From the Archbishop

Pastoral Letter, Lent 1998

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

The Bishops of the Church, meeting in Sedona, Arizona on February 27th, the Thursday after Ash Wednesday, mark this year of our Lord 1998 as most significant in the life of the Province of Christ the King.

As the church moves in this season of our redemption towards Passiontide, we contemporary Christians have a new occasion to approach the mystery of Christ. Amidst all the beauty of Creation there lies an awareness that nothing is permanently ours. Yet we struggle daily against this thought because it leads us reluctantly to our own cross and through it to God. The cross is the signature of God on the manuscript of history. The Easter Gospel proclaims that at the end of time God will make all things new. Redemption is not restoring things to their original state but bringing them to their final cause and end, God. It is with this wisdom that we as Christians begin our Lenten campaign, increase our charity, draw closer to Christ, and to know that we can never love enough.

Our fellow Episcopalians, disappointed by their leadership, are leaving their church in increasing numbers. A few of them find the Province of Christ the King, but most abandon themselves and their children to secular despair. The Province has been given the apostolic commission to restore Christ's church among our disillusioned brethren, as well as bring it to those who live in the cynical denial of God. This demands the erecting of new churches in every area of our land, the enlargement of our Seminary, and the establishment of excellent church schools as well as superior Sunday Schools.

By grace we have been given the opportunity to begin to meet this challenge with the recent offer of three million dollars in matching funds for the Province. The goal can only be attained by every church, and every one of us, making a sacrificial gift this Lent to the Province of Christ the King Development Fund. Through it we will have the means to begin now to achieve our goal: namely the renewal of the Faith.

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

The Most Reverend Robert Sherwood Morse