The ministries of Missions and Chaplaincy have been a part of
the fabric of the church for as long as the church has existed. From the
admonition of Jesus to the apostles of “Go
into all the world…,” to the first Christian that witnessed to a Roman
soldier or tended to a leper, these two elements have been vital to the
ministry of the church. Just as a body of water that has no outlet becomes
stagnant and lifeless, a body of believers that becomes closed and
introspective in their ministry will also become stagnant and lifeless.
The number of disaffected Christians is growing daily, as the secular perspectives of society take a deeper hold on this nation’s morality. Many churches are embracing the concept of change for the sake of societal acceptance and are compromising the Gospel for the sake of political correctness. In effect we of the EAC are all missionaries, entering a field of spiritual need and desolation every time we walk out our door. Our daily contacts are the harvest field and the way we “wear” our faith can be the reaping tool necessary to help our contacts see and experience the love of Christ, rather than just hear someone with a Bible under their arm pay “lip service” to the truth of salvation. There is no shortage of opportunity. There is a shortage of willing individuals that will lay aside their personal comfort and pride and humble themselves for the sake of Christ.
The time has come for the church to take a stand. As Edmund Burke is purported to have said…”All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” The church can no longer stand by and do nothing.
As a ministry of The Emmanuel Anglican Communion (EAC), the Diocese of Missions and Chaplaincy (DoMaC) is instituted as an outreach to a lost and dying world, blinded by the deception that man is the be all and end all of life and the universe. Our communion can’t do everything to share the truth of God’s Word with this world … but we can do something. The EAC is called by God to join the other expressions of the church universal that have chosen to be “voices crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.” DoMaC is one tool to enable the EAC to engage in that effort.
The Most Reverend Edward J. Skiba, OSB Presiding Bishop,
The Emmanuel Communion
The Emmanuel Communion
