Our First Meeting

I mentioned in a previous that we were about to have our first house group meeting last Sunday.  I wanted to take a few minutes to give an account of how it went...

We decorated the room as best we could with the items we have available, we set up a table with fair linen cloth and candlesticks and erected an icon of our lady of Glastonbury our patron.

candles lit the Veni creator spiritus plays and we begin, during the service we had two hymns (this proved difficult as we had no instruments, I had to improvise by finding some recordings on the internet). At the end of the service we gathered around the icon of our lady and sang the angelus.

Afterwards we met for coffee and discussion. I was so enthused by how things went. We were only a small number but already a community meeting in that place.

We meet again in a fortnight to celebrate the feast of all saints together. Hopefully soon we will be in a position to meet every Sunday.

I invite anyone interested in finding out more about us to contact us and come and worship and fellowship with us. We would really like to meet you :-)

Insomnia and The Rule of Saint Benedict

Sometimes I can's sleep. Because this is quite a regular occurrence I have developed ways to use sleepless nights effectively. One of the ways I use such nights is by reflecting on things theologically....I also manage to waste lots of time on YouTube etc. Lol...but getting back to reflection.

A parish is a lot like a monastary really, both are a community and a family,  and both are bound together by a commmon desire to love and serve the Lord.

I know nothing about building a church....I have never been in a position where I have helped with one before. But I do know what it is like to live in and grow a community. I lived in various communities for nearly 10 years so it is that expirience and skill set which I will use to help support our little faith community in Bristol.

Shortly after I became a Christian I was fortunate to attend a house church. This church was an independent church which had a predominantly African congregation, the pastor and assistant pastors were also African, and food and hospitality was a very important part of there culture. There was a practical element to this too though because we were at church for most of the day and a such had to eat! That being said there was something really nice about everyone bringing stuff in and sharing with others. This gave us time not only to worship God but also to fellowship with one another.

Our house group is a very different setup and we are part of a very different church but the need to build community and share in fellowship remains the same therefore fellowship in the form of a shared meal is very appropriate. We cannot reach out to others unless we are grounded ourselves.

On a personal note I find the rule of St Benedict very helpful indeed. One of the things it encourages most is balance in every aspect of life, prayer, work, study and fun. I suffer from being rather one serious as times and I am grateful that I have people in my life to keep me balanced.  My Bishop is a good example for me as he shares humorous things in Facebook about his life and interests as well as spiritual reflections etc. I know living a more balanced life is something I have to continue to work on.

I am continuing to study for my degree in theology, I am also swimming and walking regularly. I am very fortunate to have the time and space to reflect on things and to write on them. I need to remember that Jesus not only calls us to serve him and to have faith in him but also to have life and have it to the full.

A New Chapter

Tomorrow our house group meets for the first time. We have dedicated it to 'Our Lady of Glastonbury'. We will be praying morning prayer together using the book of common prayer. We spent today getting the house ready assembling our "altar" and candles etc. it really did make me stop and consider what an adventure we are on.

I have never been more certain of the decision I have made and I know that if the Lord has ordained this work then he will prosper it.

We will meet every two weeks at first alternating the leading of the prayers and we will have a reading from a spiritual book in place of a sermon.

This is not how we intend to stay however, we want to reach out to anyone else who might be struggling in their current church situation and who feel they want to explore what the 'Anglican Catholic Church' is all about.

I know there will be many who will think it silly to leave the church of England and join a smaller church. But the truth is not a democracy and size does not guarantee faithfulness to the teachings of Christ. I also know there are many who are happy where they are! I have absolutely no wish to criticise that. they are very entitled to their own opinions.

As for me and my house I will serve the lord, the Anglican communion is no longer a communion, but rather a fighting tribe. The church of England is not unified either for within it you can find affirming Catholics, forward in faith Catholics, Anglo papalists, middle of the roader's and evangelicals. How can one hope to maintain a teaching authority in that situation?

A parish needs to be united around a bishop who teaches the faith and that bishop needs to be united with a college of bishops who hold to the faith.

In the ACC we have this, we have a standard of belief and expression of worship and juridical structures which deal with heresy in an appropriate way.

We are a handful of people here in our house group, we have no priest and no money, but we are open to the Holy Spirit, and to where he might be leading us. We have the faith and we are united with a Bishop who holds to that faith. We are seeing first the kingdom; I know that all the other things will be added!

Day One

(Firstly I don’t speak as an official or spokesman of any church or group. I am a lay Christian and the views I express here are simply my own.)

I write this by way of explanation to anyone who might be interested. Recently on Facebook I posted a picture about ‘The Anglican Catholic Church’ I said that I was nailing my colours to the mast, but I feel I need to be a little more specific.

I have grown more and more concerned about the church of England for several years now. There is a small part of the church who feel they are continuing to be faithful to the teaching of the church. Some of those people are my friends and they have my gratitude and my respect. But I must respectfully disagree with them….

When I told a friend of mine that I had decided to leave the church of England they warned be that “nothing was worth arguing about except the resurrection”. I am afraid I disagree with this. Yes, the resurrection is of central importance…but so is how we gain salvation…. what the church is actually for….and the importance and validity of the sacraments.

For me and others, the COFE has stepped outside the boundaries of orthodox historical Christianity, it has compromised and compromised and in so doing has become diluted. There is still such a great deal of good in it but that simply isn’t enough!

And so what are the options for people like me who feel unable out of conscience to remain in the church of England? I could have stayed and found a forward in faith parish with an alternative bishop. I am afraid I disagree with the people in this group. In my experience they are regularly using the 3^rd edition of the roman missal and praying for the pope in the roman canon. They view themselves to be in communion with the roman pontiff….This is simply factually untrue. They are not in communion with the pope because officially the roman church views the church of England as a schismatic sect. The priests who joined the ordinariate all had to be ordained (this was not conconditional ordination) because the catholic church does not accept the validity of Anglican orders. 

Next comes the ordinariate….. I am afraid I don’t accept the doctrine of papal infallibility and some other specifics as they are laid down in the council of Trent. I believe in an English church, with a specific charism and way of doing things.

I came across the Anglican Catholic church by accident. When studying in Canterbury I happened to need somewhere to worship for Christmas this lead me to “the shoe box cathedral” The parish of St Augustine in Canterbury is the ‘pro cathedral’ parish. It is a cathedral because it houses the bishops throne or cathedra. I found in this little parish a warm welcome and a great understanding of my concerns . But what I found most refreshing was the way I was encouraged to discern things for myself, to be free to worship with them, and also to be free to walk away.

The rector of the parish is the Right Reverend Damien Mead, he is the Bishop of the Diocese of the United Kingdom, this sounded crazy to me at first because how can there be a diocese of the whole United Kingdom? How can you have a cathedral in a small shop?? I had to work my way through these things.

Firstly, the diocese covers the whole United Kingdom because there are only a small number of parishes. This does not invalidate it! Right is right after all even if nobody believes it. The truth is not a democracy Regarding the little (but beautiful) cathedral. Of course the early Christians met in people’s homes. We have as our sacred duty to proclaim the catholic faith and maintain catholic order…for that we need Bishops. This is why several Anglican Bishops in the US had the courage to form an alternative ecclesiastical structure. Bishop Mead stands in that heritage. The church of England has departed from that faith, the Anglican Catholic Church in the UK is simply continuing doing what Christ asked his church to do.

The Bishop and his priests are simply trying to be faithful to the call of Christ and to provide for those who want to be faithful to the call too.

Also the ACC does not make true church claims, it simply claims to be a part of the universal church, unlike the Roman Catholic & Orthodox churches who make claims of being the only true church.

The diocese is comprised of parishes, missions, and house groups and also dispersed individuals living away from worshipping communities. The church is growing all the time and ordinations are happening.

I am so very glad to have found a way to be both catholic and Anglican, that I have found a place to grow in holiness.

After going backwards and forwards, I finally made the decision to ask to be received into full communion with the ACC. This is going to happen DV on this coming Sunday. The following Sunday ‘The Provisional House Group of Our lady of Glastonbury’ will meet in my mother’s living room. We lay people will gather to say morning prayer together and fellowship with one another as we find a way forward.

No church is perfect, and God’s ways are not our ways. But the church is called to be faithful, to never be ashamed of the gospel and to preach it to all nations. For me the only way to be faithful is to have the courage to leave the church of England. I feel a bit like an Israelite living Egypt. Gone are the beautiful buildings, the professional clergy, gone is the safety net. We have no priest and no building, we have no money either. But I feel so free now that I am doing the will of God, I know that he will provide. Those externals although very nice are nothing unless the faith undergirds them!

If you are feeling God calling you to be faithful I invite you to come and see, worship with us and see if this is where God is leading you. If you are resistant because of material concerns, I ask you to pray and ask God what he is trying to tell you. Are those things becoming idols for you?

Anyway I had better close now. Please pray for me and my little group.