Featured Parish Stories

This first year of ministry at Saint Michael has flown by as I have been introduced to our wonderful people and the beautiful ministries of this church! This quote from Desmond Tutu could have been written with you in mind. The Mission and Outreach ministry of Saint Michael is clearly a dynamic and fast-growing one thanks to the extraordinary support of our congregation, led by the Mission and Outreach Committee.

The Horizon Outreach Fund Makes Historic First Disbursement, Benefiting Bachman Lake Together

“Extending the grace of Saint Michael’s gift of the North Land beyond its doors in bold, life-changing and strategic ways is the mission of the Horizon Outreach Fund (HOF),” says HOF Chair Matthew Waller.

Where to begin! For those of you who have been blessed in the past to attend an international mission trip, you understand how in some ways such an experience can be beyond words. That certainly holds true for our ministry in Tela, Honduras.

Summer is just around the corner, and that means we are very close to the Feast of Pentecost. At Saint Michael, Pentecost has always been a big day with a true celebration—it is the birthday of the Church after all!

In 2020, homeless shelters in North Texas and around the country were forced to reduce the number of people they served due to Covid-19. The pandemic stretched an already strained system, throwing more people into homelessness.

Praying with the Stations of the Cross is one of the great devotions of Christian tradition. Traditionally, fourteen images depicting Jesus Christ follow the route he took on the day of his crucifixion. Each image is accompanied by prayers and in a spiritual way reflects our joining in on that walk with Jesus, either done individually or as part of a group.

On October 11, 2022, sixty leaders, volunteers, and friends of the various Pastoral Care ministries gathered to recognize recipients of the second annual Pastoral Care Awards.

Since my arrival at Saint Michael and All Angels, I have had the delightful task of learning about and visiting with many of our established partner ministries that serve children and their families, in Dallas and beyond...

North Dallas Shared Ministries sponsored their annual school supply and school uniform distribution at the beginning of August. Forty-eight Saint Michael parishioners volunteered, including youth, adults, clergy, and staff members, to set up, shop with clients, restock, and take inventory. NDSM provided 3,527 students with school supplies and 2,638 students with school uniforms, equipping them with the items needed to thrive in school. The students began school with the resources they need to be successful!

Many of you know me well enough to know that I love what I do, and I spend a lot of time doing it. Being a priest in the Church, specifically sharing ministry with you at Saint Michael, is a gift in my life.

Before Saint Michael and All Angel’s 85-year-old parishioner Marillyn Seeberger started taking college level classes, she volunteered at Saint Michael in outreach for a number of ministries. Spanning more than a decade, Marillyn spear-headed writing materials for the Pastoral Care Ministries and for the communications department.

For the second year in a row our youth ministry here at Saint Michael spent a week of their summer serving around Dallas with various ministry partners. Thirty-one youth signed up for the opportunity to serve our city while also building friendships with each other along the way.

Did you miss the bus? If you weren’t able to make the 75th Anniversary bus tour last February to view some of Saint Michael’s outreach projects, you missed the opportunity to visit St. Philip’s School and Community Center.

In what amounted to a re-start of a long standing strategy of the Men of Saint Michael, 125 of the group’s members and their guests gathered at the Park City Club for an inspiring conversation with Clark Hunt, Chairman of the Hunt Sports Group and CEO of FC Dallas and the Kansas City Chiefs, with Sunwest Communications owner and CEO Crayton Webb, facilitating. Mr. Hunt began his presentation with this powerful central theme, "My Christian faith is the most important thing to me. In terms of priorities, it is faith, family, and football—in that order."

Fresh starts are good for us. When we have the opportunity to renew ourselves—who we are and how we act—the results can be very exciting. I think we have that kind of moment at Saint Michael this year.

This past year has been a pleasure and privilege as we look back. Now, it’s time we pivot forward as we become the church we are called to be in the future. Our journey forward will take courage, conviction, and commitment, but we have everything we need. We know that Jesus is with us, giving us strength for all that we hope to do and who we hope to become. Together, we can move confidently into a future that is bright and hopeful, and as we do, spread the Good News to all we meet.

For those that may not be aware of this significant ministry, Saint Michael is an active partner in the Meals on Wheels (MOW) delivery program here in Dallas which is operated by VNA, the Visiting Nurses Association. I’d like to share a bit about MOW, and what it can do for those in need—but also what it can do for you.

We are people who live very busy lives. And while we might sigh heavily as we tell people how busy we are, we often wear our busyness like a badge of honor. We determine how well we’re ‘doing’ life by the fullness of our calendar; by the number of experiences we’ve lined up; by the number of nights we’re not home without plans. And the world around us seems determined to affirm that value system. We are regularly reminded of the need to check in with others on social media, of the new hobbies and skills we should be developing, of baseline acquisitions necessary for a happier life.

For centuries, education has been touted as the great equalizer of society. This remains true today. In fact, research shows that children who are prepared to enter kindergarten at grade level are more likely to graduate from high school, continue their education post-high school, attain increased lifetime earnings, maintain improved health, and benefit society overall.

In 2015, Terry and Mark Demler volunteered as ushers for a symposium about local Dallas issues surrounding human trafficking hosted by the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas and the Catholic Diocese of Dallas. What they didn’t realize at the time, was that volunteering at this event would change the course of their lives and positively impact countless people in the DFW area.