Pittsburgh and the CEEC

The "Great Leap" continued: from California to Pittsburgh and beyond; from student to missionary.

I completed my June 2006 visit with the Church Army folks in Pennsylvania, where Church Army's "Common Grounds Café" is a light in the darkness and symbol for hope in downtown Aliquippa, the blighted 'ground zero' for the devastation wrought by the closure of the steel mills in the U.S. Every person who walks through the Café door is a ministry opportunity, and the rooms over the café would soon be readied for use as classrooms for life skills training, in cooperation with other social services in the area. But God had more for me in Pennsylvania that I had not anticipated.

.. Early in my visit, I began attending
two house churches led by Fr. Alan Morris, a priest of the CEEC (Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches).

He taught fervently on the need for discipleship.

He said, "The Great Commission--'Go and make disciples'--is not optional, unless God has given you special dispensation to do otherwise."

On June 24 I attended two ordinations. The first was of three Trinity seminary graduates being ordained by Archbishop Russell McLanahan of the CEEC, in which I was crucifer and read the Psalm.

.. All of these photos are from the
second ordination, of seminary student Michael Baba Yemba of Sudan.

Michael Baba Yemba was ordained by Bishop Ezekiel Kondo of the Sudan.
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Bishop Ezekiel Kondo was assisted by Archbishop Russell McClanahan of the CEEC,

Bishop John Rodgers of the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA),

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and by Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt (seen here standing with Archbishop McClanahan),

and by Bishops Robert Duncan and Henry Scriven of Pittsburgh.

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Here is the newly ordained Michael Baba Yemba standing pensively as Archbishop McClanahan talks with Bishop Kondo .

. At the reception following this service there was an animated and hopeful conversation about future possibilities in the Anglican Communion. .. The conversation was sparked and led by Bp. Scriven, assistant to Bp. Duncan, moderator of the Anglican Communion Network, working to "contend for the faith once delivered to the saints" (Jude 3).

Next post in the Great Leap series: on to Branson, Missouri.