Church of the Messiah to Host Life & Leadership Conference

We are excited to announce that on Saturday, December 14th, Church of the Messiah will host the first-ever Life & Leadership Conference in America.

Throughout history, the biggest changes in the tide of time were brought about by dedicated servant leaders.  This training brings those leaders to life and offers intense spiritual instruction that will equip Christians to change their world.

Fr. Terry Genesmer, the Director of CEC for Life and long-time friend of Church of the Messiah, has led several Life & Leadership conferences in Europe, usually over three days.  This event will be an intensive one-day course geared towards men and women (ages 17 & up) who are currently in leadership or actively seeking to become leaders in their church or community.

The cost is $30 and covers your leadership booklet, light breakfast and lunch.  Only 35 spots available!  To register for the conference, click HERE.  To pay for the conference, you may give Sunday at church or you may pay on-line by clicking HERE (select “Life & Leadership Conference” option).

Join with Church of the Messiah and Fr. Terry Gensemer on Saturday, December 14th, as we learn how to become focused servant leaders who will turn the tide for this country and the Kingdom of God.

Fr. Terry Gensemer Will Preach at Church of the Messiah this Sunday

Fr. Terry GensemerFr. Terry Gensemer, the International Director for CEC For Life, will visit Church of the Messiah this Sunday, April, 28th.  Fr. Gensemer will preach and con-celebrate the Holy Eucharist at Church of the Messiah’s regular service beginning at 10 o’clock.

In addition to leading CEC For Life and sitting on the Patriarch’s Council, Fr. Gensemer is a Board Member of the National Pro-Life Religious Council, a Pastoral Care Associate for the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, and the Pastoral Director for the Society of Centurions, an organization which hosts healing retreats for those who have left the abortion industry.  Fr. Gensemer’s tireless work for the Pro-Life cause has taken him to five different continents and countless churches across the world.  On this trip, Fr. Gensemer will be joined by his wife Patti.

Fr. Terry will be fresh from a national meeting of pro-life leaders in Titusville, FL, and promises that he will have a powerful word for Church of the Messiah.  Be sure to mark your calendars and plan on joining us this Sunday, April 28th, as our time with Fr. Terry is sure to be anointed by The Lord!

The Patriarch’s Letter on the Feast of Our Lord and the Giver of Life

Dear brothers and sisters,

The murder of pre-born children is the moral issue of our generation, though it is not the only moral issue of our times. There remains issues of poverty, hunger, lack of medical care for the poor, the refugee crisis, sex trade industry, sexual slavery, the use of children as soldiers in war, consumerism, and the care of the elderly. These are all life issues. However, the murder of 5,000 children every day in America, and over 150,000 children worldwide, far outweighs these other issues. The victims of abortion are the most innocent of all these human atrocities.

Abortion is the tip of the spear of the culture of death. The church cannot declare an end to the “cultural wars” until abortion is illegal and we have a generation that cannot imagine how we committed such a genocide and holocaust.

CEC for Life is part of the Patriarch’s Office and is funded by Churches around the world to lead us in our pro-life efforts and to raise up a pro-life generation in our Churches. The ministry is also committed to promoting unity among all pro-life Christians and organizations, not just those of our own denomination. Fr. Terry Gensemer, along with Sarah Howell and others, persevere towards these goals every day. And they have done a phenomenal job! Fr. Terry is perhaps one of the most respected leaders in the pro-life community. He is a man who is loved around the world. Everywhere I travel young men and women ask me, “How is Fr. Terry?” Or, they ask me to tell Fr. Terry that they love him.

It brings my heart joy when I see young people praying at abortion clinics in the countries of Europe, or marching and praying with “All Life is Sacred” t-shirts on the streets of the Philippines. When I go to Brazil, it is the young men and women who will ask me to please bring Fr. Terry with me. He is reaching — we are reaching — that pro-life generation.

How is this funded? By God, of course! God, however, calls us to be generous in our giving. In fact, God calls us to be sacrificial in our giving. On the Feast of Our Lord the Giver of Life, every Church in the ICCEC is to take up a special offering for CEC for Life. We are also asked to have our churches join CEC for Life and for us to encourage others to become members. The funding of pro-life work by an entire denomination is unique and practically unheard of in denominations across the globe. But it is what God has called us to do.

What do you get for your offering? I could be very practical. I could talk about the pro-life leadership training of young men and women, or the closing of abortion clinics in places like Birmingham or Selma, or the prayer efforts at abortion mills, along with seminars and conferences, around the world, or the representation that CEC For Life gives us in the pro-life community. However, the real reward is that through our efforts babies are being saved and rescued.

How much would you give to save even one life of a precious baby who would otherwise be brutally murdered? Ten dollars, twenty dollars, thirty dollars, or how much?

Please give and give generously. We are at a critical time in the movement. We put our trust in God, but there is opportunity to defeat Planned Parenthood, to appoint over 1,000 pro-life judges, to appoint at least one pro-life Supreme Court justice, and to get laws that restrict abortion, particularly late-term abortion. Abortion most likely will not end in the next four years, but we will make major advances in winning the hearts of people for Christ.

Under His mercy,

The Most Rev. Craig W. Bates

Fr. Terry Gensemer to Lead Liturgy for the PreBorn This Saturday Morning

Liturgy for the PreBornThis Saturday morning, at 10 o’clock, Fr. Terry Gensemer, International Director of CEC For Life, will lead the local pro-life community in a Liturgy for the PreBorn.  The Liturgy will be held in the public right-of-way in front of A Woman’s Choice of Jacksonville (Click HERE for a Map).  The service is being held in conjunction with Jacksonville’s Fall 40 Days for Life campaign.  The Liturgy for the PreBorn is a service similar to a prayers at the time of death for the many preborn children who will face death in abortion clinics in Jacksonville and all over America each day.  A Woman’s Choice of Jacksonville is one clinic in Jacksonville where abortions are performed six days a week so people will be praying at the same time women and children could be going into the clinic to have abortions.  The following morning, Fr. Gensemer will preach at Church of the Messiah’s 10 o’clock service.

Fr. Terry Gensemer to Visit Church of the Messiah

Fr. Terry GensemerFr. Terry Gensemer, the International Director for CEC For Life, will visit Church of the Messiah October 3-4.   During his time at Church of  the Messiah, Fr. Gensemer will lead a Liturgy for the Pre-Born outside of one of Jacksonville’s most notorious abortion clinics as part of the annual 40 Days for Life Fall Campaign.  Sunday morning, Fr. Gensemer will preach and celebrate the Holy Eucharist at Church of the Messiah’s regular services beginning at 10 o’clock.

In addition to leading CEC For Life and sitting on the Patriarch’s Council, Fr. Gensemer is a Board Member of the National Pro-Life Religious Council, a Pastoral Care Associate for the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, and the Pastoral Director for the Society of Centurions, an organization which hosts healing retreats for those who have left the abortion industry.  Fr. Gensemer’s tireless work for the Pro-Life cause has taken him to five different continents and countless churches across the world.  On this trip, Fr. Gensemer will be joined by his wife Patti.

Be sure to mark your calendars because October 3-4 are going to be an exciting weekend.  There is never a dull moment with Fr. Terry and Patti Gensemer around.  Be sure to join us for each of these powerful events.

ICCEC to Celebrate Life on Worldwide Feast Day

Dear Brothers,

I hope you are experiencing a fruitful time of reflection and anticipation as we move from the Christmas season and into Epiphany.  This coming Sunday (January 20), as always during the Epiphany season, we will celebrate the Feast Day of Our Lord the Giver of Life.  This Feast Day is unique to our own Communion, a day set aside to celebrate and stand in wonder at the gift of Life bestowed upon us by our loving Father.  It is a joy and an honor to celebrate such a day with each of you.

As all of you know, I was raised in the Anglican Communion. Hence, for all of my youth and for a significant part of my ministry, the Episcopal Hymnal was a deep part of my spiritual discipline. I grew up under a Pastor who was a retired Ensign in the United States Navy. Like every male adult I knew as a youth, he served in World War II. He was also deeply influenced by the ministry and writing of Dietrich Bonheoffer. As a result, so were all the members of his congregation.

Dietrich Bonheoffer had to confront directly the moral issue of his day – the rise of fascism, particularly National Socialism. It was the moral issue of my father’s generation and so, as a youth, I also heard a clear message that there really was such a thing as evil, and that it incarnated itself in the men, particularly Hitler, who attempted to rule Europe and enslave millions of people. In that War it is estimated that somewhere between 62 and 78 million people died either in military service, civilian casualties, or in the concentration camps. One hundred and thirty-five thousand, five hundred and six American military personnel were killed in action between D-Day and V-E Day.

My father and every veteran I knew talked of the horrors of war and their desire was that their sons would never have to go to war. Yet, they knew there was evil, and that evil was to be confronted, even if it meant giving your life – the greatest sacrifice.

My Pastor and my father also taught me that there was good and righteousness. There was right and there was wrong. They believed that virtue and all that was good was found in Christ Jesus and so, we, along with all the kids I grew up with, went to Church.

Today, the battle we face between good and evil is no longer contained within some foreign land; it is across the globe and against a very prevalent culture of death.  Whether we live in America or Africa, the battle for freedom, religious liberty, the inalienable rights of all persons, and the traditional and God-ordained pattern of marriage and family is being fought in our own back yards.

There can be no compromise on these issues. There can be no compromise on the right to life for all people – born and preborn. The murder of preborn children at the rate of 115,000 a day worldwide is wicked, and those involved in this holocaust are wicked. This is not a political issue, it is a battle between good and evil, light and darkness, righteousness and wickedness, and life and death.

In 1845, James R. Lowell wrote a poem protesting America’s war with Mexico. It was set to music by Thomas J. Williams and placed in the Episcopal Hymnal, until it was removed in 1982, along with “Onward Christian Soldiers”, for questionable theology. My Pastor had us sing this song at least once a month to teach us the importance of not remaining silent in the face of evil.

“Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision, offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever, ‘twixt that darkness and that light.

“Then to side with truth is noble, when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and ’tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses while the coward stands aside,
Till the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.

“By the light of burning martyrs, Christ, They bleeding feet we track,
Tolling up new Calv’ries ever with the cross that turns
not back; New occasions teach new duties, time make ancient
good uncouth, They must upward still and onward, who would
keep abreast of truth.

“Though the cause of evil prosper, yet the truth alone is
strong; Though her portion be the scaffold, and upon the
throne be wrong; Yet that scaffold sways the future, and
behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow,
keeping watch above His own.”

We will be victorious in the fight to end abortion. I believe a generation of young people is being raised up in the international communion of the CEC who are not only committed to ending abortion in their own nations, but are Pro Life because they have a radical and passionate love for the Risen Lord Jesus.

We can and should give to all types of Pro Life activities, from Pregnancy Centers to Post Abortive Counseling. We should also be Pro Life from conception to natural death, which means we need to support ministries to the homeless, single mothers, fatherless children, and drug/alcohol victims. The Lord loves a cheerful and, might I add, generous giver. Yet the Lord, from the founding of the Charismatic Episcopal Church and through consensus of the Bishops and Patriarch’s Council, established CEC for Life as our voice in the Pro Life Ministry.

We agreed, in consensus, that every year Parishes, Missions, and Clergy should renew their memberships for CEC for Life. We agreed, in consensus, that we should encourage all of our parishioners to give annually to CEC for Life. We also agreed that the Lord directed us to establish the Feast Day of Our Lord the Giver of Life, to be celebrated every January with a special Sunday service during which each parish would take up a special offering to be given to CEC For Life.  This year that Feast Day will take place on Sunday, January 20th.

Times are tough.  Many of our nations are currently facing extreme economic crises, even here in America.  Some see this as a reason for cutting back on giving; I see it as a time to increase my giving.

We can give lip service to being Pro Life. We can even vote Pro Life. But the end to abortion will not happen until the Church is mobilized and called to apostolic action. And any mobilization will require the sacrificial giving of time, talent, and treasure.

On Sunday, January 20, please encourage your clergy to take part in this important offering. Bishops must take the lead. Your voice has influence in the lives of your sons in the Lord.

Be assured of my prayer and affections.

Under His mercy,

The Most Rev. Craig W. Bates,
Patriarch, ICCEC
Primate, CEC-NA

For more information on the Feast Day of Our Lord the Giver of Life, please contact Fr. Terry Gensemer through the Office of the Patriarch at frterry@cecforlife.com.