The Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDING BISHOP
PO Box 28687
Statesville, N.C. 28687
7 October 2019 Anno Domini
TO: Bishop Zephaniah Legumana and the Church of Melanesia,
the Solomons, and the Pacific Basin
Greetings in the Name above every other name, the Lord Jesus Christ:
It seems like only yesterday when we first visited the beautiful Solomon Islands to receive your churches and Bishop Legumana as Presiding Bishop of Melanesia, the Solomon’s, and the Pacific Basin. It marked the high light of my service to God to meet the many smiling faces and see the beautiful children of your land.
Now you have grown, under Bishop Zephaniah’s able leadership under Christ, into a force for goodness and for the Gospel of Christ. We are continually amazed at how God has used your church to reach far into the islands of the sea to spread the skirts of the Church of Christ.
My eyes grow misty when I remember my last voyage to Isabel with our wonderful past National Secretary, Betty Hoffman. I remember the scene precisely in my minds’s eye of the people of Biluru gathering at the shoreline and singing, “He’s a Jolly God Fellow,” as our boat transferred us to the ship. It was a most humbling experience. I realize that the ‘Jolly Good Fellow” to whom your referred was not me personally, but to the Lord who had made me able to visit and receive His people into our Church. I can never forget the rich voices of your singing and the magical deep notes of your bamboo organs which surpass all I have heard in the Cathedrals of England.
Bishop Zephaniah has become known to all in the AOC around the world as the ‘Iron Bishop’ of the Pacific. He is so known for his love of Christ, his dedicated service, and perseverance under sometimes austere conditions.
If God wills it, I shall see your faces once more before the last moon crosses over the blue waters of the Pacific. But if I do not, I may go to my Maker knowing that the people of the Islands of the Pacific, whom I love as my dear brothers and sisters, will continue to carry the Torch of Christ high above those blue waters and bear His Ensign always at the forefront of your battles.
I love you. God bless you.
JERRY L. OGLES
PRESIDING
“Prenez en Gré”
In Christ Alone during TRINITY,
† Jerry L. Ogles, D.D.
Presiding Bishop
Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide & Chancellor, Faith Theological Seminary
“Metus improbo compescit, non clementia.” – Syrus, MAXIMS: Fear, not kindness, restrains the wicked!
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer – HOLY SCRIPTURE:
“If there were any word of God beside the Scripture, we could never be certain of God’s Word; and if we be uncertain of God’s Word, the devil might bring in among us a new word, a new doctrine, a new faith, a new church, a new god, yea himself to be a god. If the Church and the Christian faith did not stay itself upon the Word of God certain, as upon a sure and strong foundation, no man could know whether he had a right faith, and whether he were in the true Church of Christ, or a synagogue of Satan.”
