Pentecost: The Holy Spirit - Gestalt of Living in Christ

Dear Friends:

Pentecost is about our becoming Christ in the world.  It is God taking on flesh through His Holy Spirit and becoming a Reality within us.

The Holy Spirit opens our spiritual eyes to see and the ears to hear.

The eyes to see that God is in the details, that God is an actual reality both in spirit and in the flesh, and we have ears to hear Him speakisng within our hearts 

and upon the lips of others - in the rush of a spiritual moment.

The eyes to see and the ears to hear - as one - and as unique persons

valued and treasured so much by God that God comes to us as we are and makes us even more truly who we are when we are His.

The story of the birth of the church, of that day some fifty days after the

Resurrection of Christ Jesus that early Christians called Pentecost - tells us

that this is what God has done - and even yet is still doing at this very moment.  

The followers of Jesus are given the ability to speak in the idiom, the language of all those who are assembled and through them beyond.  God graces us that we might understand one another and that we understand the good news - in just the way we need to hear it. Much as God communicates to each one of us here today.

We hear the gospel in our own language, with our images, in our thoughts and with intuition using our own metaphors, with our own ears because the chief spiritual gift of the Holy Spirit is She remains dwelling within us.

Some will be encouraged to spend more time in praise and wonder to thank God for blessings, others will hear that the power that they need for tomorrow's trials and tribulations will come, while still others will take heart knowing that God is present to them at all times.

Whatever it is - you will be filled with God - and this will be uniquely yours.

Pentecost is the birth of the Church. It is God among us in power making us not simply a group of believers, but being Christ in the world - unafraid, empowered and bearing the cross within our lives out of love, being raised to witness together here in fellowship of God in glory.

The Holy Spirit empowers Jesus, from his conception, and throughout

his ministry, to teach and to heal and this mission continues today. And before Jesus left his followers he gave them a mandate to motivate them for the task ahead, and promised to send the Holy Spirit in his place (Luke 24:49).

The Holy Spirit is alike Jesus, who is God – God the Father as it is said that the Love of the Father and Son together generate the Holy Spirit, who is their Love.

This Spirit of Love guides us to the truth about Jesus, about ourselves and our personal predicament, our gestalt within this world and the times we find ourselves in  –The Holy Spirit gives us the ‘big picture’ and will show us God’s will for the future (John 16:8-13). The Holy Spirit also brings us “gifts” “powers” understandings compassion to become similar to Almighty God.

When you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit enters your life, and He will never leave you.

How am I to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Firstly, you are already filled with the Holy Spirit by virtue that all life is from God and your Baptism in particular. But, to have more of the Spirit enter your life, your daily living, you must desire Him, and you must persist with a hunger and thirst to do that which is right (Matthew 5:6).

This involves confession of your sins, faults, and ego centrism (1 John 1:9). Then ask the Holy Spirit fill you up with Divine Grace: for if you ask for anything that God also wants, He will hear you because you are on a Divine Path (1 John 5:14,15).

Thank God for filling us up in real time, so that by faith we live innocently moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day with His Creation in His holy power and under His divine direction.

Now remain awake and listen within for the Holy Spirit speaks. May the Holy Spirit guide your life.

In Christ,   Bishop Daniel J. Dahl

                 Senior Bishop

Bishops at Ordination of Rev. Dr. Kaleo Patterson

The Rev. Dr. Kaleo Patterson - Episcopal Priest

The ordination of Hawaiian kahu (pastor), scholar, activist and linguist, the Rev. Father Kaleo Patterson, as an Episcopal priest took place Saturday, September 27, 2014 in the Cathedral of St. Andrew (Episcopal), Honolulu, Hawai'i. IOC Orthodox Bishop of Hawai'i, the Most Rev. Stephen Randolph Sykes was Psalmist for the ordination officiated by the Right Rev. Robert L. Fitzpatrick, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawai'i.

The event was conducted under the auspices of the Dean of the Cathedral, the Very Rev. Walter B. A. Brownridge. The Episcopal Bishop-Emeritus of Hawai'i, the Right Rev. Richard Chang and IOC Senior Bishop, the Most Rev. Daniel J. Dahl also attended, as well dozens of Episcopal clergy and local United Church of Christ pastors.

Both the Rev. Dr. Patterson and Bishop Sykes are members of the Board of Directors of the Interfaith Alliance Hawaii, for which Bishop Sykes also serves as Board President. A large part of the Liturgy of Ordination was conducted in Hawaiian as were many of the hymns sung by the large congregation of  the 'Ohana. Father Kaleo has been a teacher of Hawaiian spirituality and was for many years previous a minister in the United Church of Christ.

PASCHAL LETTER 2014

Bishop Daniel's Paschal Letter

My dear Friends:  Christ is risen!  Alleluia!

During this Holy Season of Easter, we pray for peace within ourselves and with those we love, but also we pray for harmony among all people and nations. We who call ourselves Christians are called by Jesus to be peacemakers: our love must be unconditional, our actions non-violent, and our community inclusive.

Jesus’ Resurrection – the anastasis, the rebirth – reminds us that God’s Holy Spirit is always alive in us and is a reality that informs our daily choices, allowing us to achieve the unconditional love that is the basis of Jesus message.  Each day, we are privileged to surrender our hearts to God’s call for us to love our neighbor as ourselves. 

The Resurrection affirms our love for ourselves and restores our innocence. The Resurrection secures our love of every other one of God’s children and adults, as well extends to all animals and the Earth. The Resurrection defends the recognition that all are created in God’s Image and Likeness.

I pray that we may, all of us together, be enriched by the healing love of Almighty God, Light of the Universe, who raises us up in salvation, by Jesus Christ, over death into eternal life.  May God protect and guide you and all those that you love. May God bless you and may your heart be at peace in God’s grace. Live in the Light of the Risen Christ!

+ Daniel

First Hierarch / Bishop of the Inclusive Orthodox Church

 

PASCHAL LETTER 2013

Inclusive Orthodox Church

Most Rev. Daniel J. Dahl, EOMC, DD
First Hierarch & Apostolic President

Paschal Letter 2013

Christ is Risen, receive His Blessings!

Easter is when the People of God recall the central mystery of the Christian faith – the Resurrection of the Glorified Body united with the Spirit of God in Jesus Christ.

We have much to pray for at this time of commemorating the Risen Christ. First of all we pray for World Peace and petition God’s angels to guide and watch over, in particular at this time, the Middle East and the Koreas.

We also pray in thanks to the Holy Spirit for bringing to Christendom a new spiritual leader, Francis, the Bishop of Rome and Patriarch of the West. We, among our group hold Pope Francis as the Church’s first member in Christ’s choir on Earth [protocoryphaeus].

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew immediately recognized this fact for the first time since the Church of Christ divided, East and West, by immediately joining the Holy Father Francis in Rome at his installation. Francis is returning hope to Christians.

May our faith and trust in the Resurrection of Life, as testified in the Risen Christ, bring all of us into the fullness of physical perfection and create within each one that complete spiritual maturity and joy which are hallmarks of the People of God.

In the Light of the Risen Christ,

+ Daniel of Mount Carmel

First Hierarch / Bishop of the Inclusive Orthodox Church

www.inclusiveorthodox.org

Bishop's Photos & Events: 2011 - 2012

July 2012

Bishop Randolph Sykes meets Nobel Laureate Archbishop Tutu

Most Rev. Desmond Tutu, the Archbishop Emeritus of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa and a 1984 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, participated in an interfaith service in Honolulu at the invitation of the Dean of the Episcopal Cathedral of Saint Andrew, the Very Reverend Walter B.A. Brownridge.

The leaders of many faiths and denominations that practice in Hawaii joined with Archbishop Tutu, who is standing in row 1 above on the far left with Honpa Hongwanji Bishop Eric Matsumoto, attended an Interfaith Prayer Service, held on Sunday, August 5, 2012 at the Episcopal Cathedral of Saint Andrew. Bishop Sykes is standing in row 2 far right along side of Hawaii's Episcopal Bishop Robert Fitzpatrick and the Cathedral's Dean Walter Brownridge. The service included special guest choirs, Kawaiolaonapukanileo, Kawaiaha'o Church Choir and Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus and the choirs sang the Kamehameha IV Evening Service by Hawaii composer, John McCreary.

November 2011

IOC Bishops attend Ecumenical Service to protest APEC 2011 Conference

FACE [Faith Action for Community Equity] sponsored an “Equity Summit and Interfaith Service” during the first week of November, 2011 that was held to keep the Christian churches in Hawaii mindful of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference that was held later that month in Honolulu and hosted by President Barack Obama.  Bishops Daniel Dahl and Randolph Sykes both attended the interfaith service that was on Monday, November 7, 2011 at St. Augustine by-the-Sea Catholic Church in Honolulu. This interfaith service focused on lifting up a Pacific-centered theological vision in contrast with the profit-centered Wall Street vision which was the focus of APEC held in Honolulu.