Category: News

The Infinite Path

In its first performance together in nearly three years, Austin Cantorum presents “The Infinite Path,” a choral reflection on our journey together through life. Presenting music that explores our intrinsic need for home and connection while acknowledging the drive we have for the unknown. Featuring favorite selections from Cantorum’s past concerts plus works by Thomas LaVoy, Alfred Schnittke, David Lang, Eric Whitacre, and others.

Please join Austin Cantorum. They are always thrilled to provide a charming evening of beautiful and reflective music. You won’t have to pay to attend, but they graciously accept donations at the door.

For more information, click here.

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Sunday Symposium November 20

Have you noticed that in our worship bulletins we list Hospitality as the last part of the liturgy? Gathering together to welcome one another is a central theme of church life that we will explore in our next Sunday Symposium.

When have you experienced hospitality that touched you? How have you found joy in welcoming others? Why is hospitality named as an important characteristic of the church in the New Testament?

Join us for an open conversation on this theme as we seek to learn, listen, and seek a deeper understanding of the place of hospitality in our lives and how we might think about it and practice it in new ways.

We’ll gather around 11:30 in the parlor (continuing our hospitality time after worship) for this conversation.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this year’s Oktoberfest a great event with excellent food, beer, and even better fellowship.

The combined choirs from Peace Lutheran Church and St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Austin present John Rutter’s REQUIEM
Sunday, November 6
5:00 PM
St. Michael’s Episcopal Church
1500 N. Capital of Texas Highway
Austin, TX 78746.

English composer, conductor, and arranger John Rutter’s Requiem is a musical setting of parts of the Latin Requiem. This Requiem has added psalms and biblical verses in English, and was completed in 1985. It is scored for soprano, mixed choir, and chamber ensemble.

Five of its seven movements are based on text from the Latin Requiem Mass, while the second movement is a setting of “Out of the deep” (Pslam 130) and the sixth movement is an anthem “The Lord’s My Shepherd” (Psalm 23) which Rutter had earlier written.

November 6 (Daylight Savings Time Ends Nov. 5)

On Sunday, November 6, we celebrate the Feast of All Saints’ (which is November 1) – a time to remember and give thanks for saints near and far, famous and familiar only to us, those who died long ago, those we have lost recently. As part of the observance, we will read the names of those from FELC who have died during the past year.  We invite you to bring pictures/mementos of anyone who has died to place on our Remembrance Table in the Chapel of the Saints. You will be invited to write the names of anyone who has died in the past year in the Book of the Dead. Candles may be lighted in honor of deceased loved ones. This sacred space will remain in the Chapel in November. 

Join us for this beautiful and meaningful annual observance. Worship begins at 10 am in person and on livestream.

October 30, 2022

Join us for Sunday worship as we celebrate the heritage of the Lutheran Reformation and the good news of God’s grace in Christ through Word, song, prayer, and Holy Communion.

At the festival of the Reformation, we celebrate the heart of our faith: the gospel of Christ—the good news—that makes us free! By the end of the seventeenth century, many Lutheran churches celebrated a festival commemorating Martin Luther’s posting of the Ninety-five Theses, a summary of abuses in the church of his time. We pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to unite and empower the whole church in this age and in this place in its witness of love, justice, healing, and joy with and for all.  The primary color red reminds us of the fire, warmth, strength, and challenge of the Holy Spirit in the church and with the world. We encourage you to wear red as a visible sign of the Spirit’s power among us.

Beginning November 13, 2022

Once again FELC will follow the ancient church practice of a longer Advent season – usually six or seven weeks beginning after All Saints’ Sunday. Advent is about much more than preparation for Christmas. It is a time for contemplation, repentance, hopeful waiting, and eager expectation of the restored world God is bringing through Christ.

Our current lectionary (the assigned readings for each Sunday) already contains bible texts that reflect these themes. Our liturgy will begin using the primary color blue, shift to a more contemplative style, and create opportunities for reflection throughout the liturgy and season.

To begin our extended Advent time on November 13, we welcome FELC music director Bryan Rust as our preacher.

“I cannot start to find all the words to say the thank you for what you were able to do with this young man in a year’s time.”

On Sunday, October 9 we joyfully welcomed Pastor Alex LaChapelle, the 46th vicar of FELC, as our guest preacher and presiding minister in worship. We shared an internship with Pastor Alex from 2012-2013 when he was in his third year of seminary at The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Alex is currently serving as pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Harvey, Michigan.

It was a blessing to receive the word of God proclaimed, and to hear Pastor Alex’s reflections on our time together. To view his sermon on our YouTube channel, click here.

For continued connection:

The Rev. Alex LaChapelle

623 Northland Drive

Marquette, MI 49855

lachappy@gmail.com

Pastor Merle Franke was FELC’s third pastor, serving from 1963 to 1983. During his ministry he wrote books of stories and poetry. Merle and his writing were beloved by many. Merle’s daughter, Gwen Flory, has copies of his books available. If you’re interested, you can contact Gwen at gwenflory@gmail.com.

What Does It Mean for Your Faith?

This past Sunday we met for our monthly Sunday Symposium. The topic was Theology of Generosity. We had a thoughtful, engaging conversation about how we understand God as generous toward us in creation and in Christ. We shared how meaningful it is when others have been unexpectedly generous toward us, and how profound a gift it is to be able to be generous toward others.

Near the end of the conversation we discussed how the church can be a place where we learn and model generosity for each other. Who inspires you to be generous? Who have you inspired? How can we continue to build a culture of generosity in our congregation and celebrate our faith in a God who is excessively generous toward us and all people?

I hope you will ponder these questions and how your faith is meaningfully lived out through generosity. We all agreed on Sunday that generosity is about more than what we give financially. It’s about our time, our love, our forgiveness, our offering of our whole selves to others.

If you’d like to review the slides from the presentation you can find them here. At the end we viewed a powerful video about how generosity benefits our lives. You can view that video here.

Grace and peace.

–Pastor Michael Coffey