June Highlights at St. James’
Lay Leadership Spotlight
Lay leadership was on full display this June. Elizabeth Gealy and Will Clark accompanied our youth group and Rev. Eileen on the trip to New Orleans, where we did some good in the Ninth Ward. Eleven leaders represented St. James’ at the Latino Lay Leadership Conference at Camp Allen, deepening their formation as lay leaders in the wider church. New summer formation series in English and in Spanish kicked off under the leadership of Libby Ballard (The Summer Psalm Series during the Sunday Morning Forum) and the Spirituality Group for the Spanish-speaking community (Marisol Acosta, Francisco Chavez, Gris Lopez, and Rolando Mendez). The Community of Hope took communion to a group at Sage Valley, and provided pastoral assistance to a number of other people in the St. James’ community. Chet Jones joined the Eucharistic Ministry team for the 8 am. Ari Gandy, our newest licensed lay preacher at St. James’, offered a powerful sermon on Pauli Murray Sunday.
Children & Youth Ministry
We celebrated our graduates with a wonderful party for Jorge Juarez, Jr. and the whole Class of 2026! Our high schoolers also had a fantastic experience on the NOLA mission trip. Summer Children’s Ministry has kicked off, and many of our kids headed to Camp Allen, our diocesan summer camp, this summer. Your generosity has ensured that every child who wanted to participate had the financial opportunity to do so.
Worship, Music & Arts
The choir helped us celebrate the Freedom Schools Commissioning on June 14 with a stirring special anthem. Thank you to the choir for the extra rehearsal time, responsiveness, and dedication that made it happen! You’ll notice that we have some new summer singers in the 10:30 choir including Ariana Brito and Lillian Gabrillo, who head off to college in the fall. St. James’ walked with Luisa Jewell through the Rite of a New Name during Sunday worship. Thanks to the leaders who took over Godly Play that day so that Tanya Garza could fully be a part of this rite with her daughter. We commemorated the life and legacy of Pauli Murray across our multilingual congregation, making connections between the witness of her life and our call today.
Partnerships & Community
St. James’ joined the Thomas H. Keithley Lodge for the Juneteenth Observance at Round Rock Slave Cemetery. We formalized a new Memorandum of Understanding with our ensemble-in-residence, Inversion Ensemble. St. James’ responded in a big way to the invitation to kick-off Welcome Table’s Freedom Schools program through volunteer sign-ups and the fundraiser at Nando’s. St. James’ showed up at the Deacons Ordinations, and several members just wrapped up their service on a regional discernment committee for an aspirant from St. Richard’s Round Rock.
Parish Life & Facilities
The Master Plan committee, chaired by Rudy Green, reviewed six good responses to our Request for Qualifications and is interviewing finalists in late June/early July. One of these finalists will be the architecture firm we select to accompany the St. James’ community through the Master Plan process in the coming months. We have begun our summer cleaning and digitization of records efforts.
Want to get more involved? Email office@stjamesaustin.org, and let’s be in conversation!
