Month: May 2016

Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 23 – 29 May

Monday, May 23rd
6:00-7:00pm Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, May 24th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
7:00pm Christ Church Book Club – Coronation Room, Parish Hall:
An Instance of the Fingerpost (1998) by Iain Pears and Curiosity (2015) by Alberto Manguel

Wednesday, May 25th
6:30-8:00pm Brownies – Parish Hall

Thursday, May 26th
3:15pm Service at Windsor Elms
6:30-7:30pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall

Friday, May 27th
11:00am Holy Communion – Dykeland Lodge

Sunday, May 29th, First Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

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Prayers and liturgy

Trinity Sunday

The collect for today, the Octave Day of Pentecost, commonly called Trinity Sunday, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hast given unto us thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity: We beseech thee, that this holy faith may evermore be our defence against all adversities; who livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Lesson: Revelation 4:1-11
The Gospel: St. John 3:1-15

Baldung, Trinity and Mystic PietaArtwork: Hans Baldung Grien, The Trinity and Mystic Pieta, 1512. Oil on oak, National Gallery, London.

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King's-Edgehill School Sermons

Reflections for King’s-Edgehill School Cadet Church Parade, 2016

2016 Cadet Church Parade Reflections on ‘The Year of Edgehill’
Friday, May 20th at Christ Church, Windsor, NS

The year 2016 is the year of Edgehill! Girls Rock! This year marks the 125th anniversary of the founding of The Church School for Girls, later known as Edgehill, here in Windsor on June 23rd, 1891. Just up the hill from here at Christ Church, “the School was founded for the purpose of giving a high-class education in all subjects of School study”. Edgehill was located on the hill neighbouring King’s. The year 2016 also marks the 40th anniversary of the amalgamation of Edgehill and King’s that brought into being King’s-Edgehill School. Guys and Gals. We all rock!

But in this special year of Edgehill, we celebrate what Edgehill brought to King’s and which contributes so greatly and wonderfully to King’s-Edgehill.

Edgehill, quite simply, brought grace and class, a certain kind of elegance and dignity. That is no mean feat; certainly, no small matter. Edgehill contributed greatly to the ideals of gentleness and learning and manhood or humanitas. The coming together of King’s and Edgehill has contributed to an educational programme which endeavours to make us all better men and women committed to leadership and service. We have much to be thankful to Edgehill.

Edgehill’s motto, fideliter, meaning faithfulness, brought a renewed sense of commitment and meaning to the King’s motto – Deo Legi Regi Gregi, which means for God, for the Law, for the King and for the People. It is easy to lose sight of the power of these words even though they are emblazoned on our uniforms and present everywhere in the School, on the walls and even on the floors. The two mottoes symbolize the ideals of dedicated service that are impossible to envision, let alone attain, apart from an education that focuses on the formation of character. That requires a constant emphasis upon dignity and respect, gentleness and learning.

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Sermons

Sermon for Pentecost

“At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”

What is that day? It is Pentecost, this day, the fiftieth day after Easter when we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples to establish the Church as the spiritual community of our abiding in the Trinity. And what a day! Wind and fire, as it were, the most elusive and intangible of tangible things, signify the spiritual presence of God through the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father and the Son. Out of the chaos and confusion of tongues come order and praise, worship and life, light and love, and the peace of God. Pentecost recalls us to the spiritual mystery of God and to our being with God in the spiritual community shaped and informed by the Spirit, the Church. “Christ, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear”.

Things seen and heard betoken an understanding of things invisible and spiritual. “A sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind” and “cloven tongues, like as of fire.” There is everything in those little words “as of” and “like as”. The Holy Spirit is not wind and fire. The winds and fires of our world are nothing in comparison to the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son. We have seen the conflagration of wind and fire that has destroyed Fort McMurray, for instance, and there is the deep memory, too, of the Great Fire of Windsor in 1897 which destroyed nearly three-quarters of the town, a fire which this building somehow miraculously escaped. We know about the fire-storms and wind-storms, too, of human hearts in disarray. We know about the fire-storms and wind-storms of our contemporary social and political landscape, globally and locally. We know, too, about the fire-storms and wind-storms of the churches in their various confusions, sins and follies. Confusion and chaos seem at times almost rampant and overwhelming. Pentecost is really the wonderful counter to all of the forms of confusion and chaos of our world and day.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 16 – 22 May

Monday, May 16th, Monday after Pentecost
6:00-7:00pm Sparks – Parish Hall
7:00pm Holy Communion

Tuesday, May 17th, Tuesday after Pentecost
2:00pm Funeral of Bill Sullivan
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place

Wednesday, May 18th
6:30-8:00pm Brownies – Parish Hall

Thursday, May 19th
6:30-7:30pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall

Friday, May 20th
3:00pm KES Cadet Corps Church Service

Sunday, May 22nd, Trinity Sunday
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Upcoming Event:

Tuesday, May 24th
7:00pm Christ Church Book Club: An Instance of the Fingerpost (1998) by Iain Pears and Curiosity (2015) by Alberto Manguel

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Prayers and liturgy

The Day of Pentecost

The collects for today, The Day of Pentecost, being the fiftieth day after Easter, commonly called Whit-Sunday, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O GOD, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by the sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

O GOD, who makest us glad with the yearly remembrance of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon thy disciples in Jerusalem: Grant that we who celebrate before thee the Feast of Pentecost may continue thine for ever, and daily increase in thy Holy Spirit, until we come to thine eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Acts 2:1-11
The Gospel: St. John 14:15-27

Bening, PentecostArtwork: Simon Bening, Pentecost, c. 1522. Miniature from the Hours of Albrecht of Brandenburg, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

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Prayers and liturgy

Florence Nightingale, Nurse

The collect for today, the commemoration of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), Nurse, Social Reformer (source):

Steell, Florence NightingaleLife-giving God, who alone hast power over life and death, over health and sickness: Give power, wisdom, and gentleness to those who follow the example of thy servant Florence Nightingale, that they, bearing with them thy Presence, may not only heal but bless, and shine as lanterns of hope in the darkest hours of pain and fear; through Jesus Christ, the healer of body and soul, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Lesson: Isaiah 58:6-11
The Gospel: St. Matthew 25:31-46

Artwork: Sir John Robert Steell, Florence Nightingale, 1862. Bronze, Florence Nightingale Museum, Lambeth Palace Road, London. Photograph taken by admin, 25 August 2004.

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Prayers and liturgy

Cyril and Methodius, Missionaries

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Cyril (826-69) and Saint Methodius (c. 815-85), Apostles to the Slavs (source):

O Lord of all,
who gavest to thy servants Cyril and Methodius
the gift of tongues to proclaim the gospel to the Slavic people:
we pray that thy whole Church may be one as thou art one,
that all who confess thy name may honour one another,
and that from east and west all may acknowledge one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
and thee, the God and Father of all;
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: Ephesians 3:1-7
The Gospel: St. Mark 16:15-20

Matejko, Cyril and MethodiusSt. Cyril and St. Methodius were brothers born in Thessalonica who went to Constantinople after being ordained priests. (Cyril was baptised Constantine and did not become known as Cyril until late in his life.) Around AD 863, Emperor Michael II and Patriarch Photius sent the brothers as missionaries to Moravia, where they translated into Slavonic the Gospels, the Psalms, and the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. With his brother’s help, Cyril created an alphabet that later developed into Cyrillic, thus laying the foundation for Slavic literature.

German missionary bishops in the area celebrated the liturgy in Latin and opposed the brothers’ use of the vernacular. In 867, Cyril and Methodius participated in a debate in Venice over the use of Slavonic liturgy and were soon received with great honour in Rome by Pope Hadrian II, who authorised the use of Slavic tongues in the liturgy.

In 868, Cyril became a monk and entered a monastery in Rome, but died soon afterward and was buried in the church at San Clemente. Shortly after Cyril’s death, Methodius was consecrated archbishop of Sermium and returned to Moravia where he ministered for another fifteen years. He continued the work of translation and evangelisation, while continuing to face opposition from German bishops. Before his death in 885, he and his followers completed translations of the Bible, liturgical services, and collections of canon law.

St. Cyril and St. Methodius are honoured for evangelising the Slavs, organising the Slavic church, and pioneering the celebration of liturgy in the vernacular. For these reasons, in 1980 Pope John Paul II named them, together with St. Benedict, patron saints of all Europe.

Artwork: Jan Matejko, Saints Cyril and Methodius, 1885. National Museum, Poznan, Poland.

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Prayers and liturgy

Gregory of Nazianzus, Bishop and Doctor

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Gregory of Nazianzus (329-89), Bishop of Constantinople, Theologian, Cappadocian Father, Doctor of the Eastern Church (source):

Almighty God, who hast revealed to thy Church thine eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace that, like thy bishop Gregory of Nazianzus, we may continue steadfast in the confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of thee, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who livest and reignest for ever and ever.

The Lesson: Wisdom 7:7-14
The Gospel: St. John 8:25-32

La Martorana, St. Gregory of NazianzusArtwork: St. Gregory of Nazianzus, 12th-century mosaic, La Martorana (Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio), Palermo, Sicily.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Sunday after the Ascension

“These things have I have told you, that, when the time shall come,
ye may remember that I told you of them”

“God has gone up with a merry noise, / the Lord with the sound of the trumpet” as the Psalmist wonderfully puts it in what is the gradual psalm for today, capturing in a strong image the joy and the meaning of The Sunday after Ascension Day. We celebrate the “going up” – the Ascension – of Christ to sit, as the Creed puts it, at “the right hand of God the Father Almighty”. What is this all about?

The Ascension marks the culmination, the fullness, we might say, of the Resurrection. If the Resurrection is about the fullest vindication of our individuality as persons comprised of soul and body, then, the Ascension is the fullest possible vindication of the spiritual nature of the world in which we live.

In other words, there is an inescapably cosmic dimension to the doctrine of the Ascension. In the comings and goings of God with us and among us, signaled in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, we are opened out to the understanding of the spiritual nature of our lives and our world. The whole world participates in Christ’s redemption of our humanity. Our liturgy, to use a phrase and idea of a remarkable seventh century theologian, Maximus the Confessor, is a cosmic liturgy. Or, to put in the words of a seventeenth century Anglican divine and poet, Thomas Traherne, “you never love the world aright until you learn to love it in God.” The Ascension and the Session belong to this larger theological sensibility. We are not in flight from the world as if it were evil. By no means. The Ascension and the Session are entirely about the redemption of the world and as such they are doctrines which free us to the world in responsible thought and action.

To think the world in God counters the very real dangers of thinking God in the world which often runs the risk of collapsing God into the world. The paradox is that this makes the world less than what it is in God. We make the world into our little playbox or spielraum only to discover that we have made it into a wasteland and a mess. The teaching of the Ascension and the Session corrects our mistaken ways of thinking about God and the world and our relation to both.

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