Dear Friends in Christ,

The title of one of A.W. Tozer’s books, namely, “Rust, Rot or Revival” presents challenges to all of us today in the midst of a number of issues confronting God’s church at least in the western world. Indeed the times are ripe for revival. The beautiful litany invoking the Holy Spirit in the Anglican BAS spells it out so well --- “Come Holy Spirit, breath of God, give live to the dry bones of this exiled age and make us a loving people, holy and free (BAS-p.123). As I see things, Spirit-filled Christians are called to be a people on the move. Rust and rot will not settle into churches where there is a vision, a growing openness to the winds of the Holy Spirit, new ventures of faith, parishioner gift identification leading to a total ministry approach, learning how to be engaged in friendship evangelism and solid times of parish prayer and fasting. In my travels especially of recent date, I have been hearing in my heart the cry of the Psalmist --- “Will you not revive us again, that your people rejoice in you?” (Psalm 85:6) Yes, dear friends, I sense a growing hunger as I travel “the old sawdust trail” now into twenty-four dioceses being expressed by young and old alike for God to do something new and exciting. I sense a growing spiritual renewal and indeed revival and that calls, as all revivals of the past have revealed, for intense periods of prayer and fasting.

At the time of writing, I have just returned from a FLAME (Fellowship and Learning for Anglican Men’s Enrichment) in the Diocese of Toronto. I was privileged to share from God’s Word to around one hundred men who gathered for a weekend of spiritual renewal from a variety of parishes. The conference theme was “New Wines for New Wineskin” and especially in the ministry time during the closing Eucharist, I truly sensed the Lord stretching us in new directions on fire for Him as we returned home.

Spiritually renewed and empowered Christians I have observed are ready to take risks with our Lord and real leaps of faith. In our day, that translates into very new and exciting forms of local ministry, especially lay ministry, clergy leadership of a servant nature --- shared and not ‘lone ranger style’, experimentation with new forms of worship and a spiritual blending of the traditional and modern. We are all called to truly let our light shine before others in a variety of evangelism and social action ministries. I would also stress again and again, the vital need for parishioners to gather in home fellowship groups during the week for Christian nurture, sharing, prayers and every-member ministry. Pilgrim people are called to be a people of proclamation and justice-making as Spirit-filled ambassadors in every area of life. So let us strive to truly repent of any lukewarmness, rot or rust in our personal and corporate lives. Let us earnestly repent of any status-quo complacent Christianity which all too easily can cause us to drift into a safe maintenance church mentality of mere survival. Our Lord yearns for missionary minded people, enthusiastic and ready to take new leaps of faith.

Let us be completely open to the unpredictable, energizing winds of the Holy Spirit. That is God’s greatest gift to us, guiding us, convicting us, transforming us, teaching us and empowering us to preach, teach and share the good news of salvation far and wide.

If you feel that I could be of any help assisting your parish family through a visitation or parish mission in catching a vision from our Lord for the future, please contact me and I would be delighted to send along material for your prayerful perusal. I can be reached at mharding@mts.net, or tel. 204-726-5738. I am currently working on my itinerary for 2006 and would love to hear from you. You might also want to check out the ARM website at http://www.armcanada.org.

Blessings,

- Bishop Malcolm Harding.

Bishop Malcolm is the ambassador of ARM Canada and was formerly the Episcopal bishop of the diocese of Brandon.
He can be reached at 204-726-5738, E-mail: mharding@mts.net

The Rt. Rev. Malcolm Harding
Episcopal Visitor to ARM