Bishop Samuel Lubogo of Source of the Nile Diocese Uganda is visiting the Mid-South Diocese after attending the International Convocation.  Bishop Lubogo is staying this week in Royston with Father and Mrs. Stanley Samuel.  He will minister this Thursday at 7:00 PM during the weekly meeting of St. John’s Eucharistic Fellowship and will then be our guest at St. Andrew’s Church on Sunday morning at 10:30 AM. 

Father Stanley extends a special invitation to all to come and join them in worship on Thursday evening to hear Bishop Lubogo.  For directions to St. John’s Eucharistic Fellowship, click here.

International Convocation officially begins this evening.  For up-to-date reports on the events and happenings go to CECHome.Com  Also, please keep the Convocation in your prayers throughout the week.

St. Andrew’s is trying a new online service called MyChurch.Org.  It is a service designed to allow parishoners to connect online so as to share important information, prayer requests, and stuff of interest with one another.  It also allows the church the opportunity to provide important information to the congregation who are registered and to make others in our community looking for a church aware of our parish.

Two of the unique features of MyChurch.Org is that it provides an exceptional church calender program that will allow us to easily post and keep track of schedules and upcoming events.  Plus, ministry groups within the parish will be able to establish sub-groups for disseminating groups specific information to their ministry team.

I encourage all our members to please sign-up and give the service a try.  I think you will like it and that it is going to prove a valuable tool for furthering parish communication. 

To sign-up, click here.

This weekend Father Lem Anderson will be both the celebrant and homilist during our Sunday Eucharist Service starting at 10:30 AM.  Deacon Kerry Wells will teach the Faith Formation class at 9:00 AM.  Father Randall will be in Dayton, Ohio for the dedication of his brother’s new church, the Safe House of Worship.

Please pray for our clergy as they carry out their various duties and responsibilities. 

If you have a need during Father Randall’s absence you may contact Father Lem through the church office at 770-784-5100.

This Sunday, August 28, will be our last Sunday collecting fans for the FaithWorks Fan Drive.  If you have not already contributed to the Fan Drive do so this weekend.  Fans donated will be given to needy families in the Covington/Newton County area to help during the hot summer months. 

Fans to be new and still in their box.  Wal-Mart has simple box fans for less than $12.00.  Thank you for your donation.  For more information, call Father Randall at 678-371-6498.

I never imagined when I picked up the book Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice earlier this year that I would be declaring myself a fan.  But having read Out of Egypt and now the sequel, Christ the Lord: Road to Cana, I must confess I am - a fan. 

In Road to Cana, Anne picks up with Jesus as an adult and weaves a story which takes him from Nazereth to the Wedding in Cana.  What is mesmerizing in this story is how Anne Rice is able to give us a glimpse into what Christ’s life might have looked like living in community in Nazereth, wrestling with the questions, concerns, and expectations of family, all the while coming into full awareness of His mission as Christ the Lord.  What I find admirable on the author’s part is that the plot of her story makes the Scriptural accounts come to life.  I found myself throughout the book thinking that her perspective on various accounts like the Baptism of Jesus, the Temptation, and even the Wedding in Cana gave great insights into the Scriptures themselves.

One of the most intriguing aspects that readers will face, especially Christians, is the thought of Jesus’ possible struggle with the desire to marry and to raise a family.  What at first seems almost an irreverent thought quickly becomes a very plausible consideration when one considers that Christ is fully man as well as fully God.  Certainly, he could have entertained or had desires to have a wife and to have children just I, a man, wanted a wife and children.  But let me say no more so as not to give to much away. 

My recommendation?  If you haven’t read the first book, Out of Egypt, start there.  If you have, get ready!  I think you are going to love Road to Cana. 

Keep’em coming, Anne.  You are doing a great job.

“I Was Glad” sung by The Choir at King’s College, Cambridge

The following quote is from an article entitled What the Devil Fears by Sarah Elias Foulkes (Charisma Online).

The devil fears nothing like prayer. He knows that if he can break our communication with God, he has cut us off from all power. Hence, he sentinels the gateway of prayer with his seducing agents. He deadens the spiritual sensibilities,  hatches excuses, makes evasions in the mind, causes us to suddenly grow dull and drowsy and indolent, and in a thousand other ways he works untiringly to keep us from getting hold of God in earnest prayer.

                

He engineers strange circumstances to keep us from our knees. He incites a false zeal and, in a multitude of church activities, crowds out prayer. To the degree that he succeeds in causing us to neglect prayer, he has won the day. Our victory comes in arousing and stirring up all the faculties of taking hold of God in the combats of prayer.