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In the early church, the martyrs were revered for their witness to the Gospel. In fact, the word martyr does not mean one who gave up their life. The word martyr simply means witness. The early church martyrs were witnesses to Jesus Christ, to the point of giving their lives for the sake of that witness. While many in the world have continued to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the Gospel, this is not the only way we can be courageous witnesses.
Courageous Witness
Steadfast Prayer
After the Christian faith was legalized by the Romans, and Christians were no longer put to death for their faith, many who longed to be courageous witnesses went to the wilderness and became desert fathers and desert mothers. They wanted to continue the tradition of courageous witness, and they did so by committing themselves to disciplined lives of prayer and community. We continue this witness today by remaining steadfast in our own prayer—by making the Eucharist together in community, in praying daily morning and evening with Christians around the world, and through lives of prayerful devotion.
In our Diocese, you can find resources to help you be steadfast in prayer. Our School for Spiritual Direction can help you build this kind of prayerful witness into your practice through its Retreat in Daily Life. For more information, click HERE.
Evangelism, Sharing the Good News
Another way we continue the saints' tradition of courageous witness is through evangelism. Contrary to what many think and what many have experienced in our culture, evangelism is not our attempt to change someone else. The true evangelist is one who simply shares the Good News of Jesus Christ in his or her own life with another. What God does with that sharing is the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearers' life and heart. In the Episcopal Church, we need to become evangelists again. Poor examples of evangelism should never stop us from sharing what God is doing in our lives with our neighbors.
Part of being vital Christians in vital congregations is sharing God's faithfulness in our lives when we are together and in the course of our daily lives. You can find resources to help you with this HERE.
Public Witness
There are times when we in the church must take a stand publicly on important public matters for the sake of the Gospel. This is never, or at least it should never be, part of an ideology or allied to any party or politician. Most of the time, Christians of good conscience may differ about how we build our common life for the common good. Yet, there are occasions when Christians must speak out on matters of the day. This is also evangelism. In our country, we have exemplars of this kind of prophetic witness, who are also commemorated as saints in our calendar, among them: Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and our own David Pendleton Oakerhater. Speaking up for the powerless, for the victimized, and for those in need or trouble, is also courageous witness.
In our Diocese, Bishop Poulson on occasion, never lightly and never as part of a partisan program, addresses public issues relevant to Oklahoma, bringing the wisdom of our Anglican moral vision, grounded in the Gospel, to these questions—all with the purpose to guide Episcopalians and to be a witness to our faith among the general public. You can find these statements HERE.
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We are the Episcopal Church in Oklahoma.