Anglican Diocese of the Living Word| Pastoral Address

Missions Conference and Synod 2024| Souderton, Pennsylvania

The Rt. Rev. Julian M. Dobbs L.Th, Th.M, D.D

In the name of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Thank you for responding to my invitation to gather for this 2024 Missions Conference and
Synod of the Anglican Diocese of the Living Word. This is our eleventh synod together as a
diocese. We were, as many you know, together as a convocation from 2006 prior to the
creation of the diocese and were founding members of the Anglican Church in North America in
2009. God be thanked for the mission and ministry we share together.

It has been quite a ride! At our diocesan formation meeting we had 19 congregations and 29
clergy. As of today, we have 43 congregations and missions, additional chaplaincies, church
plants, 121 clergy, three bishops and ministries in Ghana, Haiti and Japan. Interestingly, when
we began, only 5 of our congregations owned church buildings. Today, 22 have their own
buildings from which divine worship and Christian ministry is based.

The mission we share is to extend the kingdom of God by so presenting Jesus Christ in the
power of the Holy Spirit that people everywhere will come to put their trust in God through him,
know him as Savior and serve as Him Lord in the fellowship of the Church.1

That statement is from Article III, Section I of the Constitution of the Anglican Church in North
America (the province with which this diocese is affiliated).

Jesus Christ is referenced four times in that statement and that is very significant for Anglicans!

1. presenting Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit

2. that people everywhere will come to put their trust in God through him
3. know him as Savior
4. serve Him as Lord in the fellowship of the Church.2

Have you ever had someone ask you what it means to be Anglican? We often struggle to give
a deep and significant response. Roman Catholic lite! The Episcopal Church without
wokeness. The coronation service of Charles III. Ancient and modern (whatever that means)!

Some people tell you with bemusement that Anglicans are all about divorce, citing Archbishop
Cranmer’s dissolution of Henry VIII’s marriage in 1533.

And yet, our canon theologian, Dr. Henry Jansma writes, “Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s did
not endure the flames of martyrdom for his eucharistic doctrine, but for his catholic
Christology.”3

This is what we believe!

Cranmer was all about Jesus! And on March 21, 1556, he gave up his earthly life in the flames
because he thoroughly believed that through Jesus Christ alone the kingdom of heaven is
opened to those who put their trust in Him.

1ACNA Constitution, Article III: The Mission of the Province

2ACNA Constitution, Article III: The Mission of the Province
3Jansma quote, “Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s Christology remained thoroughly catholic. He was a consistent defender of the Council of Chalcedon’s definition of the integrity of
Christ’s divinity and humanity. For Cranmer, it is the whole Christ who redeems us. Cranmer did not endure the flames of martyrdom for his eucharistic doctrine, but for his catholic
Christology which demanded the integrity of his Savior’s person being constitutive of his saving work for us.”

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 Anglican Diocese of the Living Word| Pastoral Address
Missions Conference and Synod 2024| Souderton, Pennsylvania
The Rt. Rev. Julian M. Dobbs L.Th, Th.M, D.D

When anyone asks you what it means to be Anglican, you may with historical accuracy and
constitutional confidence reply, “Being Anglican is all about Jesus!” Isn’t that a relief!

• Presenting him
• Trusting him
• Knowing him
• Serving him

I have spent most of my life talking to people about Jesus. He is my great enthusiasm. In my
early years as a Christian, I preached about the love and forgiveness of Jesus on street corners,
which opened, for the most part, incredible opportunities to dialog about the Savior with skeptics
and seekers alike. Years later, Brenda and I had the privilege of working closely with believers
in Jesus who knew the costly sacrifice of conversion to Christ from Islam and other religions.

Jesus was my great enthusiasm then and He remains my great enthusiasm today.

I am thrilled, aren’t you too, to be part of a church which invites us to share in a mission to
extend the kingdom of God by so presenting Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit that
people everywhere will come to put their trust in God through him, know Him as Savior and
serve Him as Lord in the fellowship of the Church. What a privilege!

If then, being Anglican is all about Jesus and the extension of his kingdom, then engaging in this
mission will require us to talk to people about Him! And yet, talking to other people about Jesus
is a commission that is getting tougher! I am wondering how the future with Jesus, the future of
the Anglican Church and the future of our nation will all intersect. For unless God intervenes, or
the church regains her confidence in proclamation, we can almost certainly expect a rise in
disorganized religion.

A Washington Post article, which was attempting to describe what America would look like in
2050 said, “America will look different…. This doesn't necessarily mean that [America] will be
atheistic or agnostic; it simply includes the wide body of people who don't categorize their belief
systems into an existing religious practice.”4 These projected changing demographics in our
society will, I believe, result in changing attitudes to Jesus Christ.

Interestingly, the same article also projected that globally in 2050, the number of Muslims will
nearly match the number of Christians (and that should concern us on several levels).

Jesus is still there in 2050 America, but He has largely been rendered privatized or irrelevant.
Even today, Jesus is being pushed out of memory and imagination. This is not just an organic
development.

A number of adult Americans in one of our largest metropolitan cities were recently asked, what
do Christians celebrate at Easter? One person answered, “Father’s Day” while another
answered, “Memorial Day.” People seem to know so little about Jesus that they are unwilling or
unable to refer to Him explicitly in a discussion about our present circumstances. We appear to
be so uncomfortable bringing Him to the family Thanksgiving and Christmas tables to tell us
what He thinks because so many people today have been taught that truth is offensive and that

4 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/04/03/what-america-will-look-like-in-2050-less-christian-less-white-more-gray/

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 Anglican Diocese of the Living Word| Pastoral Address
Missions Conference and Synod 2024| Souderton, Pennsylvania
The Rt. Rev. Julian M. Dobbs L.Th, Th.M, D.D

no one should criticize their lifestyle choices. They are sensitized to the accusation of sin and
closed off from the opportunity to repent.

Sadly, at some recent juncture, ‘sin’ disappeared from our national lexicon and then other
Christian doctrines followed suit and vanished from much of our national consciousness.
The novelist David Lodge noted the absence of hell by the decade of the 1960s. He wrote, “At
some point in the 1960s, hell disappeared. No one could say for certain when this happened.
First it was there, then it wasn't.”5

Further intensifying these circumstances is the hijacking of Christ’s message by individuals

attempting to take ownership of Him to further their own personal and political agendas and
advancement.

A member of our diocese who works in local government wrote this to me last month,
“Christians in all walks of life need to remember that, ultimately, we serve Christ the King, not
Christ the elected official. He is constant and unwavering, not subject to the blowing of political
winds. The Truth found only in Christ and His Church needs to be communicated the most,
ironically, to those who would be the most offended by it. We’re commissioned to go forth and
make disciples of all nations, not to be inoffensive in the eyes of Christ’s opponents.”

So, with these things in mind, how has Jesus been involved in our public life in the United
States of America? What part did He play in our founding and what did our Christian forbears in
this nation think about Him?

The role of religion in the American republic has been a source of controversy since our nation’s
inception. Debates are particularly fierce when they concern freedom of conscience, freedom of
expression and the proper relationship between church and state. On these matters we appear
less reluctant to initiate debate. But talk about Jesus, the person, the Messiah, the Savior, the
Judge and an awkward silence descends upon American conversation like a heavy fog on a
damp spring morning.

Firstly, we continue talk about Jesus because He is the most influential person who has ever
lived. Ralph ‘Waldo’ Emerson the 19th century American essayist and abolitionist, said that the
name of Jesus is not so much written as “plowed” into the history of the world.

Listen to these words attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte. "I know men and I tell you that Jesus
Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible
term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I founded empires. But on what did
we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love,
and to this hour millions of people would die for him.”

Noted atheist Richard Dawkins recently acknowledged that he is something of a ‘cultural

Christian’ because he prefers to live in a world formed by Christian notions of compassion and
justice. Even this most ardent critic of so-called ‘organized religion’ recognizes the influence of
Jesus Christ on his moral intuitions.

So, firstly, we talk about Jesus because He is the most influential person who has ever lived.

5 David Lodge, Bodies and Souls 1980

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 Anglican Diocese of the Living Word| Pastoral Address
Missions Conference and Synod 2024| Souderton, Pennsylvania
The Rt. Rev. Julian M. Dobbs L.Th, Th.M, D.D

I would say, that the United States is now secular, but in a Christian sort of way. I have now
lived in this nation for almost 20 years.

Not only do I want to live in this nation, I am thankful that God brought Brenda and me and our
children to this country and that we chose to stay in this country. This is our home and we are
proud naturalized Americans. We have American grandchildren and I am honored to introduce
you to the young man who in just 12 weeks will become my second American son-in-law.

I am now heavily invested in this country and it is my observation that it is difficult to understand
American history, literature and identity if you know little about the Jesus of the gospels.
It is certainly the case that the 17th century colonists were attracted to the New World by
economic opportunity, but the protection and promotion of Christianity were more important to
these early colonists than many of us remember. Christianity and the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ are clearly embedded into our nation’s founding and as a result, into our own national
identity.

The first three articles of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s 1610 legal code state that the
colonists have embarked on a “sacred cause,” to mandate regular church attendance, and to
proclaim [severe punishment for] anyone who speaks impiously against the Trinity or who
blasphemes God’s name.6

Early colonial laws and constitutions such as the Mayflower Compact, the Fundamental Orders
of Connecticut and Massachusetts Body of Liberties are filled with such language—and in some
cases, they incorporate biblical texts.

Even here, in tolerant Pennsylvania, The Charter of Liberties and Frame of Government of the
Province of Pennsylvania (1681) begins by making it clear that God has ordained government
and it even quotes Romans 13 to this effect … imagine such language coming before the
Pennsylvania General Assembly today!
[Take a look sometime at Article 38 of this document, which lists “offenses against God” that
may be punished by the magistrate]. How far so-called sophisticated modern America has
drifted from our history and roots.

Archdeacon Alan Crippen, Rector of Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Hillsdale, Michigan, has
extensively studied the nation’s founding and has diligently labored to equip and form young
Christian men and women to follow Jesus Christ in public service and military vocations.

Recently, Alan wrote to me and said, “The influence of Jesus Christ and sacred Scripture on the
founders is profound and particularly, in their view, is a source of the virtue necessary to sustain
and perpetuate American ideals, institutions, and the constitutional order. Consider the words of
Bishop James Madison (1749-1812), a second cousin of U.S. President James Madison.
Bishop Madison was a leading public intellectual, the President of the College of William and
Mary, and the first Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. In a 1795 sermon marking a
Presidential Day of Thanksgiving, Bishop Madison said, ‘Brethren, the moment we drop the idea
of God, the remunerator of virtue, the avenger of iniquity; the moment we abandon that divine
system of equality, fraternity, and universal benevolence, which blessed Jesus taught and
exemplified; the moment that religion, the pure an undefiled religion, loses its influence over

6 Daniel L. Dreisbach and Mark David Hall, The Sacred Rights of Conscience: Selected Readings on Religious Liberty and Church–State Relations in the American Founding

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 Anglican Diocese of the Living Word| Pastoral Address
Missions Conference and Synod 2024| Souderton, Pennsylvania
The Rt. Rev. Julian M. Dobbs L.Th, Th.M, D.D

their hearts, from that fatal moment, farewell to all public and private happiness, farewell, a long
farewell to virtue, to patriotism, to liberty’! 7 (not bad for a bishop from Virginia)!

Clearly, the Bishop’s view in those early days, was that the young republic of United States
depended upon the Gospel for not only its flourishing, but its very survival.”

That is profound! And it come to us from an American Anglican bishop in 1795.

Listen again. ‘The moment we drop the idea of God… from that fatal moment, farewell to all
public and private happiness, farewell, a long farewell to virtue, to patriotism, to liberty!’

Madison’s concern was that this nation would not lose God from public life and that we would
hold fast to the teaching of the blessed Lord Jesus.

Brothers and sisters of this synod, what I want us to do and what I believe with all my heart that
we need to do as a nation while we still have the chance, is to talk about Jesus with our friends
and neighbors, our legislators and executives and bureaucrats, our tycoons and technocrats,
our store owners and retail assistants and see how the wisdom that created the world and
helped shape our national institutions, aspirations and identity is still speaking to us today.

I want to provoke a national conversation with the Jesus of the gospels. I want all of us to see
what a surprising man Jesus is and to trace something of his impact in our nation and on the
world. I want to see the trajectory which suggests that more is yet to come because the voice of
Jesus through his people has been muffled for so many decades. And we are not happier.
Suicide and depression rates together with our fentanyl crisis, tell a sobering tale. Something
has gone ruinously wrong with our pursuit of happiness.
And here is the truth: just like Archbishop Cranmer and Bishop Madison, we too can have the
same confidence in the power and authority of Jesus.

The gospel of John reminds us every Christmas morning, All things were made through him,
and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was
the light of men.8

We do well to be reminded that this is not the first time the Christian Church has confronted a
society with no biblical notion of sin. The early Christians in the Roman Empire knew the
experience of preaching sin to a society that knew only shame and guilt. And the power of the
Christian message was demonstrated in the fact that Christians were responsible for
transforming the worldview of the Roman Empire.9

Brothers and sisters of synod, because of who Jesus is, we can speak boldly to those caught in
the darkness of 2024 sin, despair and confusion. Jesus is still the source of life and light, the
One in whom we can still hope and continue to trust.

I acknowledge that we have no established church or religion in the United States. That is good.
That is good law. If I may say this without any aspersions on our brothers and sisters in the

7 Manifestation of the Beneficence of Divine Providence Towards America. A Discourse, delivered Thursday the 19th of February, 1795 being the day recommended by the President of
the United States, for general Thanksgiving and Prayer. Richmond, Printed by Thomas Nicholson, 1795
8 John 1, verse 3, ESV
9 AL. Mohler, Jr. Ruined Sinners, chapter 30

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 Anglican Diocese of the Living Word| Pastoral Address
Missions Conference and Synod 2024| Souderton, Pennsylvania
The Rt. Rev. Julian M. Dobbs L.Th, Th.M, D.D

United Kingdom, we have been spared some of the travails that come with a state church
(imagine, if Americas Head of State had final authority in the selection of our Anglican bishops).

But because we have no state religion, some modern thinkers seem to believe that this means
we have no basis for our civilization apart from a few scaled down general values like the
American Dream and the pursuit of personal empowerment.

At a time when other cultures seem menacingly assured and powerful, we seem to have
become, at best, very modest about our own past, very nervous about identifying who we are
and very shy about receiving inspiration from some of the greatest words ever spoken. We keep
thinking that tolerance, decency and a cancelling of the parts of our history which we find
intolerable will preserve us. We are, after all, a liberal society interested in the rights of the
individual and that for many modern Americans has become the religion of our day.

But when we are no longer prosperous, when we have to struggle for existence, if terrorism of
any kind becomes more of a part of life than it is today, what values will we uphold then? What
will sustain us? Where will we look for hope and inspiration? I hardly think that the American
Dream and the pursuit of personal empowerment will offer us the hope and inspiration we need
to traverse the uncertainty of the days ahead.

As America developed, many of our forebears looked to Jesus for their inspiration. He did not
seem to be a foreigner back then. And nor did He seem to be irrelevant to an emerging and
developing culture.

Read Assistant Professor Miles Smith IV book, “Religion and Republic” released yesterday and
you will soon discover that America, at its core, was a protestant nation. Dr. Miles Smith is a
voting delegate at this synod. I encourage you to speak with him.

Some of the early pioneer churchmen in our nation were so convinced about Jesus and the
transformation He brings to individuals and to society, that they risked almost everything in the
pursuit of proclaiming the gospel. They believed that Jesus made the only difference that lasts
for eternity. The testimony of their lives and their Christian service will inspire you.

One such figure is Jackson Kemper, the first Missionary Bishop in the United States. Today,
May 24, is set aside in our Anglican liturgical calendar as a ‘black letter day’ giving us the
opportunity to give thanks to God for Bishop Kemper’s life and ministry.

The United States Kemper entered at his birth, found the republic still in its infancy. Upstate
New York was less than a decade out of the Revolutionary War. President George Washington
and congress governed the still new American republic from New York City. Cholera, diphtheria,
malaria, typhoid and dozens of other diseases ravaged the capital. Joseph Smith Jr’s Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was rapidly rising in popularity and many across the country,
especially in the Northwest, were not committed followers of Jesus Christ.

Given that between 5-10 percent of the total population died in this disease-ridden period, in our
large cities, the early American bishops might have considered it wise to establish a ministry to
the poor, or agencies that would serve those ravished by the effects of disease. The need for
the church to bear witness to the love of Christ through service in this new republic was
unparalleled. So, how did the bishops respond to the economic and health crises faced by this
new nation? Those gathered for The Episcopal Church’s General Convention in 1835 decided

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 Anglican Diocese of the Living Word| Pastoral Address
Missions Conference and Synod 2024| Souderton, Pennsylvania
The Rt. Rev. Julian M. Dobbs L.Th, Th.M, D.D

their most strategic move was, amidst all the crises of their day, was to send one of their own
number as a missionary bishop to what was then called the Northwest.

The bishops rightly believed that something had to be done about the proclamation of the
gospel. And that took courage! Jackson Kemper was their chosen man. The selection of a
missionary bishop for such a time as this.

Kemper’s jurisdiction took in every western state north and west of the Ohio River with the
exception of the states of Ohio and Illinois. Modern Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota,
Missouri and Wisconsin were all under Kemper’s charge; the sheer geographic size of Kemper’s
jurisdiction is amazing.

We sometimes have meaningful debates about our multiple overlapping jurisdictions in the
Anglican Church in North America. These discussions are useful and we need to have more of
them in the future especially as we consider how to effectively present Jesus Christ to those in
our own vast geography.

Just as there were many social ills in 1835, the church today is beset by similar important
questions. Some conversations will be quite difficult! But our primary mission must always be
the preaching of the Gospel and the right administration of the sacraments. Nothing relieves the
urgency of our commission—not social ills outside the church or even contending with serious
problems within it. Recall what Archbishop Cranmer said in Article XXVI of the Thirty-Nine
Articles of Religion: the sacraments are “effectual because of Christ’s institution and promise.” It
is Christ’s promise that secures our Gospel work, not our own righteous works, or perfectly
executed church structures or even canon law reforms. Brothers and sisters, it is Christ’s
promise that secures our Gospel work, nothing more, nothing less.

The convention of 1835 that elected Jackson Kemper as a missionary bishop was undoubtedly
a turning point in the history of the Episcopal Church. Creating a bishop for special mission had
not occurred before. George Washington Doane, the Bishop of New Jersey said, “What we are
now to do will go on record, as a precedent”10and as a result, the creation of a missionary
bishopric for the Old Northwest remains one of The Protestant Episcopal Church’s most
enduring legacies.

Would it not be marvelous, if one of the most enduring legacies of the Anglican Diocese of the
Living Word, was the setting aside of men, women and young people to take the gospel, to
proclaim the gospel, to resource the creation of new church plants which would in turn declare
the gospel and by the moving of God the Holy Spirit, turn the hearts and minds of men, women
and young people in this nation and beyond to put their trust in God through Jesus Christ, know
him as Savior and serve Him as Lord in the fellowship of the Church.

Jackson Kemper committed himself to this task. Amidst all that was happening in the nation at
that time, Kemper believed that the church is always God’s chosen instrument for the
proclamation of the gospel in this nation.

This is why we still talk about Jesus Christ today. His life and teaching have been so
fundamentally important and influential to our own culture! We talk about him because He tells
us to talk of Him.

10 http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/gwdoane/kemper.html

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 Anglican Diocese of the Living Word| Pastoral Address
Missions Conference and Synod 2024| Souderton, Pennsylvania
The Rt. Rev. Julian M. Dobbs L.Th, Th.M, D.D

My veins still pump with enthusiasm when I consider all the opportunities that are before us to
do what Kemper and other faithful and fearless missionaries have done in our nation and
beyond, across this diocese and through the Anglican Church in North America.

Before I became your bishop, I deliberately made it known, that one of the priorities of my
episcopacy would be the planting of new churches in our Anglican tradition that were committed
to faithfully proclaiming the gospel and rightly administering the sacraments where God had
placed them.

I am still committed to this!

The planting of these new congregations was one of the founding commitments of Archbishop
Robert Duncan at the inauguration of the Anglican Church in North America in 2009.

I still recall with much warmth, sitting in the congregation at the archbishop’s inauguration
service in Plano, Texas, listening to the new archbishop’s sermon, during which he called for
1000 new church plants within 10 years. It was an arresting moment! I remember turning to the
person next to me and saying, “I have never heard an archbishop speak like this before.”
The many hundreds of people in attendance, rose to their feet and with one accord dedicated
themselves to this new vision.

In a recent conversation with Archbishop Duncan, he said to me, “When I called for 1000 new
churches, the subject was changed. We focused on the future and the mission, rather than our
divisions.”

Your Grace, it is an honor and a privilege to have you with us at this missions conference and
synod. Your leadership in this church has profoundly influenced my own life and family and the
life of this diocese. Your courageous service as a bishop and an archbishop continues to affect
the life of the Anglican Church in North America and Gafcon, the Global Anglican Future
Conference. Not only do you take an interest in my own life and ministry, but you have also
shown a genuine love and concern for Brenda and our children. I consider it a personal
privilege to call you a mentor, a confidant and a friend.

Brothers and sisters, would you stand and honor our founding Archbishop, the Most Rev.
Robert Duncan, archbishop emeritus of the Anglican Church in North America.

I am still committed to Archbishop Duncan’s 2009 clarion call for 1000 new churches. Of our
current 43 congregations and missions, 29 began their life as new church plants! Thanks be to
God!

One of those plants is known as Christ Church, South Bend, Indiana.

In 2018, several lay people newly arrived in South Bend, Indiana, began work on a new
Anglican church plant, which I was honored to acknowledge as a plant of the Anglican Diocese
of the Living Word. The first public service was an Evensong held on September 9, 2018, the
Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, at First A.M.E. Zion Church by the University of Notre Dame. In
October 2018, the church had its first service of Holy Communion and later moved to rented
space closer to downtown South Bend.

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 Anglican Diocese of the Living Word| Pastoral Address
Missions Conference and Synod 2024| Souderton, Pennsylvania
The Rt. Rev. Julian M. Dobbs L.Th, Th.M, D.D

More milestones, in January 2019, the church held its first baptism and later that spring they
called their first minister. Adult catechesis began and the church presented its first four
confirmation candidates. Following the challenges of covid, when all the essentials of common
life at Christ Church continued, including worshiping God and studying the Scriptures together,
there were additional baptisms, confirmations and beginning of children’s catechesis. Such has
been the growth in children’s catechesis at Christ Church that a second class was added in
2022. During my most recent visit I was honored to officiate at seventeen confirmations and
receptions.

Today, Christ Church Anglican is a vibrant church centered on the gospel and the word of God,
with a strong communal life, and beautiful, reverent worship in the Anglican tradition. Thanks be
to God for the Rev. Steven Wedgeworth, Mr. Robert Ramsey and Professor Samuel Bray who
are representing Christ Church, South Bend, Indiana at our Missions Conference and Synod
this week. Would you join me in thanking the Lord for these men, their faithful and dedicated
wives and the lay people who serve at Christ Church.

[Samuel Bray and Robert Ramsey, were amongst those lay leaders who planted the
congregation back in 2018].

Just under one mile from this venue is the Broad Street Grind Coffee Shop.

In 2021, a group of interested individuals who also believed that Jesus’ life and teaching are
fundamentally important, were meeting for discussion and prayer at the Broad Street Grind on
Wednesday evenings. As their conversations developed, they believed that God was calling
them to plant a new Anglican church in the community. Following several public meetings to
organize the new church plant, the first public service was held in a historic, one-room
schoolhouse on September 12, 2021.
The following year, Bishop William Love made the first official episcopal visit to the now named
St. Peter’s Anglican Church and 2 members were confirmed. In May of the same year, the
Wardens asked me to appoint a Vicar for the new plant. Where would I find someone to
continue the work of the church plant in somewhat rural Souderton, Pennsylvania where they
have real cows, eating real grass in the real paddocks!

But thanks be to God, nothing is too difficult for Him and amidst England’s green and pleasant
lands the Lord was stirring the heart of a Royal Airforce Chaplain about serving Christ in the
Anglican Diocese of the Living Word. We give thanks to God for the October 2023 arrival of the
Rev. Geoffrey Firth who has already significantly affected the life and growth of St. Peter’s and,
having outgrown their current site, is leading the congregational search for a new building to
accommodate current and future ministry and growth.

Members of synod, would you stand and encourage the Rev’s Geoffrey Firth and Phillip Shade,
Chuck Steege and the clergy and lay people representing St. Peter’s Souderton at this Missions
Conference and Synod.

Why continue to talk about Jesus today?

1. He is the most influential person who has ever lived.

2. His life and teaching have been so fundamentally important to our own culture.

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 Anglican Diocese of the Living Word| Pastoral Address
Missions Conference and Synod 2024| Souderton, Pennsylvania
The Rt. Rev. Julian M. Dobbs L.Th, Th.M, D.D

Why continue to talk about Jesus today?

3. Because, as the Apostle Peter declared in Acts chapter 6, there is salvation in no one else,
for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

We live in an age that busies itself with the blunting edge of every claim to truth. There are
people today who qualify, modify and deny any and every truth claim in order to avoid God’s call
to repent.

This was Ralph Waldo Emerson’s error. In the same speech where he acknowledged that the
name of Christ is “plowed into history,” he made this startling claim: “Historical Christianity has
fallen into the error that corrupts all attempts to communicate religion…It dwells, with noxious
exaggeration about the person of Jesus. It invites every man to expand to the full circle of the
universe and will have no preferences but those of spontaneous love.”

Emerson could be speaking in 2024 with these words! Nothing matters but exalted feelings and
when we exalt our feelings, we can encounter the divine within ourselves and become one with
everything in the universe. Emerson and his ideological descendants today are so committed to
the worship of self that they find it noxious to dwell on the person of Jesus.

By contrast, The New Testament Letter to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus “upholds the
universe by the word of his power.”11 In the Letter to the Colossians we discover “He is
before all things and in Him all things hold together.”12

Brothers and sisters, there are many men and women who have influenced history. There are
other teachers whose ideas have resonated through time. But only Jesus is the author of
history. Only Jesus is the maker of time. And only Jesus has the power to save.

In Acts chapter 4, Peter makes a very exclusive claim. He claims, unequivocally, that Jesus
Christ alone is the only way to God. He says, there is no other name under heaven given
among men by which we must be saved.

Notice two things before we press a little deeper into the text in Acts chapter 4.

Firstly, who is it that is speaking and secondly to whom is this person speaking? This is Peter.
What do we know about him from the Bible? We know that this is the Peter who three times
denied this same Jesus about whom he now preaches so exclusively.

This same Peter, the night before the crucifixion, recognized by a servant girl said, Woman, I
do not know him.13 And here he is, this same man, preaching the Lord Jesus with remarkable
courage given him by the Holy Spirit.

The second thing you notice is to whom Peter is speaking. He is speaking, back in verse 6, to
Annas the high priest and Caiaphas, those men are amongst the two individuals responsible for
the execution of Jesus. The man speaking is the one who had denied the Lord three times
saying, I do not know him and now to those responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus, he says,
there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

11 Hebrews 1:3, ESV

12 Colossians 1,17, ESV
13 Luke 22:57, ESV

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 Anglican Diocese of the Living Word| Pastoral Address
Missions Conference and Synod 2024| Souderton, Pennsylvania
The Rt. Rev. Julian M. Dobbs L.Th, Th.M, D.D

Why talk about Jesus today? Notice three insights from the text in Acts chapter 4.

1. The work of Christ is necessary for salvation. Today, the world today tolerates everything
except the intolerant claim that Jesus is the only Lord who requires our submission and our
allegiance. Why is that? The premier virtue in our generation is tolerance and tolerance, while
considered by some to be a noble virtue, has never set any person free. In John’s gospel Jesus
tells us, if you abide in my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.14
Making such an exclusive claim to truth is unbearable for many of today’s national influencers,
Christian and non-Christian alike.

Unbelievers will allow you to speak of the noble Jesus, the virtuous and exemplary Jesus, but
they will never permit you to speak with confidence that …there is salvation in no one else…
no other name under heaven… by which we must be saved.
One thing that repulses our postmodern generation more than anything else is certainty and
confidence.

You can maintain all sorts of views so long as you do not claim absolute certainty about any of
them or confidence in them. Yet, when the apostle Thomas asks Jesus, “How can we know the
way?” Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me.15 We can speak with confidence of Jesus because He is the certain truth.

And note this, no one in all the world is exempt from the universal necessity for the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Presidents, homemakers, prime ministers, youth and children, queens,
kings, judges, bishops, pastors, teachers, no one is exempt from the universal necessity for the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We all have a sinful nature and universal condemnation
necessitates a universal necessity for the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The work of Christ is
necessary for salvation.

2. Saving faith in Jesus is necessary for salvation. When we say the work of Christ is
necessary, we are combating, pluralism. When we say that saving faith in Jesus is necessary
for salvation, we are combating a more subtle error sometimes called inclusivism.

What does that mean? Everyone is ultimately being saved by Jesus without ever having heard
of Him and without ever having had saving faith in Him. Most certainly, God reveals things about
Himself through the work of creation and providence. I am a hobbyist beekeeper. No one can be
a beekeeper and deny the existence of God the creator. Bees and their complex routines, order
and rhythm in the hive could never just have evolved and happened by chance. When I open a
beehive, I see God the Creator at work.

So, most certainly there is a revelation through creation and conscience which is inescapable
and revealed to every human being. And yet, the revelation of God through creation and
conscience is only ever enough to condemn, it is never enough to save.

Special revelation is required and is necessary! This revelation came through the prophets of
the Old Testament, it comes through the New Testament scriptures and reveals to us the only
way to be reconciled to God, to receive the forgiveness of sins and stand justified before
Almighty God is by faith through Jesus Christ alone.

14 John 8:32, ESV

15 John 14:6, ESV

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 Anglican Diocese of the Living Word| Pastoral Address
Missions Conference and Synod 2024| Souderton, Pennsylvania
The Rt. Rev. Julian M. Dobbs L.Th, Th.M, D.D

Brothers and sisters, this is indispensable! The idea that there are people who are born, live and
die, who only have access to a revelation through creation and conscience and with that are
able to somehow reach a point of salvation, is offensive to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It
might send warm inclusive wobbles up our spines but salvation through what is revealed by
looking at orchids, or salvation through trying to reconcile a guilty conscience through good
works is abhorrent to what God reveals to us in his word. It is either Christ alone or it is not!
That is why we must proclaim the gospel to every human being with a heightened sense of
urgency. That is why I remain committed to Archbishop Duncan’s call for the planting of new
Anglican churches across North America. Saving faith in Jesus Christ is necessary for
salvation? Saving faith in Jesus Christ is still necessary for salvation.

Confident of this eternal truth, is what compelled Dean and Kyria Baldwin from this diocese to
relocate from Syracuse, New York to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Ordained deacon at this missions conference last year, Dean, Kyria and their infant son Thomas
left everything familiar, bidding farewell to family and friends and to a familiar culture to present
Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit so that people in Ethiopia would come to put their
trust in God through him, know Jesus as Savior and serve Him as Lord in the fellowship of the
Church.

A few weeks ago, Dean said this to me, “Our belief in the gospel and that Jesus has given
authority to his church to call and to send, compelled us to go and compels us to stay. Why else
would we leave so much behind? Put simply, we believe that Christ has called us through his
church to be sent out as his ambassadors. We are daily reminded that we are outsiders and
that this is not our home, but we as unworthy servants strive to do that which He has called us
(Lk. 17:10).”

3. As a result, Christ's missionary enterprise is a necessity.

Listen to what God himself says to Paul at the very end of the Acts of the Apostles, I am
sending you to open their eyes (the eyes of those who do not yet believe) so that they may
turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive
forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’16 This
remains the missionary enterprise of Jesus. It is essential. The gospel message has to be sent
forth in every generation. The message of Christ crucified has to be told in order to be believed
and it has to be believed in order for people to be saved.

Not to do this is unconscionable! Being indifferent to the presentation of Jesus Christ in the
power of the Holy Spirit makes Jesus optional. Think of what is at stake. The work of Christ is
necessary for salvation. Without believing in Christ, there is no salvation! And as a result,
Christ's missionary enterprise is a necessity – it is essential!

The future of Jesus’ kingdom in this nation depends on the willingness of a sufficient number of
its citizens to respond with confidence to his confronting and promising word about the
forgiveness of our sins and the His promise of eternal life. Christ’s fundamental word to us is
about him, and about you, and about your freedom.

16 Acts 26:18, ESV

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 Anglican Diocese of the Living Word| Pastoral Address
Missions Conference and Synod 2024| Souderton, Pennsylvania
The Rt. Rev. Julian M. Dobbs L.Th, Th.M, D.D

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for
your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.17

According to Jesus, responding will cost you all things. According to Jesus, responding will give
you all things.

This is why we continue talk about Jesus!

The gospel that was preached by Peter in Acts chapter 4 is the same Gospel that has been
preached ever since, and it is the same Gospel that comes to you this morning and lays claim to
your own heart and mind.

• The work of Christ is necessary for salvation.

• Without believing in Christ there is no salvation!
• And as a result, Christ's missionary enterprise is a necessity for the proclamation of
salvation.

On Friday, Sept. 25, 1835, when Jackson Kemper was consecrated at St. Philips Church,
Philadelphia, not far from where we are today, these were the words which concluded the
sermon on that day and with these same words, I conclude this pastoral address:

From the work to which the Lord has called you, I may keep you back no longer. You are to go
out, in the Saviour's name. Preach the gospel of salvation to a ruined world. You are to bear
"the ministry of reconciliation". Preach to them "Christ crucified." Beseech them in Christ's
stead, "be ye reconciled to God." Remind them that without holiness, no man shall see the Lord.
Fear not though the load be heavy, and the way be long. He who hath called you, will give you
strength to run the noble race which he has set before you. Fear not, though there be many that
oppose themselves to turn you back. They that are with you are more than they that are with
them; and he who fighteth upon God's side bears victory and triumph on his banner. Fear not,
though fatigue and care and sickness and death cut off your work of love. Welcome, in Jesus'
name, the tears, the toil, the blood! Welcome, for Jesus' sake, the shame, the agony, the death!
If we suffer, we shall also reign—if we die, it is to live with him!—Beloved, go! Go, bear, before a
ruined world, the Saviour's bleeding Cross. Go, feed, with bread from heaven, the Saviour's
hungering Church. Go, thrice beloved, go, and God the Lord go with you!18

Prayer

O God of truth and love, who desires not the death of sinners but rather that they should
be converted and live: Look with mercy on those who are deceived by the lies of the
world, take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart and contempt of thy word; and so
fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy flock, that we may all be gathered into one fold
under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

17 Matthew 11:28-29, ESV

18 http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/gwdoane/kemper.html

Bishop Dobbs acknowledges the influence of portions from Dr. Peter Jensen’s Boyer Lecture in this pastoral address.

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