We extend a warm welcome to all of our visitors and invite you into our caring family. We hope you will join us in worship, Christian education, fellowship and outreach as we seek to grow in the love and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We invite you to come and visit with us and make Emmanuel Church in Lockhart your church home.
It is our mission to obey the two great commandments of Christ, to go into the world to teach and baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We pledge ourselves to reach out lovingly to each other: in our parish family, our community, and our world; giving assistance where it is needed in the name of Jesus Christ.
A HISTORY OF THE EMMANUEL EPISCOPAL SANCTUARY AND BUILDINGS
On August 20, 2006, Emmanuel Episcopal Church celebrated the 150th anniversary of the completion of its sanctuary.
The sanctuary of Emmanuel Episcopal Church is one of the more significant church buildings west of the Mississippi. Its structure is the oldest Protestant church building west of the Mississippi in use without major modifications.
In 1853, Lockhart was a tiny community on the frontier. It had dropped 'Springs" from its name when it incorporated just 5 years before. This period was one of missionary zeal, as reflected by the circuit riding preachers that evangelized the border areas. The Emmanuel congregation was organized in 1853, when the Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church in Philadelphia sent the Rev. Joseph Wood Dunn to the Lockhart region. The church met in a school house with its first congregants. The Articles of Organization refer to the church as "Amanuels". Frontier Texans weren't good spellers. As the church membership grew, it outgrew the small school facility, and the time came to build a permanent edifice.
Money was a scarce or non-existent commodity in the 1850s. Rev. Dunn cast around for inexpensive construction methods, and he and the church members settled on a type of concrete, probably learned from local Mexican-American artisans, of mixing caliche, sand and gravel. The result is a Gothic - Spanish style structure with thick whitewashed walls some two feet thick. Four members of the church agreed to roof the building, if Rev. Dunn would get the walls and windows built. The good preacher had to personally guarantee a $600 advance, and he collected donations from as far away as Philadelphia to repay the note. The church was completed on August 22nd, 1856, and arrangements were made to procure six glazed sconces for lighting. On May 17, 1857, Bishop George W. Freeman, the last non-resident Episcopal Bishop of Texas, preached a sermon in the small sanctuary. He noted in his journal: "It is a neat building, quite church-like, and excellently adapted tone of the great purpose of a Protestant Church, the preaching of the gospel. It is the easiest church to speak in that I am acquainted with, and, in reference to the science of acousticks, is worthy of imitation."
The sanctuary's original floor was polished limestone. The altar chancel, rails, and window frames were made of local walnut. Originally, there was a belfry. Damaged by a hurricane in 1879, it had to be removed in 1880. The original bell was also damaged, and given to a church member. The replacement bell, probably from the railroad, was later hung on a cedar post.
Some interesting myths have grown up about the sanctuary. One is that it served as a stable for Union troops during the Reconstruction period. Research shows that the Union troops were actually stationed in Austin, and when sent out on patrol to Lockhart, camped at springs near the old ice house, adjacent to the Livengood Feeds property. Some cut nails found under a wooden floor laid in 1899 lent credence to this story, but apparently there is no truth in it. Another is that there was a choir loft directly above the nave. The small area, now hidden behind louvered windows, would have been too small (and hot) for any choir numbering more than 2 persons, and in all probability provided access to the (now removed) belfry. There may have been a loft in the actual sanctuary, but this is unknown. Finally, the story persists that the church support beams, made of cedar, were brought from the Indianola area by carreta. Given the abundance of cedar in the Lockhart area, this also is probably not true.
In the 1970s the church (and by that I mean the congregation) decided to embark on a major rehabilitation of the sanctuary. The original floor was uncovered and re-finished. A parish hall was created out of an old structure that had once been a garage, and the detached parish hall was made into classrooms. All buildings were then joined under one roof and stuccoed. Shortly after this, the church bell was hung in its own bell tower. The church's current appearance is the result of this labor of love.
Recent acquisitions include the one-half acre adjacent to St. Mary's parking lot, and the old Holter Building. This building, complete with an old Coca Cola advertisement on its side, houses Kirk Tunningley's Big Dog Neon business. The old storage shed on the north side of the Holter building was recently torn down, and that open space will soon be occupied by a prayer garden.
An old newspaper caption below a picture of the exterior of the building noted its plain appearance and remarked that it could be easily missed by one passing the church. Like our bodies, it is not what is on the outside that matters, but what is inside. The interior of Emmanuel is elegantly simple and creates a Holy place filled with the spirit of all who have and will worship here.
We invite you to, "Come and see."
By Todd Blomerth and Liz McGinty
Miss Julie? Where are you?
Aha! There you are!
Father Tom presents Julie with a St. Cecilia icon
Miss Julie
To check out the Original Sinners and see what music they have been playing go to their website:
The Original Sinners
The Original Sinners members are Richard Banks playing bass; Todd Blomerth playing guitar; Donaly Brice playing guitar; Fletcher Clark playing mandolin.
The Original Sinners
Newspaper photo
The Original Sinners and Friends
Pictures in the church.
The Original Sinners at Golden Age Home.
Emmanuel has several members that participate in the "Relay for Life"
The vision for the Texas Water Mission and its Honduras Water Ministry began in 1999 during a mission trip to Honduras following Hurricane Mitch, which devastated the country in October 1998. At that time we witnessed the suffering in a village that was quarantined because of cholera, a waterborne disease. The vision was further developed through discussions with locals and missionaries that underscored the vast suffering in the country because of the scarcity of safe water.
Follow up visits to Honduras led to the development of a limited concept to provide safe water using volunteers from the U.S. and a small drilling rig to construct shallow wells in villages that needed water. The work was to be done in cooperation and concert with the Episcopal Missionary Diocese of Honduras.
An initial assessment was that the small rig that was envisioned would be inadequate to provide water where it was needed. A budget for a larger rig was developed and a successful grant request was made to the Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) Fund for just under $50,000. Planning work was continued in parallel to the development and approval process of the grant.
As the planning progressed it was found that several initial assumptions were not workable and additional equipment, including tools, a truck and air compressor were needed. Within this time frame it was decided that the Water Ministry would become a project of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas (www.episcopal-dwtx.org). With the help of Living Water International (www.water.cc), we were able to buy a truck and air compressor as well as the drilling rig (over $90,000 total value) within the grant by ERD.
The equipment was shipped to Honduras in October 2002. The initial team of volunteers met the equipment in the El Paraiso region of Honduras. Subsequent volunteer trips have been very successful and only 3 bore holes out of 33 have been abandoned without finding at least minimum amounts of water.
The Honduras Water Ministry continues to support four teams a year to Honduras as well as providing technical support to Hondurans whom we have trained to construct wells and to teach water hygiene.
The work of the Honduras Water Ministry in the field includes the
following:
drilling water wells
building innovative water filtration systems
testing and monitoring water quality
maintenance of installed pumps and systems
teaching sustainable health and hygiene programs
teaching English as a second language
ministering to children and adults in the communities we serve
We do all of this in response to a gracious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We serve through Him and with Him.
Our website is Texas Water Mission
We invite you to join with us on our upcoming trip to drill a well in the El Pariso district of Honduras from January 29,2009 to February 7, 2009.
We will be meeting at St. Georges Episcopal Church at (address) in San Antonio on January 4th, 11th, and 25th to plan our trip. If you plan to participate in this extraordinary experience please let us know.
We can be reached at the following e-mail addresses.
Team Leaders,
Rev, Don Lee - dleedio@aol.com
Terry Hayes - terry@projectservices.org
From the earliest times, the Church has set apart, by blessing, eternal resting places for the faithful departed. Departed loved ones rested eternally in the hallowed grounds of church yards near where they had been baptized, married and nurtured in the faith.
Now, in keeping with this tradition, Emmanuel Church has established a columbarium and garden space in the area between our classroom building and the historic Masur/Holter/Big Dog building to the south. The 40 niches - each with space for two urns - will be set in the east garden wall directly behind a fan-cooled cedar pergola. The verde granite face plates will be simply engraved with names and dates of birth and death. The area will be lighted at all times, and visitors may come whenever they wish as often as they like.
Cremation, a long accepted practice in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, is dignified, theologically and ecologically sound, and economically sensible. A columbarium on sacred church grounds gives witness to the risen life and the deceased's place among the Communion of Saints.
The cost for a double niche is $2,000 and includes the cost of two simple, unadorned machine-fabricated metal urns, should you wish to utilize them, and the engraving costs for two interments. The cost for a single niche is $1,500, including one urn and engraving costs for one interment. Of these amounts, $200 covers costs, and the remaining $1,800 (double) or $1,300 (single) may be considered a donation for tax purposes.
The Columbarium Rules allow Interment in the Columbarium for any Communicant in Good Standing of Emmanuel Episcopal Church; the immediate family of a Communicant in Good Standing, i.e., spouse, parents, parents-in-law, grandparents, brothers, sisters, children or grandchildren by marriage, blood or adoption; and, with the approval of a majority of the Columbarium Committee, Christians without any familial affiliation to a Communicant in Good Standing or without any affiliation to Emmanuel Episcopal Church.
If you and your family have made other final interment arrangements, please consider gifts to the Columbarium and Garden Fund in memory of or to honor friends or loved ones. These donations will be used to purchase benches and other needed items and for the ongoing maintenance of the Columbarium and Garden.
We hope you will join your brothers and sisters in Christ as we step out in faith in this wonderful new venture. Contact the church office for a Niche Application, a copy of the Columbarium Rules and any other information you may need.
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Kairos Prison Ministry
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge/USA
The Daily Office
The Book of Common Prayer
The Diocese of West Texas
Anglicans Online
National Episcopal Cursillo
Iron Spider - Web Design and Resource Center
Texas Water Mission
The Original Sinners
The Reverend Tom Bruns, Rector
Todd Blomerth, Senior Warden
Laurie Bell, Secretary
NEW STAFF MEMBERS: Thanks to the Cat Angel we have two new staff members here at Emmanuel. In December 2008 they were hired to keep the pest (mainly mice) away from Emmanuel and shortly after their arrival we haven't seen any more signs of their (and ours) nemeses. I am sure you have seen them around going about their duties, but it is time for everyone to be introduced to them and find out about their backgrounds.
Rocky was taken to the vet's office by his owner (who said she was going to a
nursing home) with a request that he be euthanized. The staff wouldn't agree to
that, so Rocky stayed in a cage for 2-3 weeks waiting for "something" to
happen. Then a staffer who knew the Cat Angel called and asked if she would
take him in the fall of 2008. She agreed, luckily for Rocky, at that time he
was listless, drab, and a pitiful gentleman, with no energy or interest in
life; he was depressed and discouraged. He started to look better in a few
weeks with the Angel's care, but he has really blossomed after he got his job
at the church. Rocky (his full name is Rocky Raccoon--named for the Beatles
song and the Maine Coon lineage that he's definitely got.) is now a vibrant
beautiful boy, with striking markings and the biggest fluffiest tail you will
probably ever see. A true head turner, he truly enjoys the praise he gets for
his wonderful looks and enjoys stopping traffic in the office and the people
walking by the office windows.
Lefty and his two siblings were left at the Lockhart Animal Shelter in May 2008.
They were just small, un-socialized kittens then--a little hissy, a little
spitty. Shelter staff asked the Cat Angel to rescue them because they were not
considered adoptable since they were so shy. His siblings were two solid
black long haired beauties. He was named Lefty and one of the littermates
Poncho after the characters in a great song written by Townes Van Zandt and
recorded by Willie Nelson and Emmy Lou Harris. Well Poncho turned out to be a
"she" and became "Foxie" (named for the critter she resembles). The other
sister is Katy. (The girls wait at the Cat Angel's home for their forever
homes to come calling.) After they were taken in by the Cat Angle and given
good food, visits to the vet, and lots of love, Lefty has become a real
handsome gentleman and his sister are two very pretty ladies. He is much
more reserved than his team mate Rocky and will usually hide when people
first come in, but he is becoming more confident every day. Right now, he
just feels better about sizing new people up from the safety of the underside
of the couch. Once he has decided the visitors are ok, then he's willing to
appear for an audience. Doesn't that sound like something you would like
to be able to do? Just seems sensible to him. While his looks aren't as
flashy as Rocky's (being the reserved gentleman he is, he wouldn't want
them to be), he has his own style and grace and he can practically fly when
it comes to getting that feathered toy.
Since Rocky and Lefty were hired they have done a fine job of protecting the office, parish hall, classrooms from all unwanted intruders. Compliments of the successful carrying out of their operations have come not just from the church family but also from others who use the building have complimented on what a fine job they have been doing, that during their visit there were no more signs of any intruders. The smiles of people when they come into the office and the squeals from the little girls in their tutus as they go to dance class and head turning of the adults as they walk by prove that they are working hard at their second job as ambassadors.
So when you see Lefty and Rocky be sure to thank them for the fine job they are doing, and watch future newsletters as I hope to convince them to write articles for it.
Please click on the thumbnail to see a larger picture.
Blessing of the Animals
Bishop's Visit
Quince Anos
Emmanuel's 156th Birthday
Emmanuel's Prayer Garden
