This past Sunday our little church had the Bishop visit who conducted a couple of confirmations and receptions into the ACNA. In talking to other church members and finding myself explaining Confirmation to some I began to see our congregation in a new light as a group of former Baptists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, atheists, etc., most of whom are learning the Anglican traditions from our rector, our Bible study, our Prayer Book, hymns, and sometimes from myself.
We do get a few visitors from off the street. These are mostly those who came during the week to the food pantry or the clothes closet and received a warm welcome and invitation to worship with us on Sunday.
This is my family now, a bunch of former everythings. I love them all and am thankful to God for putting me here.
I've had a similar experience in my weekday Bible study. Participants' backgrounds were atheist, Baptist, Lutheran, and Methodist, as well as Episcopalian/Anglican. It's important to present the genuine Anglican and Prayer Book tradition to all. We are a reformed church, based on Scripture and the first centuries of Christian practice, in continuity with the church of the apostles and of all the time before us. We are not a new creation of the sixteenth century or of any century since then.
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