Christ Church

Click here to listen to audio file of the Services of Mattins & Ante-Communion for Pentecost

“If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father,
and he shall give you another Comforter”

“Another Comforter”, Jesus says, and one that “may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of Truth”. It is a wonderful and profound statement about God and about our life with God. Jesus is the Comforter who has redeemed our humanity by gathering all things into his love for the Father. In his redeeming work, we are recalled to our end in God. Why then “another Comforter”? A substitute for Jesus? A consolation prize? No. It is all about our life in the Spirit of God. Such is the great wonder and mystery of Pentecost or Whitsunday. It is not just God for us but God in us.

“To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace”, Paul wisely tells us, words which perhaps speak to the fears of death in our current Covid dilemmas. Pentecost looks back to the Jewish celebration of the giving of the Law on the fiftieth day after Passover; the Ten Commandments as the universal moral code of our humanity and our freedom, our freedom to and with God in his will for us. In the Christian understanding, Pentecost is the celebration of the descent of the Holy Ghost or Spirit upon the disciples gathered in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, a celebration of grace which does not annihilate nature and law but perfects them both. The Holy Spirit is the love-knot of the Father and the Son. What joins them now joins us with them.

Wind and fire. These are the sensible and physical images that convey something invisible and spiritual. Such too is the logic of the sacraments; outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace. It is not just Christ who is the Alpha and Omega of our lives. “The Holy Ghost”, as Lancelot Andrewes says (Andrewes, Whitsunday Sermon 1610), “is the Alpha and Omega of all our solemnities”, all our rituals of remembrance, all our life sacramentally in memoria. “In His coming down all the feasts begin”. He goes on to highlight the essential presence and work of the Spirit in the mysteries of the Faith. “At His annunciation, when He descended on the Blessed Virgin, whereby the Son of God did take our nature, the nature of man”, the beginning of the Incarnation. “And in the Holy Ghost’s coming they end, even in His descending this day upon the sons of men, whereby they actually become ‘partakers of the divine nature’, the nature of God”. Pentecost is the Spirit’s “last and greatest coming”, he suggests, for in this text by Jesus we have “the promise and the performance”, the accomplishment of what belongs to the truth of our humanity. In the coming down of the Holy Spirit we are made “partakers of the divine nature”, if we keep his commandments.

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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

Artwork: Luca Signorelli, Descent of the Holy Spirit, c. 1494. Oil on canvas, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino.

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Joan of Arc (1412-31), Virgin, Visionary, Patron Saint of France (source):

Holy God, whose power is made perfect in weakness: we honor thy calling of Jeanne d’Arc, who, though young, rose up in valor to bear thy standard for her country, and endured with grace and fortitude both victory and defeat; and we pray that we, like Jeanne, may bear witness to the truth that is in us to friends and enemies alike, and, encouraged by the companionship of thy saints, give ourselves bravely to the struggle for justice in our time; through Christ our Savior, who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Epistle: 2 Corinthians 3:1-6
The Gospel: St. Matthew 12:25-30

Artwork: Isidore Patrois, Joan of Arc Led to Her Execution, 1867. Oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Rouen.

Last Chapels

There is a certain melancholy and poignancy about the last chapels of the year; all the more so in our current distresses and uncertainties. It has been wonderful, thanks to the Headmaster, that we have somehow been able to continue with Chapel via Zoom. While not the same thing as Chapel with all of us present together, our virtual Chapel has provided a way to think and pray about our world and School. It has, perhaps, helped us to appreciate the strength of the principles that belong to the life of the School and to its educational programme. It has very much to do with the formation of character, about a learning that informs our living beyond ourselves and for one another especially in difficult times.

For the most part we have been able to complete the School year even with the absence of all of you from the campus. That itself is a testament to the “wisdom, zeal, and patience” of the teachers and to “the spirit of truth, honour, and duty” on the part of the students, as the School prayer puts it. You have not lost your year! The wonderful Arts Gala happened virtually as did the Sports ‘Banquet’, and the Grade Nine Celebration. We will have a virtual graduation and prize day. But no Encaenia service in the Chapel for the Graduating Class. Because of that, the lessons on Monday and Tuesday of this week were the ones which would have been read at that service by the Head Boy, Evan Logan, and the Head Girl, Ava Benedict. They are lessons which speak to endings and beginnings which is the nature of that classical event derived from the traditions of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Encaenia recalls us to the principles that define our spiritual and intellectual identity as a School and, in turn, shape your service in the wider world.

“If you love me”, Jesus says, “keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever”. They are words that are read on the Feast of Pentecost this Sunday. No doubt we wish for the end of the lockdown and of the dreaded Covid but we are also reminded of another sense of an end: end as purpose and fulfillment signaled in Christ’s Ascension. In the Christian understanding, this is about an end in God through the return of the Son to the Father. He has done all that belongs to the redemption of our humanity and returns to the Father having accomplished his mission. This is the exaltation of our humanity. That is one kind of comfort or strength for us. We rest in the end of his work for us but how are we held in that vision and truth? Through the Holy Spirit we abide in the love of God and God in us. As the lesson from 1 John 4 reminds us, God’s love is the ground and basis of our love and care for one another.

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The collect for today, the Feast of The Venerable Bede (673-735), Monk, Historian, Doctor of the Church (source):

Almighty God, maker of all things,
whose Son Jesus Christ gave to thy servant Bede
grace to drink in with joy
the word which leadeth us to know thee and to love thee:
in thy goodness
grant that we also may come at length to thee,
the source of all wisdom,
and stand before thy face;
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.

For The Epistle: Wisdom 7:15-22
The Gospel: St. Matthew 13:47-52

Saint Bede the Venerable was born and, as far as we know, lived his entire life in the north of England, yet he became perhaps the most learned scholar in all of Europe. At the age of 7, he was sent to Wearmouth Abbey for his education; at age 11, he continued his education at the new monastery at Jarrow, eventually becoming a monk and remaining there until his death. He lived a routine and outwardly uneventful life of prayer, devotion, study, writing, and teaching.

Bede’s writings cover a very wide range of interests, including natural history, orthography, chronology, and biblical translation and exposition. He was the first to translate the Bible into Old English. He considered his 25 volumes of Scripture commentary to be his most important writings. His best-known book is Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731. This work earned him the popular title “Father of English History”, and not just because it was the first attempt to write a history of England. His historical research was thorough and far-reaching. For example, he asked friends traveling to Rome to bring him copies of documents relevant to English history, and he made use of oral traditions when written materials were not available. The book provides much historical information that can be found in no other source.

His pupil Cuthbert, later Abbot of Jarrow, has left a moving eyewitness account of St. Bede’s last hours. Bede fell ill shortly before Easter 735, when he was in the midst of translating the Gospel of John into the Anglo-Saxon language. Everyone realised that the end was near, but he was determined to complete the translation. Between Easter and Ascension Day, he persisted in the task while continuing to teach his students at his bedside.

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The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Augustine (d. c. 605), first Archbishop of Canterbury (source):

O Lord our God, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst call thine apostles and send them forth to preach the Gospel to the nations: We bless thy holy name for thy servant Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, whose labors in propagating thy Church among the English people we commemorate today; and we pray that all whom thou dost call and send may do thy will, and bide thy time, and see thy glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Epistle: 2 Corinthians 5:17-20a
The Gospel: St. Luke 5:1-11

Celtic Christianity had taken root in Britain and Ireland by the end of the third century. In the fifth century, however, Britain was overrun by non-Christian invaders from northern Europe: the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes.

In 596, Pope Gregory the Great chose Augustine, prior of a monastery at Rome, to head a mission to convert the pagan English. After Gregory consecrated Augustine bishop, the missionary party landed in Kent in 597. The dominant ruler of Anglo-Saxon England was the heathen King Ethelbert of Kent, whose wife Bertha was a Christian princess of the Franks. The king, although initially uninterested in Christianity, allowed Augustine and his companions to live in his territory and freely preach the gospel. Within four years, the king and several thousand of his people had been converted and baptised.

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The collect for a Bishop or Archbishop, on the Feast of Saint Aldhelm (c. 639-709), Abbot of Malmesbury, Bishop of Sherborne, Poet, Scholar, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O GOD, our heavenly Father, who didst raise up thy faithful servant Aldhelmto be a Bishop in thy Church and to feed thy flock: We beseech thee to send down upon all thy Bishops, the Pastors of thy Church, the abundant gift of thy Holy Spirit, that they, being endued with power from on high, and ever walking in the footsteps of thy holy Apostles, may minister before thee in thy household as true servants of Christ and stewards of thy divine mysteries; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 Timothy 6:11-16
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:37-43

Aldhelm became the first Bishop of Sherborne in AD 705. Before then he had been Abbot of Malmesbury for some thirty years. He was born in about AD 639 and died in 709 in Doulting, Somerset. St Aldhelm is buried at Malmesbury. His name translated from the old English means “Old Helmet”. For more information, click here.

Photograph: St. Aldhelm, Sherborne Abbey, Dorset, U.K.
© Copyright Sarah Smith and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

“The end of all things is at hand”

We have been living in apocalyptic times, it seems, times of certain uncertainties and of a kind of wariness and outright fear. Certainly, things as we have known them socially, economically, and politically have come to an end; things have changed and will have to change with respect to the global world. In what way remains unclear. We are, it seems, no longer “assured of certain certainties” and perhaps not so “impatient to assume the world”, as T.S. Eliot puts it in Preludes IV, written in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1911. That world would be shattered by the First World War and the Spanish Flu. How do we face this sense of the ending of all things?

Lady Juliet D’Orsey offers sage advice to the narrator and to us as readers in Timothy Findley’s classic novel, The Wars: “You have to clarify who you are by your response to when you lived”. That requires thoughtfulness and reflection, a kind of active waiting. Ascensiontide Sunday is very much about a sense of ending but with a kind of joyful expectancy. The ending of all things is not always negative and fearful. It is not static and inert. It is not death. It is both ending and beginning, a return to a principle in which we find life and meaning.

Ascensiontide helps us think about the end-times which is really about our end in God and with God. “I go”, Jesus says, “to prepare a place for you” that “where I am there you may be also”. These are wonderfully comforting words, used not only in Burial Service (BCP, p. 591) but also in the Supplication for the Dying (BCP, p. 588). The Ascension is the homecoming of the Son to the Father and it signals our home, our end with God. It is our spiritual home that embraces and orders all that belongs to our daily lives. It clarifies who we are in the sight of God. Ascension marks the ending of the story of Christ incarnate, having come forth from the Father, and come into the world and now having left the world and returned to the Father. It marks an ending in the sense of completion and fulfillment of purpose, consummatum est for us and for him (Andrewes, Whitsunday Sermon, 1614). His return to the Father is our joy and exultation, “the exultation of our humanity”, as the Fathers of the Church constantly emphasise. We are given a vision of our end in God, a vision of the homeland of the Spirit.

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

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: Andrea del Sarto, Last Supper, 1520-25. Fresco, Church of San Michele a San Salvi, Florence.

God is gone up with a merry noise

You can feel the sense of joy and exultation in Psalm 47 which the Headmaster read on Thursday. A psalm is a song. The Psalms are the hymn book of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures and help illuminate our understanding of the major themes of God’s engagement with our humanity. Thursday, May 21st, is the fortieth day after Easter this year in the western Christian tradition and known as Ascension Day. It marks the culmination of the Resurrection in the homecoming of the Son to the Father. “Because I go to the Father” is the recurring refrain of Eastertide.

Home is where you belong, the place from which you come and to which you go. The idea of home speaks to the understanding of our humanity, to the sense of our place in the world and with God. The Ascension of Christ is the gathering up of all things to their source and end in God. In the comings and goings of God we learn about our abiding with God. The School is also your home, your intellectual and spiritual home and it is wonderful to be able to think about the possibilities of returning to this home in the Fall. For the ancient Greeks, gnothi seauton, “know thyself”, means knowing your place in the cosmos, the world as an ordered whole. For our humanity that means the polis, the city-state. But the concept of homecoming also relates to our schools as institutions of learning and living. Our schools and universities are your alma mater, your nursing mother, the places of intellectual and spiritual growth and maturity.

We are embodied beings and one of the constant emphasis in Chapel has been to eschew the false dichotomies of spirit and matter, of body and soul, and to consider their necessary interrelation. Christ’s Ascension shows that our humanity has its end in God. The Ascension celebrates the homecoming of the Son to the Father who is now Our Father. His homecoming is our homecoming in the realization that we have a place with God. The body is made adequate to the life of the Spirit. The truth and being of the Son is in his being with the Father and that embraces our humanity. This week we explored the deeper meaning of the Lord’s Prayer, better described as the ‘Our Father’, because, as Simone Weil in the 20th century and Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century both observe, it contains all that we desire and orders our desires in the right way.

Origen, Augustine, Aquinas, and a host of other theologians note that nowhere in the Hebrew Scriptures is there any direction to pray to God as Father. There are a few references that speak about God as father and a few about God as mother, but those are metaphors for God’s relation to us. The ‘Our Father’ is different. Why? Because it concerns God himself. It is Jesus who teaches us the most about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It is the distinctive Christian way of speaking about the divine self-relation that is the basis of God’s relation to all else. Such is the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.

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