To our WordPress ministry family and loyal readers… A special thank you to the 6,651 folks that stopped by to read our Ministry blog this past year. You are all very special and we thank you for your support of our ministry… Happy New Year and a blessed 2015 to all !!! (+)
Sincerely IHS and yours,
Archbishop Andrew R. M. Manley
Holy See of Antioch Celtic Cross Foundation of Ministry
Photo by Frederick Meekins
An Independence Day sermon posted at SermonAudio.com is titled “We Have No Rights”.
The pastor hypothesizes this is because Christ is our master.
The presupposition is correct but the conclusion the pastor deduces from that principle is at best only partially correct if at all.
It must be point out that, because Christ is our master, no man or government can ever be in the ultimate meaning of that concept.
Pulpit expositors must be exceedingly cautious when making claims such as the thesis around which the sermon under consideration is based.
For what if there is some kind of calamity and ISIS-like insurgents establish something akin to Sharia law somewhere in the United States?
If this doctrinal pronouncement is taken to its logical conclusion, when these savages threaten to kill you and rape your wife, as a Christian brainwashed by such urine deficient sermonizing would you just stand there and do nothing with the glazed over smile of an Oral Roberts back up singer plastered across your face?
And what about in a case not so extreme and out of the realm of the possibility in the dark days in which we live?
For if we really have no rights and are to endure everything that is as what Christ deems us worthy of enduring, on what grounds do you defend yourself or family members against a pastor with “wandering hands”?
Or by enunciating this very concern, have I stumbled upon the reason why this particular theory of jurisprudence is shockingly pervasive among certain extremist elements?
By Frederick Meekins
Attention to all of our Clergy here in the United States and Around the World. I wanted to inform you that I have made some changes to the website and the over all appearance of the Ministry.
As you know and I’m sure everyone does at this point, we are one of several ministries with the Holy See of Antioch. With that said, I have taken it upon myself to change our ministries identity back to something more us. And before anyone say’s what, we are still and always will be with the Holy See of Antioch as well as in spiritual communion with the Re-formed Old Roman Catholic Church of Cardinal Paul Roberts and Pontiff, Paul Joesph. So no worrying, please. All is good !
However, I have made some cosmetic changes to our Ministries Logos, Icons and Art work. Very little of this will have direct impact on you. But I will be reproducing a new Episcopal Coat of Arms for everyone as well as new ID cards in the coming new year which will reflect these changes. And yes, your ID’s you received are still valid and good. But when you do receive the new one, please use it instead.
After much prayer and communication with our Parent Ministry, I feel it was the best thing for us to regain our personal identity as a ministry. And nothing more. It is 100% on me to do what is best for our ministry and if anyone has any question, you may bring them to me directly (IN A PRIVATE MESSAGE). I want us to get a good start in this upcoming New Year, especially, with as many changes and new personal coming into our ministry. We here at the Global Hq are pleased and blessed to have each and everyone one of you serving your communities and the Lords flock.
With that said I also want to inform everyone, that we are still going to receive our Charter with the Knights Templar, “but”, we will not be accepting any members into the order at anytime, for the for see able future. The reason is that the response has not been what we had hoped. We only have had three individuals from around the world request an application and I’m not willing to advance Charter Membership into such a Sacred Order to be so fledgling and without ample support.
Maybe in the future we will try again, but for now it has been decided that NO Applications will be submitted or sent out. This comes from the top. And in this case since it is our Charter, it is what it is. So please keep the ministry and the Holy Order of Solomon in your prayers as well as our beloved, Holy See of Antioch and all clergy here at home and around the world. But think for a moment, if I can’t get anyone to contribute to a 501 c3 Non-Profit Organization or the Church, how then can I justify bringing people into the ministry to help financially seed programs and ministries elsewhere in the community here in Ohio, let alone around the Globe.
So until later, I do wish you all a wonderful and very Merry Christmas and I will be praying for each of you as you step forward and do more with the ministry here and in your communities in the coming New Year. Merry Christmas Everyone !!!
Sincerely IHS and yours and humbly so,
Archbishop Andrew R. M. Manley
P.S. if you would like to see the new Art Work, Logos and Icons, you can see them all on the Ministry Website at, www.celticcrossministry.com … Also see the updated Episcopal Coat of Arms in the Belief Statement section. Remember you can click on most any picture to see a larger view of it… (+)
Ligonier Ministries has posted a meme disturbed that a majority do not believe their pastor’s sermon to be authoritative over their lives.
It is God’s Word that is authoritative over your life.
The pastor is simply one voice among many to assist in coming to an understanding of that particular text.
The minister’s expositions are only authoritative or binding in those areas where the Scriptures speak definitively.
The pastor should be respected and listened to while in the pulpit if you decide to remain in the congregation where he is preaching in terms of refraining from audible disturbances being enunciated upon hearing something over which you have disagreement.
However, in regards to those issues where they can be a variety of opinion among Christians of similar piety and doctrinal propriety, you are the one that has the final say as to what goes on in your own home and life beyond the church meeting house.
by Frederick Meekins
In a sermon, a congregation was encouraged to have a faith fixed like the astronomical phenomena described in Matthew 2 commonly referred to as the Christmas star.
As a counterexample, the illustration was provided of a pastor that, upon hearing of the unexpected tragic death of family members questioned, why and where was God.
However, apart from an admonition not to let one’s faith waiver like that of this grief-stricken minister, those listening in the congregation weren’t provided with much homiletical resolution otherwise as the sermon was hastily brought to a conclusion.
Did this pastor in the illustration renounce his belief in God altogether, as that would have been wrong.
Or, was he upset with God for a season yet still retaining his underlying faith and love of God?
After all, who among us has not been profoundly upset with a family member while still continuing to love them deeply?
Is God so wrapped up in Himself that He does not realize this?
On what grounds does a minister require an expectation that the Bible does not seem to impose?
For example, Job did not curse God.
However, at one point he did verbalize his frustrations with the divinely allowed unfolding of events that this suffering servant did not comprehend.
There are Psalms of lamentation that seem to indicate that David experienced a similar frame of mind where, despite being profoundly troubled, he still retained his deep faith.
In the Book of Ecclesiastes, his son Solomon would counsel that there is a time for mourning.
And one of the most profound Biblical references of all is also the shortest.
The passage succinctly conveys “Jesus wept.”
So if God’s own Son did not make it through life without the intense emotional disturbance that is often required to bring a man to public tears, is it really proper to demand an emotional response bordering on a cognitive dissonance more concerned with how a response will be perceived rather than with what the traumatized person is actually experiencing?
By Frederick Meekins
In a sermon on the humility of the First Advent, a pastor observed that the only ones in the world that commemorated the birth of Christ other than His earthly parents were outcast shepherds and Persian Zoroastrian astrologers.
However, should a sermon be formulated in such a way to rhetorically insinuate that everyone else had done something profoundly wrong if God concealed this event from all but a few?
Why are certain hardline Evangelicals this insistent about finding sin in nearly everything?
Isn’t the point of these accounts that, in announcing the birth of the Messiah to people as disparate as agricultural laborers and imperial advisors, the Gospel message is for everyone?
It might sound exceedingly pious, but you can’t accuse a population of being too preoccupied with their own affairs in terms of complying the Roman census to be concerned about a young woman about to give birth to the most important baby in all history, as this pastor explicates in his homily, if the population is not told exactly who this blessed virgin happens to be?
They didn’t exactly have Twitter or post Amber Alerts in those days.
By Frederick Meekins
Photo by Frederick Meekins
Celtic Cross Foundation of Ministry Blog 