Of Ember Days Renewal

Today is the first of THE LENTEN EMBER DAYS (BEING THE WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY AND SATURDAY AFTER THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT)—the second to last set before General Synod—by which we are called to honestly and fearlessly allow ourselves to be “put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution contained in the Gospel of our Saviour, and of the need which all Christians continually have, of a renewal of their repentance and faith.” (BCP, p612) That kind of renewal is the beginning of the Anglican Renewal Ministries Canada kind. It begins with us—you and me—before we go calling others to account. 

Good Lenten self-examination will honestly address the many temptations that come my way and yours. Last Sunday our priest at St Mary the Virgin, Canon Claude Schroeder, preached on the Temptation in the Wilderness in Matthew 4. He was kind enough to list eight thoughts that tempt: Gluttony, Fornication, Avarice, Sorrow, Despondency, Anger, Vainglory and Pride. He pointed out that such thoughts can pop into our minds unbidden. That they come is not a sin, but what we do with them can be. When they come, they pierce—a word with the same root as “tempt”—they get in amongst me where, if entertained and acted upon, they become sin and death for me. Sorrow, despondency, anger and pride can all be particularly gnarly and potentially sinful responses for me when it comes to people with whom I disagree and who I’m convinced are headed out from under the umbrella of Scriptural truth and are taking others who don’t know any better with them. 

So I examine self as carefully and honestly as I can. In doing so I hold up a divine mirror to try and get a glimpse through the weeds of my sin (Mt13.24-30) of the log in my own eye (Mt7.1-5). I repent (over and over again) and my repentance is renewed. I pray and fast. I read and meditate. In doing so I take up the shield of faith with which to extinguish and deflect the flaming darts of the evil one (Eph6.16) which pierce and tempt and will lead to sin and death if I let them. And my faith is renewed. 

Help us, Jesus!

Gene+

The Holy Spirit in the Prayer Books

This was published in the Fall 2015 issue of Anglicans for Renewal, the Anglican Renewal Ministries magazine. 

I'm an Anglican by marriage. Actually, we all are if you go back far enough. So I didn't grow up with the Prayer Book. I was pretty suspicious of it and the idea of praying out of books when I first encountered it. But I really wanted to be in the company and good graces of a certain intriguing and very attractive young woman who happened to be Anglican and attended Evensong at St Paul's Anglican Cathedral in Dunedin, New Zealand. It was in her company that my experience of praying out of a book began. She was a very comely incentive. God is good. 

Some years later when I came to a faith of my own, it was when I made television programs for a living. Most of the program's I made required a script. I directed the actors, performers, crew, images and sound to tell the script's story. One day I realized that the Prayer Book was like one of those scripts. We worshippers take the words of the page, into our hearts and offer them in worship to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. And The Story continues as it is told over and over again.

I became Anglican just after The Book of Alternative Services came on the scene. I have to confess that I enjoyed the contemporary language. It seemed more open to me. I still enjoy it. But those early years of praying the office, exploring The Prayers and Thanksgivings, Family Prayer, Compline and the rest followed by fifteen years of Book of Common Prayer Holy Communion on Sundays at 830 gave me some roots and prayers for real life.

Last June I experienced the joy of being present when my granddaughter was confirmed at St Mary’s in Regina. As he laid his hands on each confirmand, Bishop Hardwick used the second prayer For Confirmation in The Book of Alternative Services: “Defend, O Lord, your servant Emily with your heavenly grace, that she may continue yours for ever, and daily increase in your Holy Spirit more and more, until she comes to your everlasting kingdom. Amen. (p628) This is also the confirmation prayer from The Book of Common Prayer (p560) in contemporary English.

Now is that a wild-eyed, knock-down charismatic prayer, or what? “Daily increase in your Holy Spirit more and more”? It was done very decently and in order, but those were the words prayed out loud, over my granddaughter (and everyone else who is confirmed in the Anglican Church of Canada) to the living God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Think about it. It’s a wonder we weren’t all thrown to the floor in a tangle of Anglican knees and kneelers. But we weren’t—at least not outwardly. I wonder why? Have we just given up on expecting God to act in such ways? Are we hoping for it, but God is saying, “Not now”? I don’t know.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that confirmation should only be valid when everyone is slain in the Spirit (although I’d love to see it one day). But what if you and I were to pay closer attention to the way the Holy Spirit of truth is woven through our prayer book prayers and liturgies bearing witness about Jesus (John 15.26) and what if we watch for them and pray into them? Might the Lord be waiting to release something new?

In that hope, Lord willing, I’m going to explore the references to the Holy Ghost/Spirit in our books to see where they lead. And what better place to start than with the SOLEMN DECLARATION 1893 (The Book of Common Prayer, p. viii), a foundational document for the Anglican Church of Canada.

“In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen,” are the first words; an foundational invocation of the Holy Trinity. We begin with profound mystery. Such is the Holy Spirit. Such is the Father and the Son. We worship one God in three Persons. Indivisible. So when we focus on one Person, we do not deny or diminish the others. To be filled with the Holy Ghost is to be filled with all the fullness of God. And that is about as far as I dare go with that except to say that it is the best way to begin this expression of the Anglican church.

The next reference is in the third paragraph; a declaration that this church will “worship One God and Father through the same Lord Jesus Christ, by the same Holy and Divine Spirit who is given to them that believe to guide them into all truth.” Believe, and I am given that Holy and Divine Spirit to guide me into all truth. What is truth? God’s word is (John 17.17) and I am (John 14.6) says Jesus and truth is in Jesus, writes Paul (Eph 4.21). Not only that, but the Holy and Divine Spirit is the Spirit of that truth (John 14.17 & 15.26) and that pretty well wraps it up.

So the foundational document of the Anglican Church of Canada (after the Scriptures and the prayer book) affirms and attests that it is important to have been given the Holy and Divine Spirit because he will guide us into Jesus. Thus begins our trustworthy script for Anglican worship; a script which is essentially the Scriptures set to prayer.

As we learn our lines in worship and prayer may we make them our own while daily increasing in the Holy Spirit more and more until times of refreshing, renewal and revival come. Amen and amen.

On Being (Quietly) Charismatic

The following was published in the Summer 2015 issue of the Anglican Renewal Ministries magazine, Anglicans for Renewal. Subscriptions available here.

Hi, my name is Gene and I’m a charismatic. I’m not a very loud one. Pretty quiet, actually. I’ve not shouted, rolled (as in Holy), shaken or stomach-crunched yet.

A few people have been blessed, a couple even healed when I’ve prayed for them. Quietly. No sparks or gold dust. Hardly anyone seems to have noticed, which is probably a good thing.

The LORD gave me the gift of tongues—a prayer language. Nobody has come up to me and said, “I didn’t know you could speak Mandarin (or Thai, or Hungarian or whatever)” yet, but I know it’s real because after being prayed for many times and trying to make noises myself all of a sudden one day it just took off with a fluency that surprised me. Again, no lightning or spectacular manifestations, just a switch thrown somewhere in my spirit or soul or heart and off I went. It took about two years of praying with various degrees of intensity for that particular gift until that switch was turned on. Reading Dennis Bennet’s Nine O’Clock in the Morning was what really got me going on it. But I know that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ touched me with the power of the Holy Spirit. Amazing. A reminder for me when doubts assail.

I’ve been “slain in the Spirit” a couple of times. Gently and quietly. I could have remained standing. I felt a weight pressing down through me—the weight of glory someone said. I found myself swaying and let go to fall back as if into pillows, but I’ve not yet experienced going down involuntarily as if shot. I’ve seen it but I haven’t had it happen to me yet.

The LORD also gave me some prophetic gifting; the 1 Corinthians 14.3 strengthening,  encouraging and comforting kind. I’m certainly not a capital P Prophet. Nobody is today, in my opinion. Nobody carries the office, but many people exercise the 1 Corinthians 12.10 and 14.1-5 gift. Every now and then somehow the Holy Spirit puts things into to my mind that I could not know about the person for whom I am praying and it blesses them because they know I couldn’t have known and their faith grows because they realize that God does know what’s going on their lives and cares for them. It’s amazing to be a part of God doing that.

My priest used to say we’ve drifted away from believing that God can or will really act these days and that the Holy Spirit has been lost in the ecclesiastical shuffle somehow. Today’s Holy Trinity is God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the silent partner. One of the reasons that has happened is fear, I suspect. People are afraid of extremes—people falling over, or laughing, or shaking, or saying, “Thus saith the Lord!” Some feel left out when nothing seems to happen to, or around, them when they pray, so they give up. Some feel criticized or abused by over-enthusiastic charismatics or people who have got charismatic things just plain wrong. The trouble is that all of church, charismatic or not, includes a fair dose of the world, the flesh and the devil. There will always be unhelpful disturbing behaviour.

Despite it all, however, the Holy Spirit is a major player in the Scriptures and in the Church. From his first creation appearance in the second verse of the whole Bible, to his last mention in the fifth to last verse, the Holy Spirit blows throughout and continues to do so. Most often he is a gentle, barely perceptible breeze, these days it seems, yet every now and then he blows things over and sets the church bounding across the waves.

So, my name is Gene and I’m a charismatic retired Anglican priest. I’ve not experienced anything that has been particularly spectacular. I suspect that’s because The LORD knows only too well how easily I could get full of myself. But I believe in it. I believe in it all. I believe that without the power and the gifts of the Holy Spirit working in me, I can do nothing worthwhile. I believe that Jesus still miraculously heals and changes lives. I wish he would do it more often in ways that I can see, but that’s up to him. I believe that people really are strengthened, encouraged and comforted by ordinary Christians exercising the spiritual gifts God has given. I believe that every now and then God still even raises people from the dead. I haven’t seen it myself, but I’ve read about it. I believe in revival and hope to see another one soon—especially in the Anglican church. And that’s why I serve on the Anglican Renewal Ministries board and write for this magazine.

UPDATE: since this article was published in the magazine a couple of good folk have taken me to task over what I've written above about the office of Prophet with a capital P. Citing passages such as 1 Cor 12.28, Eph 4.11 and others they believe there are still Christian prophets and a prophetic ministry operating today  I have to confess that I had missed these rather obvious references to there being an active Christian prophetic ministry in addition to the gift. I agree that some people do exercise the ministry today. It would have been better if I'd included that, but I'm still uncomfortable with the idea of a capital P Prophet as an office in today's Church.

A Rude Awakening?

The following was published in the Spring 2015 issue of the Anglican Renewal Ministries magazine, Anglicans for Renewal.

In January I enjoyed three days of worship, prayer and conversation with fellow Anglican Renewal Ministries (ARM) board members. We were hoping for some new stuff from The LORD—where to from here? looking like what?—answers to those kinds of questions. 

Imagine my consternation when, during the first time of listening, the only word I “heard” in my mind was rude. Oops. Is that how we’re coming across, LORD, I wondered? So I prayed, “What?” and remembered that rude doesn’t just mean offensively impolite. It can also mean simple or “roughly made or done, lacking subtlety or sophistication” says Google. 

Could The LORD be calling us ARMites to a rude awakening? Are we being called back to basics and simplicity; something like the three Rs in education—Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmatic?  

And that reminded me of three R-words in Acts 3 that always strike a chord whenever I read them: 

Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. (Acts 3.19-21)

Repent, Refreshing and Restoring: could these be the back to basics prophetic framework for getting our Acts together in a new and rude awakening for ARM and the Church?

Repent

It makes sense. After all, according to Jesus, the first word of the gospel is repent (Mk 1.15)—turn back, about face, change direction—so our sins may blotted out. Point one of Evan Roberts’ call to revival in Wales was “Repent of all known sin.” We Anglicans are blessed with multiple tools for prayerful repentance. 

Pray any of the prayers of confession in The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) or The Book of Alternative Services (BAS). I’m particularly fond of the excellent prayers of confession and for pardon through the Cross in the evening setting of FORMS OF PRAYER TO BE USED IN FAMILIES (BCP, p730).

Consider carrying out this important first step as you commit observing a holy Lent this year in self-examination, penitence, prayer, fasting, alms-giving and reading and meditating on the Word of God (BAS, p282).

Refresh

Heart-felt, honest repentance prepares us and makes us available for the refreshing that comes from the presence of The LORD. What does refreshing look like? Like life, relationships and church-going filled to overflowing with the fruit of the Spirit in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5.22-23), in all circumstances (1 The 5.18), no matter what. It’s fun and it’s winsome. Who could not but be drawn into such a refreshing presence to be awakened, blessed and transformed? 

Restore

Ultimate restoration will only come with Jesus’ return, but in the meantime, our spiritual sight needs restoring(Mk 8.25) so we can see where The LORD is leading, our hands need restoring (Mt 12.13, Mk 3.5, Lk 6.10) to make us useful and our saltiness needs restoring (Mt 5.12, Lk 14.34) to make us tasty again. 

Perhaps aiming for a rich and fruitful restoration (2 Cor 13.11) through repentance and refreshment would be just the rude awakening we need to get our Acts together this Lent.

The Fruit of the Spirit: Part One—An Introduction and Love

The following was published in the Spring 2015 issue of the Anglican Renewal Ministries magazine, Anglicans for Renewal. 

Since Anglican Renewal Ministries exists to help us all experience and enjoy more of the refreshing presence of God, the Holy Spirit, in our lives, our relationships and our church, from time to time it is encouraging to look into the benefits of living in that presence. When we do our best to live and move and have our being (Acts 17.28) in the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor 12.8-10 & 28), good things grow. This is the first of a series of articles exploring those good things—the challenges, delights and blessings of Fruit of the Spirit ( Gal 5.22—see also Mt 7.15-20). 

Fruit Inspection

Before we give the Fruit of the Spirit tree a shake, let’s take a moment to think about fruit in nature and what it’s for. Fruit is for reproduction. It bears the seeds and is the medium by which those seeds are distributed and sown. To that end, fruit is designed to be sweet and juicy, attractive and tasty. 

Being tasty and enhancing life’s flavours seems to be a part of The LORD’s recipe for fruitful Jesus following. Saltiness is another powerful Biblical image (Mt 5.13) for how we Christians are are called to attract and add zest to the lives of those around us. The Holy Spirit working through you and me makes lives flavourful and tasty with a divinely inspired balance of sweetness and saltiness.

But lest we over-spiritualize the idea of being the folk who yield the fruit that attracts people to Jesus, remember fruit’s reproductive purpose and process requires eating, digestion, defecation, rotting and fermentation—earthy stuff—having to do with the real life and death that has to come before there can be resurrection (cf 1 Cor 15.35-49). This means the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives must be more than just sweetly sentimental well-wishing. The sweetest, most fruitful, fruit comes from the rich soil of you and me getting down alongside people where they live; especially with those whose lives have gone sour and who are mired in life’s pain and injustice. This is the earthiness that produces the fruit that leads to resurrection and new life. 

The more open and available I am to the Holy Spirit’s filling and empowering, the sweeter and tastier will my fruit be. So will yours. 

By Our Fruits…

Healthy trees, says Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, bear good fruit (Mt 7.17). So do healthy people, relationships and churches. Moreover, it is by our fruits we will be recognized as Christians, or not (Mt 7.20), so let’s take a closer look at fruit. There are nine fruits of the Spirit according to the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galations: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5.22).

Knowing What Love Is

It is no accident that love is the first fruit on the list. Just as love is the centre and foundation of Paul’s description of the Gifts of the Spirit, how they work and how they are to be used, in 1 Corinthians 12-14 (more on that in a moment); love is the first on his companion list of the Spirit’s Fruit. Love is always the greatest and more excellent way (1 Cor 13.13; 12.31). Without it, the rest of the Fruit cannot ripen. Love is number one, the other eight fruits are delightful and particular expressions of it. 

The Greek word is agapé. That’s the John 3.16 kind of love with which God so loves the world. The words for romantic, warm fuzzy, brotherly, sisterly or between friends love are all different. I don’t fall in agapé, I rise in it. Fruit of the Spirit love comes not primarily from warm feelings for a person, it comes from being prayerfully intelligent, purposeful and always focussed on the need of the other (Marva Dawn, The Unnecessary Pastor (Eerdman’s, 2000), p212) while needing no love in return. Fruit of the Spirit love is the fierce love of one who really cares about you or me. Fruit of the Spirit love is love to do, by choice of will, whether I feel like it, or not. 

John gives us a vivid image of love’s trajectory in John 3.16. God so loved, he wrote. Who? The world and everyone in it. That? He gave his only—not what he had to spare or didn’t need any more—his only Son, Jesus. And, following the same trajectory, Jesus so loved his Father and the world that he gave his life so that you and I get to enjoy eternal life. Surely Spirit-filled Jesus followers are called so to love—not just those with whom we agree or smell right or treat us well—everyone—so that we, too, will give what the people around us need in order taste and see how good the Lord is. 

Paul fills John’s image of love out even more in 1 Corinthians 13. Without this love, he states, I’m nothing. I can gong, clang and clatter away noisily in tongues, declare “Thus saith the Lord…” all I want, super-spiritually give away all I have, but if I do it without love I—and, more importantly, those around me—will gain absolutely nothing. So, if we really want to understand the Fruit of the Spirit, you and I really need to know what love is. Paul tells us. Love is—patient, kind, does not envy or boast, is not arrogant or rude, does not insist on its own way; is not irritable or resentful; does not rejoice at wrong-doing, rejoices with the truth, bears, believes, hopes and endures all things (1 Cor 13.4-7). Paul's what-love-is gives me the so with which I can do my loving. I need to keep the what-love-is fresh, then I can so love well and without fail. So do you. 

Towards Another Great Awakening: a Revolutionary, Revivalist Archbishop of Canterbury!

Photo Credit: New Wine UK

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, speaking at New Wine:

…when things in the Church are not going well, or in bits of the Church historically, God does not repair; He renews. He doesn’t just stitch it up; He gives us something new.   

…There has never been a renewal of the Church in Western Europe without a renewal of prayer and the life of religious communities; never. If we want to see things changed, it starts with prayer. It starts with a new spirit of prayer, using all the traditions, ancient and modern, of prayer. When it comes, it will be linked to what has gone before, but it will look different, because it is a new renewal for new times. God’s created community is perfectly designed for its time and place. It always comes from below; almost always. It comes from Christians seeking Christ, and is often - says I, looking at the one bishop I can see from here - is often opposed by church leaders, and especially archbishops. 

We must have a new movement of prayer, and I commit myself to opposing it, because that seems to work.  

…we are in a time of revolution, and we need another revolution in the Church. What it looks like, I do not know, but I want to be in it. What it feels like is Jesus-centred, fire-filled, peace-proclaiming, disciple-creating, and the Church word for this revolution is revival.

O, yes! Will you not revive us again, O LORD! Read the rest here.

Next Prayer for Revival at StB on Wednesday, August 14th, from 11am to 5pm. Come and go as you like.

Prayer Day

 Time for a little striving (Rom 15.30) and struggling (Col 4.12) in prayer.

Come, Holy Spirit, renew the heart of our city!

Silence.

Wonderful Prayers at Midday FOR MISSIONS in The Book of Common Prayer, page 16:

• That all mankind may look unto to thee and be saved.
• Illumine the world with the radiance of thy glory, that all nations may come and worship thee.
• Forgive, we pray thee, our unbelief, and so enlarge our hearts, and enkindle our zeal, that we may fervently desire the salvation of all, and with more ready diligence labour in the extension of thy kingdom.

Salvation, illumination, worship, largeness of heart, fervent desire. O, yes!

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Towards a New Awakening: Praying the Marks of Mission—By the Mark, Four!

To Seek to Transform Unjust Structures of Society


When God renews the Church by awakening new faith in its members, the society within which it exists is also blessed and renewed. Broken marriages are restored, illegitimate birth rates drop, things that were stolen are returned, bad debts are made good, oppressive working conditions are improved.

Pray for the complete transformation of Church and society, for fair, living wages for all and for affordable food and housing, for an end to sexism, racism and age-ism. The list goes on…

On New Wine and a New Awakening: Bishop David Pytches

Bishop David Pytches in a talk on Kingdom Commission in 1999:

The old wineskin can’t take the new wine so we’ve got to find ways of creating new wine skins to hold the new wine that God is releasing to His church today. Unfortunately, we say, “Oh no, they’re not fitting in properly. We can’t cope with these people.” And they sort of reject them from our traditional churches, but we’ve got to find ways of holding them so they can have the blessing of belonging to the traditional church and we can have the blessing of new life going on around us.

So they can have the blessing of belonging to the traditional church. It is a blessing. And we Anglicans and other "traditional" denominations can enjoy the blessing of new life going on around us.  This is not only what the Fresh Expressions people are on about but I suspect it's also what revival releases in the church and in our society—NEW WINE: from the LORD's vineyard, rich in colour, tasty and intoxicating in the Spirit!

Here's looking at you! Cheers!

Towards a New Awakening: Sanctuary Tour 2012—from Lutheran Renewal Canada

A message from Pastor Chris Nojonen (one of the Lutheran pastors also praying for a New Awakening across the church):

Lutheran Renewal Canada invites you to worship and pray with Pastor Andreas Hernqvist of the “Oasis” movement of the Lutheran Church in Sweden.  Please join us at any of the following events:

Friday, March 16th, 7:30 p.m. Peace Lutheran Church, Claresholm 4304 2nd St. W (take Hwy 2 S from Calgary, turn right on  Hwy 520 – it will take you a little over an hour and a half from the south side of Calgary)

Saturday, March 17th, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. “Learning to Pray for healing” Shepherd King Lutheran Church  804 7th Ave. SW, Calgary
                                                                     
Sunday, March 18th, 10 a.m. All Saints Lutheran Church 380 Midpark Blvd, SE Calgary

Sunday, March 18th, 7 p.m. St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, Cochrane (corner of George Fox Trail and Hwy 22)

Tuesday, March 20th, 7 p.m. Holy Trinity Anglican Church 5015 49 St., Rocky Mountain House

Wednesday, March 21st, 7 p.m. Asker Lutheran Church (for info call Ted Hill at 780-312-3493)

Thursday, March 22nd, 7:30 p.m. Resurrection Lutheran Church hosting at Canadian Lutheran Bible Institute 4837 52A Ave, Camrose (for info call 780-672-0909)

Saturday, March 24th, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Immanuel Lutheran Church of Rosenthal 52401 Range Rd 13, Stony Plain (from Hwy 16A take Stony Plain exit, drive south through Town, turn right on township road 524 (aka 79th ave) and Drive 5 km.)

Sunday, March 25th 9 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. Immanuel Lutheran Church of Rosenthal

Please pre-register for the Saturday workshops by phone (780-963-4048) or e-mail (seniorpastor@ilrc.ca).  At the Saturday workshops lunch will be available for a small cost.

A New Awakening: Prayer for Revival

More response to the call—Pat Langlois, Anglican Priest in the Diocese of Saskatchewan writes:

Recently I read a book by Selwyn Hughes called REVIVAL: Times of Refreshing and in it he describes revival as "the return of some thing to its true nature and purpose" (p. 13). He quotes a famous Welsh preacher, Christmas Evans, who said: "Revival is God bending down to the dying embers of a fire that is just about to go out, and breathing into it, until it bursts again into flame." 

Selwyn Hughes then goes on to say: "Revival, then, is the Christian Church going back again to the God-given norm. And what is that 'norm'? Nothing less than the experience of Pentecost" (p. 14)

Send the fire Lord! Send the fire! 

Although I don't think we're a fire that is just about to go out, the truth is most of us have plateaued or are in decline. In our world, more parishes are closing than are being planted. The national church's revenue is declining at the rate of around 3% a year. We need to have our flames fanned.

I know talk of fire and revival can be disturbing to some. Disturbing images of odd behaviour and weirdness are stirred up. Personally, what little I've experienced has been fun even when I know the world, the flesh and the devil will always be a part of the mix because people are involved.

Interestingly, the Great Awakening in the last half of the Nineteenth Century, for example, involved very little in the way of strange manifestations or behaviour. Instead, that great movement of God's Spirit which filled so many churches and brought so much social transformation was characterized by

• an extraordinary spirit of prayer
• a deep conviction of sin
• confession
• restitution
• reconciliation
• a burden to reach people with the Gospel
• the crossing denominational boundaries. It involved the whole church.

Will you not revive us again, O Lord.

A Call to Prayer for Revival

Yesterday, I emailed this call to various leaders across the Anglican church. If you feel that the LORD is calling you to join us please indicate when and how you will do so in the comments below. 

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? (Psalm 85:6)

It’s good to be Anglican, however, what I’ve observed in my own parish and diocese and during my time serving on the Council of General Synod shows me that we and other mainline churches are in a season of decline in both attendance and finances.

Faithful, intelligent people are doing their best to turn this around with strategies across the church like Fresh Expressions and Vision 2019.

We need to add something to those efforts. We need to embark on a new movement of concerted, united, sustained prayer across the churches across the country. What shall we pray together for? Let’s ask for a revival; an awakening; a spiritual refreshing; an ecclesiastical renaissance; for the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to breathe new life into us and our communities through the power of the Holy Spirit. Canon Dr Max Warren, described as the greatest General Secretary of the Church Missionary Society in the Twentieth Century, defined this kind of revival as

a reformation of the Church for action…a reaffirmation of theology, resuscitation of worship, renewing of conscience, and it is all these within the Church and for the Church. (J Edwin Orr, The Restudy of Revival and Revivalism, (1981), p. iv)

God, the Holy Spirit, has chosen to breathe new life into the church many times through history. The common denominator in the beginnings of such spiritual awakenings is prayer. In the nineteenth century it was concerted prayer, for example, that launched an awakening across the United States which grew churches like Trinity Episcopal in Chicago from 121 members in 1857 to 1,400 in 1860. This growth was not the result of clever programming but because of a prayer generated spiritual awakening by which hearts were warmed to God through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.

These events were not only filled churches, society was transformed, social justice happened. For example, one such spiritual awakening,

released the energy of Newton and Wilberforce to attack and subdue the trade in slaves. (The Book of Alternative Services, Introduction, p. 9)

At St Barnabas we have begun gathering for prayer on the second Sunday of each month at 6pm, for at least an hour (Mk 14:37), in the church. We have decided to step that up to every Sunday during Lent. There is also a small group of Lutheran pastors associated with the ELCiC renewal fellowship praying on second Sundays. Although it would be good if at least some of the praying is simultaneous, time zones and schedules make that impossible. The time and day don’t matter so much as that systemic, concerted, united, sustained prayer happens.


SOME RESOURCES
From Scripture

Psalm 85:6 Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? 

Isa 57:15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite. 

Hos 6:2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. 3 Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth." 

1 Chr 7:14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

From The Book of Common Prayer

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us thy only begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure Virgin:  Grant that we, being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit, ever one God, world without end.  Amen. (The Collect for Christmas Day, p104)

From The Book of Alternative Services

Let us ask the Lord to renew the Church through the power of his life-giving Spirit. (from the Morning Litany, p118)

Eternal Giver of life and light…Renew your Church with the Spirit given to us in baptism, that we may worship you in sincerity and truth, and shine as a light in the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. (The Collect for the Easter Vigil, p329)

Living God, in Christ you make all things new. Transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace, and in the renewal of our lives make known your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. (The Collect for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, p352)

Almighty God, your Son revealed in signs and miracles the wonder of your saving love. Renew your people with your heavenly grace, and in all our weakness sustain us by your mighty power; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. (The Collect for the Seventh Sunday after Epiphany, p356) 

Almighty God, in our baptism you adopted us for your own. Quicken, we pray, your Spirit within us, that we, being renewed both in body and mind, may worship you in sincerity and truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. (The Collect for the Sunday between 9 and 15 October, p385) 

Almighty God, grant that we who have been buried with Christ in baptism may be raised with him to newness of life. Renew us by the power of your Holy Spirit that we may live in righteousness and true holiness, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (The Collect for Confirmation, p 624)

PRAYERS FOR THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA'S GENERAL SYNOD VISION 2019


Vision Statement
Will you not revive us again (Psalm 85:6) so that, as we rejoice in you, we will clearly and truly become a people who know, love, and follow Jesus in serving God’s mission.

LORD, HEAR AND HAVE MERCY.

Marks of Mission 
Will you not revive us again (Psalm 85:6) so that, as we rejoice in you, in Jesus' Name, the Marks of Mission will be made manifest in our lives as we

• proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God
• teach, baptize and nurture new believers; 
• respond to human need by loving service; 
• transform the unjust structures of society; 
• advance reconciliation and peace among all people; 
• strive to safeguard the integrity of God's creation.

LORD, HEAR AND HAVE MERCY.


Priorities
Will you not revive us again that (Psalm 85:6) so that, as we rejoice in you, in Jesus' Name, our national church will be faithful and skillful in enabling and encouraging our church’s mission by

• creating structures that work;
• improving and enlivening communications; 
• wisely responding to statistical trends;
• gathering and generously providing financial resources to equip ministry across Canada; 
• building bridges across the Church and beyond.

LORD, HEAR AND HAVE MERCY.

Practices
Will you not revive us again (Psalm 85:6) so that, as we rejoice in you, in Jesus' Name, our national church will be faithful and skillful in

• developing leadership education for mission, evangelism and ministry;
• supporting ministry through the Council of the North;
• walking with Indigenous Peoples on a journey of healing and wholeness;
• working toward peace and justice;
• engaging young people in mutual growth for mission;
• enlivening our worship;
• being leaders in the Anglican Communion and in ecumenical actions.

LORD, HEAR AND HAVE MERCY.


SOME ANGLICAN CONNECTIONS WITH HISTORIC REVIVALS

The “morning star” of the eighteenth century Revival in Britain was Griffith Jones, an Anglican rector, who taught 150,000 Welsh people to read besides preaching the gospel. (J Edwin Orr, The Restudy of Revival and Revivalism, (1981), p. 1)

THE AWAKENING OF 1792 ONWARD

The spiritual preparation for a worldwide awakening thus began in Great Britain…believers in one denomination after the other, including the evangelical minorities of the Church of England…devoted the first…Monday evening of each month to pray for a revival of religion and extension of Christ’s kingdom overseas. (Ibid., p. 10) 

Anglicans successfully promoted abolition of the slave trade. Significant reform was achieved in the prisons…the Sunday School movement…humane service to animals began…benevolence in the missionary movement…Many of the social advances of the times were derived from the awakening. (Ibid., p. 12)

In September 1857, a man of prayer, Jeremiah Lanphier, started a businessmen's prayer meeting in the upper room of the Dutch Reformed Church Consistory Building in Manhattan. In response to his advertisement, only six people out of a population of a million showed up. But the following week there were fourteen, and then twenty-three when it was decided to meet everyday for prayer. By late winter they were filling the Dutch Reformed Church, then the Methodist Church on John Street, then Trinity Episcopal Church on Broadway at Wall Street. In February and March of 1858, every church and public hall in down town New York was filled. ("Prayer and Revival" - J. Edwin Orr)

In 1859, phenomenal awakening was reported in the city and environs of Newcastle-on-Tyne; out of Gateshead came evangelists William and Catherine Booth. (J Edwin Orr, The Restudy of Revival and Revivalism, (1981), p. 29)

One outcome of the movement was to fill the theatres of London with twenty thousand auditors to hear the gospel preached on Sunday evenings. These were attended by the masses, whereas St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey were packed by upper-class and middle-class. The seasonal attendance in special meetings exceeded a million. The Protestant churches of London added 200,000 seats to their accommodations, 60% increase in the revival period, outstripping population gains. (Ibid, p. 30)

THE AWAKENING OF 1904 ONWARD

The Archbishop of Canterbury called for a nation-wide day of prayer. Thirty English bishops declared for the Revival after one of their number, deeply moved, told of confirming 950 new converts in a country parish church. (Ibid, p. 44)

In 1921, a prayer movement began in East Anglia, which led to a remarkable revival…which packed out churches both Free Church and Anglican. (Ibid, p. 50)