First Service Held At Hope Anglican - Oscoda

Fr. Thomas Anderson reports that the Christmas Eve service was well attended as worship once again was held in the old sanctuary.  

Christ Is Born

O God, because you once caused this holy night to shine with the brightness of the true Light, grant that we who have known the mystery of that Light here on earth may come to the full measure of its joys in heaven; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Collect For Christmas Eve

King's College, Cambridge Lesson and Carols

The BBC's Radio 4 will be broadcasting Lessons and Carols live from the Chapel of the King's College, Cambridge Christmas Eve [Wednesday], at 10 a.m. EST.

Your local public radio station will carry this event.

Tis The Season

You just can't beat a good old fashioned kids Christmas pageant! 

MSJ Patches

Fr Thomas Anderson has arranged for the production of MSJ patches for hats, jackets and other applications.  Drop Fr. Tom an email to order patches.  These can be ironed on and/or stitched.

tmediaguy at mac dot com

Two Last Photos

Hope Anglican- A Promise Kept

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The work began during the hot and humid days of summer, with a promise, a desire to conduct the first worship service in the Old Church on Christmas Eve at Christ's Mass.   With only 10 days to go, the promise is being kept.  Invitations have been sent out.  Descendants of members from long ago have been invited to share in a community celebration of Jesus birth.  The altar, absent from its place for almost a decade, has been returned, as well as the octagonal pulpit and communion rail.  O Come All Ye Faithful, Joyful And Triumphant.  Hope Anglican Church, the oldest church building the county, is open again.

Built by immigrants during the lumbering days of the 1880, The Swedish Lutheran Church survived the great fire, the only church and one of only a handful of structures in town to do so.  Closed as an active Lutheran parish over 6 years ago, the old church was re-born as the home of the Emmanuel Mission Church, which took the name Hope Anglican Church to honor the building's history and to honor the faithful people of God of long ago.

The Weekend's Progress At Hope Anglican, Oscoda

The Grouting Of The Tile Begins

The Tile Get Cleaned And Cleaned And Cleaned

 

Tomorrow, following mass, we hope to return the beautiful altar to its original place once again, hang the creedence shelf and offering shelves once again.  The altar rail is also original and likely dates from the 1880's as well.  The original pulpit in the same architectural style has also been perfectly preserved.

Is This A New Kind Of Biretta Or What?

The mystery deepens.

MSJ Ratifies The Jerusalem Declaration

One of the topics for study at the MSJ winter gathering was the Jerusalem Declaration.  Bishop Richard Boyce, an attendee in Jerusalem for the GAFCON meeting, brought us a first hand report.  The missioners carefully studied the Declaration and after considerable discussion have ratified the Jerusalem Declaration.

REC Bishop Royal Grote Makes A Call To The MSJ

Bp. Royal Grote of the Reformed Episcopal Church called the MSJ gathering on speaker phone to bring his greetings, to offer his prayers and to provide guidance and direction to the Missionary Society.  The MSJ unanimously approved a resolution to significantly deepen its relationship with the REC as we labor together in the "fields white unto harvest".   May God bless Bishop Grote in his pastoral care for us.

Fr Marc Wilson Leads A Scripture Study

Fr. Marc Wilson, of Jesus' Evengelical Mission, Los Lunas, N.M. led the gathering in an intense scripture study on the Biblical basis of our Anglican spirituality, repentance and humility.

Fr. Marc holds the S.T.M. from Nashotah House.

Fr. Marc and Bishop Boyce during one of the breaks.

Bishop Rick and Rachel Painter listen intently to the speaker phone call from +Royal Grote.  The Painter's minister at Christ The King Anglican Church, Phoenix, Arizona and we were so pleased to have them as our guests at the gathering.

Annual Winter Meeting

        Lunch is served!  

Bishop Boyce and Fr Moorehead Share A Moment

Diplomas And Licenses Are Awarded.   Congratulations!

The Eucharist Is Shared

Times Of Prayer

Reviewing Reports

Frs. Doubblestein, Gayer, and Lemmon study the provisional Constitution and Canons of the Anglican Church in North America

The Anglican Church in North America Is Born

 Photo from LA Times

The Common Cause Partnership today in Wheaton announced the provisional constitutions of the new province, called the Anglican Church in North America, has been approved unanimously by the governing bishop's executive council. The provisional constitution awaits the ratifying convention to be held in six months in Bedford Texas at St Vincent Cathedral. The new province also adopted 9 canons. The Anglican Church in North America already claims 700 commited parishes with 100,000 members in church on Sundays.

Gathering of Missioners

The annual gathering of the Missionary Society of St John is being held December 7-9, 18401 Canal Road, in Clinton Township, Michigan.  Bishop Richard Boyce will be our special guest.

The Society will review the Jerusalem Declaration of the GAFCON primates, discuss our membership in the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, and our place in the new North American province.

An opening Eucharist, with Bishop Frederick G. Fick celebrating, will be held on Monday morning, December 8, at 9 a.m.

For more guest registration and/or motel information, please call 586-264-6044

Grateful For The Beginning. Hopeful, But Not Quite Celebrating Yet

(PHOTO CREDIT: Kim Johnson)

Over at TexAnglican, M.B. Hwang writes about the Wheaton gathering:  

"For me, it was bittersweet. Anticipation - and watching it unfold - is a complex emotion. I am simultaneously amazed by the unity and dismayed by the difficulties in maintaining healthy diversity that still lie ahead, glad that a long-awaited future is taking shape and sad for the pain of the reality of divisions, relieved but also aware that our detractors are watching, appreciative of an obviously thoughtfully organized event bit also unmoved by the style of worship and approach to liturgy. In short, I feel that this is a time for hope and endurance but not exultation or relaxation, so I suppose my greatest difficulty with the service was that it felt so insistently celebratory to me."

 

On the eve of the Wheaton gathering, TexAnglican wrote:

"...  it seems clear that the December 3rd meeting will not actually "launch" the new province. It will, instead, present what its framers intend for it to become once its new constitution is ratified by member ecclesiastical entities.

This actually makes sense, in light of the fact that the diocesan conventions (or equivalents) of each of the member dioceses and ecclesiastical bodies will surely have to ratify the proposed constitution individually before they will officially become members of such a new provincial structure. The CCP's leaders seem to be following the course taken in adopting the U.S. Constitution. It was proposed and debated for months before the individual states ratified it one-by-one and it went into effect."

Add to these two observations the biggest concern of all, the differing positions on catholic faith and order, especially as it relates to the ordination of women to the priesthood,  I reply now to that oft asked question, "So, how do you feel about the new province, the ACNA?"   

My honest answer is this.  It was an honor to be in Wheaton for the gathering and to sign the Jerusalem declaration. I am hopeful.  The gathering demonstrated reason for hopefulness, but is premature for unrestrained celebration. 

As M. B. Hwang said, "I feel that this is a time for hope and endurance but not exultation or relaxation".  Amen.  Well put.

 +Frederick G. Fick

Anglicans Chant The Weather Forecast

If you wouldn't know Anglican Chant from a good polka or the latest rap song, this likely would merely cause you to ask, "Are you sure this is humorous?".   But, we thought this was hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z2jwDcb9wI

MSJ Delegation Signs Jerusalem Declaration

Father Francis Wardega


Father Michael Orr


Father Terry Moore


Bishop Frederick Fick

From Jerusalem To Wheaton

It is 4 a.m. and four MSJs are scurrying from their beds, to embrace the cold, dark morning and the long drive to Wheaton, Illinois.  The promise of GAFcon, meeting in Jerusalem last summer now comes to North America.  "See the morning, see it rising".

A day of hope and possibilities dawns.

CCP Announces Wheaton Gathering

Draft Constitution to be unveiled, Jerusalem Declaration signed at Dec. 3 gathering

WHEATON, IL, Nov. 17—Leaders of the Common Cause Partnership, a federation of more than 100,000 Anglican Christians in North America, will release to the public on the evening of Dec. 3 the draft constitution of an emerging Anglican Church in North America, formally subscribe to the Jerusalem Declaration of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) and affirm the GAFCON Statement on the Global Anglican Future at an evening worship celebration in suburban Chicago.

For the rest of the story

Chris Tomlin- "Hello Love"

From time to time, certain contemporary artists release new works that we really like.  Often it because these are fresh takes on very old, very mainstream liturgical themes.  Christ Tomlin's new album, "Hello Love" has a couple new selections that are quite touching and inspiring.  If you are an Anglican-Catholic who likes good contemporary music, take a listen.

Praise The Father, Praise The Son

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnTYO9yG6ig&feature=related

I Will Rise    

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QsS190dZTs

Christ talks about the inspiration and origin of I Will Rise here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BLY5rr24mM&feature=related

Samuel Seabury - First American Bishop - Nov. 17

On March 25, 1783, a meeting of ten Episcopal clergy in Woodbury, Connecticut, elected Seabury bishop. There were no Anglican bishops in the Americas to consecrate him, so he sailed to London on July 7. In England, however, his consecration was rationalized as impossible because, as an American citizen, he could no longer take the oath of allegiance to the English King. Seabury then turned to the Scottish Church, whose bishops at that time refused to recognize the authority of King George III. He was consecrated in Aberdeen on November 14, 1784, with the one condition that in the matter of the Holy Communion he study the Scottish Rite, taken largely unchanged from the 1549 Prayer Book and work for its adoption rather than the English rite of 1662. To the present day the American liturgy adheres to the main features of this Rite in its Holy Eucharist Liturgies, widely regarded as one of the greatest treasures of the Church in this country.

We give thee thanks, O Lord our God, for thy goodness in bestowing upon this Church the gift of the episcopate, which we celebrate in this remembrance of the consecration of Samuel Seabury; and we pray that, joined together in unity with our bishops, and nourished by thy holy Sacraments, we may proclaim the Gospel of redemption with apostolic zeal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

A Prayer for Veterans Day

Governor of Nations, our Strength and Shield: 
we give you thanks for the devotion and courage 
of all those who have offered military service for this country:

For those who have fought for freedom; for those who laid down their lives for others; 
for those who have borne suffering of mind or of body; 
for those who have brought their best gifts to times of need.

On our behalf they have entered into danger,
endured separation from those they love, 
labored long hours, and borne hardship in war and in peacetime.

Lift up by your mighty Presence those who are now at war; 
encourage and heal those in hospitals 
or mending their wounds at home; 
guard those in any need or trouble; 
hold safely in your hands all military families; 
and bring the returning troops to joyful reunion 
and tranquil life at home;

Give to us, your people, grateful hearts 
and a united will to honor these men and women 
and hold them always in our love and our prayers; 
until your world is perfected in peace

through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen

Collect for the Feast of Richard Hooker

O God of truth and peace, you raised up your servant Richard Hooker in a day of bitter controversy to defend with sound reasoning and great charity the catholic and reformed religion: Grant that we may maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

When The Saints Come Marching In

St.Michael (Harry), St.Joseph (Elijah), St.Valentine (Hannah), St.Joan of Arc (Kaitlyn), St.Therese of Avila (Halle), St.Tabitha (Sarah), St.Patrick (Makenna), St.Nicholas (Danielle), St.Mary (Grace), St.Veronica (Sami), St.Frances of Assisi (Nathaniel), St.John the Baptist (Hope)

Bishop Keith Ackerman

Bishop Keith Ackerman announced that after consulting with his wife, friends and physicians he will retire as bishop of Quincy, effective November 1.  God bless you, +Keith.

Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles

The Collect

O ALMIGHTY God, who hast built thy Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the head corner-stone; Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their doctrine, that we may be made an holy temple acceptable unto thee; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Eh?

Time To Take Our Leave

The 2008 General Council of the REC, meeting in Victoria, BC will conduct it's final day of worship, fellowship and business tomorrow, Friday, but we, the weary travellers from the MSJ, must take our leave in the morning. We have American customs to clear and we have been forewarned that this might not be a simple or speedy task in this day and age. We must leave the Island again by ferry. A rental car awaits us for the long drive to Sea-Tac airport in Washington State, from which we must catch our "red-eye" flights to return to our homes in Michigan and Texas. We covet your prayers for travel safety and mercies. We shall not soon forget the beauty of both Victoria, BC or of God's people of the REC who gathered to seek His face, hear His Word, and do His work this week.

Fr Bob Tomlinson
Fr Francis Wardega
Bp Frederick Fick