The Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ effectively makes present His power and His spirit for all time and in all places. This great miracle signifies the fact that Jesus is not only an historical figure confined to the first century in Jerusalem, but that in a real and powerful way He is God for us and God within us through His Spirit.    His glorious truth is present in every place and every time wherever the Christian Church has existed. It is expressed in the art, the architecture, the liturgy, and the heroic acts of the faithful who live in Jesus.

This truth was especially brought home to me during the last week which I spent attending the meeting of the English Prayer Book Society at Canterbury Cathedral. I prayed for the congregation of St. John's Chapel in Monterey, that we, in unity with those in the wider Anglican Communion who are committed to the traditional faith of our Church, may continue to worship God in spirit and in truth. I appreciate the opportunity now to speak to you a bit about this experience.

The Church of England is going through the same turmoil that is happening in the Episcopal Church in this country over the revision of the Prayer Book. Their situation is not quite as radical as it is here. The use of the traditional 1662 Prayer Book is still allowed along side of alternative services.

This petition contains the names of the chief editors of every leading newspaper in England, the heads of all the major colleges at Cambridge and Oxford, and members of Parliament from both sides of the aisles. Included are prominent stage and screen stars such as Peggy Ashcroft, Anna Neagle, Glenda Jackson, John Geilgud, Ralph Richardson and Sir Lawrence Olivier. Also speaking out in the past in favor of the traditional liturgy have been poets and authors such as T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, P.D. James and C.S. Lewis. Take heart all of you at St. John's Chapel who are committed to the traditional liturgy. In spite of intense opposition, those who are with us are far more intelligent than those who are against us.

While in London, I visited All Hallows Church by the Tower, where I had served many years ago in the East End amongst the stevedores, and the cockneys along the docks. All Hallows had been bombed flat during the Blitz. It is a marvelous new structure today. The guide who showed us through was a little, loquacious cockney. The first thing he pointed out to us was the piece of Roman pavement that had been uncovered during the excavation when they were beginning to rebuild the church. One of the oldest structures in London existed there.

As well, one can see torn up shrines, great marks on the walls and empty spaces where statues used to be. These are the result of the Protestant Reformation when Puritan zealots destroyed much of the ancient Christian art and symbols. Then, of course, we can see today the outer fabric of the Cathedral being eaten up by smog, that dread destructive element of the twentieth century, which insidiously, quietly, and relentlessly is destroying the ancient stone face of the Cathedral. This serious problem is analogous to the contemporary destruction of the biblical and catholic fabric of the Church by the corrosive acids of gnostic secularism.

The clergy and the laity of the Church of England, in order to remain true to the gospel have suffered and endured many dangers as they have come down through the ages. We should never forget the heroes and martyrs of the Church of England, who in the sixteenth century gave their lives in behalf of the biblical faith and the liturgy first written in the English language. The Reverend John Rogers, rector of St. Sepulcher and prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral, was the first priest to be burned at the stake by Queen Mary at Smithfield in London. Shortly thereafter Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the author of the first English Prayer Book, was burned at the stake by Queen Mary at Oxford. Their examples and those of some three hundred others should inspire and sustain us today as we face ostracism and criticism for standing up for the historic faith and worship of the Church.

The Prayer Book Society in England has recognized the historic significance of these great events. They have just published a powerful book entitled, "Ritual Murder". Of course, the ritual is the traditional Prayer Book of England and the murder is the attempt to destroy it by misguided reformers of the twentieth century. It is no accident that the people that are witnessing in behalf of the traditional services in the Church of England are all part of the cultural establishment. The religious establishment has shut them out. The religious establishment does not want to hear what they have to say.

You all know the saying that comes to us from the world of advertising that the medium is the message. If you change the medium you change the message. One should not, therefore, speak in Church in the same way as one speaks in the street. What all these scholars and artists are pointing out is that the language of the traditional services is liturgical language. Whereas, the language of the revised services is a committee's type of lingo. It is the kind which is used when a group of experts sit down to write regulations for use permits, or directions on how to drive on the highway, or instructions on how to operate a certain piece of machinery. It is not the inspired language which is necessary - the proper medium - which is necessary to speak to God.

One of the speakers at the meetings referred to an advertisement in the London Undergound by a local cut rate jewelry firm, which depicted a young man standing at the altar holding the hand of his bride. He is saying "With this ring, I thee wed." The speaker was pointing out that the advertising business knows what they are about. They were speaking the sacred language of tradition, of beauty and of love.

Of course, there is a deeper concern here than just the language. It deals with doctrine. It deals with the truth of God. If one no longer fully believes in the truth of God, then one cannot truly speak to God. That is what is so serious about this great struggle. As the medium of speaking to God has been secularized so has the message of God's saving grace been watered down. It is at this point that the faithful must make their stand.