From Austin-
Alex Montes-Vela wrapped his green stole around the shoulders of a family huddled at the center of his Manor living room on a recent Sunday and began to pray.
"The reason I wanted to pray for you is to give thanks to God," he said. "The other reason is to prepare you for God's work."
He placed the stole back over his clothes: jeans and a long-sleeved pinstriped blue and white shirt, topped by his priest's collar. His small congregation sat on his sofas and chairs, surrounded by the comforts of home: a white orchid, family pictures on each wall and white candles flickering on the shelves above their heads. The coffee table doubled as an altar as Montes-Vela led the group in verses that alternated between Spanish and English. The voices that followed answered mostly in Spanish.
For Montes-Vela, 42, the boyish-looking rector of St. Mary Magdalene Church, God's work includes planting the first Episcopal church in this growing town east of Austin.
There are almost two dozen churches in Manor, where the population quadrupled between 2000 and 2006 from 1,204 to 5,468. But until now, none of the churches has been Episcopal.
After leading youth ministries in Houston and Waco, Montes-Vela was sent to Manor in 2008 by the Episcopal Diocese of Texas to establish St. Mary Magdalene, the third church the diocese has "planted" in Central Texas in the past two years. The diocese also led the 2009 church plants of St. Julian of Norwich in Austin and a second campus for Grace Episcopal Church in Georgetown.
More here-
http://www.statesman.com/news/local/priest-plants-episcopal-church-in-manor-861299.html
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