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Bishop Henry
Kontor, Chair of ACGB, signing
a training partnership agreement
(on behalf of the Institute
for Community and Development
Studies) with Dr Geoffrey Copland,
Vice Chancellor and Rector of
the University of Westminster,
27 June 1998. The Institute
for Community and Development
Studies is a training centre
of The Apostolic Congress of
Great Britain.
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Bishop
Henry dedicates the memory of this occasion
and the futures of Church and Higher Education
collaborations to
St Maximus The Theologian.
St
Maximum was of the Eastern Church.
He expressed the apostolic beliefs of the
Church in philosophical depths and with gifted
intellectual powers. That earned him the title
"Theologian" even in the Church
of the West. He is named as a theologian in
the Catholic Encyclopaedia. The Saint stands
in Christian witness as an outstanding expression
of the positive link between Faith and Higher
Education. Jesus said, "Where two or
three are gathered in my name, I am there
among them" (Matthew 18.20).
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Rev.
Dr. Floyd H. Blake
The Reverend Dr. Floyd H. Flake's work in
the United States of America is one of the
living urban stories that reinforces the incarnational
field ministry (which The Apostolic See of
St. Maximus seeks to encourage) to the Glory
of God. He has trusted God to take Church
work forward through community needs into
national engagements, in an apostolic discipline.
In
the last 30 years of his endeavours, Dr. Blake
has laid a foundation for the incarnational
ministry in a pastoral context.
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Since
1976, he has provided pastoral leadership
for The Greater Allen Cathedral of New York
in Jamaica, Queens (formerly known as The
Allen African Methodist Episcopal Church).
In the period he has raised the congregation
of 1,400 members to more than 13,000 parishioners,
and established a complete private school,
senior center, and hundreds of housing units
for its members and other community residents.
The Church has now become one of the largest
nonprofit corporations in the United States
of America and the second-largest African
American employer in New York City.
Ten
years after accepting the pastoral leadership
of the Church, he was elected and served as
a member of the United States House of Representatives.
He served for five terms (while still the
pastoral leader of the Church), and left during
his sixth term to devote himself fully to
the pastorate of the Church. In U.S. Congress,
he established a reputation for bipartisanship.
He also led several initiatives to revitalize
urban commercial and residential communities.
Rev.
Dr. Blake started life from a very humble
beginning. He was born one of 13 children,
and grew up in a family house that lacked
running water. His immediate asset was the
strong moral upbringing which he received
from his parents. In an environment of racial
segregation, he managed to achieve a college
education at 22. He worked in public, private,
and community sectors for 9 years before taking
the pastoral leadership in the Church. He
has earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from
the United Theological Seminary in Dayton,
Ohio, and holds other honorary degrees. He
is the author of Nine Action Steps for Achieving
Your Dreams: The Way of the Bootstrapper.
In addition to his duties as Senior Pastor
of The Greater Allen Cathedral of New York,
he has served as President of Edison Charter
Schools, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan
Institute for Social and Economic Policy,
and as a columnist for the New York Post.
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St
Maximus as a Foundation Builder
St.
Maximus was a seventh century classical
theologian, apostle and prophet. In
the Eastern Church, this outstanding
theologian was titled The Confessor.
He is regarded as one of the chief doctors
of the theology of the Incarnation,
as well as a remarkable witness in the
Greek Church (upheld by Rome). This
great man was of a noble family of Constantinople.
He became first secretary to the Emperor
Heraclius, who prized him much. However
he quitted "the world" and
gave himself up to contemplation in
a monastery at Chrysopolis, opposite
Constantinople. He worked hard on cosmic
dimensions in the mystery underlying
the divine and human person of Jesus
Christ.
During
a period of hostile attacks on his theological
position, he is believed to have taken
refuge in Africa together with St. Sophronius
who later became the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
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