Year: 2017

Prayers and liturgy

St. Philip of Caesarea, Apostolic Man

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Philip of Caesarea, Deacon, Apostolic Man (source):

Almighty and everlasting God, we thank thee for thy servant Philip the Deacon, whom thou didst call to preach the Gospel to the peoples of Samaria and Ethiopia. Raise up, we beseech thee, in this and every land heralds and evangelists of thy kingdom, that thy Church may make known the immeasurable riches of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever.

The Lesson: Acts 8:26-40
The Gospel: St. Matthew 28:18-20

Bleker, Baptism of the EunuchArtwork: Gerrit Claesz Bleker, The Baptism of the Eunuch, 1630-35. Oil on oak panel, Christian Museum, Esztergom, Hungary.

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Prayers and liturgy

Paulinus, Missionary and Archbishop

Cathedral of St John the Baptist, Saint PaulinusThe collect for today, the Feast of St. Paulinus (c. 584-644), Monk, first Archbishop of York, Missionary (source):

Almighty and everlasting God, we thank you for your servant Paulinus, whom you called to preach the Gospel to the people of northern England. Raise up in this and every land evangelists and heralds of your kingdom, that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

With the Epistle and Gospel for a Bishop or Archbishop, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
The Epistle: 1 Timothy 6:11-16
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:37-43

The St. Paulinus stained glass was made by the firm of C.E. Kempe of London and installed in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, St. John’s, Newfoundland, in 1913. Photograph taken by admin, 7 September 2009.

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Prayers and liturgy

St. Denys, Bishop and Martyr

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Denys (d. c. 258), Bishop of Paris, Patron Saint of France, Martyr (source):

O GOD, who as on this day didst endow thy blessed Martyr and Bishop Saint Denys with strength to suffer stedfastly for thy sake, and didst join unto him Rusticus and Eleutherius for the preaching of thy glory to the Gentiles: grant us, we beseech thee, so to follow their good example; that for the love of thee we may despise all worldly prosperity, and be afraid of no manner of worldly adversity. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Lesson: Acts 17:22-34
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:1-9

Richard and Jeanne de Montbaston, Four scenes from the Life of St. DenisArtwork: Richard and Jeanne de Montbaston, Four scenes from the Life of St. Denis: St. Denis preaching; the saint imprisoned; the beheading of the saint; the saint carrying his head, second quarter 14th century. Illuminated Psalter on vellum, Private collection.

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Prayers and liturgy

Harvest Thanksgiving

The collects for today, Harvest Thanksgiving Day, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who crownest the year with thy goodness, and hast given unto us the fruits of the earth in their season: Give us grateful hearts, that we may unfeignedly thank thee for all thy loving-kindness, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O LORD, we pray thee, sow the seed of thy word in our hearts, and send down upon us the showers of thy grace, that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit, and at the great day of harvest may be gathered by the holy angels into the heavenly garner; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson Isaiah 55:1-12
The Gospel: St. John 6:27-35

Thanksgiving is a special and wonderful celebration. It speaks to a deep-seated spiritual sensibility in our souls even in the confusions, uncertainties, and denials of all things religious and spiritual in our culture and day. I would argue that it is fundamentally and essentially spiritual, especially in the Christian understanding.

Thanksgiving embraces at once Harvest Thanksgiving and National Thanksgiving, our thanks for the bounty of the harvest (whether or not there has been one!) and for the rational and spiritual freedoms that we enjoy (however much we ignore them!) in our nation and country. Those ‘thanksgivings’ are raised into the great thanksgiving, the Eucharist of the Son to the Father, re-enacted, recalled, and re-presented in “our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving” in the service of the Holy Eucharist. We are fed with the bread of life, which is Jesus himself who has come down from heaven to give life to the world. That life is about our participation in the Son’s Thanksgiving to the Father, the Great Thanksgiving.

The giving of thanks to God, the giving of thanks for what we have, and the giving of thanks with one another and sharing with one another speaks to the highest freedom and dignity of our humanity. We give articulate praise to God for the harvest, for the nation, for our communities, and for one another but, above all, for God himself. We are in George Herbert’s rich phrase, “the secretaries of thy praise”. Such is our return to God, a redire a principia, a return to the principle of our life and being.

Fr. David Curry

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Prayers and liturgy

Robert Grosseteste, Bishop and Scholar

The collect for today, the commemoration of Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175-1253), Bishop of Lincoln, Scholar (source):

Robert GrossetesteO God our heavenly Father, who didst raise up thy faithful servant Robert Grosseteste to be a bishop and pastor in thy Church and to feed thy flock: Give to all pastors abundant gifts of thy Holy Spirit, that they may minister in thy household as true servants of Christ and stewards of thy divine mysteries; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

The Lesson: Acts 20:28-32
The Gospel: St. Luke 16:10-15

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Sermons

Sermon for Harvest Thanksgiving

“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth”

It is not often that the epistle reading at Holy Communion is a lesson from the Hebrew or Jewish Scriptures, what Christians know as the Old Testament, and in this case, a passage from The Book of the Prophet Isaiah. It is an especially wonderful passage that deals with the overarching theme of God’s providence at work in creation and redemption and that belongs to a theology of the land and our labours on the land. As such it connects with the celebration of Harvest Thanksgiving.

We are being reminded of the spiritual nature of thanksgiving precisely through the power of the divine word without which there can be no harvest and no thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a profoundly reflective and spiritual activity as well as the freest thing that we can do. The Greek word is one which is somewhat familiar to you: eucharist. The root of that word is charis – grace. Thus thanksgiving is the movement of grace in our souls. It can’t be forced and it can’t be denied. It extends beyond mere courtesy, important as courtesy is. The act of thanksgiving to God raises the character of our duties and obligations to one another to an entirely different and higher level: quite simply to the nature of our engagement with God and his Word and that Word made flesh in Jesus Christ. In turn, as the Gospel for Harvest Thanksgiving makes perfectly clear, it is that Divine Word Incarnate whose “word” is the bread of our lives, the very principle of our existence in, to and with God. It is all a kind of redire ad principia, a return to God as the principle of our very existence.

And while this activity of thanksgiving seems to be predicated and therefore dependent upon our experience of the good things of creation and human labour that we enjoy, it is actually something far more radical and far more challenging because it is about our life with God, summed up, perhaps, in that rich and provocative statement in the great Eucharistic prayer. It is about “our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving”. And all because the Word which “goes forth” from God goes forth with purpose and becomes first, the Word made flesh and, then, the Word which is given to us as “the bread of life.”

(more…)

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 9 – 15 October

Tuesday, October 10th
6:00pm Prayers & Praises – Haliburton Place
6:30-8:00pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall
7:00pm Parish Council Meeting

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

Friday, October 13th
6:00-7:30pm Pathfinders & Rangers – Parish Hall

Sunday, October 15th, Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
7:00pm Holy Communion – KES Chapel

Upcoming Event:

Tuesday, October 17th, Eve of St. Luke
7:00pm Holy Communion followed by Christ Church Book Club: Stuart Firestein, Ignorance: How It Drives Science and Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees

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Prayers and liturgy

The Seventeenth Sunday After Trinity

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

LORD, we pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Ephesians 4:1-6
The Gospel: St. Luke 14:1-11
Duomo diMonreale, Christ Healing Man with Dropsy Artwork: Christ Healing Man with Dropsy, Mosaic, 12th century, Cathedral of Monreale, Sicily.

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Prayers and liturgy

William Tyndale, Translator and Martyr

Embankment Statue, William TyndaleThe collect for today, the commemoration of William Tyndale (c. 1495-1536), Priest, Translator of the Scriptures, Reformation Martyr (source):

O Lord, grant to thy people
grace to hear and keep thy word
that, after the example of thy servant William Tyndale,
we may both profess thy gospel
and also be ready to suffer and die for it,
to the honour of thy name;
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: St. James 1:21-25
The Gospel: St. John 12:44-50

Artwork: Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, William Tyndale statue, 1884, Victoria Embankment Gardens, London. Photograph taken by admin, 30 September 2015.

Inscription on bronze plaque:
William Tyndale
First translator of the New Testament into English from the Greek.
Born A.D. 1484, died a martyr at Vilvorde in Belgium, A.D. 1536.
“Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path” – “the entrance of thy words giveth light.” Psalm CXIX. 105.130.
“And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his son.” I. John V.II.
The last words of William Tyndale were “Lord! Open the King of England’s eyes”. Within a year afterwards, a bible was placed in every parish church by the King’s command.

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Prayers and liturgy

St. Francis of Assisi

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), Friar, Deacon, Founder of the Friars Minor (source):

O God,
who ever delightest to reveal thyself
to the childlike and lowly of heart,
grant that, following the example of the blessed Francis,
we may count the wisdom of this world as foolishness
and know only Jesus Christ and him crucified,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: Galatians 6:14-18
The Gospel: St. Matthew 11:25-30

Berlinghieri, St. Francis altarpieceArtwork: Bonaventura Berlinghieri, St. Francis altarpiece, 1235. Tempera on wood, Church of San Francesco, Pescia, Italy.

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