Enter into a holy Lent
I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.
Have you confessed your past unfaithfulness, the pride, hypocrisy and impatience of your life? Have you offered to God’s grace and mercy your self-indulgent appetites and ways, your envy of those more fortunate than yourself, your intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts? If not, it is doubtful that you have also rejoiced fully in the power of the Resurrection and greeted Easter morning with a welling up of new hope.
Taking part in the disciplines of the Lenten season is an integral part of our Anglican way of life and faith. It is not an addition to our practice of personal piety and public worship, but essential to it. The movement of the soul through Lent is a journey of self examination, of temptation and self denial, of prayer and study, of self-giving service and solidarity with the suffering of Christ. It is a journey we take because we are in need of renewal and transformation, in need of catharsis and forgiveness.
Because we are human beings whom God in Christ is constantly shaping more and more in His own image, we are called to offer our selves on the potter’s wheel, to find that our dust and ashes are worthy of Christ’s tears, his wounded hands gentle pressure. We are called to endure the ragged vigil in the dark with only a single candle to light our way. We are called to cry out for the light of Christ in a darkened nave. We are called to sing out with upturned faces “Alleluia. Christ is risen!” and find we believe it because we have been with him all the way.
In the world there may be the Super Bowl, Zumba, basketball, FarmVille, and Edward v. Jacob. In the church, it’s Lent. <more>
Giving ourselves to Christ
“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
The Anglican Communion covers the globe. There are Anglican and Episcopal Churches celebrating communion each Sunday in a great variety of tongues to a common liturgy. This is so because of the dedicated and heroic service of our missionaries. The vision of mission was so strong in the Episcopal Church in the United States during the early years of the new nation that the official name of the organization was “the domestic and foreign mission society of the Episcopal Church in the United States.” We continue to support missionaries overseas through the budget of the church we now simply call “The Episcopal Church.” <more>
A people born of longing
We are a people on the road, bound for a new home. Set free from nature’s instinctual constraints and experiencing the divisions wrought by our own destructive potential, we long to be healed and brought together into a new unity. Caught between earth and heaven, beast and angel, we struggle to give birth to a new humanity from the dust of old. We long for community.
Springing from the heart of God, born of Christ’s voluntary self-giving, that longed-for community grows. It includes ever-widening circles of diverse people. The church, empowered by the Holy Spirit, seeks to be loving community for the sake of the reunion of all people, the transformation of humanity and the healing of creation.
FIND US
St. John’s Episcopal Church is located at 235 W. Duffy — the intersection of Asp Avenue and Duffy Street, just north of Campus Corner in Norman, Oklahoma. Map
Reach us by phone at 405-321-3020 or e-mail.
stjohnschurch.episcopaloklahoma.org
