S T P AUL ’ S E PISCOPAL C HURCH † M ARCH 2009
T HE E PISTLE
“T HEREFORE , SINCE WE ARE SURROUNDED BY SO GREAT A CLOUD OF WITNESSES ,
L ET US ALSO LAY ASIDE EVERY WEIGHT , AND SIN WHICH CLINGS SO CLOSELY ,
A ND LET US RUN WITH PERSEVERANCE THE RACE THAT IS SET BEFORE US …”
Entering St. Paul’s Church,
we are confronted with
what the Epistle to the He-
brews calls, “a great cloud
of witnesses.” The histori-
cal marker itself is a listing
of some of the witnesses:
Richard Wilmer, James
Ticknor, Robert Philpot,
Joseph Johnson, Joseph
Hardee, John Forney,
Catesby Jones,
Henry Jackson,
John Murray,
Robert Barn-
well, Clara
Weaver Parrish,
and Jonathan
Daniels. Go
inside and you
are confronted
by more of
these witnesses.
Chapter 11 of the Epistle to
the Hebrews is a long listing
of heroes of the Old Testa-
ment. It begins with Abel
and concludes with Rahab.
Then in almost an after-
thought, the writer lists
others who persisted in the
midst of difficulty.
These listings of names are
memorials to them, but
represent more than just a
tribute. Their names en-
courage us to “keep the
faith.” Each of these saints
L ENT
H EBREWS 12:1
encountered real difficulties
and some lost their lives in
the struggles in which they
were engaged. We do not
need to forget them and we
should not forget their sto-
ries. Too many stories are
lost because they are not
retold and they are not
written to preserve them
for later generations. Who
are these people that are
memorialized on the his-
torical marker? Who are
these people who are
named on stained glass win-
dows and listed on plaques
at St. Paul’s Church?
Knowing their stories can
help us in our journey and
encourage us when we face
difficulty.
Hebrews 12 makes clear
that this is no listing of dead
people, but ones who are
alive. They are living wit-
nesses who watch and en- L ENTEN O FFERINGS
courage us in our journey.
Imagine if you will, that • Enquirer’s Classes
each decision is made with
• Evening Prayer
these saints looking down
upon us. They are encour- • Lenten Lunches
aging us to be faithful in our
• Morning Prayer
own generation. Do not
see them as bound by the • Stations of the Cross
cultural limitations which
they endured during their • Meditation Book
life times. The
prayer for the
Whole State of
Christ’s Church I NSIDE THIS ISSUE :
prays that the
departed may
continually grow S ENIOR W ARDEN ’ S 2
in God’s love M ISSIVE
and service. It
also prays for us D EACON ’ S B ENCH 2
to follow the
good example of
all God’s saints that with L ENTEN O PPURTU- 3
NITIES
them “we may be partakers
of thy heavenly kingdom.”
M USIC N OTES 3
In these difficult days, these
are ways for us to find en-
K ID ’ S P AGE 4
couragement. Ash
Wednesday, February 25
will begin Lent. Let us look
F INDING N EMO 5
to “the great cloud of wit-
nesses” and renew our com-
mitment to run the race of
Papa Joe’s 6
life with renewed integrity.
Journey
C ALENDAR 7
Jim+
P AGE 2 T HE E PISTLE

S ENIOR W ARDEN ’ S M ISSIVE

I am happy to report that afterThe self-study subcommittee ceived from the Diocesan of-
several meetings the Vestry has will do a survey of the parish, fice. They will then interview
Almighty God, selected the search committee. seeking everyone’s input as to certain candidates, travel to
giver of every
It was not an easy task to select
each parishioner’s assessment their home parish and select
good gift: Look
graciously on a committee, as so many good of where we are and where some to visit St. Paul’s for
your Church, and names were considered. you want us to go. After the further discussion and associa-
so guide the minds survey is complete, the self- tion. Finally they will then
of those who The other good news is that all
study group will put together a recommend a name to the
shall choose a who were nominated have
parish profile for our own use Vestry.
rector for this agreed to serve! We are all
and to be distributed to poten-
parish, that we grateful to them for their com- The discernment committee
may receive a tial candidates.
mitment and we must keep includes: Harry Gamble,
faithful pastor,
who will care for
them in our prayers as they go Those serving on the Self-study Grace Hobbs, Mike Sexton,
your people and about their important tasks. committee are: Harry Gam- Roberta Leach, Catesby ap R
equip us for our ble, Grace Hobbs, Mike Sex- Jones, Lynn Kendall, A. C.
The overall Chairperson of the
ministries; ton, Roberta Leach, Nancy Reeves, Manera Searcy, Jim
through Jesus committee is Harry Gamble.
Bennett, Miller Childers, Patty Truax, and Becky (Mrs. Lee)
Christ our Lord. He will be assisted by two ves-
DeBardeleben, Nancy John- Youngblood.
Amen try persons, namely Grace
son, Gerald Mange, and Miller
BCP p. 818 Hobbs and Mike Sexton. Please keep these people and
Childers.
Those three persons, along our search process in your
with Roberta Leach, will serve Following the completion of prayers.
on both of the two subcommit- the parish profile, the discern-
tees, self-study and discern- ment subcommittee will re- Bill
ment. view and screen names re-

D EACON ’ S B ENCH
WHAT ARE YOU each year. stoves to prevent water-borne
illnesses and acute respiratory
DOING FOR THE • We work to prevent ma- infections, and provide training
WORLD??? laria through the Nets for Life in their use and maintenance.
program partnership by distrib-
• We educate new mem-
uting long-lasting insecticide-
treated nets and educating bers on sanitation and hygiene
Episcopal communities in prevention and
practices, nutrition, maternal

Relief & treatment methods.

and child health and basice
first aid.
Develop- • We train clergy, educa-
ment saves lives, tors, youth leaders and com-
Joanie
munity health workers to stop
promoting good the spread of HIV/AIDS and
health and fight- provide care to those affected
ing preventable by the disease. (If you would like to learn more about
reaching out to the needs of the world
diseases that kill • We build wells, latrines,
through ERD, talk to your deacon.)
water stations and smokeless
millions of people
L ENT
L ENTEN O PPURTUNITIES
Lent is the forty day liturgi-
cal season of fasting and
prayer before Easter. The
forty days represents the
time Jesus spent in the de-
sert where he was tempted
by Satan. Those forty days
begin on Ash Wednesday
and end on Holy Saturday.
However, the six Sundays
in Lent are not counted as
they represent “mini-
Easters”, a celebration of
Jesus’ victory over sin and
death.
The purpose of Lent is the
preparation of the believer
through practices of
prayer, penitence, self-
denial, alms-giving and
discipline as we approach
Holy Week and Easter.
St Paul’s has a number of
offerings to enrich your
Lenten disciplines or prac-
tice of prayer. On Tuesday
evenings we will offer Eve-
ning Prayer at 6pm.
Wednesdays bring Lenten
M USIC N OTES
I love this scripture. I
learned it along with the
rest of the chapter and used
to say it to myself as I was
out walking. The writer of
this passage had a knack of
making great analogies to
make things abundantly
clear.
Carrying a heavy weight
lunches with the Rev. Dr.
Barry Vaughn. Thursday
mornings join Nancy Ben-
nett for Morning Prayer at
8am. Friday afternoons at
5:30pm, walk the Stations
of the Cross with Liz Tay-
lor and Barbara Pritchard.
You should also have re-
ceived a Lenten Meditation
Book in the mail. These
meditations were written
by parishioners and edited
and published by Grace
Hobbs and Nancy Bennett.
They follow the Daily Of-
fice Year One and are a
great discipline to under-
take during this time.
There are changes around
the physical space of the
church as well. You might
notice that the hangings on
the lectern and pulpit as
well as the cloth on the
altar have been replaced
with burlap. All the beau-
tiful brass candlesticks have
while walking is something
many of us do to maximize
workouts, but if you were
training for a marathon,
you would find it counter-
productive. The same goes
for our Christian walk. Sin
is a cumbersome weight
that is in direct opposition
to getting us to our goal:
closeness with Jesus.
P AGE 3
been removed and replaced
with wrought iron. The
cross is now made of
wood.
The church practices a pe-
riod of self-denial by not
using the “A” word, Alle-
luia during the season (even
on Sundays). And by ob-
serving certain fast days
such as Ash Wednesday and
Good Friday. Even the
clergy dress a little differ-
He was in the
ently replacing their
brightly colored chasuble wilderness
forty days,
and stole with one made of
tempted by
burlap to match the altar
Satan;
cloth and hangings. and he was
with the
Whatever way you observe
wild beasts;
Lent it is important to re-
and the
member that this season of
angels waited
grief ends with the great
celebration of Easter. And on him.
because of this is often re- Mark 1: 13
ferred to as the season of
“Bright Sadness” in the
Eastern Orthodox Church.
God won’t do everything
for us; He expects us to do
some “throwing off” as an
act of obedience, so as
Nike says, “just do it”!
In Christ,
Patti
P AGE 4 T HE E PISTLE

s t
J u Esther
o r
F Esther was a beautiful, young girl who becomes
queen and by using her gifts and talents saves
her people. Esther is
a story in the Old
Find-A-Word
Testament, though it
P S M Z P P N U P E sounds a lot like a
S E Y O U L H V I Z
Disney story with a
common girl who
Q X W A R R L J D W marries her prince
P R O V I D E N C E and an evil villain who
tries to destroy her
Q E L C M P E S T U
family.
Z X H A M O N C N W But this is no Disney
G I I W D K K D A C story, instead it is a
story of learning about who we are as God’s
Q R E H T S E N K I
people and how we must take a risk in order
that God can act through us. She is taught
Esther Mordecai Purim
these principles by her cousin, Mordecai, and
Hamon Providence Xerxes
when the evil Hamon threatens to kill all the
Jews, Esther risks her own life to go before the
king and saves her people.

Find out more

about Esther
at the Rotation Rodeo
each Sunday morning
at 9:10am
L ENT P AGE 5

S T P AUL ’ S M EMORIAL H ISTORY W INDOW

Got a Historic St Paul’s Ancestor?
T HOSE
~ ALREADY
MEMORIALIZED
INCLUDE :
St Paul’s Memorial History Window
T HE R T R EV
Contact James Hammonds 412-3131 for details R OBERT W
B ARNWELL
Or just tell Joyce you are interested
T HE R T R EV
OR J OHN G
M URRAY
Want to honor a famous Rector or Parishioner?
W ILLIAM J OSEPH
Like H ARDEE
Captain Jones Clara Weaver Parrish
T HE R T R EV
The Reverend Edward Gamble General John Forney L EONIDAS P OLK
Governor John Forney Johnson The Reverend Ellison Capers
J OSEPH E
J OHNSTON
The cost is $500.
To view the window, look in the Lower Hall Kitchen.

F INDING N EMO
This year, the PB&J Club has
spent a great deal of time
under the sea, searching for
Nemo and learning about
how God has worked through
some of our favorite charac-
ters in the Bible.
During our time together, we whales! Noah
watch a clip from the movie shared his tale of
“Finding Nemo” and met a being swallowed
character from the Bible who by the whale be-
shares a water-related experi- cause he tried to
ence with us. run away from
God and did not
In January, we met Moses’
want to do what
mom and learned about her
God asked of him.
faith and courage as she hid
her baby boy in a basket in the If you would like
bulrushes next to the Nile to help out as a
River in order to save him. Bible character,
please contact
In February, Noah came for a
Candice. We are
visit, fresh from the belly of
always in need of those who
the whale. He was very con-
would be willing to come and
cerned that we might be from
play with us the second Mon-
Ninevah and encouraged us
day of every month.
several times to watch out for
P AGE 6
P APA J OE ’ S J OURNEY
It appears to me that Paul must
at some time in his youth been
a runner. Perhaps he may even
have competed in some kind of
ancient sports games - similar
Such a large to the Olympics - because he
crowd of wit- often refers to our journey in
nesses is all faith as a “race.” (I Corin-
around us. So thians 9:24, II Timothy 4:07
we must get rid and Hebrews 12:1) Cer-
of everything tainly Paul was aware that
that slows us all runners must not carry any
down, espe- additional weight if one was to
cially the sin endure, to run the race well.
that just won’t Therefore Paul encourages
let go. And we Christians to divest ourselves
must be deter- of any “weight” or “sin” that
mined to run may cause us not to finish the
the race that is race or to run the race well.
ahead of us.
The question for us is: “What
Hebrews 12:1 weight or sin is there in our
Contemporary
lives that hinder us in our
English Version “journey in faith?” It is unfor- things about others and
tunate that many Christians
have reduced the term “sin” to
mean only those areas in life
that are easily recognized -
drinking to ex-
cess, using vul-
garity, and sexual
immorality to
name a few. This
shallow and erro-
neous concept
allows us the
freedom to pick
and choose the
things in life
which are socially
unacceptable as
sin and prevents
us from recogniz-
ing and address-
ing those sins in
our own lives.
For instance, let
us look at Ro-
mans 2:18-27, the center-
piece of much conflict in the
Church today. If we are seri-
ous about sin, let us continue
to read “the rest of the story”
in verses 2:28-32. These
verses don’t target just a few
of us; they include all of us.
We are included to some ex-
tent in the following: “Since
these people refused to
think about God, he let
their unclean minds rule
over them. That’s why
they do all sorts of inde-
cent things. They are evil,
wicked, and greedy, as
well as mean in every pos-
sible way. They want what
others have, and they
murder, argue, cheat, and
are hard to get along with.
They gossip, say cruel
hate God.”
HELLO!!! I know that I,
along with all the Apostles,
T HE E PISTLE
Disciples, Bishops, Priests, and
Parishioners, are also guilty of
a few if not many of this same
description. And it is because
Paul was also guilty of many of
these same sins that he writes
in Romans 7:18-24: “I
know that my selfish de-
sires won’t let me do any-
thing that is good. Even
when I want to do right, I
cannot. Instead of doing
what is right, I do wrong.
And so, if I don’t do what
I know is right, I am no
longer the one doing
these evil things. The sin
that lives in me is what
does them. The law has
shown me that something
in me keeps me from what
I know is right. With my
whole heart I agree with
the Law of God. But in
every part of me, I dis-
cover something fighting
against my mind, and it
makes me a prisoner of sin
that controls everything I
do. What a miserable per-
son I am. Who will rescue
me from this body that is
doomed to die? Thank
God! Jesus Christ will res-
cue me.”
Our Lord has given us one
commandment - to love one
another, even as He has
loved us.
Papa Joe+
L ENT P AGE 7

S CHEDULE OF E VENTS M ARCH 2009

• 1st Ultreya 6pm Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
• 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th Enquirer’s Classes
4pm 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
• 1st, 8th, 15th, 29th EYC 5-7pm
• 2nd Daughters of the King 6:15pm 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

• 3rd Staff Meeting 3:30pm

15 16 17 18 19 20 21
• 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th, 31st Evening Prayer
6pm
• 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th Choir 6pm 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

• 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th Lenten Lunches

29 30 31
• 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th Morning Prayer 8am
• 6th-8th Happening #54
• 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th Stations of the Cross
5:30pm
• 9th Peanut Butter & Jelly Club 3:30pm
• 11th Cedar Hill Holy Eucharist
• 12th-15th Cursillo #166
• 15th Epistle Deadline
• 17th Vestry 5:30pm
• 28th PLTE

Make plans now

to join
The Right Rev Henry Parsley
and his wife Becky along with
all your favorite St Paul’s
parishioners
for
Easter Lunch
in
Parker Hall.
Call Joyce and make
your reservations today!
 S T P AUL ’ S E PISCOPAL
C HURCH † M ARCH 2009
210 Lauderdale Street
P O Box 1306
Selma, AL 36702-1306

Phone: (334) 874-8421

Fax: (334) 875-7457
www.stpaulsselma.dioala.org

The Rev Jim Elliot - rector@stpaulselma.org

The Rev Joe Knight - hazenone@bellsouth.net
Joyce Dawson - parish@stpaulselma.org
Joanie Hammonds - deacon@stpaulselma.org
Candice Frazer - family@stpaulselma.org
Miriam or Patti - choir@stpaulselma.org

Lenten Lunches
Parker Hall
Wednesdays at Noon
Featuring: The Rev. Dr. Barry Vaughn
Light lunches provided by:
(Donations Accepted)

March 4 ~ Daughters of the King

March 11 ~ ECW
March 18 ~ Cursillo
March 25 ~ Choir
April 1 ~ Vestry