Updated

                 

                                         Mount Pulag

     God is not Dead, much more He never sleeps!    

     Its just that people are insensitive of His presence. 

                             New light has Come!

Moving On and never stops moving on and on.

Mission must go on... More ministry are much needed to accomplish more for the Kingdom God! 

Faith never stop hoping and believing, Praying never stops crying, healing never stops restoring sick people to health, because God never stops listening, restoring and manifesting Himself!

STATEMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC CONGRESS OF ANGLICANS

Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Anglican Family, the Global South, the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) movement, and all the faithful seeking a conciliar Church:

The International Catholic Congress of Anglicans, held July 13-17, 2015, at St. Andrew’s parish of the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, of the Anglican Church in North America, gathered to reaffirm a catholic and conciliar doctrine of the Church. The Great Commission of our Lord directs the Church to make faithful disciples, calling them out of the nations of the world to be holy to the Lord. This statement seeks to sketch out the way forward in fulfilling our Lord’s call to make faithful disciples in the context of a properly conciliar church.

SALVATION, CRISIS, AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

The Greek word for church, ekklesia, identifies these disciples corporately as “the called One.” The Gospel of our Lord therefore identifies this one holy people, the Church, as integral to salvation for all, so that the Church Fathers and the Reformers of the 16th century, echo the great African Bishop, Saint Cyprian, who said:  “outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation,” and, “no one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as mother.” God calls out a people, rescuing them from sin and death, assuring them that they will participate in Christ’s reign, the Kingdom of God. Indeed, it is impossible to know the Lord, who calls out of darkness and into His marvelous light, without being joined to His one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. Through preaching, the sacraments, catechesis, and spiritual formation, worshiping in Spirit and in truth, the Church is able to make disciples by being faithful to the Apostles’ teaching, the breaking of bread, the prayers, and the fellowship.

 As the body has no life apart from the head, so the Church has no life apart from Christ, whose Spirit is the Lord and Giver of life. However, churches and the culture in the West are in crisis. Secularism pervades both. In many places, Islam seeks to replace the Church and radical Islam persecutes her.  Unprincipled egalitarianism eviscerates language, liturgy, life, faith, and orders of a divided Christendom. A culture of death is evident in abortion and euthanasia, and a tragic and unnecessary sexual confusion shapes the paradigms of young and old. What does the Church say? Where does she stand, and with whom? A deficient and aberrant ecclesiology is not simply a result of the present crisis in Church and culture, but is rather a primary cause for the current crisis, and deserves the attention of all catholic Christians.

A HOLY SYNOD AND A CONCILIAR CHURCH

For the Church (the ekklesia) to act, she must know who she is: what is she called out to be? The Church is called into synodality—to come together, to worship, to live in communion with the Holy Trinity, and to mirror the life of the Holy Trinity. This implies the conciliarity of the whole people of God, responsive to the Blessed Trinity, and participating in God’s “heavenly synod” as the Church Catholic gathered around God’s authoritative Holy Scriptures and the Apostolic Tradition. In this, she is to be the Church on earth as she is in heaven. Perhaps the clearest example of this is the First Ecumenical Council (A.D. 325). The Bishops encircle the emperor’s throne with the copy of God’s Holy Word on it, seeking the mind of Christ, searching the Scriptures daily by the power of the Holy Spirit. This perfectly expresses both the authority of the Word of God written and the authority of the Church.

As the “called out ones,” the Church consists of parts and individuals, made into a whole. This is the meaning of the Greek word “catholic” (kata holon “according to the whole”). It speaks of wholeness and integrity. The people of God are to live, be, and function as the whole Church Catholic of all ages in true worship, living out the Gospel in apostolic doctrine and communion.

Continuity with the whole Church of heaven and earth for all ages (by the expression of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ in worship, witness, belief, and behavior) marks and identifies this conciliar life in synodality. For Anglicans, this continuity is expressed in the common confession of the Catholic Creeds and Ecumenical Councils at which they were formed and clarified.

 St. Vincent of Lérins describes this in the true, Christ-centered, biblical, confessing, and conciliar sense when he says that the Church upholds “what has been believed by all, everywhere, and at all times.” This is the essence of kata holon, “according to the whole.” When the Church is healthy she is able to come together in the Great Tradition of Eucharistic-centered worship around God’s heavenly throne that touches earth. As the Church is at holy rest in God’s presence in worship, it becomes a holy people following the unchangeable teachings of Scripture as understood by the Church of all ages and as bearing on the urgent issues facing the world today. Worship as communion with the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of all ages then erupts into the world with one voice, bearing witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ’s glorious Gospel.

However, when the Church drifts from historic faith, order, and morals, the opposite is true. Indeed, is this not what has happened in the Anglican Communion? There is an inability even to

gather the historic Lambeth Conference due to this brokenness. Sinfulness has impeded the ability to convene in Holy Synod. The time has come for faithful Anglicans to reclaim the apostolic and Scriptural catholicity, conciliarity, and will, and to come together as a globally obedient witness in Holy Synod, where bishops, clergy, religious and laity can meet together to consult and decide important matters, with each exercising the role proper to them.

In a Conciliar Church, bishops hold a place of primacy as servants of the servants of God in succession from the Apostles, who were consecrated by Christ Himself to lead the Church into the Truth of the Holy Scriptures by the power of the Holy Spirit. “Where the bishop is, there is the Church,” and “wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude also be” (Saint Ignatius). At the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) the Apostles, in consultation with the presbyters and through prayer in the power of the Holy Spirit, resolve a great doctrinal and practical problem through synodal action. The whole Church, clergy and laity, decide how the decision is to be communicated to churches and Christians around the world. Thus bishops, clergy, and laity all participate in the Church’s synodality, which is effected through the gifts and work of all.

Mutual synodality, however, does not allow the Church “to ordain any thing that is contrary to God’s Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another” (Articles of Religion, XX). The ancient Church Fathers and Councils considered apostolic and biblical order, faith, and morals by definition to be unchangeable. Thus, when the people of God gather in synod, they do so in order to receive, discern and follow “the Faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3), in communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. Such Councils find the mind of Christ that has been and always will be. The realized goal of conciliarity is that the Church speak in true, orthodox unity to the world with the mind of Christ. As Jesus prayed just before entering the Garden of Gethsemane, this oneness that He has with the Father, and seeks to have with His Church, brings true belief, obedience, mission, and spiritual awakening to the world (John 17).

A CATHOLIC CONGRESS FOR AN ANGLICAN COMMUNION

Thus, the International Catholic Congress of Anglicans met to address and to model a global, realigned, and fully orthodox doctrine of the Church. This Congress is committed to walk in conciliarity with all Christians who embrace the Catholic Faith—and who allow the Faith to embrace them. A conciliar model of the Church is essential to the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. The ancient sees of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, and the faithful in communion with them, along with Anglicans, Lutherans, and various expressions of Protestantism, each have God-given charisms to be given and received by all—uniting them in ultimate synodality for the discipleship of all the nations of the world to Jesus.

Only an Apostolic and conciliar Church can properly allow for such giving and receiving of gifts for the people of God and for the salvation of the world. Indeed, no one part of the Church can stand firm against the world, the flesh and the devil without the other parts.  Because of her core ecclesial difficulties, the Church has insufficiently addressed other causes of further demise both within culture and the Church. There are assaults from without such as virile secularism, militant Islamic persecution, sexual confusion, and the redefinition of matrimony from God’s created order upheld by Christ as a lifelong sacramental union between one man and one woman (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:4-6; Mark 10:6-9). From within there are departures from a Biblical, Catholic faith and order, heresy, liturgical chaos, and failure to call for repentance from sin.

These subsidiary crises, allowed to proliferate through ecclesial lapses, have further fragmented Anglicans globally. Some of the faithful have hoped for the best in the church homes of their youth, others have formed the “Continuing Churches,” or have maintained the Faith in particular jurisdictions. Primates, bishops, clergy, and laity in each of these have struggled valiantly to maintain the historic Church, but the fragmentation continued, and distance between the faithful increased.

God has, however, been moving among Anglicans in an extraordinary way; recent years have seen significant realignment emanating, for example, from GAFCON and the Global South. Yet only with a healthy conciliar ecclesiology will there be movement toward one another in true unity. This Congress recognizes that a proper doctrine of the Church is critical, requiring the attention of all faithful Anglicans.

Now therefore, to fulfill the Great Commission—and to realize further ecumenical relationships within the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church—true unity must surpass mere federations and coalitions. This International Congress invites all Anglicans throughout the world (a) to a reexamination of the doctrine of the Church and (b) to a further consideration of areas of continuing ecclesial contention, for instance, the ordination of women, deemed by some to be a first order issue. This is necessary so that there may be a revival of Catholic Faith and Order, and a return to a biblical, credal, and conciliar fidelity. Only through honest discussion, ongoing prayer, and ultimate agreement will faithful Anglicans discern fully what God is doing in the great realignment taking place globally. This International Congress prays also that in God’s good providence there will be a truly Ecumenical Council of the whole Church to address contentious issues facing Christians and churches and to strengthen the faith of the Church.

Traditional Anglican Mission Philippines

Anglican Church in the Philippines (Traditional)  ACPT
Archbishop 

Frederick Luis M. Belmonte

Book of Common Prayer

Why a Book of Common Prayer in 2008?
The simple answer is that a commission for the work and the
capital to pay for the whole project, including the printing
of a First Edition in 2,500 copies, were offered to Lancelot Andrewes
Press and we accepted the job. We hope to produce a
book of Lessons, prayers, and blessings compatible with a good
use of English as a language of Christian devotion and which
pleases our Patron. God save us all.
The more compelling answer is that worship in English is as
important to some of us as worship in Latin, Greek, Hebrew,
Arabic or Old Church Slavonic. The English language has become
widely used for commerce amongst many nations. Most
of these nations make use of English for purposes that have
nothing to do with the Bible, the Prayer Book, King Lear, Paradise
Lost, the Declaration of Independence, or anything writ
on paper of lasting value. When the language of commerce has
been ‘adapted’ for the mystery of God and prayer it has not
succeeded. The Greeks would not be pleased to have the Scriptures
of the Septuagint and New Testament recast by foreigners
who have neither an ear or a care for the Greek language.
Neither would they or any other ancient tribe have their worship
reduced to the vocabulary of the docks and streets. We argue
for the same with English. If you want to use the language,
any language, as an everyday convenience, like a roll of paper
towels, then pay no attention to this book. There are tons of
newsprint missals dumped on Catholic parishes every month
which represent the use of English as a disposable commodity.
There is a market and the market has responded.
However, this book claims to be a Book of Common Prayer
in that within a portable volume are offered :
1) a simple Breviary (the Hours of Daily Prayer, seven in
monastic usage and perhaps two or so in parish usage) containing
the conventional orders of morning prayer, prime,
sext, evensong, and compline with the Psalter and Canticles
and Litany.
2) a simple Missal (the book of the Mass or Divine Liturgy)
offering a Proper of the Season from Advent through the Sunday
Next before Advent and a Proper of the Saints.
3) a partial Ritual (the book of blessings and intercessions
used by the Priest) containing forms of baptism, confirmation,
matrimony, churching of women, visitation and anointing and
absolution of the sick, requiem and burial.
4) an Appendix of Sentences, Lectionary, Calendar, etc.
A monastery or a serious prayer warrior will probably want
more elaborate and complete editions of the Breviary and Missal
with musical notation. A priest will want a complete Ritual
available for the many demands of parish work.
This Book of Common Prayer from Lancelot Andrewes
Press MMVIII will not ‘take away’ anyone’s favorite Prayer
Book. Not the 1662 English or the 1928 American or any
other BCP or Devotional. It may help however, by giving a
more streamlined organization of the materials and a more
complete presentation of the Church Year and offer forms that
reflect the Church as made up of a) a society of the Saints, b)
the faithful departed, and c) the current occupants of the pews.
God helping this book will be of service to those who pray in
English. It may even appear to be intelligible and accessible to
smart youngsters who have never seen a decent Liturgy. Some
folks may actually like it and use it. God knows. §

The Lion Newsletter 2011
Saint Mark’s Parish, Denver, Colorado

Pray for the Philippines

Republic of the Philippines

See Prayer Information

Geography

Area: 300,000 sq km
80 provinces; 7,250 islands, of which over 700 are inhabited, 11 of which contain the vast bulk of the population. The largest are Luzon (116,000 sq km) in the north and Mindanao (102,000 sq km) in the south. Over 75% mountains; prone to devastating typhoons.
Population: 93,616,853    Annual Growth: 1.83%
Capital: Manila
Urbanites: 66.4%
HDI Rank: 105 of 182 (UN Human Development Reports 2009)

Peoples

Peoples: 186 (11% unreached) All peoples
Unreached Peoples Prayer Card

Official language: Filipino (based on Tagalog), English    Languages: 181 All languages

Religion

Largest Religion: Christian

Religion		Pop %	Ann Gr
Christians	86,361,547	92.25	1.7
Evangelicals	11,558,344	12.3	3.1

Answer to Prayer

The continued growth of nearly all evangelical denominations, most marked among the indigenous Pentecostal denominations, but almost all evangelical denominations are growing significantly faster than the national growth rates. Church planting rates have slowed since the surge of the 1980s, but many large and megachurches have sprung up, and the sophistication and diversity of ministry within evangelical churches have come along significantly.

Challenge for Prayer

Philippines’ great economic and political potential is not yet realized despite a wealth of natural resources, deeply democratic sentiment and a well-educated population. Failures by successive governments to deal with serious economic and social issues hold back development, accelerate unsustainable urbanization and keep half the population in poverty. Pray specifically for:
a) A government that actively pursues justice and righteousness. Increasingly, committed Christians take major posts of leadership; pray that they may decisively influence the nation for good. Pray for the Fellowship of Christians in Government, which promotes biblical standards in state structures and among Christian public servants.
b) The end of corruption and graft, which has robbed the country of $48 billion in the last 20 years. A flawed political system helps maintain endemic greed and cronyism and keeps the country’s elite in power and wealth. The fact that the Philippines is Asia’s most Christianized nation – yet is the fourth most corrupt – is scandalous.
c) Recovery from the tropical storms of 2009. A series of storms battered the country, displacing millions of people, killing over 1,000 and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The aftermath revealed the need for change in a number of areas: government that mishandles disaster relief and assigned relief funds, deforestation that leads to flooding and landslides, and poverty that leads to illegal shantytowns forming in high-risk areas. There are no easy solutions, but many pressing problems.
d) Much needed reform to land ownership issues. Most farmers are landless. Changes would hugely improve the lot of the tens of millions of poor. Reform laws passed in 1988 are not implemented; continued injustices produce frustration and violence and perpetuate poverty for millions of farmers. Long-term investment into health, education and other basic infrastructures is also greatly needed, but requires commitment, huge sums and long-term vision by the government.

e) Peace in Mindanao among the marginalized, resentful Muslim (Moro) population, the government and the local “Christian” majority. Islamist factions, such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, will not compromise. They claim four provinces, two with Muslim minorities, for an Islamic state. Pray for a fair, workable solution that ends the cycle of military presence, violence, kidnappings and suffering. Pray also that centuries of perceived “Christian” oppression might end with freedom and respect for the gospel.

More Information

The Operation World book, CD-ROM, and DVD-ROM provide far more information and fuel for prayer for the people of Philippines.

          

Clergy Conference during Holiday Season

ANOTHER CLERGY CONFERENCE IS SCHEDULED THIS COMING DECEMBER 15-17, 2010 AT GOVERNOR'S GARDEN HOTEL IN SOLANO, NUEVA VIZCAYA, PHILIPPINES. MAIN SPEAKER: DR.CHRIS RHUM, PHD.

History of the Anglican Church

1. The Church in Britain before Augustine

 Christians came to Britain from as early as 200AD.  Some were traders and others were Roman soldiers. The first British martyr was Alban. He was a soldier who was converted after caring for a priest who was being persecuted. He later allowed the priest to escape and was killed himself. The traditional date of his death was thought to be about 304AD, in the time of the persecution under Diocletian, but recent research puts the date at 209 in the time of the Emperor Severus.

Although Augustine was the first Archbishop of Canterbury, a Celtic church had been in existence before Augustine arrived, and bishops from the church in Britain were present at the Council of Arles in 314. 

In Ireland, especially, a strong intellectual life had been developing in monasteries. Patrick was sent as a missionary, probably from Britain, to Ireland in the early 5^th century.  This church which was outside the boundaries of the Roman Empire had developed in a different way to the western church and its strength was in the scattered monasteries that could be found in all the tribal centres. In the century or so after the Romans left Britain around 410, and the Anglo-Saxons held power, Irish missionaries took the gospel to Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and Europe. 

Thus a church which was mainly Celtic in culture and origin developed in Britain without the help of the church of Rome. 

 
2. The Church in the West before Augustine

In 306, Constantius I, the Emperor of the Western part of the Roman Empire, died at York, in Britain.  His son, Constantine, was proclaimed Emperor by the Roman army in Britain, and became Emperor of the European and British part of the Empire. In 312 he defeated his rival in the West, Maxentius, and became sole Emperor of the western part of the Roman Empire. He attributed this victory to the Christian God and made his soldiers wear the Chi Rho symbol on their shields. He and Licinius, the Emperor in the East, proclaimed toleration for both Christians and pagans. Constantine defeated Licinius in 324 and became sole Emperor of the whole empire. 

Arianism and the Trinity 

A dispute in Alexandria soon drew in the Emperor. This dispute arose because of a teacher in Alexandria called Arius. He tried to state a Christian doctrine of God in a way that Platonists could understand. He started with the idea that the supreme God is one and that therefore Christ could not be eternal in the same way as God. His saying was, “There was when he was not.” Christ was not equal to the Father and had been created by the Father out of nothing, even though he was the highest of all God’s creatures. 

Many in Alexandria supported him, but not bishop Alexander. A council of bishops in Egypt condemned his teaching, so he appealed for help to his friend Eusebius the bishop of Nicomedia. The Emperor Constantine tried to stop this debate dividing the church and so causing trouble in the empire. He planned to call a Council of the church to Ancyra but the opponents of Arius called a meeting first at Antioch to choose a new bishop for that city and to condemn the teachings of Arius. The Emperor was angry and called a Council at which he would preside – at Nicea, near his headquarters in Nicomedia. 
 

At the Council in Nicea in 325 Constantine (probably at the suggestion of Bishop Hosius of Cordova) proposed the clause, that the Son was “of one substance” (homoousios) with the Father. The decision of the Council became the basis of the Nicene Creed which is a creed used by both the Western and Eastern churches. Although Arius was defeated, the teaching of Arianism did not die. Some of the Eastern bishops thought that homoousios was too much like the mistaken Monarchian teaching (the belief that stressed the unity of God, but denied the full divinity of the Son, and the Spirit). 

Later a new Emperor, Theodosius, who did not agree with the Arians, called a Council in Constantinople in 381. The eventual outcome was to describe God as three hypostases (three persons) in one ousia (essence). Tertullian, a theologian from Carthage,  had already suggested a Latin version: “three persons and one substance”. 

This Council finalised the creed we call the Nicene Creed. Around the same time in the Western church the Apostles’ Creed was beginning to  find its final shape (the Eastern church never used it). 

Chalcedon 

The focus of theological debate then moved from Christ’s relationship with God to the relation of his human and divine natures. 

One way to understand this debate is to see how different theologies developed in two of the major centres of the Eastern church, Antioch and Alexandria. 

Alexandrians, following Origen, stressed the distinctness of the three persons of the Trinity. But they did not want to further stress a distinctness in the person of Christ. At Antioch they stressed the oneness of the Godhead and were much more ready to talk about two separate natures of Christ, human and divine, an idea the Alexandrians thought was heretical. 

A new Emperor called another Council, this time at Chalcedon, near Constantinople, in 451. At this Council the ideas of Leo, Bishop of Rome, were accepted. The extremes of both the Antiochenes and the Alexandrians were rejected. This Chalcedon definition has become the standard statement of orthodox belief in the Western church. Most of the Eastern church also accepted it, but some Eastern churches kept the teaching of Nestorius (from Antioch) and set up centres in Persia where their mission was highly successful – until the arrival of Islam. 

The Chalcedon Definition We, then, following the holy Fathers, and all in agreement, teach everyone to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [of the same essence or being] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial [of the same nature or substance] with us according to the Manhood; in all things like us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Bearer of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, that are not confused, that are not changed,  that are not divided, that are not separated; the distinction of natures is not taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature is preserved, and occurs together in one Person and one Being, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.

A Latin Bible

 

In 382 Bishop Damasus, of Rome, persuaded his secretary Jerome to translate the whole bible into Latin. Just as Origen (185-254) had earlier produced a clear Greek text from a variety of sources, so Jerome edited a new Latin bible which became the bible for the western church for the next 1000 years. It is known as the Vulgate (meaning common).

To be continued.