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

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 10, 20252 min read

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TRAIN OF THOUGHT

Holy Week & Easter Services

Palm Sunday (from a few years ago) Holy Week is upon us once more, and we are about to enter the eight most important days in the Church Calendar. Not every parish can keep the full round, and that is very much the case here, but we will be having services on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and of course, Easter itself. PALM SUNDAY 11:00am Blessing of Palms, Procession and Holy Communion (1662) - this is the usual main liturgy for this day which starts with the co

4 days ago2 min read

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,

Mar 212 min read

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

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

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

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.