Anglican Fellowship of Prayer: The Anglican Fellowship of Prayer serves the church by encouraging, facilitating and promoting the understanding and discipline of prayer in the Anglican Communion.

Our Mission: The Anglican Fellowship of Prayer serves the church by encouraging, facilitating, and promoting the understanding and discipline of prayer in the Anglican Communion.

Dear Friends,

I’m impressed at the number of hints in scripture concerning the coming of Christ; how God continued to work in the world even after the rebellion of Adam and Eve. Instead of eliminating them and starting over God decided that, after all, His work was good and, therefore, worth redeeming. He even announced His plan right there in the Garden of Eden in the face of the serpent.

Gen 2:15 "I will put enmity between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head
but you shall bruise his heel": the Protoevangel, or the first hint of the Gospel.

Gen 12:1-3 We read next of Abraham being called to leave his country and allow God to make him a blessing for all people.

Gen 49:9-10. Jacob, while blessing his children, tells Judah that when the time comes the king will claim the crown from him. Kings came from the tribe of Judah.

Isaiah11:1-3 “A shoot will come forth from the stump of Jesse”. This turns out to be David.

Isaiah 9:6-7 “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace…”. Someone bigger and more mighty than David.

1st Chronicles 17-1-15. Nathan, King David’s prophet, tells David that his son will build a temple for God and that the kingdom of this son will last forever. A double prophesy and fulfillment; Solomon and Jesus.

Daniel 2:31-45. Daniel interprets King Nebuchanezzar’s dream which tells that during the time of a successor kingdom to Babylon, God will set up another kingdom which will never be destroyed. This first kingdom appears to be the Roman Empire.

Micah 5:2. The prophet Micah declares that in Bethlehem Ephrathah (the one in Judea, not Galilee) is where this king will be born.

Luke 1:26-33. “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary”. Did Micah misinterpret God’s!message?

Luke 2:1-7 No. God, in his wisdom and power, impressed upon Caesar Augustus to declare a census to be taken, so Joseph went to the City of David, Bethlehem, with his betrothed, Mary, to be counted and taxed. "And while they were there the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger." Micah was correct after all, and this prophecy was made centuries before the event.

Matthew 2:2-5 “Behold, wise men came from the East to Jerusalem saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews…. They told him, in Bethlehem of Judea”. Thus, Even the leadership and the Jews themselves accepted this prophesy as genuine. Micah even said that this person’s origin is from eternity signifying that He existed long before Bethlehem.

Philippians 2:2-7 “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

Our Redeemer has arrived. Come, let us adore Him! Alleluia!

Faithfully,
William C. Williams, President, U.S. Council, A.F.P.

From the Diocese of Kentucky

Carla L. Rueckert-McCarty, new Diocesan Representative of the Diocese of Kentucky, announces that the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer and the Magnificat Chapter of the Daugthters of the King at St. Luke's will offer an Afternoon of Contemplation and Song at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Anchorage, Kentucky on Saturday, February 20, 2010 from noon to 4:30 PM. A silent lunch with readings from the works of Evelyn Underhill will be followed by workshops on Praying with Music, Praying with Icons, and Praying and Journaling. Silent contemplation, evensong, and a final reception with refreshments will end the day. For further information, see the AFP website at <www.afp.org> or
call St. Luke's at 502-245-8827.

AFP Resources

Please visit our website at <www.afp.org>. There are links to prayers, the Lectionary, the Book of Common Prayer, the Anglican Cycle of Prayer, and announcements of upcoming events. New in the Lectionary on January 31will be the commemoration of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Shoemaker in "Holy Women, Holy Men." Helen Shoemaker, his wife, was a founder of the AFP; as Helen used to say, "My husband taught me to pray." We would very much appreciate any suggestions you have for additions to the website, including announcements of prayer teachings in your diocese. We highly recommend Bishop Don Hultstrand's The Praying Church for your church prayer and study group. Copies of the third edition are available on the website or from the phone number 724-463-6436.

From the AFP Fall Newsletter in the Diocese of Oregon

“In The Beginning Grace…” is the title to a cover story in the October issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAY. The author, Mark Galli, senior managing editor of CT, writes about the evangelical Church (and that includes our own) in our day and age. He agrees there is need for change, and explores the Church’s approach to attracting new members, and he somehow feels we are not quite making the mark.

But above all he talks about the prevalence of the “horizontal” approach to outreach and spiritual formation. He says, “If we continually put the horizontal first, spiritual formation will, as it has in other ages, morph into an oppressive human religion.”

He explores the differences in approaches from the Spiritually minded church to the Social Justice minded church and suggests both have their strengths, but need the balance of the other to become whole. “It is where the horizontal can become not a denial of the vertical but the expression of it.” He continues, “The place to begin is not more feverish doing, but acknowledging the complete inadequacy of any doing and the utter powerlessness of the horizontal to fix the horizontal.”

I know from my own experience how easy it is to rush into action without thought of seeking advice from God. As opposed to limiting our guidance to our own desires or society’s trends, we all have unlimited access to God's wisdom and guidance through prayer. I don't have a great deal of patience, and I know how hard it is to wait on God's timing. Waiting in so many ways is hard, and the temptation is to go ahead and 'fix' the problem now!

I have just been checking Google to find direction to a friend’s home; are you one of those who will not ask for direction when lost? I am sometimes, and then I do get lost!

Do we make decisions on our own or seek God’s direction through prayer? With the balance of the ’horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ as Mark Galli says, we, ‘ …will once again know that great paradox of the Christian faith: with our focus on the vertical, when the weightlessness of belief becomes for us the weight of glory, that’s when we are born again, born in the Word and for the world. This is something that happens once, yes, at one’s conversion. But it also happens daily, at one’s reconversion each morning and each Sunday. Then we become new creations, blessed with vertical life and energy and grace to do the horizontal thing we are called and gifted to do.”

In Christ’s love,
Pat Hayes
AFP Diocesan Representative, Diocese of Oregon

From our AFP US Council president, Dr. Will Williams: as always we appreciate your prayers for this ministry that it might be a Christian witness to a hurting world, and if you are so moved, we would appreciate any donation you might be able to make to support the ministry, and the publication and mailing of the newsletters. Please send to AFP, 1106 Mansfield Avenue, Indiana, PA 15701.

Past Newsletters