Year: 2011

Prayers and liturgy

King Edward the Confessor

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Edward the Confessor (c. 1003-1066), King of England (source):

Cartmel Priory, St EdwardO Sovereign God,
who didst set thy servant Edward upon the throne of an earthly kingdom
and didst inspire him with zeal for the kingdom of heaven:
grant that we may so confess the faith of Christ by word and deed,
that we may, with all thy saints, inherit thine eternal glory;
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 Lesson: Ecclesiasticus 31:8-11
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:35-40

Artwork: Saint Edward, King and Confessor, 19th-century stained glass, from the East window, North transept, Cartmel Priory, England. The saint is shown inspecting a model of Westminster Abbey, which was built during his reign.

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Prayers and liturgy

Saint Philip of Caesarea

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Philip of Caesarea, Deacon, Apostolic Man (source):

Almighty and everlasting God, we thank thee for thy servant Philip the Deacon, whom thou didst call to preach the Gospel to the peoples of Samaria and Ethiopia. Raise up, we beseech thee, in this and every land heralds and evangelists of thy kingdom, that thy Church may make known the immeasurable riches of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever.

The Lesson: Acts 8:26-40
The Gospel: St. Matthew 28:18-20

Artwork: Rembrandt, The Baptism of the Eunuch, 1626. Oil on panel, Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht.

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Prayers and liturgy

Thanksgiving Day

The collect for today, Harvest Thanksgiving Day, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who crownest the year with thy goodness, and hast given unto us the fruits of the earth in their season: Give us grateful hearts, that we may unfeignedly thank thee for all thy loving-kindness, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson Isaiah 55:1-12
The Gospel: St John 6:27-35

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Prayers and liturgy

Paulinus of York, Archbishop

Saint PaulinusThe collect for today, the Feast of St. Paulinus (c. 584-644), Monk, first Archbishop of York, Missionary (source):

Almighty and everlasting God, we thank you for your servant Paulinus, whom you called to preach the Gospel to the people of northern England. Raise up in this and every land evangelists and heralds of your kingdom, that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

With the Epistle and Gospel for a Bishop or Archbishop, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
The Epistle: 1 Timothy 6:11-16
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:37-43

The St. Paulinus stained glass was made by the firm of C.E. Kempe of London and installed in the Cathedral of St John the Baptist, St John’s, Newfoundland, in 1913. Photograph taken by admin, 7 September 2009.

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Sermons

Sermon for Harvest Thanksgiving

“I am the bread of life”

Thanksgiving is a strong reminder to us of our spiritual identity. We are inclined, perhaps, to think of Harvest Thanksgiving as a form of folk religion left over from our more agrarian past when we were more directly dependent upon our labours in the fields, the woods and the seas. Or we may be inclined to think of our National Thanksgiving Day, as the left-over of the long durée of the state nationalism of the last century and more, now passé in the age of the global community and the end of the cold war. What, then, are we to make of this Thanksgiving weekend? Does it simply remain with us as a social gathering, a family event, an occasion to get together and enjoy a common meal? Or is there something more to the idea of Thanksgiving?

In the contemporary world where everything, from health care to the environment, from warfare to education, is said to be “driven by technology” or “driven by market forces”, we are in danger of forgetting the spiritual principles which belong to our social and political relationships and identities and which have a more organic character to them, something which is wonderfully illustrated in the way in which our churches are so beautifully decorated with the rich bounty of the fruits of creation at Harvest time. It is, after all, for no technological purpose or economic reason that the fruits of the harvest are before us here in the Church.

No. The point is that Thanksgiving is a profoundly spiritual activity. Pumpkins and zucchinis, apples and turnips, all the rich variety of the harvest are gathered into our churches. Why? To feed God? No. To signal the praise of all creation and all human labour to God. We are with the whole created order in giving praise and thanks to God for what God has given us without which there could be no harvest, no life, no being whatsoever.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 10 – 16 October

Tuesday, October 11th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
7:30pm Parish Council Meeting

Thursday, October 13th
1:30-3:00pm Seniors’ Drop-In
3:00pm Service at Windsor Elms
6:30-7:30pm Brownies’ Mtg. – Parish Hall

Sunday, October 16th, Trinity XVII
8:00am Holy Communion
9:30am Holy Communion at KES
10:30am Holy Communion
4:00pm Evening Prayer at Christ Church

Upcoming Events:

Tuesday, October 18th
7:30pm Christ Church Book Club: Nomad by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi. Click here for more information.

Saturday, October 22nd
7:00-9:00pm The Parish Talent & Variety Show is back by popular demand!

Sunday, October 30th
4:00pm Choral Evensong with combined choirs and special speaker, Dr. Jim Gow, celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, with reception following.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Sixteenth Sunday After Trinity

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

O LORD, we beseech thee, let thy continual pity cleanse and defend thy Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without thy succour, preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Ephesians 3:13-21
The Gospel: St. Luke 7:11-17

Christ raises son of widow of Nain
Artwork: Christ raises the son of the widow of Nain, 12th-century mosaic, Cathedral of Monreale, Sicily.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Commemoration of William Tyndale

“If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed;
but let him glorify God in this name.”

His martyrdom, it seems, holds sway over his scholarship, and yet, perhaps, the two are really one. Martyrdom is about a witness to truth; translation was his witness. Tonight we commemorate “William Tyndale, Translator of the Scriptures into English, Martyr, 1536,” as the Calendar of the Book of Common Prayer so concisely and simply puts it. It both reveals and conceals a whole story and an important concept. A translator of the Scriptures into English and a martyr? To be sure.

Some of the greatest achievements of the Anglican witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ are precisely about the connection between language and martyrdom. William Tyndale inaugurates a fateful tradition belonging to a fateful century. Tyndale, Cranmer, and Latimer – all of them great masters of the word in English; two of them as translators and one as a preacher – all of them martyrs. There are others, too, of course, who were martyred in that age when politics was religion and religion was politics; all of which is hard, if not impossible, for us to understand. Yet, there is this wonderful idea that we cannot ignore, I think, namely, the power of translation as a witness to truth.

In the second century BC, the only named author of one of the apocryphal books, Ecclesiasticus, or The Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach, comments in the prologue the problem of translation.

“For what was originally expressed in Hebrew does not have exactly
the same sense when translated into another language.”

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Prayers and liturgy

William Tyndale, Translator and Martyr

The collect for today, the commemoration of William Tyndale (c. 1495-1536), Priest, Translator of the Scriptures, Martyr (source):

William TyndaleO Lord, grant to thy people
grace to hear and keep thy word
that, after the example of thy servant William Tyndale,
we may both profess thy gospel
and also be ready to suffer and die for it,
to the honour of thy name;
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: St. James 1:21-25
The Gospel: St. John 12:44-50

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Prayers and liturgy

St. Francis of Assisi

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), Friar, Deacon, Founder of the Friars Minor (source):

O God,
who ever delightest to reveal thyself
to the childlike and lowly of heart,
grant that, following the example of the blessed Francis,
we may count the wisdom of this world as foolishness
and know only Jesus Christ and him crucified,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: Galatians 6:14-18
The Gospel: St. Matthew 11:25-30

Cimabue, St. Francis

Artwork: Cimabue, St. Francis (detail from Madonna in Majesty with the Child, Angels, and St. Francis), 1278-80. Fresco, Basilica di San Francesco, Assisi.

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