All Saints Celebrates its 160th Anniversary
THE SAINTS CELEBRATE 160 YEARS OF SERVICE TO GOD
1. It symbolises the ongoing presence of God in our midst (‘Lo, I am with you always …’) as the focal
point where our Anglican worship takes place and where, for 160 years people have been led to know God.
It is here that we acknowledge and respond to Him in praise and adoration, in contrition and penitence and
in intercession and petition. Our Anglican hymns and prayers are rooted in scripture, allowing us to
encounter God through His holy word, our worship is sacramental and thus it is in the Church that God
becomes real to us.
2. It symbolises our relationships with each other. The Church is the House of God where ‘worshippers
stand in holy fellowship as brothers and sisters in Christ’, worshipping God not as individuals but together
as ‘the body of Christ’. He reminded us that ‘God so loved the world …’, which means all of us, together!
And so the challenge is to look back at how we have expressed that togetherness for the last 160 years and
then to consider the future – a very pertinent point at this time of ‘ Visioning’ at All Saints’.
3. It symbolises the holy witness to which we are summoned, ‘to witness to the reality of God and to the
saving work of Jesus’. This means, inter alia, to impact with Christ-like love, compassion and service on
the community and, in particular, on the most needy members of that community, rather than ‘passing by on
the other side’. Here In the Caribbean, the increase of atheism is just one manifestation of the fact that our
witness has been inadequate; if we were truly ‘to worship in spirit and in truth’, the quality of our witness
would surely counter the growth of atheism, by encouraging persons to admire and emulate us.
4. It symbolises the renewed commitment that God wants from us, in this 160th year of our existence -
the commitment ‘to honour Him not just with our lips but in our lives’. Archbishop Gomez challenged us to
rededicate ourselves that very morning, before leaving the Church whose dedication we were
commemorating, in the full knowledge that ‘God will always be there to guide, lead and restore us’ as we
witness for Him.
MEET THE ARCHBISHOP SESSION
A number of All Saints’ parishioners, together with Bishop Bess, Archdeacon West, Fr Williams, Deacon
Shelley-Ann Tenia and persons from other parishes, re-assembled on Sunday afternoon. It was, according
to Canon Berkley, to be a brief session to permit us to hear more from Archbishop Gomez and to pose one
or two questions. The session ran, of course, much longer than intended; our Archbishop is a most learned
and interesting person and, as someone said ‘we pray for you every Sunday and it is so good to have you
here with us in person’. And so, he was not to be allowed to leave too quickly!
He began by saying that ‘to be an Anglican is to be the best kind of Christian in the world’ and that
Anglicanism represents ‘the hard core of Christian faith and tradition’. However, much of that core is
currently being questioned in some of the thirty-eight provinces which make up the Anglican Communion.
Explaining how the Church functions, he noted that the communion is held together by ‘prayerful
consensus’, rather than by a central authority with the power to speak for the whole Church (as exists in the
Roman Catholic Church). That consensus rests on four pillars – the Bible, the teachings of the early
Church, the leadership of Bishops, Priests and Deacons and the Sacramental tradition and it is within that
framework that the Church teaches the ethics of behaviour.
Much of the discussion focussed on the issue of sexuality. His Grace noted that he has been providing
leadership on homosexuality for three reasons – the Bible indicates it is wrong, it is against nature and it
threatens the Christian family. The critical point will come in June 2006 when ECUSA must agree to cease
ordaining homosexual priests, cease blessing same-sex ‘marriages’ and accept the teaching related to
‘living in communion’. Failure to do so will, most likely, bring a split in the Church – greatly to be regretted,
but ‘we must remain faithful to God’s teaching as revealed in the Bible’.
(read more)
1. It symbolises the ongoing presence of God in our midst (‘Lo, I am with you always …’) as the focal
point where our Anglican worship takes place and where, for 160 years people have been led to know God.
It is here that we acknowledge and respond to Him in praise and adoration, in contrition and penitence and
in intercession and petition. Our Anglican hymns and prayers are rooted in scripture, allowing us to
encounter God through His holy word, our worship is sacramental and thus it is in the Church that God
becomes real to us.
2. It symbolises our relationships with each other. The Church is the House of God where ‘worshippers
stand in holy fellowship as brothers and sisters in Christ’, worshipping God not as individuals but together
as ‘the body of Christ’. He reminded us that ‘God so loved the world …’, which means all of us, together!
And so the challenge is to look back at how we have expressed that togetherness for the last 160 years and
then to consider the future – a very pertinent point at this time of ‘ Visioning’ at All Saints’.
3. It symbolises the holy witness to which we are summoned, ‘to witness to the reality of God and to the
saving work of Jesus’. This means, inter alia, to impact with Christ-like love, compassion and service on
the community and, in particular, on the most needy members of that community, rather than ‘passing by on
the other side’. Here In the Caribbean, the increase of atheism is just one manifestation of the fact that our
witness has been inadequate; if we were truly ‘to worship in spirit and in truth’, the quality of our witness
would surely counter the growth of atheism, by encouraging persons to admire and emulate us.
4. It symbolises the renewed commitment that God wants from us, in this 160th year of our existence -
the commitment ‘to honour Him not just with our lips but in our lives’. Archbishop Gomez challenged us to
rededicate ourselves that very morning, before leaving the Church whose dedication we were
commemorating, in the full knowledge that ‘God will always be there to guide, lead and restore us’ as we
witness for Him.
MEET THE ARCHBISHOP SESSION
A number of All Saints’ parishioners, together with Bishop Bess, Archdeacon West, Fr Williams, Deacon
Shelley-Ann Tenia and persons from other parishes, re-assembled on Sunday afternoon. It was, according
to Canon Berkley, to be a brief session to permit us to hear more from Archbishop Gomez and to pose one
or two questions. The session ran, of course, much longer than intended; our Archbishop is a most learned
and interesting person and, as someone said ‘we pray for you every Sunday and it is so good to have you
here with us in person’. And so, he was not to be allowed to leave too quickly!
He began by saying that ‘to be an Anglican is to be the best kind of Christian in the world’ and that
Anglicanism represents ‘the hard core of Christian faith and tradition’. However, much of that core is
currently being questioned in some of the thirty-eight provinces which make up the Anglican Communion.
Explaining how the Church functions, he noted that the communion is held together by ‘prayerful
consensus’, rather than by a central authority with the power to speak for the whole Church (as exists in the
Roman Catholic Church). That consensus rests on four pillars – the Bible, the teachings of the early
Church, the leadership of Bishops, Priests and Deacons and the Sacramental tradition and it is within that
framework that the Church teaches the ethics of behaviour.
Much of the discussion focussed on the issue of sexuality. His Grace noted that he has been providing
leadership on homosexuality for three reasons – the Bible indicates it is wrong, it is against nature and it
threatens the Christian family. The critical point will come in June 2006 when ECUSA must agree to cease
ordaining homosexual priests, cease blessing same-sex ‘marriages’ and accept the teaching related to
‘living in communion’. Failure to do so will, most likely, bring a split in the Church – greatly to be regretted,
but ‘we must remain faithful to God’s teaching as revealed in the Bible’.
(read more)
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| The Parish of All Saints |
| The Anglican Church in the Diocese of Trinidad and Tobago |
