Prayers and liturgy

The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

The collect for today, the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY God, by whose providence thy servant John Baptist was wonderfully born, and sent to prepare the way of thy Son our Saviour, by preaching of repentance: Make us so to follow his doctrine and holy life, that we may truly repent according to his preaching, and after his example constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Isaiah 40:1-11
The Gospel: St. Luke 1:57-80

Giovanni Baronzio, The Birth, Naming and Circumcision of St. John the BaptistArtwork: Giovanni Baronzio, The Birth, Naming and Circumcision of St. John the Baptist, c. 1335. Tempera on panel, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

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Prayers and liturgy

Alban, Martyr

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Alban, First Martyr of Britain, d. c. 250 (source):

Almighty God, by whose grace and power thy holy martyr Alban triumphed over suffering and was faithful even unto death: Grant to us, who now remember him with thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to thee in this world, that we may receive with him the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Epistle: 1 St. John 3:13-16
The Gospel: St. Matthew 10:34-42

Saint Alban lived in the Roman city of Verulamium (modern St. Albans) in the third or early fourth century. A pagan soldier, he gave shelter to a fleeing Christian priest during a time of persecution. Deeply moved by the priest’s faith, Alban converted and was baptised.

When Roman soldiers arrived looking for the priest, Alban disguised himself in the priest’s cloak to allow him to escape. Discovered and brought before the judge, Alban refused to sacrifice to pagan gods, famously declaring, “I worship and adore the true and living God.” He was subsequently beheaded, thus becoming Britain’s protomartyr. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History gives the date of execution as AD 305, but other sources set his martyrdom at various dates between 209 and 283.

As Britain’s first recorded Christian martyr, the site of his martyrdom soon became a place of pilgrimage. The small pilgrim church built there later developed into St. Albans Cathedral, the oldest site of continual Christian worship in Britain.

Matthew Paris, Martyrdom of St. AlbanArtwork: Matthew Paris, Martyrdom of St. Alban, Illumination from Life of St. Alban, 13th century manuscript, Library of Trinity College, Dublin.

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Prayers and liturgy

Audio file of 8:00am Holy Communion service, Third Sunday after Trinity

Click here to listen to an audio recording of the 8:00am service of Holy Communion at Christ Church on the Third Sunday after Trinity.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Third Sunday after Trinity

“Rejoice with me”

Humility and rejoicing are intimately connected. The one, humility, is the condition for the other, our true rejoicing in the absolute goodness of God’s love imaged in Luke 15 by the shepherd’s care, the woman’s diligence, and the father’s love. The humility of God’s charity calls us to humility against our pride. Pride is that grand delusion in which we think we are totally self-sufficient; as if we stand in need of nothing. We presume to be the centre of everything. The self-giving love of God stands opposed to the self-centeredness of our pride. Our pride opposes God and God’s ways for us and with us in our lives.

In the Gospel, “all the publicans (meaning here tax collectors) and sinners [drew near] to hear Jesus”. But there were others who objected. “The Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying, this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them”. In other words, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, the self-righteous about their religion, complain about the company which Jesus keeps, the company of tax collectors and sinners. Jesus tells this parable in relation to this division between tax collectors and sinners, on the one hand, and Pharisees and the teachers of the law, on the other hand.

Tax collecting is a necessary feature of public life in any organized state or political community. Tax collectors are hardly ever regarded in a favourable light, but how much less so in the context of the Gospel? For then, they were seen as traitors to Israel because they were working for the Roman Authorities over and against their own people. And if that wasn’t bad enough, they were seen as extortionists. The business of tax collecting was out-sourced by the Roman government to local agents. They were given a quota they had to meet; anything above that was for themselves. Consequently, the tax collectors were out to get whatever they could from an unwilling and hostile population.

Traitors to Israel and extortionists of their own people. No one could be more despised and seen as a sinner than a tax collector. Hardly respectable company for a teacher of religion, it might seem, or, at least, so the Pharisees and the teachers of the law thought. After all, they saw themselves as the worthy ones, as the respectable company with whom Jesus should be, not this rabble of unworthy tax collectors and sinners. How does Jesus respond?

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Events, Month at a Glance

Month at a Glance, June – July 2026

Wednesday, June 24th, Nativity of John the Baptist
10:00am Holy Communion (celebrant: Fr. Todd Meaker)

Fr. David & Marilyn away at the Atlantic Theological Conference, Charlottetown, PEI, ‘The Sublime Sermons of Anglican Poet-Preachers’, Tues., June 23rd to Fri., June 26th (giving a paper on ‘The Poetic Theology of Lancelot Andrewes’, Wednesday, June 24th).

Sunday, June 28th, Fourth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
(Followed by a time of fellowship & refreshment – Parish Hall)

Monday, June 29th, St. Peter & St. Paul
10:00am Holy Communion

Sunday, July 5th, Fifth Sunday after Trinity (In the Octave of SS. Peter & Paul)
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Sunday, July 12th, Sixth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Sunday, July 19th, Seventh Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

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Prayers and liturgy

The Third Sunday After Trinity

The collect for today, the Third Sunday after Trinity, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O LORD, we beseech thee mercifully to hear us; and grant that we, to whom thou hast given an hearty desire to pray, may by thy mighty aid be defended and comforted in all dangers and adversities; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 St. Peter 5:5-11
The Gospel: St. Luke 15:1-10

Eugène Burnand, The Lost CoinArtwork: Eugène Burnand, The Lost Coin, Illustration for “Les Paraboles”, published 1908.

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Prayers and liturgy

Audio file of 8:00am Holy Communion service, Second Sunday after Trinity

Click here to listen to an audio recording of the 8:00am service of Holy Communion at Christ Church on the Second Sunday after Trinity.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Second Sunday after Trinity

“If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts”

The Collect, Epistle and Gospel for each Sunday provide the critical matrix for our understanding week in and week out. It is no less so for this Sunday. The Gospel is Christ’s parable which likens the kingdom of heaven to a great supper to which all who were invited made excuses. But is the kingdom of heaven a good equal to our other desires and pleasures in our concerns about property or goods or states of life, even such as marriage? How can that be? Thus the consequence  of our refusals would seem to mean not only “no feast” but equally a denial of God’s will and kingdom, as if our conveniences and interests really take precedence over God’s will for our highest good, our blessedness. Here our preoccupations about such concerns contribute to our indifference to the things of God through too much attachment to worldly concerns. Loving the things of the world too much, the things that are always passing away, leads to the neglect of the things of God, the things that are everlasting. It is one of the forms of the disorder of our loves that constantly need correction.

We have to learn, it seems, how to care for the things of our daily lives in the right way by learning to love all good things in God. “Teach us to care and not to care,” as T.S. Eliot puts it; in other words, teach us to care in the right way.

It might seem that our excuses must frustrate God’s will. But that cannot be. We can only frustrate ourselves; itself a kind of self-condemnation. God will have his house filled with those whom he makes ready as the Gospel shows, bringing them in who could not come on their own, compelling them to come in who would not come any other way. In a way, it is a strong statement of God’s love for our highest good, a strong statement about what God wants for us and which is prepared for us. “Come, for all things are now ready.” Now, in God’s time and will, not ours. But are we ready?

Yet the invitation nonetheless recognises human agency. God invites those whom he would have come willingly and freely out of love; those of whom it may truly be said, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.” It suggests hospitality and conviviality in our social joys as grounded in God’s purpose and will for us. It belongs, in other words, to human redemption. As John tells us, the first miracle which Jesus did at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee was to turn water into wine, an image of our social joys and pleasures but as belonging to God’s will for the good of our humanity; in short, our joy is found in him and his kingdom, the communion of saints. It is not simply about our private goods. To refuse the invitation is to deny the love in which we find the ultimate truth of ourselves, knowing ourselves as we are known by him, known in the radiancy of God’s glory and love which has been shown to us.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Month at a Glance, June 2026

Sunday, June 21st, Third Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Wednesday, June 24th, Nativity of John the Baptist
10:00am Holy Communion (celebrant: Fr. Todd Meaker)

Fr. David & Marilyn away at the Atlantic Theological Conference, Charlottetown, PEI, ‘The Sublime Sermons of Anglican Poet-Preachers’, Tues., June 23rd to Fri., June 26th (giving a paper on Wednesday, June 24th)

Sunday, June 28th, Fourth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
(Followed by a time of fellowship & refreshment – Parish Hall)

Monday, June 29th, St. Peter & St. Paul
10:00am Holy Communion

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Prayers and liturgy

The Second Sunday After Trinity

The collect for today, the Second Sunday after Trinity, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O LORD, who never failest to help and govern them whom thou dost bring up in thy stedfast fear and love: Keep us, we beseech thee, under the protection of thy good providence, and make us to have a perpetual fear and love of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 St. John 3:13-24
The Gospel: St. Luke 14:15-24

Joachim Wtewael, Kitchen Interior with the Parable of the Great SupperArtwork: Joachim Wtewael, Kitchen Interior with the Parable of the Great Supper, 1605. Oil on canvas, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

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