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PRAYER VIGIL URGED BY ORTHODOX CLERGY FOR
HOB FORMULATING RESPONSE TO WINDSOR REPORT
By David W. Virtue
CHARLOTTE, NC (12-22-2004)--An orthodox priest in the Diocese of North Carolina is calling on all Episcopalians of faith to travel to Salt Lake City on January 12 to pray for the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops as they formulate a response to the Windsor report.
The Rev. Canon Filmore Strunk, rector of the 600-strong St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Charlotte said that while he was at a recent meeting in Plano of orthodox priests and laity he felt the Holy Spirit urging him to "fight spiritual battles with spiritual weapons."
"I asked the group, could some of us orthodox folk gather outside their hotel during the House of Bishops meeting on January 12 and 13 to spend a day and a half praying for our Bishops?” The group received the suggestion with hearty affirmation, he told VirtueOnline.
Last month a group of orthodox leaders met in Plano, Texas to digest the Windsor Report and to plan the next steps in their struggle to reverse the unbiblical direction of ECUSA.
"The report has much in it that can give us hope if our House of Bishops seriously takes to heart the sad divisions among us, and if they listen to the voice of the report with humility and integrity," said Strunk.
"We all know that beneath the flawed theology and appeals to “justice” among those who would seek to reappraise the Gospel lays an issue of the heart. Will our leadership lay aside the arrogance so endemic to the American Culture? Will they humbly come under the consensual understanding of scriptural authority and patient collegiality that are hallmarks of the strength and beauty of the Anglican Communion?
Strunk urged orthodox prayer leaders to gather in Salt Lake City for a time of witness and prayer? A block of rooms have been reserved at the Red Lion Hotel at a group rate. "We will gather on the night of the 11th for dinner together followed by a time of open intercession; closing the evening with the Holy Eucharist. The next morning we plan to stand outside the Bishop’s hotel in humble witness and intercession."
A number of parishes around the country will be involved in intercessory prayer for the House of Bishops meeting. The results of this meeting will certainly be considered by the Anglican Primates at their next meeting in Ireland in February, with the future of the Anglican Communion at stake.
"In my opinion, the crisis in the Episcopal Church is beyond any human power to heal. But God can do anything, and I believe the witness of several thousand faithful Episcopalians praying in the streets of Salt Lake City while the bishops are in session could have a powerful effect," said the Rev. Richard I.H. Belser, rector of St. Michael's Church, Charleston, SC. Other members of the parish will hold a day long prayer vigil in St. Michael's Church on January 12, he told VirtueOnline.
Interested persons can follow these three steps to let us know you are coming:
1) Register -- Fill out the attached or enclosed form & return it ASAP along with a check for $99:00 made out to Vital Church Ministries to cover the meal, meeting, and administrative costs.
2) Travel -- Make your own travel arrangements, planning to arrive before 6:00 pm on the 11th and departing after mid-day on the 13th if at all possible.
3) Lodging -- Call the Red Lion Hotel (801-521-7373 or 800-733-5466) between December 10 and December 21, and ask for the “Salt Lake City or Bust” group rate. Rooms are $79.00 per night, but that includes a full breakfast, free parking, and free airport shuttles.
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