Christ Church - (Anglican) Windsor, Nova Scotia

19 March 202030 March 2026Prayers and liturgy

Thomas Ken, Bishop and Poet

The collect for today, the commemoration of Thomas Ken (1637-1711), Bishop of Bath and Wells, Non-Juror, Hymn Writer (source):

O God, from whom all blessings flow,
by whose providence we are kept
and by whose grace we are directed:
assist us, through the example of thy servant Thomas Ken,
faithfully to keep thy word,
humbly to accept adversity
and steadfastly to worship thee;
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.

With the Epistle and Gospel for a Bishop, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962)
The Epistle: 1 Timothy 6:11-16
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:37-44

Ordained an Anglican priest in 1662, Thomas Ken served as rector in several parishes before becoming chaplain to members of the royal family and, in 1685, Bishop of Bath and Wells. A man of principle and strong conviction, he was one of seven bishops imprisoned for refusing to sign King James II’s “Declaration of Indulgence”, the purpose of which was to allow Catholics to resume positions of political power in England. After strong expressions of popular support by the people of London, Bishop Ken was quickly tried and acquitted.

King James II was forced to flee the country when King William and Queen Mary were invited to become co-monarchs of England. William and Mary demanded oaths of allegiance from all persons holding public positions, including the bishops. Thomas Ken and others (known as the Non-Jurors; the older meaning of “juror” is “one who takes an oath”, hence “perjurer” as “one who swears falsely”) refused to take the oath on the grounds that they had sworn allegiance to James and could not during his lifetime swear allegiance to another monarch without making such oaths a mockery. Bishop Ken took this stand as a matter of principle despite his strong disagreement with much that James had done. In 1690, he and the other surviving non-jurors were deposed.

(Most of the bishops of Scotland also refused the oath; William and Mary retaliated by disestablishing the Episcopal Church in Scotland and making the Presbyterian Kirk the established state church there instead.)

Bishop Ken was also a poet and hymn-writer. He wrote the text for the well-loved doxology “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow“, which is actually the last verse of his longer hymn, “Awake My Soul, and with the sun“.

A prayer of Thomas Ken:

God, our heavenly father, make, we pray, the door of this Cathedral Church wide enough to welcome all who need human love and fellowship and a Father’s care; but narrow enough to shut out all envy, pride, and lack of love. Here may the temped find help, the sorrowing receive comfort, the careless be awakened to repentance, and the penitent be assured of your mercy; and here may all your children renew their strength and go on their way in hope and joy; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Artwork: Thomas Ken window, Wells Cathedral, installed in 1885 to celebrate the bicentenary of his consecration as Bishop of Bath and Wells.

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17 March 202030 March 2026Prayers and liturgy

St. Patrick, Missionary and Bishop

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Patrick (c. 390-c. 461), Bishop, Missionary, Patron of Ireland (source):

Almighty God,
who in thy providence chose thy servant Patrick
to be the apostle of the people of Ireland:
keep alive in us the fire of faith which he kindled,
and in this our earthly pilgrimage
strengthen us to gain the light of 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: 1 Thessalonians 2:2b-12
The Gospel: St Matthew 28:16-20

Click here to read the prayer known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate.

Artwork: Sean Keating, Saint Patrick, c. 1937. Charcoal, Private collection.

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16 March 202030 March 2026Administrative, Statements and other writings

Anglican church services suspended until April

Archbishop Ron Cutler has, effective immediately, suspended all public liturgies in the Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island until April 3rd, at which time a decision will be made regarding Holy Week and Easter worship.

The Archbishop’s full statement is posted here.

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15 March 202030 March 2026Sermons

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent

For I am desolate and in misery

“You were sometimes darkness,” Paul tells us in this morning’s Epistle. That might be the only good news since it leads to the idea that perhaps “now you are light in the Lord.” The Gospel reading, on the other hand, is the very picture of desolation and darkness. “Beware the Ides of March,”indeed. Beware of human evil. Yet the good news of this Gospel, it seems, is actually our evil for unless we face that we cannot begin to grasp the radical nature of God’s goodness.

We live in rather apocalyptic times not religiously so much as in a secular way. There is a great fearfulness in the global world especially now with the Covid-19 outbreak and spread. About that it is quite reasonable to take prudent measures and precautions about hand-washing, it seems, and about large gatherings that involve considerable travel from one place to another. All sensible and good. But such reasonable carefulness seems almost eclipsed by a deep fearfulness. That warrants some reflection because there are some real dangers in this fearfulness. The greatest danger, it seems, to me is the fear of the other.

There is even a word for it: allophobia, the fear of others. How do we care for one another if we are afraid of one another? This runs counter to the concept of friendship that belongs to our literary and spiritual traditions ranging from the friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu to the friendship of Jonathan and David, to the friendship of Achilles and Patroclus, and so on, and extending to the divine friendship. “I have called you friends,” Jesus says, in a passage that is all about sacrifice as a form of deep care. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Beyond that, there is the even more radical command by Jesus to “love your enemies.” These things counter our fear of the other which can only lead to desolation and misery.

In our fear of the other we forget two things: first, that we are all made in the image of God; and second, the absolute goodness of God himself. Today’s gospel reading from Luke is very dark and bleak, a gospel of desolation that complements the Matthaean apocalypse in Advent about the signs of desolation and fear. In Advent, the focus is on the meaning of God’s coming which is always a kind of judgement and a wake-up call, not altogether unlike today’s epistle reading. What is the desolation in today’s Gospel? It is the reality of human sin which calls what is good evil and then having shut oneself off from God in splendid isolation, the soul finds itself possessed of “seven other spirits more wicked than himself.” “The last state of that man,” we are told, “is worse than the first.” Such is the picture of ultimate desolation and despair, a despair of the good.

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15 March 202030 March 2026Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 16 –22 March

Monday, March 16th
6:30-7:30pm Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, March 17th
6:30-7:30pm Brownies – Parish Hall

Thursday, March 19th
7:00pm Holy Communion & Lenten Programme On The Lord’s Prayer II

Friday, March 20th
6:00-9:00pm Pathfinders & Rangers – Parish Hall

Sunday, March 15th, Fourth Sunday in Lent
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Fr. Curry away from Sunday Evening (March 15th) until Wednesday (March 18th)

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”

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15 March 202030 March 2026Prayers and liturgy

The Third Sunday in Lent

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

WE beseech thee, Almighty God, look upon the hearty desires of thy humble servants and stretch forth the right hand of thy Majesty to be our defence against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Ephesians 5:1-14
The Gospel: St Luke 11:14-26

Artwork: Cesare Fracanzano, Miracle of a Demon-Possessed Man, 1645. Oil on canvas, Pio Monte della Misericordia, Naples.

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13 March 202030 March 2026Statements and other writings

A brief note about COVID-19, Church Services, and Communion at Christ Church

We will continue to hold services in the Hall and later in the Church unless directed otherwise, but advise acting with care towards others in terms of hand-washing and perhaps exercising the concept of ‘self-distancing’ from each other. Both the Hall and the Church are commodious spaces that provide room to spread ourselves out, so to speak. These are simply precautionary strategies. At present, there is no reason to worry.

The Chalice will still be offered at Communion but if you do not wish to receive from the Chalice, that is fine. Just indicate by a nod. The sacrament is whole in each of its parts. Anglicans, theologically speaking, are utraquists – offering the sacrament as commanded by our Lord in both kinds – and so I am obliged to act accordingly. In terms of the various practices about receiving, may I request that you not ‘intinct’ (dipping the host yourself in the Chalice) since that only increases the risks of contagion (via hand). Let us pray and keep in our prayers, all who are the victims of plague and sickness and those who live in nursing homes in our communities.

Be careful but be not fearful.

Fr. David Curry
March 15th, 2020

Update: Archbishop Ron Cutler has released a “Pastoral Letter with regards to Covid 19”. Click here to download (pdf).

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13 March 202030 March 2026KES Chapel Weekly Reflections

KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 11 March

Looking on the heart

Discipline actually means learning. In the Christian understanding, Lent is a season of spiritual discipline. It is not just about the lengthening of the days, but a time of discipline through “self-examination and repentance,” through “prayer, fasting, and self-denial,” and through “reading and meditation” upon the Word of God (BCP, p. 612). It has its counterparts in the other religions and philosophies of the world and at the heart of it are the important questions about self-understanding and self-awareness.

At the end of last week we embarked on the beginning of a brief consideration of the story of David, one of the great and compelling narratives in the Hebrew Scriptures found mostly in 1st and 2nd Samuel. David is a kind of ‘everyman’; that is to say, that his story reveals something to us about ourselves. In a way, the story of David is like a mirror held up to us so that we may see the truth about ourselves and as a window through which we may see something of the wonder of God, of one another, and of creation. A mirror and a window. The story of David begins with him being anointed as king. The context is a question about how Israel as a community is to be governed. Will it be by the prophets? Or by a king?

Samuel is the prophet sent by God to anoint as king one of the sons of Jesse, the Bethlehemite. Seven of the sons of Jesse are brought before Samuel but in each case none of them are chosen. “The Lord sees,” Samuel is told, “not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” It is that sensibility that goes to the heart of the story of David and speaks most profoundly to our image obsessed world of selfies and instagram posts, twitter and facebook. You are more than your selfie, more than the image you present or as others imagine, more than the flickering shadows of your devices. David, the youngest son, is out tending sheep. He is sent for and, behold, the Lord says, “this is he.”

In many ways, it is a question about character but not on any strength of our own. This week in Chapel, we heard the story of David and Goliath and the story of the friendship between David and Jonathan. When we come back from the March break, we will continue with the story of David which entails the sin of David and his repentance. The ‘hero’ is not without his faults and failings. David shows us, as the preacher and poet John Donne notes, “the slippery ways into sin but also the penitential ways out of sin.” Pretty powerful stuff, the stuff of education.

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12 March 202030 March 2026Prayers and liturgy

Gregory the Great, Doctor and Bishop

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Gregory the Great (540-604), Bishop of Rome, Doctor of the Church (source):

O merciful Father,
who didst choose thy bishop Gregory
to be a servant of the servants of God:
grant that, like him, we may ever desire to serve thee
by proclaiming thy gospel to the nations,
and may ever rejoice to sing thy praises;
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: 1 Chronicles 25: 1a, 6-8
The Gospel: St. Mark 10:42-45

Artwork: Saint Gregory, stained glass, Holy Trinity, Sloane Square, London. Photograph taken by admin, 20 October 2014.

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9 March 202030 March 2026Uncategorized