Nevertheless She Preached

Our conference is for ministers like you as well as church leaders, church critics, community organizers, and deep thinkers. If you can’t attend the whole conference, we have a host of ticket options available: Sunday night only, Monday only, Monday night only, and Tuesday only! Sunday night features spoken word poetry and live music. Monday night we are hosting the drag queen, Flamy Grant, and Monday and Tuesday the daytime hours are packed full with incredible speakers, conversations, and workshops.

Visit nsp2023.eventbrite.com to view your ticket options. Learn more about us at neverthelessshepreached.com!

Inside Books

HELP US DONATE BOOKS TO TEXAS PRISONERS

Based in Austin, Texas, the “Inside Books Project” is an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization that sends free books and educational materials to people in Texas prisons. Inside Books Project works to promote reading, literacy, and education among incarcerated individuals and to educate the general public on issues of incarceration.

See below for exactly what’s needed.  We’ll be collecting until SUNDAY, AUGUST 27.  

Thanks so much,

FELC Racial Justice Taskforce

Books most in need:

  • Dictionaries & Thesauruses (paperback, please)
  • African American Literature & Studies (urban fiction, history, etc.)
  • Graphic Novels, Manga, Comics (no nudity)
  • Books on How to Draw 
  • Trade Books & How to Manuals (plumbing, woodwork, electrical repair, agriculture, etc.) 
  • LGBTQ+ (literature, studies, etc.)
  • Native American History & Literature
  • Books in Spanish (fiction, non-fiction, & Spanish-English dictionaries)
  • Learning Spanish & Learning English (workbooks, ESL, bilingual)
  • Test Prep Books (GED, SAT, & similar)
  • Latinx Studies 
  • Legal Resources (up-to-date, none earlier than 2015)
  • Science & Math Textbooks (up-to-date)
  • Computer Science & Technology (up-to-date, none earlier than 2012)
  • Game & Puzzle Books (esp. Dungeons and Dragons)
  • Writing & Grammar Resources
  • Business (how to start and run)
  • Magazines (especially handyman/how-to, Spanish, any of the topics listed above, National Geographic)

Books not needed:

  • Books in poor condition (water damaged, ripped or missing cover, old/falling apart)
  • Hardcover fiction – these books are too heavy to mail
  • Encyclopedias – these are too heavy to mail
  • Blank journals / composition books – these have sadly been banned
  • Books with nudity or partial nudity (i.e., string bikinis) – these are banned
  • Spiral bound books – these are banned
  • Martial Arts books – these are banned
  • Books that contain detailed maps of Texas – these are banned

FELC Racial Justice Lending Library

Read & Review a Book

Now that the kids are going back to school, maybe you’ll have a moment to read.  Check out the books in the Racial Justice Lending Library in the hallway near the restrooms.  The more we know, the more able we will be to work for racial justice.

For more information, contact Barbara Wiederaenders, on behalf of the Racial Justice Taskforce, at bwiederaenders@att.net

Here are recent book reviews:

Just Mercy – A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson (2014)

                Stevenson teaches us about the appalling ways that justice has been derailed, primarily in the South, by taking us through the personal stories of people his firm, The Equal Justice Initiative, was, in most cases, able to exonerate or free. A compelling read, Just Mercy concludes that “we have to reform a system of criminal justice that continues to treat people better if they are rich and guilty than if they are poor and innocent. A system that denies the poor the legal help they need, that makes wealth and status more important than culpability, must be changed. . .fear and anger are a threat to justice, they can infect a community, a state, or a nation and make us blind, irrational, and dangerous. . .mass imprisonment has littered the national landscape with carceral monuments of reckless and excessive punishment and ravaged communities with our hopeless willingness to condemn and discard the most vulnerable among us. . . .the death penalty is not about whether people deserve to die. . .the real question of capital punishment in this country is, Do we deserve to kill?”  The pages are filled with real life illustrations of these truths. I highly recommend this book!  –Barbara Wiederaenders

Baptized in Tear Gas by Elle Dowd

It was the love for her Black children that moved Elle Dowd to join in the Ferguson Uprising and that experience moved her from being a white moderate to an activist. Written from a white perspective, she shares why anti racist activism is important on a personal, but also a theological level.  Baptized in Tear Gas is a worthwhile read from a Lutheran and LGBTQ+ point of view if you’ve just begun pondering what anti racist work entails and why we should do it. –Cassie Smith

The Inner Work of Racial Justice by Rhonda Magee

Favorite quotes from the book:

“See our potential together and to lift ourselves up to a new plane for being in relationship with one another in ways that do not depend on power over, but rejoice in power with!”

“May the ocean of our healing your river meeting mine bring peace, renew the places and spaces we share and strengthen the currents running through us of injustice, of just this unceasingly” –Andy MacLaren

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

In the prologue to his novel Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison’s narrator states, “I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination—indeed, everything and anything except me.”

Invisible Man is the story of a young, college-educated Black man struggling to survive and succeed in a racially divided society that refuses to see him as a human being. Told in the form of a first-person narrative, Invisible Man traces the narrator’s physical and psychological journey from blind ignorance to enlightened awareness through a series of flashbacks in the forms of dreams and memories.

This novel is beautifully written and incisive. A powerful piece of literature, I recommend it for anyone who wants to gain insight into the state and impact of racism in the U.S. Sadly, much has not changed since this book was first published seventy years ago. –Mari Ward

My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem

Resmaa Menakem writes that his grandmother “wasn’t a large woman, but her hands were surprisingly stout, with broad fingers and thick pads below each.” One time, he asked her why her hands were like that, and she replied, “That’s from picking cotton. They been that way since long before I was your age. I started working the fields sharecroppin’ when I was four.”

Just as Resmaa’s grandmother’s hands were scarred by this abuse, so was a part of her psyche. And this caused her to overreact at times to his misbehaviors. He knew that she loved him, but some of the trauma was passed on nonetheless. Similar experiences can result in overreactions in other stressful situations, too, such as when a police officer shoots an innocent person in reaction to their skin color and the fear that it induces in them.

As a trauma therapist, Resmaa explains that we all suffer trauma at some point in our lives, usually as a result of an abusive relationship or system. He argues that trauma can be passed on genetically as well. In My Grandmother’s Hands, the authorreveals meaningful ways in which each of us can begin to heal our own trauma and that of society in order to make the world a better place for all of us and for future generations. –Mari Ward

For information about ways to connect and our community journey in racial justice, visit Racial Justice Action | First English Lutheran Church | Austin, Texas (felcaustin.org)

Austin-Area Lutheran Churches at Austin Pride Festival 2023

We are excited to return to Austin Pride this year with our RIC congregations on Saturday, August 12 at the Fiesta Gardens, 2101 Jesse E. Segovia St, Austin. The Festival begins at 11AM. Please sign up below for an hour to staff the festival booth or to help set up or tear down. The festival runs from 11 am to 6 pm, and the parade is at 8 pm.

2023 Pride SignUp Genius hosted by Peace Lutheran Church

If you can’t attend in person but would like to offer financial contributions or donate specific needed items, you can sign up there, and we will be in touch about how you can help. Thanks!

If you would like to purchase the Technicolor Ministries Pride shirt please click here.

Looking forward to seeing you there! Please contact Pr. Carolyn Albert-Donovan, of Peace Lutheran, through the SignUp Genius link (above) with questions.

Back to School Blessing: Sunday, August 13

Begin the new school year with prayer and blessing and join in supporting our students and educators.  Students of all ages, teachers, administrators, and all support staff are invited during worship on Sunday, August 13 (onsite and online) to receive a blessing for a year of brave and safe learning.

Musings from Pastor J!

In this post, we’ll be in regular connection with J. Mills, FELC transitional pastor.

27 June 2023

While I am uncertain of the future of my “musings” column, I thought I would broaden the conversation around a question received this week from one of our Siblings regarding the word “Evangelical” and its connection to both an expression of Lutheranism in the world and a movement of conservative Christianity sweeping the nationalist stage (addt’l context: https://statesman-tx.newsmemory.com/?publink=340f3abd2_134ac68). Here was my response to the conflicted-question: I am reminded of one of the Dwelling in the Word passages we use in Holy Fork in the Road Ministry, John 2:13-22. Verse 17 reads:

(First Nations) 17The ones who walked the road with him listened and remembered the ancient prophecy, “My desire to honor your sacred lodge burns like a fire in my belly.”

(NIV) 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

(NRSV-A) 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’

(New Life) 17 Then His followers remembered that it was written in the Holy Writings, “I am jealous for the honor of Your house.”

I share these multiple translations (versions) because I think that’s what we’re experiencing here around the idea of Evangelical (of or according to the teaching of the gospels of the second testament). A word is always defined by its use; the definition itself has no power in connection to the word but instead to the context of the usage. Context provides the definition, and we have a separation of contexts (etymologies) over time regarding the opportunity to experience zeal for the word ‘evangelical’, or ‘evangelical’ as a synonym for the negative aspects of the experience of zeal as a zealot or being zealous. Many of us would love to think that this current rise of Evangelical as a synonym for ‘zealot’ as new, and yet this manifestation of a ‘Christianity’ in this nation, specifically, is not new and you may be interested to know that the conflicted use of ‘evangelical’, as used today, has not yet crested its height of vogue in the 1840s (I wonder what could possibly have sparked that rise…?).

Now: scripture. In the four translations I’ve offered we have two starkly different understandings. Three translations seem to agree that zeal is a positive quality, a yearning that offers us an invitation to just be in God’s reality of moving heaven into earth with our entirety; every cell and sinew moving together to support and show God to our siblings. Then there’s this fourth translation that invites this sinful manifestation of jealousy into the mix, as though a) Jesus were at odds with God about how one might be honored OR b) experiencing the honoring of the world in PLACE of God in a space that is meant to be sacred (this latter opportunity makes the most sense in the entirety of our experience, but the former can’t be discounted just because we don’t like it; language is funny that way).

So where is it written that our historical friends, the disciples, finally remembered? Psalms, of course: (sticking with New Life because that’s where we get this idea of jealousy) ” 9 For the strong desire for Your house has burned me up. And the bad things said about You have fallen on me.” Now… no ‘jealousy’ here. How did we end up with jealousy in the Second Testament rehash of this psalmody where v.9 clearly does not invite us into a Hebrew understanding of jealousy at all? I blame Greek (as we all should) for having used the word ζῆλος (zelos) which, in English, can be translated as zeal (huh, weird that) or jealousy. We would not use these words interchangeably like this today, but was there a time? Nope, no there was not a time when English interchanged these words. Then it must be that the Greek invites us into the description of an emotion of consumption: either you are consumed in favor of something and desire a whole-self-support of that thing (zeal) or you are fully consumed against something and view it as an utter rival to your being (jealousy).

My question, in light of all of this: does it matter what Evangelical means or is the context more important? If for us the context is “of or pointing to the gospel” how are we living that, and do we describe that as evangelical in the face of continued coopting of a term that Luther (re)claimed in the 1500’s? I refer what we are called to be, in accordance with the gospel: loving. If that’s how people experience me then that’s how I hope they experience God and evangelical is just another word that might point to a thing that people do… by and large “evangelical” doesn’t point to love as the greater populace of the world understands it and, maybe? Never has.

I invite continued discourse around this and everything happening around here (and you 😉 ). I look forward to returning from a northern trip to temperatures my body is better suited for in time for our Pride 2.0 celebration with our Sibling RIC churches; sign up and show up on both the 12th and 13th of August (also blessing the back-to-school crews)! While I am gone (from 31Jul to 11Aug), please reach out to Pastor Sharolyn Browning for your pastoral care needs: (512) 289-2732. Peace+ be with you.

You can connect with Pastor J at: pastor@felcaustin.org | 512-478-1933 | 443-846-9203

Council News

Please join with the Council in welcoming Terry Porter and Paul Barlow, both of whom will be filling unexpired terms until our Annual Meeting in January 2024.  Terry is a familiar face, having grown up at 1st English.  Both Terry and his wife Merrily have served on the council in the past, and Merrily is currently serving as Vice President of the newly constituted CDC Board.    Paul and his wife Claudia transferred membership from Palm Valley in the Fall of 2022.  Paul served on the council at Palm Valley as well as volunteering at Vacation Bible School and on the Stewardship Committee.  Claudia is currently serving on the Admin Team overseeing the hiring of our office administrator.  Welcome to both Terry and Paul.  We are looking forward to working with you in the coming months as 1st English continues on this exciting journey.  

Council Minutes in Email

Miss the Council minutes posted to the bulletin board? Did you know that was a thing in ages past? Rather than bring that back, Council is offering you an opportunity to consume the minutes from the comfort of your own email. If you’d like a copy of the approved minutes from the month prior, contact the Office to be placed on a mailing list to have the minutes of every meeting shared with you as soon as they’re approved. We intend to share the June Minutes from the June Council Meeting on July 25th. Don’t delay letting office@felcaustin.org know that you would like a copy.

Council Executive Updates

  • Office location for the Music Minister
  • Fellowship Hall and Education Wing renovations
  • HVA/C to Parish House
  • Micah 6 Proposal

Council continues to assess available space near the sanctuary for our Music Ministry. Once a decision is finalized the location will be announced. The location remains under discussion due to HVA/C issues. Council will be meeting Thursday evening, 13Jul, to discuss this topic in earnest for a solid solution and plan.

Demo of existing ceiling in the Fellowship Hall is completed. The new grid is in place, and lighting work is complete.

Demo and grid work is continuing in the Education Wing. The CDC Directors Office is complete and ready for Jenn to move in.

Work is complete on the lighting in the hallway of the Education Wing. Plumbing work began in the bathrooms serving the CDC in the Education Wing. Updates include a new water heater, doors on the stalls so that the facilities can be truly inclusive and offer gender-neutral privacy opportunities.

While the Education Wing (aka Parish House) is vacant and while contractors are in the building retrofitting the Parish House with HVA/C ductwork seems advisable. The Council has authorized the spending of roughly $1,000 – $1300 to provide HVA/C to the Parish House offices. This money is coming from the 2022 capital campaign. That work is to be completed on Thursday, 13Jul.

Joining together at Micah 6 Ben Rode, Pastor J, Nancy Neuse, and Andy Maclaren have been discussing prospects for the Council volunteering at Micah 6 in the coming months, the better to engage with the realities of the need that the food pantry serves, and to help improve our understanding of the requirements of this vital ministry. The date would be on a Thursday afternoon/evening, 4 – 8 pm or Saturday morning 8 am – noon, as determined from the Micah 6 volunteer schedule at https://signup.com/client/invitation2/secure/258298624032/true#/invitation. Right now Thursday August 17 seems like a promising date as per the number of slots available. We will need to poll council members for their availability, and it will also be advisable to consider carpooling arrangements, as construction on San Antonio Street around the pantry limits access.

There are a limited number of slots and they may start filling the closer we get to that date. Right now it looks like there are 23 open for pantry assistance on 9 open for receiving, so that should be enough but it can change quickly.