

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,
59 minutes ago1 min read
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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 52 min read
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The Two Martins
Nineteenth century propaganda about the nature of Anglicanism has tended to hide the deep connections between the English Reformation, and that of the German Lands. Anyone with a knowledge of the Reformation era documents on both sides of the North Sea can soon identify a deep and abiding influence which was not always one way. German ideas about theology may have spread to England in the 1520s, 30s, and 40s, but in later times, the example of the Church of England was seen
Nov 105 min read
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The Anglican Understanding of Baptism
Anglicans understand Baptism in covenantal terms, and this is an understanding of baptism which is both hinted at in Scripture when it...
Oct 104 min read
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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 92 min read
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The Beauty of the Prayer Book
There is a certain amount of cultural recoil from the concept of fixed forms of church service which I believe ignores the benefits of a...
Jul 102 min read
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Whitsunday
This coming Sunday - June 8th - is Pentecost, or as Anglicans tend to refer to it, Whitsunday. Our services will be Morning Prayer at...
Jun 63 min read
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