James Derkits

After the lessons, carols, hymns, incense, prayers... After preaching my first Christmas sermon at Trinity by the sea... After hearing a whole community: young and old, newcomers and those who've been here a while... After the glorious celebration of Incarnation... After the the Birthday Cake and Generous Impromptu Reception... I hopped on my bike,  and rode to the beach,  and stood ankle deep in the Gulf of Mexico. I looked up into the beautiful night sky. I noticed the water wasn't as cold as I expected it to be. And I said a silent prayer of awe and thanksgiving. I hope your Christmas Celebration (that has just begun) will lead you to fully experience your own incarnation, to be grounded right were you are, to say silent prayers of thanksgiving.

"I don't even know why we have December, it never lasts." Thank you to Ellie Wilemon for that precious little quote, and for permission to quote! If you feel like her, first, realize you're not alone. Second, I'm surprised and delighted that you're reading this. December zips by not only as a month, but with December, we suddenly find ourselves at the end of a whole year. My own 2012 turned out very differently than I thought it would. It was a year of transition; when I read back in my journals to last December, there are hints in my writing and in my dreams that something was stirring. December is a darker month for us in the northern hemisphere. It's a reflective time to contemplate where we've been and where we're going. Perhaps because of that introspection, we sprinkle the season with festive celebrations. Parties with friends and families, it seems, leads to more introspection. We see one another grow when we gather together. We see ch...

This is a write up by Skip Kasdorf,  long-time member and promoter of St. Mark's, Houston   St. Mark’s Between the Bayous Celebrates Second Anniversary On December 2, the first Sunday in Advent, St. Mark’s Between the Bayous celebrated the second anniversary of its founding with a fundraiser at Liberty Station for victims of Hurricane Sandy that included live music and improvised comedy, concluding with a worship service. St. Mark’s Between the Bayous is an outreach initiative of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 3816 Bellaire Blvd. The Rev. James Derkits, then associate rector at St. Mark’s, held the first informal gathering and Eucharistic service at Block 7, a wine bar, on November 28, 2010, relying on word of mouth to attract people who might be disinclined to worship in a traditional manner. Derkits recently wrote: “The goal of Between-the-Bayous is not to become another Episcopal church in Houston. It is to be a between place for people at interesting places ...

I'm away. Just five days, and I won't even miss a Sunday. Each year, for about five or six years now, after the first Sunday of Advent, I go on a retreat with a small group of friends. Some are priests, some not. It's a spiritual practice of mine, a discipline that's an important grounding to the whole church year. Retreats, as I recently learned from the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church came back into practice during the Couter-Reformation, and for the Church of England during the Oxford Movement. I'm almost done, don't zone out; it's really not a history lesson. The essential practice of retreating is much older than the first 1856 retreat held in Christ Church, Oxford, and older than the Jesuit-introduced retreats in the late 16th century. The spiritual practice of getting away, to reflect, to rejuvenate, and to renew is probably as old as the practice of prayer. In a sense it is the same thing as daily prayer: the setting aside time to be i...