The Shape of the Eucharist: The Word of God
The word "eucharist" means thanksgiving in Greek. The Holy Eucharist has been the central worship service of the Christian Church since its very earliest days. The followers of Jesus gathered in homes on Sundays, the day of the Resurrection, to break bread together, to share prayers and readings, and to support one another. At the Last Supper ,Jesus instructed his disciples to do this "in remembrance of me." There are other names for this liturgy - the Mass, the Lord's Supper, the Table - in the Book of Common Prayer Book (wine colored book) it is called the Holy Communion and in the Book of Alternative Services (the green colored book) it is called the Holy Eucharist.

At St. George's, the Sunday bulletin calls attention to the basic shape or structure of the Eucharist. It has two halves: the Proclamation of the Word and the Holy Communion. The Proclamtion centers around the reading of selections from Holy Scripture: usually an Old Testament reading, a lesson from a letter of Paul or one of the other apostles, and a reading from one of the four gospels. These are followed by a sermon which reflects upon the readings and helps relate them to our lives. The Word of God section of the Eucharist concludes with the Prayers of the People for the world and the Church.

The Word of God section forms us as a congregation, the Body of Christ. United in response to the Word we have heard, we exchange the Peace of Christ, laying aside all that divides us. We then proceed to celebrate Holy Communion together - a topic for next week.

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The Shape of the Eucharist: The Holy Communion

Today we talk about the second half of the Eucharist that we celebrate each Sunday: the Holy Communion. Last week we noted how the first half of the Eucharist, the Proclamation of the Word  section, forms us a congregation, the Body of Christ. United in response to the Word we have heard, we exchange the Peace of Christ, laying aside all that divides us. We then proceed to celebrate Holy Communion together.

The Holy Communion has four parts:

1. We prepare the Table. As we sing a hymn, the bread and wine are brought to the Altar. Alms (originally food and money for the poor) are collected and also brought to the Altar. The bread and wine represent our lives, which we offer up to God.
2. We make Eucharist. In the Great Thanksgiving, the Presider recalls the saving acts of God in history and invokes the Holy Spirit to bless and sanctify the gifts of bread and wine, that they may be the Body and Blood of Christ.
3. We break the Bread. The breaking of the Bread, accompanied by a fraction anthem, signifies the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.
4. We share the Gifts. When we offer our lives to God, there is inevitably a "breaking" or loss of self and control. But without that breaking, the Gifts cannot be shared. In sharing the Body and Blood of Christ, we become Christ and are sent forth into the world to continue his mission.
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Baptism in the Anglican Church

Baptism in the Anglican Church is a sacrament celebrated by the whole worshiping community in the context of its Eucharist. It is preferably celebrated on one of the great baptismal feast days: the Easter Vigil (the evening before Easter Day), the Day of Pentecost (celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit), All Saints' Sunday in November, and the Baptism of Christ in January. We can also celebrate baptisms on our parish feast, St. George's Day, in April.

Celebrating Baptism publicly reminds us of the vows and commitments that we made, or that were made for us, at our own baptism. These constitute the Baptismal Covenant, which we all renew in the liturgy. The Covenant has two parts: the ancient Apostles' Creed, in which we declare our faith in the Trinitarian God; and a series of five "lifestyle promises." In these promises we are saying, in effect, that belief must be joined with and expressed in how we live.

The Anglican Church has always baptized infants, as did the earliest Christians when these were part of a church family. Increasingly, however, we also find ourselves baptizing those coming to faith as adults. For those baptized as children, the expectation is that they will make a mature recommitment of faith in the rite of Confirmation.

One of the most ancient parts of the baptismal liturgy is the series of questions and answers asked of the candidates (for children, of their sponsors and parents): first three renunciations, of "the world, the flesh and the devil"; and then three adherences, to accept Christ, to put entire trust in him, and to follow and obey him as Lord. These constitute a "turning from" and a "turning towards": a basic change in ori-entation.

The Baptism itself is by water, in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is traditionally done with a scallop shell, a symbol of pilgrimage, and is accompanied with the Chrismation, using holy oil consecrated by the Bishop, and the symbolic giving of a candle, lit from the Paschal or Easter Candle.
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Of Incumbents, Rectors

Why is our priest called an Incumbent? What is a Incumbent? How is he or she different from a Rector?

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Ministry to the Sick

On the second Sunday of each month, and on other occasions of particular need, we administer the sacrament or rite of healing, or ministry to the sick. This consists of offering prayer accompanied by anointing with oil and the laying on of hands. The Canadian Prayer Book has a good explanation of the background and theology of this rite, from which the following is excerpted:

The Church's ministry to the sick is based on Jesus's constant concern and care for the sick. It is reinforced by the Epistle of James's admonition to the sick to call for the elders of the Church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the Name of the Lord. James's suggestion ties the Church's ministry to the sick to its Sunday worship from a very early date. If the sick could not get to church, then the Church, through the leaders of its worship, would come to them.

We may draw two conclusions from our knowledge of early Christian ministry to the sick: Christians were not to rely on the multitude of faith-healers and wonder-workers who abounded in their society but were to send for senior members of their own community. Second, the ministry those leaders offered was an extension of the Church's basic act of worship, i.e., the gathering around the word and the bread and wine each Sunday.

The minister represents not only the congregation but also its holy activity to the sick person. The minister brings the Church, the community of wholeness, to the sick person. The laying on of hands and anointing provide the moment when the prayer of the Church for the healing power of God is made specific and particular in relation to this sick person. It is also a sign of forgiveness and consequently of reconciliation in and with the Christian community.

When people participate in this ministry "for others," they do so as an extension of their own prayers and caregiving.
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The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of England

If you have been following the news of the recent terrorist bombings in London, you may have seen on television the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. The Archbishop regularly speaks out on public issues in Great Britain because the Church of England, which he heads, is the established or "state" Church in Britain. Among other things, this means that kings and queens of England are crowned by the Archbishop, bishops are officially appointed by the monarch, and church structure and governance are subject to act of Parliament.

In practice, the involvement of the state in Church of England affairs is not as substantial as it once was.

Today the Archbishop of Canterbury is careful to exercise his state functions in an ecumenical way. In connection with the London bombings, he appeared together with other Christian leaders and leaders of Islam and non-Christian religions.

Today, the Archbishop of Canterbury holds a symbolic role as head of the Anglican Communion, but does not have actual legal authority beyond his own province.
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The Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral

On the calendar of saints this week is William Reed Huntington, a towering figure in Anglicanism in the nineteenth century. One of Huntington's contributions was to awaken interest in church unity. He built upon the historic position of Anglicanism as a via media or middle way between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. He sought to distinguish between essentials, on which different branches of the Church must have agreement, and nonessentials, on which they might differ.

These efforts bore fruit in what came to be called the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, adopted first by the bishops of the Episcopal Church and then by those of the rest of the Anglican Communion. The full documentation around the Quadrilateral, found on pp. 877-78 of the Book of Common Prayer, is worth reading, but the key "four points of unity" are as follows:

(a) The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as "containing all things necessary to salvation," and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith.

(b) The Apostles' Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and the Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.

(c) The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself - Baptism and the Supper of the Lord - ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of Institution, and of the elements ordained by Him.

(d) The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the Unity of His Church.

The version of the Quadrilateral adopted by the American bishops further states that it is not the aim of the Episcopal Church to absorb other denominations or to encourage schism. Instead, the Church is to work in love to bring all branches of Christianity into harmony around the four points of the Quadrilateral. These principles continue to bear fruit in a series of bilateral "dialogues" between Anglicans and Roman Catholics, the Orthodox, Lutherans and the Reformed Churches.
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St. Mary the Virgin in Anglican Piety
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Food for the Poor

The custom of collecting food and household items for food pantries, presenting these at the Altar, has become common in churches. One might think that this practice was of recent origin, part of our response to the problem of homelessness and poverty of which we have become increasingly aware in recent dec-ades. In fact, however, it revives a practice that was part of the very earliest celebrations of the Eucharist.

One of the things that pagans noted about the first Christians was their care for the poor. Christians would gather in homes on Sundays (the day of the Resurrection, and not a holiday in the ancient Roman Empire) to share prayers, Eucharist and a fellowship meal. This meal was like a potluck supper. People brought food which was then to be shared. One of St. Paul's letters takes to task rich people who refused to share and ate their meals apart.

As an outgrowth of the eucharistic meal, the practice developed of blessing loaves of bread, and sometimes other food, for distribution to the needy, particularly widows and orphans, who had no one to provide for them. The first deacons were ordained, the Book of Acts tells us, to assist in this food distribution.

The drama of the Eucharist involves the offering, in the bread and wine, symbolizing "all that we have and all that we are." We offer these gifts not only to the Lord in thanksgiving, but also to be shared with one another. The eucharistic meal is free and equal portions are given to all participants. Members of the Church are invited to partake whether they are wealthy and able to give much or poor and able to give little. Thus the offering of food and other necessi-ties for distribution to the needy through the medium of a food pantry / bank is, at its heart, a beautifully eucharistic thing to do.
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The Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada

The Primate is the head of the Anglican Church of Canada. He or she is elected Clergy and Laity at a General Synod and presides over the meetings of that body. He or she works in the National Church offices in Toronto.

The work of the Primate is on both national and international fronts. A great deal of this work often during one's tenure centers around trying to keep the Anglican Church and the Anglican Communion together. The Primate travels extensively at home and abroad. Domestic travel involves presiding at the ordination of other bishops, leading conferences and retreats, and meeting with religious and governmental leaders. Foreign travel takes the Primate to Anglican Churches around the world and to meetings with other Primates (heads of other branches of the Anglican Communion) and the leaders of other Churches such as the Pope.

Our present Primate is the Most Rev. Andrew Hutchison.   He was elected at our 2004 General Synod and decided that one term would be sufficient to serve.  A New primate will be elected at our next one in 2007

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St. Michael and All Angels

The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels (September 29th) celebrates those mysterious beings which Scripture calls "angels," a name which comes from the Greek word for "messengers." Messengers from God can be visible or invisible, and may take human or non-human forms. Christians have always felt themselves to be attended by healthful spirits - swift, powerful, and enlightening. These spirits are often depicted in Christian art in human form, with wings to show that time and space do not constrain them, with swords to signify their power, and with dazzling raiment to represent their ability to enlighten faithful humans.

Of the many angels mentioned in the Bible, only four are called by name: Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael. In the Book of Revelation, the Archangel Mi-hael [Michael in Hebrew means "who is like unto God"] is presented as the powerful agent of God who wards off evil from God's people and delivers peace to them at the end of this life's moral struggle.

Many good and faithful Christians find it difficult to accept the existence of angels; for them, angels have no more reality in fact than unicorns, griffins, or the phoenix. It may be true that the existence of angels is not one of the things in which Christians must believe if they want to be saved. Yet whenever Christians say the Nicene Creed, they confess that God has created "all that is, seen and unseen." Entertaining the possibility of angels may be one way of acknowledging the sheer diversity of life, visible and invisible, that God has ordained in creation.
--Taken from For All the Saints: Prayers and Readings for Saints' Days, copyright " 1994 General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada.
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Silence in Worship

Ours is a noisy world. Two hundred years ago, the loudest sounds were bird songs, the wind in pine boughs, the babble of water over rapids, the crow of a rooster. Today it is very hard to get out of range of the noise of internal combustion engines. It has be-come habitual to leave the television on, or a talk radio station, to fill the emptiness of silence. And yet we yearn for quiet. We know that it is especially in un-broken stillness that we can hear the voice of God.

So silence is important in worship. Silence provides the space where we can come together and get in touch not only with God, but with our deepest centers. (And the two go hand in hand, of course.) In our celebration of the Eucharist here at Holy Cross, we attempt to honor the need for silence: before the Collect of the Day at the beginning of the liturgy, after each of the lessons, after the sermon, in intervals during the intentions of the Prayers of the People, before the Confession, and before the closing prayer.

Sometimes these silences seem to work. Other times someone - the Vicar, a reader - gets nervous with "nothing happening" and we jump too quickly into the next piece of "un-silence."

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The Nicene Creed

Each Sunday, following the sermon, we stand and recite the Nicene Creed - the symbol of our faith. It is a way of saying that, having heard the readings from Holy Scripture and reflected upon them in the sermon, we "re-up" our commitment to the Faith. The Nicene Creed is one of several historic Christian creedal formularies, and is the one traditionally used in the Eucharist. It traces to the Council of Nicaea in 325, called by the Emperor Constantine to resolve disputes over several heresies. Over the centuries the creed adopted at this council was expanded considerably to the form we have today.

Two variations of the Nicene Creed are authorized for use in the Anglican Church, and we use both at St. George's. The first is the form contained in the Book of Common Prayer. It says that the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Father and the Son" - the italicized words being known as the filioque clause (Latin for "and the Son").

The other variation of the Creed, which we are currently using, omits the filoque clause. The filioque clause was added to the Nicene Creed at a regional synod in Spain in the sixth century. It was never authorized by a full Ecumenical Council and has never been adopted by the East-ern Church. At the 1978 Lambeth Conference, Anglican bishops recommended that the filioque clause be omitted from the Creed; the 1985 Book of Alternative Services affirmed this intention to remove the clause at the next revision of the Prayer Book.
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Baptism in the Anglican / Episcopal Church

Our generation has seen enormous changes in worship in the Anglican, Roman Catholic and Mainline Protestant Churches. An emphasis on active partici-pation by all the baptized, not just the clergy, re-forms in the Eucharist, greater use of Holy Scrip-ture - these are just a few of the changes. But perhaps the most important in the Episcopal Church, summing up the others, has been a new emphasis on the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.

A generation or two ago, Baptism was often celebrated privately, almost always shortly after an infant's birth. "Having the baby done" was just part of the "oohing and aahing" that accompanied the welcoming of a new arrival. The newly baptized might well not reappear in church before she or he was married - or at least confirmed.

Today the Church tells us that, except in emergencies, Baptism is to be celebrated publicly, at the principal Sunday Eucharist. Unless family circumstances otherwise dictate, baptisms are to take place on one of five feast days: the Easter Vigil, the Day of Pentecost, the Baptism of Christ, All Saints' Day, and the parish feast day (St. George's Day, in April, in our case).

The celebration of Holy Baptism thus becomes an occasion for the entire congregation to renew their own Baptismal Covenant. The liturgy stresses that baptism is a communal or corporate celebration. The newly baptized is welcomed "into the household of God." No one can be a Christian privately. The Baptismal Covenant includes a promise to "continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship" (a quotation from the Book of Acts), which is a commitment to regular church attendance.
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All Hallows' Eve

During this evening and sometimes evenings prior to it, our roads are taken over by groups of costumed trick or treaters. Jack o'lanterns will flicker in windows and on doorsteps. Mountains of candy will be collected and consumed. Our contemporary Halloween celebration is rooted in a religious holiday that stems from ancient Ireland.

Halloween the name comes from All Hallows' Eve, or the eve of All Saints' Day, November 1. (All Saints' may be celebrated on the following Sunday, which will be our practice at St. George's.) Celtic Christianity, which prevailed in Ireland during the time when All Saints' Day became established, had a lively sense of God's presence in daily life, as well as in nature and the seasons. The Celts also believed in close connections between the living and the dead.

All Saints' was an occasion for remembering the dead, and the intercommunion of the living and the dead in the Body of Christ. The early Celtic Christians believed that on this day the separation of living and dead was particularly "thin," so that the living could commune with those who had gone before.

While All Saints' Day proper found its place in the formal worship of the Church, spreading even to Rome by the ninth century, popular celebration of this interconnection between living and dead became centered on All Hallows' Eve. Families would visit graveyards (as they do today in Mexico's celebration of "the Day of the Dead"). Human uneasiness over whether the dead were good spirits or bad was expressed in ghost and goblin costumes, witch costumes, and threatened "tricks" which had to be bought off by the giving of "treats." Our modern-day jack 'o lanterns are thought to stem from the Irish custom of hollowing out turnips to serve as lanterns. American commercialism has overtaken most of the old customs of Halloween, to the extent that Halloween is now the second largest spending holiday in the year, after Christmas. Many Canadians do not even know of the religious origins of the day.
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Diocesan Synod (Episcopal version = Convention)

The Anglican Church contains elements that are both hierarchical, like the Roman Catholic Church, and democratic, like most Protestant Churches. We have bishops, priests and deacons, with canonical (legal) authority over a number of aspects of Church life, particularly worship and formation. Our congregations are run by Corporations, not by the members directly. On the other hand, clergy and Corporations are called, approved or elected by the members.

This mixed form of governance is nowhere more apparent than in the Biennial Synod held in the Diocese of Quebec. The Diocesan Synod takes place from Thursday  afternoon through to Sunday.

Our four delegates (two regular and two alternates) are elected by the St. George's membership at our own Annual Meeting, held each February. Together with the Incumbent, they represent St. George's at Synod, and also at Deanery Council meetings. (Deanery Council are regional sub-groupings of congregations that serve as communication liaison between congregations and the diocesan leadership. St. George's is part of the Deanery of St. Francis, comprised of five parishes in the Eastern Township region.)

The most important business conducted by Diocesan Synod is probably the adoption of the annual budget. The budget includes the Fair Share percent-age of their operating income that congregations are expected to pay to the Diocese (currently 13.0%).  At every Synod delegates elect delegates to the General Synod, which serves as the legislature for the Anglican Church at a national level. Diocesan Synod is also an occasion to experience the diocese as a "family." Delegates visit with one another at meals, discuss policies and debate issues. Booths display the work done by various diocesan groups and programs.
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Standing and Kneeling

Posture is important in worship. The old saying in the Anglican Church was that we sit to learn, stand to sing and kneel to pray. Before the reforms found in the 1985 Book of Alernative Services, Anglicans knelt for the Collect of the Day, the Prayers of the People, the General Confession, the Great Thanksgiving or prayer of consecration, and the final blessing. They also knelt to receive Communion and for private prayer before and after the Eucharist.

In the 1985 Book of Alternative Services, however, standing was adopted as the "preferred" or "optional" posture for public prayer. Like much else in the liturgical changes that occurred at that time (and in parallel reforms in the Roman Catholic Church following the Second Vatican Council), the change from kneeling to standing was the result of research into the practices and theology of the early centuries of the Church.

The Jewish prayer posture was standing, with arms upraised (as the priest still does while presiding). This posture was carried over into Christian worship and prevailed until the Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages, partly in reaction to the Black Death (which was seen as a punishment from God for human sin), kneeling came into general use. The liturgy increasingly em-phasized sinfulness, and kneeling was an appropriate expression of this emphasis. Kneeling also tended to privatize worship, another emphasis that began with the Middle Ages as people lost the ability to under-stand the Latin in which the Mass was conducted.

The posture of standing was brought back as the preferred option in order to restore the understanding that in Baptism our sins have been forgiven and "we have been made worthy to stand before you [God]." (Eucharistic Prayer 2.) Since we don't tend to decree matters of personal piety in the Anglican Church, however, kneeling remains an option.

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Christ the King

This last Sunday of the Church Year has come to be known as Christ the King. The celebration is of relatively recent origin. In the 1920s the Pope instituted a holiday of that name in an attempt to catch up with the Social Gospel movement in Protestant churches. The Social Gospel movement emphasized the importance of Christians engaging in justice and social ministries in the world, especially on behalf of the poor and oppressed. It arose in the first decades of the last century as industrialization, immigration and the rise of socialism and communism put the spotlight on social problems.

Originally celebrated earlier in the year, Christ the King was moved to this last Sunday as part of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Anglicans and Lutherans followed this calendar shift. The celebration has become a way to emphasize the fact that Christ is present in the world today, and that despite the shadows of war, injustice and oppression, the kingdom of God will ultimately prevail, on earth as in heaven.

In the last couple of decades, some Christians have objected to the use of regal and hierarchical images in the Church. The Anglican Church of Canada, for ex-ample, has retitled this day, The Reign of Christ. Still, the Bible has made us familiar with the image of king and its association with God. Modern day kings and queens are mostly the least oppressive and hierarchical figures on the political landscape. There is power, however, in using fresh images to deliver the biblical message that Christ is the true ruler of the earth, the One who is to be ultimately obeyed. Liberation theologians sometimes speak of the kingdom of God as "the great economy." The title underlines the fact that we are talking about faith in economics and politics - not just in some abstract spirituality.
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Advent

Liturgical churches (the Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Lutherans) organize their calendar around a Church Year. The first half of that year, beginning today with Advent and running through the Day of Pentecost in six months, centers on the life of Jesus. The second half (with green vestments) is the "discipleship" half, concerned with the ministry of Jesus and with equipping us to carry on this ministry and mission in our own day.

This first half developed around the two great feasts of Easter and Christmas. Each of these feasts has a preparatory period: Lent in the case of Easter and Advent in the case of Christmas. The themes of Advent are devoted to watching, waiting, praying and hoping. Advent means "coming" in Latin. During this season we await and prepare for both Christ's first coming at Christmas and his second coming at the End of Time.

These Advent themes run counter with our secular Christmas preparations. Advent stresses quiet, opening of the heart to Jesus, and resting in hopeful expectation. During Advent we hang a spectacular Advent wreath in the Gathering Space. (You can do this at home, perhaps on the dining table.) A custom handed down from medieval times, the wreath has four candles (blue, or three purple and one pink). One candle is lighted the first Sunday in Advent, two the second, and so forth. If you have purple/pink candles, the pink one is for the third Sunday. Advent calendars, available in Christian bookstores, help children get the sense of waiting and expectation, with one "door" to open for each day. The Advent color is blue or violet.
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Trinity Sunday

Trinity Sunday is the one feast in the Christian Year that celebrates a theological doctrine: the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, which holds that God is one "substance" or being, but exists in three "Persons," Father, Son and Spirit. The doctrine of the Trinity was forged during the first four centuries of Christianity, and its implications continue to be the subject of theological exploration today.

Theological doctrines are formulated to try to make sense of what people in the pews are actually experiencing or doing. They are not "the thing itself," but attempts to explain "the thing." This is the case with the Trinity. The monotheistic concept of one God who is Father or Supreme Creator was something that Christianity inherited from Judaism (and is also shared with Islam). From the earliest times, Christians also experienced Jesus as divine and found themselves praying to him and feeling his presence in their lives. This led to conflicts with Judaism, because of its strict insistence on the oneness of God. To deal with its experience of Jesus as divine, the Church developed the doctrine of the Incarnation, that Jesus was God in human form or the Son of God. (The language is metaphoric, as theology often is.)

The Bible, however, contained not only references to God as Father and Son, but also to the Holy Spirit. Even in its opening verses, in the Genesis creation story, there is a reference to the Spirit of God moving across the waters of the new creation. The Holy Spirit is God's continuing and active presence in us and in the world around us. Thus the third Person of the Trinity.

Few of us are interested in the intricacies of ancient philosophical thought that gave birth to the creedal language we use to describe the Trinity. Certainly no language can entirely comprehend what is a revealed Mystery, that God presents himself to us in three forms, as transcendent Creator, as Jesus the Christ our Savior, and as living and active Spirit, the Sanctifier. It is this, "God happening all around us," that we celebrate today.
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After Pentecost

We are now entered upon the season after Pentecost, known in the Roman Catholic Church as "ordinary time." The first half of the Church Year, from Advent through the Day of Pentecost, is oriented around the life of Christ, in particular the great holidays of Christmas and Easter. This second half is devoted to forming us as disciples or followers of Jesus. In the gospels, we journey with him as he teaches, heals and talks with his followers.

At St. George's,  we use the Revised Common Lectionary, a table of readings for the Sundays of the year developed by scholars and liturgists from many denominations. 



Anglican saints

One person commented that it was interesting to see the names of the week's saints in the calendar on the back of this insert. These names come from the calendar of saints of the Anglican Church. A version of this calendar can be found beginning on page 22 of the Book of Alternative Services.  The current calendar of saints can be found in a book called For All the Saints, put out by ABC (the official Anglican Church of Canada publishing house). FATS contains brief biographies, readings and prayers for each saint.

How does someone get to be a saint in the Anglican Church? We don't have an elaborate process like the Roman Catholic Church, requiring proof of miracles and the like. Additions to the calendar of saints are made by vote at General Synod, the triennial meeting of delegates from all the dioceses in the Church.

The Canadian Prayer Book has this to say about its calendar of saints: "The Church celebrates the victory of Christ in the lives of particular individuals in the commemoration of saints. . . . Some saints' days are of great antiquity and universal observance . . . . The Calendar also includes the names of a variety of Christians who are remembered for a number of reasons: some inspired the reverent wonder of another time and place; some are associated with the heroic struggle involved in the development of the Church in this country."
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Anglican Hymnody

In the hymnals, if you look at the fine print at the end of each hymn, you will find the names of the composer of the music and the author of the words, together with their dates of birth and death. (Sometimes this information is unknown, in which case a notation such as "traditional" or a source such as an old song book is given.) Looking through the list of composers and authors is like a tour through the great names of music and poetry of recent centuries.

Not all are of these names are English, of course., but the majority are. The hymn "He who would valiant be" takes its words from John Bunyan, author of A Pilgrim's Progress.. The hymn "Amazing Grace" comes from a famous early nineteenth century hymnal, Virginia Harmony. Hymn tunes have names, often a place - town or church - dear to the composer. The hymn, "Will you come and follow me?" has words "from the Iona community." Iona is an ancient center of Celtic spirituality off the coast of Scotland. Today it is an active center of pilgrimage again, with a community of monastics who have given us these words.

Often preludes and postludes maybe by Samuel Sebastian Wesley, nephew of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, and son of Charles Wesley, the most prolific English hymn writer. Both the elder Wesleys were Anglican priests. S.S.W. was one of those most responsible for introducing the music of J.S. Bach to England.
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August 15th  is the feast of St. Mary the Virgin, as it is called in the Episcopal Church. Roman Catholics celebrate this feast as the Assumption, reflecting Ro-man doctrine that Mary was assumed bodily into heaven upon her death. The Orthodox call this day the Dormition, or falling asleep, expressing their theological perspective that Mary did not suffer the ordinarypains of death.

As these various titles attest, there are a number of different strands of theology and piety with respect to the Virgin. Marian piety was particularly strong in England before the Reformation, but the Reformers reacted sharply to what they regarded as excesses and stressed a piety which focused on Jesus rather than his mother. In the early nineteenth century, a group of young priests at Oxford led what became known as the Oxford Movement, a revival of Catholic tradition which profoundly reshaped the Anglican Church. This included a revival of Marian piety. To-day you will find among Episcopalians a broad range of views and devotional practices with respect to St. Mary.

Lesser Feasts and Fasts has this summary:
Mary was the person closest to Jesus in his most impressionable years, and the words of the Mag-nificat, as well as her humble acceptance of the divine will, bear more than an accidental re-semblance to the Lord's Prayer and the Beati-tudes of the Sermon on the Mount.

Later devotion has claimed many things for Mary which cannot be proved from Holy Scripture. What we can believe is that one who stood in so intimate a relationship with the incarnate Son of God on earth must, of all the human race, have the place of highest honor in the eternal life of God. A paraphrase of an ancient Greek hymn expresses this belief in very family words: "O higher than the cherubim, more glorious than the seraphim, lead their praises, alleluia."

An Italian terra cotta bas relief of the Virgin and Child hangs on the wall behind the organ console here at Holy Cross.
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A major advantage of the Revised Common Lectionary is that during ordinary time it gives two options. One, it matches the Old Testament reading to the gospel reading for the day. This is called "typology," meaning that the events in the Hebrew Scriptures are treated as "types," foreshadowing or predicting Christ. When this lectionary option is used, the Old Testament can end up playing second fiddle, so that we fail to appreciate it on its own terms.

For this reason the Revised Common Lectionary offers a second option, which we will be using this year. This option presents the Old Testament readings in their own sequence: during Year A (this year), Genesis and Exodus; during Year B, the kings and the prophets; during Year C, wisdom literature.

The Genesis and Exodus passages are some of the most important in the entire Bible. We often know them as stories (like the story of Noah we have today), but have not reflected on what they really mean. As we listen to them, we might remember that the Hebrew Bible was the only Scripture that Jesus himself knew. These are the texts that formed him; they also have important things to say to us.
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