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Today in my Facebook newsfeed, I discovered that Bishop Chandler Holder Jones, Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Province of America – one of our sister jurisdictions in the Joint Anglican Synods (G-3), and Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese of the Eastern United States in the APA – had posted the above picture and the image below on his timeline, with the following request:
“Please pray for Archbishop John E. Upham Jr. of the Anglican Province of Christ the King.”
As the text of a letter from the Province states, Archbishop Upham “is losing his long-fought battle for regaining his health. For almost four months, he has been away from home, between hospital and rehab, only growing weaker. Recent tests show that cancer has developed throughout his lungs, and he has only a short time. Archbishop Upham is planning to return to his home in Raleigh on Tuesday in hospice care where his dear wife, Madge, and he can be together. His affairs are in order, and our hearts and prayers go with him.”
While the APCK is not presently part of the Anglican Joint Synods, we retain informal and fraternal ties with them, and many of our people (including at least one, that I know of, and probably more, here in our own parish) know Archbishop Upham personally. If, as seems likely based on this notification, his time on earth is drawing near to its close, let us offer this prayer:
O ALMIGHTY God, with whom do live the spirits of just men made perfect, after they are delivered from their earthly prisons; We humbly commend the soul of this thy servant, our dear brother, into thy hands, as into the hands of a faithful Creator, and most merciful Saviour; beseeching thee, that it may be precious in thy sight. Wash it, we pray thee, in the blood of that immaculate Lamb, that was slain to take away the sins of the world; that whatsoever defilements it may have contracted, through the lusts of the flesh or the wiles of Satan, being purged and done away, it may be presented pure and without spot before thee; through the merits of Jesus Christ thine only Son our Lord. Amen.
(“A Commendatory Prayer for a Sick Person at the Point of Departure,” BCP 1928, p. 317)
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Faithfully,
Fr. Tom Harbold
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