Woohoo! and church stuff

7 weeks from now, Shirley and I will make covenant with our Lord and receive the Sacrament of Marriage. We are excited, but at the same time we're tired from wedding planning. We have one meeting left with the wedding coordinator and the food person, still have the honeymoon to plan (waiting for the travel agent to call me back...!), and invitations to mail. We're working on getting housing and work in OKC, as well.

Our small monastic church there is called the Chapel of St. Francis, and Shirley and I are looking forward to weekly worship there. If you are in the OKC area, we welcome you. We are a small, friendly group, centrally located, and dress is casual. We also have a parish in the Tulsa area. Please feel free to call or email Abbot Jim for service times and locations.

We are evangelical--the Blble is God's Word to us, inerrant and infallible, and to be read, taught, and obeyed. Jesus Christ is our Lord and God, He is the way, the truth, and the life, and worthy to be worshiped and for us to fully give our lives to. His suffering and death on the cross and resurrection made the way for us to have relationship to Himself (salvation!) and we are to share Him with the world, in our words and lives.

We are a charismatic church--we believe in the life of the Holy Spirit (see the book of Acts) and His gifts. We believe the gifts are here now as they were in the New Testament, and that the Spirit, as Paul wrote, gives gifts to whom He wills. (We don't believe a person has to speak in tongues to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Some would call us "mildly charismatic.")

We are a liturgical and sacramentalchurch--we worship with a written order of service, which is commonly called a "liturgy," and believe in the sacraments of the early Church.

"Liturgy" means "the work of the people," i.e. the "work" we do in worshipping God. Ancient Israel, the Lord Jesus, and the early Church worshipped using a written liturgy. We have used liturgies for Eucharist from the 1928 and 1979 prayer books, the New Zealand Prayer Book, and from the ancient Hippolytus liturgy. For Morning and Evening Prayer we have used the '28 and '79, and now use the St. Augustine Prayer Book for public and private prayer. Arguments have been presented against using a written liturgy--that it stifles the flow of the Spirit. The early Church enjoyed the flow of the Spirit while using a written liturgy, and liturgy with spontaneous prayer and praise is a beautiful combination.

The early Church believed in and practiced seven sacraments. A "sacrament" is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace of God, and a means by which He brings that grace into our lives (from the definition by St. Augustine). Two main--Baptism and the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, as it was called ("Eucharist" means "thanksgiving.")

Historically, the Church has believed that Baptism brings an infant or young child into the Church and into covenant relationship to God and His people, and brings His grace and forgiveness to work in the child's life (see Acts 16 for two examples of household baptism when one parent becomes a believer). The parents publicly promise, with the help of God and His Church, to bring the child up in the Lord--then the child must choose: receive the Lord into his/her life and live for Him, or reject the Lord and the faith he/she was baptized in and brought up in. If a believing child, teen, or adult, Baptism is a profession of faith--a public promise to live for the Lord. Receiving Christ brings His life, forgiveness and grace into our lives, and Baptism officially and publicly completes that initial faith in Christ, bringing His grace and forgiveness, as well.

Eucharist is a sharing in the life of Jesus, in His Body and Blood. Historically, the Church has taught the apostolic teaching of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Over the centuries, there have been many debates as to how that specifically works. We don't have an official position--other than to say that it is more than a memorial or symbol (it is both of these--yet more)--in some way we are receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. We receive Jesus into our lives, and have His life in us, and also receive Him in a different and special way in the Eucharist. The first-century Church offered it often--at the minimum weekly each Sunday, and often during the week, as well. Most of the Church today believes we enjoy His Presence in a special way when we partake, and are strengthened in our faith and our life in Him. The Scriptures or the early Church didn't require confession of sins to a priest before partaking, and neither do we. It is always an option, but what is required is confession to the Lord and receiving His forgiveness before we partake. It is part of our liturgy to pray together a General Confession, at which time we may silently confess any known sins to the Lord, and then receive absolution from the priest--a declaration and assurance that our sins our forgiven by the Lord. We believe in our spiritual lives being centered around the Eucharist, which we receive often, and daily Morning and Evening Prayer.

Confirmation is God's grace in the filling of the Spirit and giving His gifts, based on the practice of the apostles to lay hands on the newly-professed believers--as we see in Acts. We see there that the apostles ensured the uniform beliefs of those Christians, and prayed for them to be filled with the Spirit, which imparted and/or stirred up gifts in those believers. The apostles handed the practice to the bishops they ordained, and bishops confirm today in accord with that ancient teaching and practice. The bishop prays for the believer to be filled with and strengthened in the Spirit, it is a public profession of faith for that believer, and it is normally the final step for the initial receiving of the believer into the full life of the Church (faith, baptism, confirmation). Today there is instruction in the basics of the faith before the bishop confirms--churches call this catechism class, new member class, discovery class, confirmation class, etc.

Reconciliation/Forgiveness is God giving His forgiveness and grace to a repentant believer, either in public worship, or in private confession to a priest.

Unction/Healing is God's grace to heal and restore mentally, physically, or spiritually. It is often given when someone is near death, but also at any time when healing is needed.

Holy Matrimony or Marriage is God's grace to a man and woman for them to live together in a covenant relationship with Him and each other. Marriage has always been, Scripturally and historically in the Church, between a man and a woman only. We believe that Christ offers forgiveness--so that a believer who caused a divorce, even if they committed adultery, if that person is repentant, may be forgiven by Christ and restored to full life in His Church (including receiving Eucharist), and allowing that believer to remarry.

Holy Orders/Ordination is grace from God for men and women to minister in specific functions in His Church--bishops, priests, and deacons. After academic preparation (seminary or "reading" for Orders under a bishop), a person is ordained (set apart) by a bishop through the laying on of hands. We ordain men as bishops, priests, and deacons, and women as deacons, according to Scripture and apostolic practice.

We believe in apostolic succession--in an unbroken line of ordinations back to the apostles, and the grace that comes through that ordination. The apostles themselves taught this in Scripture--they wrote of ordaining faithful men who would then teach and ordain faithful men, unsuring the correct faith being taught and perpetuated. Those ordained by the apostles, and those they ordained and so on in the next couple of generations (we call these the "Church Fathers"), wrote of this and practiced it, as well. Simply put, it is the ordination of the faithful by the faithful so that the apostolic faith may be carried to the next generation. What do we say about ministers not believing in or ordained in apostolic succession? Unfortunately, ordination in apostolic succession doesn't atomatically guarantee Scriptural teaching or a holy life from those ordained--we see examples of this in Church history and today. After the Reformation, many groups rejected apostolic succession due to this, and/or from their perspective that they don't see it in Scripture. We understand that, and recognize as ministers those ordained in every faithful branch of the Church, and pray for God's blessing on them as they minister to the Church and to the world.

I see us as a welcoming and friendly group. Because we have the monastic base, I think we feel more like family than just a church. If you haven't found a church in which to be a part, come worship with us. You are welcome wherever you are on your spiritual journey. We welcome you to worship and pray with us while we're still here in Houston, and in OKC if you're in that area.

And wherever you are, we're here to pray with and for you, help you along on your spiritual journey, help you to bring monastic practice into your life should you wish, and introduce you to the Order of St. John the Beloved, should you believe you are called. We have Oblates (friends of the order, unvowed), and vowed monks and nuns--single, celibate, and married.

Let's share the life of the Lord Jesus Christ together.


Br. Francis