‘Weekly Post. Anno Domini 2022 September 24

Beloved of the Lord:

Today is Saturday, 24 September, in the year of our Lord 2022. The scheduled services are as-follows:

• Saturday (today): SERVICES CANCELED.
• Sunday: 8:30 & 10:00 AM, Mass, Trinity XV, Commemorate Blessed Launcelot Andrewes, Bishop & Confessor.
• Monday: 10:00 AM, Mass, Feria of Trinity XV.
• Tuesday: 6:30 PM, Requiem, Parish Monthly.
• Wednesday: 12:10 PM, Mass, S. Wenceslas, Prince & Martyr.
• Thursday: 6:30 PM, Mass, S. Michael & All Angels, Soup & Supper to follow.
• Friday: 9:00 AM, S. Jerome, Confessor & Doctor, with the Gregorian Canon.
  Immediately following, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
• Saturday: 5:00 PM, Mass, S. Remigius, Bishop & Confessor.
• Sunday: 8:30 & 10:00 AM, Mass, Trinity XVI, Commemorate Holy Guardian Angels.

In less than two months, we will be hosting the General Convention of the Orthodox Anglican Church. It will run from the Tenth through the Twelfth of November, Thursday afternoon through Saturday Noon. The agenda will be published this-coming week. Please keep your schedules open, in-case your help is needed.

OF PARTICULAR IMPORTANCE is the Friday-morning Mass, set for 9:00 AM. This will be done, with the exception of the part of the Deacon, only using Saint Matthew's staff. All servers, singers, and other Altar Crew MUST be here on that day, at that time. We will put our best foot forward at the 'Convention.

Thanks go out to all who had a hand in preparing for the recent visitation of Archbishop Gordon and Jan to our Parish. I think that everything went very well, and that a good time was had by all. There were copious amounts of home-made victuals for the luncheon. Our repair and remodelling projects are almost all-complete. Giada McReynolds was Confirmed in the Sacraments of Holy Church, and our steeple, and recently-gifted statue of S. Matthew, were blessed by the Archbishop.

Please continue, or commence if you've not yet done so, to pray for the growth of our Parish, numerically. We've many gifts of God already, here ~ a solid budget, a choir, an organist, a good cadre of servers for the Altar, and a core-group that can achieve virtually any task. We've men studying and considering Holy Orders. We say the Mass, daily! We offer a depth of variety of other services that, in all likelihood, cannot individually be found in any other Parish in Virginia, much-less collectively. It has taken us years so to do, but we have built an ideal Anglo-Catholic Parish.

All that we now need is to fill our pews, in-order to teach and spread the Faith even further afield, in The Tidewater. Sherri Fosdick has graciously accepted the position as Chair of the Growth Committee, and is well under-weigh in making and executing plans that cross evangelistic, advertising, and outreach boundaries. Uniting all of this will be a renewed and integrated electronic presence for the Parish. We shall go forward boldly, into places we have never been, proceeding in the name of our Lord, Jesus, the Christ.

Pray. Pray fervently. Pray from broken and contrite hearts. Pray now. Pray unto ages of ages to come. Amen.

In His praise,

The Rev'd Fr. T. L. Crowder

Pastor, Saint Matthew's Parish