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Dear Fellow Servants of Christ,
After many months of dialogue and review by a committee of Bishops and Archbishops, it is my joy to announce that on Saturday evening, February 28, Bishop Eric Thomas and the Diocese of Saint Matthias the Apostle were received into the Province of St. Peter. I am sending you a brief report of the ministries contained within the Diocese from Bishop Eric Thomas. They are wonderful followers of Christ and I am very excited that they will be a part of us that we might labor together to advance the Kingdom of God.
In Christ,
Archbishop Russ McClanahan
To:
Most Reverend Russell McClanahan
Archbishop, Province of Saint Peter
Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches
Your Grace,
The Peace and Love of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Grace of Our Heavenly Father be with you always.
As requested, the following are brief statements of the collective current ministry of the Dioceses of St. Matthias. While they are not as detailed as our customary Annual Report, I believe that they accurately reflect both the ongoing practical ministry and the collective spirit of the Diocese in its faithful execution of our collective calling in His service.
Knoxville TN: (Farragut/Lenoir City)
Living Faith Anglican Church is the Parish ministry designation of three separate Home Fellowship ministries serving the Farragut /West Knoxville and Lenoir City areas under the pastoral charge of +Bro. Wm. Eric Thomas. Living Faith is currently in the midst of reconstitution and ongoing growth beginning in the later half of 2008 which was preceded with a period of introspective evaluation and unity of ministry with Apostle’s Anglican Church (AMiA).
With a focus on Being The Church, fully embracing a Living Faith, a firm understanding to the essentiality of the relational nature of the faith and a commitment to Discipleship, the Living Faith community has been blessed with growth from a single Home Fellowship community in July of 2008 to being inclusive of three Home Fellowships in November 2008. The ASA at our twice monthly Gathering of the Saints (Our collective Sunday Worship Services) runs thirty two adult members (with children and guest average attendance of 50-60).
Concord Christian Fellowship - Elder Alan Bradford- A new Home Fellowship community birthed in Dec. 2008 with intentions of developing into a new Parish Community in the future. This promising new Home Fellowship launched in early December 08 as a result of the application of relational evangelism of two couples and one other single adult from Living Faith and has, to date, been blessed to have grown to six committed families and several guests at there weekly.
Compassionate Ministries: The Knoxville Diocesan community has always held to the belief that our living witness is our best testimony to the Love, Grace and Mercy of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This belief has long motivated our Parish family to actively participate an a wide range of compassionate ministries from the establishment and operations of St. Matthias Mission of H.O.P.E. in Lenoir City 2003-2007, to our ongoing participation in Iva’s Place (both a Women’s Shelter and Emergency Needs ministry) also located in Lenoir City, Tennessee to the facilitation of a local Angel Food Distribution Program. Living Faith family members have been, and continue to be, long time participants in the Loudon County Compassion Connection ministry, Knox Area Rescue Ministries (KARM), Compassion Coalition of Knox County and East Tennessee Homeless Coalition. Currently, Living Faith Anglican Church is, in conjunction with other area churches, working to establish Robinson House Ministries (a much needed temporary shelter ministry for Families).
Asheville North Carolina:
Serving Our Savior (S.O.S) Mission - Fr. Adam Trent+ serves on the staff of St. Paul's Church - Asheville (AMiA) as the director of S.O.S. Mission at St. Paul's Church. The Mission is a registered North Carolina non-profit corporation whose focus is to serve victim families of domestic violence by providing discipleship in both faith and life. S.O.S. comes along side victim mothers and their children serving as guides, helping the families navigate social resources, child protective services and the courts while also providing life changing faith discipleship that will move the family from wreck to restoration. Fr. Trent is responsible for the coordination and oversight of the day to day operations of The Mission and the development of resources from the community that address social, educational, vocational and life skills needs of our families. In coordination with the St. Paul's Church pastoral team, Fr. Trent is responsible for providing the spiritual care and faith discipleship that truly changes the lives of our participant families.
Central Texas: (Brownwood- Santa Ana- San Angelo)
Christ Church Mission is the collective name of three individual assemblies in Central and West Central Texas under the ministry of Bro. Roger+ Matthews. These ministries started, and in large part remain, true "street ministries" due to the demography, composition and lower socioeconomic status of the majority of the assemblies. None of these individual assemblies is propertied, though well known and respected in the communities of San Angelo, Santa Anna and Brownwood TX.
Our main thrust in ministry is taking the healing, saving Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to those who have been largely marginalized and thrown away by the institutional church world. In truth, the largest part of two assemblies have had, or continue to have struggles with alcohol, sexual exploitation issues, and the ever present tragedy of rural America, Methamphetamine. Ministry to these most forgotten of Christ's sheep include Angel Food distribution programs, Meals on Wheels, the Dorcus clothe closet program and a thriving jail and state prison ministry through out the aforementioned area. Weekly Eucharist services are attached to most of these efforts.
God, in His omniscience, has also brought about a thriving assembly of middle class and upper middle class Christians in the Brownwood TX area. While they have a different set of life issues, they truly have the heart of Christ toward those lost, hungry, alone or in bondage to sin and it's allure. This congregation has funded many of the above ministry venues as well as a yearly mission effort in northern Mexico.
Gentlemen, here is the crux of the ministry God has called me to. I work with, and among, prostitutes, gang members, gay, lesbian and transgendered persons, the elderly, the disabled, meth heads, and drug dealers. I also minister to businessmen, homemakers, high school and college age persons. I also am a Texas licensed, nationally certified Paramedic 1, and have no end to the opportunities of ministry in the back of an ALS (Advanced Life Support) unit. There is no single profile (age, sexual orientation, race or education level) that can adequately describe the collective ministry that is Christ Church Mission.
From its inception, in 1999, within the ministry of the Our Lord’s “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church” the Diocese of Saint Matthias the Apostle has been blessed with growth and loss, evangelical fervor and seasons for introspection, yet the consistency of Our Lord’s Faithfulness has been beyond question and not ever without witness within this community in Christ. As we continue in our collective ministry, we have every reason to be both encouraged in and expectant of Our Lord’s continued blessings. It has long been the prayer of this community in Christ that He afford us the means and opportunity to realize the fullness of the application of our common belief in the faith once for all delivered unto the saints (Jude 3). We currently have every reason to feel that the resolution of this prayer is being manifested in the prospects of our reception within the Province of Saint Peter, C.E.E.C.
With the Love of Christ,
William Eric Thomas
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