It’s been a year since Phil Christopher preached his last sermon as senior pastor of First Baptist Church. His final sermon came on Sept. 26, 2021. Christopher had been pastor of the church since 1995. He and his wife, Mary, live in Abilene and remain active in the community. Matt Cook, with the Center for Healthy Churches, is serving as
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Fun and food will be served up in ample portions in the coming weeks as several churches in the Catholic Diocese of San Angelo host fall festivals. The ones either in Abilene or within driving distance are listed below. First up is Abilene’s St. Francis of Assisi Church on Saturday, Oct. 1. The church is located at 826 Cottonwood St.
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By LORETTA FULTON Russell Miller didn’t attend McMurry University, but he got to campus as fast as he could. Miller is the new assistant university chaplain and assistant director of religious and spiritual life at McMurry. Marty CashBurless is university chaplain. Miller counts at least 16 family members who attended McMurry, including his own children, who graduated in 2009 and
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Abilene is filled with houses of worship but most Abilenians are familiar with the inside of only a handful. A periodic feature in Spirit of Abilene will give you an “Insider’s View” of some of those places you may have driven by many times but never entered. By LORETTA FULTONNAME: St. Luke Antiochian Orthodox Christian ChurchLOCATION: 501 Sunset DriveWEBSITE: https://www.stlukeorthodox.net/LEAD
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By LORETTA FULTON The last time the Texas Baptist Women in Ministry held an annual conference, the year was 2020, just before COVID-19 forced such gatherings to go online. And, the setting was in a very Baptist place–George W. Truett Theological Seminary on the campus of Baylor University. This time, things were different. The organization was meeting live again for
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON Our plane landed at DFW airport around 8:30 p.m. one evening this past June. Our flight to Abilene was to board around 10:30 p.m., with our arrival in Abilene scheduled for approximately 11:30 p.m. We were returning from a trip to Cabo San Lucas, where I had officiated for my great-niece’s wedding, backdropped by the waves of
Read moreTHE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury I, as well as most others who string words together, will never be confused with Robert Frost, the poetry genius from whose pen flowed marvelous words about his beloved New England. One of his best–published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1915–was “The Road Not Taken.” Actually, it was intended as a joke to
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Editor’s Note: Sept. 15-Oct. 15 is celebrated each year as Hispanic Heritage Month. Carlo Sosa-Ortiz, a pastoral assistant at First Central Presbyterian Church, wrote the following article on a 17th century Mexican nun named Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz in honor the month. By CARLO SOSA-ORTIZ A young girl is invited to the home of a prominent Mexican family. At
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By LORETTA FULTON McMurry and Abilene Christian universities both saw enrollment increases for fall 2022, while Hardin-Simmons University recorded its third consecutive enrollment drop. ACU, affiliated with the Churches of Christ, hit a record high for the fifth consecutive year. Total enrollment for fall 2022 is 5,731 students. The university saw increases in all key areas: undergraduate enrollment, graduate enrollment
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