From the Archbishop

Pastoral Letter, Lent 1997

To the clergy and people of the Anglican Province of Christ the King:

The Bishops of the Anglican Province of Christ the King, meeting at Palm Springs, California, this February 5th, 1997, extend our greetings to all the faithful in Christ.

The Province of Christ the King will hold its National Synod in San Francisco in November of this year. It will occur after the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, which will be held in Philadelphia this July. We are grateful to be delivered from the bitter acrimony and confusion that tears at the very fabric of the once common faith we held with our former brethren. Yet it is imperative that we remember what forced our separation from the violent vortex into which they are now swept.

The new prayer book, the ordination of women, and the embracing of moral relativism accepted by a thin majority of voting Episcopalians are only facets of the rejection by many of their Bishops of the reality of the Divinity of Christ.

The Anglican Province of Christ the King holds fast to the truth that we must be Christians to be churchmen and we reject the modern notion that we can be churchmen but not necessarily Christians.

It is not unusual in history for a "saving remnant" to renew the Church. As Anglican Christians we set our face today towards the greater task of rebuilding a Christian Society. This can only be achieved by carrying the continuity of Tradition forward into tomorrow. It demands not only the construction of new churches but the creation of Christian day schools. The devastating tragedy of the collapse of the American public school system has given the Christians, who have been the creative source of education through the ages, the opportunity not only to educate our secularized youth but to give them again a sense of moral purpose.

We are aware of the spiritual poverty that materialism has caused to the American soul. Too many of our friends and family members, as they grow older and their mortality grows closer, face eternity as bored stoics who patiently endure the growing sense of loss with despair. Our youth in this age of indifference are marked by the acne of cynicism.

No one has explained to them that we live in a fallen world, now redeemed by Christ. No one has informed them that love and suffering are partners in time. Love and suffering are one in Christ. This is the meaning of the word "Passion". In every Mass we re-present the Passion of Christ, we enter into it and are made one with it.

Saint Paul's apostolic command to the Ephesians is "to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God". (Ephesians 3:9) He writes to the Philippians, "To live is Christ, to die is gain". (Philippians 1:21)

It is in this light that we continue our glorious march through the desert.

The Blessing of God the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost be with you.

The Most Reverend Robert Sherwood Morse