Author Archive: gsaustin
Giving Thanks & Saying Goodbye
Dear Parish family and friends, When I accepted the call to Good Shepherd in 2009, I covenanted to model a healthy leadership transition – that, one day, our season together would complete while ministry is vibrant and with the parish in better condition than when I arrived. With intentions to keep that promise, I write […]
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Rise Against Hunger 2018
Good Shepherd’s 2018 Advent theme, He has Filled the Hungry with Good Things, directed the parish in an exploration of hunger. Looking at hunger from various perspectives created an understanding of our relationship with food and how that relationship reflects our faith and becomes an issue of justice. The season culminated with a Rise Against […]
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Good Shepherd Sermon Podcast Episode 4: The Rev. Kathy Pfister and Dr. Scott Bader-Saye
In our fourth episode, the Rev. Kathy Pfister talks to Dr. Scott Bader-Saye about how our life in the Body of Christ forms us for love. Dr. Bader-Saye serves as the Academic Dean and Helen and Everett H. Jones Professor of Christian Ethics and Moral Theology at the Seminary of the Southwest. This conversation explores […]
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A Good Word from the Rector: Loving Our Neighbors Across Every Difference And Division
Dear Parish Family & Friends, In our annual commemoration of All Faithful Departed, we, the living, seek to renew the meaning of our mortal existence. In customary Good Shepherd form, this weekend’s celebrations were beautiful and moving: oboe and harp, orchestra and choir in Rutter’s Requiem; the tolling bell and the praying of the Necrology […]
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Good Shepherd Sermon Podcast Episode 3: The Rev. Morgan Allen and Laurens Fish, III
In this episode, the Rev. Morgan Allen visits with parishioner Laurens Fish, III, President of Weed-Corley-Fish funeral homes in Austin. The pair reflect on Thomas Lynch’s collection of essays entitled The Undertaking. Lynch, a funeral director, writes, “I [came] to know that the undertaking … had less to do with what was done to the […]
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Good Shepherd Sermon Podcast Episode 2: The Rev. Dean Lawrence and Sonya Apodaca
In this week’s podcast episode, the Rev. Dean Lawrence talks to Sonya Apodaca. Sonya is the Resident Services Coordinator for Rosemont Apartments in southeast Austin and shared with us her thoughts on choosing a life of serving others in need. She and Dean talk about discerning the call to serve others, the ways in which […]
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Good Shepherd Sermon Podcast Episode 1: The Rev. Stanford Adams and Dr. Beth Charrier
In our first episode, the Rev. Stanford Adams talks to Dr. Beth Charrier about joy. Dr. Charrier is a psychologist in practice here in Austin, and she and Stanford talk about finding lasting joy even through difficulty. This conversation explores topics that Stanford discussed in his sermon from Sunday, October 14, 2018, and it highlights […]
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A Good Word from the Rector: Back to School!
Dear Parish Family & Friends, We are now officially back to school! After yesterday’s wonderful Sunday of blessing backpacks for ourselves and for others; of commissioning students and educators; and of asking God to ride with our new, teen drivers; we are now ready for all comers on our first days of school. For a […]
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A Good Word from the Rector: Responding To Family Separations
Dear Parish Family and Friends, When my fourteen-year-old son was younger, he would explain misbehaviors by claiming to have “accidentally” done what he was not supposed to have done. Over time, my wife and I helped Michael realize that he had, in fact, purposely pushed his sister despite knowing better, and while we appreciated his […]
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What a Weekend to be an Episcopalian!
Dear Parish Family & Friends, Wow! By now, I bet you’ve heard that after The Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, spoke here at Good Shepherd two weeks ago, he announced an invitation to preach at a fancy wedding the day-before-yesterday…and it was amazing! Since then, the whole world has become curious about this Episcopal branch of […]
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