Look no further! The St. Martin's Prime Timers welcome you to our group!

Please join us each Sunday in the Payne Education Center from 10:10am to 10:50 in rooms 207-209. You are invited for coffee, breakfast treats and currently a new section on the Old Testament, starting with reading some of the Psalms. It sounds like the perfect time for you to hop in!

Yes, that's Caroline Maryan in front of Henny Penny gone wild! From the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper of course.

All the St. Martin's A.B.F. groups are making "floats" for the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper.  Our new mentor, newly appointed Vice-Rector the Rev. B. Massey Gentry, and the rest of the St. Martin's clergy will get to parade the float's from the various groups around. Ours is a whopper, come on down and see.

Teach Sound Doctrine by Example

Max Kech taught the class today in the absence of Skip Maryan, who is out of town. She got to explore the reading from Titus about setting a good example.

The vocabulary word for today is ecumenism, from the Greek word oikoumene, or "I inhabit." The ancient Greeks used it to refer to the part of the world inhabited by people. Christians use the word to refer to the future community of Christ. The ecumenical movement is designed to bring the various denominations of Christianity together in common purpose. The World Council of Churches was founded in 1937 to advance this notion.

Titus is one of the short books of the Bible, about two pages in the New International Version® that we are using for our "web readings." Paul is instructing his missionary on Crete, Titus, on the ways and means of being a good Christian. Many of the themes we have read many times in the last several months are repeated here: teaching in accord with sound doctrine, being temperate, sound in faith, love and in endurance.

Setting a sound example by doing what is good, practice what you preach. Max recalled the words of our rector, the Rev. Larry Gipson, when he told us that Cindy Sheehan and her merry band were coming to St. Martin's on President's Day to protest Barbara Bush. Larry told us that we should all pray for everyone, including the protesters, and not to bring a confrontation. A good example indeed.

Then Max recalled when she just came to Houston, or actually Pasadena, didn't know anyone and felt very alone, despite being a Mother of three. She joined an Episcopal Church and soon found herself involved in her community and doing rewarding work.

Titus 2:9 refers to teaching slaves to be subject to their masters. This was used by people in the South to justify slavery. Skip Allen reminded us that Paul was referring to events in his own time, and that the slavery of the South was very different than the slavery referred to in the Bible, although still morally wrong. Jackie Rose added that slavery in the pre-Civil War days was a horrible mistake, one that we as a civilization are still paying for.

We were then reminded that at the time of Paul's letters and the book of Titus that people thought that Jesus might return at any minute, and that they were trying to prepare for this by being good Christians. Times change along with peoples attitudes.

Betty Friedan, the feminist who wrote "The Feminine Mystique" among other books, was cited making a statement near the end of her life that she just wanted to stop women from being sex objects. She is quite a character, and certainly not a victim. If you would like to read some more about her click here.

Max Kech then led the class in our healing prayer and delivered a benediction prior to closing the session.

Prime Timers Contact names and numbers

Mentor

Rev. B. Massey Gentry
mgentry@stmartinsepiscopal.org

Leader

Max Kech taught the class today. It was her first time! This photo is from a couple months ago, she was not trying to buy us off!

Who is this man? Its the Rev. Larry Gipson at the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper!

Yes its the Pope-mobile, with Rev. Ron Morris at the St. Martin's Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper. He was giving out Pope-corn!

What can you say except Yikes! its Rev. Bentley!

The Lesson for Sunday, March 5th is titled "God Made Us Special"

Key Verse:  Psalm 8:4-5

Focus of the Lesson:  People wonder about their place in a vast universe. What does our faith say about our inherent worth within the context of all creation? The psalmist affirms that we hold a place of honor in God's creation:  We are special to God and cared for by God, to whom we owe our highest praise.

The reading is Psalm 8. This text is from the New International Version^®.

1 O LORD, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!
  You have set your glory
    above the heavens.

2 From the lips of children and infants
    you have ordained praise
 because of your enemies,
    to silence the foe and the avenger.

3 When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
 the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,

4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
    the son of man that you care for him?

5 You made him a little lower than the
    heavenly beings
 and crowned him with glory and honor.

6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
  you put everything under his feet:

7 all flocks and herds,
    and the beasts of the field,

8 the birds of the air,
    and the fish of the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

NIV®