Dear friends in Christ, as of September 1, 2001 I will be embarking on a new ministry in the Church I love and endeavour to serve. This ministry is as an "Ambassador" for Anglican Renewal Ministries of Canada. Needless to say, this new ministry represents quite a shift from serving as the chief pastor of the Diocese of Brandon, a position I have held for a number of years. At the same time, it is a shift which warms my heart daily as I find myself leaning on the Lord and asking him to reveal to me and the chair and members of the ARM board how best I might serve all of you as God's ambassador in the weeks and months ahead.
Many years of pastoral ministry in the Anglican Church have led me to discern a deep hunger in the lives of parishioners. It is a spiritual hunger which leads people to truly respond when they are offered a more personal and living relation- ship with Jesus Christ so that he is no longer just the Jesus of history but the living Lord of their lives.
Authentic renewal begins when we take that personal leap of faith and open our hearts as well as our minds to Jesus and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. I well remember a prayer that I heard shortly after my own personal Pentecost - "Lord, renew your church and let it begin with me".
I sense that the Holy Spirit has sovereignly chosen to move power- fully in our midst in recent times. Could this be a sign of the begin-ning of the revival in the Western World? If it is, God's expectation of you and me as third millenium disciples of Christ, is that we be in spiritual
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solidarity and earnest prayer across this land. The prelude of every revival in Christian history has involved days and nights of solid prayer.
Meanwhile, I envision my new ministry as ambassador as unfolding with some initial travelling offering pastoral support and encouragement to clergy and people already involved in charismatic renewal across Canada. In the jargon of our day this is commonly referred to as "networking' and that seems to be the Spirit's prompting at this point. I have much to share with you and in turn much to learn from all of you.
Spirit-empowered and Spirit-led leadership is the key to parish renewal coupled with a vision of the ministry of all the baptized. My own involvement in a Leadership Training Institute which was offered by Episcopal Renewal Ministries many years ago and now offered by our own Anglican Renewal Ministries, provided valuable insight into the renewal model of servant leadership. It is my hope and prayer that many
| more clergy and lay people will participate in Leadership Training institutes offered by ARM So, what is my vision of renewal in the Anglican Church of Canada? In summary form, allow me to call it the three C's - the Call to Christ; the Call to community; the Call to servant outreach ministry. Fundamental to spiritual renewal is honestly and openly dealing with that profound question posed by Jesus - "Who do you say that I am"? Until all of us have really dealt with that question in both our heads and our hearts, nothing much else in terms of authentic disciple-ship is going to happen. My favourite expression of conversion came from the lips of a somewhat intellectual individual whose heart had been strangely warmed during a renewal event and described his spiritual awakening as a union of the "cerebral and cardiac muscles". It doesn't get much better than that. All of that, of course, reflects the work of the Holy Spirit, that marvellous power of Pentecost which God wants to release in our lives more and more with all the accompanying spiritual gifts outlined in St. Paul's letters. At the same time, if Christianity ends in only personal piety, it simply ends. My vision of the servant church being daily renewed is that of a community of believers in which that natural spirit of independence is daily dying and the communal spirit of interdependence is daily blossoming. Such a faith community will begin to see less and less passengers and more and more crew as parishioners are being helped to recognize their ministry gifts and being released to use them in parish ministry. It will be |
a body of believers which has discovered the true heart of apostolic community and servant ministry through an in depth study of the "Acts of the Apostles". They will find themselves as parishioners with a real thirst to meet with Christian brothers and sisters in small groups during the week to share together, pray together, study together, and lovingly support one another in a variety of ministries.
The final "C", the Call to out-reach ministry, finds expression ion the words of a former Archbishop of Canterbury who reminded us vividly
| that "the Church which lives to itself, dies to itself". Let us never forget as Anglican Christians that we are saved by our Lord primarily to serve. Jesus was the servant "par excellence' and his foot-washing imagery should be our constant model for outreach ministry empowered by God's spirit. I have learned through many years of parish and diocesan ministry that as we listen to the Lord and follow his leading, God has a marvellous way of "paying for what he orders". In closing, may I readily admit to all of you that I feel somewhat of a | neophyte in this new ministry of Ambassador which God and ARM have offered me. I very much welcome your prayers, your letters, your wisdom, your "beefs" and your "bouquets". May we, together, empowered by God's Spirit, usher into this third millenium God's plan for renewal and restoration of the Church we love and are all called to serve.
The Rt. Rev. Malcolm Harding Episcopal Visitor -ARM Board |
