‘Weekly Post. Anno Domini 2023 August 28

Beloved of the Lord:

Today is Monday, 28 August, in the year of our Lord 2023. The scheduled services are as-follows:

• Monday: 10:00 AM, Mass, S. Augustine of Hippo, Bishop, Confessor, Doctor.
• Tuesday: 5:30 PM, Mass, Martyrdom of the Forerunner.
  6:30 PM, Sung Evensong.
• Wednesday: 12:10 AM, Mass, S. Rose of Lima, Virgin.
• Thursday: 6:30 PM, Mass, S. Aidan, Bishop & Confessor, followed by Supper & Study.
• Friday: 9:00 AM, Mass, S. Giles, Abbot, with the Gregorian Canon.
  Immediately following, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
• Saturday: 5:00 PM, Mass, S. Stephen of Hungary, King & Confessor.
• Sunday: 8:30 & 10:00 AM, Mass, Trinity XIII.

You may've noticed, in yesterday's bulletins, that the larger prayer-intention is for the reunion of Anglicanism in the United States. This is something that we must keep firmly at the forefront of our daily prayers. There are many reasons to place this prayer there, perhaps none greater than that it seems an impossible eventuality.

We here at S. Matthew's were a member Parish of one of the greater Anglican bodies for, roughly, forty years. As time passed, it became clear that to maintain Christian Orthodoxy, as it applies to morality and integrity, we had to leave, and so we did. Yet, if we believe and follow our Lord's command, we will, sooner or later, have to engineer rapprochement with those very people, whose failings are all too well known to us.

God truly blessed us when we found-, and were accepted into, the Orthodox Anglican Church. There are neither crises nor scandals here. Politics and human agendas do not exist. Certainly at the Clerical level, where all of my contact happens, I've only known faithful, christian souls. This has truly been a place of rest and refreshment for all of us.

As God has blessed us, so He blesses our Greater Church. Virtually every week, we field inquiries form Clergy, Parishes, and Jurisdictions, all of which want to learn more about us, and in many cases, what the process is for becoming a part of our Church. We have been, and continue to increasingly be, occupied in this work.

Many times in my own life, I've faced situations that appeared to be completely without solution ~ I could discern absolutely no way through, leaving prayer as literally the only thing to be done, insofar as I could see. Then, suddenly, an answer not only appeared but was effected, and the entire matter was resolved. This is the work of the Holy Ghost, of whom I like to think as God in the trenches, with us.

Speaking personally, this is where I, and many of my Brother Clergy, from many Anglican Jurisdictions, have been stuck for years. Every time that a way through appears, just as suddenly there is an avalanche to block the way. Even in those moments when one party is truly willing to follow our Lord, and to forgive all, the other (most-often as a result of some aspect of ego) either refuses to bend, or simply leaves the table. ,And round and round it goes....

The future is not known to me. Thus, I ask everyone to pray, fervently and frequently, for this small goal of Anglican reunion. I say small goal for, as we all of us should know, our Lord's command is for the reunion of all Christendome. Let us begin by setting our own house aright, that, as a whole, we may begin to work our way back to God's one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, as it ever ought to have been. I remain

in His praise,

The Rev'd Canon. T. L. Crowder

Pastor, Saint Matthew's Parish