ADOTS Weekly Special Update
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A weekly roundup of information, updates, and recommended ministry resources.
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The mission is not ours but God's.
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"The reign of God that the church proclaims is indeed present in the life of the church, but it is not the church's possession. It goes before us, summoning us to follow.
...the picture given us in the Acts is one that is constantly being reproduced in the missionary experience of the church. It is the Holy Spirit who leads the way, opening a door here that the church must then obediently enter, kindling a flame there that the church must lovingly tend.
My own experience as a missionary has been that the significant advances of the church have not been the result of our own decisions about the mobilizing and allocating of "resources." This kind of language, guage, appropriate for a military campaign or a commercial enterprise, is not appropriate here.
The significant advances in my experience have come through happenings of which the story of Peter and Cornelius is a paradigm, in ways of which we have no advance knowledge. God opens the heart of a man or woman in the gospel. The messenger (the "angel" of Acts 10:3) may be a stranger, a preacher, a piece of Scripture, a dream, an answered prayer, or a deep experience of joy or sorrow, of danger or deliverance. It was not part of any missionary "strategy" devised by the church. It was the free and sovereign deed of God, who goes before his church.
And, like Peter, the church can usually find good reasons for being unwilling to follow. But follow it must if it is to be faithful. For the mission is not ours but God's."
-Lesslie Newbigin.
The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission .
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GAFCON Sunday, This Sunday, June 28
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On Gafcon Sunday we will be celebrating 12 years of faithful Gospel ministry since the first Global Anglican Future Conference was held in Jerusalem. This year we are seeking to reach US$100,000 in donations to support our ongoing work.
We are asking churches to celebrate Gafcon on Sunday 28th June by praising God for his faithfulness over the last 12 years and by making a special donation to the work of Gafcon.
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Can You Help Dr. Henry at the Border Mission?
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September 9-18, 2020
What is Trinity on the Border – Harlingen (near Brownsville) Texas & ¿Me Quieres Ayudar? – Matamoros, Tamaulipas State, Mexico?
Trinity on the Border is providing logistical and spiritual assistance to the asylum seekers waiting on the Mexican-side of the border. They reside in tent city, located at the international bridge in Matamoros, which consists of 1200-1500 men, women, and children mostly from Central America who are seeking refuge and asylum in the USA. These needs continue despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
¿Me Quieres Ayudar? (May I help You?) is a not-for-profit Christian charity based in downtown Matamoros which ministers to the children of those involved in the sex industry. Many of these children, while of Mexican origin and from the local area, are undocumented and have no access to education, recreation, or even meals. MQA has a multipurpose center which feeds, helps educate, and connects with these children – and some of their parents.
The objectives of this short-term project are:
- Transform the courtyard of the MQA property into a usable space for the children of the MQA’s ministry (floor, veranda, pergola, sunshade, planting)
- Spiritually encourage the workers at MQA
- Expand the vision of the participants for the possibility of world mission through caring and service
- Expose the participants to a profoundly cross-cultural, cross-lingual environment, and to the human suffering and need right at our own door.
- For the participants to grow in the Lord
Overview of Trip
The Project is planned for ten days in mid-September, tentatively September 9-18.
Short-term mission participants will travel to Harlingen, Texas, where they will stay in low cost accommodations. A short trip each day in Brownsville will take participants across the international bridge and to the MQA multipurpose center. After devotions together daily, we will participate in what is expected to be a six-day renovation/transformation of the center’s courtyard, making it a useable space for the local children to whom MQA ministers. The schedule will also include some time for cultural “exploration” and cross-cultural discovery, as well as two recreation days.
Participants will be asked to raise the cost of their flight, housing and some meals as well as for a contribution for the materials needed to complete the project.
Host and Chaplain
Your host will be Dr. Henry Baldwin, former Dean of Holy Cross Cathedral. Dr. Henry moved to the border area after he retired. He will coordinate the preparation for the trip and guide us during the trip.
Your chaplain will be Canon Greg Goebel, Canon to the Ordinary. Canon Greg will serve as chaplain and assist us with our day to day spiritual care and fellowship.
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ACNA Provincial Council Video
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The Provincial Council is a body of delegates from the dioceses of our Province. They gathered this week via Zoom.
You can watch the recordings here and you can hear the Archbishop's address below.
Address by Archbishop Beach to the Provincial Council
June 23, 2020
The past few months have not only been pandemic, but pandemonium. We have watched evil displayed by fellow image bearers and some police officers in recent weeks. We have heard cries of grief in our own neighborhoods and from all around the world. And the cries have gotten louder. We watched as peaceful protests were hijacked by chaos and violence, destroying countless businesses and property, and injuring not only bystanders, but also injuring over 800 police officers, some of whom have been killed as well. We still have a long way to go.
In the US we have struggled to overcome the effects of the systemic racism from our founding days, and we know that changing laws would never be enough. Victories for civil rights, and for the desegregation of our schools would never be enough. For you see we don’t have just a skin problem, we have a sin problem. As Dr. Tony Evans of Oak Cliff Bible Church in Dallas Texas recently said, “The evangelical church needs to speak up where it has been silent on injustice and racism. The biggest problem in the culture today is the failure of the church. We wouldn’t even have a racial crisis in America if the church had not consistently failed to deal with racism as the severe sin it is. But because the church has historically ignored and downplayed it, the issue still exists. Where the church is called to set an example, we have cowered.”
We have failed to fully and thoroughly and deeply address the problem of sin in our hearts, homes, churches, and nations. And as the Church of Jesus Christ, now even with the rapidly changing ethnic diversity of North America, we are still reeling from the systemic sins of yesterday. This is not just a black/white issue. Ask our Asian brothers and sisters. Ask our Latino brothers and sisters. Ask our Native American brothers and sisters. Ask those whom the Lord has brought from other nations. The Bible makes it unequivocally clear that we are all made in the image of God. Genesis 1:27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
We each bear the image of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Any hostility between brothers and sisters in Christ, especially because of skin color, is an affront to God and damages our souls and the ‘blessed community’ so many of us seek. This should upset us! Clearly from Scripture, we see that the goal of humanity is that from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, we will be one big beautiful family (Rev.7). This is what eternity with God and his people will look like and be like. It is not just a nice sentiment but a reality of the Church that is already in existence. Don’t we pray in the Lord’s Prayer—Thy will be done on earth as it IS IN HEAVEN. There are somewhere around 2.5 Billion men, women, and children in the world today who identify with the person of Jesus. And they come from almost every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. With them we are as the Apostle Paul writes: no longer strangers and aliens, but … fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household (Eph.2:19).
While this should be normal for the Church, it is not normal. We still have much work to do in our nations, but even more as the Church - to search our hearts to see if there is any offensive way in us.
Read more or view video...
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Cathedral Guide to Video Streaming
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Live-streamed video of Sunday Worship can be a powerful way to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. It serves several groups in a way not possible otherwise: members who are home-bound due to age or illness, seekers who can now preview worship as they search for a church home, and more recently to entire congregations forced to end weekly meetings for worship during the pandemic.
Is it something my church should begin? How do we even start?
Mr. Reed has a degree in Telecommunications Engineering and 15 years’ experience designing, operating, and maintaining communication, video teleconferencing, and presentation systems. A member of Holy Cross Anglican Cathedral, he recently designed and installed the streaming system at Holy Cross and continues to operate it, while currently training others as operators.
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Please Share: Daily Prayer Live!
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Morning, Noonday, and Compline
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Archbishop Beach asked us to provide live Daily Office prayer!
The clergy of ADOTS and Holy Cross Cathedral have come together to create a live Daily Office format for:
Weekly Hymn Sing! Every Wednesday at 2pm with Chris Sieggen of St. Thomas, Athens, Georgia.
Liturgy
We're using the liturgy at
https://www.dailyoffice2019.com/ so that everyone can follow along each day. This website updates the prayer services of the daily office each day, so its all there!
Please Share
With so many people looking for connection, this is a great resource to share with all your friends on any social media platform. You can share the link fb.com/adotsDailyPrayer anywhere, Twitter, Facebook, Email, Instagram! Your friends and family don't have to be on Facebook to watch the videos. and join us in prayer.
You can also share on your church's public pages!
Comment
Whenever you join us, please add a comment to show us you are present, to encourage others,, to add a prayer request, or to give a thanksgiving.
See you there!
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Prayers for Such a Time as This
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We have compiled and adapted prayers from the Book of Common Prayer 2019 to include in online parish services and for home worship. Some prayers have been adjusted from the BCP 2019 to reflect the current coronavirus situation. We have included the prayer number and page numbers so you can easily find them in your own BCP 2019. You can download and print this resource as a PDF by clicking the link below.
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Send us Your Stories of God's Grace in this Time
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We would love to share the stories of God's work through and among his people. Please email us at
news@adots.org so that Rachel can help you share these stories of God working even in difficult times.
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Check out our website for more...
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