Friday, October 31, 2025
THE ANGLICAN ORTHODOX COMMUNION WORLDWIDE
Office of Presiding Bishop
Statesville, N.C. (USA)
HALLOWEEN OR REFORMATION DAY – WHICH? 31 October 2025 Anno Domini, the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
12 ¶A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. 13 O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters. Jeremiah 17:12-13
The contrast between Reformation Day (October 31) and All Hallows Eve (Halloween) could not be more vivid. The Church had forgotten its First Love over the course of centuries following the Apostolic Age. Many man-made traditions and fallacies had taken on the nature of Holy Scripture which they weren’t. The sanctuary had been defiled as was the Temple in the days our Lord cleansed it and chased out the merchants and money-changers.
The Church had rotted from the head down when Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg on this day in 1517. The ministry had become corrupt from the Pope down to the friar, and men were told they could buy indulgences to cover past and future sins – among many other false teachings.
A great deal of courage was required of Luther to step out in opposition to the mightiest power on earth at the time, the Roman Church and her self-proclaimed Vicar of God on earth – the Pope. But all great deeds are wrought with the courageous and not the timid. Luther risked burning at the stake for his courageous act, but God preserved him to continue a great movement to reform the Church. Reformation spread like a burning fire over continental Europe and the English Isles. Archbishop Cranmer and many English bishops followed in his trail and suffered martyrdom.
But Reformation Day is seldom mentioned in public media today, overridden by the corrupt celebration called Halloween. Halloween began as ‘All Hallows Eve’ as a response to the Celtic holiday of Samhain – a night of mischievous revelry that included, at times, human sacrifice. It was a time to glorify death. But All Hallows Eve did not, at first, include the licentious behavior it has come to represent in Halloween. It was a day of prayer for the dead. But this, too, was heretical in that prayers for the dead can avail nothing for the unconscious soul. Hallow means Holy,’ and ‘een’ is an abbreviation for even, or evening. There is certainly nothing Holy about Halloween since it glories death, witches, open tombs, and every dark and evil spirit.
The Holy Scriptures tells us that the dead know nothing at all. The body has returned to the dust of the ground and the spirit to God who gave it. There are no such things as ghost and goblins. It is dishonest to teach our children to emulate such dark creatures of man’s imagination. Prayers for the dead avail nothing.
Solomon proclaims the truth that a living dog is better than a dead lion: “3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead. 4 ¶For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 9:3-6
Our Lord clearly states in many places that once dead, no good deed or decision can be forthcoming. “"I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:" "And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" Gospel of St John 11:25-26 When our Lord went to the house of Jairus to restore his dead daughter, the Jews laughed Him to scorn for they said she was “dead.’ These unbelievers knew death, but our Lord Jesus Christ knows LIFE.
That is the difference in Halloween and Reformation Day. The first celebrates death, the second the restored LIFE of the Church.
Mairzy Doats (1943)
Oh, mairzy doats and dozy doats and little lambsy divey A kiddle divey, too. Wouldn't you? Oh, mairzy doats and dozy doats and little lambsy divey
(Oh, Mares eat oats, and does eat oats, and little lambs eat Ivey. A kid'll eat Ivey, too, wouldn't you?) A kiddle divey, too. Wouldn't you? If the words sound queer and funny to your ear, A little bit jumbled and jivey. Say, "Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy." Oh, mairzy doats and dozy doats and little lambsy divey A kiddle divey, too. Wouldn't you? Oh, mairzy doats and dozy doats and little lambsy divey A kiddle divey, too. Wouldn't you?
ELEGY - (Excerpt)THOMAS GRAY
Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,
Or wak'd to ecstasy the living lyre.
But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page
Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll;
Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.
Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
God Is Benevolent, Merciful, and Gracious.
DAILY READINGS INLIFE OF CHRIST - J.R. Miller (1890)
October 31. Fruit-bearing
"This is to my Father's glory — that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." John 15:8
What is fruit in a Christian? We know what fruit is in the natural world, and we know its uses — but what is fruit in the spiritual world? It cannot be merely Christian activities. It is true that well directed activities are fruits; but there is danger in these days, when Christian work is so lauded, that we overlook another kind of fruit which is certainly as essential as the putting forth of consecrated energy.
In nature, fruit is part of the branch itself, not something apart from it. There are spiritual fruits that are part of the life: growths into holiness and Christlikeness. Thus Paul says, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." Very evidently, these fruits are such as appear in the character itself.
The aim of Christ's religion is not merely to make workers of us, to send us out to do good in the world, to fight against evil, to help the weak, and to minister to the sorrowing and the suffering. Its first aim is to make us godly, to transform our character, to produce in us the likeness of Christ. Then we shall be ready to minister. While, therefore, we are to be fruitful in every good work, we are to seek also to be fruitful in the qualities of Christlike character.
In nature the tree's fruits feed the hunger of men. No tree consumes its own fruits; it drops them for those who come to gather them. This suggests that we should not be selfish in our fruit bearing. We should not seek the culture of our characters — merely for our own sake. Our aim should be to provide something in our lives, which will feed others and bless the world. All around us are hungry hearts. There are those who crave sympathy and love, those who yearn for comfort, those who desire to be saved. We are so to live, that our lives shall yield bread for these.
Thursday, October 30, 2025
Purely out of Fatherly, Divine Goodness and Mercy.
DAILY READINGS IN THE LIFE OF CHRIST - J.R. Miller
October 30. Abide in Me
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me." John 15:4
As a truth in nature — the meaning of this is very plain. A branch torn off a vine or a tree, and lying on the ground — will not bear fruit. Indeed, it cannot even live — but soon withers. The analogy holds in spiritual life. It would be just as unnatural to expect the professing Christian who has given up praying and has ceased to read his Bible, and withdrawn from loving and trusting Christ — to be really a fruitful Christian. The branch has no life — but what flows into it from the vine or the tree. Just so, the Christian has no spiritual life — but what comes from Christ's life, though faith and prayer and the Holy Word.
We live as Christians — only when Christ lives in us. Said Paul: "I live; yet not I — but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh — I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." All spiritual beauty in us — must be the life of Christ reproduced in us; just as the foliage and the fruit in a tree — are produced by the tree's life flowing into the branches.
A mere Christian profession will not therefore yield the fruits of a true Christian life. One might take a branch that had been torn off and with cords tie it on a green tree — but that would not make it a fruitful branch. It would draw no life from the tree, and would soon be withered and utterly dead. Just so, one may be tied to Christ by the cords of profession, but if there is no real vital attachment of the life to Christ by faith and love — Christ's life cannot flow into it, and it is only a dead, withered branch. We must be truly in Christ and have Christ in us — or there can be no life in us and no fruitfulness. We must also abide in Christ, maintaining our communion and fellowship with Him year after year — or we cannot be fruit-bearing Christians.
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
MATTHEW HENRY'S EXPLANATION OF GENESIS 1:1-2
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:1-2
The first verse of the Bible gives us a satisfying and useful account of the origin of the earth and the heavens. The faith of humble Christians understands this better than the fancy of the most learned men. From what we see of heaven and earth, we learn the power of the great Creator. And let our make and place as men, remind us of our duty as Christians, always to keep heaven in our eye, and the earth under our feet. The Son of God, one with the Father, was with him when he made the world; nay, we are often told that the world was made by him, and nothing was made without him. Oh, what high thoughts should there be in our minds, of that great God whom we worship, and of that great Mediator in whose name we pray! And here, at the beginning of the sacred volume, we read of that Divine Spirit, whose work upon the heart of man is so often mentioned in other parts of the Bible. Observe, that at first there was nothing desirable to be seen, for the world was without form, and void; it was confusion, and emptiness. In like manner the work of grace in the soul is a new creation: and in a graceless soul, one that is not born again, there is disorder, confusion, and every evil work: it is empty of all good, for it is without God; it is dark, it is darkness itself: this is our condition by nature, till Almighty grace works a change in us.
Sukiyaki (Kyu Sakamoto) - "We'll meet again" Orchestra Project
SOHRAB and the MASJID-I-SHAH MOSQUE - a short story of Persia
My name is Sohrab, brother of Rustam, and a native of my beloved Esfahan in the land of Persia. My parents were dreamers of the past and gave me a name that is a good name among the children of Persia for it is a Persian, and not a religious, name such as Mohammad or Ali. My parents loved and admired the history of our former greatness, and they thought to preserve a part of that greatness by giving me a name of ancient renown. My name might even be considered a classic name in Esfahan since there are many things that are classic about my city. The Masjid-i-Shah mosque overshadows the street on which I live. It is also anciently constructed at a time when the Kings of Persia (Shahs) were notable world figures – around four hundred years ago.
As a boy growing up, I heard the story of Rustam and Sohrab repeated many times from the ‘Epic of the Kings” or, the Shahnemeh. These were heroes and brave. But I want to tell you about my feelings of Persia and how the Masjid-i-Shah mosque affects those feelings. First of all, it is a gigantic structure with azure blue décor and many intricate patterns adorning its walls. The prayer towers stand as guards over our ancient city to plead the mercy of Allah on all who live here. During the time of Shah Abbas, there were polo games organized around the mosque’s ball ground that were attended by the royalty of Europe and many European polo-ist participated in the games. Our people took our faith quite seriously, but we did not allow it, in those days, to shut out the world from our understanding. We had great poets such as Rumi, Saadi, and Hafez. Even Edgar Allen Poe makes reference to our “poet of Shiraz.” When I view our great mosque from my low place on the ground, I am reminded by its vastness of the greatness of our land. I am reminded of Omar Khayyam and the beautiful poem written of him by the pen of his own hand – perhaps a thousand years ago.
I am secretly in love with a young girl named Simin, but I do not know if she cares for me. I am not allowed to talk with girls since it is against the counsel of the mullahs. Why this is so, I do not know. I have watched Simin from a distance and see that she is sweet and kind. She walks with the grace of a beautiful sailing vessel. If only I could tell her what is in my heart, but Allah forbids it! I have watched the mullahs present the law of Allah many times at the great mosque, but it seems that Allah has many masks. Many years ago, he was benevolent and accepting of other peoples of the Book, but now he seems to have discovered that all people, except his people, are only worthy of death. I do not know why Allah changed his thinking, but I am sure he has good cause since the mullahs say that he does have. Perhaps feelings of love are not according to Allah’s will?
Today, as I was walking to my madrasah on Abbass-abad Street, I chanced to meet Simin and her mother coming towards me. I was embarrassed, but I kept on walking. I tried to play the man and look Simin right in the eyes, but she was so very modest. Even though she was wearing a chador (veil), she averted her eyes away at the last minute. But, for some reason, I was so very happy for the rest of the day at seeing Simin. I dared to dream that I might actually be able, someday, to tell her how I felt and that she might respond in the same way; but who knows? Perhaps she is a devout Moslem who fears Allah and believes the latest mask that Allah wears forbids love and kindness to all who do not follow precisely his teaching from the Quran. Even though the merchants in the Bazaar are obedient to Allah, they still swindle people of their last rial by deceitful practices, yet these same people would never even think of stealing outright because Allah forbids it. I wonder: does Simin believe this way? In the past, the great mosque was the center of culture for the Shah and people of Esfahan, but the Shah is no more, and Allah seems to have the Masjid-i-Shah mosque all to himself. So there are no more polo games for Allah forbids that too.
Perhaps my fascination with the great mosque is that it holds the memories of great historical events of national importance as well as the stories of beautiful moments of literary accomplishment of times past within its mysterious and foreboding walls. It’s beautiful hues of blue remind me of the Persian sky, filled with stars gleaming through the pristine air. It is a jewel of the high desert. Before its being built, there were many who called themselves ‘Zoroastrians’ who lived in our city. They still have a holy mountain on which a fire is kept and never allowed to go out. I wonder if Allah believes these people, too, were an unworthy people, for most of them left Persian and went to India or some other land. Now there is only Allah that remains, and his home seems to be the great mosque. Allah is not a teller of stories. He only speaks through the ancient words written in the Quran. The words are strong and beautiful, but do we not need food for our imaginations as well as our souls?
Since the Masjid-i-Shah mosque has stood in the same place for many centuries and has watched as kings and poets, warriors and merchants have passed beneath its tall towers, I wonder if it may not be the witness of another more wonderful masks of Allah in the future. Who knows what glorious history may yet be written on the sands of the high desert of Persia? I am sure the great mosque will approve of the beauty of the past being repeated in the lines of the future. But, Allah forbid, perhaps the wise poet, Omar Khayyam, has understood the matter aright:
"The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."
In any case, that which will be, will be, Inshah-allah (if Allah wills)!
My name is Sohrab, brother of Rustam, and I live in the shadow of the great mosque of Masjid-i-Shah!
©2013 Jerry Ogles
ALEXANDER THE GREAT - HE'S DEAD!
God Turns Evil unto Good for His Children.
DAILY READINGS IN THE LIFE OF CHRIST - J.R. Miller (1890)
October 29. The Pruning-Knife
"Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." John 15:2
Christ taught many lessons on the sin and doom of uselessness. One of His parables told of a tree which bore no fruit. The soil was good, and the tree was carefully planted and well tended; still, when the master came at the proper season, expecting to find fruit — he found none. Fruitlessness is cursed. The tree with nothing but leaves — is made to wither. There is no place in the Lord's kingdom for uselessness.
We must notice here that it is the fruitful branch which is pruned. The gardener does not prune the unfruitful branch; it would do it no good. It is the true Christian, whom the Father chastens and causes sometimes to suffer under sore discipline. The wicked are let alone; but in their luxuriance there is no spiritual fruit.
Another thing to be noticed here is, that the object of the Father's pruning — is that the branch may be made to bear more fruit. It seems sometimes as if the pruning were destructive; but He who holds the knife, knows that what He is doing will make the vine far more luxuriant in the end, and its fruit sweeter and more luscious. The aim of God in all His pruning — is greater fruitfulness.
If we would but remember this when we find ourselves suffering under God's chastening hand — it would help us to bear the pain with patience, and also to engage with God in His design of blessing for us. Earthly prosperity often is to the Christian — like the luxuriance which the gardener must cut away to save the vine's life.
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
CARRIED TO HIS ROOM - a story by Peter Marshall (former Chaplain to the U.S. Senate)
2 Kings 4:18-20 (KJV)
And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers. And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.
3. CARRIED TO HIS ROOM
In a home of which I know, a little boy, the only son, was ill with an incurable disease. Month after month the mother had tenderly nursed him, read to him, and played with him, hoping to keep him from the dreadful finality of the doctor's diagnosis—the little boy was sure to die. But as the weeks went on he gradually began to understand that he would never be like the other boys he saw playing outside his window. Small as he was, he began to understand the meaning of the term death, and he too knew he was to die.
One day his mother had been reading to him the stirring tale of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table, of Lancelot and Elaine the lily maid of Astelot, and about that last glorious battle where so many fair knights met their death.
She closed the book as her little son sat silent for an instant, deeply stirred. Then he asked the question weighing on his childish heart, "Mama, what is it like to die? Mama, does it hurt?" Quick tears sprang to her eyes and she fled to the kitchen, supposedly to tend to something on the stove. She knew it was a question with deep significance. She knew it must be answered satisfactorily. So she leaned for an instant against the smooth surface and breathed a hurried prayer that the Lord would keep her from breaking down before the boy and that she would be able to tell him the answer; the Lord did tell her. Immediately she knew how to explain it to him.
"Kenneth," she said to her son, "do you remember when you were a tiny boy how you used to play so hard all day that when night came you were too tired even to undress and you'd tumble into your mother's bed and fall asleep. That was not your bed, it was not where you belonged. You would only stay there a little while. Much to your surprise you would wake up and find yourself in your own bed in your own room. You were there because someone had loved you and taken care of you. Your father had come with big strong arms and carried you away.
"Kenneth, darling, death is just like that. We just wake up some morning to find ourselves in the other room. Our room where we belong, because the Lord Jesus loved us and died for us." The lad's shining face looking up into hers told her that the point had gone home and there would be no more fear, only love and trust in his little heart as he went to meet the Father in heaven. He never questioned again. Several weeks later he fell asleep just as she had said and Father's big, strong arms carried him to his own room. Peter Marshall
REPOSE IN EGYPT - from Contemplations on the Ways of the Lord (Bp Ogles)
“And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a
dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be
thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.”
(Matthew 2:13)
The classical artist has great potential to reveal truth and beauty to a world that has lost its
taste for truth and beauty. There is overpowering emotion that can be evoked by the artful
brush strokes on canvas. Da Vinci’s Last Supper is an example of that power. So is the
painting by Merson entitled, “Repose in Egypt.”
There is a relatively recent but famous French painting called “The Repose in Egypt” The artist who painted this remarkably meaningful and mystical work was Luc Oliver Merson. In the painting, the Sphinx is pictured with upturned face which gives the impression of questioning the great mysteries of life and its future. The Sphinx is positioned on the very edge of the Egyptian desert. This symbolizes the world as a great desert whose mortality is assured without God.
Darkness broods over the scene, with only the far-off stars of tradition and philosophy
shedding their dim light upon the dark desert wilderness. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is
reclining on the arms of the Sphinx and holds in her arms the Child Jesus. Joseph and his
donkey are lying in the opening before the Sphinx which is an oasis. Life in Christ is truly
an oasis in a world of despondency and terror. The sand of wind erosion even graces the
base of the pillar upon which the virgin reclines.
The light before the Sphinx emanates from the face of the Christ Child. It makes bright the oasis and the nearer sands. Only those rays of light from Christ penetrate the limitless
darkness of the wilderness. Christ is, indeed, the Light of the World. “Then spake Jesus
again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in
darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
The Sphinx looks forward to future promise, and light from Christ also brightens the face
of the Sphinx, but to the rear of the Sphinx is only dark desert and barren wastes. This
represents the world before Christ’s coming. This is illustrative of the darkness in which
men sat before the Beauty of the Light of Christ illumined their dark hearts. “The people
that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow
of death, upon them hath the light shined.” (Isaiah 9:2)
Open your eyes, and the eyes of your heart, and behold the Light!
(Information gleaned from Peloubet’s Illustrations from the Gospel of St. Matthew for
insight on this painting)
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