A Pentecost Letter from the Patriarch

A Pandemic Pentecost

Here in the United States, the president said that the country would be reopening by Easter.  He was certainly optimistic.  But, after seeking the advice of medical professionals and epidemiologists, as well as other counsel, he changed his date, and here we are in May still debating when will be a good date to start reopening the country and lessening restrictions.  Ultimately, I guess, the real end of this pandemic will be when we have a vaccine. Given that, there is a lot of debate about when we will have a vaccine.

I have been home and in my “bedroom office” since March 17.  This “isolation” has been called a quarantine, a lockdown, and staying safe.  In some places in the United States, the governments are enforcing, not only stay home orders but wearing masks and social distancing, with large fines if the rules are not followed.  There are already battles in the courts about whether the government has the authority to enforce these “regulations.”

I prefer to call my “isolation” a “seclusion.”

A PANDEMIC PENTECOST

Certainly the fact that there is a coronavirus and a pandemic has influenced my decision to stay home.  I am sure I would not have chosen it by myself, especially since I am presently confined with three children – a two-year-old, a four-year-old, and a thirteen-year-old (a quarantween).

So early on I decided that I would offer this time to the Lord and work to build into my schedule more time for prayer, study, meditation, inward digestion of God’s word.  It would become a time to remove the things of the world and seek the Lord Jesus, knowing in this pandemic, and always, He was seeking me.

I have been drawn to the resources of the internet, especially on social media.  I have been able to pray with people, attend virtual Eucharists, and listen in on the preaching of so many men of God.  I have been so encouraged and edified by these words.  I have even gone out in social media world and I am live streaming a personal reflection on Scripture at 1 p.m. daily.

Early on I was struck by the hoarding of toilet paper by many Americans.  I am still not sure what that was all about.  But it struck me as extremely funny and people began sharing memes about the “Toilet Paper Crisis.”  There is even a Facebook group based on the “Crisis.”  I saw advertised tee shirts that said, “I survived the 2020 Toilet Paper Crisis.”  I was tempted to purchase that tee-shirt but decided not to because the real crisis is the death of thousands of people from this disease, and there is nothing funny about it.

However, I am sure there will be tee shirts, coffee mugs, bumper stickers, and other items put up for sale, after the pandemic passes. They will say, “I survived COVID 19,” or the “coronavirus,” or the “Pandemic.”  This pandemic will be a defining moment for many people as other historic events like 9/11 are defining moments.

In prayer, it came to me that this time needs to be more than “survival.”  If I made it a time set apart for the Lord, it could easily become a time of “revival.”  I didn’t want to come out of this time merely having survived, so that when the “crisis” ends I or the church go back to normal, or the Church got back to normal (perhaps with the addition of new technology).   I wanted it to be a time when I had turned away from all those things that have distracted me from picking up my cross and following Jesus.

I am seeking a new and renewed personal Pentecost.  I am praying that our Churches encounter a renewed Pentecost with fire and wind and zeal for the Lord Jesus.  Zeal that will force us out of “Upper Rooms” and into the streets. A Church proclaiming that Jesus is the Savior and that all who call upon Him will be saved.

Having gone out on social media with my own live stream and talking to others, we have discovered, by the number of views, that there is a hunger for the Gospel.  One Bishop is hosting a morning prayer meeting and thousands from around the world are joining him in prayer.  Small churches that have consistent attendance of 30 to 50 people are having hundreds join them via Facebook or YouTube.  Sometimes people, like myself, are listening to several sermons a day or attending online bible studies or small groups.  And, people who are not members of their Church are joining in on the study.  It is a new day.

Looks like Pentecost Sunday will be different (like Easter).  But let us pray that the Holy Spirit finds us as empty vessels ready to be filled again.  Let us be found ready to be used by the Lord Jesus, and to be empowered with the spiritual gifts for the building up of the Body of Christ, and for the evangelization of the world.  Let Pentecost be the beginning of a new day.

I continue to pray for each of you.

Under His mercy,

+Craig Bates
ICCEC, Patriarch

2019 is the Year of Evangelism

The North American House of Bishop met in Bel Air, Maryland just prior to the consecration of Bishop Rob Northwood. A great deal of the meeting centered around our morning time of prayer. Following this time of prayer, the Bishops decided to call for a year of evangelism.

Every year should be a year of evangelism. The call for a year of evangelism is not suggesting that at the end of the year we stop evangelizing. Rather, that together we are taking a year with every parish, mission, and ministry in the North American Church to pray, listen, reflect, and evaluate the churches evangelist works. Bishops have committed themselves to; teach evangelism at our clergy gatherings, to engage in conversation with every Rector/Vicar and his councils, to develop a diocesan plan of evangelism, and to engage is spirit directed evangelistic efforts. It also is calling for every pastor to engage his congregation in the work of evangelism.

Prayer

They recognized that every region of North America is different and will call for different types of activity. They recognized that every parish is different with a different demographic. They recognized that every person is unique and yet, they believe that every one of us, every parish, and every region is called to evangelism. 1 Timothy 2.4 informs us that the will of God is that every person is saved and comes to know the truth.

There are many definitions of evangelism, but I think Archbishop William Temple gave the best definition. He said, “Evangelism is to so present Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, that men shall come to put their trust in God through Him, to accept Him as their savior and serve Him as their King in the fellowship of the Church.”

Evangelism is fulfilling what our Lord Jesus commanded in Matthew 28.16-20. This is the Church’s mission statement.

I am excited about what God, in the power of the Holy Spirit, is going to do within our communion and among us as a people. I am excited because when people set their heart towards the presence of Jesus and His Kingdom, the Holy Spirit moves in miraculous and supernatural ways to fulfill the purposes of God.

Let us pray every day, a simple prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hardwood of the cross that everyone might come within reach of your saving embrace. So, cloth us (me) in your Spirit, that we (I), reaching forth our (my) arms in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of you name.”

Under His mercy,

+Craig, Patriarch, Primate

The Patriarch’s Message on Sanctity of Life

Dear brothers and sisters,

As I am writing this letter, the news is consumed by and obsessed with a “caravan” of persons from Latin America seeking to enter the United States. Whether they are fleeing from poverty or from violence or both, they envision a new and better life for themselves and their families by crossing the border between Mexico and the United States. It doesn’t matter whether we call them refugees, aliens, legal, illegal, or asylum seeking. It doesn’t matter whether they are male or female, older or younger — they are, in many ways, the face of the poor.

I refuse to enter into the discussion of how to resolve the issue on the United States border. I pray for the government officials of Mexico and the United States hoping they will see in these people as desperate humanity and respond with compassion and mercy, rather than using them as political pawns in the next election cycle. I pray for an end to fear.

The plight of the refugee or the migration of ethnic groups is not something unique to the United States border with Mexico. I have walked through refugee camps in Africa. Some of the camps have existed for 30 years. Even today there are refugees fleeing civil war and unspeakable violence in parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. I have listened to women who have held starving and dying children in their arms because the governments are holding back basic necessities as a means of war.

The majority of the world is hungry and without basic needs. Most children will not receive healthcare or an education. Poverty gives birth to crime, addiction, and prostitution. Poverty causes parents to sell their pre-adolescent sons and daughters to sex traders so the other children in the family can have a shelter over their heads or enough cash to buy seeds to plant.

I could go on and on about the plight of the poor and the large gap between the world’s rich and the world’s poor. And, I could also talk about the thousands upon thousands of people who are deeply distressed by any number of these concerns and have given generously, and continue to give generously, to alleviate poverty. There are people who have been motivated to spend their lives ministering to the poor, and I pray for them.

I am also concerned about the violence in our cities (and even outside the city). The fear that has been created by mass shootings is of particular concern. I can’t imagine the pain of parents who have lost a child in either a drive-by shooting or at the hands of an armed mentally ill person walking into a school and shooting innocent children.

The inner cities of the United States, but also around the world, are in the midst of a pandemic of opiate addiction. The death rate from addiction has increased dramatically. Prisons are overflowing with young men and women incarcerated for drug-related crimes. I know the plight of parents who cry themselves to sleep because the baby they once held in their arms now lives on the streets, stealing money or selling their bodies to obtain drugs. Every day the people dealing with recovery are aware that addiction is a life and death issue.

I could go on and on writing about the suffering of persons around the world, particularly the poor. And, I am thankful that many from all political and religious backgrounds are working to resolve some of these issues. But there is one group of persons who are victims of the most horrific procedure ever imagined in the history of mankind. ABORTION. Worldwide, over 150,000 children are aborted every day. That is just short of 56,000,000 children a year — nearly the population of California and Texas combined. In the United States, more than 1,280,000 children are killed by abortion every year. That is larger than the population of most cities in the United States. These children, made in the image of God, are sacred.

These murders are not only happening in distant countries, or in civil-war-torn areas dominated by corrupt governments; they are happening within driving distance of most American or European homes. These children are the silent victims of a culture of death consumed by materialism, hedonism, and greed. A culture that is ready to blame children — innocent preborn children — for poverty and the results of poverty around the world. These children are a victim of a culture that has convinced women in the West that their freedom and civil rights hang on their freedom to murder their own offspring.

How are we to resolve the problem of immigration, the plight of the poor, the gun violence in schools and on the street, the senselessness of civil wars, the sexual exploitation of children, the lack of adequate healthcare around the world, or the destruction of the family if we cannot end the horror of a child burned and mutilated in her mother’s womb? We will never see the face of Christ in the poor unless we see Him in the womb of Mary and hold Him in the manger of our hands at the Eucharist.

CEC for Life alone is not going to end abortion. However, CEC for Life is our voice in the wilderness. Fr. Terry Gensemer and Sarah Howell have traveled around the world speaking to Bishops, clergy, churches and particularly young adults about the sacredness of life, particularly the preborn, and how to impact their own churches, communities and nations for life. Many of these young adults are now committed to giving their entire lives to ending the holocaust of abortion.

I don’t like writing this letter. I don’t like praying in front of abortion mills. I don’t like talking about abortion. I don’t like hearing the pain and shame of women who have had abortions, or men who have participated in abortion. I pray daily for an end to abortion so that this horror will end in my nation and around the world.

Every January, on the third Sunday in January, we celebrate the Feast Day of Our Lord the Giver of Life. On that day, every church in the ICCEC is asked to take up an offering and send it to CEC for Life. It is also the time when every church and every clergyman renew their membership in CEC for Life, and every layperson is asked to partner with CEC for Life through a one-time donation or monthly pledge. This allows our pro-life ministry to continue, and we remain part of the increasing number of persons calling for an end to abortion. We cannot remain silent while the screams of the unborn go unheard.

The 2019 Feast Day takes place on Sunday, January 20th. Please take the time to pray and to give. Your giving has done and will continue to do so much.

Under His mercy,
The Most Rev. Craig W. Bates
Patriarch, ICCEC