Year: 2012

Prayers and liturgy

Labour Day

The Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for Labour and Industry are here posted to commemorate Labour Day.  The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962) designates these propers as “suitable for Labour Day”.

O LORD Jesus Christ, who in thy earthly life didst share man’s toil, and thereby hallow the labour of his hands: Prosper all those who maintain the industries of this land; and give them pride in their work, a just reward for their labour, and joy both in supplying the needs of others and in serving thee their Saviour; who with the Father and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

The Epistle: 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
The Gospel: St. Luke 6:31-38

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Prayers and liturgy

Robert Wolfall, Presbyter

The collect for bishops and other pastors, in commemoration of Robert Wolfall, Priest (source):

Almighty and everlasting God,
who didst call thy servant Robert Wolfall to proclaim thy glory
by a life of prayer and the zeal of a true pastor:
keep constant in faith the leaders of thy Church
and so bless thy people through their ministry
that the Church may grow into the full stature
of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Church of England priest Robert Wolfall was chaplain to the third Arctic expedition led by Martin Frobisher. On 3 September 1578, Rev’d Wolfall presided at the first recorded Holy Eucharist in what is now Canadian territory: Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island.

The service was held on the ship Anne Francis, whose captain later wrote:

Master Wolfall …. preached a godly sermon, which being ended he celebrated also a Communion upon the land …. The celebration of the divine mystery was the first sign, seal and confirmation of Christ’s name, death and passion ever known in these quarters. Master Wolfall made sermons and celebrated the Communion at sundry other times in several and sundry ships, because the whole company could never meet together at anyone place.

A few weeks later, Frobisher abandoned the hope of establishing a permanent settlement on Baffin Island and the expeditionary fleet returned home to England. Anglicans would not celebrate Holy Communion in Canada again for almost a century.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

“How readest thou?”

“Walk in the Spirit,” St. Paul exhorts us. “Go and do thou likewise,” Jesus says to the lawyer as the conclusion and application of the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan. There is, it seems, a kind of emphasis on acting and doing. And yet, doing is really only the active expression of our thinking. The key question here is captured in our text. It is Jesus’ question. “What is written in the law? How readest thou?”

How do you read? It is really a way of asking how do you think about things. In this case the context is intriguing. The question, asked by the lawyer to tempt Jesus, that is to say, to put Jesus to the test in an attempt to catch him in a contradiction, was “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus’ response is to ask him about the law. The answer to his question has to do with how the law is understood. In short, our doings have some kind of intimate relation to our thinking and understanding. By law here Jesus refers to the most important part of the Jewish Scriptures, known as the Law or the Torah. It has pride of place in the Jewish understanding in the same way that the Gospel has a kind of primacy in the New Testament and which is signaled in our liturgy. We are immediately thrown into the important questions about how we read and understand the Scriptures.

This is one of the pressing problems of the contemporary Church. What I find important here is that the practical urge and spirit ultimately turns upon our thinking and understanding.

There are already several levels of thinking at work in this remarkable and rich Gospel story. First, the lawyer’s initial question about eternal life is a concern far later than the Law itself. It is really a question that belongs to late Judaism, though the ideas of eternal life are found in the Psalms. In general, though, the strong Jewish emphasis on the objectivity of the Law as eternal and everlasting is in contrast to the fleeting nature of the passing world and of human life. The idea of immortality is, perhaps, implicit in the recognition of the divinely given Law but only becomes explicit, I think, through the later engagement with Greek thought. Yet, here, the lawyer is directed by Jesus to the Law and to its understanding.

(more…)

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 3-9 September

Tuesday, September 4th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place

Sunday, September 9th, Trinity XIV
8:00am Holy Communion (followed by Men’s Club Breakfast)
10:30am Holy Communion
1:30-3:00pm Parish Potluck Picnic, 220 Grey Mountain Road, Falmouth
4:30pm Holy Communion at KES Chapel

Upcoming Events:
Tuesday, September 11th
7:30pm Parish Council Meeting

Tuesday, September 18th
7:00 Christ Church Book Club, Coronation Room, Parish Hall:
The Book of Common Prayer: Past, Present and Future

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Prayers and liturgy

The Thirteenth Sunday After Trinity

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

ALMIGHTY and merciful God, of whose only gift it cometh that thy faithful people do unto thee true and laudable service: Grant, we beseech thee, that we may so faithfully serve thee in this life, that we fail not finally to attain thy heavenly promises; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Galatians 5:16-24
The Gospel: St. Luke 10:25-37

Jacopo Bassano, The Good SamaritanArtwork: Jacopo Bassano, The Good Samaritan, c. 1562-3. Oil on canvas, National Gallery, London.

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Administrative

Website Enhancements

The Christ Church website has embraced social media. At the bottom of each post appears a box labeled “Share this:” with links to Facebook and a raft of other social media services.

By request, we have also implemented a feature enabling Facebook links to posts at this site to include thumbnail versions of our art.

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Events

Christ Church Book Club, 2012-2013

Christ Church Book Club will resume on Tuesday, September 18th, at 7:00pm with review and discussion of The Book of Common Prayer: Past, Present and Future. Published in commemoration of the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, it contains contributions by, among many others, Dame P.D. James and Fr. David Curry. For more information on this book and the complete Book Club schedule, click here.

The Book Club will meet at 7:00pm on the third Tuesday of the month in the Coronation Room, Christ Church Parish Hall.

All are welcome to attend and join in the discussion.

The Book Club 2012-2013 leaflet can be downloaded here as a pdf document.

 

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Prayers and liturgy

Giles, Abbot

The collect for an Abbot, on the occasion of the Feast of St. Giles of Provence (d. c. 710), Hermit, Abbot (source):

Memling, Saint GilesO God, by whose grace the blessed Abbot Giles, enkindled with the fire of thy love, became a burning and a shining light in thy Church: Grant that we may be inflamed with the same spirit of discipline and love, and ever walk before thee as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 St. John 2:15-17
The Gospel: St. Luke 6:20-23a

All that is known for certain about this saint is that he was born in the early seventh century and that he founded a monastery in what is now the town of Saint-Gilles, southern France. The monastery became a renowned stopping place in medieval times for pilgrims journeying to Compostela, Rome, or the Holy Land.

A tenth-century Legend attributed important miracles to Saint Giles, which helped make him one of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages. Hundreds of churches and monasteries across Europe are dedicated to him. As well, because he is the patron saint of lepers, cripples, and nursing mothers, many hospitals were built in his name. Saint Giles is also the patron saint of Edinburgh, where his memory is honoured by the Church of Scotland High Kirk: St. Giles’ Cathedral.

Artwork: Hans Memling, Saint Giles (detail of the central panel of the Moreel Triptych), 1484. Oil on wood, Groeningemuseum, Bruges.

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Prayers and liturgy

Aidan, Missionary and Bishop

St. Aidan stained glass, St. Oswald's, DeanThe collect for today, the Feast of Saint Aidan (d. 651), Monk of Iona, Missionary, first Bishop and Abbot of Lindisfarne (source):

O loving God, who didst call thy servant Aidan from the Peace of a cloister to re-establish the Christian mission in northern England, and didst endow him with gentleness, simplicity, and strength: Grant, we beseech thee, that we, following his example, may use what thou hast given us for the relief of human need, and may persevere in commending the saving Gospel of our Redeemer Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 Corinthians 9:16-23
The Gospel: St. Matthew 19:27-30

Artwork: Saint Aidan, stained glass, St. Oswald’s Church, Dean, Cumbria. Photograph taken by admin, 7 August 2004.

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Prayers and liturgy

Beheading of St. John the Baptist

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

O God, who didst send thy messenger, John the Baptist, to be the forerunner of the Lord, and to glorify thee by his death: Grant that we, who have received the truth of thy most holy Gospel, may bear our witness thereunto, 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: Jeremiah 1:17-19
The Gospel: St. Mark 6:17-29

Luini, Salome Receiving the Head of St. John the BaptistArtwork: Bernardino Luini, Salome Receiving the Head of St. John the Baptist, 1527-30. Tempera on wood, Uffizi, Florence.

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