Posted on 12/26/2005 10:15:14 AM PST by sionnsar
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit(John 12:24).
There's a lot to be said for walking to church. When you drive to church, you usually have other things on your mind. You're watching the traffic, you've got the radio on, you're keeping an eye out for the exit you need to take or you're telling the kids not to make you come back there. When you walk, you have a better chance to think about things and prepare yourself for what you're about to do.
I walked to church earlier this evening. I'd spent the last two Christmas Eves with the Anglican Church of the Resurrection but I decided to spend this one at one of Resurrection's plants. So a little before 6:00 PM, I left the MCJ Building and walked about a block north on Elm Avenue to Holy Trinity Anglican Church.
Holy Trinity occupies a building that was a Wesleyan church for most of my life. It's a plain, relatively unadorned little thing. The only indication of its purpose is a cross built into the front of the building in white brick. The interior of the church is also rather plain, Protestant and conducive to the sort of low-church Anglican service that I love.
There weren't many people there, no more than 25 I would think. But as so often happens, the service was wonderful and Rev. Kurt Henle's sermon was much better than he will tell you that it was. Singing this almost caused me to break down for some reason and I had to stop singing it for a bit. Actually, I know perfectly well what the reason was but I'd rather not go into that right now.
Then I walked back home, more encouraged than I've been in quite a while. Because while the Current Unpleasantness is painful, it is also a great opportunity. Consider: the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd was booted out of its meeting house by ECUSA and became the Anglican Church of the Resurrection. But the folks at Resurrection don't put their hands to the plow and look back.
They've planted two churches, Holy Trinity and a new one in St. Charles, Missouri. So where there was once only one Anglican church around here that proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there are now three. That is why I'm not all that concerned about what happens at GenCon next year. Whatever happens, it's going to work out.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose(Romans 8:28).
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
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