St. Timothy Anglican Mission

Rector’s Annual Report

January 18, 2009

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the Old Testament, the Israelites are consistently exhorted to “remember”.  The story of the Exodus and the Passover was to be told to their children and their children’s children.  It continues to be told today.  This exhortation is not just for ancient Israel, nor is it to encompass only the recital of God’s action at the Exodus from Egypt.  We are reminded in Revelation, chapter 12, that the saints overcome the Evil One by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.  Testimony is simply the articulation, to other human beings, of what God has done.  It is important in overcoming the Evil One because it reminds the Church, as the story of the Exodus did for Israel, that our God saves.  He is not a dotard smiling benevolently and impotently from heaven, he is power (dunamis in Greek – as in dynamic and dynamite) to transform individuals and move work events.

Our Lord is one who inspires testimony, for he is living and active in my life, yours and in the life of the community and world around us.  This is my testimony to God’s transforming power over the past year.  One year ago, we were still meeting monthly in people’s homes at places all over Vermont.  We still had not discerned whether we were truly called to start a church plant here in Vermont.

One year later our Lord has established two church plants in Vermont and has also provided presbyteral (priestly) leadership for each of them.  Both the Upper Valley and St. Timothy’s have seen God’s provision of a church building in which to worship.  Weekly.

I am still in awe that God called 4 of the 5 people I asked to be lay preachers to that ministry among us.  And God has blessed and fed us with that ministry.  God has provided musicians, technicians and technology to facilitate our worship.

Beyond our own church, God has brought together a diverse group of Anglicans from around the world to produce the Jerusalem Declaration, a confessional statement that we, as global Anglicans, affirm the faith as it has been delivered to us through the apostolic ministry dating back to the first disciples.  This is no small miracle. 

We have seen that same diversity come together in North America under what has been known as the Common Cause into the Anglican Church in North America.  We have seen a renewal of mission in the Anglican Church in North America and a refreshed passion to proclaim the Gospel locally and globally.  Our church plant is but one expression of this missionary drive.

And all of this remains very personal.  When Tamara, the children and I moved to Vermont seven years ago, there was no Anglican home for us.  We were blessed to be welcomed in first by Lutherans and then by Christian and Missionary Alliance congregations.  For that we praise God.  But this past year, much in advance of our own timing expectations, God brought us home from exile.  These are His works and it is marvelous in our eyes.

Much else could and should be said.  But all of it as testimony to the might and saving power of God.  Christ has died.  Christ is Risen.  Christ will come again.

Alex+