Holy Communion Anglican Church
East Greenwich, RI – Standing Firm on Biblical Truth and Christian Tradition
Once we acknowledge we are sinners and we cannot save ourselves, we must know we are saved by the Blood of Christ. We can then bring all our troubles, all our worries and problems to the Cross of Christ. And this is done with the support of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
The Epiphany has not ended; it shines forth to this day, radiating out from the day of Christ’s Incarnation; it is the very reason we as Gentiles can share in the riches of Christ’s inheritance. This means that we who have received this light have the responsibility to both continually seek its source and reflect it so that others may do the same.
I am personally very sad and feel a great loss that the last and preeminent orthodox churchman of the Greatest Generation is no more, but immensely glad that Benedict XVI is at last free of this fallen world.
It is important for the Church to continually look forward in prayer to understand as best we can the cultural trends coming our way, that we may faithfully prepare the next generation, and each other, to do the work of ministry. One such trend for thinking Christians to consider is not specifically cultural but instead technological, though the two are closely intertwined. This is the trend of artificial intelligence (AI), a field progressing far more rapidly than many realize.
With the passing of Queen Elizabeth, we lose one of the final links in the chain of history which binds us to the storied history and tradition, and indeed the greatness of Western Civilization, blessed by God and founded on Judeo-Christian principles, to which we owe nearly every comfort and luxury which we enjoy today.
Now is the time for us with a new vigor to marshal our gifts and talents for the glory of God. We must stand up for “Biblical Truth and Church Tradition.” For if souls are not worth saving, then nothing is. That is WHAT WE ARE FOR.
Not only do we, as followers of Christ, raise up Scripture as a standard, but we raise up Christ himself. We must be like Peter with his confession (Matthew 16:14-16). We must proclaim who Jesus is, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
The most important vocation for the Church Universal today is to have a laser focus on forming a new generation of faithful disciples of Jesus – “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12).
Few hurts are more personal than that of betrayal. Yet, Jesus loved his betrayer radically and sacrificially, with full knowledge of the evil that would befall him.
When we give our attention to worthless things, we are robbing God of that same attention. Not that God needs our attention, but that we abandon His ways, and we allow our relationship with Him to wither. We give our attention to that which we value most at that moment in time. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.