Daily Reading for Week of October 12th
Date: 10/11/2008
Proper 23
Week of the Sunday closest to October 12
| Sunday | 146, 147 | 111, 112, 113 | |
| Micah 6:1-8 | 1 Cor. 4:9-16 | Matt. 15:21-28 | |
| Monday | 1, 2, 3 | 4, 7 | |
| Micah 7:1-7 | Acts 26:1-23 | Luke 8:26-39 | |
| Tuesday | 5, 6 | 10, 11 | |
| Jonah 1:1-17a | Acts 26:24-27:8 | Luke 8:40-56 | |
| Wednesday | 119:1-24 | 12, 13, 14 | |
| Jonah 1:17-2:10 | Acts 27:9-26 | Luke 9:1-17 | |
| Thursday | 18:1-20 | 18:21-50 | |
| Jonah 3:1-4:11 | Acts 27:27-44 | Luke 9:18-27 | |
| Friday | 16, 17 | 22 | |
| Ecclus. 1:1-10,18-27 | Acts 28:1-16 | Luke 9:28-36 | |
| Saturday | 20, 21:1-7(8-14) | 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117 | |
| Ecclus. 3:17-31 | Acts 28:17-31 | Luke 9:37-50 | |
Daily Readings for Week of October 5th
Date: 9/30/2008
Proper 22
Week of the Sunday closest to October 5
|
Sunday |
118 |
145 | |
|
Hosea 13:4-14 |
1 Cor. 2:6-16 |
Matt. 14:1-12 | |
|
Monday |
106:1-18 |
106:19-48 | |
|
Hosea 14:1-9 |
Acts 22:30-23:11 |
Luke 6:39-49 | |
|
Tuesday |
[120], 121, 122, 123 |
124, 125, 126, [127] | |
|
Micah 1:1-9 |
Acts 23:12-24 |
Luke 7:1-17 | |
|
Wednesday |
119:145-176 |
128, 129, 130 | |
|
Micah 2:1-13 |
Acts 23:23-35 |
Luke 7:18-35 | |
|
Thursday |
131, 132, [133] |
134, 135 | |
|
Micah 3:1-8 |
Acts 24:1-23 |
Luke 7:36-50 | |
|
Friday |
140, 142 |
141, 143:1-11(12) | |
|
Micah 3:9-4:5 |
Acts 24:24-25:12 |
Luke 8:1-15 | |
|
Saturday |
137:1-6(7-9), 144 |
104 | |
|
Micah 5:1-4,10-15 |
Acts 25:13-27 |
Luke 8:16-25 | |
GAFCON Final Statement
Date: 7/10/2008
|
STATEMENT ON THE GLOBAL ANGLICAN FUTURE Praise the LORD! Brothers and Sisters in Christ: We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, send you greetings from Jerusalem! Introduction The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), which was held in Jerusalem from 22-29 June 2008, is a spiritual movement to preserve and promote the truth and power of the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ as we Anglicans have received it. The movement is global: it has mobilised Anglicans from around the world. We are Anglican: 1148 lay and clergy participants, including 291 bishops representing millions of faithful Anglican Christians. We cherish our Anglican heritage and the Anglican Communion and have no intention of departing from it. And we believe that, in God’s providence, Anglicanism has a bright future in obedience to our Lord’s Great Commission to make disciples of all nations and to build up the church on the foundation of biblical truth (Matthew 28:18-20; Ephesians 2:20). GAFCON is not just a moment in time, but a movement in the Spirit, and we hereby: · launch the GAFCON movement as a fellowship of confessing Anglicans · publish the Jerusalem Declaration as the basis of the fellowship · encourage GAFCON Primates to form a Council. The Global Anglican Context The future of the Anglican Communion is but a piece of the wider scenario of opportunities and challenges for the gospel in 21st century global culture. We rejoice in the way God has opened doors for gospel mission among many peoples, but we grieve for the spiritual decline in the most economically developed nations, where the forces of militant secularism and pluralism are eating away the fabric of society and churches are compromised and enfeebled in their witness. The vacuum left by them is readily filled by other faiths and deceptive cults. To meet these challenges will require Christians to work together to understand and oppose these forces and to liberate those under their sway. It will entail the planting of new churches among unreached peoples and also committed action to restore authentic Christianity to compromised churches. The Anglican Communion, present in six continents, is well positioned to address this challenge, but currently it is divided and distracted. The Global Anglican Future Conference emerged in response to a crisis within the Anglican Communion, a crisis involving three undeniable facts concerning world Anglicanism. The first fact is the acceptance and promotion within the provinces of the Anglican Communion of a different ‘gospel’ (cf. Galatians 1:6-8) which is contrary to the apostolic gospel. This false gospel undermines the authority of God’s Word written and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the author of salvation from sin, death and judgement. Many of its proponents claim that all religions offer equal access to God and that Jesus is only a way, not the way, the truth and the life. It promotes a variety of sexual preferences and immoral behaviour as a universal human right. It claims God’s blessing for same-sex unions over against the biblical teaching on holy matrimony. In 2003 this false gospel led to the consecration of a bishop living in a homosexual relationship. The second fact is the declaration by provincial bodies in the Global South that they are out of communion with bishops and churches that promote this false gospel. These declarations have resulted in a realignment whereby faithful Anglican Christians have left existing territorial parishes, dioceses and provinces in certain Western churches and become members of other dioceses and provinces, all within the Anglican Communion. These actions have also led to the appointment of new Anglican bishops set over geographic areas already occupied by other Anglican bishops. A major realignment has occurred and will continue to unfold. The third fact is the manifest failure of the Communion Instruments to exercise discipline in the face of overt heterodoxy. The Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada, in proclaiming this false gospel, have consistently defied the 1998 Lambeth statement of biblical moral principle (Resolution 1.10). Despite numerous meetings and reports to and from the ‘Instruments of Unity,’ no effective action has been taken, and the bishops of these unrepentant churches are welcomed to Lambeth 2008. To make matters worse, there has been a failure to honour promises of discipline, the authority of the Primates’ Meeting has been undermined and the Lambeth Conference has been structured so as to avoid any hard decisions. We can only come to the devastating conclusion that ‘we are a global Communion with a colonial structure’. Sadly, this crisis has torn the fabric of the Communion in such a way that it cannot simply be patched back together. At the same time, it has brought together many Anglicans across the globe into personal and pastoral relationships in a fellowship which is faithful to biblical teaching, more representative of the demographic distribution of global Anglicanism today and stronger as an instrument of effective mission, ministry and social involvement. A Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, are a fellowship of confessing Anglicans for the benefit of the Church and the furtherance of its mission. We are a fellowship of people united in the communion (koinonia) of the one Spirit and committed to work and pray together in the common mission of Christ. It is a confessing fellowship in that its members confess the faith of Christ crucified, stand firm for the gospel in the global and Anglican context, and affirm a contemporary rule, the Jerusalem Declaration, to guide the movement for the future. We are a fellowship of Anglicans, including provinces, dioceses, churches, missionary jurisdictions, para-church organisations and individual Anglican Christians whose goal is to reform, heal and revitalise the Anglican Communion and expand its mission to the world. Our fellowship is not breaking away from the Anglican Communion. We, together with many other faithful Anglicans throughout the world, believe the doctrinal foundation of Anglicanism, which defines our core identity as Anglicans, is expressed in these words: The doctrine of the Church is grounded in the Holy Scriptures and in such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the said Scriptures. In particular, such doctrine is to be found in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal. We intend to remain faithful to this standard, and we call on others in the Communion to reaffirm and return to it. While acknowledging the nature of Canterbury as an historic see, we do not accept that Anglican identity is determined necessarily through recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Building on the above doctrinal foundation of Anglican identity, we hereby publish the Jerusalem Declaration as the basis of our fellowship. The Jerusalem Declaration In the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit: We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, have met in the land of Jesus’ birth. We express our loyalty as disciples to the King of kings, the Lord Jesus. We joyfully embrace his command to proclaim the reality of his kingdom which he first announced in this land. The gospel of the kingdom is the good news of salvation, liberation and transformation for all. In light of the above, we agree to chart a way forward together that promotes and protects the biblical gospel and mission to the world, solemnly declaring the following tenets of orthodoxy which underpin our Anglican identity. 1. We rejoice in the gospel of God through which we have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Because God first loved us, we love him and as believers bring forth fruits of love, ongoing repentance, lively hope and thanksgiving to God in all things. 2. We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God written and to contain all things necessary for salvation. The Bible is to be translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense, respectful of the church’s historic and consensual reading. 3. We uphold the four Ecumenical Councils and the three historic Creeds as expressing the rule of faith of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church. 4. We uphold the Thirty-nine Articles as containing the true doctrine of the Church agreeing with God’s Word and as authoritative for Anglicans today. 5. We gladly proclaim and submit to the unique and universal Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, humanity’s only Saviour from sin, judgement and hell, who lived the life we could not live and died the death that we deserve. By his atoning death and glorious resurrection, he secured the redemption of all who come to him in repentance and faith. 6. We rejoice in our Anglican sacramental and liturgical heritage as an expression of the gospel, and we uphold the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as a true and authoritative standard of worship and prayer, to be translated and locally adapted for each culture. 7. We recognise that God has called and gifted bishops, priests and deacons in historic succession to equip all the people of God for their ministry in the world. We uphold the classic Anglican Ordinal as an authoritative standard of clerical orders. 8. We acknowledge God’s creation of humankind as male and female and the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family. We repent of our failures to maintain this standard and call for a renewed commitment to lifelong fidelity in marriage and abstinence for those who are not married. 9. We gladly accept the Great Commission of the risen Lord to make disciples of all nations, to seek those who do not know Christ and to baptise, teach and bring new believers to maturity. 10. We are mindful of our responsibility to be good stewards of God’s creation, to uphold and advocate justice in society, and to seek relief and empowerment of the poor and needy. 11. We are committed to the unity of all those who know and love Christ and to building authentic ecumenical relationships. We recognise the orders and jurisdiction of those Anglicans who uphold orthodox faith and practice, and we encourage them to join us in this declaration. 12. We celebrate the God-given diversity among us which enriches our global fellowship, and we acknowledge freedom in secondary matters. We pledge to work together to seek the mind of Christ on issues that divide us. 13. We reject the authority of those churches and leaders who have denied the orthodox faith in word or deed. We pray for them and call on them to repent and return to the Lord. 14. We rejoice at the prospect of Jesus’ coming again in glory, and while we await this final event of history, we praise him for the way he builds up his church through his Spirit by miraculously changing lives. The Road Ahead We believe the Holy Spirit has led us during this week in Jerusalem to begin a new work. There are many important decisions for the development of this fellowship which will take more time, prayer and deliberation. Among other matters, we shall seek to expand participation in this fellowship beyond those who have come to Jerusalem, including cooperation with the Global South and the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa. We can, however, discern certain milestones on the road ahead. Primates’ Council We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, do hereby acknowledge the participating Primates of GAFCON who have called us together, and encourage them to form the initial Council of the GAFCON movement. We look forward to the enlargement of the Council and entreat the Primates to organise and expand the fellowship of confessing Anglicans. We urge the Primates’ Council to authenticate and recognise confessing Anglican jurisdictions, clergy and congregations and to encourage all Anglicans to promote the gospel and defend the faith. We recognise the desirability of territorial jurisdiction for provinces and dioceses of the Anglican Communion, except in those areas where churches and leaders are denying the orthodox faith or are preventing its spread, and in a few areas for which overlapping jurisdictions are beneficial for historical or cultural reasons. We thank God for the courageous actions of those Primates and provinces who have offered orthodox oversight to churches under false leadership, especially in North and South America. The actions of these Primates have been a positive response to pastoral necessities and mission opportunities. We believe that such actions will continue to be necessary and we support them in offering help around the world. We believe this is a critical moment when the Primates’ Council will need to put in place structures to lead and support the church. In particular, we believe the time is now ripe for the formation of a province in North America for the federation currently known as Common Cause Partnership to be recognised by the Primates’ Council. Conclusion: Message from Jerusalem We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, were summoned by the Primates’ leadership team to Jerusalem in June 2008 to deliberate on the crisis that has divided the Anglican Communion for the past decade and to seek direction for the future. We have visited holy sites, prayed together, listened to God’s Word preached and expounded, learned from various speakers and teachers, and shared our thoughts and hopes with each other. The meeting in Jerusalem this week was called in a sense of urgency that a false gospel has so paralysed the Anglican Communion that this crisis must be addressed. The chief threat of this dispute involves the compromising of the integrity of the church’s worldwide mission. The primary reason we have come to Jerusalem and issued this declaration is to free our churches to give clear and certain witness to Jesus Christ. It is our hope that this Statement on the Global Anglican Future will be received with comfort and joy by many Anglicans around the world who have been distressed about the direction of the Communion. We believe the Anglican Communion should and will be reformed around the biblical gospel and mandate to go into all the world and present Christ to the nations. Jerusalem |
Our Core Values
Date: 7/9/2008
PREAMBLE
WHAT WE BELIEVE AT
HOLY APOSTLES ANGLICAN CHURCH
The following statement is meant to serve as a Confession of Faith for Holy Apostles Anglican Church. It forms the basic theological and ethical standard for our common life as we serve Jesus Christ as Christians in the 21st Century.
A COMMON CONFESSION OF THE GOSPEL
TO THE GOSPEL AND THE TRIUNE GOD: We rejoice in the grace of the Triune God, who has forgiven our sins and given us redemption in Jesus Christ. We proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, fully human and fully divine, who became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, lived a life of perfect obedience to his heavenly Father, died on the cross to atone for the sins of the world, and rose bodily in accordance with the Scriptures. God the Holy Spirit draws us to faith in Jesus Christ, through whom alone we are justified and found acceptable by God the Father.
TO CHRISTIAN OBEDIENCE: We confess Jesus as the Lord to whom all authority in heaven and earth has been given by the Father. We commit ourselves to follow him and love him above all else and to conform our lives to his example and teaching by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
TO HOLY SCRIPTURE: We believe all Scriptures were “written for our learning” (Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:16), that they are “God’s Word written,” and that we are to “hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them.” We commit ourselves to regular Bible study and to preach and teach only that which is in accordance with Holy Scripture.
TO CONGREGATIONAL LIFE: We hold corporate worship, discipleship, sharing, and mission to be interconnected and indispensable aspects of our response to God as he revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ. We are committed to being sacrificially involved in all four aspects of congregational life.
TO MISSION AND MISSIONS: The Risen Lord Jesus commissioned his disciples to preach the gospel and to follow his commandments. The mission of the Church includes both evangelistic proclamation and deeds of love and service. We commit ourselves and our resources to this mission, both locally and to the uttermost parts of the earth. We affirm our particular responsibility to know, love, and serve the Lord in our local settings and contexts. Since the biblical pattern of witness moves from the local to the global, we will endeavor to be well-informed about our local communities and active in church planting, evangelism, service, social justice, and cross-cultural, international mission, with particular concern for the poor and the unreached peoples of the world.
CONTEMPORARY IMPLICATIONS OF THE GOSPEL
Christian mission is rooted in unchanging Biblical revelation. At particular times, however, specific challenges to authentic faith and holiness arise which require thoughtful and vigorous response. We therefore speak to the following issues of our time and culture.
FOR THE UNIQUENESS OF JESUS CHRIST: While religions and philosophies of the world are not without elements of truth, Jesus Christ alone is the full revelation of God. In and through the Gospel, Jesus judges and corrects all views and doctrines. All persons everywhere need to learn of him, come to know and believe in him, and receive forgiveness and new life in him, as there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
TO HISTORIC FAITH, ECUMENICAL VISION: We affirm the Faith of the Anglican Church as it is set forth in the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds and in the classical Prayer Book tradition, including those documents contained in the “Historical Documents” section of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer (BCP, p. 864f). We further affirm the principles of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral (BCP, p. 876) as an expression of the normative authority of Holy Scripture and as a basis for our present unity with brothers and sisters in the Anglican Communion and for the future reunion of all the divided branches of Christ’s one holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
FOR CHURCH AND STATE: Biblical social commandments and Christian ethical principles are foundational to the well being of every society. Recognizing the call of Christians to be faithful witnesses and a challenging presence in society, we are committed to seek ways to express these commandments and principles in all spheres of life, including the public life of the nation.
FOR THE SANCTITY OF LIFE: All human life is a sacred gift from God and is to be protected and defended from conception to natural death. We will uphold the sanctity of life and bring the grace and compassion of Christ to those who face the realities of previous abortion, unwanted pregnancy, and end-of-life illness.
FOR TRUE INCLUSIVITY: In grateful response to Christ Jesus, in whom there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, we will extend the welcome of the Church to every person, regardless of race, sex, social or economic status, sexual orientation, or past behavior. We will oppose prejudice in ourselves and others and renounce any false notion of inclusivity that denies that all are sinners who need to repent.
FOR MARRIAGE, FAMILY, AND THE SINGLE LIFE:
God has instituted marriage to be a life-long union of husband and wife, intended for their mutual joy, help, and comfort, and, when it is God’s will, for the procreation and nurture of children. Divorce is always contrary to God’s original intention, though in a fallen world it is sometimes a tragic reality. The roles of father and mother, exercised in a variety of ways, are God given and profoundly important since they are the chief providers of moral instruction and godly living. The single life, either by call or by circumstance, is honored by God. It is therefore important for unmarried persons to embrace and be embraced by the Christian family.
FOR HUMAN SEXUALITY: Sexuality is inherent in God’s creation of every human person in his image as male and female. All Christians are called to chastity: Husbands and wives by exclusive sexual fidelity to one another and single persons by abstinence from sexual intercourse. God intends and enables all people to live within these boundaries through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Adapted from The American Anglican Council’s A Place to Stand for Holy Apostles Anglican Church, Elizabeththown, Kentucky. Affirmed by Holy Apostles Anglican Church Council on April 8, 2008.
OUR CORE VALUES
The following core values represent who we are, and what our priorities are, as a Church:
1) Biblical Authority God has spoken to us through the Bible and we recognize it as the final authority in our lives and church.
2 Timothy 3:16.
2) Vibrant Relationship with God God desires an intimate relationship with each of us and has provided the way to know Him through Jesus Christ.
John 17:3; Matthew 7:22.
3) Meaningful Worship Our worship of God is more an habitual reciting of the liturgy and hearing a sermon; it is entering into the Presence of Almighty God and declaring His Praise. Psalm 48; Hebrews 13:15.
4) The Power of Prayer God has instructed His People to be people of prayer interceding on behalf of others and themselves to accomplish the will of God in our world.
1 John 5:14.
5) Significant Ministries Every ministry of the church is designed to be significant and relevant in advancing our mission of sharing the Gospel to its target audience.
Romans 12:3-9.
6) Caring Communities Accountability, belonging, agape love, pastoral care and spiritual growth occur best when believers know and relate to one another in small groups.
Acts 2:42-47.
7) Spiritual Service Spiritual gifts have been given by God to His people to serve Him in the Church and in the world and are a primary motivating factor in our service to Him. 1 Corinthians 12:4-11.
8) Discipleship We have a responsibility to pass on to others the spiritual knowledge, skills, and the opportunities which have been entrusted to us.
2 Timothy 2:2.
9) Servant Leadership The objective of the leaders in this church is to serve the congregation to help them fulfill their mission and ministries in the Church and in the world.
1 Timothy 3:1-11; Titus 1:5-9.
SUNDAY
10am Worship
