ANGLICAN SAINT JOSEPH CHURCH

St. Joseph is a parish in the Diocese of the West of the Anglican Province of America under the Most Rev. Gregory Venables, Archbishop of the Southern Cone in the world wide Anglican Communion, the second largest Church in Christendom. Like the Roman, Orthodox and Old Catholic Churches, the Anglican Communion has geographic and non-geographic dioceses (subdivisions).

We Anglicans have always prided ourselves in being the Bridge Church between the Roman Catholic Church and Protestantism. We are both Catholic and Reformed or Evangelical, Traditional or Orthodox and modern, but not liberal. Discarding no eternal or historic truth, we face the challenges of modern day living with traditional worship and sacraments.

We have various levels of churchmanship in Anglicanism which has a lot to do with ritual used, some to do with theology. At St. Joseph Parish, we are middle of the road. We preach and base our lives and ritual on the Gospel of Jesus Christ without addition or subtraction.

We use the King James Version of the Bible, first translated into English by our Church, and the three historic Creeds of the undivided Church. We use the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, virtually the same as the 1549 first English translation of the ancient service book.

Out primary service is the Eucharist or Holy Communion which has two parts. The first part is the same Jewish worship service in which Jesus Christ participated every Sabbath of His earthly life. (We do use New as well as Old Testament passages - one difference). The second part is the Lord's Supper that Christ instituted and commanded us to do likewise, on Maundy Thursday just before He was crucified to atone for our sins and then rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. We believe Christ is truly present in the communion elements without trying to explain how this can be. This is a mystery of the infinite that we with finite minds accept Christ's direction without trying to define the infinite.

At St. Joseph we also use the Morning Prayer service which is a bit like the first part of our Eucharist. It is the first Hours of the Divine Office. After Morning Prayer we always have a healing service or Communion.

Practicing the Faith of the undivided Church in a hostile world is our means of bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all souls. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to visit, and all baptized Christians are welcome at our communion rail.

Anglican St. Joseph just built a new church structure. We use the old Victorian house that had been our church since 1984 as a parish hall and Sunday school. We suffer from an 'edifice' complex, and most of us hated to give up our old chapel. But, we lost young families that we attracted because we did not have separate facilities for pre-school and grade school age children. We now have the facilities and program for all ages.

Our local church members come from a broad spectrum of backgrounds in this country and abroad. Many left the Episcopal Church (ECUSA) because of the loss of our time honored Book of Common Prayer and/or the acceptance of and blessing of homosexuality. We lament their consecration of a practicing homosexual as a bishop and their blessing of "same sex unions." We see this not only as sin, but as an abomination. Other deviation from God's law is regarded in the same light. All sinners are welcome and we, who are all sinners of one kind or another, will endeavor to lead a better life this day that the Lord has made. We accept that sin is sin, and that we sinners must repent and live as God has directed.

Our ANGLICAN PROVINCE OF AMERICA (APA) has merged with most of the Christian Episcopal Church, with many dioceses of various jurisdictions and is in the final stage of merger with the Reformed Episcopal Church. Also, orthodox ECUSA dioceses have signed agreements of intercommunion and clergy exchange. Acceptance of individual Episcopal and Anglican parishes is both complete and continuing. The APA is a pace setter in the second Anglican Reformation and the reuniting of Anglicanism through the establishment of the FEDERATION OF ANGLICAN CHURCHES IN AMERICA under Archbishop Gregory Venables of the worldwide Anglican Communion, part of the next Lambeth Conference.

We believe, preach, and practice the faith once delivered to the saints. We believe that sin is sin and not a social trend or issue; Having been born again of water and the Holy Ghost, we believe that repentance and absolution lead to salvation through Jesus Christ; We resist attempts to change eternal truth; We believe and practice all this in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.



			ANGLICAN SAINT JOSEPH CHURCH St. Joseph is a parish in the Diocese of the West of the Anglican Province of America under the Most Rev. Gregory Venables, Archbishop of the Southern Cone in the world wide Anglican Communion, the second largest Church in Christendom. Like the Roman, Orthodox and Old Catholic Churches, the Anglican Communion has geographic and non-geographic dioceses (subdivisions). We Anglicans have always prided ourselves in being the Bridge Church between the Roman Catholic Church and Protestantism. We are both Catholic and Reformed or Evangelical, Traditional or Orthodox and modern, but not liberal. Discarding no eternal or historic truth, we face the challenges of modern day living with traditional worship and sacraments. We have various levels of churchmanship in Anglicanism which has a lot to do with ritual used, some to do with theology. At St. Joseph Parish, we are middle of the road. We preach and base our lives and ritual on the Gospel of Jesus Christ without addition or subtraction. We use the King James Version of the Bible, first translated into English by our Church, and the three historic Creeds of the undivided Church. We use the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, virtually the same as the 1549 first English translation of the ancient service book. Out primary service is the Eucharist or Holy Communion which has two parts. The first part is the same Jewish worship service in which Jesus Christ participated every Sabbath of His earthly life. (We do use New as well as Old Testament passages - one difference). The second part is the Lord's Supper that Christ instituted and commanded us to do likewise, on Maundy Thursday just before He was crucified to atone for our sins and then rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. We believe Christ is truly present in the communion elements without trying to explain how this can be. This is a mystery of the infinite that we with finite minds accept Christ's direction without trying to define the infinite. At St. Joseph we also use the Morning Prayer service which is a bit like the first part of our Eucharist. It is the first Hours of the Divine Office. After Morning Prayer we always have a healing service or Communion. Practicing the Faith of the undivided Church in a hostile world is our means of bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all souls. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to visit, and all baptized Christians are welcome at our communion rail. Anglican St. Joseph just built a new church structure. We use the old Victorian house that had been our church since 1984 as a parish hall and Sunday school. We suffer from an 'edifice' complex, and most of us hated to give up our old chapel. But, we lost young families that we attracted because we did not have separate facilities for pre-school and grade school age children. We now have the facilities and program for all ages. Our local church members come from a broad spectrum of backgrounds in this country and abroad. Many left the Episcopal Church (ECUSA) because of the loss of our time honored Book of Common Prayer and/or the acceptance of and blessing of homosexuality. We lament their consecration of a practicing homosexual as a bishop and their blessing of "same sex unions." We see this not only as sin, but as an abomination. Other deviation from God's law is regarded in the same light. All sinners are welcome and we, who are all sinners of one kind or another, will endeavor to lead a better life this day that the Lord has made. We accept that sin is sin, and that we sinners must repent and live as God has directed. Our ANGLICAN PROVINCE OF AMERICA (APA) has merged with most of the Christian Episcopal Church, with many dioceses of various jurisdictions and is in the final stage of merger with the Reformed Episcopal Church. Also, orthodox ECUSA dioceses have signed agreements of intercommunion and clergy exchange. Acceptance of individual Episcopal and Anglican parishes is both complete and continuing. The APA is a pace setter in the second Anglican Reformation and the reuniting of Anglicanism through the establishment of the FEDERATION OF ANGLICAN CHURCHES IN AMERICA under Archbishop Gregory Venables of the worldwide Anglican Communion, part of the next Lambeth Conference. We believe, preach, and practice the faith once delivered to the saints. We believe that sin is sin and not a social trend or issue; Having been born again of water and the Holy Ghost, we believe that repentance and absolution lead to salvation through Jesus Christ; We resist attempts to change eternal truth; We believe and practice all this in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.