A cold winter has swept over the Church of the Western World because the children of the world have entered into the Church and called the things of the Church their own, disowning the notion of sin and the atoning death, and denying the resurrection of Jesus in the flesh. Instead they have replaced the saving love and works of Jesus with the millennium goals and think they have done a good thing, because they accept everybody with the exception of those who live by such foolishness.

What is the Church? It is not a mere pile of stone, mock gothic St. Matthew’s on the corner of Cranmer and Darwin Streets; nor is it an electric auditorium, replete with theater seating, dedicated to one hour entertainments hopefully spectacular; nor is the Church a religious assembly gathered only for teaching and the singing of songs old or contemporary.

The Church is an ecclesia, a gathering of the people of God, His visible Kingdom on earth; a people buried with Him in baptism and raised from spiritual death to share with Jesus His risen life; bound together in the shared mystery of His Body and Blood, living with Him His life in this world. The Church is not just those who think they know a lot of stuff about Jesus and prance around in fancy vestments. The Church is the gathering together in unity of those who have not only encountered Him at some time in the past, but those who live actively in His presence day by day. In that living together with Him in this holy present, they share in His love, reaching out to each other and caring for the poor, and bringing sinners into the arms of Jesus.