My dear people and friends of the Newman Fellowship,

This coming Sunday, October 2nd, we will celebrate the Solemnity of the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels. We will be reminded of the protective role of St. Michael the Archangel and the divine ministries of the nine choirs of angels.  The hymns the Choir will lead are real rousers! Speaking of, I think our singing was heard widely across Bryn Mawr College’s campus last Sunday.

The hymn that we sing and the verse from which we recite, “Lead Kindly Light,” was originally a poem Blessed John Henry Newman wrote:  “The Pillar of the Cloud.”  When on a storm-tossed sea in 1835 on his way back from Italy to England, Newman was aware of God’s leading -- knowing God’s guiding presence as the Israelites experienced it in their wilderness wandering. He prayed, “Lead thou me on! … one step enough for me.”

We, in the Newman Fellowship, are all aware of God’s leading and presence.  There is a strong sense of things unfolding as we take one step at a time, moving into the future.  We pray for a place of landing, where the challenge of doing the Sunday “port-a-church” is no longer the requirement, so that we can settle down and tackle other ministry challenges and calls.  This is a time to be patient, trusting, and most thankful for God’s leading and Providence.  We walk by faith, not by sight – which, I pray, we never stop doing whenever and wherever we land.  But in this time, we are worshiping the Lord with such joy and togetherness, united in the offering of the Eucharist.

Speaking of the “Pillar of the Cloud” that leads, the Newman Fellowship is on a corporate journey of understanding and embracing the Catholic Church (as people formed in the Anglican tradition), which St. Paul states is “the pillar and bulwark of the truth” (I Timothy 3:15).  We find ourselves living in a very exciting time, in which the healing of the 500-year-old separation between Anglicans and the Catholic Church is found through the implementation of Anglicanorum Coetibus – a Spirit-given opportunity to aid in the fulfillment of our Lord Jesus Christ’s prayer, “May they all be one.”  We are in a process of education and discovery of a deeper understanding of the theology of the Church and the Holy Spirit.

I want to close this message in expressing Rita’s and my heartfelt thanks to George Sayen and his wife, Mary, for their most generous provision of 506 Montgomery Avenue in Haverford as temporary lodging for us.  Rita and I know this wonderful home so well from our ten years or more of Tuesday morning breakfasts with the late Dr. and Mrs. John Sayen.  We would sit at Dr. Sayen’s feet, drinking deeply of his strong intellect and knowledge of the Church, history, and literature.  May that dear couple rest in peace.

I am yours thankfully and faithfully in the Lord Christ who said, “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5).  Pray with me to our merciful Father in Heaven, “Lead thou us on….one step enough for us.”

+David L. Moyer

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