the church of the holy cross

join us in person or zoom

ZOOM

sunday mass

Join us in worship every Sunday at 10:00 am
The Community Room
Coral Ridge Tower South
3333 NE 34th Street
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33306

954.682.2286

frpaul@holycrossfl.org

we are so glad you're here

Welcome! We are blessed that you have stopped by to visit our website. We pray you will find it continually inviting as well as informative. If you are a resident, one of the more than 100,000 workers who come into the city each day, one of the 75,000 seafarers or cruise ship travelers that come to our port each week, one of the 500,000 people who fly into or out of our airport each month, or someone just driving through, we hope you will find your way through our website, and if time and date permits, we pray that you find your way to meet us personally. YOU are welcome!

our vision

Our vision is to gather others of like mind and spirit, who understand the gift of the Holy Cross and the mysteries of divine liturgy, which have been handed down through the ages, to lift up our prayers, praise and thanksgiving for all the gifts of life and love God pours out upon us and be a powerful force of compassionate care and reconciliation and hope for all people, joyously carrying the redeeming cross of Christ into the world around us inviting other to enter into God’s joy.

our mission

Our mission, simply put, is to grow in faith, serve those in need and draw all people to Christ. In other words, we exist to be vessels of God’s grace and love welcoming all people, without exception, into the presence of God’s loving-kindness. We exist to be a voice of praise and thanks for the wonder of God’s creation, understanding our roles as the crown of creation charged with the responsibility of being stewards, managers, and caretakers of what has been entrusted to us. We exist to be the embodiment of God’s love and joy in response to God’s unconditional and perfect love.

our creed

We hold the three ecumenical creeds to be true and trusted confessions of our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirt. We give thanks for the fruitful ecumenical dialogues which have taken place in the last 50 years, especially between Lutherans and Roman Catholics, which have resulted in increased understanding and consensus on almost all the major doctrines and teachings we confess and hold sacred. We understand ourselves not as a separate denomination, but as a community (ecclesia) of pilgrims, disciples, servants, evangelists, and ambassadors of Christ.

 

our beliefs

We center our lives under the sacred cross upon which Christ Jesus, true Son of God and true man born of the Virgin Mary (Theotokos), gave his life for the redemption of the whole world. We are called to join together as his one body around the proclamation of The Word and the proper administration of The Blessed Sacraments to be fed and nourished, then blessed and sent into the world as ambassadors of Christ. Water, Word, Bread, Wine, Oil and sacred songs are central to our worship and on festive occasions, solemn processions, smells, and bells. Worship is authentic, historic as well as current, and grounded in the liturgies which are shared by the vast majority of Christians throughout the world. We gather to be instructed, enriched, enabled and empowered to return into the world around us to saturate it with God’s present and precious love for all people. The Church of the Holy Cross was founded on the Feast of St. Bartholomew, August 24, 2014, by a group of faithful, loving, dedicated children of God who desired to worship and serve faithfully and joyously. In 2017, we were received into The Evangelical Lutheran Conference and Ministerium (ELCM).

community

The Church of the Holy Cross is a Lutheran ecclesia (community) in the Catholic tradition. We are grounded on the sacred scriptures as the sole source and norm of faith and life and the Lutheran Confessions, gathered in the Book of Concord, as a true and proper exposition of those sacred scriptures.

We are a Lutheran ecclesia in the Catholic tradition, guided by The Holy Spirit as an example of what our reconciliation could, and does look like.  We are Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Coptic’s, Orthodox, Anglicans answering our Lord’s High [priestly prayer: , “may they be one as you and I are one”. John 17:21

seek the kingdom of god above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

matthew 6:33

fr paul schwEinler

fr paul schwEinler

The Rev. Paul J. Schweinler was ordained into the Holy Ministry of the Lutheran Church in 1979 and has served parishes in Muskogee, Oklahoma; Ashaway, Rhode Island; Dallas, Texas; Pompano Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Fr. Paul is a gifted liturgist and preacher and has held positions in Oklahoma and New England a Worship Chair.

Fr. Paul is a member of The Society of The Holy Trinity (STS), a Lutheran ministerium dedicated to supporting Pastors to remain faithful to their ordination vows, to support their prayer discipline, to foster continual growth and work for the reconciliation with Rome.

He is a Bd. Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress and has helped thousands of people both nationally and internationally in extraordinary-y times. Additionally, he is a Florida Supreme Court Mediator and a Certified Parenting Coordinator. Still, his primary call and passion is parish ministry.