Last week my wife and I had the joy of attending the Anglican Mission's annual Winter Conference. As always, one of the highlights was the opening worship celebration. Below you can see some pictures from the opening Eucharist. For those who are a part of Christ our Hope you may not be familiar with some of the names of our leaders that get mentioned from time to time. Here are some of their faces.*

These are some of the many clergy that took part in the opening worship. There were probably around a hundred priests and deacons and probably 20 or 30 bishops. All those in red here in the front row are bishops. It was particularly exciting this year to have the entire house of bishops of Rwanda and their wives with us for the conference. Several of them are pictured here.
(second from left in the second row here is our own Fr. Phil Eberhardt our Rocky Mountain Regional Network leader).








Here is Bp. Chuck Murphy (front and center) the chairman of the Anglican Mission council of bishops giving a welcome. Behind him to the left is retired Archbishop Young Ping Chung, who was one of our sponsoring archbishops before his retirement.









Here is our Archbishop, the Most Rev. Emmanuel Kolini who preached at the service. I cannot tell you what a blessing it is to hear from this man whenever he speaks. He is a true man of God, a man of prayer and a true shepherd of the flock of Christ. The bold stand he has taken over the years for truth and righteousness demand respect and attention.

*Please note - I did not take these pictures. They were sent to me in an email. I am not 100% sure about their original source but they may be from David Virtue (I want to give credit where credit is due - I'm just not quite sure in this case, but I know I didn't take them).

CORRECTION: Isn't the internet wonderful! A fellow conference participant from Canada emailed me with the origin of the photos. They were in fact taken by Fr. Dick Kim (though they did appear in David Virtues article on the conference). Thank you for the information.

I was broken down last week. It was one of those absolutely emotionally draining weeks in which I felt like I did nothing but deal with conflict after conflict. Some of it was fairly personal too; the kinds of things you keep re-hashing, wishing you had said this or that differently. Perhaps you have had those times where you are left thinking, "I wonder how the outcome would have been different if..." So by the time Saturday night rolled around I was rather downtrodden, nursing some wounds and a bruised heart. This is not the kind of state I like to be in to re-visit my sermon text and prepare to preach and lead worship. To be honest as I came into my study my prayer was something along the lines of, "Oh help! I don't even know where or how to begin. Lord I'm not even sure I want to."

But there is nothing like the deadline of facing 75 expectant parishioners who think you ought to have something half-way intelligent to say to them about the Scriptures to rouse one out of their paralysis and get you wading back into the Word of God. And albeit I went there almost grudgingly; in that act of wading into the Scriptures I found the purifying, redeeming Hand of God. My heart was uplifted, I dare say even changed. I experienced in a very existential way the promise of our Lord's that I read out every Sunday morning, "Come to me all you that travail and are heavy laden and I will refresh you." (Matthew 11:28) Truly it was good for me that I was afflicted. It tuned my heart and prepared me to take up the Master's Yoke and learn His Statutes and therein I found rest for my soul.

Alive Again will be offered again at Christ Our Hope Anglican Church beginning in January 2008. Time and Location forthcoming.


Alive Again is a 9 week course on deepening our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The topics covered equip Christians to embrace progressive sanctification over the life span.
Alive Again is divided into two sections that weave around the central theme of knowing ourselves in Jesus Christ. The first section focuses on applying the work of Christ to the soul. In this section we teach on The Virtue of Hope, Practice of the Presence of God, Holy Father-love, and Sin, the Cross and the True Self. Here we lay a foundation for receiving from God all He has accomplished for us through the ministry of His Son, our Lord Jesus. The second section focuses on growing in Christ over the lifespan. In this section we teach on Redemptive Suffering, Self-Hatred, The Holy Christian Imagination, Applying Forgiveness and Growing in Virtue. Here we address how a life-long relationship with Christ Jesus transforms sinners into saints.
It is our prayer that all who take the Alive Again course will find themselves embraced by the Father’s love and hear Him say, "For this son of mine was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found." Luke 15:24



Please call or email Fr. Steve with any further questions, 218.9036 or info@christourhopeanglican.org


Can I just add here that I am so very excited about hosting this again this year?! Sarah and I both received so much from Fr. Mario Bergner (author of the course) when we went through (and helped lead smallgroups for) Redeemed Lives. I can't say enough good things about the depth that these teachings took us to.

For those interested in poking around RLM more check out their website at: http://www.redeemedlives.org/

I should also note here that the text above regarding the content of the Alive Again program as well as the Redeemed Lives Logo are all property of Redeemed Lives Ministries and were copied from their website.

...Sick in bed. I have been quite sick lately. That is why I have not posted anything. Hopefully I will get something up soon.

Until Then,
Fr. Steve