The website administrator will be away travelling for the next two months. During this time, I will have occasional access to the internet and will keep the site up to date as I have opportunity, but delays can be expected in posting sermons, week at a glance, and other items. I apologise in advance for any inconvenience.
Posts with propers and artwork for Sundays and major festivals have been prepared and will appear on schedule.
What distinguishes a good shepherd from a bad shepherd? The answer is care. The good shepherd cares for the sheep. Unlike the parable of the Good Samaritan, which does not explicitly identify the Samaritan as the Good Samaritan, let alone naming Jesus as the Good Samaritan of our wounded humanity, par excellence, this Eastertide Gospel is clear and unambiguous. Jesus identifies himself as the Good Shepherd. But what, then, is the care that defines the Good Shepherd?
The care is that Jesus lays down his life for the sheep. The Good Shepherd is the sacrificial Lamb of God. His sacrifice is the cure for our sins and it also imparts his care for our lives.
The pastoral ministry of the church is rooted in this sense of care as “the cure of souls.” It goes beyond the superficial and external matters of comfort and ease to address the radical distempers of our souls. There is no pastoral care without the naming of the cure and there is no cure without the acknowledgement of our need to be cured in the very root of our being.
Today’s Collect speaks of Jesus as being “unto us both a sacrifice for sin and also an example of godly life.” He is the sacrifice for sin. He is the cure, the Good Shepherd who gives his life for the sheep. He stands in the face of the destroyer of the sheep; ultimately our sins are his destroyer. Our lives are scattered lives. Sin scatters us from ourselves and from one another. Grace gathers and redeems our scattered lives. The grace is the grace of the Good Shepherd who wills to be struck so that he may gather us to himself. He gathers us through his care for us. He cares for us through his cure for us.
Tuesday, April 20th
3:30pm Holy Communion – Windsor Elms
6:00pm Prayers & Praises – Haliburton Place
6:30-7:30pm Brownies – Parish Hall
Thursday, April 22nd
1:30-3:00pm Seniors’ Drop-In
6:30pm Christ Church Cinema Paradiso – “Chariots of Fire”
Friday, April 23rd
11:00am Holy Communion – Dykeland Lodge
3:30pm Holy Communion – Gladys Manning Home
Sunday, April 25th, St Mark/Third Sunday after Easter
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
2:00pm AMD Service of the Deaf
4:30pm Evening Prayer at KES
Upcoming Events:
Friday, April 30th, 6:30pm: Choral Evensong with KES Cadet Corps
Saturday, May 8th, 4:30-6:30pm: 5th Annual Lobster Supper. Click here for more information.
The collect for today, The Second Sunday After Easter, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
ALMIGHTY God, who hast given thine only Son to be unto us both a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace that we may always most thankfully receive that his inestimable benefit, and also daily endeavour ourselves to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle: 1 St Peter 2:19-25
The Gospel: St John 10:11-16
Artwork: The Good Shepherd, 3rd century. Marble, Pio Christian Museum, Vatican Museums.
Peace and forgiveness flow from the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. They are the first-fruits of his resurrection in us, it seems, at least as this is signaled in John’s Gospel. Jesus appears behind closed doors where the disciples are huddled in fear. He proclaims peace and forgiveness. He institutes the means by which his peace and his forgiveness continue with us – through the Holy Spirit breathed upon the disciples who will be the apostles of his church. They are sent forth to bestow the peace and the forgiveness of God to a fearful and an uncertain world, a world of darkness and deceit, a cruel and dangerous world, “as everybody knows”. “Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained”.
What an awesome charge! And, yet, how little understood. Sometimes known as ‘the power of the keys’, the proclamation of God’s forgiveness through the ordained ministry to his penitent people effects what it signifies. If we truly confess our sins and truly seek God’s forgiveness, then we receive the grace of forgiveness objectively proclaimed in the words of absolution pronounced by the priest and signified in the sign of the cross. We are forgiven. That is the grace which extends from the Upper Room “the same day at evening”, the day of the resurrection of Christ. It is as if we are there in that very moment and in that very room, as if time has stopped and we are caught up into eternity.
Tuesday, April 13th
6:00pm Prayers & Praises – Haliburton Place
6:30-7:30pm Brownies – Parish Hall
7:30pm Parish Council Meeting
Thursday, April 15th
1:30-3:00pm Seniors’ Drop-In
Saturday, April 17th
7:00-9:00pm Newfoundland & Country Evening of Musical Entertainment – Parish Hall
Sunday, April 18th, Second Sunday after Easter
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
4:30pm Evening Prayer at KES
Upcoming Events:
Friday, April 30th, 6:30pm: Choral Evensong with KES Cadet Corps
Saturday, May 8th, 4:30-6:30pm: 5th Annual Lobster Supper. Click here for more information.
The collect for today, The Octave Day of Easter, being The Sunday After Easter Day, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
Almighty Father, who hast given thine only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification; Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may alway serve thee in pureness of living and truth; through the merits of the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle: 1 St John 5:4-12
The Gospel: St John 20:19-23
Artwork: Christ Among His Apostles, early 4th century. Fresco, Catacomb of Domitilla, Rome.
The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Leo the Great (c. 400-461), Bishop of Rome, Teacher of the Faith (source):
O God our Father,
who madest thy servant Leo strong in the defence of the faith:
we humbly beseech thee
so to fill thy Church with the spirit of truth
that, being guided by humility and governed by love,
she may prevail against the powers of evil;
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: 2 Timothy 1:6-14
The Gospel: St Matthew 5:13-19
Artwork: Raphael, The Meeting between Leo the Great and Attila, 1514. Fresco, Stanze di Raffaello (Raphael’s Rooms), Vatican Museums.
The collect for today, Tuesday in Easter Week, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
ALMIGHTY God, who through thine only begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life: We humbly beseech thee, that as by thy special grace thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
The Lesson: Acts 13:26-41
The Gospel: St Luke 24:36-48
Artwork: James Tissot, Christ Appears to the Eleven, 1886-94. Watercolour, Brooklyn Museum.
The collect for today, Monday in Easter Week, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
ALMIGHTY God, who through thine only begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life: We humbly beseech thee, that as by thy special grace thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
The Lesson: Acts 10:34-43
The Gospel: St Luke 24:13-35
Artwork: Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret, Christ and the Disciples at Emmaus, 1896-97. Oil on canvas, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.