January 20, 2023
2 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
4 Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,
5 For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;
8 For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.
9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;
What a happy beginning in this letter to the church at Philippi. I wonder if our churches would get such joyful notice.
It is up to us; discernment – is this church preaching the ‘faith once delivered’? Is it orthodox in its leadership and in its prayer life? Is the Gospel taught and spread outside the church? Is there unity and peace among the members? 2Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” I have a dear friend who lives in England; if I remember correctly, it’s a 30 mile drive for her to get to church each Sunday but she makes that trek because the church is a good, sound, Gospel preaching, Jesus teaching, orthodox church. They, and she, rightly dividing the word of truth.
I am blessed in great measure in regard to the church I attend and the governing body that guides it – both the human and the divine. I pray the same for you and your church.
Words on the Word 
I do indeed travel a 60 mile round trip each Sunday to Holy Trinity although flooding, a closed road and ice prevented my attendance last week and will do so again this Sunday. My joy at finding a good orthodox Society priest in Fr. Julian is tempered by my fear at what is happening in the wider Church of England and particularly after the news this week that bishops have voted to allow blessings of homosexual marriages and civil partnerships. It cannot be long before the Anglican communion in England completely unravels and then what? Welby the Weak has lost all moral right to be leader of the communion both inside and outside of England. He sickens me and I find it hard to even pray for him to see the mistake he is making but Fr. J says God always answers our prayers in one of three ways: ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘not yet’. This time I can only hope that His response is the first or the third.
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Page 74 in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer is the prayer ‘for the whole state of Christ’s Church’. Pray for the Church because Welby is only the front man for the larger disease. There were people who put him place and those same people would replace him another just like him. It’s like a cancer that spreads and so we have to pray for the whole organism. We have to pray for mission and for the men who get the call from Christ to answer that call. Page 37- Prayer for the Church; Page 42 For religious education;. We have to pray for whole Church, that evil and disorder is routed out and replaced with the faith once delivered.
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Thanks for that Audre, I will mark the page. I am also disappointed that The Society has not come out more strongly against this move to allow blessings for homosexual unions.
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They walk a fine line – too bold and the money dries up.
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