St. Luke ICCEC Mission Church In Manchester, Georgia

 

St. Luke Charismatic Episcopal Church has been meeting at 104 Broad Street since January of 2001. Every Sunday morning at 9:30 we assemble to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ through the reading of scripture, corporate singing and prayer, evangelical preaching, and partaking of the Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. We also gather on Tuesday Evening for a Prayer/healing/Eucharist Service and for Morning Prayer at 9:30 on Saturdays. The Rite of Reconciliation and Spiritual Direction are available by appointment or following our services. Come and worship with us.

            Our denomination, as part of the Convergence Worship Movement, began in 1992 from three Evangelical and Charismatic Churches that wanted to experience the pageantry, liturgy, and sacramental worship of the early Church. They founded the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church (ICCEC), which now has 10 Churches in Georgia and nearly two thousand churches worldwide. Part of the vision of the Charismatic Episcopal Church is to reveal the Church’s heritage to our generation and to subsequent generations. This vision includes bringing the rich inheritance of the sacramental and liturgical life of the early church to searching Evangelicals and Charismatics. We also purpose to carry the power of Pentecost to our brothers and sisters in the historic churches. Finally, we must provide a home for all Christians who seek a multi-ethnic, liturgical-sacramental, evangelical, charismatic church and a solid spiritual foundation for their lives and gifts of ministry.

Jesus emphasized the importance of making the Kingdom of God visible in Luke 4:43. “He said to them,

"I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.”

Our vision, like that of Jesus Christ, is to make “visible the Kingdom of God. The ICCEC desires to bring the Light of Christ to the nations of the world. In doing so we make visible the Kingdom of God. God’s Kingdom is made visible through Holy Scripture, the heritage and traditions of two 2,000 years of Church history, and the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

 

History of St. Luke Church

 

            From 1998 to 2000 we held Tuesday night healing and Eucharist services at the First Methodist Church in Manchester. The group built up to around 22 people and nearly everyone got excited about the CEC. By the fall of 2000, eighteen of the original group moved to Thomaston to become part of the Cathedral where they began going for Sunday Services. Four of that group that relocated to Thomaston were subsequently ordained to Holy Orders and now serve at the Cathedral.

            When Fr. Bob Wills went to the Fall Convocation in Jacksonville in 2000, he needed to hear from God as to the direction of the mission. Our Tuesday attendance had fallen, after many of our members moved to Thomaston to be near to the Cathedral of St. Michael. At the Convocation, an Archdeacon had a word of the Lord saying that Fr. Bob would be starting a church by the first of the next year (6 weeks away). He described the building St. Luke church has been in for the past 5 years. We found the building the next Monday and started our services on the Baptism of the Lord Sunday 2001.

            We are an evenly mixed congregation mostly made up of people from a variety of ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds. We are a close family with no divisions and lots of love for one another. We enjoy each others’ company and love to worship together. Our congregation loves to pray. When we do the prayers of the people, most of our members pray out loud and believe in the power of prayer.

            Many of our members have had major miracles and divine changes in their lives. We have seen schizophrenics healed and living normal lives, addicts healed and restored, homeless people get jobs and places to live, street kids with somewhere positive to hang out, and many physical healings.

 

Canon Robert (Bob) Wills is the Vicar or Pastor of St. Luke ICCEC Church. Canon Wills is the Canon Theologian for the Mid South Diocese and a Mentor for St. Michael’s Seminary. He writes seminary curriculum, teaches seminary, teaches martial arts as a 5th degree low master, and conducts 3 weekly substance abuse groups for parolees.  Fr. Bob has a Masters degree in education and a Doctorate of Theology.  He has done extensive study in ancient and church history.

Sharon, Fr. Bob's wife, is an artist who paints and is learning the art of iconography. She made Fr. Bob’s vestments and the Church’s altar cloths. She is a blackbelt in karate and teaches GED classes in Thomaston. She has also, in the past, taught classes for substance abusers. She has a masters degree in theology and Christian counseling and a degree in education.

 

What Do We Believe

 

Part of the vision of the Charismatic Episcopal Church is to reveal the Church’s heritage to our generation. (Eph 1:11-12)  In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. This vision includes bringing the rich inheritance of the sacramental and liturgical life of the early church to searching evangelicals and Charismatics. We also purpose to carry the power of Pentecost to our brothers and sisters in the historic churches. Finally, we must provide a home for all Christians who seek a liturgical-sacramental, evangelical, charismatic church and a foundation for their lives and gifts of ministry. (1 Cor 2:9-10)  But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things, which God has prepared for those who love Him." But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

            The Charismatic Episcopal Church exists to make visible the Kingdom of God. Jesus emphasized the importance of making the Kingdom of God visible in Luke 4:43. “He said to them, "I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.” Our vision, like that of Jesus Christ, is to make “visible the void.” A void is darkness or emptiness in which there is no light. The ICCEC desires to bring the Light of Christ to the nations of the world. In doing so we make visible the Kingdom of God. God’s Kingdom is made visible through Holy Scripture, the heritage and traditions of two 2,000 years of Church history, and the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

            The church is in a fragmented state today. We who are members of the ICCEC consider ourselves to be a part of the Church Catholic. That means that we see ourselves as part of Christ’s one, universal, Church, rather than as an independent denominational movement apart from the whole Church. Although we are a separate communion, we are part of the Church Catholic.

              Is the ICCEC Catholic or Protestant? The ICCEC is wholly orthodox, evangelical, sacramental, and charismatic. Since the ICCEC stands as a bridge between the protestant and catholic formulations of faith, our basic beliefs hold in common the essentials of orthodoxy (i.e., "that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all") found in Eastern Orthodoxy, Western Catholicism, and the Reformed traditions.  Accordingly, we cannot walk in fellowship with those who deny the essentials of faith; those who would "move an ancient boundary stone" (Proverbs 22:28).

What are some of the key beliefs of the ICCEC? Among those beliefs we would underscore and commend the following:

1)                             A high view of Holy Scripture in affirming the critical importance of preaching, public reading of the Word, and personal Bible study;

2)                             A high view of the Sacraments in imparting the grace of God, particularly through the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist; 

3)                             A high view of the Church in affirming Cyprian's claim that, "he who has not the Church for his mother, has not God for his Father;"

4)                             The doctrine of saving grace by faith as held by both the Reformers and the Council of Trent. 

5)                             The real and present work of the Holy Spirit through gifts and signs as imparted  to believers for service and witness as rediscovered during this century by the Pentecostal/Charismatic  movements.