Month: May 2016

Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 9 – 15 May

Monday, May 9th
6:00-7:00pm Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, May 10th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place

Wednesday, May 11th
6:30-8:00pm Brownies – Parish Hall

Thursday, May 12th
3:15pm Service at Windsor Elms
6:30-7:30pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall

Friday, May 13th
7:30pm Christ Church Concert: Annapolis Valley Honour Choirs

Sunday, May 15th, Pentecost
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
4:00pm Evening Prayer

Upcoming Events:

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

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

Sunday After Ascension Day

The collect for today, Sunday After Ascension Day, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

Victoria and Albert Museum, Last Supper (Nuremberg)O GOD the King of Glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven: We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 St. Peter 4:7-11
The Gospel: St. John 15:26-16:4a

Artwork: Workshop of Veit Hirsvogel the Elder, after a design by Hans Baldung Grien, The Last Supper, 1504-5. Clear and coloured glass with paint and silver stain, Victoria and Albert Museum, London. (From the choir of the Augustinian church of St. Veit, Nuremberg.) Photograph by admin, 27 September 2015.

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Sermons

Sermon for Ascension Day

He ascended into heaven

The Ascension signifies the homecoming of the Son having finished his course having accomplished the will of him who sent him and returning to the Father. The whole life of the incarnate Christ is his going forth and returning to the Father in the power of the Spirit. In his going forth and return to the Father he returns all things to their source and end, to the divine life which he is with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Why the Ascension? Because the Ascension is the culmination of the Resurrection, the fullness of its meaning. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is not to the world; it is to the world in God. Everything is gathered into the primacy of the spiritual relationship of the Son to the Father in the Holy Spirit realized in the celebration of the Ascension. Ultimately, it signifies the meaning of prayer as well as the cosmic dimension of our liturgy of prayer. Our liturgy is all ascension.

“Lift up your hearts.” Prayer is the motion of the Ascension in us. “We ascend,” says Augustine, “in the ascension of our hearts.” We ascend in the lifting up of our hearts. We have someone and somewhere to lift them up to. The Ascension of Christ is directly related to Jesus Christ as the “High Priest” of our salvation whose perfect humanity is the vehicle for our redemption and whose perfect sacrifice is the forgiveness of sins. He, and he alone, is the mediator of the new and better covenant. “For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hand, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (Heb.9.24).

Prayer enters into the presence of God because of the Ascension of Christ.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Ascension Day

The collect for today, The Ascension Day, being the fortieth day after Easter, sometimes called Holy Thursday, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continuously dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Lesson: Acts 1:1-11
The Gospel: St. Mark 16:14-20

Christ Church Spitalfields, AscensionArtwork: “This same Jesus Which is taken up from you into Heaven”, stained glass, Christ Church, Spitalfields, London. Photograph taken by admin, 28 September 2015.

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Prayers and liturgy

Rogation Wednesday

The Collect for today, Rogation Wednesday (Rogation Days being the three days before Ascension Day), from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962);

ASSIST us mercifully, O Lord, in these our supplications and prayers, and dispose the way of thy servants towards the attainment of everlasting salvation; that, among all the changes and chances of this mortal life, they may ever be defended by thy most gracious and ready help; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 Timothy 2:1-8
The Gospel: St. Luke 11:1-10

Collect for the Fruits of the Earth and the Labours of Men:

ALMIGHTY and merciful God, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift: Bless, we beseech thee, the labours of thy people, and cause the earth to bring forth her fruits abundantly In their season, that we may with grateful hearts give thanks to thee for the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Genesis 1:26-31a
The Gospel: St. Mark 4:26-33

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Prayers and liturgy

Monnica, Matron

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Monnica (c. 331-387), mother of Saint Augustine of Hippo (source):

O Lord, who through spiritual discipline didst strengthen thy servant Monnica to persevere in offering her love and prayers and tears for the conversion of her husband and of Augustine their son: Deepen our devotion, we beseech thee, and use us in accordance with thy will to bring others, even our own kindred, to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever.

The Lesson: 1 Samuel 1:10-11,20
The Gospel: St. Luke 7:11-17

Assereto, SS. Augustine and MonicaArtwork: Gioacchino Assereto, Saint Augustine and Saint Monica, 17th century. Oil on canvas, Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

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Prayers and liturgy

Rogation Tuesday

The Collect for today, Rogation Tuesday (Rogation Days being the three days before Ascension Day), from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962);

ASSIST us mercifully, O Lord, in these our supplications and prayers, and dispose the way of thy servants towards the attainment of everlasting salvation; that, among all the changes and chances of this mortal life, they may ever be defended by thy most gracious and ready help; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 Timothy 2:1-8
The Gospel: St. Luke 11:1-10

Collect for the Fruits of the Earth and the Labours of Men:

ALMIGHTY and merciful God, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift: Bless, we beseech thee, the labours of thy people, and cause the earth to bring forth her fruits abundantly In their season, that we may with grateful hearts give thanks to thee for the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Genesis 1:26-31a
The Gospel: St. Mark 4:26-33

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Sermons

Sermon for Rogation Monday

“Lord, teach us to pray”

Rogation Monday is one of the formal days of prayer that bring us to the culmination of the Resurrection in Christ’s Ascension. In other words, these days of Rogation prepare us for the homecoming of the Son to the Father which is about our home with God, that “where I am there ye may be also”, as Jesus says. That homeland of the Spirit is the true meaning of our Christian fellowship. We participate in it now through prayer.

For prayer, too, is about our being with God without whom we cannot be with one another. The Gospel from Luke is about learning to pray; the prayer which shapes all prayer is the Lord’s Prayer. It signals nothing less than the nature of our being with God and with one another. In that sense, it is quite radical in its scope and meaning.

In prayer we are constantly seeking God’s will. “Thy will be done,” we pray, a very different thing from simply asking and getting what we think we want as if God were some sort of grace-dispensing machine, a kind of candy-man giving whatever we demand and want. A good part of prayer is about learning what God’s will is for us and for our lives. It is not some sort of wish fulfillment, fantasy or dream. It is about reality, reality as defined by God, the source and principle of all reality. Part of that reality is about human sinfulness – our pride and folly which stand in the way of God’s will for us and in us.

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Prayers and liturgy

Rogation Monday

The Collect for today, Rogation Monday (Rogation Days being the three days before Ascension Day), from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962);

ASSIST us mercifully, O Lord, in these our supplications and prayers, and dispose the way of thy servants towards the attainment of everlasting salvation; that, among all the changes and chances of this mortal life, they may ever be defended by thy most gracious and ready help; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 Timothy 2:1-8
The Gospel: St. Luke 11:1-10

Collect for the Fruits of the Earth and the Labours of Men:

ALMIGHTY and merciful God, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift: Bless, we beseech thee, the labours of thy people, and cause the earth to bring forth her fruits abundantly In their season, that we may with grateful hearts give thanks to thee for the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Genesis 1:26-31a
The Gospel: St. Mark 4:26-33

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Prayers and liturgy

Athanasius, Doctor and Bishop

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Athanasius (c. 293-373), Bishop of Alexandria, Theologian, Apologist, Doctor of the Church (source):

Ever-living God,
whose servant Athanasius bore witness
to the mystery of the Word made flesh for our salvation:
give us grace, with all thy saints,
to contend for the truth
and to grow into the likeness 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.

The Epistle: 2 Corinthians 4:5-14
The Gospel: St. Matthew 10:23-28

Rohl-Smith, St. AthanasiusSaint Athanasius is one of the most inspirational leaders of the early church. His dogged and uncompromising defence of the full divinity of Jesus Christ against the Arian heresy saved the unity and integrity of the Christian religion and church. He saw that Christ’s deity was foundational to the faith and that Arianism meant the end of Christianity.

Arius and his followers maintained that Christ the Logos was neither eternal nor uncreated, but a subordinate being—the first and finest of God’s creation, but a creature nonetheless. Despite being rejected at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, which Athanasius attended as deacon under the orthodox Bishop Alexander of Alexandria, Arianism remained popular and influential in the Eastern church for most of the fourth century.

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