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Communications Resources for Assembly 2014
This June, Assembly 2014 will be an historic week in the life of our Church and it is open to everyone.
Over 1000 Anglicans from across the country and guests from around the world will be gathering. The next Archbishop will have just been elected. An all-star lineup of speakers will be leading plenary session and workshops. In addition, 200 teens and young adults will be joining the conference.
We have created a Communications Resource Center with bulletin inserts, web banners, and flyers to help make it easy for you to share the upcoming Assembly with your parish or diocese.
You can find all of the resources by clicking here.
Contact:
Rev. Andrew Gross
Director of Communications
724-266-9400
andrew.gross@anglicanchurch.net
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Killing Jesus
From Jim McCaslin+
 Ginny and I drove up to Birmingham and back this past week to visit my brother Lee in a rehabilitation hospital. He's on the road to recovery from internal bleeding and is getting his strength back so he can walk again. Hopefully, he'll be able to go home in a couple of weeks.
 To make the 8-hour drive more enjoyable we listened to the audio book version of Killing Jesus by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. It was most excellent, fast-paced, and soundly orthodox. Killing Jesus was written as a history, rather than as theology or devotional. Drawing not only on the Gospel sources, but also on the writings of Roman and Jewish historians and philosophers, the book rings true with what we know as historically accurate.
Despite the fact that O'Reilly and Dugard, both Roman Catholics, did not preach, the Holy Spirit at times moistened my eyes by the power of the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. For some 2,000 years God's power to draw people to Himself through His Word and Spirit has continued to manifest itself in a way to save and transform lives.
We finished the last several minutes of the book on our way home. This drive was a bit of a dangerous endeavor with freezing weather, snow, and ice as Birmingham and Atlanta were caught by surprise as this storm came further north than expected, creating chaos to include children stranded overnight in their schools and traffic totally snarled. It was one thing to see stalled cars and trucks on the sides of the interstates on television and quite another to experience the results of God's powerful nature firsthand. End-of-the-world science fiction movies came to mind as we witnessed hundreds of immobilized vehicles and their owners getting rides out to the interstate to retrieve them. I-20 to Atlanta came to a standstill so we got off and drove over icy mountains cross-country to Columbus, Albany, and Tifton, finally reaching I-75 and then, thankfully, I-10 again.
God's mercy held the death toll to six in both states. We arrived home after 12 hours around 1:00 a.m. Friday morning, tired but rejoicing in God's protection and provision and knowing that the killing of Jesus was God's plan for the salvation of all who call on His Name. The world meant it for evil, but God meant it for our great good!
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The Savannah Tour of Homes & Gardens
Plan your trip to Savannah this spring!
 The 79th Annual Savannah Tour of Homes & Gardens is March 27-30, 2014. The Tour is presented by the Women of Christ Church Anglican with Historic Savannah Foundation.
 All proceeds benefit local charities and global missions. In 2013, some of the local missions' disbursements went to prison ministries, educational training for low income and homeless individuals, as well as clothing for those in need and guidance for at-risk families and youth. Some of the global missions' recipients were the SAMS Organization, New Wineskins, and Soroti Girls' Scholarships. The portion of proceeds for Historic Savannah Foundation goes towards preservation efforts.
 Visitors to the Tour will have the rare opportunity to visit some of Savannah's finest private homes and gardens seldom seen by the public. Enjoy the interiors and the architecture while walking down moss-draped, oak-covered streets of the nation's largest National Historic Landmark District and the historic Ardsley Park neighborhood. Don't miss some of the best hospitality the South has to offer!
For more information, please visit our website at www.savannahtourofhomes.org or call the Tour office at (912) 234-8054.
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ATLAS: First Annual Spring Seminar
March 29, 2014
Dear Friends,
 It is an exciting time of new ministry and new growth. ATLAS invites you to share in this fresh experience of God's grace, especially at our First Annual Spring Seminar (details in the attached Flyer).
You may register by contacting me via my email or address or phone number on the flyer.
I tried to structure the day so that those who need to arrive as late as 10am, and leave as early as 4:30pm, could do so comfortably. But, I hope many have the time to arrange for an extra night or two, and enjoy the area of Celebration while they're here, in a more leisurely fashion.
Life might be going-along pretty well, but you sense a call to deeper health, and to grow in Christlikeness.
Or, perhaps you feel "stuck" in some way, and need a divine "nudge" to move forward.
Or, maybe you can identify a specific cause of hurt, pain or loss, and hunger for supernatural comfort and freedom.
In any case, join us for this day of teaching, worship, ministry, and fellowship, as a way to feed your soul, observe Lent, and welcome Spring with "A Fresh Start."
Our vision is to help position you in the presence of God, where you can receive grace for a "Fresh Start."
Grace And Peace
(G A P, which is enough to fill any gap),
The Rev. Dr. Susan I. Bubbers, DMin, PhD
The Center for Anglican Theology, Liturgy, And Spiritual formation, Inc.
Celebration Anglican Fellowship
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The Liturgy and Common Prayer Task Force includes The Rev. Eric Dudley, St. Peter's, Tallahassee. |
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The Gulf Atlantic Diocese is on Facebook!
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The Communiqué February 2014 Newsletterof the Gulf Atlantic Diocese
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I rejoice in the Lord as we continue our ministry together in the Gulf Atlantic Diocese. We send out regular email newsletters to enable us to be more faithful in the Lord's call for us to be servants in his everlasting kingdom.
Please pass this information on to all who are part of our diocese or may be interested in our life together.
+ Bishop Neil G. Lebhar |
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New Catechism, New Liturgies and Anglican Communion Concerns  Dear brothers and sisters of the diocese, We are at an encouraging moment in our life together in the Anglican Church in North America. By God's grace, we have been able to create two new resources, a new catechism and a new set of liturgies. They will be critical for our discipleship and worship but will also serve as marks of our identity as Anglicans here. I want to encourage all of you to take a careful look at To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism. It is my hope that you will use it in preparation for baptism and confirmation as well as for incorporation of new members.Honestly, I was not a big fan of using the previous Episcopal Church catechism. It was often vague, sometimes simplistic, and had no scriptural references. Our new catechism is very different. It is designed to be studied carefully and reflected upon. My hope is that all Anglicans here will take the time to read it and think it through. I encourage looking up the scriptural references in the process. I believe that the section about becoming a Christian will also have a powerful effect.
I also hope that the catechism will be something shared by parents with their children. Real discipleship of our children ought always to begin at home.
We also have new liturgies to be incorporated into our worship life together. My hope is that many of us will use them so that we could return to the practice of having truly common prayer. It was the general consensus at the recent College of Bishops that most churches will probably use the short form of Eucharist, but either form is fine. Congregations are still free to use services from previous Anglican prayer books if they so desire. But frankly I think that it would be somewhat strange for us to continue still using Episcopal forms now that we have our own. I will leave the choice of liturgies up to each rector and parish, as long as the forms were in use in when ACNA was formed.
I should add that these are trial liturgies. We would welcome feedback as we move toward having more permanent forms in the years to come.
On another note, I have been asked to say a word about struggles in the Church of England. Along with the archbishops of Kenya and Uganda and many others, I am very concerned. There is a likelihood that some English bishops will permit the blessing of relationships that should not be blessed according to the Scriptures. Therefore our desire in ACNA to be recognized by the Church of England is diminishing. I do ask that you keep the Church of England and particularly the Archbishop of Canterbury in your prayers during this troubling time.
Many have suggested that we are in the midst of another reformation period. The Reformation of the 1500s was likewise a time of conflict and new alliances. By God's grace our current reformation is at least without bloodshed. In the midst of such a period of the church's history, it is hard to see ahead. It is therefore a good time to recall a hopeful verse of a favorite hymn, "The Church's One Foundation," written by Samuel Stone in a similar period of debate and sad division (click for link on its background):
'Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace forevermore;
Till, with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.
We have a glorious future ahead, when the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be our shepherd, and he will guide us to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. (from Revelation 7:17) As we move ahead to make disciples and worship the Lord, hold on to this hope.
In Jesus the Messiah,
Neil
+Neil G. Lebhar
Bishop, Gulf Atlantic Diocese, ACNA
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Except from "The Sermon on the Mount, Being A Worshiper"
by The Reverend Harold Haugan
 "Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."
Those recognizable words from the program Star Trek give us a feeling for where the Sermon on the Mount is leading us. If you can see yourself as a spiritual being having a human experience then you are a spiritual being created to explore what lies behind the physical existence in which you find yourself. It starts with the One who came from the reality behind reality, Jesus the Christ, the One through whom all things were made. You are a 'Star ship' with a mission, a lifetime mission, to bring the new life in Jesus and the Body of Christ for those who don't know Him and boldly go where you have never been before. This is the reason for the Sermon on the Mount. It is the launching platform for your personal Star Trek adventure. You may face unseen hostile forces and attacks from unseen quarters but you have the Creator of the universe as your Captain. He is your way, your truth, your life and your mission.
So let's begin. When you are in the Spirit you move at warp speed. In His Word you are instantaneously beamed into His presence in His dimension.
First of all there are nine Beatitudes, nine blessings (God's touches), completely spiritual in nature. But there are 10 Commandments. If the Lord is the fulfillment what about the 10th? We'll get to that. Right now it is the spiritual dimension He is moving us to enter. This is what the Lord is emphasizing, everything starts with God the Spirit creating through God the Son by God the Father. Nothing is conceived, planned and done outside of God who is Spirit (Jn.4:24) because there is nothing outside of Him. Everything in existence both visible and invisible has a spiritual beginning in the spiritual mind of God. Our God has taken nothing and made it something. He holds it all in His mind, heart and Spirit. From the most minute physical cell to the unfathomable massiveness of universal invisible space, everything is spiritually conceived and initiated. Space, time, existence and personal reality are all founded spiritually. The more spiritually aware we are the more we think, grow, feel, see and know. The Beatitudes are Jesus bringing the whole spiritual dimension to bear on each individual mind, heart and spirit. This Sermon is His gift enabling us to open up to the vastness that is God's. The Sermon takes us into the spiritual dimension for which we were created to experience. This world is just the beginning.
Read the entire blog post. . .
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Promise Keepers in Jacksonville
May 16-17
Promise Keepers is coming to Jacksonville this year. They plan on being there for a Men's Ministry event May 16-17. Registration is open and they are also looking for volunteers in just about every area. I thought I would pass this along so we can possibly share it with our brothers and sisters in the greater Jacksonville area.
Here is a link to the event website:
Rev. Larry Barnhill, Deacon
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We hope you have found this issue of the diocese newsletter to be helpful and enjoyable. If you have received it directly from us, you are already on our mailing list and you will continue to receive future issues unless you choose to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of this page.
If you have received it as a forward from a friend and would like to be added to our subscription list, please click the "Join our Mailing List" button in the top left column of this page.
Sincerely, Harris Harris G. Willman
Administrator
Gulf Atlantic Diocese of the ACNA Email:HWillman@gulfatlanticdiocese.org Website:http://www.gulfatlanticdiocese.org/
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