I just returned from six days in Honduras where I toured a home for girls (Our Little Roses) and two Episcopal bilingual schools in the San Pedro Sula area, and attended an Episcopal Revival, ¡Avivamiento! in Siguatepeque. The revival was a great place of renewal with Hispanic music, great preaching by Bishop Lloyd Allen and Presiding Bishop Michael Curry as well as other clergy from the United States and Honduras. At the close of the day, clergy were available to offer healing prayer and the lines were long.
The revival is just what I needed: good music, a return to Jesus, and the Holy Spirit’s healing presence. I came to appreciate the warmth of a Hispanic worship service from my 10 years in San Antonio where we would worship at the San Fernando Cathedral to enjoy a service in both Spanish and English complete with a Mariachi band!
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has embraced “The Jesus Movement” which is described as how we are following Jesus into loving, liberating and life-giving relationships with God, with each other, and with the earth.
Membership in The Jesus Movement is straightforward: First, we follow Jesus. We are the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement, seeking every day to love God with our whole heart, mind and soul, and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40). Just like Jesus.
Episcopal Revivals seek to fulfill that age-old purpose, in a uniquely Episcopal way. They aim to:
1) proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ in the language of the people,
2) share faith and open space for others’ stories about God,
3) organize people to embody good news through reconciling action and justice,
4) engage in intensified prayer and preparation before, during and after the “event”,
5) gather a diverse body that crosses lines of age, race, culture, and class, and,
6) equip and send people to share, celebrate and embody the good news in daily life.
Our world can use more good news in our daily lives.
¡Vamos! ¡Avivamiento!
Blessings, my friend,
Agatha