Advent - the Disappearing Season?

I sometimes think that Advent is in danger of disappearing as a season. The radio starts playing Christmas Music on Black Friday, and the chances are that the grocery store started before that. Generic Evangelicals tend to ignore Advent altogether, and seem, if the local big box churches are anything to go on, to observe Christmas on the Third Sunday of Advent, so as to not interfere with "family time." For better or worse, I was got at by an older generation where Advent

Dec 5, 20252 min read

Transfiguration - the Wandering Feast

The Transfiguration - Byzantine icon. In the Anglican world, we are used to celebrating this feast on the 6th August, the Wednesday of...

Aug 9, 20252 min read

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TRAIN OF THOUGHT

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 33 min read

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

16 hours ago2 min read

Christmas Services

It is probably about time that I posted something about the Christmas services at Good Shepherd, and I am going to throw in the fourth Sunday of Advent for good measure. In terms of the Church Year Christmas begins on Christmas Eve, and continues through to Epiphany Eve, commonly called Twelfth Night. The feast of the Epiphany is both the end of Christmas, and the beginning of the brief season of Epiphany-tide, which focuses on the early life of Our Lord. Advent 4 - Sunday,

Dec 16, 20251 min read

Advent - the Disappearing Season?

I sometimes think that Advent is in danger of disappearing as a season. The radio starts playing Christmas Music on Black Friday, and the chances are that the grocery store started before that. Generic Evangelicals tend to ignore Advent altogether, and seem, if the local big box churches are anything to go on, to observe Christmas on the Third Sunday of Advent, so as to not interfere with "family time." For better or worse, I was got at by an older generation where Advent

Dec 5, 20252 min read

THE BASICS

GOOD SHEPHERD ANGLICAN CHURCH is a small and welcoming Bible-centered Anglican Church using the traditional Book of Common Prayer and serves Waynesboro, eastern Augusta County, and adjacent parts of Albemarle and Nelson counties affiliated to the Eastern Missionary District of the United Episcopal Church. After Scripture our theological standards are the three Creeds - Apostles', Nicene, Athanasian, the first Four Ecumenical Councils, and the Articles of Religion 1562, commonly called 'The 39 Articles.' We meet for worship at 11am and 5pm on Sundays, and also on Christmas, Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and Ascension Day. The minister is the Rt. Rev. Peter D. Robinson.