January 21, 2019
My beloved brothers and sisters of St. James,
The following is the letter I read at the annual meeting
yesterday. For those who were there, this gives you a chance to look over it
more carefully and for those who could not be there, it catches you up with
what those at the meeting heard. Please take some time to read it carefully
because it outlines what I will be doing over the next year and a half or so.
If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them over the next few
weeks as we all take time to pray about this and work together in ways that
will please the Lord.
May the Lord continue to bless us and mature us in Christ
Jesus and grow us as we reach out to others in the expectation that this is a
season of harvest for the Church of Jesus Christ here at St. James!
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Carlos
ST. JAMES ANGLICAN CHURCH, FRESNO, CA
2019 Annual Meeting Announcement
January 20, 2019
My beloved brothers and sisters!
Last year I completed the 20th year of service here at St.
James as your Dean and now as your Rector. I have many cherished and lovely
memories as God blessed us and we participated with Him in many mighty works of
God bringing healing, salvation and restoration to us and to our world. We have
had an impact on our world and there has been much fruit which remains!
But these have been hard years too! Even as we have
undoubtedly grown and matured in the Lord, even as great lay ministries have
emerged and leaders raised up, we have been in long numerical decline: a
decline that we did not initiate, but we inherited. We simply could not turn it
around.
On top of all that inheritance, we ourselves were the
vanguard of an international effort to discipline the Episcopal Church and
bring it back to godly fellowship with over 80% of the Worldwide Anglican
Communion. At the behest and insistence of many Global South Bishops we chose
to realign, leaving the Episcopal Church and coming under the authority of the
Archdiocese of the Southern Cone composed of Anglicans in the nations at the
bottom of South America.
Later with the help and support of both the Global South and
even the encouragement of the Pope of Rome, we joined in forming the Anglican
Church in North America. In the midst of all that activity we were sued, and
without doubt were handed an unjust judgment which cost us our property.
But we, by the grace of God, prevailed. For this we give
thanks to God our King: Emanuel; God with us.
We have never been more unified in heart and soul. We never
have had stronger lay leadership (the development of which is the true test of
any priest’s ministry). We are a Spirit filled, Spirit led people of prayer and
the Word and Sacrament. We have learned to love God and worship Him from our
hearts. We sing to the Glory of God. We have the finest and most Spirit-filled
worship leaders I have ever seen. For all this we give thanks to our King;
Emanuel, God with us.
We have been learning to hear God and walk in obedience to
the God who speaks both through His Word, the Bible, but also through His
Spirit into our hearts. We now have
four very capable preachers, and one of them, Anthony Velez, is being called by
God to be a priest.
From St. James has come the team that is teaching the whole
diocese to raise up catechists who can teach, disciple and plant new
congregations. That same Anthony and our beloved Beth Conkle are the organizers
and teachers of what is called the ACTS school of catechists!
God is raising up new leadership for the next 20 years. It
has been the greatest joy and honor of my whole ministry to lead and mentor
such fine ministers of Jesus Christ. For
these reasons our future has never been brighter! And it’s not a wild claim to
say that the decline is turning around and God is growing us numerically. Thank
you God for all the newcomers! For this we give thanks to God our King:
Emanuel, God with us!
I will be 64 years old this March, on St. Patrick’s day. On
St. Gregory of Nazianzus day, May 9th, I will have been a priest for 35 years.
I’m not a beginner anymore! With whatever wisdom I have been granted, I have
been following a divine plan. I have been asking God to show me who the next
generation of leaders are and give me the privilege and honor of pouring
whatever Godly wisdom, love and Spirit-filled blessing I can offer into their
lives and ministries. Apart from Beth and Anthony, I have been meeting weekly
or bi-monthly with about a dozen catechists and other rising leaders. As I have
observed the growth that has been forming around them these past several years,
I realize that God has been giving them the vision for our ministry for the
next 20 years. And that Vision is already bearing fruit! I want to support
them, not frustrate them (and God who is leading them). I want to finish well.
I want to be valuable in the Lord to them, not be the cork in the bottle,
keeping the new wine from being poured out. I want to find out whom God is
raising up and get behind them and their vision. I want to continue to be a
servant leader.
For those of you who are my age or older can I invite you
join me in this attitude? Can we expect that God may be speaking to the next
generation of leaders even as He honors us and thanks us who bore the burden
during the dark days of battle? Personally I feel like we held the ground and
it cost us dearly. Perhaps over the past 20 years we did not get to celebrate
the great days of harvest and fruitfulness that lie ahead. We got pretty shot
up! We had many days of discouragement and sometimes despaired of hope. But we
held on. Now God is raising up people refreshed and Spirit-filled and
enthusiastic about Him who, I pray, will go sweeping past us and on to victory.
Someday, I believe we will share in the celebration of their victory. God will
see to it! Jesus our King: Emanuel, God with us!
Fellow elders; will you join me in seeking the Lord’s help
to supply every necessity for the next generation to finish the tasks we began?
Can we trust God to reveal to the rising leadership the critical answers to
such questions as “What is our identity now that we are no longer a cathedral
and no longer at Cedar and Dakota?” “If we have a new identity in His sight,
what name would describe that identity? “Can we who are mature and seasoned in
seeking the Lord fast and pray that the whole Body may discern these things
from God? Can we bring our best to the table (for often God WILL speak through
the elders who truly have died to their own prerogatives and are seeking to
know His will and willing to do it!) Along with what is our identity, we need
to know where in this City God would replant us. Will we move somewhere for all
the wrong reasons, or will we find the place that enables us to be strong and
grow for the next 20 years? I am willing seriously to fast and pray for these
things; will you join me? This is how God works and reveals His glory; through
humble servant leaders who do not seek their own ways but the ways of Jesus our
King: Emanuel who is God with us!
As I turn 64 this March I will begin to plan my retirement.
I have spent years praying and seeking God for His timing
for the benefit of St. James. I love my job and will never cease being a priest
and continuing to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit while I yet have
breath. I am not planning on going anywhere! It is my fervent desire to
continue to serve you here at St. James and, as they would wish, to continue to
mentor and support the new leadership. I also hope to continue to do spiritual
direction and inner healing ministry and deliverance. I hope to do some
writing. And I hope to learn to fly!
My target date for retirement is my 65th birthday which will
be a year and three months from now. It is the desire of the vestry and the
Bishop to explore a process of replacement through mentorship of new leaders
with Anthony Velez being raised up from the congregation to continue as priest
in charge. As we explore this possibility, Bishop Eric, has asked me to be
flexible for the needs of St. James, and that I am more than willing to do. So
depending on the judgment of the Bishop and Vestry I will either retire or go
part time sometime around March 17, 2020.
Transitions are not easy for any of us. Moses lost his
temper at the very end and so also lost his privilege to lead the people across
the Jordan River into the promised land. That task fell to his protege, Joshua
whom Moses mentored in leadership. Please pray that I can finish well.
You who have stood with me all these tough years! Let’s help
each other to finish well! Let’s take the opportunity God is giving us and let
us show everyone, and the Lord Himself, by the grace of God, how God’s people
finish well and full of grace and love! Jesus Himself trained and equipped the
12 so that He could ascend to the Father while they finished the work, taking
the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. Yet He remained in the Spirit;
dwelling with and within us, teaching and empowering us. With us always even to
the ends of the Earth. This is how He showed us to finish well. We imitate Him;
our King, Jesus who is Emanuel, God with us.
The Very Rev. Carlos L. Raines, Rector
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