Rector’s Annual Report, 2012
Click here to download the Rector’s Annual Report for 2012 (pdf document).
The Rector’s Annual Reports for 2003 through 2011 can be accessed via this page.
Year: 2013
Week at a Glance, 4 – 10 February
Monday, February 4th
6:00-7:00pm Brownies/Sparks – Parish Hall
Tuesday, February 5th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
Thursday, February 7th
6:30-7:30pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall
Sunday, February 10th, Quinquagesima
8:00am Holy Communion (followed by Men’s Club Breakfast)
10:30am Holy Communion
4:30pm Holy Communion at KES
Upcoming Events:
Tuesday, February 12th
4:30-6:00pm Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper
Tuesday, February 19th
7:00 Holy Communion & Lenten Programme I
Tuesday, February 26th
7:00 Holy Communion & Lenten Programme II
Confirmation Classes: Rm. 206, KES, 4:45-5:15pm. Dates: Feb. 11th, 18th, 25th & March 4th.
Sexagesima
The collect for today, Sexagesima (or the Second Sunday Before Lent) from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
O LORD God, who seest that we put not our trust in any thing that we do: Mercifully grant that by thy power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle: 2 Corinthians 11:21b-31
The Gospel: St. Luke 8:4-15
Artwork: Parable of the Sower, Saints Konstantine and Helen Orthodox Church, Cluj, Romania.
The Presentation of Christ in the Temple
The collect for today, The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, commonly called The Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin (also traditionally called Candlemas), from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
ALMIGHTY and everliving God, we humbly beseech thy Majesty, that, as thy only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple in substance of our flesh, so we may be presented unto thee with pure and clean hearts, by the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Lesson: Malachi 3:1-5
The Gospel: St. Luke 2:22-40
Artwork: Fiammenghino, Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, c. 1620-30. Basilica di San Lorenzo Maggiore, Milan. Photograph taken by admin, 3 May 2010.
Charles Stuart, King and Martyr
The collect for today, the commemoration of Charles I (1600-1649), King of England, Martyr (source):
King of kings and Lord of lords,
whose faithful servant Charles
prayed for his persecutors
and died in the living hope of thine eternal kingdom:
grant us, by thy grace, so to follow his example
that we may love and bless our enemies,
through the intercession of thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
with the Epistle and Gospel for a Martyr:
The Epistle: 1 St. Peter 4:12-19
The Gospel: St. Matthew 16:24-27
Artwork: Anthony van Dyck, Charles I, King of England, 1636. Oil on canvas, Windsor Castle, Royal Collection, UK.
Sermon for the Conversion of St. Paul, 2:00pm service for Atlantic Ministry of the Deaf
“I saw a light above the brightness of the sun”
The story of Paul’s conversion is told to us three times, twice by Paul himself. All three accounts are given by the hand of another, namely, St. Luke, in his Acts of the Apostles. Three accounts might seem a bit much!
But only because Paul, it seems, is too much. It is the nature of strong personalities that they repel as much as they attract. They challenge our understanding and for some that is just too much. For many, whether within or without the Church, Paul is derided and despised, mocked and scorned. A figure larger than life, he is, at the very least, controversial; his epistles, challenging. There is a real struggle when it comes to the praise of Paul. And yet struggle lies at the heart of all conversion.
Without struggle there can be no conversion. The conversion of St. Paul is, above all else, a struggle. It is, in short, the breakthrough of the understanding that happens through the collision of opposing points of view.
The struggle concerns the integrity of the images of salvation in the Scriptures. How to reconcile the glory of the Messiah with the sufferings of the crucified Christ? The entire personality of Paul is taken up with this question. Something new has come into the world which challenges the older understanding of Israel. That something new is the Way of Christ.
Sermon for Septuagesima
“Whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive”
“Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it,” we heard Mary say last Sunday in the story of the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee, her imperative providing us with the form of her ‘yes’ to God in our lives. Now today, it seems we have another directive, this time from Jesus, in the parable of the labourers in the vineyard. What does it teach us? Simply this, God is the master and lord – the householder of all creation. There is the freedom of the Creator in the ordering of his creation. Everything is subject to his will and purpose, to the divine justice, we might say. It is important to be reminded of this. And yet, here is a story which Jesus tells. Therefore, it is equally a story of redemption which picks up and carries forward the story of Creation through the story of the Fall, a story of the restoration of the divine justice for all, of the hope of heaven, we might say.
Ultimately, then, it is a story about the grace of God towards us but as within the higher justice of his purposes for his human creation in spite of sin and folly, in spite of indolence and indifference, in spite of a sense of entitlement and expectation. God desires our salvation in the freedom of his will and that is always something which exceeds the limits of human reason; it is always more though not less than what we think we know. The parable highlights the primacy and the rightness of God’s grace, the justitia dei. What God gives freely, he gives according to the perfect rightness of his will.
This collides with our sense of justice. The point of the collision is to open to view the freedom, the grace and the higher justice of God. There is the essential rightness of what he does according to the purposes for which he made us and that is all grace. It arises entirely out of the sovereign freedom of God.
Week at a Glance, 28 January – 3 February
Monday, January 28th
4:45-5:15pm Confirmation Classes, Room 206, KES
6:00-7:00pm Brownies/Sparks – Parish Hall
Tuesday, January 29th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
Thursday, January 31st
6:30-7:30pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall
Sunday, February 3rd, Sexagesima
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Morning Prayer, followed by Pot-Luck Luncheon and Annual Parish Meeting
Upcoming Events:
Tuesday, February 12th
4:30-6:00pm Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper
Tuesday, February 19th
7:00 Holy Communion & Lenten Programme I
Tuesday, February 26th
7:00 Holy Communion & Lenten Programme II
Confirmation Classes: Rm. 206, KES, 4:45-5:15pm. Dates: Jan. 28th, Feb. 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th & March 4th.
Septuagesima
The collect for today, Septuagesima (or the Third Sunday Before Lent) from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
O LORD, we beseech thee favourably to hear the prayers of thy people; that we, who are justly punished for our offences, may be mercifully delivered by thy goodness, for the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
The Epistle: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
The Gospel: St. Matthew 20:1-16
Artwork: Salomon Koninck, Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, c. 1647-49. Oil on canvas, Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
Polycarp, Bishop, Apostolic Man, Martyr
The collect for today, the Feast of St Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Apostolic Man, Martyr (source):
Almighty God,
who gavest to thy servant Polycarp
boldness to confess the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ
before the rulers of this world
and courage to suffer death for his faith:
grant that we too may be ready
to give an answer for the faith that is in us
and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Lesson: Revelation 2:8-11
The Gospel: St Matthew 20:20-23
Church tradition holds that Polycarp was born c. AD 69 of Christian parents and was a disciple of St John the Apostle and Evangelist, who ordained him Bishop of Smyrna. Polycarp was arrested during a pagan festival in Smyrna (present-day Izmir, Turkey) and brought before the Roman pro-consul.
[W]hen the magistrate pressed him hard and said, “Swear the oath, and I will release you; revile the Christ,” Polycarp said, “Eighty-six years have I been His servant, and He has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”
But on his persisting again and saying, “Swear by the genius of Caesar,” he answered, “If you suppose vainly that I will swear by the genius of Caesar, as you say, and feign that you are ignorant who I am, hear you plainly: I am a Christian. But if you would learn the doctrine of Christianity, assign a day and give me a hearing.”
He was burned at the stake for refusing to renounce Christ.
The Martyrdom of Polycarp was written down by the church of Smyrna and sent as a letter to the church at Philomelium. It is the first Christian martyrology. Several translations of the text can be accessed via this page.
Artwork: Martyrdom of St Polycarp, Church of St Polycarp, Izmir (ancient Smyrna), Turkey.