James Derkits

This Saturday, we will gather as many people as we can get together to celebrate a community. Trinity by the Sea is 50 this year (April 1964 was the groundbreaking of our church building.) We won't be done celebrating this weekend, but this is the kick-off. As we prepared to celebrate, we've been going back through pictures, stories, and remembering the history of some of the events of the past 50 years. I also wonder about the next 50 years. How will this community continue to grow and change as the island population grows and changes. I wonder what the Spirit is guiding us to next. Here we are right now. It's an amazing community; after a year and a half I still can't believe I get to be a part of it. Saturday is an opportunity for the new folks to meet a few of the founders, and for the history and the future to meet. I guess every day is like that, though. I'm thankful that I'm here right now, and I'm thankful that we get to celebrate Christ's ...

Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, or the more "English," "Shrove Tuesday" has long been a part of my family of origin's annual traditions. I never quite made it to New Orleans, or Mobile, for that matter, but I did go down to Galveston a couple of times. Culturally, Mardi Gras has become a popular party time, or feast time, as the church might call it. I thoroughly enjoyed the parade last year in Port Aransas, and we will be in it again this year, before we head back for the pancake supper. What we tend to forget about, culturally, is what happens after Mardi Gras. After Tuesday comes Wednesday, Ash Wednesday. It marks the first day of Lent, and the beginning of the holy season that helps us prepare for the experience of Resurrection at Easter. Ash Wednesday and Lent are also a part of my family's annual traditions. Mardi Gras only makes sense to me when it precedes Ash Wednesday. One last celebratory feast before digging into the season of prayer, fasting, and m...

 Of the times I thought I might die during college because of varying degrees of feeling invincible or just pushing the limits of what I should be doing (many of which took place in a canoe along the San Marcos River), Billy and Kevin were there for most. That is to say, you might not always have guessed that we three who were college roommates at SWT would now all be Episcopal Clergy. The Holy Spirit doesn't call who we might expect. The Holy Spirit just calls who the Holy Spirit calls. I kinda' always thought I felt called to this, but it did take a long time to do the discernment and the testing of that call. Kevin often jokes that they always knew I would be a priest, but they weren't ever sure about he and Billy. But what great priests those two guys are. I continue to learn from them in their honest, open, and courageous approach to priesthood, and being church in general. Laura and I didn't really have time or energy to make the trip up to Austin for B...