Author: The Rector

THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT

December 15 , 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS.

In this season of Advent the Church is inviting and encourgaing us to be awake, attentive, watchul for Jesus Christ who is the Comong One. “He came to us in great humility”, and He will” come again in His Glorious Majesty” to judge both the living and the dead. But Advent is also about His Coming to us in the present time, which is both Judgement and Grace. In our Epistle lesson, St. Paul directs us to entrust  “pronouncing judgement” to Christ, whose Judgement will be just. Our Gospel lesson presents us with the figure of John the Baptist, as the great exemplar of watching and waiting, and who came to prepare the way of the Lord.  But John, much like ourselves,  found himself  wondering, in the face of so much injustice, whether he had misjudged the situation in pointing people to Christ. Jesus directs John (and us) to be attentive to signs of His Coming, and the presence of His kingly reign and rule in our midst.

THE LESSON : 1 Corinthians 4. 1-5

Continue reading “Advent Three – December 15, 2024 – Bulletin”

THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT

December 8 , 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS

The Second Sunday in Advent has traditionally been known as “ Bible Sunday” on account  of today’s Collect and Epistle reading from Romans where St. Paul points us to the crucial role the Scriptures play in instructing us in the faith and providing us with steadfastness, encouragement, and most importantly hope, which through the Holy Spirit fills us with joy and peace. Our Gospel lesson picks up our Advent theme of the coming of Christ in glory to judge the living and the dead, and teaches us to see the collapse of the present world order, and the resulting chaos and confusion, not as on occasion for despair but signs of the coming of Him who makes all things new.

THE LESSON : Romans 15.4-13 

Continue reading “Advent Two – December 8, 2024 – Bulletin”

THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT

December 1 , 2024

GLORY BE TO JESUS CHRIST! GLORY BE FOREVER!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS.

‘He came to us in great humility, and He will come again in majesty to judge the living and the dead.’ Our conviction concerning the person of Jesus Christ  as expressed in the Advent Collect is presented to us in figural terms in today’s Gospel lesson where Jesus rides into Jerusalem in a donkey ( humility) and proceeds to clear the temple of the money changers. ( judgement). The Epistle lesson unpacks for us the meaning of Christ’s coming for spiritual life: love is the fulfilling of the commandments, which necessitates a disciplining of our sinful desires. 

THE LESSON : Romans 13:8-14

Continue reading “Advent One December 1, 2024 – Bulletin”

THE SUNDAY NEXT BEFORE ADVENT

November 24, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS

Today is the Sunday Next Before Advent, which serves as a “bridge” between the long season of Trinity and the end of one liturgical year, and the  beginning of  a new year and the season of Advent. This day comes to us a signal for the renewal of our love, our desire for holy things, to share our faith, and the stirring up of our wills. The Epistle lesson lays out the ground for our hope for the future, and our Gospel lesson presents us with the invitation to “come and see” how this hope is being actualized in the here and now of our lives.   

THE COLLECT

STIR up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Continue reading “Sunday Next Before Advent November 24, 2024 Bulletin”

TWENTY FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

November 17, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS

In today’s Gospel lesson Jesus recites a poem in which describes in graphic images what sounds like the end of the world. But what is being described here is not so much the end of the present world, but the end of the present world order. This is, predictably, a situation of terrible confusion and chaos, of “darkness between worlds” (René Guénon). Jesus would not have his disciples be alarmed or upset, and fall victim to the claims of false Messiahs. For the darkness and confusion serves to manifest Christ’ssaving and sovereign rule and authority. The Epistle reading from 1 John sets the spiritual focus and agenda for Christians in dark times: hold fast in faith to the victory of  Christ over death and the devil, purify your hearts, and continue in works of love.

THE LESSON : 1 John 3:1-10

Continue reading “Trinity 25 November 17, 2024 Announcements”

TWENTY FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

November 10, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS.

The long season of Trinity, that is the season of our growing in the Spirit, that is our sanctification, becoming holy, as God is holy, is drawing to a close. In our Epistle reading, St. Paul invites us to look to consider how it was that we got our start in our life with God. It was the through the preaching of the Gospel that we were raised from the death of sin to life in the Spirit, and it is this Gospel that is the continues to do its work in bearing spiritual fruit in our lives. For Paul, there is always more! And so he prays that we might be strengthened with all power for endurance and patience with joy that we might finish our course.  Our Gospel lesson celebrates the healing , life giving power of Jesus Christ in the lives of the woman with a haemorrhage and the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue.

THE LESSON : Colossians 1:3-12

Continue reading “Trinity 24 November 10, 2024 – Bulletin”

ALL SAINTS SUNDAY

November 3, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS

On this Feast of All Saints, our readings give us two complimentary visions of holiness. The first, from the Book of Revelation, where a great multitude, who have been sanctified through their suffering, stand in worship before the throne of God in heaven and experience His unmeditated sheltering presence and comfort. The second vision, from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, describes the personal qualities and life experience and the ensuing blessedness of those who have died to sin, and have risen to new life in Christ.

THE LESSON : Revelation 7:9-17

Continue reading “All Saints Sunday November 3, 2024 – Bulletin”

DEDICATION SUNDAY

October 27, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS

In the Gospel reading appointed for The Dedication Festival of a Parish Church we hear the story of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and the cleansing of Temple that took place, which comes to us as a reminder of the establishment of church buildings as places set apart for prayer and the praise and worship of God. But what is a church  building without a praying, worshipping congregation? I n our Epistle reading, St. Peter develops the theme of the congregation as spiritual house, a holy nation, and holy priesthood. 

THE LESSON : 1 Peter 2:1-10

Continue reading “Dedication Sunday October 27, 2024 – Bulletin”

TWENTY FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

October 20, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS

The focus of the season of Trinity in our church calendar is our on spiritual growth and maturing as Christians. In today’s Epistle lesson St. Paul reminds us that the Christian life is one of conflict. This is a timely message for the fragmented, divided, conflicted times in which we live where we imagine the problem is other people, whom we must defeat by whatever political, economic, and military  means available. But this is to misdiagnose the problem. St. Paul reminds us that our conflict is spiritual in nature, and needs to be addressed spiritually. Our Gospel lesson today tells story of the royal official of the city of Capernaum, interceded with Christ to heal his son, and who believed the word which Jesus spoke. Such is the power of Christ to protect us from all the temptations of our ages which seek to distort the Christian faith , and heal the spiritual afflictions of our times.

THE LESSON : Ephesians 6:10-20

Continue reading “Trinity 21 October 20, 2024 – Bulletin”

HARVEST THANKSGIVING

October 13, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS

The human person/soul has been created by God as a unity of body and spirit. Materialism, a philosophy which acknowledges the reality of our physical needs in the form of food, clothing, shelter, etc.,  and  denies the spiritual dimension of our lives, and spiritualism, a philosophy which accepts spiritual reality, but denies the body as the bearer of the Spirit, are both destructive to thus unity. There is a physical labour and food which we need, as well as spiritual labour and food which we need.  The lessons for this Harvest Thanksgiving service highlight for us that Christ, who is the Incarnate ( enfleshed) Word of God,  as the source of life for both the body and the spirit, bestowing us with meaningful, purposeful, satisfying  existence in this life , and in the world to come, life everlasting.

THE LESSON : Isaiah 55:1-12

Continue reading “Harvest Thanksgiving October 13, 2024 – Bulletin”