Author: CCW

Prayers and liturgy

Etheldreda, Queen and Abbess

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Etheldreda, Queen, Foundress and Abbess of Ely (d. 679) (source):

Saint Etheldreda windowO eternal God,
who didst bestow such grace on thy servant Etheldreda
that she gave herself wholly to the life of prayer
and to the service of thy true religion:
grant that we may in like manner
seek thy kingdom in our earthly lives,
that by thy guidance
we may be united in the glorious fellowship of thy saints;
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: Philippians 3:7-14
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:29-34

Artwork: Joseph Edward (Eddie) Nuttgens, Saint Etheldreda, 1952. Stained glass, St. Etheldreda’s Church, Ely Place, London.

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Prayers and liturgy

Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, Bishops and Martyrs

The collect for today, the commemoration of Hugh Latimer (1485-1555), Bishop of Worcester, and Nicholas Ridley (c. 1500-1555), Bishop of London, Reformation Martyrs (source):

Keep us, O Lord, constant in faith and zealous in witness, that, like thy servants Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, we may live in thy fear, die in thy favor, and rest in thy peace; for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 Corinthians 3:9-14
The Gospel: St. John 15:20-16:1

Burning of Ridley and Latimer

Two leaders of the English Reformation were burned at the stake in Oxford on this day in 1555. Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London, and Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, were removed from their positions and imprisoned after Queen Mary ascended the throne in 1553. Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1533, was deposed and taken to Oxford with Latimer and Ridley.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God”

Pumpkins, pucks, and parades seem to define Windsor, particularly on this post-thanksgiving weekend! How they relate to the matter of love is another question. For here today love constrains us to speak of love. It might not seem all that remarkable a thing to say but I wonder if we do not altogether fail to see how special, how precious, how extraordinary Christ’s lesson is for us here in this gospel. It goes to the heart of the matter, to the heart that was willing to be pierced and broken for you and for me, indeed, for the whole world. That heart is the heart of Christ. That love is spoken and shown in the face of controversy and debate; in short, in the midst of the hostilities and animosities of our human hearts and so, too, in the midst of all of our current confusions and uncertainties within and without the Church. “And yet the common people heard him gladly.” Can that be said of us?

Two things are extraordinary here. First, God commands us to love him. Secondly, Christ unites the love of God and the love of neighbour in himself. At first glance, such things may not seem so amazing, partly because they are so familiar. After all, they are words which we frequently hear: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength;” in short, with the whole of our being. “Hear O Israel,” says the One who is the Word of God himself.

To hear that Word is to be Israel, a people who are open to the Word of God, who are defined by that Word. That self-same Word now proclaims that “the Lord our God is one Lord.” That unity is no mere oneness, no empty aloneness. It is the fullness and the completeness of the divine life in itself. As Aquinas remarks, “the perfection of Christian life consists in charity.” That charity begins and ends with God whose grace defines us against “the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil” as the Collect puts it, reminding us of our baptismal identity in Christ, a far, far different thing that pumpkins, pucks, and parades!

God commands us to love him. This is the first extraordinary thing. What does this mean? Does God stand in need of our love?

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 16 – 22 October

Monday, October 16th
4:45-5:15pm World Religions/Inquirers’ Class
6:30-7:30pm Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, October 17th, Eve of St. Luke
6:00pm Prayers & Praises – Haliburton Place
6:30-8:00pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall
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

Wednesday, October 18th
6:30-8:00pm Brownies – Parish Hall

Sunday, October 22nd, Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Fr. Curry is away Friday to Monday at a conference in Los Angeles. Fr. Tom Henderson (1-902-798-8921) will be priest-in-charge during our absence. He will be the celebrant at 8:00am and Fr. Peter Harris will celebrate at 10:30am.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Eighteenth Sunday After Trinity

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

LORD, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:4-8
The Gospel: St. Mark 12:28-37

Mantegna, Christ the RedeemerArtwork: Andrea Mantegna, Christ the Redeemer, 1493. Tempera on canvas, Museo Civico “Il Correggio”, Correggio, Italy.

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KES Chapel Weekly Reflections

KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 8 October

In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground

Ah, the curses of work and labour! There is, it seems, no escaping the reality of the Fall. It means a different relation to the world and to one another and all because of a falling out, we might say, with God occasioned by our deceit and disobedience.

We return this week after the Thanksgiving Break to consider the further consequences of the Fall in the Third Chapter of Genesis. In a way, it connects with some of the themes of thanksgiving since bread is very much an aspect of our human engagement through work with the good order of creation. It means that nothing is simply ready at hand; labour is one of the consequences of the Fall, one of the curses. And yet, in and through our labours with the good order of God’s creation, blessings are found. We can learn about what we experience. The Fall means that good and evil, which are known to God through intellect, are known to us through experience. Yet through our experience of estrangement and separation, we may come to learn intellectually and ethically about good and evil.

The so-called curses that are the fall-out of the Fall are also about a kind of falling into reason. The awareness of ourselves as self-conscious beings means our awareness not only of the otherness of God and of one another but of the natural world itself. To live requires now our self-conscious effort at the same time as there is our self-conscious awareness of our connection to the world, to the ground itself: “for out of it you were taken; you are dust and to dust shall you return”. This is not really news. The two creation accounts have already and amply chronicled our connection to the ground, to the dust of creation and to every other created thing. What is new is the idea of labour and hard work. “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.”

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Prayers and liturgy

Edward the Confessor

St. Augustine Kilburn, St. EdwardThe collect for today, the Feast of St. Edward the Confessor (c. 1003-1066), King of England (source):

O Sovereign God,
who didst set thy servant Edward upon the throne of an earthly kingdom
and didst inspire him with zeal for the kingdom of heaven:
grant that we may so confess the faith of Christ by word and deed,
that we may, with all thy saints, inherit thine eternal glory;
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 Lesson: Ecclesiasticus 31:8-11
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:35-40

Artwork: St. Edward, stained glass, St. Augustine Kilburn, London. Photograph taken by admin, 26 September 2015.

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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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