Pentecost 2024
Proclaiming Jesus to the Ends of the Earth
A letter from Bishop Dan
As we celebrate the day of Pentecost, I want to wish you all a Happy Birthday. For this is the day God brought his Church into being, and because we are part of this same Church it is our joy to celebrate our birthday today. What God has created in his Church is far more significant than any organisation in the world. It is unlike anything the world has ever seen because in it Jesus himself is present and active from heaven. It is where men and women, girls and boys live under his gracious and loving rule. It is where the Spirit of God himself indwells us, enabling us to serve and proclaim Jesus to the ends of the earth.
Privilege To Be Part
Today our congregations of ANiC are deeply privileged to be part of this living Church which God created on Pentecost through the power of his Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit indwells each of us and our churches, so that we too serve Jesus and speak about him to those in our own lives.
Good News For Everyone
I love the description of the crowd in Acts 2:6 on that first day of Pentecost:
"they were bewildered, because each one was hearing the apostles speak in their own language."
These people were from all over the world, and yet they were amazed because each one heard about Jesus in the language of their family and friends, the language of closeness and familiarity. This miracle of the Holy Spirit tells us vividly that the good news of Jesus is for everyone in the world—he wants each person to know him intimately. God’s great purpose is to gather and personally adopt people throughout the world into his family, so that they know his Father’s deep love for them.
All About Jesus
The way in which God will create this new family is what the crowd experienced at the end of verse 11:
“we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”
Those mighty works of God are all about Jesus, who reconciles people to God forever. He destroys the power of death and sin by the forgiveness of sins. He is God and Man risen from the dead, and now he is Lord and King over everything. He will come again as Judge to make all things right finally and forever; bringing heaven to earth.
The Same Mission
The purpose and mission of our family of churches of ANiC is the same mission that we read in the second chapter of Acts. We tell of the mighty works of God in proclaiming Jesus and serving him, so that we are part of God’s great and loving purpose of gathering people to himself forever.
Multiplying For Mission
As we consider this great purpose, I want to say on behalf of our ANiC family how grateful I am for the consistent and generous giving towards God's mission in our diocese. At Synod 2023 we shared three initiatives we believe we can cultivate and pursue to see the Gospel ministry of God multiply in our diocese:
Theological education
Leadership development through curacies and internships
Church planting
As Ephesian 4:11-12 teaches us, these initiatives are all about equipping new leaders, who will then equip existing and brand-new congregations to continue Jesus’s ministry, as we serve him and proclaim his mighty works. At synod we planned for a “break-even budget” to support this work yet prayed that God would provide for this work of multiplying ministry to grow. Wonderfully our giving has indeed grown. Through the faithful giving of our church tithes, as well as individual donations to these three initiatives we will exceed our budget for giving as we near the end of the 2023/2024 fiscal year. We are so grateful to God for your open hearted giving! It is a marvelous expression of God's amazing grace at work in our diocese, and we are deeply thankful and hopeful.
Building and Equipping
As we celebrate this day of Pentecost let us praise God because by his Holy Spirit, he is building up his Church in ANiC, through the equipping work made possible by the very generous giving of our churches. May God the Holy Spirit "equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." (Heb. 13: 21)
Faithfully and with much thanksgiving,
+Dan Gifford
The Right Reverend Dan Gifford
Diocesan Bishop