St. Barnabas’s Anglican Church Begins Season of Lent

Members of the St. Barnabas’s Anglican Church of Bellville gathered at a restaurant in Brenham on the evening of Shrove Tuesday, Feb. 21, (as has become the custom) for pancakes. The next day the parish began its observation of a Holy Lent, the period of forty days (not counting Sundays) of penitence, starting on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 22, in spiritual preparation for the celebration of the Feast of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, commonly known as Easter.

Worshippers gathered at 5 p.m. for Imposition of Ashes, the chanting of the Litany followed by the Penitential Office, and, after Father Keppler’s homily, the celebrating together of Holy Communion. The membership however, had already been preparing for this commencing of the Lenten season by beginning a broad overview of the Bible on the preceding Sunday, Feb. 19 (Quinquagesima), a study that will carry the mission parish through some twelve to thirteen Sundays, immediately after worship, saving the several times when the schedule must be interrupted (for such as the annual parish meeting or monthly fellowship meals).

The course, chosen and led by Father Keppler, is designed to help those who may not have spent enough immersion in the Word to understand major over-arching themes in the Bible, and thus to equip them for further deeper study. At the same time, it will also help those who have spent much time in the Word to stand back and notice broad themes that they might have hitherto overlooked (the trees getting in the way of the forest, as it were). Whatever the level of experience in the study of the Bible, this is the opportunity for 100% of the membership of the church to be joined (both in person on Sundays and in their individual homes on weekdays and when some must miss the Sunday morning lessons, each with a copy of the study guide and of the workbook) in upbuilding one another in the corporate witness of the parish to God’s unchanging message of Salvation as revealed in Scripture, from the first word of the Book of Genesis to the last word of the Revelation, not to be compromised with the prevailing worldview.

St. Barnabas’s Church stands at 237 West Austin St. where this study is open as well to nonmembers who might desire to visit and take part in all or a portion of the study.

Visit the church’s website at www.stbarnabasrec. org and the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/StBarnabasBellville, where you can see and hear each Sunday’s service.

St Barnabas’s is a mission of the Reformed Episcopal Diocese of MidAmerica within the Anglican Church in North America.