Anglican Fellowship of Prayer Holds Conference
Diocesan Press Service. May 21, 1974 [74152]
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- "I got interested in prayer because I had to survive!" The Rt. Rev. Austin Pardue, retired Bishop of Pittsburgh, speaking at the 16th annual conference of the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer, helped celebrate the renewal of the prayer life of the Church.
Looking back over his life as priest and bishop in the Episcopal Church, Bishop Pardue recalled the fads and movements which have had their day as the Church struggled for renewal. There have been radio campaigns, group dynamics, confrontations, discussion groups. There have been excited theories of Christian Education that were supposed to answer all needs. There were committees for special studies, surveys, and uncounted task forces. There was experimentation and excess in theology, spiritualism, and worship.
"They were fine, sincere labors," Bishop Pardue said, "but they were not feeding our sheep with the heavenly manna.
"But wherever in history there has been an excess in any movement, the Church in her genius has had an answer to that excess. And something incalculable happened in the Church Universal. What we really needed was a renewal of our own souls and the rebirth of our prayer lives. And the hunger for these began to grow."
The Bishop traced the growth of the small prayer group movement from its beginnings to the present when the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer is the "umbrella" or "tent" which covers and encloses all groups "growing and developing in the guidance of the Holy Spirit and in the love of God. "
16th Annual Conference
The Conference on May 2, 3, 4 attracted more than 200 persons from across the United States and Canada to Gethsemane Church in Minneapolis. Former conferences have been held in Michigan, Virginia, Ontario, Texas, Missouri, New York, and Florida.
At workshop sessions conferees considered the various aspects of prayer and meditation. They attended an outstanding question and answer session at which Conference co-hosts, Bishop Philip McNairy of Minnesota and Bishop Charles Gaskell of Milwaukee, " fielded " questions from the floor. The questions were concerned with such subjects as Our Response to God's Gifts, Answers to Prayer, Truth in the Bible, Age and Christian Commitment, Opposition to the Charismatic Movement, and Exorcism and the Devil. The bishops' articulate and thoughtful answers were a memorable part of the Conference.
"Prayer and Evangelism"
The principle address was delivered by the Rt. Rev. Allen W. Brown, who recently retired as Bishop of Albany. He explored the Conference theme, "Prayer and Evangelism, " and found in it "Perpendiculars, Horizontals, and Integrity. "
The perpendicular is our communication with God, commonly known as prayer. The Horizontal is our compulsion to share the consequences of our communication with God. Integrity is the unifying process between persons which is the consequence of all valid prayer and all responsible evangelism.
The Christian must not communicate only with God and with other Christians, said Bishop Brown. He is commissioned to speak in these present times when life has become fragmented, computerized, irrelevant, when man is uncertain of his identity and destiny, and in his quest for freedom has been imprisoned by new tyrannies.
The Christian religion offers a way out of man's crises, and prayer is the dynamic of that religion. In its fullness it leads man to his true destiny.
" Prayer is a process which can be pictured as a wheel, " the Bishop continued. "Christ is at the center, and we are the spokes. As we draw near the center we draw nearer each other, and as we draw together we reach the center.
"We must not substitute piety for social action or social action for piety. Evangelism without prayer is arrogance. And prayer limited to purely subjective results is an evasion of the Christian's social responsibility.
"The Holy Spirit is at work calling us to oneness in Christ, oneness with ourselves, and with one another -- through prayer and evangelism. "
An International Fellowship
The Anglican Fellowship of Prayer has Field Representatives in most states of the United States and in Canada, England, Alaska, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Korea, Taiwan, Polynesia, and Melanesia.
The founders of the Fellowship, Mrs. Helen Shoemaker and Mrs. Polly Wiley, are presently Co-Directors. The Rev. Donald M. Hultstrand, rector of St. Paul's Church, Duluth, Minnesota, is Chairman of the Board of Trustees.
The 1975 Conference will be held in Atlantic City, New Jersey with the Rt. Rev. Albert W. Van Duzer, Bishop of New Jersey, as host.