Here is the schedule for our Holy Week services.

Wednesday: No Bible Studies or Youth Group

Maundy Thursday–7pm at the Sam R. Marks Chapel at Jacksonville University.  Join us as we observe the institution of the Holy Eucharist and Christ’s betrayal.  For information on the Youth Holy Week Lock-In, click HERE.

Good Friday–12noon at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church (across from JU).  Come sit vigil with us for the three hours that Our Lord hung on the cross.  Church of the Messiah joins with Prince of Peace (CEC) as we meditate on the sayings of Our Lord on the Cross.

Easter–10:30 at the Sam R. Marks Chapel at Jacksonville University.  Celebrate the Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  There will be a children’s parade and flowering of the cross.  Also, there will be no Bible Study Easter Morning before Mass.

Click link below for the Patriarch’s Massage:

Patriarch’s 2011 Easter Message

During Holy Week we celebrate and commemorate some of the most sacred events in the life of Jesus Christ.  The entire week is full of opportunities to gather together as a community and rejoice in the mighty work that Christ accomplished in redeeming Creation.  Make plans now to attend all of our Holy Week services:

Palm Sunday, April 17th, 10:30am. We start outside and move into the Church commemorating Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem with the Liturgy of the Palms.   We will then recall the Passion of Our Lord with the Passion Gospel dramatically re-enacted by members of the congregation.  This is an amazing service.

Maundy Thursday, April 21st, 7pm. This service recalls Our Lord’s institution of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper and will include our traditional foot washing ceremony as well as the stripping of the altar.  Without a doubt, this is one of the most moving services of the year.

Good Friday, April 22nd, 12-3pm.  This service will be at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church (across the street from JU).  The clergy and congregation of Prince of Peace, Orange Park, will join with Church of the Messiah as we sit vigil and meditate on the sufferings Our Lord endured for us on the Cross.  Join us for the entire time or feel free to come and go as your schedule allows.

Easter Sunday, April 24th, 10:30am.  Join us as we celebrate the Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ and revel in His saving work! 

Invite your friends to join us as we celebrate the high point of the Church year!

Don’t forget to purchase Easter Lillies to decorate the Church on Easter Sunday.  We will set the lillies up on Easter Day and, immediately following the service, you can take them home and enjoy them for weeks to come.  Lillies are $18 and may be given in honor of a departed loved one on in thanksgiving for something the Lord has done in your life.  Proceeds go to the youth group to off-set the cost of youth events.  Contact Lizz Looker for further information.

I have been out of town for a week so not much has happened on the web-page.  Now I am back home and the page is back in business.  Here is all the news that’s fit to print and the Prayer Calendar for the month as well!

April COM E-Newletter

April Prayer Calendar

Daily Office Bookmarks for April_2011

On Tuesday, March 8, the legislative Senate in the Philippines began deliberation on a new Reproductive Health Bill.  The bill would greatly expand accessibility of abortions in the Philippines.  In response, Archbishop Loren Hines, Primate of the philippines, issued a call for unity throughout the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church.  He has called on everyone to:

1. Pray for the pro-life movement in the Philippines;
2. Wear their “All Life Is Sacred” T-shirts or any all black T-shirt throughout Lent;
3. Change their Facebook (or other social media) Profile Picture to the image used in this posting. 

You may read the full call on CEC Home by following this link.

This is another busy weekend at Church of the Messiah.  Starting at 10am on Saturday we have the Single Moms’ Bible Study at the home of Lizz Looker.  On Sunday morning we will be beginning our Lenten Bible Study series on the Passion of Christ.  Fr. Lon Pardee has prepared an intensive study of the last few hours before Our Lord’s death on the Cross.  Be sure to join us for that at 9:15 in the Student Union building.  Then at 10:30 we will observe the first Sunday of Lent.  Many of our men our in DeLand at the men’s Tres Arroyos so be sure to join us Sunday Morning and keep them in your prayers!

Join us for Ash Wednesday as we observe the beginning of the penitential season of Lent.  The service will include a litany of penitence, the imposition of ashes (made from last year’s palms from Palm Sunday), and the Holy Eucharist.  The service begins at 7pm in the Sam R. Marks chapel. 

We’ll see you there!

Archbishop Craig Bates, the Patriarch of the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church published this pastoral letter this week.

In a few days, the Bishops and Priests of the Charismatic Episcopal Church will call us to a Holy Lent. They will exhort us to self-examination, prayer, confession, fasting, and the study of and meditation upon Holy Scripture. This is not only a season in preparation for our celebration of the Great Paschal Mystery but also a time in and of itself where we become more intensely aware of the awesome grace and mercy of God. We enter into the season aware not only of our sin but also the loving kindness of God.

The journey of Lent is a time to further press in to the love of God. This journey always begins with the recognition of our own mortality – from dust we come and to dust we shall return. This recognition draws us to remember that the God of all creation took on this mortal flesh. And, through obedience and suffering conquered sin, the world and the devil – those forces that war against us in our journey towards His love. And, He is restoring in us the human dignity that was always intended by the Creator.

Around us are constant reminders of man’s inhumanity. We enter the season with reports of a possible genocide in Libya. But this is just one example of the reality of hatred and evil. We think of the number of abortions that were committed last year. There are civil wars that are being waged in so many countries with the accompanying murders and rapes. We are aware of the increasing sex trade industry particularly as that industry impacts minors. We are aware of the vast poverty around the world that brings with it hunger, disease, and crime. And, so often poverty is a result not of lack of resources but greed, corruption, and the un-just distribution of resources.

We are called, as the season of Epiphany taught us, to be “salt and light” in this sinful and fractured world. We were also reminded that the call upon our lives is a life of vulnerability through rejecting violence, embracing love even of our enemies, of absolute truthfulness, and by finding our security not in worldly pursuit and pleasures but in the faithfulness of God – the rock on which we can build our foundation.

Lent then calls us to examine our foundation. We can build our foundation on money, prestige, self-indulgence, or even preaching, healing or wonder-working in Christ’s name. These are not a foundation for life let alone the Kingdom of God. Our foundation must be built on the faithfulness of the Father’s love given to us daily.

The disciplines of Lent are not to toughen us up spiritually. Prayer, Mediation on Scripture, and fasting draw us from the “stuff” of mortality and remind us of our immortality in Christ. They call us for a season to re-examine ourselves and determine if our perspective on life is one of eternity. We may fool others, but God cannot be deceived. He sees the heart as it truly is – with its motives, intentions, desires, and choices.

And, so I call each of us in the CEC to a Holy Lent. Because of the leading of the Holy Spirit we will all come to its conclusion ready to live out the Paschal Mystery in a deeper realization of His love.

Under His mercy,

+Craig, Patriarch