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News from 2006 |
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The 1st annual Mere Anglicanism Conference was held on January 19th - 21st , 2006 at the Cathedral of St. Luke & St. Paul in Charleston, South Carolina. Several members of the Order of St. Vincent attended and acted as host for the conference. For a report and information from the conference, please click on the Mere Anglicanism Conference link above.
The preceding article was submitted by Glen Miller
St, Martin’s O.S.V. Chapter remembers Mother Florence Li Tim-Oi
On the 52nd
anniversary (January 25th, 2006) of the
ordination of Florence Li Tim-Oi,
the first woman to the priesthood of the Anglican Communion,
the Order of St. Vincent at St. Martin’s in Pompano Beach
had a Celebration Eucharist in her honor. The Rev. Florence
Li Tim-Oi became a deaconess in
1931 and became the deacon in charge of an Anglican
congregation in 1941. Because of the occupation of China by
the Japanese in WWII, no priests could serve in the occupied
country. Li Tim-Oi traveled
through occupied territory to a meeting in the free part of
China were the Bishop of Hong Kong ordained her to the
priesthood so that the Eucharist could be given to the
people where Li Tim-Oi served.
After the war, Li Tim-Oi had to
give up her license to serve as a priest, because she was a
woman, but she did not renounce her ordination. During the
cultural revolution she was
jailed for her work as a priest and worked in work camps
until she was able to leave China for Canada where here
ordination to the priesthood was recognized and she served
until her death.
Before the service began, Lee Davis,
parishioner, announced that the service was not only to
celebrate Li Tim-Oi’s ordination
but was to celebrate the ministries of all woman clergy and
all women in the Church; a time to come together to give
thanks and remember the struggle of women and to pray that
women everywhere would be able to live fully into the
ministries that God calls them to. All of the servers at the
altar were women and Madeline Zung,
organist at St. Martin’s chose hymns from the hymnal Voices
Found, a collection of hymns written by women.
Archdeacon
Mary Gray-Reeves was celebrant, which was concelebrated with
twelve ordained women clergy from the diocese;
Deacon
Patricia Masterman was the
Deacon of the Mass. The prayers of the people were taken
from a service held in the honor of Florence Li Tim-Oi
at St. Martin-In-The-Fields in London. The first woman
ordained in our Diocese, Canon Winnie
Bolle gave the homily. In her homily Canon
Bolle reflected on the life of
Li Tim-Oi and on how she herself
had come to realize a calling to ministry. She imagined that
Florence, like herself, had the life long yearning to serve
God and that God had already assured her that ways of
ministry would open up to her regardless of the difficulties
in her way. Like Li Tim-Oi, that
gave her courage to pursue God’s call. Fr. Bernard
Pecaro thanked the Order of St.
Vincent, who designed the service and thanked the members of
the E.C.W. of St. Martin’s who hosed a reception after the
service in which the video Return to
Hepu, a video interview with Li Tim-Oi
before her death 4 years later, was shown.
The preceding article was submitted by Lee Davis
St. Anne’s returns to the National Acolyte Festival
The Diocese of Southeast Florida was well represented at the 27th Annual National Acolyte Festival, Saturday,
Oct. 7 at Washington National Cathedral Acolytes from the Church of the Incarnation, Miami;
St. Anne’s, Hallandale; St. Kevin’s, Opa-locka; Church of the Transfiguration, Miami Gardens; and
Trinity Cathedral showed up and blew out the other churches. Bishop John Crane of Washington, his wife, the cathedral staff and
other acolytes were impressed and amazed by the shifts and moves St. Anne dished out and also by our new step (we call it the “kick”)
taught by our Acolyte Master, Maceo Brown.
The
preceding article was submitted by David Davenport
All of the acolytes from the Diocese of Southeast Florida were proud when many of our own either participated in the service or received special
awards from Bishop Crane. Before the service began, Canon Carol Wade personally asked Mr. Brown to be a chalice bearer.
The Epistle was read — in Spanish — by Michelle Khan from Trinity Cathedral. Jared Parker, age 4, from Church of the Transfiguration was recognized
as being the youngest acolyte to attend the Festival. Bishop Crane also made sure to have us take his special greeting to his good friend,
Bishop Leo Frade.
St. Anne’s acolytes wore double cinctures, red and white. Some of the other acolytes
asked about the meaning of two cinctures. We told them that we are double-bound to Christ: Red is for the Holy Spirit, and white is the presence of
all colors. Canon Eugene Sutton of the National Cathedral commented that he liked this.
We carried new torches that were blessed by our priest-in-charge, Fr. John Jarrett, III. We blinded the other churches
with our thuribles, boats, processional crosses and our new torches. All of the workshops were very interesting. We learned some new things and we
were proud that there was a lot that we already knew. Even though we were tired, we still listened and learned. The acolytes
also had our own workshop — the gift shop! You might laugh, but the gift shop had many things that could teach about Christ. It even had one
of the 11 copies of a special Holy Bible. The book was huge! The next day we worshiped with St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, whose acolytes have
participated in the Festival every year for 27 years. Then we went on with the rest of our tour. We had front row seats at Arlington National Cemetery
for the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns. We then went back to the hotel and had a party in room 219.
Most of the kids in the room were new acolytes. This was St Anne’s fourth consecutive yearat the National Acolyte Festival.
42 people from our parish who went, 19 of them were acolytes, the most ever. We would like to thank Everett Neely, Edith Newbold and Dr. Lisa Davenport
for helping us raise the money we needed for the trip. We would also like to thank Mr. Brown for making us come on Saturdays for practice. Next, we would like
to thank the church family and the parents who went with us to the Festival for sticking with us for the whole trip and praying for us. Last, we would like to
thank Lenora Banks and her mom, Doris Newton, for getting us the backpacks and the two shirts.
The acolytes of St. Anne's will be ready for next year, when we, once again — for the fifth time — will make everyone in the Diocese of Southeast Florida proud.
O.S.V. welcomes St. Thomas of Canterbury
On October 8th, 2006, at St. Thomas of Canterbury, Reformed Episcopal Church of Houston Tx. The Service of Admission was conducted for the admission of acolytes to the Order of St. Vincent. The Rector, Cannon, James Payne the Rector of St. Thomas conducted the ceremony. Later that same day, Assistant Rector, Steve Stults was ordained to the priesthood. Butch Key is the Chapter Warden.
The preceding article was submitted by Butch Key
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