News & Notes
High Mass with the Bishops – 2024
Again this year we welcome the Bishops from the Diocese of the Western States, who will celebrate mass at St. Martin’s Friday, April 19, 2024 2:30 pm. Here are some pictures from last year’s mass.
Invitation
Dear Friends in Christ,
We invite you to come to the Anglican parish of St. Martin of Tours. Many people have had trouble keeping up with weekly attendance at church during Covid. It is time to return to normal.
We are a 1928 Book of Common Prayer Parish with a traditional service. We know that many Anglicans from other countries feel more at home
with our type of worship. We hope that you will visit us and tell friends who have come from distant parts of the English-speaking world about our parish.
Mass is held at 10 am Sundays, followed by lunch in the fellowship hall.
We are looking forward to seeing you soon!
Fr. Tom Kelnhofer
The Universal Church is today…more definitely set against the World than at any time since pagan Rome… The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time; so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the world from suicide. – T.S. Eliot
About St. Martin
About St. Martin
Martin was the son of a Roman Tribune, a high rank, in the Imperial Horse Guard. The time was early 4th Century. Persecution of Christians had ended in Rome, and the religion was freely practiced throughout the realm. As a youth, Martin accepted Christ as his Savior, and became a practicing Christian. However, he was still expected to follow his father into the military, and did so, becoming who now is recognized as a Patron Saint of soldiers.
One of his acts of charity, famously celebrated, was sharing his cloak with a beggar on a cold day. (This scene is captured by a van Dyck painting.) Later, he had a vision that it was Christ whom he aided, and his resolve to dedicate himself to his new religion was solidified.
Soon, he left the military, a conscientious objector, and answered his calling to become an evangelist. He was strongly influenced by Hilary of Poitiers in Tours. He founded a monastery, the Liguge Abbey, in 361.
He was ordained Bishop of Tours in 371. A reluctant candidate, he nevertheless took over the job of Christ’s ministry, and put his heart into it. He established a network of parishes, and visited them yearly. He establshed other monastaries in addition to the one at Tours.
A man of great mercy, he tried to avert the severe punishment handed to heretics, prefering rather to persuade them.
The hagiographer Sulpicius Severus chronicled many miracles accomplished by Martin, including casting out of demons, conversion of Druids, thieves, and many of the pagan people throughout the region. He is credited with raising a man from the dead through the work of the Holy Spirit.
As a saint, Martin is revered throughout Europe. His feast day is celebrated November 11th.
https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=81
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_of_Tours
About the Province
The American-based Province of Christ the King is Christ-centered and celebrates Apostolic Christianity in the Anglican tradition. Our beliefs are founded on Holy Scripture, the ancient creeds of the Church, and New Testament morality. They are expressed in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, used in out worship services.
A Short History
In the aftermath of World War II, attacks upon the Christian faith concerned many Episcopalians. These attacks peaked in the 1976 General Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when the Episcopal Church made sweeping changes. The convention abandoned the majestic spirituality and apostolic faith of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. The convention allowed bishops and priests to break their vows and renounce the doctrines and disciplines of the apostolic Church.
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Episcopalian clergy and laity gathered in 1977 in St. Louis, Missouri. They issued a statement of faith, the Affirmation of St. Louis, which confirmed their belief in orthodox Christianity. With the authority of the Affirmation, six parishes formed the Anglican Province of Christ the King, electing as Bishop the Rev. Robert Sherwood Morse, rector of St. Peter’s, Oakland, California. Father Morse was consecrated to the episcopacy by the requisite three bishops on January 28, 1978. The Rt. Rev. Albert A. Chambers, retired Episcopal Bishop of Springfield, Illinois, served as chief consecrator.
The Province of Christ the King has grown to three dioceses: the Diocese of the Atlantic States, the Diocese of Southwestern States, and the Diocese of the Western States.
In 1979, to ensure future priests would be trained in the Apostolic Faith, the Province of Christ the King established St. Joseph of Arimathea Anglican Theological College in Berkeley, California, under the patronage off this legendary founder of English Christianity.
The Province embodies the Anglican faith that produced the King James Bible, the literature of writers such as William Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis, and Dorothy Sayers, eleven U.S. Presidents and most of our nation’s founding fathers.
Our parishes are open to all who seek the love of God and an eternal and unchanging faith, founded in Christ and expressed in a timeless liturgy.
Location
Services
Sunday Communion Service – 10:00 AM, followed by fellowship lunch next door.