Thursday [long, sorry]
Thursday morning started with a bilingual eucharist led by the Rt. Rev. Tito Zavala, an Anglican bishop in Chile (and, as a fun fact, his son spent a season at CtF a few years back). It was English/Spanish. I could not stop thinking and praying for our own Kassandra Dempsey’s story and my wife’s history in the Dominican.
I also prayed, silently in the back, for the day in which an ACNA Provincial Assembly includes ‘Olelo Hawai’i led by a bishop who is a native son of the islands. When that happens, friends, you can close my eyes as I sing the Nunc Dimittis one final time and let me be ordained from mortality to glory.
Following the eucharist we had morning prayer. Again. I know, I know: so… much… prayer… [super saiyin lvl 1000]! This was followed by a plenary session by the Rt. Rev. Rennis Ponniah, a retired bishop of Singapore. It was breath-taking. Excellent preaching. Gripping, convicting, and humbling. It is my hope that All Saints can develop a relationship with his jurisdiction in Singapore.
Following that, Archbishop Foley gave his summative address, recounting all that God has done in the years of his tenure as Archbishop. It was awesome to be given a sweeping picture of the last decade of Anglicanism in North America. It is stunning, friends. We are not without our problems but understand this amidst whatever frost still lingers on the ground: Aslan is on the move.
During lunch on Thursday, I participated in a break-out session hosted by Always Forward —the church-planting initiative of the ACNA— led by the Canon, Dan Alger. It was encouraging to sit with, build relationships with, and think together about Anglican church-planting for the future. Did you know that the ACNA has, on average, planted 31.7 churches per year for the past decade? That’s about 2 churches a week (though, of course, church planting doesn’t work on a schedule like that) for ten years! We at All Saints Honolulu are a part of that story, Kingsfield on Maui is a part of that story, Big Island Anglican Mission is a part of that story. Thanks be to God!
I attended a break-out led by Leiton and Lisa Chin –-friends of All Saints (they visit us whenever they are on-island visiting family, and Leiton was baptized at Olivet many years ago when he became a believer). The session focused on developing ministries for international students. The world comes to the USA for college. Leiton and Lisa want us to consider how we are being a part of reaching that incredibly large field for the Kingdom. They’ll be leading a course about this at Olivet this summer –they want some of us to be there (more info to follow).
Thursday afternoon: hang-out with Pittsburgh Diocese Anglicans; work on church stuff for All Saints (secretly, typing furiously, alone in the corner of a pizzeria); more meetings; more conversations, more friendships built. A sweet encounter with an old friend who was once on Oahu and was, during those days, a mentor and father to me, who happened to be crossing the same totally empty field at the same time as I was hurrying up it to get to Thursday dinner. God is sovereign and He is good.
A dinner of thanksgiving hosted by [then] Archbishop Foley and Allison Beach. It was joyous. Good food, great conversations, wonderful presentations, evening prayer. Amen. My friends from Texas (…okay, one set of my friends from Texas… okay one set of our friends from Texas) are coming in August to visit and are excited to see you all!
After dinner, I shared fellowship with more ACNA friends, more new ones and more old ones. Some of the relationships fostered there: a priest and Biola professor from La Mirada; a patristics scholar at Baylor who sits on the Catechesis task force; a Canon for the Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces who lives in Pelham, AL; priest from Florida; an ACNA church-planter in Birmingham, AL.
Friday [also long, sorry]
Morning prayer in the chapel. I reconnected with another former CtF friend who’s now a church-planting priest in Texas. He’s excited for what’s going on in Hawaii and is planning on trying to visit us in two years for All Saints’ 7th birthday.
Morning worship (that’s right, two morning prayers) followed with many more meetings and connections, the list has become incredible. Among those meetings: Vicar-General of the JAFC; the lead of the provincial governance task force and rector of a church in Montgomery AL; and the Rt. Rev. Seth Ndayirukye, Burundian bishop of Matana who (because of a misunderstanding) wanted to speak some French with me (Lily! James! Where were you when I needed you?!).
The Rt. Rev. Rennis Ponniah delivered another moving sermon on the power of the Gospel of Jesus to transform. Once again it was excellent and deeply moving.
After this we had a moderated conversation with the new Archbishop-elect, Steve Wood, and his wife. They shared their testimonies, their life in ministry, and detailed several of the trials and difficulties that have formed them in the recent years: among which was the loss of their church to a disastrous fire, and Archbishop-elect’s almost dying from COVID. Let me pause on that last one to explain. He was one of the first patients in South Carolina with COVID, his case was incredibly severe and, when chest scans showed his lungs to be over 90% blocked, they put him on a ventilator. He was in that state for over a week. Much of the time was touch-and-go. So severe was his case that before going on the ventilator he called his wife and children and said his good-byes.
He, as it should be obvious, did not perish. It took almost a year of speech therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy to get him “back” (he began by learning, again, how to swallow).
Through all of this, he told us, he was reminded of a quote from Spurgeon which runs something like, "I have learned to kiss the wave that slams me into the Rock of Ages.” And he said that coming out of that season he felt like he had only just begun to learn the meaning of it.
I spent the rest of the day on the precipice of choking sobs, not crying really but swallowing-back tears. Kissing the waves that have smashed me against the Rock of Ages is a lesson I am much in need of learning. How often, friends, do we blame the waves and curse them? How often, more darkly, do we regret being cast upon the Rock of Ages, and feel our independence disparaged? How often, in all of the difficulties, do we harden our hearts as on the day of Meribah, and grumble in the hinterlands even as we drink water from the Rock?
I spent some time after this with our Rocky Mountains Delegation: the sagely Fr. Ken Roberston (IAC, Colorado Springs); the impossibly gifted Fr. Aaron Buttry (who’s preparing to spend the rest of his life as an amputee, pray for him); Christopher Daugherty (the seminarian who’s been my roommate this week); Dcns. Katie and Jeff Gayle (Wellspring, Englewood); Mr Ian Colle (whose daughter is going to UH Manoa in the fall –we’ll see them in August when he drops her off); and the glorious and legendary Dcn. Sarah Anderson. Quick thing about Sarah: if you ever meet her you should hear her story. For while Dcn. Chris or James explained how the Anglican Church left the Episcopal Church in their last Sunday School sessions, Sarah lived and interceded her way through it. Her stories are wild. After she tells you her stories, ask her to pray for you, that you might learn to be brave like her. She has all the marks of a glorious martyr… excepting the minor “death” requirement.
We prayed, our little Diocesan family, together and for one another that we and our parishes would be fruitful for the Gospel.
Closing eucharist followed this during which the Provincial Standard was passed from now former-Archbishop Foley to current Archbishop Steve. I shared a row with Dr. Albert Thompson (member of the executive committee, an African American history scholar, and an American Solidarity Party guy), Fr. Michael Novotny (Dean of Alabama in the Diocese of the South and one of the guests who visited you all during my sabbatical), and Fr. Michael Gurnsey (son of Bishop Gurnsey).
I met Archbishop Emeritus Bob Duncan, and shook Archbishop Steve’s hand and told him we’d love to have him in Hawaii, he laughed and said it would be a hard invitation to pass-up. I’m hopeful.
Christopher and I went back to Four Seasons Brewery for dinner and to get some work done. I worked on some stuff for church, he on his Greek.
We got back to the hotel, packed-up, I made several phone calls and did some more work. Prayer together and Compline.
Saturday
Check-out of hotel. Drive to Pittsburgh. Conversation along the way? This: music, marriage, ministry, Christopher’s dreams and plans. Music along the way” This: Daoiri Farrell, Together4theGospel, Shane and Shane. Prayers along the way? These: for our families who we missed, for the spread of the gospel in our lives and at our churches.
Airport. Saw some old friends waiting in the lounge who were here this weekend and who I spent a lot of time with at last year’s council. They’re on their way to Florida but said they’d love to come back to Hawaii time (they’re a retired chaplain couple, so it’s a real possibility).
PIT 🡪 DFW. DFW 🡪 LAS. I read Gertrude von le Fort’s Song of the Scaffold about the revolutionary guillotining of Carmelite nuns from Compiegne. It’s magnificent. Highly recommended.
Spent what remained of Saturday evening in Las Vegas with my brother who is touring there as a part of the cast of Jersey Boys. Next time you see him ask him to sing you some of his Frankie Valli parts. After hanging-out with his cast for a bit, we went back to his apartment and discussed politics, aesthetics, art, theology, and show-biz.
Sunday
We attended the early eucharist service at an Anglican Church (Jesus the Good Shepherd Anglican in Henderson), and got to meet their rector, Fr. Howard Giles, a native Nevadan. More friendships –this time a friendship with Anglicans on the “9th island.”
We grabbed some coffee and went to see the Hoover Dam, and I now sit writing this (and working on other church things) while my brother goes to the gym.
Shortly, we’ll grab dinner, do evening prayer together, and then I’ll go see him in tonight’s performance before heading to the airport to catch the red-eye to Honolulu.
In the future I’ll do some more writing about Las Vegas, and the relationship with Hawaii (on both a social and theological level). For now, however, I ask that you, as you have time, pray for the city: that the Gospel of Jesus would spread and that the Power of the Cross would be proclaimed and that many who do not now eat at his Table would be invited, washed, and brought to the Feast.
Conclusion
More relationships, more people praying for you all and for the prodigals across our islands.
It feels far longer than a week that I have been away. I miss my darling Rachel terribly. I miss my kiddos. And I miss you all, too. Tonight you all will gather to hear the Word and to eat the Word. As you do so (or, given the time between writing this and you receiving it), know this: I love you all very much, God is my witness to how much I remember you in my prayers and that I long to see you (cf. Rom. 1:9-11).
Smashed upon the Rock of Ages,
Mark+