The Holy VVVrinity ÿ Herald
July/August
2008
P.O. Box 81 * Bonham, TX 75418 www.holytrinitybonham.org
The Vicar’s Voice:
Time
sure flies when you’re having fun. September 18th will be four years
since my ordination to the priesthood and December 22nd will be six
years since my return to ministry (as a deacon). I have enjoyed all of it and thank you for sharing
it with Charlene and me. We will not be
leaving Holy Trinity but rather taking a slightly different role. I have loved being your priest and vicar. I will continue being a priest (always a
priest) but I will take a rest from being the vicar and the responsibility that
goes with that. We would like to travel
a bit and so you may not see us on Sundays for a while. Holy Trinity is doing well. The reality is that we are in an area that is
not growing by leaps and bounds and where our branch of the Church is not the
most popular. But, that is not what it
is about. We are a witness to the
continuing Catholic faith delivered unto the Apostles and
(Post script) : FATHER DALTON will
teach ADULT BIBLE STUDY each Sunday in September at 9:20 AM - I will teach
bible study for the month of September.
Coffee will be ready before 9:15am so come early and get a seat. Wednesday following the 7:00pm Eucharist, we
will have a discussion group and a light supper for those who need something to
eat (like me). Don’t forget to bring the
pets at 10:00am on Saturday, October 4th for the St. Francis Day Pet
Blessing. Invite your friends pets.
SUFFRAGAN BISHOP PAUL EMIL LAMBERT
OFFICIAL VISIT:
SEPTEMBER 21st, 2008
Newly
consecrated on Saturday, the 12th of July
2008 at Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church , Bishop Lambert
will make an official visitation to Holy Trinity on September 21st.
We hope his wife will join him. Rick Cowley will barbeque and everyone else
will bring side dishes and drinks. We expect it to be a joyous occasion both
for Bishop Lambert and our parishioners. It will also mark the retirement of
our beloved Vicar, Bill Dalton, whose service to Holy Trinity is immeasurable
in our affection for him and his wife, Charlene.
SEE: http://www.episcopal-dallas.org/index.html
for an interview with Bishop Stanton and Suff. Bishop Lambert regarding their
participation at the Lambeth Conference.
ALPHA onTUESDAYS
this Fall at St. Luke’s in Kohfeldt Hall,
Dinner at 6pm,
Video and Discussion begins at 6:30pm, Going Home by 8:15pm
Contact Fr.
Curt at curt.norman@gmail.com for more info!
September 9 Christianity:
Boring, Untrue, and Irrelevant?- September 16 Who is Jesus?
September 23 Why
Did Jesus Die?- September
30 How Can I Be Sure of My Faith?
October 7 Why
and How Should I Read the Bible?- October 14 Why and How Do I Pray?
October 21 Why
and How Should I Tell Others?- October 28 Does God Heal Today?
November 4 What
About the Church?- November
11 How Can I Make the Most of My Life?
*** Alpha
Retreat (date TBA) -
• Who Is the
Holy Spirit?• What Does the Holy Spirit Do?•
How Can I Be Filled with the Holy Spirit?
ALPHA is
a comprehensive 10-week study of faith, belief and spiritual practice in
our daily lives by calling on our life experiences and that of others to answer
some of the questions we are asked by non-believers, doubters and even those
questions in our own innermost heart of hearts. Kim Jenkins is interested in
attending and would like to hear from others who would like to join her.
FAITH
ALIVE! Sept. 26-28, hosted by
Stories of faith bring
fresh focus to how one's vows of baptism provide a formula for living a life
pleasing to God. No teaching, no preaching, no church politics; simply
faith-building worship and the sharing of answered prayers and similar
experiences of God's love. SEP 26 - 28, 2 Come
as you are, for as long or as little as
you want during the 2-day event featuring all denominations and faiths
coming together to celebrate the Living God, the Christ in our daily lives.
SUNDAY, SEPT. 7TH –
PAM WALKER’S HOME ON
Following service on September 7th,
members and guests will reconvene at Pam Walker’s beautiful home on
Vestry
Report – Ron Wicks
I
would like to thank our Junior Warden Lou Bickel, for orchestrating the
completion of the walkway, the handrail installation and as you may have
noticed the new stone pathway work.
Since my last report there have
been several events: Evangelism 101 given by Carrie Boren on Aug 16th
*
We
have many up coming events. * Parish Picnic on Sept 7th at Pam Walkers home (on
CSI – Holy Trinity (Christians Sharing Inspiration)
The Vestry also approved Pat Ward’s offer to plan and secure
speakers for “ecumenical events” 2-3 times a year to which ministers and
pastors of area churches will be invited and encouraged to bring other leaders
of their church to join us in stimulating spiritual discussion. They also
approved for Pat to plan “spiritual discussion” events after services on some Wednesday
nights on subjects of interest to our church members. If you have a friend or
know of someone who you feel has an inspirational story to tell or who you’ve
heard speak on a motivational subject, if you need inspiration and support to
deal with a problem, or you’ve had an inspirational experience you’d like to
share with others, or you’re interested in an interpretation of some area of
scripture or liturgy, or would like to suggest subject matter for our CSI sessions
dealing with life issues, please speak up. Email: HolyTrntyEditor@aol.com
EMPTY
ALUMINUM CAN RECYCLING – 75-cents per pound - $1 a case
If you’d like to contribute your recycled soda cans to Holy
Trinity recycling, it will be appreciated and the money well used to purchase
some low cost items for the Sunday school room or to replenish kitchen staples
and supplies
Bible Study group celebrates the end of the first of what is
expected to be a series of studies of different characters of the Bible. The
first study on the life of King David was a 10-week Beth Moore Ministries study
lead by Kim Jenkins and Barbara Ruffner. The group is considering future
studies of the women of the Bible from resources available from the Episcopal
Diocese Resource Center. All women of the church who are interested in
participating are welcome and should contact Kim or Barbara.
The group
celebrated the end of the study with a baked potato and salad dinner at
Charlene and Bill Dalton’s home following by a viewing of the 1950s movie,
“David and Bathsheba” with Gregory Peck and Susan Hayworth. For those of us who saw the movie when it was
released in the 1950s, and now having completed the study of David’s life, it
was more meaningful to see the Hollywood version, and to spot the Hollywood
‘adjustments’ to the story of those lovers.
Participating
in the study were Linda Long, Gail Porter and Sarahbeth Holman (not pictured),
Charlene Dalton, Lori Massey, Irete Purdue, Sharon Kinkade, Kim Jenkins,
Barbara Ruffner and Pat Ward.
The Holy Trinity Herald is always available on our website:
www.holytrinitybonham.org for you to print to mail to friends or family. Any
church member who would like to contribute information or articles to the
newsletter is welcome to do so.
MORE SMILING FACES: As an offshoot of the “graduation” party at the 
their own in a category of their
choice. Several good ideas for future gatherings and activities came from those
attending. All agreed that the 3rd Friday of every month at 7:00pm
would be the standard. We had so much fun that almost nobody left before
10:30pm. Husbands were calling to be sure we hadn’t left earlier and were in
trouble somewhere. Our next gathering of the EpiscoPal Gals will be at Pam
Walker’s home on Lake Bonham on the 3rd Friday in September – the
19th. All ladies of the church are invited to come to share in our fun time
together. At each meeting we will decide where we will meet the next month and
what we will do for fun.
“A dream left unexamined is like a letter from
God left unopened.”
The Episcopal Center for Renewal offers a series of four sessions on a regular
schedule on Biblical Interpretation of Dreams. The sessions are led by Iris
Pearce, co-founder of the
The Road to Jesus: theme for the August 2008
Using some of the stepping stones donated by Louis Bickel
for our church grounds, the children attending the 2008 vacation Bible school
took the journey in stride with teachers Linda Long, Sharon Kinkade and Kim
Jenkins. Father Dalton held a graduation ceremony for them, and all attended
Mass to receive their special blessing.
SUNDAY SCHOOL FOR CHILDREN STARTS SUNDAY, SEPT. 7TH .Linda Long is requesting
assistance from church members to teach children’s songs and to help with
crafts.
TINY
SMILES:
Madilyn
Grace Mercer was all smiles in the warm loving
arms of Father Dalton when her mother,
Tuition Reimbursement Scholarships available
to members of Holy Trinity to study for Deacon or Lay Leader Certification at
the
Evangelism
101 at Holy Trinity on August 16th
For many
of us, overly zealous television preachers, called “televangelists”, crusading
more for their own pocketbooks than the pursuit of a living relationship with
God and His Son, have contaminated the concept of evangelism from its true
meaning: the spreading of Christianity
through active participation in the communities in which we live. If the
word “evangelism” turns you off, you have not met or heard Carrie Boren, the
Missioner for Evangelism in the Diocese of Dallas.
Participants from Episcopal churches in Pottsboro,
Carrie holds degrees from Yale,
Remember Saturday, October 4th starting at
10:00 AM – The Feast of St. Francis of
FYI - SOME INTERESTING TERMS:
APOLOGETICS is a field of Christian theology that
aims to present a rational basis for the Christian faith, defend the faith against
objections, and expose the perceived flaws of other world views. Christian Apologetics have taken
many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul of Tarsus, including writers such as Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas, and continuing currently with
the modern Christian community, through the efforts of many authors in various
Christian traditions such as C.S. Lewis. Apologists
base their defense of Christianity on interpretations of historical evidence,
philosophical arguments, scientific investigation, and other
disciplines. EPISTEMOLOGY focuses on
“How do we know? and “What is true?”. ONTOLOGY
focuses on “What is real?” and “What is possible?”
CHRISTMAS….a likely STORY
from your Editor’s research:
(Partial
reprint below from http://www.greatcom.org/resources/areadydefense/ch17/default.htm)
The miracle of
the virgin birth of Jesus Christ has perplexed many people, and actually has
kept them from accepting the truth of Christianity. However, the Bible declares
that God decided His Son would have a miraculous entrance into humanity.
Seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, the prophet Isaiah said, "Therefore the Lord
Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and bear a
son, and she will call His name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14, NASB).
The virgin birth is set down in
the Bible as an historical fact. The writers who recorded the story were Matthew -an eyewitness to the events in
the life of Jesus-and Luke, the
doctor, who presents many things in the life of Christ from Mary's viewpoint. There
is little, if any, other references to the virgin birth in any other books of
the Bible. The doctrine of the virgin birth has been believed by the church
from its inception. Interestingly enough, Ignatius,
who lived at the start of the second century, wrote to the Ephesians: "For our God,
Jesus the Christ, was conceived in the womb by Mary, according to a
dispensation, of the seed of David but also of the Holy Ghost."
(partial reprint below from The
First Christmas by book authors Marcus Borg and John Crossan)
The account of the virgin birth and the story we all know and love (the
swaddling clothes, the stable, no room in the inn, the manger, angels singing
to shepherds, the star in the east, 3 kings bringing gifts) appears only in Luke. In Matthew, Jesus’ birth is mentioned only in a passing phrase in the
last verse of Chapter 1:25. Mary neither speaks nor receives any revelation in Matthew. Only Luke’s book tells the story of the birth as taking place in a
stable behind an inn because no rooms were available for them to rent. Matthew clearly places the birth of
Jesus at a house in
Matthew’s
story focuses on Joseph and his dilemma at learning that Mary is pregnant
before he consummated their marriage, and on Herod’s and unsuccessful attempt
to destroy Jesus. Both Matthew and Luke include a genealogy of
Jesus. Matthew traces Jesus’ genealogy to King David, descendant of
Abraham, founder of the Hebrew race. Luke traces Jesus’ genealogy back
to Adam, characterizing Christianity and Christ to be Savior of both Jew and
Gentile. (Editor’s note: interestingly enough, Matthew’s lineage of
Jesus begins with Abraham through Jeconiah and ends with “Jesus the son of
Joseph ~who was~ the husband of Mary” while Luke’s lineage begins with God
and Adam and traces forward to Abraham then and includes Mary’s lineage in Luke
3 back to David through Nathan, not Jeconiah.
The
two lists of Matthew and Luke give apparently two different names
to the father of Joseph; as Jacob the father of Joseph
(Mat.1:16) and Joseph, the son of Heli (Lk.1:23). (The
name of the biological father of Joseph was Jacob. Heli is his father-in-law.) Matthew’s
genealogy ends with Mary – Jesus. Luke’s genealogy ends with Joseph with
no mention of Mary.
The Jeconiah Curse: In the genealogy in Matthew
1, notice one name, Jeconiah (Jechonias) , in verse 11. If Joseph had
been Jesus' father according to the flesh, Jesus could never have occupied the
throne, for God's word barred the way. There had been a curse on this
royal line since the days of Jeconiah. In Jeremiah 22:30 we read, Thus
says the Lord: write this man down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in
his days: for none of his descendants shall prosper, sitting on the throne of
David, and ruling any more in
Joseph was the "legal father" of
Jesus, the "adopted father", but not the "natural father". The
prevailing argument is that just as God created the first man, Adam, with no
human parents, so did God create Jesus who had the genetic DNA of neither of
His earthly legal/adoptive parents.
In
Mark and Paul there is no mention of an extraordinary birth of
Jesus. Mark begins his gospel with Jesus as an adult. Though Paul
refers to Jesus’ birth twice, he does not mention that it was exceptional. In Romans
1:3, Jesus was “descended from David according to the flesh.”. In Galatians
4:4, Jesus was ‘born of a woman, born under the law” with no hint that his
birth was unusual. The gospel of John does not have a birth story at all.
THE LAST PAGE: MINUTIAE (mi nooshe ee) small
or trivial details
THE UNITED STATES ONE DOLLAR BILL
Take out a one
dollar bill, and look at it. The one dollar bill you're looking at first
came off the presses in 1957 in its present design. This so-called paper money
is in fact a cotton and linen blend, with red and blue minute silk fibers
running through it. It is actually material. We've all washed it
without it falling apart. A special blend of ink is used, the contents we
will never know. It is overprinted with symbols and then it is starched
to make it water resistant and pressed to give it that nice crisp look.
FRONT OF THE $1 BILL: you will see the United States Treasury Seal.
On the top of the seal you will see the scales for a balanced budget. In the
center you have a carpenter's square, a tool used for an even cut. Underneath
is the Key to the United States Treasury.
BACK OF THE $1 BILL: you will see
two circles. Both circles, together,
comprise the Great Seal of the
If you look at the right hand circle, and check it carefully, you will
learn that it is on every
If you didn’t know this, then your children don't know this, and their history
teachers don't know this. Too many veterans have given up too much to ever let
the meaning fade. Many veterans remember coming home to an
WHEN GOD TAKES SOMETHING
FROM YOU’
HE IS NOT PUNISHING YOU
HE IS OPENING YOUR HAND
TO RECEIVE SOMETHING NEW
September-October Newsletter deadline: Oct. 20, 2008 to HolyTrntyEditor@aol.com
Vicar: Father
Bill Dalton * Fat5herBill@verizon.net *
903-583-8184