By DAVID EPPS
Pastor

This Sept. 8, our church, Christ the King, will observe its sixth anniversary. It hardly seems possible that in 1996 we met in a living room with 19 people. Today, our first sanctuary is being constructed and we're a pretty excited bunch. The last church I served as pastor was founded in 1979, so they celebrated their 23rd anniversary this year. Most of the churches in the area, in fact, are probably less than 35 years old.

A few weeks ago, I attended Morning Mass at All Saints Church in Brisbane, Australia, which bills itself as the "oldest Anglican church in continuous service in Brisbane." The congregation was founded in 1864. At 138 years old, that's an ancient church in a nation that is younger than the United States.

A couple of weeks ago in Coweta County, Georgia, two Baptist congregations observed milestones. Providence Baptist Church celebrated its 165th anniversary while the good folk at Macedonia Baptist Church hit the 175-year mark. For this area, even for the United States, that's a couple of impressive anniversaries.

Yet, by European standards, all of those dates just mentioned barely merit a raised eyebrow. In January 2002, I had the opportunity to study Celtic Christianity in Ireland. The group visited its first church, St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, on a Sunday morning where we attended services of worship. The Boy's Choir sang that day and I sensed the history in the ancient edifice. After the service, as I was wandering around, I saw a sign near the choir room which said, "Boy's Choir - Singing Continuously to the Glory of God Since 1492." Now that's humbling to a pastor whose church is not quite six years old.

As we continued our tour of churches in Ireland, I stood where St. Patrick proclaimed the Gospel in the 5th century and visited St. Brigit's Church (Brigit, abbess of a large double monastery in County Kildare, lived in the 5th and 6th centuries and was said, by some, to have been a bishop in Ireland). I also visited the monastic settle of St. Kevin founded in the 6th century at Glendalough (which was active for 1,000 years), strolled upon the grounds of Clonmacnoise, which was founded in 545 A.D. and housed over 2,500 students and was a renown center of learning. It was attacked approximately 40 times from the 8th to the 12th century.....8 times by the Vikings; 6 times by the Anglo Normans and 26 times by the Irish. Each time the Monks rebuilt. In 1552 it was finally reduced to ruin by the English garrison in Athlone. At Trinity College, Dublin, we saw the Book of Kells, a beautifully illustrated version of the four Gospels which was produced over 1,200 years ago.

In the 4th century, in what is now County Tipperary, a fortress castle was built and became known as the Rock of Cashel. St. Patrick converted their leader in the 5th century in a ceremony in which the saint accidentally stabbed the king in the foot with his crozier (a large walking staff). The king, thinking this was a painful initiation rite, bore the pain. Considering the actions taken by St. Patrick on other occasions against nonbelievers, possibly he was afraid to react. I walked on the same ground and saw crosiers, chalices, and other liturgical items that were over 1,000 years old.

If all that wasn't old enough, I was able to go into Newgrange, a pre-Christian Neolithic tomb that was build by an unknown people between 3300 and 2900 B.C.! They even let me run my fingers along the ancient carvings that are over 5,000 years old.

In the U.S., people are prone to consider a computer that is two years old as "ancient." After walking in some truly ancient and sacred ground, "old" takes on a new meaning. For the last six years, I have proclaimed to our people that we are "building for the future" and that we are "planning for the generations to come." Six years seems like a pretty good start but, should the Lord delay his coming, we and our descendants will, God willing, be still serving the Lord at Christ the King for 165 or 175 years. Or even 1,000 or more. Impossible? Not at all. We're in this for the long haul!

[The Reverend Canon David Epps is rector of Christ the King Charismatic Episcopal Church in the Coweta/Fayette County area of south metro Atlanta. He may be contacted at FatherDavidEpps@aol.com or at www.ctkcec.org.]

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