I celebrate the fourth anniversary of my reception into the Anglican Catholic Church, Diocese of the United Kingdom. Here is the blog post of the time Received into the Anglican Catholic Church. It is quite a shock to see my hair the way I used to have it in a crew cut! I also remember being almost crippled by very painful gout in my left foot. I rarely get attacks of gout, but I always have my little packet of pills in case I need them.
Easter was earlier in 2013, and we always have our Synod on the Saturday after Low Sunday, so it was the day after, second Sunday after Easter in Canterbury. I will be travelling to England again for our Synod and will be providing some organ accompaniment and music at Mass in Canterbury the following day. It will be good to see my Bishop again and our people – and I also have my new boat engine to pick up for use on Sarum, my little twelve-foot cruiser.
Spring brings so much joy and brightness, especially when Easter is in mid April like this year. I saw a swallow flying around for the first time today as I did some gardening. I took the boat (Σοφία, not Sarum) out for the first time this year yesterday. The water was cold and I was glad not to fall in it. Launching was touch and go because it was high tide and the breaking waves were forbidding. The wind was perpendicular to the beach, making launching under sail impossible. I waited until the wind turned more to the north-east as forecast and high tide was past and the waves became smaller in the shallower water. It was quite good fun on the choppy sea with a light breeze, and I stayed out for only an hour and a half so as not to allow myself to get too cold! It is spring, but it is still April!
Four years have gone quickly, and this year will be my fifth Synod. I have been on the Bishop’s Council of Advice for quite a while, and am happy to take part in the work of our Diocese. If you look at our website and Facebook pages, you will see we are slowly growing. We all try to do our little bit to help. My belonging to this Church has given legitimacy to my priestly vocation and a true mission as one sent by Christ through my Bishop. For this I am thankful.
The Blue Flower 
Many of us, like you, have had long and tortuous journeys in both material and spiritual life This world, and even the Church, can be moderately comfortable for “the right kind” of people and decidedly unkind to misfits such as I have been, and as you testify to having been. Continuing Anglicanism, though far from perfect, has provided me also with a home where I can be myself, accepted and even valued in all my weirdness within a truly traditional Christianity. I too am thankful!