***ATTENTION***
Yates Hall will be CLOSED on Sunday Morning!
This morning, carpenters showed up to remove the carpet and refinish the floors in Yates Hall.
They have reported that they will be finished Saturday afternoon, but we will need to limit traffic on the floors for a few days.
Please use the courtyard gate to enter and exit the church on Sunday.
We will still host coffee hour on the courtyard at 10AM.
Summer Recess is almost over!
- Choir will resume on Wednesday, August 19th
- Sunday School will resume on Sunday, August 23rd
Watch the Livestream:
Rector's Corner:
The Sin of Empathy: Compassion and Its Counterfeits, by Joe Rigney
Meet Empathy, the greatest rhetorical tool of manipulation in the 21st century. Because love is a real virtue, empathy’s power is in posing as selfless care for victims.
A sad polar bear paces as David Attenborough informs you that the family suburban is melting the ice caps. “Jesus was an asylum seeker!” the sign reads at an Open Borders Rally. A forlorn Bruno wishes he too could change in the women’s locker room, a place he’s always known he belonged. “My mom said if we don’t go she’ll be just devastated.”
When you reject the sin of empathy, you reject the manipulation of the media, the manipulation of family and friends, and most importantly, the manipulation of your own heart.
Based largely upon Rabbi Edwin Friedman and Murray Bowen’s Family Systems Theory, Rigney drives home the manipulation wreaked upon regular people who are seeking to do what’s right by those using pathogenic empathy tactics. Readers will be armed to make solid decisions and reject the attempts of the hysterical, the agitated, and the anxious.
Leadership and the Sin of Empathy: Compassion and Its Counterfeits
Saint of the Week - Thomas a Kempis:
Thomas a Kempis (c. 1380–1471) was a German-Dutch Augustinian canon regular and a leading voice of the Devotio Moderna. His life and writing emphasize interior piety, humility, and the practical imitation of Christ.
Life
Born Thomas Hemerken in Kempen (Rhineland) around 1379/1380, he studied under the Brethren of the Common Life in Deventer. In 1406 he entered the Augustinian monastery of Mount St. Agnes near Zwolle, where his brother was prior. He took vows shortly thereafter, was ordained in 1413, and remained there for over sixty years as copyist, novice master, and occasional subprior. He died at the monastery in 1471, aged about ninety.
His life was one of stability, manual labor, prayer, and quiet spiritual direction—without public office or travel.
Works
Thomas wrote primarily in Latin. His principal work is De Imitatione Christi (The Imitation of Christ), composed in the 1420s and arranged in four books: counsels for the spiritual life, the interior life, interior consolation, and the Blessed Sacrament. Its simple, pastoral style stresses detachment from the world, humility, self-denial, distrust of worldly ambition, and constant recourse to Christ, especially in the Eucharist. Authorship is traditionally and firmly attributed to him.
He also produced sermons, spiritual treatises, and biographies of early Devotio Moderna figures.
Ministry and Influence
Thomas’s direct ministry was intramural: forming novices in the Devotio Moderna ideal of lived, interior Christianity. His wider influence comes through The Imitation of Christ, one of the most widely read Christian books after the Bible. It shaped Catholic, Protestant, and Anglican spirituality and continues to call readers to the humble, costly following of Christ.
Nursery / Cry Room:
Children are a valued part of our parish family and are encouraged to participate in worship alongside their parents.
Families with infants or toddlers, a Nursery/Cry Room is available for parents who need a quieter space. There is a TV streaming the worship service in the room.
If you would be willing to occasionally serve in the nursery, please contact Catie Corbin.
Upcoming Ministry Fair:
Sunday, August 16, 2026 in Yates Hall
Learn how you can help the church by serving on a ministry team:
- Altar Guild
- Broadcast Ministry
- Lectors
- Hosts
- Ushers
Join the Choir or a Bible Study. Assist with the Youth or Children of the Church.
Students, become an Acolyte! Join St. Gabriel’s Choir.
Sign up to provide to be notified of a hospitality service when needed.
Did you see the Gazette?
The Gazette ran an article on our very own Father Odell!
If you would like to read it, follow the link: