A Community of Faith:
Through baptism, we share in Christ's victory over sin and death.
As His disciples, our mission is to know Christ, and to make Him known - by seeking to love God and to love our neighbors.
Worship with us Sunday at 9:30 AM. Find fellowship and rest from the challenges of daily life, stepping toward personal and spiritual renewal and toward living life abundantly.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we are united by faith in a loving God...
In Jesus, we find that the nature of God is Love.
The Episcopal Branch
of the Jesus Movement
What is this Jesus Movement language all about?
Our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry uses this phrase to describe the mission of God's People. A movement is a group of people that is working together to advance their shared beliefs and philosophy, and if we are the Jesus Movement we are working to advance the kingdom of God's love. We are group of disciples of Jesus seeking to love God and to love our neighbors.
Bishop Curry explains that we are not about being an institution, but that we are the living Body of Christ. In the issue of the Yale Divinity School Magazine, Issue Title "New Voyages: ChurchToday and Tomorrow, 2015", he says that "the movement serves life, that there is no life serving the institutions, we serve Jesus". We are to be a community of people committed to living the way of Jesus in a way that is liberating, loving and life-giving.
When the Presiding Bishop is asked about how to turn institutions, around he says, "There are no institutional quick fixes or gimmicks that will turn a church around. Bible and prayer - then you deal with the institutions. Then you can transform institutions into servants of the Jesus Movement." Being people of the Word and Prayer leads us into God's mission. Institutions were created to serve people, not people to serve the institutions.
Did you know that the early movement of the Church
was called "The Way"?
The word "Christians" for the community of believers in Jesus did not come along for several generations. The men and women who were part of the early movement of the Church were Jews, but the gift of the Holy Spirit brought the Good News of Jesus to the people of towns and villages. People were healed, transformed, reconciled by Grace to a loving God who called them to keep reaching the people of communities with His love, and way of service. "The world will know you are my disciples by the love you show," John 13:35. The Torah had been the singular way in which the people were to live in order to flourish. So think about how radical it was when Jesus stated himself to be the way, the truth and the life. Early followers then came to understand Jesus to be the same or more important than the function of the Torah, God's self-revelation to humanity.
SO, We are the Jesus Movement!
We are called to enter into God's work in our community, and to proclaim the good news of God. I will close with the Presiding Bishop's words:
"Now is our time to go. To go into the world to share the good news of God and Jesus Christ. To go into the world and help to be agents and instruments of God's reconciliation. To go into the world, let the world know that there is a God who loves us, a God who will not let us go, and that love can set us all free."
"This is the Jesus Movement, and we are The Episcopal Church, the Episcopal branch of Jesus' movement in the world."
Amen!
The Rev. Marianne Ell
The Rev Marianne Sorge Ell
Our Pastor:
Prior to relocating to Seaford, The Reverend Marianne S. Ell served two churches in North Dakota from 1995 to 2013 - St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Williston, ND and St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, Cartwright, ND.
Pastor Ell served as chaplain for Bayleigh Chase, a continuing care retirement community in Easton, MD. She is also a leader in the Episcopal Church nationally, serving in CREDO, a health and wellness program for active and retired clergy.
Pastor Ell was born in North Dakota, but grew up in Brazil and Maryland's Eastern Shore. She speaks Spanish and Portuguese. She enjoys coaching volleyball, basketball and soccer, as well as walking, traveling, reading, photography and scrap booking.
Our Governance:
In the Episcopal Church, the governing body of a local church is called the Vestry. A vestry is an elected group of parish members who oversee the church and its operations.
Vestry members are elected by the active members of the church to three-year terms. The roles currently served by the Vestry of St Luke's are:
Senior Warden
Junior Warden, Finance Committee
Front Door Ministry
Pastoral Care
Worship
Register
Positions appointed by the Vestry are:
Treasurer, and Parish Administrator
Finance Committee Chair
Delegates to Annual Dioc. Convention
Alternate Delegates
A Historical Site:
