Before Abraham was, I am
The Gospel for Passion Sunday, the Fifth Sunday in Lent, contains one of the more unnerving passages in the Gospel - a tense exchange between Jesus and "the Jews" - which is St. John the Evangelist's short hand for the political and religious establishment in Jerusalem. Jesus assertion that, "Before Abraham was, I am" must have hit them with the force of a hammer because in using that phrase Jesus is asserting his divinity, asserting that He is, "God of God, Light of light,
50 minutes ago2 min read
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The Glory of these Forty Days...
Lent necessarily brings a change of pace in the Church's liturgy and life. The last three "Gesima" Sundays sort of got is into the mood, but with Wednesday's Litany and Penitential Office followed by today's Gospel which was Matthew's account of the temptation of Christ by the Devil at the end of His forty days in the wilderness the fact that Lent is upon us was brought home forcefully. In Latin, the Lenten season is called Quadragesima - the Forty Days. The English term,
Feb 223 min read
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Do you Speak "Church"?
Most organizations, if they survive long enough develop their own terminology. Given its origins in the time of the Roman Empire, it is not at all surprising that historic Christian traditions such as Anglicanism use a fair amount of recycled imperial terminology in their every day lives with terms like 'diocese' and 'province' being traceable to the administrative Reforms of Diocletian (284-305). The terms bishop and priest derive from the Latin versions of the Greek episk
Feb 72 min read
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Epiphany to Candlemas
Albrecht Durer: Sketch? for the visit of the Magi - c.1520. If the curb side evidence was anything to go by when I lived in Arizona, Christmas was over with around mid-morning on the 26th December. This morning, when I went in the grocery store, the Valentine's Day candy was already beginning to populate the 'Seasonal' section, so the secular world has put Christmas behind it. It seems it is just us and the carillon at the church across the road that are still in the Christ
Jan 43 min read
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