Brotherhood of St. Andrew Dallas Assembly Quarterly Meeting – 06/08/13

Bishop James Stanton entertained the Brotherhood of St. Andrew Dallas Assembly with a lively historical chronology of the city of Capernaum at the Brotherhood quarterly meeting, Saturday, June 8th at the Church of the Epiphany in Richardson.

Stanton explained that Jesus actually used the crossroads city, which was also the home of Peter, Andrew, James, Matthew and John, as His base of operations throughout His ministry. Capernaum was a large (about 4 square miles), very diverse city with a dense population in its day. Located in the Galilee region, and it was and still is the breadbasket of the Holy Land today.

“According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus only spent about a week of his ministry in Jerusalem. The Gospel of John is the only chronological timeline of Jesus’ ministry. The geography of the Holy Land is like another language to be used in our interpretation of the Bible.”

“There are many misconceptions about the makeup of the apostles,” Stanton added. “Peter and Andrew were not just simple fishermen, but highly educated, successful business men. James and John were also very sophisticated and educated, well-to-do businessmen of the day.”

“Likewise, often mischaracterized is Mary Magdalene who in spite of her depiction in such modern literature as The Davinci Code, was not a prostitute. She was a woman of means from the nearby town of Magdala, who became a most devoted follower of Christ, mentioned more often in the Gospels than several of the Apostles.”

“Jesus selected His followers very carefully. While they were capable, they were not perfect. He selected men who could be strengthened if they gave themselves to Him, men who would become the rocks that He built his church upon.”

“We must all examine our lives in light of Jesus’ Apostles’. The question we must all ask ourselves is how can we best serve the Lord regardless of our chosen vocation.”

Bishop Stanton’s full presentation is available as a PDF and is great reading.

John Curtis, diocesan assembly president, opened the meeting with the traditional Brotherhood devotional. Following Bishop Stanton’s talk, he opened up the Dallas Assembly business meeting.

Jim Vineyard reported on the Brotherhood Golf Tornament, held Tuesday, June 4th at Canyon Creek Country Club in Richardson. The event was a great success, with four major corporate sponsots and 100 golfers. The proceeds of the event will be approximately $16,000, about double last years event. Proceeds of the event go to Patriot Paws, an organization that trains service dogs for wounded veterans.

Vineyard has set his sights upon next years tournament in which he hoped to draw six corporate sponsors and 120 golfers.

Robbie Gerber reported that the Brotherhood of St. Andrew National Council Meeting is just two weeks away, June 20-22 at the Hilton Garden Inn – DFW Airport, George Bush Tollway at Hwy. 183 in Irving. Both Bishop’s Stanton and Lambert will be participating in the event, as well as our Chaplain Fr. J.D. Brown. Registration for the event is just $25.00 and can be done on the Brotherhood website: www.brothersandrewdallas.org. All Brotherhood members are welcome to attend.

While the Dallas Assembly website is considered among the best in the Brotherhood, we need to all actively participate in keeping the news flowing and broadcasting. We need the individual chapters to submit news of their activities to keep the content fresh and vibrant. Regardless of how small your chapter activities are, a barbecue, a beer-making seminar, building ramps for home accessibility, it is these type of events that members want to read about.

Curtis announced that the third quarterly meeting of the Dallas Assembly will be at Holy Trinity by the Lake, In Heath, TX on September 7, 2013.

Following the closing devotional, the meeting was dismissed.