Sunday, June 25, marked several significant events at Good Shepherd, Granbury.
The Very Rev. Doug Travis, priest in charge, celebrated and preached his last sermon at Good Shepherd, Granbury, before retiring a second time. His first retirement was from his job as Dean and President Emeritus of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin.
His second retirement on Sunday ended 123 years of Travis men in the pulpit. These include Travis’ great grandfather, Murray Alberton Travis, who was ordained an American Baptist preacher in 1900 and later became a Presbyterian. His grandfather, Frank Douglas Travis; his father, Murray W. Travis; and his brothers, Drew G. Travis, and Karl B. Travis, were or are all Presbyterian ministers.
“I’m the renegade,” Doug Travis said, smiling.
The Rev. Leslie Guinn, assisting priest at Good Shepherd, also retired as of Sunday. She was ordained June 18, 2020, by the Rt. Rev. Scott Mayer. Her journey to the priesthood was not easy, given that she first discerned a call when bishops of what was then the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth were refusing to ordain women as priests. After Bishop Jack Iker left The Episcopal Church in 2008, the first woman, Susan Slaughter, was finally ordained to the priesthood in 2009 – thirty-three years after General Convention approved ordaining women as priests and bishops. Yet Guinn still faced barriers, including a Commission on Ministry (COM) that, in a widely protested move, decided she was “too old” for ordination. A later COM reversed that, and her path to ordination finally was approved.
But her ministry began long before her ordination as priest. She was active in lay ministry for more than 40 years. She served on vestry of four different churches, twice as senior warden. She has been a lector, lay reader, Eucharistic Minister and led children’s education. She had been a Eucharistic Visitor. She is an Education for Ministry (EfM) mentor. She served on the Steering Committee that helped prepare this diocese for its reorganization in the wake of the departure of a bishop in 2008. She has served as lay representative for the Southwestern deanery and representative to Executive Council. She actively began her discernment for ordained ministry in 2009. She had a Master of Divinity from Brite. She has been a pastoral care assistant at Good Shepherd in Granbury while also leading a women’s study group. She served an internship at St. Luke’s, Stephenville before becoming a member of the staff at Good Shepherd.
Travis served seven years at Southwest Seminary, six as president. Prior to that Travis served four parishes, two of them as rector. He holds four graduate degrees, including a Doctor of Ministry from the Perkins School of Theology at SMU. In 2008 Travis was granted an honorary doctorate by The General Theological Seminary in New York.
Good Shepherd was founded in 1972 as a mission, became a parish in 1981, and was located for many years at 3600 Fall Creek Highway in Acton. In 2008, the Episcopalians of Good Shepherd were forced out of their historic building and found alternative worship spaces, where they thrived.
Since September 22, 2019, the congregation has been in their new building, located on Acton Highway between Granbury and Acton, at 4530 Acton Highway, Granbury/Acton.
Good Shepherd has called the Rev. Dr. Bonnie Mixon McCrickard as rector. Her first Sunday will be July 2, 2023. Plans are in the works for an installation in the Fall.
