Author: CCW

Events, Month at a Glance

July at a Glance

Sunday, July 9th, Fifth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Sunday, July 16th, Sixth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Sunday, July 23rd, Seventh Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Sunday, July 30th, Eighth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Fr. Curry is priest-in-charge for Avon Valley Parish and Hantsport during July; Fr. Tom Henderson will be priest-in-charge for Christ Church during August when I will be on vacation.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Fourth Sunday After Trinity

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

O GOD, the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 8:18-23
The Gospel: St Luke 6:36-42

David Teniers the Younger, The Blind Leading the Blind (after Domenico Feti)Artwork: David Teniers the Younger, The Blind Leading the Blind (after Domenico Feti), 1655. Oil on canvas, Mauritshuis Museum, The Hague, Netherlands.

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Prayers and liturgy

Confederation of Canada, 1867: Dominion Day

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

O GOD, who providest for thy people by thy power, and rulest over them in love: Vouchsafe so to bless thy servant our King, and his Government in this Dominion of Canada, that thy people may dwell in peace and safety, and thy Church serve thee in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 St. Peter 2:11-17
The Gospel: St. Matthew 22:16-22

Canada FlagCanadian Red Ensign

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Prayers and liturgy

St. Peter and St. Paul the Apostles

The collects for today, the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul the Apostles, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O almighty God, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst give to thy Apostle Saint Peter many excellent gifts, and commandedst him earnestly to feed thy flock: Make, we beseech thee, all Bishops and Pastors diligently to preach thy holy Word, and the people obediently to follow the same, that they may receive the crown of everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O God, who, through the preaching of the blessed Apostle Saint Paul, hast caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: Grant, we beseech thee, that we, having his manifold labours in remembrance, may show forth our thankfulness unto thee for the same, by following the holy doctrine which he taught; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 St. Peter 1:1-9
The Gospel: St. Matthew 16:13-19

Charles Poerson,The Preaching of St. Peter in JerusalemEustache Le Sueur, The Preaching of St. Paul at Ephesus

Artwork: (left) Charles Poerson, The Preaching of St. Peter in Jerusalem, 1642. Oil on canvas, St. Joseph Chapel, Notre Dame de Paris; (right) Eustache Le Sueur, The Preaching of St. Paul at Ephesus, 1649. Oil on canvas, Louvre.

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Prayers and liturgy

Irenaeus, Bishop and Doctor

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Irenaeus (d. 202), Bishop of Lyon, Doctor of the Church (source):

Carl Rohl-Smith, St. IrenaeusO God of peace,
who through the ministry of thy servant Irenæus
didst strengthen the true faith and bring harmony to thy Church:
keep us steadfast in thy true religion
and renew us in faith and love,
that we may ever walk in the way
that leadeth to everlasting life;
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: 2 Timothy 2:22b-26
The Gospel: St. Luke 11:33-36

Artwork: Carl Rohl-Smith, St. Irenaeus of Lyon, 1883-84. Frederik’s Church, Copenhagen.

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Prayers and liturgy

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

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

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Sermons

Sermon for the Third Sunday after Trinity

“The God of all grace … shall himself restore, stablish, strengthen you.”

The epistles, especially of the Trinity season, lay out the doctrine of our abiding in Christ. They focus on the qualities of our being in Christ. The First Sunday after Trinity sets before us the principle of abiding in God and God abiding in us; it belongs entirely to God as love and that love as shaping our loves and our lives. The Second Sunday showed us something of its radical meaning in terms of how that divine love overcomes the animosities, divisions, and condemnations of both others and ourselves. Both those epistles were taken from John’s First Epistle. Today, the epistle reading is from 1st Peter from which the epistle for the Fifth Sunday will also be taken. Next Sunday, the epistle reading is from Paul’s letter to the Romans. These so-called ‘catholic’ epistles of John and Peter, meaning that they are addressed to the whole or universal church, along with Romans 8 next week, emphasize the theme of our sanctification in and through “the sufferings of this present world” and thus provide an introduction to a series of readings from Paul’s epistles that will instruct us in our life in Christ over the rest of the Trinity season. “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts,” as Peter will tell us.

The emphasis on the doctrine of our abiding in God and God in us is sanctification. The pageant of justifying grace in what Christ has done for us from Advent through to Trinity Sunday now gives over to the qualities of its realization in us, the pageant of sanctifying grace which belongs to our life in Christ. The Gospels illustrate the meaning of the doctrine or teaching and in often vivid ways.

Today’s epistle reading exhorts us to humility as the necessary condition of our being “restored, stablished and strengthened” which the Gospel illustrates in “this parable” which “[Jesus] spake unto them.” Who are they? Well, the motley crew of our wounded and broken humanity! Publicans and sinners, on the one hand, and Pharisees and Scribes, on the other hand. In a way, it embraces the whole range of our humanity. Publicans here refer to tax-collectors who are linked to the more general aspect of our humanity as sinners. The Pharisees and Scribes, the religious leaders and authorities in the Jewish world with their different approaches to the law, murmur against Jesus. Why? Because the Publicans and sinners “drew near … for to hear him.” The context is again the ways in which the human community is divided against itself and in particular against others; the Pharisees and Scribes against the publicans and sinners. But even more, there is the reality of our opposition to God.

The positive lies in the drawing near of the publicans and sinners to hear Jesus. This suggests the desire of our souls for the teaching of God beyond the divisions and divides in our worldly lives. But the condition is repentance; something which the witness of John the Baptist also highlights “by preaching of repentance.”

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Events, Month at a Glance

June / July at a Glance

(Fr. Curry away at the Atlantic Theological Conference, Charlottetown, PEI, Mon., June 26th – Wed., June 28th)

Sunday, July 2nd,, Fourth Sunday after Trinity (in the Octave of SS. Peter & Paul)
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Sunday, July 9th, Fifth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Sunday, July 16th, Sixth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Sunday, July 23rd, Seventh Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Sunday, July 30th, Eighth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Fr. Curry is priest-in-charge for Avon Valley Parish and Hantsport during July; Fr. Tom Henderson will be priest-in-charge for Christ Church during August when I will be on vacation.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Third Sunday After Trinity

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

O LORD, we beseech thee mercifully to hear us; and grant that we, to whom thou hast given an hearty desire to pray, may by thy mighty aid be defended and comforted in all dangers and adversities; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 St. Peter 5:5-11
The Gospel: St. Luke 15:1-10

Trygve Skogrand, FoundArtwork: Trygve Skogrand, Found (from The Cobblestone Gospel Series), 2020, Digital drawing.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

The collect for today, the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY God, by whose providence thy servant John Baptist was wonderfully born, and sent to prepare the way of thy Son our Saviour, by preaching of repentance: Make us so to follow his doctrine and holy life, that we may truly repent according to his preaching, and after his example constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Isaiah 40:1-11
The Gospel: St. Luke 1:57-80

Tintoretto, Birth of St. John the Baptist, c. 1554Artwork: Tintoretto, Birth of St. John the Baptist, c. 1554. Oil on canvas, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

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