Anglican Fourth Day (A4D) in the Gulf Atlantic Diocese announces lay leaders for their 8^th set of weekends.

Allen Daugherty and Lynette Matthews will lead the men and women's A4D renewal weekends to be held in October at Advent Christian Village (ACV) on the banks of the beautiful Suwannee River west of Live Oak, FL.

A4D is a renewal movement similar to the Cursillo weekends begun in the 1940s in Spain, which now reaches worldwide through many different

   A4D Lay Director,      Pat Mierse

denominational expressions. The three-day weekend is a short course in Christianity where participants listen to and discuss talks given by both laity and clergy speakers while building community through various activities including worship services, singing and sharing. These weekends are known for their good food and fun-filled times. But, more importantly, these days away from the participants' normal routines offer an opportunity for reflection and to be spiritually renewed.

A Fourth Day weekend can be, for the individual, a powerful encounter with Christ but the Fourth Day also offers a means to continue in Christian growth after the weekend. The resulting Christian communities are men and women who live the Christian life, linked with Christ while supporting one another in their environments. This support is found in two post-weekend activities. Small groups of friends meet for mutual sharing, encouragement and support. The larger Fourth Day communities meet periodically in their local areas for reunions, called Ultreyas, where they enjoy worshiping, sharing and fellowship together.

Anyone interested in attending a Fourth Day weekend should contact his or her church A4D Coordinator or his or her parish priest for additional information. Weekend dates are shown below. Cost of attending a weekend is $180, which covers three nights lodging and eight meals at ACV. Scholarship money may be available through your church or through the A4D Council as we do not want the expense of attending a weekend to prevent anyone from experiencing this opportunity.

Anyone interested in working as team members on the fall weekends should contact Allen and Lynette as soon as possible as teams are now being formed. Their contact information is also shown below.

Men's #8 Oct 14-17, 2010     

Allen Daugherty

Allen Daugherty, Rector

3809 Purcellville Court

Jacksonville, FL 32246-8406

dancerfl4@yahoo.com     

904-642-0500

Lynette Matthews

Women's #8 Oct 28-31, 2010   

Lynette Matthews, Rectora

1403 Split Tree Lane

Neptune Beach, FL 32266

rlmatt@comcast.net 

904-247-1434(H)

904-699-4661(C)

Potential team members would also need to be able to attend two overnight team retreats to be held at ACV on 9/10-11/2010 and 9/24-25/2010. Cost of working a team is $220, which covers all lodging for the retreats and the weekend as well as eight meals on the weekend.

Scholarship money may be available through your parish or the A4D Council.

The Anglican Fourth Day movement looks forward to celebrating five years since its formation in early 2006. The first set of weekends were held in October of that year. The 8^th set of men and women weekends will be held in October of this year.

Representatives from churches throughout the Gulf Atlantic Diocese elect representatives to serve from their geographical area. In turn, those Council members elect and appoint various officers and committee chairs.

Current Council officers are:

Pat Mierse, Lay Director,

Christ the King, St. Augustine;

Jim Barnidge, Assistant Lay Director,

St. Peter's, Tallahassee;

Skip Cope, Secretary,

All Saints, Tallahassee;

Tiffie Mackoul, Treasurer,

Resurrection Anglican Church, Neptune Beach

Judy Cebeck, Registrar,

Calvary Anglican Church, Jacksonville.

Additional Council members are:

Tressa Dishman,

St. Barnabas, Jacksonville;

Mel Higginbotham,

St. Barnabas, Jacksonville;

Larry Nichols,

New Grace, Fleming Island;

Barbara Newman,

Jacksonville Anglican Fellowship, Jacksonville

Everett Yarbrough,

St. Peter's, Tallahassee;

Robin Hawkins,

Christ Church, Wakulla;

Mary Leigh Sehulster,

Immanuel, Keystone Heights.

The Rev. Michael LaCagnina, Christ's Anglican Church, High Springs, FL is the Council Spiritual Advisor.

Carol Wallis, Redeemer/Vineyard Fellowship, Jacksonville is the A4D Music Director.

Two Council representatives, Everett Yarbrough and Skip Cope, plan to attend the National A4D Ultreya in Bedford, Texas in late August. An article about the National gathering is elsewhere in this edition of the diocese newsletter.

A4D is establishing a scholarship fund to help cover expenses for Pilgrims and team members (both lay and clergy) that would otherwise be unable to afford to attend the weekends. Donations to this scholarship fund are always welcome.

Contact:

Tiffie Mackoul at: tmackoul@comcast.net or

Pat Mierse at: patmierse1@bellsouth.net for additional information.   

Alpha Mission to Uganda

There is an old saw that says, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."  However, in June of this year, we saw just that happening.  Michael+ (the old dog) and Joyce La Cagnina, who have always been on the sending side of missionary

Michael+ and Joyce La Cagnina

activities, were asked to participate in an outreach to Soroti, Uganda.  Bishop George Erwau, through SOMA (Sharing of Ministries Abroad), had invited Clark and Carol Smith of Christ Church, Savannah, to bring a team to Soroti to teach the leaders of the diocese of Soroti how to establish an Alpha Program in the Diocese.  The objectives were to get broader involvement in evangelism in the diocese and to increase the knowledge of who the Holy Spirit is, how the Holy Spirit works, and who can be filled with the Holy Spirit.  Michael and Joyce seemed to be ideally suited for this activity as they have worked together as a team to present Alpha in three churches and in two states. 

After spending three days in prayer discerning the call, they accepted the invitation and began preparing for the journey.  While there was limited time to raise prayer and financial support needed to complete the mission, they accepted in faith that the Lord would provide and began preparations in earnest.  In just a few weeks, an intercessory prayer team of 12 people had accepted the call to pray for Joyce and Michael+, and donations began to arrive from a wide range of people, from high-school classmates, some who had not been seen in 20+ years, to friends from churches where the La Cagninas had attended 15 to 20 years earlier, to churches in our own diocese. 

Suddenly it was time to fly to Entebbe, Uganda, and while they did not have as many intercessors praying for them as they had hoped, and they had not received sufficient funds, they were confident that the prayers of the few would prevail and that the Lord would provide the balance required while they were gone.

When asked what their three most indelible memories were, they agreed that they were, in order of indelibility:

1.      The people.  While our perception may be somewhat distorted because we remained in the company of Christians and were in Christian enclaves throughout our stay, the people, both young and old, with whom we interacted were very spiritual.  They were exuberant in their praise and worship, whether or not there was any musical accompaniment.  In addition, their harmonizing was a beautiful expression of their love of the Lord.  On Sunday we attended five worship services and each was attended by between 1,000 and 2,300 people.

2.      The people.  Without exception, they are a humble, cheerful people.  A people who may have little from a U.S. perspective, yet are satisfied and happy with the blessings they do have, and at the same time are industrious and hard-working, striving to improve their conditions, whether it is reducing the spread of AIDS through education, or increasing the harvest of their gardens by hand hoeing a few more rows. They are generous and they will give of what they have if they see you in need.

3.      The people.  The acceptance of outsiders into their family was truly amazing.  In just a short time in their presence we felt as if we were long-time family members.  Their warmth and inclusivity (used in the most righteous sense) resulted in the formation of committed friendships.

While we experienced great generosity from the people, we also witnessed great effort that has to be expended to eek out a living from the soil, which all people of Soroti must do, including the clergy.  In the front yard of the Bishop's residence sits a set of discs that at one time tilled the soil for farming.  However, two or so years ago, the tractor broke down for the last time.  It is so old that replacement parts are unavailable.  Bishop Erwau spoke of his hope to raise funds "so that a replacement tractor can be bought to help produce food, not only for the church workers, but also for the local communities in their groups; especially the youth and women groups in the Diocese."  Bishop Erwau went on to say, "It can also help to produce more food, whereby we can feed the participants during mission work and other related Christian conferences."

Michael+ and Joyce were so captivated by the idea of being able to help an entire diocese by providing a tractor that they have begun investigating what it would take to get a tractor for Uganda.  They are working on a T4U program (Tractor 4 Uganda) that will raise the money needed to purchase the equipment in Uganda and deliver it to the diocese.  You will be hearing more about the T4U program in the weeks to come.

SOMA Alpha Soroti Team

The SOMA Alpha Team plus a Bull Dog Fan.  From Left, Joyce La Cagnina,

Clark Smith, John+ Awodi of Kampala, our one Ugandan team member, Jenny Noyes -

Director of Alpha USA SE, Carol Smith, Michael+ La Cagnina and our Bull Dog fan.

Joyce, delivering one of the demonstration Alpha talks with Hosea+ Asio, Vicar of Soroti Cathedral translating.

In the foreground, Clark Smith, SOMA Team Leader, Michael+ La Cagnina and

Bishop George Erwau.