Author: The Rector

THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD

January 12 , 2025

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 season of Epiphany is celebration how it is that God has “shown or shined forth” and manifested Himself, in the person of His Son Jesus Christ, and follows on logically and is the fulfillment of the celebration of Christ’s Birth at Christmas. Following on from the Feast of the Epiphany last Sunday, where the wise-men came from the East bearing gifts, today we celebrate the epiphany that took place at the Baptism of Jesus which launched His public ministry: it is the shining or showing forth of the Trinity and Christ’s Divine Sonship. The reading from Isaiah provides us with the prophetic foundation for this manifestation, and the testimony of the Father regarding His Son. 

THE LESSON : Isaiah 42:1-8

Continue reading “Baptism of Our Lord January 12, 2025 Bulletin”

THE EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD

January 5 , 2025

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 Festival of the Epiphany which we celebrate today commemorates the showing forth, or the “shining forth,” the Epiphany of the Divine Glory of Christ, to the wise men from the East who had come to Bethlehem to worship Him who was born “ King of the Jews.” The presence of these Gentile (non-Jewish) men at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel  anticipates the end of the Gospel where Christ will command his apostles to go out into all the world to make disciples of all nations. In our Epistle reading for today, St. Paul writes about his participation in this “Great Commission” to let the world how it is that through the Gospel all people, everywhere are now included in the gracious purposes of God.

THE LESSON : Ephesians 3:1-12

Continue reading “Epiphany January 5, 2025 Bulletin”

THE SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS

December 29 , 2024

CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!

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  Gospel lesson  for today from St. Matthew  underlines both the supernatural and the scriptural character of the birth of Christ from the Virgin Mary, and also highlights for us the key role that Joseph played in this drama, whose righteous conduct serves as an illustration for us of what it means for us to live as those who though baptism have received the Holy Spirit and adoption as sons and heirs of God.

THE LESSON : Galatians 4:1-7

Continue reading “Sunday After Christmas December 29, 2024”

THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT

December 22 , 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 season of Advent where we have been preparing ourselves from the Coming of the Lord is drawing to a close. What does it mean for us to welcome and receive Christ at His Coming? Paul’s Letter to the Philippians speaks about joy, patience, prayer, supplication with thanksgiving and peace beyond all understanding.  This is spiritual life, and this is what we are given to experience every time we come together for the Liturgy. All of this is grounded in our acceptance of the testimony St. John the Baptist gave concerning Jesus in today’s Gospel lesson. He is no run of the mill prophet, but rather the Lamb of God who in his death on the Cross takes away the sin of the world.

THE LESSON : PHILIPPIANS 4. 4-7

Continue reading “Advent Four December 22, 2024 – Bulletin”

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”