Saint James the Great Anglican Church Smiths Station, Alabama

A Mission of the Anglican Province of America

Fr John Klein can be reached at (334) 663-2985 / kleinjw@tigermail.auburn.edu

Newsletter #42 - September 2019

Look what is coming as a gift from Andrea Granger, Senior Warden of

Saint Matthias' Dothan. We are going to have our youngest members, a few slightly older ones too, ringing hand bells.

Traditional, orthodox Anglicanism – Catholic and Evangelical – for modern people.

Some words from the Vicar:

In August we began studying Bonnell Spencer's Ye Are The Body at the Sunday

morning coffee-hour class.

Wednesday evenings we meet at 6:00 PM (EDT) for Mass, followed by supper at

Pizza D'Action, then a study of Bishop Kenneth Myers' fabulous book The Garden of

Happiness: Cultivating True and Lasting Happiness in Life. If you have a

friend constantly coping with a lack of joy and fulfillment, please bring them. They

certainly don't have to be Anglican or even Christian. Of course, we will do our best to

make them both.

Don't miss Saint George's English Tea on September 28. See the advertisement

below.

The next Quiet Day is scheduled for Saturday December 7 with the theme of the

Incarnation and the Blessed Virgin Mary's role in it. See the article below.

Holy Land on Pilgrimage in February 2020 (see the article below). If it is at all

possible for you to do so, you will never regret your decision to be a pilgrim. Walking in

the footsteps of Christ is indescribable, something beyond measure, it approaches the

mystical.

The Workers' Appreciation Luncheon is set for Friday, September 20 at noon

(CDT). Merrie Lee Lockwood is in charge and all of the skilled artisans who worked on

the conversion of our church building from a domestic house are invited.

And, please see Bishop Chad's Appeal for Volunteers at the January 2020 Synod

below.

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Recently, I wrote to the churchwardens at Saint James and Saint Matthias

with these words: Dear Churchwardens Sandra and Andrea, and Bishop Grundorf and Bishop Coadjutor Chad, Linda and I have decided we need a vacation. Where else but Spain and then trans-Atlantic back home. We will go a day early in order to spend a one day pilgrimage at the ninth century Monastery of Montserrat. On the day of departure we go for yet one more time to pray at La Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona. Then on November 17, our twelfth wedding anniversary, we board the Sky Princess, with a balcony room and traditional dining, from Barcelona bound for Fort Lauderdale. On the way we make five stops (Valencia, Malaga, Cadiz for Seville, Lisbon, and Madeira), three of the most exciting stops are the Cathedral in Sevilla, Lisbon Portugal, and the Island of Madeira. We fly back to Atlanta from Ft. Lauderdale, pick up the truck, and return to Parson's Pound and Sweet Home Alabama. Linda certainly needs a holiday

and she assures me that I do too. We are excited. It will be the first real vacation without work in about four years. If you count the Camino a vacation, then three years for me and four for Linda. This puts us out of my two congregations for three Sundays - from November 15-December 2. I will be seeing what we can do vis-à-vis supply priests and layreaders. I can write sermons to be read and our Wednesday evening can become Evening Prayer, supper, and Bible Study. (Subsequently, Bishop Chad is attempting to secure the ministry of deacons to assist us on Sundays with St. Matthias coming up to join Saint James). I am hoping to pull together a rotating, annual Advent (or Christmas) Lessons and Carols with all of the Anglican Churches in the region. We could start this Advent 2019 at Saint James, next St. George's, Columbus, St. Andrew's, West Point, Good Shepherd, Opelika, St. Matthias' Dothan, and so on. I am working on this as I write to you. The cooperation between these churches is simply soaring. You remember how really bad it was when we started three years ago. Well it is nearly all peace, harmony, and mission today. Thanks be to God. This cooperation makes emergency response and pastoral care far easier. Next year 2020 I will with Bishop Chad lead the 2020 APA Holy Land Pilgrimage. Priests are being sent by their parishes, laymen and women from all over the diocese are calling to enquire about it, advertising is going great. I think it looks like a great venture moving forward. In Eastertide 2020, God-willing, Fr. Steve Sommerrock and I are exploring walking the Camino de Santiago. It will be his first time and my fifth. Buen Camino. In October 13-16, 2020 I hope to go to the Societas Sanctae Crucis (SSC) International Synod in London. Then Linda and I will go for several days in the countryside, first to Shottesbrooke Manor, Berkshire where the English Nonjurors formed a safe-haven and flourished. It's in my dissertation and I recently sent a second article - "Francis Cherry, Patronage, and the Shottesbrooke Nonjurors" - to Anglican and Episcopal History. AEH just last month published my: "Susanna Hopton and Mary Astell: Two Women Spiritual Writers among the English Nonjurors." This will be a thrill for me and I hope to write about worship in the manor house versus the parish church. Then Linda would like to go to Gloucestershire via Oxford to see where I once served at St. John the Evangelist, Churchdown, Gloucestershire. We will only be gone a week - one Sunday away probably. As for Saint James the Great and Saint Matthias we are working together so well that the synergetic effect has been tremendous. The Quiet Days that we are doing three times a year at Blessed Trinity Shrine Retreat Center near Fort Mitchell, AL are drawing people from the surrounding Anglican parishes. The next one on December 7th - eve of the Conception of the BVM - will have Sister Gail M.S.B.T. and me giving the meditations and attendees from all the churches present. We expect thirty people. We are working to build up the APA and doing a great job there, but we are struggling with getting new members. It's not for want of trying. This brief report is to catch you up on progress and plans thus far. All goes well. Pray for us. Yours in XP, John+

One Man’s Spiritual Journey along the Camino de Santiago de Compostela

A Lecture at Saint James the Great Anglican Church, Smiths Station, Alabama on Friday, October 4th, St. Francis Day, at 7:00 PM (EDT). There is no charge. RSVP to Fr. John Klein at (334) 663-298 or kleinjw@auburn.edu. Coffee and Dessert will be served.

On Ash Wednesday, March 1, 2006, The Rev. John William Klein, then a priest in the Episcopal Church - he is now in the Anglican Province of America - began walking the five hundred miles from St. Jean-Pied-de-Port on the French side of the Pyrenees to the shrine of St. James the Great in northwestern Spain. His recent retirement prompted many questions about identity and the way ahead. Thus, walking The Way – El Camino de Santiago de Compostela – seemed the logical thing to do and a time for reflection and decision.

The plan was to arrive in Santiago by Palm Sunday, which he did. Along the Way he met many other pilgrims, all of whom had brought their own stories. All were seeking answers, direction, strength, forgiveness, and sometimes healing. This lecture portrays

one man’s journey – a journey he repeated subsequently thrice more and plans to attempt a fourth time in April 2020 – but a journey with others, all linked to countless pilgrims over a thousand years of pilgrimage.

Arguably, most pilgrims to Santiago come with what they think are their particular reasons for walking The Way. Most end their journey only to discover that the presenting problem was not the real problem. The end, much like in T.S. Eliot’s poem “Little Gidding,” is actually the beginning. The journey is the destination. Fr. Klein reached the place from which he could see Santiago and realized he did not want the journey to end. By that point, he (who had started very much alone in the cold and snow of the Pyrenees) had walked across the whole of Spain, and was finishing with three companions from Vienna, French Canada, and Barcelona. The individual story had been intertwined with the stories of other pilgrims along the Camino.

This is the story of how such pilgrimage changes lives. Walking and praying are the pilgrim’s work, by so doing the interior and outer dimensions of one's life are synchronized. Private and corporate also come into focus as one becomes part of a sojourning company of fellow travelers. The harmony of earth, air, fire, and water – virtual daily companions - also becomes much closer. In the end, a simpler daily routine, with humbler objectives, enables one to meditate deeply on a life-transforming trajectory that prioritizes that which is truly, personally important.

Some Famous Pilgrims to Santiago Gotescalco, Archbishop of Le Puy (c. 950 AD). Aimery Picaud (c. 1140 AD) who wrote the first Guide to the Camino. El Cid (c. 1043-1099) St. Francis of Assisi, friar, 1226. Ferdinand (d. 1516) and Isabella (d. 1504) Dante (c. 1265-1321), possibly? Chaucer (c. 1343-1400), possibly? Shirley MacLaine, author of The Camino, walked the Camino in 1994. Emilio Esteves and Martin Sheen walked at least part of it in filming The Way. Pope John Paul II walked the last stage in 1982, 1989. Anthony Quinn in 1999. St. Josemaría Escrivá (1902-1975), Founder of Opus Dei. Lorenzo de Medici (1449-1492). Paulo Coelho author of The Alchemist and The Pilgrimage. Jenna Bush, daughter of President Bush San Ignacio de Loyola and San Francisco Xavier, probably were pilgrims to Santiago. King Sigurd of Norway. Henry of Blois (younger brother of King Stephen). Saint Godric (c. 1065-1170) English hermit at Finchale near Durham. Margery Kempe (c. 1373-1433) English Mystic. Jan Van Eyck (c. 1390-1441), a Flemish painter, may have been a pilgrim to Santiago. Many kings and queens, lesser nobility of Christian Europe and numbers of knights.

Ongoing Calendar:

Sunday, Eucharist at 11:00 A.M. (ET) followed by Coffee Hour-Class. Please join us for Coffee Hour following Mass and our study, soon to begin, Bonnell Spencer's Ye Are The Body.

Wednesday 6:00 PM Mass with Supper followed by Bible Study and the study of Dr. Charles Allen's book God's Psychiatry- "The Beatitudes."

First Saturdays: Society of Mary at 10:00 AM (ET) - Coffee, Angelus, and Rosary.

Saint Michael and All Angels Day is Sunday, September 29 at 11:00 AM

BIRTHDAYS: Eugene Wagnon (Birthday September 22)

Victoria Elizabeth Thornburg (Birthday September 30)

Please use your computer to bring people to Christ

Morning and Evening Prayer from the 1928 Prayer Book Can be easily read daily on your computer at:

http://www.commonprayer.org/offices/morn_n.cfm http://www.commonprayer.org/offices/even_n.cfm

Much of the koinonia (the Fellowship) at St. James gets shared on

Facebook. We even have a Saint James Parishioners Facebook Group. This is another tool for sharing your church with others who may well be looking for a church to call home. And, like us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/saintjamesanglicanchurchsmithsstation/

Our Website is: www.stjamesalabama.org

The web page has all the newsletters on it and much other useful information.

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Some Books that have proven invaluable to Saint James

and Saint Matthias: J.W.C. Wand, Reflections on the Collects (London: Mowbray, 1964). I use this book

frequently on Wednesday nights at Mass in place of a prepared sermon. You will too.

Rod Dreher, The Benedict Option (New York: Sentinel, 2018). This has been a defining

text for us.

Bonnell Spencer, Ye Are The Body (St. Andrews, TN : OHC, 1950). If you desire a basic

History of the Church 101, this will do nicely.

Charles L. Allen, God's Psychiatry: Healing for Your Troubled Heart, (Grand Rapids,

MI: Revell, 1953). Psalm 23, Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and Beatitudes.

John William Klein, Acts 2:42 - Apostolicity and the Church's One Foundation, (Irvine,

CA: Anglican Liturgy Press, an imprint of Anglican House, 2019) soon to be published

by the ACNA. We used this, indeed rewrote it for Continuing Anglicanism, three years

ago at the beginning of our mission in the APA.

Kenneth N. Myers, The Garden of Happiness: Cultivating True and Lasting

Happiness in Life (Sherman, TX: MayeuxPress, 2008). We read it on Wednesday

nights. A++++

Frank Wilson, Faith and Practice (NY: Morehouse, 1939). Superb at coffee hour.

Holy Land Pilgrimage February 11-20, 2020

https://www.explority.com/groups/nli/5cae54390300f4000481dd3b

Save the date for the next APA Holy Land Pilgrimage. It promises to be everything the last one was and more. Bishop Chad and I urge you to come with us. Every Christian should do this once. If you want to touch the Sea of Galilee, ascend the Mount of Transfiguration, celebrate the Eucharist everywhere and pray Morning and Evening Prayer daily, carry a cross along the Via Dolorosa to Calvary and the Holy Sepulcher, and simply walk in the footsteps of our Savior, then this pilgrimage is for you. See the URL above, register now, and tell your friends. You will be so richly blessed. JWK+

December 7th Quiet Day

at Blessed Trinity Shrine Retreat Center Sponsored by St. James the Great, Smiths Station & St. Matthias, Dothan

The recent August Quiet Day at Blessed Trinity was such a great success that we now plan to have three annually. The Saturday, December 7 Quiet Day will be on the Eve of the Feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and will have a Marian theme with Sister Gail giving one of the meditations. Fr. Ben Jefferies of The Good Shepherd Anglican Church in Opelika (ACNA) will give the first of three optional sessions in the afternoon on "Lecto Divina: How to do it." Fr. Klein will talk about: "Hymns and our Life-Defining Moments." The third breakout session will be: "Christian Efficiency in an Age of Electronic Chaos."

Wear comfortable clothing and walking shoes. This is a simple traditional Anglican Quiet Day with the intent to both spiritually inspire and physically refresh the participants. Cost: Free of charge by the gift of a generous benefactor. RSVP: Fr. John Klein at (334) 663-2985 or kleinjw@auburn.edu

Schedule:

9:30 AM (EDT) Coffee, pastry and greeting from Sisters Gail and Pat.

10:00 AM - The First Mediation by Sr. Gail, MSBT, on "Mary's Role in the Incarnation" in the modern chapel (silence until Lunch).

10:45 AM - A Brief Break

11:00 AM - Holy Eucharist in the original chapel used by Fr. Thomas Judge. Fr. Klein will give the Second Meditation here on: "Mary the Second Eve and Ark of the Covenant."

12:00 - Lunch preceded by Grace and Noonday Collects. (Silence is ended)

12:45 PM - Another brief break until …

1:30 PM - The Third Mediation, again in the modern chapel.

2:30 PM - Assemble in the atrium for one of four options:

1. Lectio Divina with Fr. Ben Jefferies. 2. "Hymns and our Life-Defining Moments" with Fr. Klein. 3. "Christian Efficiency in an Age of Electronic Chaos." 4. Time to yourself: explore the Holy Trinity Retreat Center, read a book, talk to a

friend, nap, or what is most re-creative for you. 4:00 - Evening Prayer, hopefully sung.

4:30 - Farewells and journey home.

From Bishop Chad

9th September 2019 Dearly beloved in the Lord, Praised be Jesus Christ! The time has finally arrived... for the second time! This email is sent to all of our Georgia/Deep South area Continuing Church Joint Synods (G4) Rectors and Vicars, and key potential lay volunteers, in order to solicit your gracious assistance at the impending Joint Anglican Synods in Atlanta, 13th-17th January 2020. At this time, we should like to ask each priest and congregation to reach out to one's own congregation and make an appeal for help. As one can see from the list below, we have tremendous need for volunteers, and we hope to enlist as many volunteers as possible to support the ministry of the Synod. Although the Anglican Province of America (APA) will not be participating in the Joint Synods this coming year, we hope that as many APA clergy and volunteers as possible will volunteer to come to the Synods and support our sister full communion Churches. We need APA assistance - and APA people are certainly welcome to attend as observers and as volunteers. Saint Barnabas Church Dunwoody is fully committed to supporting the Joint Synods. Please publish the following categories in your newsletters, bulletins, and journals with a registration sheet in your narthex for volunteers - we hope to incorporate every willing soul in this effort. The names of volunteers should be forwarded to me and, in turn, I hope to hand them over to Debbie Weaver as soon as possible. Several individuals are proposed herein to help us in each category, and we hope that each will prayerfully consider accepting nomination for service. Each area needs a head coordinator, that is, a coordinating chairman, and we hope someone in each area will step forward for that role. An individual may certainly volunteer for more than one role during the Synod! Should one have any comments or questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at anytime on 404.313.9448 and bspchj@gmail.com: we are so very profoundly, intensely grateful for your willingness to help us in making this momentous occasion in the history of our beloved Continuing Church one of the very greatest. We are truly thankful to God for all of you! Please do share this email with any Georgia missions or parishes of one's own jurisdiction which may accidentally fail to appear in the email addresses above. God bless you and keep you! +Chad ALTAR SERVERS for liturgies will be selected by each jurisdiction to assist at the liturgies assigned. Volunteers for the SYNOD CHOIR should contact our Choirmaster, Bishop Daren Williams, on dkwrtd@gmail.com

1. Hospitality Team: Each day we need persons present to greet arrivals and distribute packets at the registration desk. Our volunteers would also be available to direct people round the hotel complex to desired destinations. We hope hospitality volunteers will assist us in monitoring the hotel in order to help attendees when needed. From Monday 13th January through Thursday 16th January, we shall need two four-hour shifts each day, 8am to Noon, and Noon to 4pm. Tables will need to be set-up at 8am on Monday morning 13th January, and registration begins at 9am. Three tables will be needed, one for each participating jurisdiction. Volunteers will need to be briefed in advance of registration on the basic process. Volunteers are tasked with finding names and packets for registrants. Each participating jurisdiction will have incoming participants beginning Monday 13th January, except for the Diocese of the Holy Cross. It would be ideal to have at least 8 volunteers for each shift each day. Volunteers are also needed to retrieve tickets, to receive money for events as may be required, and to take tickets at the doors. A total of 32 volunteers would be most helpful. We should like to invite David Turney, Alex Marlowe, Scott Godwin, Sheila Baptist, Emily Rowell, and Linda McWilliams to assist us as coordinators. I shall be available to assist personally. 2. Ushers. Each day at the Joint Synods, we shall have Morning Prayer and Mass, and Evensong, Monday through Thursday. We should like to have two ushers for each morning service and two ushers for each evening service, Monday through Thursday. On Friday Morning 17th January we shall have our Synod Mass, and we anticipate a large congregation in the main hall of the hotel. We believe we need 10 ushers for the Friday morning Mass to distribute bulletins and 'direct traffic.' Bulletins will be distributed for each service each day at the hotel. A total of 26 volunteers would be most helpful. We should like to invite Jim Spotts, Femi Adenugba, and Cliff Cagle to assist us as coordinators. 3. Altar Guild. A room will probably need to be set-up on Sunday night 12th January or early Monday morning 13th January for the Monday morning Low Mass, at which we expect an attendance of 40 people. Mass and other liturgies will likely move to the Main Room, beginning Tuesday. We shall require assistance on Sunday afternoon 12th January and Monday morning 13th January for transporting and setting up all Altar items: we may need four people on Sunday evening and four people again on Monday morning to help us set-up the Altars. Beginning on Monday morning at 9am, we shall need to set-up the Altar in the Main Room for the rest of the week. We are hopeful that Saint Stephen's Cathedral Athens (ACC) will provide hosts and wine, vestments, and the 1977 Saint Louis Congress frontal for the High Altar. Saint Barnabas is prepared to provide whatever may be needed as well. Each day we have Mass in the morning: we need a regular crew of 2-3 persons each morning to set up for the daily Mass. The stage for the High Altar necessitates a table 42 inches high, 8 feet long.

A total of 10 volunteers would be most helpful. We should like to invite Father Nick Athanaelos, Father Robert Bader, Father Geordan Geddings, Deacon Richard Hitchcock, Mary Linda Duncan, and Cyndy McElveen to assist us as coordinators. I shall be available to assist personally. 4. Flowers: We only require two arrangements for the High Altar. We should like to invite Barbara Smalley to assist us as a coordinator. 5. Security. We shall need one person to volunteer to be in the Synod Office every day during working hours. Our Synod Office will be locked when not open. We should like to be able to provide security monitoring for exhibitors and their booths if possible. A total of 5 volunteers would be most helpful. We should like to invite Randy Cline and Bill Wall to assist us as coordinators. 6. Bulletins We plan to create a bulletin for each service of the Joint Synods; preparation and printing will take place via Saint Barnabas Dunwoody. The back cover of the Friday Synod Mass bulletin will acknowledge Synod Committee members. A total of 5 volunteers would be most helpful. We should like to invite Creighton McElveen to assist us as a coordinator.

℣: Pray for us Saint James. ℟: That we may be worthy of the promises of Christ. Photograph of the High Altar and botafumeiro being swung at Santiago de Compostela.

Note the Cardinal Archbishop with miter and crozier at the altar.