispalosverdes.org