Rev. Ernest Mahoro to Visit Columbia!

Anglican Church of the Advent presents:

Rwanda: Genocide, AIDS, and the Church

An Evening with Rev. Ernest Mahoro

Daniel Boone Library

Tuesday, August 31st, 6:30pm

Join us for an exciting opportunity to meet Rev. Ernest Mahoro from Kibungo, Rwanda. An Anglican pastor and a Development Officer overseeing 110,00 parishioners, Rev. Mahoro has traveled the Rwandan countryside offering encouragement and training. He will share many valuable insights into Rwanda’s past and present as he discusses how his country, and specifically his church, has faced a severe AIDs crisis and the 1994 genocide. Rev. Mahoro will also invite questions after his presentation. Come and hear his story!

This event is open to the public.  Light refreshments will be served after the presentation.

Scripture to Consider: Communion

Matthew 26: 26-27 “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to His disciples saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’ Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’”



In the Church, we come together most through the Lord’s Supper (also called “Communion” and “Eucharist”). This is where we truly feed on Christ, and we become one. At the Communion table, we get a short glimspe of what it will be like when Christ returns and sets up His heavenly kingdom here on earth. This is a gift from God that gives us grace and stength to live life in this fallen world. It is through Communion that we are regularly reminded of the need to repent of our sin and of God’s grace offered through Christ. We receive that grace anew anytime we partake of His body and blood.

Scripture to Consider: Now and Not Yet

I John 3:2 “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”



The Church is a community that exists between two worlds. We live in the old world that is still controlled by sin, but we also live in a new world where the power of death and sin have been defeated by the blood of Christ. The old world is fading away, and someday soon it will no longer exist, and humanity will live in perfect peace with God. This will happen when Christ returns to establish His throne on earth and rules over everything. Therefore we must live this life in the victory we have already and in the hope of the future when Christ returns. Then the inward victory in our hearts will be seen throughout the world, and there will be no more sin, suffering, or death.

Scripture to Consider: the Church

Ephesians 1:18-23 “ I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way."



We are called to be in community together. From the beginning God did not think it was good for people to be alone. The community we are called into is the body of Christ. Only the church has Jesus as its head, and it is the only true community. The Church will not pass away, and the community of the faithful is the eternal kingdom of God on earth. But we are not what we ought to be. We are fallen and sinful people who are in desperate need of God’s work in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Church only has one Jesus who is perfect at the head of the church, and the rest of us us are in desperate need of God’s help. The church is a hospital were the sick go to become well. The Church is not a place of perfect people but a place where fallen and broken people work together to become well. It is also a place where people come together to fullfill their destiny as worshippers of God. In one voice, we come together and worship God. This allows us to enter truly into one community and allows us for a short time to glimpse the heavenly realm of God. We enter into the church through the sacrament of Baptism. Though the church is vastly imperfect now, we believe that when Christ returns, He will bring all the churches together as one unified Church, and He will rule in perfect peace over all the world. In the meantime, we live in a season of waiting, during the time since Christ’s coming which started His kingdom, and we look forward in hope to the time of its completion with His return.

If you have questions about this, please contact adventpastor@gmail.com. This passage is taken from the New International Version of the Holy Bible.

Scripture to Consider: Living By Faith

Romans 1:16-17 “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith.'" {cf Hab. 2:4}



Faith is that you trust in God. If you trust in God through Jesus Christ, who is our only bridge to God, then you are saved from death and sin. We are made righteous through our faith in God. When we trust in God through Jesus, Jesus takes our place in the eyes of God. God does not see our sins and faults but the perfection of Jesus and we are set free to love and serve Jesus.

If you have questions about this verse, please contact adventpastor@gmail.com. This passage is taken from the New International Version of Scripture.

The Holy Spirit and Witnessing

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."



Christ has died on a cross for us taking the wrath of God upon Himself for us. We can now look upon the work and teaching of Jesus, especially the cross of Christ, and understand what love really is about. It is the absolute self-abandoning, self-sacrifice of one person for the sake of another. Anything less than this is not love. Because of the love of Christ we are called to give our lives to Jesus and to love others through service to the downtrodden and by bringing the light of Jesus Christ to all the dark places in the world and proclaiming the Gospel. Therefore, Church of the Advent is a missional church, called to lead the lost of this world to the light of Christ. This is more than a one time conversion but a shift from one life enslaved to this world to a new life in Christ. This is an event that takes a lifetime. The Holy Spirit equips Christians with what we need to reach the lost through witnessing with our words, actions, and lives. The Holy Spirit also enables new Christians to mature in their faith and grow into a deeper and fuller relationship with God. All of this is made possible because the Holy Spirit is alive and at work around us and in the Church.

If you have questions about what this means, contact adventpastor@gmail.com.  This verse is from the New International Version of the Holy Bible.

Scripture to Consider: Proclaiming Christ

Luke 4:18-19 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."



This verse is a quote from Jesus during his ministry. He is saying that he has come to raise all those who are oppressed out of oppression and set them free. The ultimate way that Jesus released us from oppression was through his death, burial, and resurrection. Through this, Jesus conquered death and sin.


After Adam and Eve rebelled against God, humans became haters of God and each other. We were trapped in our own selfish nature, only serving our own desires. We were turned inward, feeding our own appetites. We were devouring ourselves from the inside out. But Christ came to turn us from ourselves to our creator. The only true food is the bread of life, which is Jesus himself. By partaking of life in Christ, we are set free from the death caused by Adam and Eve’s sin and our own sin, and we are brought into eternal life in Christ’s kingdom. Because we follow Christ, we also proclaim him and preach good news to the poor and the oppressed. We enact our life in His kingdom when we reach out to the poor and those in need of Christ.

Also see, John 6:32-35.
If you have questions about this verse or would like to learn more about what that means for this church, please contact adventpastor@gmail.com.  This passage is from the New International Version of the Holy Bible.

Scripture to Consider: Reconciliation

2 Corinthians 5:18 - 6:1 "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."




This verse represents God’s call on Church of the Advent to be ambassadors of God’s reconciling us to himself. What does that mean? To be reconciled with God is to replace a hostile relationship towards God with a loving relationship with God. This is only possible through Christ’s death on the cross which was the ultimate reconciliation of all humanity throughout time to God. When we reconcile with the community and act as agents of reconciliation, we are reciprocating the act of grace and generosity shown in Christ’s death for us. Through this we are able to love each other, and the best way to love another person is to show them the love of Christ.

If you have questions about this passage of Scripture, please contact adventpastor@gmail.com.  This passage comes from the New International Version of the Holy Bible.

What is Anglican? Part 4: A Church of Three Streams

The Anglican church embraces three streams of faith.

1.  Catholic: This does not mean “Roman Catholic,” which is one expression of Christian faith. When we say “catholic,” we mean universal faith throughout time, centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ. To say “catholic,” is also a statement of hope and faith that one day all churches will be united under Christ.

2.  Evangelical: This means that our faith and practice focus on preaching the Gospel and people turning their hearts to Christ. We affirm that the Scripture is the word of God and the revelation of who God is. The Scriptures teach everything that a person needs for salvation. We are sinners in need of Christ’s salvation, and he came to seek the lost and hurting people of this world and set them free from sin and death.

3.  Charisma: The word “charisma” refers to the work of the Holy Spirit. We believe that the Holy Spirit is working in and through the church. The Holy Spirit empowers the Church through: prayer, both private and corporate; through the study, preaching, and teaching of God’s word; through Baptism and Eucharist (communion); and through other unexpected ways in the life of the church and the believer. This is a powerful belief because it means that we affirm that Christ will still heal us and perform miracles today through us.

The three streams of the church is a trinitarian concept that flows from the revelation of who God is. The streams merge in the Anglican concept of church and help believers learn to love God with heart, soul, and mind and to love their neighbors and themselves. We believe that God is three persons in one: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we believe that humanity was created in the image of the triune God. This means that people were made for community because the person of God is a community. Christians best show God to the world when they create communities of love that reach out to the world.  For a Biblical statement on this, see John chapter 17.



If you have questions about the three streams or would like to learn more about what this means for our church in particular, contact me at adventpastor@gmail.com.