You send the gospel to the ends of the earth and your messengers to every nation. Never in the history of the human race has it been easier to send a message around the world, than it is today. Within seconds of me clicking “publish” when I’ve finished writing this piece, thousands of people all around the world could be reading what I’ve written. As it happens, that isn’t going to happen; there aren’t that many people reading this blog. But, nevertheless, the potential is there. And there are some bloggers who will experience that phenomenon when they write a post to their blog. That’s an amazing and humbling thought.

With all of that potential, one has to wonder if we’re doing enough to really tell people the “good news” about Jesus Christ. Possibly not. But Christians all around the world are getting the message out. There are thousands of websites that tell of the “good news”. I don’t think for one moment we should rest on our laurels, but should continue to look for ways to communicate the gospel message to the world. But sometimes we do have to rely on God, through the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, to help forge that connection between what we do, and those people around the world that need to hear our message.

The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany
God of heaven,
you send the gospel to the ends of the earth
and your messengers to every nation:
send your Holy Spirit to transform us
by the good news of everlasting life
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Additional Collect for The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

The Archbishop of Canterbury launches the Lambeth Conference 2008 programme:

January 21st 2008: Lambeth Palace, London: first of three films featuring the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, as he launches the programme for the 2008 Lambeth Conference, to be held later this year.

The conference, under the title ‘Equipping Bishops for God’s Mission’ is intended to bring together around 700 bishops from Anglican churches across the world. The Bishops’ spouses will meet in a separate conference being run parallel to the main conference. This is Dr Williams’ introductory speech; the question and answer session films will appear overnight.

More detail on the Lambeth Conference can be found at www.anglicancommunion.org or via the Archbishop’s website at www.archbishopofcanterbury.org

The question and answer session films are also available on YouTube and can be found at these links:
Lambeth 2008 — question and answer session part 1
Lambeth 2008 — question and answer session part 2