Tuesday, October 13th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-7:30pm Brownies’ Mtg. – Parish Hall
7:30pm Parish Council Meeting
Thursday, October 15th
1:30-3:00pm Seniors’ Drop-In
Sunday, October 18th, St Luke/Trinity XIX
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Family Service – Holy Communion
4:30pm Evening Prayer at KES
The collect for today, Harvest Thanskgiving, 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.
The Lesson: Isaiah 55:1-12
The Gospel: St John 6:27-35
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
The collect for today, the Feast of St Paulinus (c. 584-644), Missionary, first Bishop of York (source):
Almighty and everlasting God, we thank thee for thy servant Paulinus, whom thou didst call to preach the Gospel to the people of northern England. Raise up, we beseech thee, in this and every land evangelists and heralds of thy kingdom, that thy Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
With the Lesson and Gospel for a Missionary:
The Lesson: Acts 12:24-13:5
The Gospel: St Matthew 4:13-24a
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. Photo taken by admin, 7 September 2009.
The collect for today, the commemoration of William Tyndale (c. 1495-1536), Priest, Translator, 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
It is one of my favourite Scripture texts. It’s not about ambition or pretension. It’s about the hope of transformation. It counters completely the dumb-down aspects of an anti-intellectual culture, such as ours, and conveys the sense that we are, indeed, called to something more, that we have a destiny beyond what we know is before us but will not face, namely, the grave and gate of death. And it signals ever so profoundly the necessary condition of soul for the realization of God’s will and purpose for us in our lives. The necessary condition is humility.
Here is a Scripture reading in which the operative words are “friend” and “go up higher”. We have just had a visible demonstration of this in the baptism of Brennan Isaac. He has been made – there is no other word for it – a friend of Jesus. He has just been called up higher but only through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; such is the heart of baptism. We are identified with Jesus in his free-willing identity and sacrifice for us.
Jesus calls us “friends”. He does so not merely by way of a parable but more directly. He calls us friends at the height of his passion, on the night of our betrayal. There is an anticipation of that in the context of this gospel parable where Jesus is being watched critically and being challenged hypocritically by the Lawyers and Pharisees. This is the wondrous thing that passes human understanding. God has made us his friends when we were his enemies! This turns the ancient world on its head. It turns our modern world on its head. We live in a rather hopeless and fearful world. Here is the antidote to our hopelessness and fear. It challenges us so that it can redeem us.
Tuesday, October 6th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-7:30 Brownies’ Mtg. – Parish Hall
7:30pm Christ Church Book Club – Coronation Room, Parish Hall
“Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
Thursday, October 8th
1:30-3:00pm Seniors’ Drop-In
Saturday, October 10th
9:00-11:00am Men’s Club – Decorating for Harvest Thanksgiving
2:00pm Holy Matrimony – Christ Church: Calvin Guy & Nancy O’Handley
Sunday, October 11th, Trinity XVIII/Harvest Thanksgiving
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
4:30pm Evening Prayer at Christ Church
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
This collect for those working for the poor and underprivileged is posted in commemoration of Anthony Ashley Cooper (1801-1885), 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, Philanthropist, Social reformer, Evangelical (source):
O merciful God,
who hast compassion on all that thou hast made,
and hast enfolded thy whole creation in thy love:
help us to stand firm for thy truth,
to strive against poverty,
and to share thy love with our neighbour,
that with thy servant Lord Shaftesbury, we may be instruments of thy peace;
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: Hebrews 13:1-3
The Gospel: St Matthew 25:31-45
An evangelical Christian and Tory MP in Victorian England, Lord Shaftesbury dedicated his life to improving the lives of the helpless and unfortunate. He championed legislation limiting hours of work, restricting child labour, and improving public health, and he supported from his personal wealth hundreds of missionary and educational projects.
Almost immediately upon entering parliament at age 25, he became a leader in the movement to protect the mentally ill and reform lunatic asylums. Between 1832 and 1850, his political concerns focused on the conditions of the working class that had come into being following the Industrial Revolution. He joined the fight for the Ten Hours Bill in the face of strong and determined opposition from factory owners and senior politicians. Progress was slow at first but, in 1842, publication of a Royal Commission report into conditions in the mines shocked the nation. Women and children worked in darkness and appalling conditions for twelve or fourteen hours a day. The Mines and Collieries Act was passed in 1842, prohibiting work underground by small boys and females. After numerous defeats, the Ten Hours Bill was finally carried in 1847. Factory Acts followed in 1847 and 1853.
Lord Shaftesbury also led social welfare efforts outside of Parliament. He was an early champion of the Ragged Schools, established to provide free education to working-class children, and became chairman of the Ragged Schools Union. He chaired the Lord’s Day Observance Society, supported the foundation of the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) and the YMCA, and served as president of the British and Foreign Bible Society.
He regarded his parliamentary and social activities as his Christian duty. His journals and diaries show that he was also a great man of prayer. Here is one of his many written prayers:
God, the Father of the forsaken, the help of the weak, supplier of the needy; who hast diffused and proportioned thy gifts to body and soul, in such sort that all may acknowledge and perform the joyous duty of mutual service, who teachest us that love towards the race of men is the bond of perfectness, and the imitation of thy blessed self; open our eyes and touch our hearts, that we may see and do, both for this world and for that which is to come, the things which belong to our peace. Strengthen us in the work which we have undertaken; give us counsel and wisdom, perseverance, faith, and zeal, and in thine own good time, and according to thy pleasure, prosper the issue. Pour into us a spirit of humility. Let nothing be done but in devout obedience to thy will, thankfulness for thine unspeakable mercies, and love to thine adorable Son Christ Jesus, who with thee, 0 Father, and the Holy Ghost, ever liveth one God, world without end. Amen.
His funeral was attended by the privileged and the poor, who lined the streets of London as his coffin passed.
Source of prayer: Give Us Grace: An Anthology of Anglican Prayers, compiled by Christopher L. Webber. Anglican Book Centre, Toronto, 2004.
(This commemoration appears in the Church of England calendar, but not that of the 1962 Canadian BCP.)
The collect for today, the Feast of St Remigius (c. 438-533), Bishop of Rheims, Apostle to the Franks (source):
O God, who by the teaching of thy faithful servant and bishop Remigius didst turn the nation of the Franks from vain idolatry to the worship of thee, the true and living God, in the fullness of the catholic faith; Grant that we who glory in the name of Christian may show forth our faith in worthy deeds; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
The Epistle: 1 St John 4:1-6
The Gospel: St John 14:3-7
Remigius was consecrated bishop of Rheims at age 22. The pagan Clovis I, who had married the Christian princess Clothilde, began his reign as king of the Franks in 481.
Before entering combat against German tribes at Tolbiac, Clovis prayed to “Clothilde’s God” for victory. His soldiers won the battle, and Clothilde asked Remigius to teach the king about Christianity. Clovis was amazed by the story of “this unarmed God who was not of the race of Thor or Odin”. In the words of Remigius, the king came “to adore what he had burnt and to burn what he had adored”.
In 496, Remigius baptised Clovis in a public ceremony at Rheims Cathedral. Three thousand Franks also became Christians. Under the king’s protection, Remigius was able to spread the gospel and build churches throughout Gaul.
Artwork: Master of St Gilles, Saint Remigius baptises Clovis I, c. 1500. Oil on panel, National Gallery of Art, Washington.
