CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL An Episcopal Community in the Heart of Houston, Texas
SEPTEMBER 2014 CHRISTCHURCHCATHEDRAL.ORG
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How brightly do we shine?
Foyers social groups meet in each others’ homes throughout the year for conversation and fellowship.
Making friends by sharing a meal The process by which we get to know one another at church is often a Sunday affair, commonly starting in the pews at worship service and in the classroom during the Christian education hour. As churchgoers, we frequently desire and seek ways to deepen those relationships that will move us from Sunday acquaintances to longtime friends. Foyers provides the perfect opportunity to make that jump to form a better-connected community.
Foyers are small groups made up of six to eight parishioners that meet regularly throughout the year. Each year features a new, randomly assigned group where each participant hosts a meal in his or her home or preferred venue. “You can use paper plates and napkins or you can use your finest china. It is whatever you prefer,” said Charlie Ligon, a Foyers participant for 15 years. “One of the best ways to
FOYERS, page 8
“War and Faith” to mark WWI anniversary The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914 triggered a global conflict the scale and brutality of which the world had never seen. The First World War claimed more than 15 million lives by the time it ended in 1918, and it transformed the culture, politics, and faith of those who survived. Now, one hundred years after World War I began, the Adult Formation Council has invited two professors, Carl Caldwell CARL CALDWELL
WWI, page 6
ROBERT ZARETSKY
In 1914, one hundred years ago, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his expedition became trapped in Antarctic ice floes. When they lost contact with the outside world, the First World War had just erupted. Shackleton, like virtually all others, expected World War I to end quickly and decisively. Upon THE VERY REV. BARKLEY finally arriving at South THOMPSON Georgia Island a year and a half later, he asked, “Tell me, when was the war over?” The man to whom Shackleton spoke looked at him in amazement and said, “The war is not over. Millions are being killed. Europe is mad. The world is mad.” It came to be called “the Great War,” but great is no compliment. Rather, it means utter, comprehensive, total. Writer G.J. Meyer says of combatant nations in the First World War, “They threw everything they had — their people, their production capabilities, all the wealth accumulated over generations of industrial development — into the effort to destroy one another.” When the war began, men still charged into battle with sabers on horseback. By the time it ended, legions of fighter airplanes filled the sky. Chemical weapons had been invented and used with lethal success. Armored tanks had made trenches obsolete. The Second World War killed more people and had greater individual villains, but it was the First World War which redefined everything modern people understood about life. Politics, literature, art, and, of course, religion shifted seismically. In each of these fields, some version of the question was asked,
SHINE, page 6