Christ Church

The collect for today, Christmas Eve (source):

Almighty God,
who makest us glad with the yearly remembrance
of the birth of thy only Son Jesus Christ:
grant that, as we joyfully receive him as our redeemer,
so we may with sure confidence behold him
when he shall come to be our judge;
who liveth and reigneth with thee
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: Titus 2:11-15
The Gospel: St Luke 2:1-14

Artwork: Lorenzo Monaco (Piero di Giovanni), The Nativity, 1409. Tempera on wood, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

“Christmas Eve”
(a poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti)

Christmas hath darkness
Brighter than the blazing noon,
Christmas hath a chillness
Warmer than the heat of June,
Christmas hath a beauty
Lovelier than the world can show:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.

Earth, strike up your music,
Birds that sing and bells that ring;
Heaven hath answering music
For all Angels soon to sing:
Earth, put on your whitest
Bridal robe of spotless snow:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.

In October Pope Benedict issued an Apostolic Constitution entitled Anglicanorum Coetibus dealing with the reception into the Roman Catholic Church of various Anglican groups and individuals. I have been asked about my views on this matter. Here is an article recently published in The Anglican Planet (TAP), for your interest. DC

On the recent Vatican statement (yeah, that one)

By David Curry

CLEAR AND PRECISE, gracious and considerate, Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus is, not surprisingly, a very Roman document. Juridical in its tone and approach, it is very firmly set within the established norms of Canon Law in the post-Tridentine Roman Catholic Church.

It makes, as the Vatican press release says, “a new provision” in response “to the many requests … from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful … who wish to enter into full visible communion with the Catholic Church.” The document is a clear and precise statement about that pastoral response.

It is not really an “ecumenical” document. It is not about a further development in the relationships between various constituent ecclesiological communities, along the lines of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, for instance. And with respect to the question as to why the Archbishop of Canterbury was not consulted, why should he be about Anglican groups who are seeking accommodation within the Roman Catholic Church?

In other words, the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, along with its Complementary Norms, is an in-house response of the Roman See to Anglicans who have already embraced “the Roman Covenant,” to coin a phrase, out of dismay and disillusionment with the episcopal and synodical developments within the Anglican Communion which have compromised and betrayed “the Anglican Covenant.” “The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the authoritative expression of the Catholic Faith professed by members of the Ordinariate”(I.5). Not the Book of Common Prayer, the Ordinal* and the Thirty-nine Articles. This provision is for Anglicans who have become thoroughly disillusioned with Anglicanism. Sad but true. And not without reason.

It is gracious and considerate, to an extent. Read the rest of this entry »

The collect for today, the Feast of St Thomas the Apostle, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY and everliving God, who for the more confirmation of the faith didst suffer thy holy Apostle Thomas to be doubtful in thy Son’s resurrection: Grant us so perfectly, and without all doubt, to believe in thy Son Jesus Christ, that our faith in thy sight may never be reproved. Hear us, O Lord, through the same Jesus Christ, to whom, with thee and the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory, now and for evermore. Amen.

The Epistle: Ephesians 2:19-22
The Gospel: St John 20:24-29
St Thomas’s name is believed to come from an Aramaic word meaning twin, but it is not known whose twin he was. He is included in all the lists of the twelve apostles, but he is mentioned most often in St John’s Gospel, where he is called “Didymus” (“twin” in Greek) three times (11:16; 20:24; 21:2).

St Thomas appears to have been an impulsive man. He says he is prepared to go with Jesus to the tomb of Lazarus even if it means death (John 11:16). At the Last Supper, however, he confesses his ignorance about where Jesus is going and the way there (John 14:5). In response, Christ said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

After the resurrection, Thomas was unwilling to believe his fellow disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead (John 20:24). He would not believe, he declared, unless he actually touched the wounds. Eight days later, Jesus gave “Doubting Thomas” the evidence he had asked for, whereupon Thomas confessed him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus then pronounces a blessing on all those who have not seen and yet believe.

The last mention of St Thomas in the New Testament occurs in John 21, where he is named as one of the seven disciples fishing on the Sea of Galilee when Jesus appears to them.

Nothing is known for sure about St Thomas’s activity after Pentecost, but early church writers say that he was active in missionary work in the East–in Parthia, Persia, and/or India. The most ancient tradition holds that he journeyed as far as Malabar (present-day Kerala) on the south-west coast of India and was martyred at Mylapore, near Madras. A large number of Indian Christians in the area call themselves “Christians of St. Thomas“. (See also this.) Although the tradition that St Thomas evangelized India cannot be definitely verified, Pope Paul VI declared him apostle of India in 1972.

Artwork: Duccio di Buoninsegna, The Incredulity of St Thomas (Reverse crowning panel from the Maestà ), c. 1311. Tempera on wood, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena.

“As you did it to the least of these my brethren, you did it to me”

Matthew’s strong and disturbing words are apocalyptic. They are part of what is sometimes called the Matthaean apocalypse. The opposite of apocryphal, which is to say, the things that are hidden, apocalypse refers to what is unveiled, unhidden. As such it belongs to an important and fundamental feature of the season and of the Christian religion, namely, revelation. God makes something known to us about himself but also about ourselves. Apocalyptic writings especially belong to the revealing of things in this world as seen from the viewpoint of God, from a standpoint of ultimate judgment. This cannot not be disturbing; neither can it be ignored. It is powerful stuff.

The words of Matthew are meant to challenge us and to make us reflect on our lives in relation to God and to one another. They are meant to make us think more deeply about the radical meaning of Christ’s coming, the Advent of Christ.

Advent signals the coming of God towards us in a variety of ways: his coming as Judge and Saviour; his coming in Word and Sacrament; his coming as the Babe of Bethlehem and the Christ of Calvary; his coming in the flesh and in the many acts of kindness, random or otherwise, in human lives. Judgment is inescapably part and parcel of the Advent, whether that judgment is looked at from the standpoint of the endtime, a kind of final or last judgment, or as an ever-present judgment. Indeed, the two are very closely intertwined. For this ‘last judgment’, as it were, sounds a very strong and convicting note of judgment for all of us right now. A kind of moral imperative arises out of this apocalyptic vision.

The challenge has to do with how we have acted towards one another, towards all the forms of humanity in our midst and in the larger world from which we cannot escape. We are all very much members one of another in the so-called global village, though that is but a small part of what it means to be “members one of another in the body of Christ”, which is cosmic and universal, embracing the multitudes of generations before us. We are inescapably neighbours to everyone in the whole of our suffering world. The question is not, it seems to me, what can we do so much as what do we do? Something or nothing? And what are the principles which animate our actions? These are the questions which occupy our imaginations, whether globally, as in Copenhagen this week, or locally, in our daily lives here in Windsor.

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“Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world”

We have come full circle, it may seem. Today’s Gospel ends with where we began on The Sunday Next Before Advent. In a way, Advent captures the whole of our lives in faith.

It signals the coming of God towards us. That is the first note. It signals as well the heightened awareness on our part about the coming of God towards us. That is the second note. Advent is simply and entirely holy waiting and holy watching – our watching and our waiting upon God, upon the God who comes to us with grace and salvation, with healing and forgiveness. “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” John the Baptist says in today’s Gospel.

Such is our beginning and our ending to which this week of the darkest night would bring us. It would bring us to Christ, the Lamb of God, the Word and Son of the Father who comes to us as the Son of Mary, the Word made flesh, the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world whose birth marks the beginning of the way of sacrificial love. He is the light of the world in every sense.

We can only watch and wait. It is the hardest thing for us, I fear, and yet, as always, the hardest things are the things most worth doing. We watch and wait upon God. There is our heightened awareness, our heightened expectancy – all of which are concentrated for us on this day.

But what makes this watching and waiting so hard? Because it is a watching and a waiting upon God. Without that all our advent preparations for Christmas are but tinsel and wrap, sounding brass and clanging cymbal, empty show and vain illusion. We so easily get lost in the busyness of our Christmas preparations. We are, I am afraid, simply too much with ourselves and not enough with God.

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Thursday, December 24th
7:00pm Children’s Crêche Service Christmas Eve
9:30pm Christmas Eve Communion Service

Friday, December 25th, Christmas Day
10:00am Christmas Morning Communion Service

Saturday, December 26th, St. Stephen
10:00am Holy Communion

Sunday, December 27th, St John the Evangelist / Sunday After Christmas
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Christmas Lessons & Carols

Monday, December 28th, Holy Innocents
10:00am Holy Communion

Thursday, December 31st
10:30am ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Dykeland Lodge

Friday, January 1st, 2010, Circumcision of Christ / New Years’ Day
10:00am Holy Communion, followed by Levée in the Parish Hall

O God, who makest glad with the yearly remembrance of the birth of thy only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that as we joyfully receive him as our Redeemer, we may with sure confidence behold him when he shall come again to be our Judge; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, now and ever. Amen.

A Christmas Carol

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s lap,
His hair was like a light.
(O weary, weary were the world,
But here is all aright.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s breast,
His hair was like a star.
(O stern and cunning are the kings,
But here the true hearts are.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s heart,
His hair was like a fire.
(O weary, weary is the world,
But here the world’s desire.)

The Christ-child stood at Mary’s knee,
His hair was like a crown.
And all the flowers looked up at Him,
And all the stars looked down.

G.K. Chesterton

The collect for today, the Fourth Sunday in Advent, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

RAISE up, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; who with the Father and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Epistle: Philippians 4:4-7
The Gospel: St John 1:19-29

Artwork: Hans Memling, St John the Baptist (Left wing of “St John and Veronica Diptych”), c. 1483. Oil on wood, Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Ignatius (d. c. 107), Bishop of Antioch, Martyr (source):

Feed us, O Lord, with the living bread
and make us drink deep of the cup of salvation
that, following the teaching of thy bishop Ignatius,
and rejoicing in the faith
with which he embraced the death of a martyr,
we may be nourished for that eternal life
which he ever desired;
through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: Romans 8:35-39
The Gospel: St John 12:23-26

Ignatius, who became Bishop of Antioch c. 69, is a key witness of the early church in the era immediately following the apostles.

Nothing certain is known of his episcopate before his journey from Antioch to Rome as a prisoner condemned to death in the arena. Arrested during the persecution of the emperor Trajan, he was received in Smyrna by Bishop (later Saint) Polycarp and delegates from several other churches in Asia Minor.

While at Smyrna, Ignatius wrote letters to the churches at Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, and Rome. Later, at Troas, he wrote to the churches at Philadelphia and Smyrna, and to Polycarp.

In his letters, Ignatius clearly affirmed Christ’s divinity and his resurrection from the dead. He encouraged all Christians to maintain church unity in and through the Eucharist and the authority of the local bishop, and he wrote against a heresy that contained elements of Docetism, Judaism, and possibly Gnosticism.

Above all else, his letters reflect an exalted, almost mystical, view of martyrdom as the highest goal to which the disciple of Christ can aspire. His passionate desire to be martyred for Christ is seen, for example, in his letter to the Romans.

I am God’s wheat and I am being ground by the teeth of wild beasts to make a pure loaf for Christ. I would rather that you fawn on the beasts so that they may be my tomb and no scrap of my body be left. Thus, when I have fallen asleep, I shall be a burden to no one. Then I shall be a real disciple of Jesus Christ when the world sees my body no more. Pray Christ for me that by these means I may become God’s sacrifice.

St. Ignatius was mauled to death by lions in Rome. According to church tradition, his friends obtained permission to gather his bones, which were then taken back to Antioch for burial.

The writings of Ignatius are posted online at Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Artwork: Francesco Solimena (1657-1747), Saint Ignatius of Antioch. Oil on canvas, Monastery of Santa Maria della Purità, Pagani, Italy.

“This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.”

He is a prophet and yet more than a prophet for he stands on the brink of the fulfillment of all prophecy and yet he, too, is a figure in the darkness of Advent. “Art thou he that should come or do we look for another?” Such is the question of John the Baptist to Jesus about Jesus.

A question that he asks from prison, it reminds us that the wilderness of human pride and presumption is greater than the wilderness of Judaea. He is in prison, Matthew later explains, because he had the temerity to upbraid Herod the tetrarch, one of the Roman rulers, for marrying his brother’s wife, Herodias. Though Herod wanted to put John to death, he “feared the people,” and instead kept him in prison. But on Herod’s birthday, the daughter of Herodias, unnamed in the Gospels but named by the Jewish historian, Josephus, as Salome, danced before her uncle and step-father so pleasingly that he “promised to give her whatever she might ask”. At her mother, Herodias’ prompting, she asked for “the head of John the Baptist on a platter”, which request Herod reluctantly granted to her on account of his promise. And so John was beheaded. There is a cost when truth speaks to power.

The scene has captured the imagination of artists, poets, playwrights and musicians. The fuller story gives added poignancy to Jesus’ remarks about John the Baptist. He is the forerunner of Jesus not only by his birth and ministry but also by his witness and death. In every way, he is the messenger sent to prepare the way of Christ. And his ministry becomes an essential feature of the Church’s ministry, signalled so clearly in Paul’s first Letter to the Corinthians and captured so beautifully in the Collect. “Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries” – referring to the mysteries of Christ – “may likewise” – after the example of John the Baptist, that is to say – “so prepare and make ready thy way.” How? “By turning the hearts of the disobedient,” my heart and yours, “to the wisdom of the just.” Tough, uncompromising stuff! And yet, it belongs precisely to the deep joys of the Advent preparation for Christmas.

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Tuesday, December 15th
3:30pm Holy Communion – Windsor Elms
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-7:30pm Brownie/Sparks – Parish Hall

Wednesday, December 16th, Ember Wednesday
7:00pm Holy Communion

Friday, December 18th, Ember Friday
11:00am Holy Communion – Dykeland Lodge
3:30pm Holy Communion – Gladys Manning Home

Sat., December 19th
9-11:00am Men’s Club – Decorating Church for Xmas

Sunday, December 20th, Fourth Sunday in Advent/ Eve of St. Thomas
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Morning Prayer
4:30pm Holy Communion