Anno Domini 2025 June 9

Beloved of the Lord:

Today is Monday, 9 June, in the year of our Lord 2025. The scheduled services are as-follows:

• Tuesday (tomorrow): 5:30 PM, Mass, Tuesday in Whitsuntide.
  6:30 PM: Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, Evensong.
• Wednesday: 12:10 PM, Mass, Ember Wednesday in Whitsuntide.
• Thursday: 8:00 AM, Morning Prayer, Thursday in Whitsuntide, breakfast to follow.
  6:30 PM, Mass, Thursday in Whitsuntide, Soup & Study to follow.
• Friday: 9:00 AM, Mass, Ember Friday in Whitsuntide, with the Gregorian Canon.
  Immediately following, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
• Saturday: 10:00 AM, Holy Communion, Ember Saturday in Whitsuntide.
• Sunday: 8:30 & 10:00 AM, Mass, Trinity Sunday.

The dates for the upcoming Synod of the CAC have been expanded by the Archbishop. It will now run from the 9th ~ 12th of September, this year. Hopefully, by the end of this week, a finalised version of the Agenda will be published.

In less than a week, we will have exhausted the brief Seasons of Holy Church that exist betwixt Easter and Trinity Sunday. As the first half of the Church year (commencing upon Advent I) is devoted to the life of our Lord, the second (commencing on Trinity Sunday) is largely focussed on the life and ways of Holy Church. If it can be said that difficulties arise in the discussion of either of these areas, said difficulties will far-and-away more often concern the Church, which is shot-through with humans, and their flaws.

It has become very apparent that Anglicanism (indeed perhaps all of Christendome, but let us speak of those things we best know) is in a greater period of flux, of turmoil, than it has ever been during my lifetime. Conversations with Brother Clergy, both near and far, across numerous jurisdictions, support this observation, along with their own. When I began my studies for Holy Orders, over three decades past, it was often whispered that a half-dozen or so requiems would remove the walls of division from American Anglicanism, paving the way for the unity that was hoped-for by the faithful at Saint Louis, and later at Denver. All of those requiems have come-and-gone, yet here we remain, as-scattered, if not moreso, than ever.

There is much cause for despair in all of this. There are two points that remain salient, however. The first is that, per our sister Churches in the Orthodox East, despair itself is a sin. To allow oneself to enter this state is to implicitly deny the power of the Holy Ghost to not only resolve all things, but to resolve them for the good. Inasmuch as our Lord Himself gives the only Unforgivable Sin as the denial of the Holy Ghost, this would seem a very bad place to approach, much-less to tread.

The second is that despite all of the sin and corruption we've sporadically seen in the leadership of these Anglican churches, the individual parishes have soldiered-on. They have always been the strength and support of our Movement. They will continue to be so.

Pray for your Parish. Pray for your parochial Clergy. Pray for all of the grace, and growth, and love that can fall upon the foregoing. Work and pray to preserve your spiritual home, that God may preserve you, in that great hour of His Son's return. I remain

in His praise,

The Rt. Rev'd T. L. Crowder

Rector, Saint Matthew's Parish