Prayers and liturgy

Cyril and Methodius, Missionaries

The collect for today, the Feast of St Cyril (826-69) and St Methodius (c. 815-85), Apostles to the Slavs (source):

Saints Cyril and MethodiusO Lord of all,
who gavest to thy servants Cyril and Methodius
the gift of tongues to proclaim the gospel to the Slavic people:
we pray that thy whole Church may be one as thou art one,
that all who confess thy name may honour one another,
and that from east and west all may acknowledge one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
and thee, the God and Father of all;
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: Ephesians 3:1-7
The Gospel: St Mark 16:15-20

Read more about Cyril and Methodius here.

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Events

30th Anniversary of Fr. David Curry’s Ordination

All parishioners are cordially invited to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Fr. David’s ordination to the priesthood on Saturday, May 19th, from 7:00 – 9:00pm, in the Parish Hall.

Wine and cheese, and tea and coffee, will be provided.

Fr. David was ordained to the priesthood on May 23rd, 1982.

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Prayers and liturgy

Gregory of Nazianzus, Bishop and Doctor

St Gregory of NazianzusThe collect for today, the Feast of St Gregory of Nazianzus (329-89), Monk, Bishop, Theologian, Doctor of the Eastern Church (source):

Almighty God, who hast revealed to thy Church thine eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace that, like thy bishop Gregory of Nazianzus, we may continue steadfast in the confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of thee, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who livest and reignest for ever and ever.

The Lesson: Wisdom 7:7-14
The Gospel: St John 8:25-32

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Sermons

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Easter

“Receive with meekness the implanted word”

Today is the Fourth Sunday after Easter. It coincides with another important commemoration in Canadian Culture. Today is also the Sunday which recalls the Battle of the Atlantic.

The Battle of the Atlantic was a tremendous war effort in which Canadians played a most significant role. It was one of our defining moments. Against the darkness of storm and sea, against the threat of the unseen enemy – the German U-boats in their wolfpacks – there was the determination and the will to provide for our war-torn and embattled allies in Europe. The task was undertaken at a time when the outcome of the war was by no means certain.

In those dark and uncertain early years of the Second World War, the dangers that the convoys and their escorts faced in setting out from Halifax Harbour were very real; the prospects truly fearful. It was not only to face the wild and elemental sea – the North Atlantic in all its majestic fury and power – but also the terror of torpedoes, the sudden destruction and explosive power that sank ships and sailors, soldiers and supplies in far shorter order than the iceberg which sank the Titanic.

The Battle of the Atlantic was an enterprise of real courage undertaken in the face of great fearfulness. We do well to remember it. What enables peoples to face such fearful prospects? Why embark upon such fearful and fateful voyages? Because of the conviction that there are things worth dying for, things without which we cannot live. They are our rational and political freedoms. They belong to the spiritual dignity of our humanity, to who we are in the sight of God, the very things that Christ is at pains to teach us in these Eastertide Sundays.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 7 – 13 May

Tuesday, May 8th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
7:30pm Parish Council Meeting

Wednesday, May 9th
6:30-7:30pm Sparks’ Mtg. – Parish Hall

Thursday, May 10th
1:30-3:00pm Seniors’ Drop-In
3:00pm Service at Windsor Elms
6:30-7:30pm Brownies’ Mtg. – Parish Hall

Saturday, May 12th
4:30-6:30pm 7th Annual Lobster Supper

Sunday, May 13th, Fifth Sunday After Easter / Rogation Sunday
8:00am Holy Communion
9:30am Holy Communion – KES
10:30am Holy Communion
4:00pm Evening Prayer – Christ Church

Upcoming Event:

Sunday, June 10th
7:30pm Christ Church Concert Series: Organ Recital by Garth McPhee. Admission: $10/$5 students. (Please note change of date.)

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Prayers and liturgy

The Fourth Sunday After Easter

The collect for today, The Fourth Sunday After Easter, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O ALMIGHTY God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men: Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: St James 1:17-21
The Gospel: St John 16:5-15

Barocci, Last SupperArtwork: Federico Barocci, The Last Supper, c. 1580. Oil on canvas, Urbino Cathedral.

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Prayers and liturgy

Monnica, Matron

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Monnica (c. 331-387), mother of Saint Augustine of Hippo (source):

Alvise Vivarini, St. MonicaO faithful God,
who didst strengthen Monica, the mother of Augustine,
with wisdom,
and by her steadfast endurance
didst draw him to seek after thee:
grant us to be constant in prayer
that those who stray from thee may be brought to faith
in 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 Epistle: 1 Timothy 5:3-10
The Gospel: St. Luke 7:11-17

Artwork: Alvise Vivarini, Saint Monica (detail), 1485-90. Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice.

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Prayers and liturgy

Athanasius, Doctor and Bishop

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Athanasius (c. 293-373), Bishop of Alexandria, Theologian, Apologist, Doctor of the Church (source):

St AthanasiusEver-living God,
whose servant Athanasius bore witness
to the mystery of the Word made flesh for our salvation:
give us grace, with all thy saints,
to contend for the truth
and to grow into the likeness 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 Epistle: 2 Corinthians 4:5-14
The Gospel: St. Matthew 10:23-28

Read more about St. Athanasius here.

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Prayers and liturgy

Saint Philip and Saint James the Apostles

The collect for today, The Feast of Saint Philip and Saint James the Apostles with Saint James the Brother of the Lord Martyr, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O ALMIGHTY God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us perfectly to know thy Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life; that, following the steps of thy holy Apostles, Saint Philip and Saint James, we may stedfastly walk in the way that leadeth to eternal life; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: St James 1:1-12
The Gospel: St John 14:1-14

Durer, Apostle James and Apostle PhilipArtwork: Albrecht Dürer, The Apostle James and The Apostle Philip, 1516. Tempera on canvas, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

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King's-Edgehill School Sermons

Reflections for Choral Evensong with King’s-Edgehill School Cadet Corps

Reflections 2012 – “Dance me to the end of love”
KES Cadet Corps Church Parade
Christ Church, April 27th, 3:00pm

I.

“If music be the food of love, play on,” as Shakespeare puts it in Twelfth Night. There is “the sweet power of music,” he suggests, in The Merchant of Venice. Indeed, “the man that hath no music in himself/ Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, strategems, and spoils … Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.”

And it has been a year of music and dance, a dance that embraces the highs and the lows of every aspect of our year at King’s-Edgehill. It is, perhaps, in the music of the spheres and in the dance of the understanding that we have learned something more about ourselves, about one another and about our world. “Mark the music.” Enter the dance. Dance me to the end of love.

II.

Leonard Cohen’s lyrical masterpiece, “Dance Me to the End of Love,” is about the triumph of love even in the midst of the greatest horrors such as the holocaust.

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I’m gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance Me To The End Of Love…

The song was inspired by the story of the death camps in the Holocaust when Jewish musicians were required to play classical music, the music of Mozart and Haydn, for instance, while their people were being led to their deaths and their bodies to the burning. It is a haunting image. A string quartet plays with passionate intensity for those whose fate is their own, playing with passionate intensity the music which belongs to human dignity and beauty in the face of unspeakable and utterly inhuman indignities and horror. The Jews of Europe were betrayed by the culture that betrayed itself. And yet, there is the haunting and compelling beauty of the refrain, Dance me to the end of love.

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