All of us rely upon something for significance and security in life. We have to
lean on something or someone. Jesus teaches that, in the end, there is one
foundation upon which everything else rests. When forced to choose, we
discover our priorities. We will then see whether we have chosen to lean on
the right something or someone.

For instance, many of us derive enormous gratification from our vocations.
And yet, we may well decline a promotion when we realize that the extra time
and energy would harm our marriage or rob time from our children. In this
case, we see that we lean upon marriage and family more basically than we
lean upon career for our sense of significance and security precisely because
we choose to sacrifice the one for the sake of the other. Many of us would
find this a difficult decision to make, wrought with no small amount of
uncertainty and inner turmoil. So it is when we are faced with competing
priorities.

And yet most of us are rarely presented with such a stark choice between
career and marriage or career and parenting. The day-to-day decision is subtler,
so the power of career to usurp the place of marriage and family is in fact far stronger.
How easy it is to stay too long at our desk, to come home with too little energy, or
to run through the day’s business in our minds while distractedly responding to our spouse
and children when we finally see them at the end of the day! Without meaning
to do so and hardly realizing that we’ve done it, we sometimes choose to
lean on something less reliable than on the thing we know to be the surer
foundation.

The analogy holds when we consider choosing to lean on God or on Money.
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are dedicated to leaning most fundamentally
upon God our Father through his Son Jesus. None of us would intentionally throw
Jesus under the bus for a few extra bucks. Very few of us will face the stark choice
of giving away all our wealth and following Jesus or keeping our material
goods and rejecting our Lord.

Our daily circumstances are far subtler, and so our financial resources can
begin to take hold of us in ways that we never intended. We can begin to lean
upon our material means for security. Ironically, when we seek security in our financial
resources, we end up growing increasingly anxious. We could always have more. We might
run out. Maybe we’ll lose what we have. Money turns out to be a very unreliable foundation
to lean upon.

By contrast, leaning on God fills us with a joyful power to take hold of life abundant and with
the tranquility that all will be well. When we put our trust in Him, we never have to worry
about losing our security and significance. He is always there and always enough. And yet,
it is no easy thing to break free of financial insecurity.

Again and again we find ourselves too fearful to give our money away joyfully and generously.
Mammon, as the KingJames Version of the Bible translates it, can get a pretty firm
grip on us.

This is where tithing comes in. Tithing is not a 10% tax. The idea of tithing is to give away our best first. Before spending on our own needs, we recognize by our giving that God is providing for us.
We become givers because we lean on God as our provider. Paradoxically, giving liberates us from
financial insecurity and results in an abiding joy.

What Are You Leaning On? Is our stewardship theme for this year. Our theme is an outgrowth of our Rally Day theme: exercise your faith. As you consider your pledge for 2011, prayerfully consider that question. I will say more about the importance of pledging and how each of us can work our way to
the tithe next month. For now, I invite you into a time of prayer and ask you to mark your calendars for October 31 as the day we will celebrate the ingathering of pledges at all services.

As the wonderful hymn puts it, Christ is made the sure foundation. Let’s focus together in this season on leaning more fully on his gracious strength and abundant provision by becoming joyful givers.

The Men’s Forum is a discussion based, men’s meeting that will cover life application topics, current events within the church and the greater body of Christ, as well some of the “hot” topics of our day. We will also mix in guest speakers for the forum.

Please bring a sack lunch and join us. To be placed on the email list for notifications please send your email address to gwest@wwmlaw.com. We will meet in the church library on the 26th.

Why not let the church serve your family dinner on Wednesdays ($5 for adults, $3 under 12, $20 family max), and then stick around for classes for all ages. The nursery will be open for little ones, and kids will have games in the gym. Youth will have Bible studies in our new Middle School and our beloved High School youth lounges, and adults will join Dr. Cheryl White in the Garden Room for The Canterbury Tales: Anglicanism 101

From the earliest days of Christianity in the remote Roman province of Brittania…through the current age of an expansive global communion, this offering will explore the history of our rich Anglican heritage. A look at the personalities, historical events and theology that came together to shape the nature of Anglicanism as we know it.

Wednesday Evening Schedule
5:30 Dinner Served
6:15 Classes for All Ages
7:00 Classes Adjourn, Choir Practice Begins

Dean Jake Owensby continues to keep ministry to children, youth and their families among the Cathedral’s top priorities.

Canon Hope Benko has called together an energetic lay team who are making a commitment to Youth Ministry.

We are equipping and empowering the laity to play a central role in leading events, teaching, and chaperoning events. When our new Youth Minister arrives, they will continue these ministries in partnership with him or her.

Haley Harrington is continuing in her capacity as paid assistant in Youth Ministry.

Some have worried about the increased load upon Canon Hope. The Dean has addressed this in two specific ways.
• Joy Owensby has assumed leadership of the Children’s Workshop for Sundays on a volunteer basis. Having served as a Director of Christian Formation Joy is well equipped for this role.
• Fr. Carl Wright, Air Force Chaplain, has agreed to serve at the Cathedral as Assisting Priest without stipend (military regulations do not permit him to receive pay for his service in the Church). He will relieve Canon Hope of liturgical duties at the 6:00 service.

Perhaps most importantly for the immediate present, youth activities continue just as planned. And in fact, we are adding an outreach, service component to our offerings. This began this past Wednesday when the Youth Group packed lunches for the homeless.

Change can be trying. Be assured that we are pressing forward in positive and exciting ways. Canon Hope will be sending email reminders of activities on a regular basis, and Haley Harrington is doing the same on Facebook.

Please feel free to share with the Dean anything you have on your mind and to ask him for any information.

For the third month now St. James has been helping us to reflect on what it means to be a faithful Christian. He writes, “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 2:17; NIV) Or, as I have paraphrased this famous verse: Faith is exercised in our daily lives or it is no faith at all.
We began with a sketch of a faithful devotional life and then continued with an outline of the character traits that mark the Christian disciple. In this final installment of the series, I want to turn to exercising the ministries to which Jesus himself calls each and every baptized person.

It may come as a surprise to some to hear that Jesus calls all baptized persons to the same foundational ministry. Our first vocation—the calling from which all other ministries derive—is the ministry of belonging. You have read this right. Jesus calls us first and foremost to a ministry of belonging.

Let me make this clear. On the night before he died, Jesus prayed to the Father for his disciples, saying, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one.” (John 17:22) Belonging involves much more than adding your name to the membership roles of a congregation. Exercising our Christian faith means being one with a very real group of people. St. Paul famously described each of us as irreplaceable and vital members of the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12). This sacred Body remains a mere abstraction until we commit to a specific congregation.

To belong to St. Mark’s, for instance, means that we form relationships with each other and we devote ourselves to a common ministry. This people in this congregation matter to us personally, and we allow ourselves to matter to those same people. Too often people come to church for what they will get out of it. They come to worship services or to programs to consume a spiritual product for themselves. Their desire to grow spiritually or to be comforted or to be healed is understandable and laudable. But they miss the point entirely if this desire to consume a spiritual good remains their guiding principle.

Belonging means above all that I am here to invest myself, to add value, to be a part of what we are all doing together. Paradoxically, we will always come up empty when we ask the question: What am I getting out of church? By contrast, the Holy Spirit will fill us to overflowing when we begin to ask another question: How can I add to the life of the church with the gifts that the Lord has given me?

If you want to belong, you have to show up. Regular attendance at worship, fellowship events, and Christian Formation courses weaves us together as one. Those who are homebound enjoy this same sense of belonging through the ministries of visitation, our radio broadcast, our podcasts, and our publications.
Authentic membership includes pledging to St. Mark’s each year. The Biblical standard for our pledge is the tithe. Many are still working toward the tithe, but I want to be clear that the amount of one’s pledge does not determine one’s level of belonging. (In my own prayers I have been directed to make the full tithe to the church and to give to other good causes over and above the tithe. This is a change for us and would be for many of you. We will not be reducing our other giving but instead will be maintaining that giving while gradually increasing our pledge to the Cathedral to ten percent.)

Disciples make disciples (Matt. 28:19). Jesus instructs us to bring the Good News of his saving grace to everyone. We are to raise our children as Christians, but we are also to invite friends, neighbors and acquaintances to join us for worship, fellowship and study so that they too can belong to the Body of Christ.
Finally, disciples exercise a ministry. While ministry is deeply rewarding in a personal way, we should never think of it as doing our own thing in isolation. We are part of a Body, and authentic Christian ministry serves the ministry of the whole congregation. On August 15, we will be celebrating Rally Day. You will have the opportunity to find out about new ministries and recommit to familiar ones. Please put this date on your calendar, make every effort to attend, and bring a friend with you. If you would like help hearing the Spirit’s calling to you, let me know. I would be delighted to help you share your spiritual gifts here at the Cathedral.

Faith and works go hand in hand. Our prayers find completion in the works of our hands in the name of Christ. Our works are rich and fulfilling when motivated and directed by our faith. And so, as this new program year begins, I urge you to join your brothers and sisters in Christ. Let’s exercise our faith together!

School Chaplain Judy Kane and Pre-school/Lower School Christian Ed teacher Terri Sittig attended a training on the Peace Builders program, and our third and fourth grade teachers were invited to take a four-week course in teaching math and science at Centenary College. Other teachers were taking graduate courses or traveling or simply re-charging their batteries to prepare for the new year.

In addition, in June Principal Chris Carter myself defended his project-thesis in order to earn the degree of Doctor of Ministry in Educational Leadership. He wants to thank all of you who attended the School Fair or the series of classes he taught last fall as part of the project. Thanks also to everyone who took the surveys sent out before and after those events last fall.

The subject of his thesis was how the school could welcome the parish into the life of the school, and the work was possible because of the welcome you have offered him as your head of school and of your support of the school as a ministry of the Cathedral.

One exciting new development for us in the school is that we have been assigned a Haitian partner school by the National Association of Episcopal Schools and the Bishop of Haiti. We are very excited about getting to know the faculty and students of St. Jacques School, Petit Boukan, and learning how we can serve them and learn from each other. We hope as well that this will be a partnership and ministry that we can share with our parish.

Teachers and staff are now all busily preparing for the first day of classes on August 18. Please keep the school and its ministry in your prayers as we begin a new year.

Our opening Chapel Service will be Friday, August 20 at 8:00 a.m., after which we begin our regular chapel schedule. Please know that you are always welcome to join us for chapel.

Seth and Amy Donald invite all families with nursery aged children (under 3) to their home for a casual dinner on Thursday, September 2, from 5:30 to 7.

You’ll have a chance to meet other Cathedral parents of young children and also get to know our two excellent nursery workers, Katie-Beth Davis and Dessie Clark.