Year: 2014

Prayers and liturgy

The Fifth Sunday After The Epiphany

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

O LORD, we beseech thee to keep thy Church and household continually in thy true religion; that they who do lean only upon the hope of thy heavenly grace may evermore be defended by thy mighty power; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Colossians 3:12-17
The Gospel: St. Matthew 13:24-30

Bloemaert, A., Parable of the Wheat and the TaresArtwork: Abraham Bloemaert, Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, 1624. Oil on canvas, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

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Prayers and liturgy

Anskar, Missionary and Bishop

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Anskar (801-865), Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, Missionary to Sweden and Denmark (source):

St. AnskarAlmighty and everlasting God, who didst send thy servant Anskar as an apostle to the people of Scandinavia, and didst enable him to lay a firm foundation for their conversion, though he did not see the results of his labors: Keep thy Church from discouragement in the day of small things, knowing that when thou hast begun a good work thou wilt bring it to a faithful conclusion; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Lesson: Acts 1:1-9
The Gospel: St. Mark 6:7-13

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Prayer Book Society, Sermons

Sermon for Candlemas, 5:00pm Choral Evensong

Fr. David Curry delivered this sermon at Candlemas Choral Evensong, St. George’s Round Church, Halifax, sponsored by The Prayer Book Society of Canada, Nova Scotia and PEI Branch.

“Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind”

Candlemas is a blaze of light in the darkness of the bleak mid-winter, a blaze of light and hope in the darkness of our world and day. There is something wonderfully endearing and comforting about Candlemas, and, yet, it is a most complicated feast!

It is, after all, a double-barreled feast: the Presentation of Christ and the Purification of Mary, the fons et origo of the true meaning of all our commemorations of Mary is found in their conjunction, the meeting of them both in one celebration; a feast of Mary and a feast of Christ. There can’t be one without the other and here they meet in one. It is a feast of meetings, we might say, a veritable hypapante as the Eastern Orthodox Church styles it, an encounter or a meeting, for here is the meeting of Law and Gospel, the meeting of God and Man, a meeting together of men and women, of old Simeon and aged Anna, of Joseph and Mary; a veritable feast of images and persons. So complex and yet so compelling. And comforting, for it is the early harbinger of spring, the turning point from Christmas to Easter, mid-way between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Light signaling life; the triumph of light and life over darkness and death. As for that other meeting on this day, the Super-Bowl, that is entirely another matter!

And the encounter, the meeting, is in his temple; Templum Domini Dominum templi, “the temple of the Lord the fittest place for the Lord of the Temple”, as St. Bernard suggests. But how complex and intriguing, too, are the conceits of temple! Here is Mary, herself the temple, too, of the Lord, that pure, true and holy source of Christ’s humanity; no true temple anywhere that is not Mary, she who is defined by the Word of God, keeps the Word and ponders it in her heart and brings forth the Word. Such is the true meaning of our temples, our Churches. And we, are we not individually called to be temples of the Lord, too, even our bodies; our lives as lived for God and with God? To be sure. This feast calls us to be the living lights of Christ in the world.

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Sermons

Sermon for Candlemas

“The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple”

Candlemas marks the mid-point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. A blaze of light in the bleak darkness of winter, Candlemas awakens us to the hope of spring when we might hear again the words of the Lord of love, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away, for lo, the winter is past, the rain (and the snow!) are over and gone.” Candlemas points us to Easter, to the triumph of life over death. That alone is a comforting and even a cheering thought, isn’t it, especially for a people oppressed and wearied by the winter storms?

We aren’t there yet, of course! But Candlemas is a compelling and significant festival and this year, in the Providence of God, it falls on a Sunday, on what is the penultimate Sunday of the Epiphany season. A double-barreled feast, at once of Mary and of Christ, it reminds us of the deep logic of the Incarnation, of the radical meaning of God being with us in the humanity of Jesus Christ, the eternally-begotten Son of the Father, born of Mary. The themes of the Epiphany are wonderfully concentrated in the rich fullness of this celebration: The Presentation of Christ in the Temple commonly called The Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin, to give it its full title, redolent of theological significance, and yet even more commonly known as Candlemas. Light blazes forth into glory.

In some many ways, it is a most complicated feast. It is a feast of meetings. Eastern Orthodox Christians call it “hypapante”, meaning encounter or meeting. And to be sure, there are a great number of meetings that the Gospel presents: the meeting of God and man in the infant Christ, the meeting of Law and Gospel, the meeting of men and women, Mary and Joseph, old Simeon and aged Anna, the meeting of the Old Covenant and the New. A rich feast of meetings.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 3 – 9 February

Monday, February 3rd
6:00-7:00pm Brownies/Sparks – Parish Hall

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

Thursday, February 6th
6:30-7:30 Girl Guides – Parish Hall

Sunday, February 9th, Epiphany V
8:00am Holy Communion – Parish Hall
10:30am Morning Prayer – Parish Hall (followed by Pot-Luck Luncheon & Annual Parish Meeting)

Confirmation Classes: Rm. 206 at KES, 7:00-7:30pm. The dates are Feb. 10th, 17th, & 24th, & March 3rd . Please contact Fr. Curry, 790-6173

Upcoming events:

Sunday, February 2nd
5:00pm Candlemas Evensong, St. George’s Round Church, Halifax, sponsored by the Prayer Book Society of Canada, Nova Scotia and PEI Branch, Fr. Curry preaching

Sunday, February 9th, Pot-luck Luncheon & Annual Parish Meeting following the 10:30am service.

Friday, February 21st
7:30pm, Parish Hall: Christ Church Concert Series: Sarah McCabe & Friends with Jennifer King, pianist

Saturday, March 8th
9:00am-4:00pm Lenten Quiet Day, King’s-Edgehill School, on the theme Lent and Original Sin, led by Fr. David Curry, sponsored by the Prayer Book Society of Canada, Nova Scotia and PEI Branch.

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Prayers and liturgy

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

Ribera, St. Simeon with the Christ ChildArtwork: Jusepe de Ribera, Saint Simeon with the Christ Child, 1647. Oil on canvas, Collection Marquess of Bristol, Bristol, UK.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Fourth Sunday After The Epiphany

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

Hole, Jesus Stilling the TempestO GOD, who knowest us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers, that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright: Grant to us such strength and protection, as may support us in all dangers, and carry us through all temptations; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 13:1-7
The Gospel: St. Mark 4:35-41

Artwork: William Hole, Jesus Stilling the Tempest, Illustration from The Life of Jesus of Nazareth, Portrayed in colours, by William Hole, c. 1908. Eyre & Spottiswoode, London.

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Prayers and liturgy

Charles Stuart, King and Martyr

The collect for today, the commemoration of Charles I (1600-1649), King of England, Martyr (source):

Honthorst, King Charles IKing 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: Gerrit von Honthorst, King Charles I, 1628. Oil on canvas, National Portrait Gallery, London.

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Prayers and liturgy

John Chrysostom, Doctor and Bishop

The collect for today, the Feast of St. John Chrysostom (347-407), Preacher, Doctor of the Church, Archbishop of Constantinople (source):

O God of truth and love,
who gavest to thy servant John Chrysostom
eloquence to declare thy righteousness in the great congregation
and courage to bear reproach for the honour of thy name:
mercifully grant to the ministers of thy word
such excellence in preaching
that all people may share with them
in the glory that shall be revealed;
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: Jeremiah 1:4-10
The Gospel: St. Luke 21:12-15

Laurens, St. John Chrysostom Confronts Empress EudoxiaArtwork: Jean-Paul Laurens, St. John Chrysostom confronting Aelia Eudoxia, Empress of Constantinople, 1894. Oil on canvas, Musée des Augustins, Toulouse.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany

“But speak the word only”

What wonderful words! They challenge and convict all the atheisms of our world and day. They challenge and convict the unbelieving church which has forgotten or denied the meaning of the Epiphany season captured so wonderfully in this Gospel story. Epiphany is simply and entirely about the making known of the essential divinity of Jesus Christ through his humanity. I can’t put it more simply than that. The miracles teach us about the essential divinity of Christ and the meaning of Christ for the understanding of our humanity. They reveal God to us and show us, too, something about what God wants for us. “Speak the word only” is a powerful counter to all our confusions and denials about God. It counters the prevailing spirit of religiosity in our churches, what one might call, ‘Western Buddhism’, which is neither western nor Buddhist, I hasten to add.

This is the anti-intellectualism which thinks that there are simply many different names for God and that religion really comes down to clichés like “don’t sweat the small stuff and it’s all small stuff,” the idea that ideas don’t matter, and that God is not essentially the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost in the Christian understanding but whatever terms you feel comfortable using. Our prayers and praises are merely addressed “to whom it may concern” or to the God of x and y of whatever our choosing. It is really all about us, all about ‘the you,’ the self. This is contrary to Buddhism’s fundamental insight that there is no you. You are an illusion; the self does not exist. It is also contrary to the Western world’s insight into the reality of the world, a world which is in principle intelligible because God is intelligible. In the orthodox Christian understanding, God reveals himself to us in Jesus Christ and that idea makes all the difference in the world about our thinking and our doing, our being and our actions.

We see this in today’s gospel. It is about the power of God’s Word which goes forth not only to create but to restore and heal. Here we have a double healing, a healing within Israel and a healing outside of Israel, a healing touch and a healing word, the word tangible and visible, we might say, the word audible and intelligible. Jesus heals the leper by “put[ting] forth his hand and touching him,” touching the untouchable, the leper, and then says, “I will, be thou clean.” Here is the Word and touch of Christ near and at hand. Then, there is the healing of the Centurion’s servant, a healing from afar, by the simple power of the Word spoken and passed on, as it were, down through the ranks of the Roman legion!

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