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St Matthias' Parish News Dr Thomas Howard addresses St Matthias' Church  On
the weekend of May 15 and 16, 2004, St Matthias' Church offered to her
parishioners and the Dallas/Fort Worth community the acclaimed author and
scholar Dr Thomas Howard. A celebrated professor of English Literature and
a noted C.S. Lewis scholar, Thomas Howard is the author of many books,
including The Achievement of C.S. Lewis, The Liturgy Explained, Evangelical
is Not Enough, The True Humanism (with J.I. Packer), and On Being
Catholic. Now retired from full-time academic work, Dr Howard continues
to write and to teach literature and theology at the seminary level.
He is the
brother of well-known missionary and writer Elisabeth Elliot.
On Saturday morning, May 15, Dr Howard delivered two addresses at the parish, which were open to the public and offered free of charge. His first talk was titled "Splendor in the Ordinary: The Sacramental Nature of the Christian Home." In this address, he walked his listeners through the rooms of a home, offering what each room has to say about God and the life to which he calls his followers. Dr Howard's second address was titled "Ordinary Prayer for Ordinary Christians," and consisted of a teaching on how ordinary Christians can go about "doing" their daily prayers. On Sunday morning, May 16, Dr Howard addressed the 9:15 Adult Education Class. His topic was "The Mass: Making Ordinary People Extraordinary." Using the rite that St Matthias' uses at Solemn High Mass in Eastertide, Dr Howard related the words and ceremonial actions of the Mass to real, practical, and personal applications for the worshiper. The topics of "ordinary" spaces, prayer, and people come naturally to a man who, throughout his life, has seen himself as one with every person who seeks a deeper relationship with Christ in the community of his Church. This pilgrimage for Dr Howard led him from Protestant Evangelicalism to Catholicism, as it has many evangelicals who have traveled the roads to Canterbury or to Rome, finding in them historically-rooted expressions of the Christian Faith in its fulness. Dr Howard continues to appreciate continuities between evangelicals and Catholic Christians. "Insofar as evangelicalism wants to open the Scriptures to all people and to be faithful to the gospel and to love Jesus Christ the Lord, I am forever evangelical," he writes. Dr Howard's addresses were part of St Matthias' annual Eastertide Celebration, a way in which the parish continues her celebration of the Great Fifty Days of the Lord's Resurrection late into the Easter season. Eastertide speakers in previous years include the author and apologist Peter Kreeft; David Mills, senior editor of Touchstone magazine; and Sister Mary Charles of All Saints Convent in Maryland. |
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St Matthias' Church (ANGLICAN)
A Parish of the Anglican Communion in the Province of the Southern Cone -- the Diocese of Argentina 3460 Forest Lane, Dallas, TX 75234 Telephone: 214.358.2585 Email: office@stmatthias-dallas.org | WHO we are | WHAT we're about | WHERE you can find us | WHEN we gather | | News, Events, and Parish Resources | HOW can I find what I'm looking for on this site? | | HOME | |
