Year: 2021

Prayers and liturgy

The Fifteenth Sunday After Trinity

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

KEEP, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy Church with thy perpetual mercy; and, because the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Galatians 6:11-18
The Gospel: St. Matthew 6:24-34

Joseph Wright of Derby, The Old Man and DeathArtwork: Joseph Wright of Derby, The Old Man and Death, 1774. Oil on canvas, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut.

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Prayers and liturgy

Edmund J. Peck, Missionary

The collect for today, the commemoration of Edmund J. Peck (1850-1924), Priest, Missionary to the Inuit, Translator (source):

Edmund J. PeckGod of our salvation, whose servant Edmund James Peck made the testimony of the Spirit his own and gladly proclaimed the riches of Christ among the Inuit people, give the joy of your gospel to us also, that we may exalt you in the congregation of all peoples and praise you in the abundance of your mercies; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: 1 St. John 5:6-12
The Gospel: St. Matthew 28:16-20

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KES Chapel Weekly Reflections

KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 9 September

Beginnings

“In the beginning.” These words begin both of the readings read in the first Chapel services of the year: one from Genesis 1.1-5, and the other from John 1. 1-5. “In the beginning God” … “In the beginning was the Word.” They are profoundly formative and foundational texts that belong to a long and complex history of human culture. The start of the School year is certainly a beginning for half the student body of the School who are new this year, But for everybody, there is a sense of excitement and, no doubt, a mixture of uncertainty about the beginning of the year. It is all about stepping into the order and pattern of the life of the School.

Chapel is an integral part of the School’s life. It relates to all four pillars of the educational project at King’s-Edgehill and in a sense holds them together: academics, athletics, aesthetics (Arts) and leadership. All four are front and center in each Chapel service. We sit to listen and think about what is being read and said just like in class, hence academics. We stand to sing and praise – ‘Yay God,’ and all that jazz, as it were! We kneel to pray. Thus standing, sitting, kneeling (or squatting) are our morning calisthenics, thus athletics! The Arts pillar is there in terms of the music and the spatial qualities of the Chapel in its architecture and stained glass windows which, of course, tell a story. Our Head Boy, Will Ahern, is also our organist on Mondays and Tuesdays while Mr. Steven Roe plays on Thursdays and Fridays. We may not have a mass choir but at present we have a masked choir – all the students in Chapel! Singing involves paying attention to written words and music and so contributes to the acquisition of two skills and certainly this is important for students who are learning English as a second language. Leadership is present by way of the Chapel Prefects under the direction of the Head Chapel Prefect, Stanislav Matkovskyi. Students exercise leadership in reading the Scripture lessons, in leading the Prayers, and in serving. All of these pillars go together and reinforce each other.

The Chapel service is intentionally and explicitly Christian and reflects the School’s history and Anglican origins. But faith or religion like education cannot be forced. Students and faculty come from a great variety of religions and non religions, cultures and linguistic communities. The point of Chapel is educational. It is about exploring the great questions that belong to human culture and which never really go away. Through the readings from the Jewish Scriptures and the Christian Scriptures we engage the philosophical questions that relate to other religions and philosophies as well such as Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism), Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as the different forms of atheism. The point is to do this through the idea of the dignity of difference; in other words, respecting the different outlooks and thinking that belong to our humanity in all of its remarkable variety.

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Prayers and liturgy

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The collect for today, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

Alessandro Turchi, The Birth of the VirginO GOD Most High, who didst endue with wonderful virtue and grace the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Lord: Grant that we, who now call her blessed, may be made very members of the heavenly family of him who was pleased to be called the first-born among many brethren; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Lesson: Acts 1:12-14
The Gospel: St. Luke 1:39-49

Artwork: Alessandro Turchi, The Birth of the Virgin, 1631-35. Oil on canvas, Prado, Madrid.

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Prayers and liturgy

Audio file of 8:00am Holy Communion service, Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

Click here to listen to an audio recording of the 8:00am service of Holy Communion at Christ Church on the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

“Thy faith hath made thee whole”

Today’s Gospel is the quintessential thanksgiving Gospel. It is appointed for Thanksgiving Day as embracing both the idea of harvest thanksgiving and national thanksgiving, the idea of giving thanks for our rational and political freedoms, however much in disarray. The Gospel story is especially powerful and complements the paradoxes of the Epistle reading from Galatians which continues the theme of our living and walking in the Spirit, bidding us, on the one hand, to “bear ye one another’s burdens,” and, on the other hand, to bear our own burdens.

In bearing one another’s burdens we are bearing our own as well. How? Because we are social, spiritual and intellectual creatures in and through our life with one another. We don’t live in isolation from one another. To be human means our connection and life with each other. But how and in what way?  These readings, like so many of the Scripture readings of the Trinity season, point us to the truth of our humanity as lived in a sacramental and social community. They speak to us about becoming and being whole.

Our text in the Prayer Book is from the King James Version which preserves Tyndale’s translation about being made whole. Wycliffe in his 14th century translation renders it as “thy faith hath made thee safe.” More modern English translations adopt the idea that “your faith hath made you well” and a few use the somewhat more literal phrase, “your faith has saved you” and one gives us “healed and saved.” In truth the Greek word which carries over into the Latin salvum conveys a range of meetings over the centuries about being rescued, being kept safe, being preserved, and getting home with the idea of being where you belong and thus who you truly are. But it is this sense of wholeness that warrants our careful attention.

The story seems at first to highlight the one who turned back. There were ten who were lepers. All ten were healed by Jesus who bids them “go and show yourselves unto the priests.” As Luke puts it, “as they went, they were cleansed.” All ten. One of them, though, in seeing “that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice, glorified God, and fell down on his face at [Jesus’] feet, giving him thanks.” Luke adds to this the observation that the one who turned back “was a Samaritan.”

It is a most moving spectacle. Jesus comments on his action in contrast with the other nine, that only one “returned to give glory to God,” and calls him “this stranger.” Is the story then about the radical individual who stands out and away from others in splendid isolation? Is being saved merely personal? Or is this stranger, this Samaritan, like the “certain Samaritan” in last Sunday’s Gospel, precisely the one who shows us the truth of our humanity in our corporate, social and spiritual lives?

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Prayers and liturgy

The Fourteenth Sunday After Trinity

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

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou dost command; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Galatians 5:25-6:5
The Gospel: St. Luke 17:11-19

Unknown Flemish Master, Jesus Heals Ten LepersArtwork: Unknown Flemish Master, Jesus Heals Ten Lepers, 17th century. Oil on panel, Private Collection.

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Prayers and liturgy

Robert Wolfall, Presbyter

The collect for bishops and other pastors, in commemoration of Robert Wolfall, Priest (source):

Almighty and everlasting God,
who didst call thy servant Robert Wolfall to proclaim thy glory
by a life of prayer and the zeal of a true pastor:
keep constant in faith the leaders of thy Church
and so bless thy people through their ministry
that the Church may grow into the full stature
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 Rev. Robert Wolfall was vicar of the Parish of West Harptree, Somerset, when he became chaplain to Martin Frobisher’s third Arctic expedition to Canada. On 3 September 1578, Rev’d Wolfall presided at the first recorded Holy Eucharist in what is now Canadian territory: Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island.

The service was held on the ship Anne Francis, whose captain later wrote:

Master Wolfall …. preached a godly sermon, which being ended he celebrated also a Communion upon the land …. The celebration of the divine mystery was the first sign, seal and confirmation of Christ’s name, death and passion ever known in these quarters. Master Wolfall made sermons and celebrated the Communion at sundry other times in several and sundry ships, because the whole company could never meet together at anyone place.

A few weeks later, Frobisher abandoned the hope of establishing a permanent settlement on Baffin Island and the expeditionary fleet returned home to England. Anglicans would not celebrate Holy Communion in Canada again for almost a century.

A commemoration of Robert Wolfall, written by Dr. William Cooke, Vice-President of the Toronto branch of the Prayer Book Society of Canada, is posted here. (See page 5 of pdf document.)

The Canadian Encyclopedia entry on “The First Thanksgiving in North America” is posted here.

Parish of West Hartree, Robert Wolfall Commemorative PlaqueA plaque commemorating Rev. Wolfall was recently placed on the inside wall of his parish church. The photograph was kindly sent to us by former Royal Navy Chaplain The Rev. Anthony Marks.

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Prayers and liturgy

Giles, Abbot

The collect for an Abbot, on the Feast of St. Giles of Provence (d. c. 710), Hermit, Abbot (source):

O God, by whose grace the blessed Abbot Giles, enkindled with the fire of thy love, became a burning and a shining light in thy Church: Grant that we may be inflamed with the same spirit of discipline and love, and ever walk before thee as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 St. John 2:15-17
The Gospel: St. Luke 6:20-23a

Melchiorre Jeli, Saint Giles Hit by the King’s ArchersAll that is known for certain about this saint is that he was born in the early 7th century and that he founded a monastery in what is now the town of Saint-Gilles, southern France, on land given to him by Flavius Wamba, King of the Visogoths.

Giles, accompanied by a hind, had come to live in a hermitage near Arles. During a hunt, King Wamba fired an arrow at the hind, but struck and crippled Giles instead. The king then gave the humble saint land to found an abbey.

A tenth-century Legend attributed important miracles to Saint Giles, which helped make him one of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages. Hundreds of churches and monasteries across Europe are dedicated to him. As well, because he is the patron saint of cripples, lepers, and nursing mothers, many hospitals were built in his name. Saint Giles is also the patron saint of Edinburgh, where his memory is honoured by the Church of Scotland High Kirk: St. Giles’ Cathedral.

The monastery founded by St. Giles became a renowned stopping place in medieval times for pilgrims journeying to Compostela, Rome, or the Holy Land.

Artwork: Melchiorre Jeli, Saint Giles Hit by the King’s Archers, 1814.

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