Volume 7, Issue 25
Lent 2014A.D.
MY LORD AND MY GOD
Editorial:
This is the 25th edition of the Koinonia - shall we say 25 quarters of publishing the good tidings. We are grateful to Almighty God’s for the blessings received, people we love and those departed. May we continue to strive to work for the ever greater glory of God while being in the world belonging to the Lord. My sincere thanks to Mrs. Caryl McAdoo for her articles and Canon Patrick Comerford our guest writers. Sincere thanks for the photographs of Jody Martin, the sister of Br, Rodd Umlauf of Wisconsin. Thanks to Holly Michael for being the faithful Editor and bringing in great connections. By the time this reaches your hand, it will be the Day of Resurrection. May we who have participated in the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ our Lord, enjoy the peace of the Risen Christ in our hearts and in our homes. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you.” May our church family help us to experience the power and presence of the Risen Savior and may we be aglow with joy and celebrate the Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, who continues to sanctify us. Blessings of this Holy Season. + Leo and Holly Michael. Edi-
Congratulations Corpus Christi, Rogers Fr. Don Holley and Dn.Jason Rice have taken charge of the Corpus Christi HCCAR in Rogers AR. May the Good Lord continue to bless you and the church. A special shout out to Bill & Jane Graves, faithful members of the church family.
Holy Trinity Anglican Seminary welcomes you! Holy Trinity Anglican Seminary (HTAS) is owned and administrated by the Holy Catholic Church Anglican Rite of the diocese of Holy Trinity and Great Plains. It’s location in Kansas City, midAmerica makes travel easy to meet the campus schedule. It forms part of a long tradition of the Holy Catholic Church of Anglican Rite and continues this important work of evangelization of the Kingdom of Christ in the United States of America and beyond its mission territories. With the advancement of communications, Holy Trinity Anglican Seminary will offer online and on campus training for its students. Holy Trinity Anglican Seminary firmly believes that Good Formation will ensure FRUITFUL Ministry. Keeping in mind the Great Commission of the Lord, HTAS will train its candidates in strong Scriptural foundation, Sacramental worship in the Apostolic Tradition as enunciated in the conservative Anglican Tradition. With qualified faculty and commitment to the cause of priestly formation, Holy Trinity Anglican Seminary is set to impart the traditional Anglican orthodoxy even in the emerging social and pastoral challenges. The seminary will also offer courses for lay students as well. The Seminary primarily serves the Holy Catholic Church Anglican Rite while students belonging to other denominations are welcome to participate in our program of study and reflection. The Holy Trinity Anglican Seminary will soon be accredited with a view to conferring the Bachelor’s Degree in Theology. Holy Catholic Church pays special attention to the formation of her ministers. Church directives require that candidate to the priesthood undergo a minimum of three years devoted to an intense and specifically priestly formation. These directives are implemented at this seminary, with particular emphasis on the Anglican traditions of the Holy Catholic Church.
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CHURCH OF THE HOLY FAMILY WELCOMES YOU Bishop Kinner, Clergy & Faithful of Church of the Holy Family HCCAR Casper WY,welcome you to the Diocesan and Provincial Synod. A new addition (above photo:Mark Kinner) has been built where they will host the synods. Congratulations to Bishop Kinner & Church of the Holy Family. Synod Dates: June 11,12 and 13th 2014. The clergy are expected to arrive on June 10th for Clergy Retreat. For Hotel reservations contact the Best Western Ramkota Hotel and Conference Center, 800 N. Poplar St. Casper, WY 82601 Phone: (307)2666000 www.casper.bwramkota.com Send in your synod registrations to Bishop Kinner. God willing, we will meet soon in June. Join the Morning and Evening Prayer call during this Lent. Wake up with God. You can join the prayer conference in the rhythm of daily morning and evening prayer. We have dedicated clergy and postulants faithfully hosting the prayer call daily at 7:00 am and 7:00 pm central time. Ask your clergy for the phone number.
In the Koinonia masthead, the circle with the cross in the center symbolizes the paten and the diverse elements which form a whole. The Mosaic represents the great cloud of witnesses and the church tradition. The red in the letters represents the blood of Christ with the font comprised of individual pieces of letters that are not joined until the blood unifies them. Koinonia is the official publication of the Anglican Province of the Holy Catholic Church-Anglican Rite (HCCAR) aka Anglican Rite Catholic Church. It is published quarterly at St. James Anglican Church, 8107 S. Holmes Road, Kansas City, MO 64131. Phone: 816.361.7242 Fax: 816.361.2144. Editors: The Rt. Rev. Leo Michael & Holly Michael, Koinonia header: Phil Gilbreath; email: koinonia@holycatholicanglican.org or visit us on the web at: www.holycatholicanglican.org Cover picture: Painting of the Risen Christ, Houston Museum of Fine Art, photo by Leo Michael.
The Anglican Mass: A Reflection Rt.Rev. Edmund Jayaraj, Missionary Bishop of Indian Diaspora, HCCAR
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ass a propitiatory sacrifice: That the Mass is propitiatory and sacrificial is central to the Christian Church of the New Testament of Jesus Christ. It was the central act of worship in the Primitive Church. “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine, fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” (Acts 2: 42). These were Jews who were familiar with the Synagogue worship and Temple sacrifices. They knew that through sacrifices of sin, burnt and peace offerings God is propitiated. They were also familiar with the sacrifices of Abel, Abraham and Melchizedec which were memorialized in earlier liturgies of the Christian Church.
have often seen in print or announced in the Tamil language the Mass as the Service of the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving. (Sthothira Bali Aaradhanai).
Christ’s real presence: The primitive Christians believed that in their Eucharistic gatherings and assemblies, Christ was really present alongside and in the midst of them. They recalled and remembered His words, “I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you.” (John 14.18). “…and lo, I am with you always, even the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:20).
Old vs New Covenant: Unlike the Old Covenant, instead of bulls and rams I slay myself; my passions. “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) Our self dies and we become alive unto God. With the Apostle Paul we can say, “I am crucified with: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ… I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”(Galatians 2:20). Now the in-dwelling Christ has taken total control of our thinking, feeling and acting.
Emmaus incident: We also read in the Bible that our Lord revealed Himself really and objectively to the two disciples on their way to Emmaus in the breaking of the bread. (Luke 24: 13-35). Jesus is the propitiation for our sins: The Apostle John the Divine says, “and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for us only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 1: 1-2). These words are part of the Comfortable Words preceding the Sursum Corda or the Great Thanksgiving, Lift up your hearts. The people respond, we lift them up unto our Lord God, meaning we join or unite ourselves with the glorified Manhood of Christ in the heavenly places. Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving: The Mass is also known as the Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving. Pardoned and restored, Man offers his praise and thanksgiving to his Creator. A cradle Anglican growing up in the Faith in India, I
Conditions for this sacrifice: To offer this Sacrifice, the Church requires a full self-examination using the Ten Commandments and the supplementary questions derived from them as a guide so that true repentance, amendment, forgiveness may be obtained. Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit will then be one’s possession and the penitent can say, “…therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.” ( Psalm 27: 6).
Mass is a Doing: Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” This remembrance or memorial is not just recalling a past event mentally. To remember is to “do” something for the person asking you to remember him. In Eastern languages, for example, if your grandson writes you to remember him for his coming birthday he expects a gift. This remembrance is a doing. Doing what our Savior did and lived. Sacrifice and not sacrifices: In this sacrifice we also recall and plead the sacrifice of Christ for our sins and that of the whole world. It is not a re-sacrifice Christ. Because Christ, a sinless Man offered Himself for sinful men as a representative of mankind, this was acceptable and pleasing to God. Following His lead and in response to His love, we now offer our sacrifice – a pure sacrifice, a reasonable sacrifice, a sufficient sacrifice – in praise and thanksgiving which is acceptable to God. Our inten-
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The Holy Catholic Church Anglican Rite
tion to lead a new life in holiness and righteousness all the day of our life is pleasing to God. We are pardoned and restored. We are brought from disobedience to obedience, from death to life, from darkness to light. We are now united to Christ’s glorified Manhood and to each other similarly pardoned to become the Body of Christ. The bread and wine retain their outward appearance after Consecration. But they become the body and blood of Savior, for the nourishment of our souls. Christ comes truly and objectively in the appearance of bread and wine. His power and energies are communicated to us. Jesus said, “This is my body.” He also said, “This is my blood.” It is well to remember what Queen Elizabeth 1 told the Dissenters in the Church of England:
This is a mystery. Mass exemplifies salvation: The Mass also exemplifies the threefold Anglican path to salvation, namely, Purification, Illumination and Union. Self-examination, Confession, Amendment, Being in love and charity with neighbors, Obedience to God and Absolution imply Cleansing and Purification. We hear the Word of God. They are of life, truth and light. They are heard and when heard we become alive to do God’s Will. This is Illumination.
We receive the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. We make our communion (not receive communion) with God in Christ Jesus. This is Union or uniting ourselves with the glorified Manhood of Christ without losing our individuality. Call this, glorification, sanctification, divinization or becoming gods by 1928Adoption Book and of Grace. Common Prayer and
The Ordinary & Canon of the Mass
“Christ was the Word that spake it;
He took the bread and brake it;
And what the Word did make it;
According to the Rites of the ReferencesDom Gregory Dix: The Shape of the Liturgy, 1945 The American and Anglican Missal Francis J Hall: Dogmatic Theology, Vols. vi, ix, 1915 That I believe and take it.”
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GOD’s FEASTS & EASTER by Carol McAdoo, Texas I’m all musically oriented, and when I think Easter, I hear in a chorus of low bass voices singing, “Up from the grave He arose!” The holiday Christians around the world celebrate as ‘Easter’ is upon us. As a little girl, I remember thinking, ‘What do rabbits, chicks, and colored eggs have to do with celebrating Jesus dying then rising up from the grave? But I never really asked anyone that I know of. Many years ago (close to forty!), I heard my first anointed teaching by the Holy Spirit on the Feasts; how they applied to my life, and how they paralleled the life of Christ. The study thrilled me and caused me to dig for more Truth. As Christ followers, we all know about Passover – that’s when back in the day, all the Jews went to Jerusalem, and Jesus came into town riding a baby donkey and the Jewish people hailed Him and fanned him and lay palm fronds in front of Him. Right? But Passover, or Pesach, is so much more. In the twenty-third
Photo: Jody Partin chapter of Leviticus, you can read all about (vs.2) … the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. I’ll be referring to that book and chapter throughout this post with verses given unless otherwise stated. Father God is speaking to Moses and setting His feasts in place for the children of Israel. I love how there are so many layers to everything He does! You can dig deeper and deeper into a study of these Holy Feasts and keep seeing His wonderful plan as it is shared again and again through the Bible – His Living Word – our Yahushua HaMashiach – Jesus the Messiah. Because we believe in Him, we have been “grafted in” (see Romans 11:16-23) to the good olive tree, the chosen children of God – Israel. And so, these feasts are for us as well as the Jews if we only have eyes to see and ears to hear. Not so much as a matter of “law” but of “love.” John 14:5 If you love me, keep my commandments and Romans 13:8 …for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. The Lord said to His children (vs. 4) : “These are the feasts of the
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LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.” The SPRING FEASTS fall close together, all in the first month of Nissan. They are: PESACH or PASSOVER (vs. 5) on the 14th day, of course represents the Death Angel ‘passing over’ the Jewish homes in Egypt that had the lamb’s blood on their doorposts which ‘coincidentally’ also occurred on the 14th day of Nissan. Then on that same very day in 32 A.D., the Lamb of God fulfilled this feast by shedding His Blood at Calvary so whosoever believed in Him would never perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16) Beginning at twilight, as the 14th ends – remember, God’s days start at even, not in the morning – the Passover lambs are slain. Then sunset begins the first day of the Feast of UNLEAVENED BREAD (vs. 6) on the 15th. It’s a Jewish ‘high day’ or a non-Saturday Sabbath – no work is to be done on that first day. The people eat unleavened bread for seven days (vs. 7 & 8), and all leaven (representing sin) is removed from their homes. Traditionally, Jewish fathers hide the ‘unleavened bread’ (the Bread without sin) under the table. Christ fulfilled this feast when, at sunset on the 15th day of Nissan, 32 A.D., the Bread of Heaven was buried. FIRST FRUITS (vs. 10-14) falls three days later on the 17th day when the first fruits of the barley harvest is gathered and waved in celebration before the Lord. On that very same day, the 17th of Nissan in 32 A.D, isn’t it amazing that our Living Lord was resurrected from the grave? As the first fruit of the dead, Yahshuah or Jesus fulfilled the last of His Father’s Spring Feasts. So why is the Holy celebration of Christ’s resurrection called Easter and what about the rabbits, chicks, and colored eggs? I know you don’t want to hear this, but just read through it real quick and then pray, do your own studies. Ask God to reveal His own Blessed Holy Truth to you personally! In the days of long ago, the pagans–those who did not worship the one true God of Moses and Abraham—had their own Spring celebrations. At the time of God’s Passover, they worshipped a pagan goddess of fertility named Ishtar. She’s known by many like names whether you’re looking at the Hittites, Ammorites, Jebusites, Moabites, or others, but they all ‘sound’ like ‘Easter.’ And what do they use to celebrate her? You’ve guessed it, rabbits, chicks, and eggs. Elijah took drastic measures to prevent Baal worship from completely eradicating the worship of the true God (I Kings 18:20-40). Some of Judah’s kings spent years tearing down shrines and high places to foreign, pagan gods. (II Chronicles 34:1-7). Christ warned the Pharisees: “For laying aside the commandments of God, you hold the traditions of men” (Mark 7:8). The secular celebration of Easter is a tradition of men laden with lies. What happens if a person, trying to establish a religion, mixes falsehood with God’s truth? Recall God’s wrath when Aaron made a golden calf at the Israelite’s urging and proclaimed a feast to the Lord (Exodus 32:1-5). The observance of Easter in the name of Christ is no different. Blending the lies of this world with the truth of God produces a foul mixture called ‘syncretism’ which means a fusion of differing systems of belief. “Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my
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brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.” (James 3:10-13). “You shall keep My statutes. You shall not let your domestic animals breed with a different kind [of animal]; you shall not sow your field with mixed seed, neither wear a garment of linen mixed with wool” (Lev 19:19) We shouldn’t mix God’s Holy with unholy – He didn’t like Aaron’s golden calf, and He doesn’t like His children ‘mixing’ a Holy event with pagan practices. Christians aren’t even willing to learn the Truth through personal research and prayer because they love their traditions (of MEN, not God) too much. It breaks my heart… and our Holy Fathers.. Though this post is about the Spring Feast, there are seven in all. Fifty days later (vs. 15-16) counted from First Fruits when the wave offering is made is SHAVUOT, or PENTECOST the Day God’s Holy Spirit came down on those waiting in the upper room and represents when Almighty Father God came down to Mount Sinai and gave Moses His laws. So these first Four Feasts have been fulfilled. Let’s look at the exciting Fall Feasts! The first is the FEAST OF TRUMPETS also know as ROSH HASHANAH, which means ‘head of the year’, and it occurs on the 1st day of the seventh month, Tishrei (vs. 24). God calls for a memorial blowing of the Trumpets! They’re commonly blown during battle or times of crisis, or to announce the imminent coming of a king! I believe I’ll see the King of Kings coming soon and fully expect it at this Feast! But no one knows the day or the hour! Right! And no one knows the day or hour Rosh Hashannah starts either! It’s based on the barley harvest and evening star and two witnesses. How exciting is that. Scripture does not say we won’t know the month or season! Hallelujah!! The FEAST OF ATONEMENT (vs. 27) on the 10th day of Tishrei, the most solemn day of the year as it’s the day when accounts with God are settled. And then the final of God’s seven feasts, on the 15th day of the seventh month of Tishrei, the FEAST OF TABERNACLES (vs. 34) or FEAST OF BOOTHS, when His Hebrew children celebrate ‘God with us’. The Jews build booths outside their homes to remember the days when God brought His people out of Egypt and they lived in Booths (tents) in the wilderness and God went with them (vs. 41-43), a cloud by day and a fire at night—to be fulfilled When our Lord will live with us for a thousand year reign! For interesting sites to study more on the Feasts, I encourage you to visit:http://www.elshaddaiministries.us/ or http://passionfortruth.com/ God Blessing to you from Texas! Caryl has always loved to write and is excited with her first historical Christian romance VOW UNBROKEN from Howard Books, a division of Simon and Schuster, set in 1832 Texas. For every good blessing - including 10 children (4 by birth, 6 by marriage) and 14 grandchildren - she gives God the glory. Caryl lives a country-life with Ron, her husband of forty-six years and four grandsons, outside Clarksville, Red River County Seat, located in far Northeast Texas
Disbelief, Misbelief & Belief
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By Bishop Leo Michael HCCAR
erriam Webster Dictionary defines disbelief as mental rejection of something as untrue. It defines misbelief as heresy, and belief as a feeling of being sure that someone or something exists or that something is true. Recently, I received a mailer from National Geographic Magazine, regarding a book “In the Footsteps of Jesus” wanting to tell about Jesus and His background. The description went thus: “…gives you the opportunity to walk where Jesus walked, see the places he saw, and understand the man and his times. He was a man for all time. But he was also a man of his time. How his time on earth was shaped by the people, places, politics, and events that surrounded him. Know the man and his times like never before. Divinely guided founder of Christianity. What did he see, where did he go, who did he meet in the streets and markets, villages, and countryside of ancient Palestine and how did these experiences shape his life and teaching? What’s the point? Jesus is portrayed as just a human being. Not as the Son of God? This misbelief isn’t new. The secular world’s attempt is to diminish the truth. The popular teaching is that Jesus is one of the greatest human beings. Never mind that he is the son of God and his name is the ONE WHO WILL SAVE PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS. Accounts are given that his ossuaries have been found – the box containing his bones – to debunk the resurrection, or that he was married and that the Holy Grail is his blood line. When the son of man comes will there be enough faith on this earth? Jesus asked. No wonder we are witnessing this misbelief. The secular world is against Jesus because the values of the kingdom are counter to that of the society that wants to erect misbelief. Political Correctness has not spared the religious world either. And we know the truth, either we are with or against Christ – if we do not gather for him, we scatter. The world will hate you, but know this, that I have conquered the world. While the world may cause us to misbelieve, the rationale question remains: “Who is this Jesus, the Risen Christ? Is he beyond belief (too good to be true), bogus? Our mind or rationale can make us misbelieve.
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But the truth is that on the Cross our Lord gave himself for us; through the Resurrection he gives himself to us, says Bishop Pusey, one of the Oxford Movement Fathers. The Collect for Easter I contains a prayer for newness of life through the merits of Jesus Christ, recalling the words of 1 Corinthians 5:7 Almighty Father, who hast given thine only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification; Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve thee in pureness of living and truth; through the merits of the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord The Epistle for Low Sunday is from the First Epistle of St. John, chapter five, verse four-twelve. He emphasizes the newness of life in Christ through Faith in Christ as God’s son – This belief in Christ as God’s Christ is attested by the three witnesses: the spirit in our hearts, the signs of the water of baptism and the blood of atonement. And the relationship between Christ and the believer – God has given us eternal life and this real life is to be found only in his Son. Anyone who has genuine contacts with Christ has this life. If one does not have relationship then he does not possess this life at all. The Gospel tells of the new life in Christ within the Church, after the Risen Lord appears to the disciples and breathes on them the Holy Spirit, John 20 continues the sequence of the resurrection appearance. The one who had disbelief came to the realization, “My Lord and My God,” upon seeing the Risen Lord. This experience took him to India, where I was born, to preach “The Risen Christ” and suffered martyrdom. At St. Thomas Mount in South India, one can see the cave where he was lanced to death by the then king. The San Thome cathedral is built on his grave. In life we have doubts, whether God is around or alive. That is disbelief. But once we meet Christ and recognize him as “My Lord and My God” He is within us and around us. A special way of encountering Christ is in the Holy Mass, where Jesus left us an eternal memorial in the Sacrament of the Holy Communion. The memorials that humans erect can be corroded by passage of time, not the love of God that is found in the Holy Communion, the food for our soul. That is belief.
Jesus saw many of the disciples leave His side because they disbelieved. He turned to the twelve and said: 67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” At the end of the discourse on bread of life (John 6), Jesus declares: 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. 52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? 53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. 58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. Jesus saw many of the disciples leave His side because they disbelieved. He turned to the twelve and said 67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” Like Simon Peter and Thomas we need to shed our disbelief, shun the world’s misbelief, and believe.
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CHRIST OUR SABBATH REST by Br. Rodd Umlauf, TOF
Photo: Jody Partin
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I. Philippians 3:4 f any other man thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, ...." (Genesis 17:12; Leviticus 12:3; Luke 1:59; Luke 2:21; Acts 7: 8).
*4."Concerning the observance of the eighth day in the Jewish circumcision of the flesh, a sacrament was given beforehand in shadow and in usage. But when Christ came, it was fulfilled in truth. For the eighth day (that is the first day after the Sabbath) was to be that day on which the Lord would rise again, enliven us, and give us the circumcision of the Spirit. The eighth day ( that is the first day after the Sabbath), the Lord's Day, was foreshadowed." Cyprian -- 250 AD 5. "... those who were living in the former state of things have come to a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath but keeping the Lord's Day, the day on which our life has appeared through him and his death ...," Ignatius of Antioch -- 100 AD
" In all these cycles of seven, the eight is not only the upper limit of the seven but the starting point of a new phase. Solidly established on the foundation of the seven, it goes beyond it. The eighth day is thus a new beginning. The work of the creation that was begun on the first day was completed on the seventh. The eighth points to the beginning of a whole new process of creation on a higher B. What About the Ten Commandments ? 1. Exodus 20: 8-11 plane than what has gone before, moving us toward the realm of the “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall unbounded. The spiritual development of mankind will climax on the eighth day, which is what circumcision anticipates." Quote from Rab- labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to bi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) considered to be the father of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your modern Orthodox Judaism son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six A. Early Church Fathers -- The 8th Day 1. " I will make a beginning of the eighth day, that is, a beginning days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in of another world. For that reason also, we keep the eighth day with them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the joyfulness, the day on which Jesus rose again from the dead." Epistle sabbath day and hallowed it." a. Genesis 1-2, The Creation Week. of Barnabas -- 70 A.D. Genesis 2:1-2 "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, 2. " The eighth day possessed a certain mysterious significance, which the seventh day did not possess. It was promulgated by God and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day through these rites." Justin Martyr-- 160 AD 3. "Our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the first day after from all his work which he had done. 3 So God blessed the sevthe Sabbath. Although the first day after the Sabbath remains the first enth day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his of all the days, it is nevertheless also called the eighth." Justin Martyr work which he had done in creation". b. God could have created the universe in one moment in --160 AD
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time.
c. God created the earth through His Word, God the Son. 2. Why does God take six days to create the earth and rest on the seventh ? a. "seven" in hebrew = Sheba "cardinal number", from shaba " to seven oneself " , i.e. to swear ( as if repeating a declaration seven times): - adjure, charge ( by an oath) , take an oath, swear." (#7650/7651 Strong's Concordance). b. God sevens Himself to His creation. He swears an oath and makes a covenant. c. Kinship by Covenant...God makes Creation His household of which He is Father. d. We are not merely 6th day creatures but sons and daughters, created for the 7th day. e. God rests not because He needs it but for an example to us because we need Sabbath Rest 3. At the end of the Creation Week we have a wedding, a. Adam and Eve enter a covenant of marriage b. soon afterward the Covenant between God and man is broken and the creation falls into ruin and under the dominion of sin and the devil. 4. There is a need for a "New Creation". a. As childen of Adam and Eve and the Old Creation, we are born separated from God and there is no goodness in us. b. As sinners we are helpless and unable to rescue ourselves from the slavery of sin.
C. Old Testament links the work of creation ( Gn 2:1-3; Ex 20:8-11) and the Exodus ( Dt 5:12-15),
1. Deuteronomy 5: 12-15 12 “‘Observe the sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your manservant, or your maidservant, or your ox, or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you. 15 You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out thence with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day." a. Sabbath Rest linked to deliverance from the bondage of Egyptian slavery b. Egypt a symbol of sin from which we need deliverance 2. The theme of "God's Rest" (Gn 2:2) and the rest which he offered to the his people when they entered the Promised Land ( Ex 33:14; Dt 3:20; 12:9; Jos 21:44; Ps 95:11) a. Here the Sabbath observance is closely linked with the liberation which God accomplished for his people.
II. Phillipians 3:3
" For we are the the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus...."
A. The Need for a New Creation by the Spirit
1. John Chapter 1-2 , A New Creation Week a. Creation narrative of Genesis and the seven days of Creation
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b. John 1- 2 narrates seven days of the New Creation Week 1st day = vs. 1-28 2nd day = "the next day" vs. 29 -34 3rd day = "the next day" vs. 35-42 4th day = "the next day" vs. 43 -51 ...."on the third day" ( 4+ 3 = 7) 2:1-11 2. Wedding of Cana --3rd day and the 7th day a. six stone jars for rites of purification washings b. Numbers 19 c. "my hour has not yet come" d. Water into wine, the Best Wine e. Jesus the Bridgroom, the New Adam 3. Jesus' Baptism a. Jesus is the New Creation, comes up out of the water b. Holy Spirit in the form of a Dove descends upon Him c. Recalls the Dove hovering over the flood waters finding Rest upon the "new creation" after the flood destroyed the world. (1) The story of Noah ( Genesis 8:8-12) (2) Noah's age and the meaning of his name (Genesis 5:28-29; 8:13) (3) Justin Martyr ---"Righteous Noah, with his own wife, his three sons and their wives -- being eight in number--were a symbol of the eighth day." 4. In John's Gospel, Jesus is the fulfillment of all seven Jewish feasts a. Leviticus 23 ---summary of all of the Jewish feasts ( 1) Holy Convocations and 8th day, or first day after the Sabbath ( 2 ) Passoever and Pentecost b. Feast of First Fruits and Unleavened Bread "Christ rose on the third day, which fell on the first day of the weeks of harvest,on which the Law prescribed that the priest should offer up the sheaf " Clement of Alexandria 195 AD c. The Mishnah and Psalm 30 d. The ancient feasts of the Old Covenant are fulfilled in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and "the breaking of the Bread" (" Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, ..." 1 Corinthians 5:7-8) 5. Jesus is the New Temple ( John 2:13-22) a. Jesus Cleanses the Temple 19 "Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken." b. Christ's Resurrection is a picture of the raising up of the New Temple c. Christ's victory over sin and death, the fulfilment in him of the first creation and the dawn of "the new creation" ( 2 Cor 5:17).
B. Sunday; the Day of Christ's Resurrection
1. "very early on the first day after the Sabbath" (Mk 16:2). a. Sunday is the eighth day, the first day of the new week, which ushers in a whole new creation b. on the day after the Sabbath we enter into our rest. c. Sunday is when our rest was won by Christ by His resurrection from the grave d. Resurrection Sunday is the beginning of a new creation, the first fruits of which is the glorious Christ (1) "the first born of all creation" (Col 1:15) (2) "the first born from the dead" (Col 1:18). 2. It is Easter which returns week by week, every seven days a. For the Christian, Sunday is above all an Easter celebration, rejoicing in the Risen Christ. b. It is the festival of the "new creation". 3. Every time the Risen Christ appeared to His disciples, it was on a Sunday a "the first day after the Sabbath" (Mk 16:2,9; Lk 24:1; Jn 20:1). b. On the same day, Jesus appeared to the two disciples of Emmaus ( Lk 24:13-35) and to the Apostles gathered together (Lk 24:36; Jn 20:19). c. A week later the disciples were gathered together once again, Jesus appeared to them and made himself known to Thomas ( Jn 20:26) e. revealing himself in "the breaking of the bread" ( Lk 24:32,35) 4. From the Sabbath to Sunday a. Christians made the first day after the Sabbath a festive day, for that was the day on which the Lord rose from the dead b. Easter Sunday is the climax of the history of salvation and the anticipation of the eschatological fulfilment of the world. c. In Christ, the "spiritual" meaning of the Sabbath is fully realized d. For us, the true Sabbath is the person of our Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28)
C. Sunday; the Day of the Gift of the Spirit
1. The Day of Pentecost — the first day of the eighth week after the Jewish Passover ( Acts 2:1) a. Jesus appeared to the Apostles on the evening of Easter Sunday, Jesus breathed upon them and said: "Receive the Holy Spirit"(Jn 20:22-23). b The promise made by Jesus to the Apostles after the Resurrection was fulfilled by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit— also fell on a Sunday (Lk 24:49; Acts 1:4-5) c. It was again Sunday when, fifty days after the Resurrection, the Spirit descended in power, as "a mighty wind" and "fire" (Acts 2:2-3), (1) This was the day of the first proclamation and the first baptisms (2) Peter announced to the assembled crowd that Christ was risen and "those who received his word were baptized" (Acts 2:41).
Lord
2. The outpouring of the Spirit was the great gift of the Risen
a. Baptism of the Holy Spirit is the circumcision of the heart b. God writes His law upon of hearts by the Holy Spirit c. Colossians 2:11-12 "In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ. You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead." (Col 2:12;. Rom 6:4-6). d. True Circumcision is a matter of the heart and a work of the Holy Spirit (Romans 2:28-29). e. Titus 3:5-6 --" He saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, "
D. The Lord’s Day Day
1. Examples of the Apostles worshipping on Sunday, the Lord's
a. "On the first day of the week when we gathered to break bread, Paul spoke to them because he was going to leave on the next day (Acts 20:7). * Jesus revealed himself in "the breaking of the bread" on a Sunday ( Lk 24:32,35) b. "On the first day of the week each of you should set aside and save whatever one can afford, so that collections will not be going on when I come . (1 Cor. 16:2). c. Followers gathered on the Day of Pentecost for worshp ( Sunday) Acts 2:1 d. John was in the Spirit "On the Lord's Day" ( Sunday) when he received the Revelation from Jesus. 2. Early Christian testimony of worship on the "Lord's Day" a. "But on every Lord's Day, gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, so that your sacrifice may be pure." Didache 80 -100 AD b. " And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read....But Sunday is the day on which we hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God made the world. And Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead on that day." Justin Martyr 3. "This is the day which the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." a. As followers of Christ, Christians are new creations who worship on the Lord's Day, the first day of the New Creation week b. "By a tradition handed down from the apostles which took its origin from the very day of Christ’s Resurrection, the Church celebrates the Paschal mystery every seventh day, which day is appropriately called the Lord’s Day or Sunday. The day of Christ’s Resurrection is both the first day of the week, the memorial of the first day of creation, and the "eighth day," on which Christ after his "rest" on the great Sabbath inaugurates the "day that the Lord has made," the "day that knows no evening." (CCC 1166)
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‘Mid-Lent is passed and Easter’s near, The greatest day of all the year’ .....
JOHN BETJEMAN an Anglo-Catholic Poet by Patrick Comerford
S
ir John Betjeman (1906-1984), who was the British Poet Laureate from 1972, once described himself in Who’s Who as a “poet and hack.” He had a passionate interest in Victorian architecture and in railways, and contributed to guide books as well as being a popular figure on television.
Betjeman was a troublesome poet who persisted in believing, and in his poetry he explored his thoughts about his Anglican faith, about Englishness and about Christianity in general. He remains one of the most significant literary figures of our time to declare his Christian faith, and one of the great makers of the Christian imagination in the last century. In a letter written on Christmas Day 1947, he said: “Also my view of the world is that man is born to fulfil the purposes of his Creator i.e. to Praise his Creator, to stand in awe of Him and to dread Him. In this way I differ from most modern poets, who are agnostics and have an idea that Man is the centre of the Universe or is a helpless bubble blown about by uncontrolled forces.” During his life, he crossed paths at different times with two other great Anglican
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literary giants: the poet TS Eliot, who was once his teacher, and the apologist CS Lewis, who was his tutor in Oxford. He was a lifelong friend of the Irish poet Louis MacNeice, and he spent time in Dublin during World War II, when he was an active parishioner in Clondalkin, Co Dublin. Many of his poems recount his encounters members of the Church of Ireland and his love of Church of Ireland country parish churches.
Early life, Oxford and CS Lewis He was born John Betjemann on 28 August 1906 in Highgate, and he was baptised in Saint Anne’s Church, Highgate Rise. Although his family was of Dutch ancestry, on the outbreak of World War I his parents, Mabel (née Dawson) and Ernest Betjemann, changed the family name to the less German-sounding Betjeman. At Highgate School, his teachers included the poet TS Eliot. From there he went to the Dragon School, Oxford, and Marlborough College, Wiltshire, where his friends and contemporaries included the Irish poet Louis MacNeice, the spy Anthony Blunt, and the illustrator and cartoonist Graham Shepard. At Marlborough too, his reading of the works of Arthur Machen (1863-1947) won him over to High Church Anglicanism – it was a conversion that would influence and shape his writing and his work in the arts for the rest of the life. Betjeman entered Oxford with difficulty, having failed the mathematics part of the matriculation exam, and was admitted to Magdalen College. However, his tutor, CS Lewis, regarded him as an “idle prig,” while Betjeman found Lewis unfriendly, demanding and uninspiring, describing him as being “breezy, tweedy, beerdrinking and jolly.” Betjeman appears to have spent most of his time at Oxford indulging his social life, developing his interest in church architecture, and following his own literary pursuits. He had a poem published in Isis, the university magazine, and in 1927 was the editor
of Cherwell, the student newspaper whose contributors included WH Auden, Graham Greene, Cecil Day-Lewis and Evelyn Waugh. But Betjeman never completed his degree at Oxford. He twice failed the compulsory Scripture examination, Divinity, known to students as “Divvers,” and was later allowed to enter the Pass School. His tutor, CS Lewis, told the tutorial board he thought Betjeman would not achieve an honours degree of any class. Betjeman passed “Divvers” at a third sitting, but finally left Oxford at the end of Michaelmas term 1928 after failing the Pass School.
For the rest of his life he blamed his failure on CS Lewis, and the two writers were never reconciled, even later in life. Nonetheless, Betjeman had an enduring love of Oxford, and received an honorary doctorate in 1974. After Oxford, he worked briefly as a private secretary, school teacher and film critic for the Evening Standard before becoming an assistant editor at the Architectural Review. His first book of poems, Mount Zion, was published in 1931 by an Oxford friend, Edward James. Betjeman developed the Shell Guides with Jack Beddington for Britain’s growing number of motorists. By the beginning of World War II, 13 Shell Guides had been published. Betjeman had written Cornwall (1934) and Devon (1936), and later he collaborated on Shropshire (1951) with his friend the artist John Piper (1903-1992), whose works include the stained glass windows in Coventry Cathedral and the East Window in the chapel in Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield. Betjeman in Ireland Betjeman was rejected for active service in World War II but he moved to the Ministry of Information, and came to Dublin in 1941 as the British press attaché to the British High Commissioner, Sir John Maffey (later Lord Rugby), working from 50 Upper Merrion Street, Dublin. From 1941 to 1943, the Betjemans lived at Collinstown House, Rowlagh, Clondalkin, where their daughter Candida was born. The Georgian house, which was rented from the Jameson distillery family, has since been demolished. John and Penelope Betjeman were registered vestry members in Saint John’s Church, where he regularly read the Sunday lessons. He also had a close association with Monkstown Parish Church, which he regarded as John Semple’s greatest work of architecture, displaying his “original genius” and “eccentric taste.” He said Monkstown Church was “one of my first favourites for its originality of detail and proportion.” He also liked Semple’s Saint Mary’s in Saint Mary’s Place, near Dorset Street, known to generations of Dubliners as “the Black Church” but now closed. In 1943, he gave a lecture to the clergy of the Church of Ireland, “Fabrics of the Church of Ireland,” in which he made the point that the “fabric of the church is very much concerned with worship. The decoration of a church can lead the eye to God or away from him.” As press attaché, his roles in Dublin included smoothing relations between Britain and the neutral Irish Free State, contributing to radio programmes such as Irish Half Hour aimed at Irish recruits in the British army, and entertaining important British visitors, including the actor Laurence Olivier, who was filming his production of Shakespeare’s Henry V on the Powerscourt Estate at Enniskerry, Co Wicklow. According to documents unearthed by a recent Channel 4 documentary, Betjeman told Whitehall that the only way to lure Ireland into the war was to end partition. He said a “defensive union of the whole of Ireland” should be made “indissoluble,” he urged Britain to stop attacking the Irish Free State, including “anti-Irish articles and cartoons,” and he argued that “de Valera is Britain’s best friend in Ireland.”
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Betjeman’s main sources of information included the journalists of The Irish Times he drank with in the Palace Bar in Fleet Street. It is said the IRA planned to assassinate him, but the order was rescinded after he met an Old IRA man who was impressed by his works. Betjeman wrote a number of poems based on his experiences in Ireland during the ‘Emergency,’ including ‘The Irish Unionist’s Farewell to Greta Hellstrom in 1922,’ which includes the refrain “Dungarvan in the rain.” ‘Greta’ was recently identified as Emily (Sears) Villiers-Stuart, an American married into a well-known West Waterford landed family. In Dublin, he also became friends with Patrick Kavanagh. The Irish poet celebrated the birth of Betjeman’s daughter with his poem ‘Candida,’ and another well-known poem contains the line: “Let John Betjeman call for me in a car.” When Betjeman’s posting in Dublin ended in 1943, his departure made the front page of The Irish Times. After World War II, he returned to London, his wife Penelope became a Roman Catholic in 1948, and the couple drifted apart. He later developed a close, life-long friendship with Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, whose family lived in Lismore Castle, Co Waterford. Poet Laureate and popular poet By 1948, Betjeman had published more than a dozen books, including five verse collections, and by 1958 sales of his Collected Poems had reached 100,000; it has now sold over two million copies. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1972, and this role, along with his popularity on television, brought his poetry to a wider audience. He voiced the thoughts and aspirations of many ordinary people while retaining the respect of many of his fellow poets. He died at his home in Trebetherick, Cornwall, on 19 May 1984, and is buried at Saint Enodoc’s Church. Betjeman and Church architecture Betjeman had a love of Victorian architecture and was a founding member of the Victorian Society. But he also loved old Church of Ireland country parish churches. In ‘Ireland with Emily,’ he writes of those parish churches in rural Kildare, Roscommon, Westmeath and Laois, first published in New Bats in Old Belfries (1945): There in pinnacled protection, One extinguished family waits A Church of Ireland resurrection By the broken, rusty gates. Sheepswool, straw and droppings cover, Graves of spinster, rake and lover, Whose fantastic mausoleum Sings its own seablown Te Deum In and out the slipping slates. His favourite church in Ireland was the Church of Ireland parish church in Monkstown, Co Dublin. This church was originally built in 1789, but was remodelled in 1830 by John Semple. In 1974, Betjeman became the first patron of the Friends of Monkstown Church, corresponding regularly with the rector, Canon William Wynne. The church also featured in a BBC documentary, Betjeman’s Dublin. Betjeman’s poetry and faith Betjeman’s poems are often humorous, and his wryly comic
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verse is marked by a satirical and observant grace. As WH Auden observed, he was “at home with the provincial gas-lit towns, the seaside lodgings, the bicycle, the harmonium.” His poetry is redolent of time and place, continually seeking out intimations of the eternal in the manifestly ordinary. In a 1962 radio interview he explained that he could not write about “abstract things,” preferring places and faces. Betjeman was a troublesome poet who persisted in believing, and in his poetry he explored his thoughts about his Anglican faith, about Englishness and about Christianity in general. He remains one of the most significant literary figures of our time to declare his Christian faith. In a letter written on Christmas Day 1947, he said: “Also my view of the world is that man is born to fulfil the purposes of his Creator i.e. to Praise his Creator, to stand in awe of Him and to dread Him. In this way I differ from most modern poets, who are agnostics and have an idea that Man is the centre of the Universe or is a helpless bubble blown about by uncontrolled forces.” He was a practising Anglican and his religious beliefs and piety inform many of his poems. In response to a radio broadcast by the humanist Margaret Knight, he expressed his views on Christianity in The Listener in 1955 with his poem ‘The Conversion of St. Paul,’ which ends: What is conversion? Not at all For me the experience of St Paul, No blinding light, a fitful glow Is all the light of faith I know Which sometimes goes completely out And leaves me plunging into doubt Until I will myself to go And worship in God’s house below — My parish church — and even there I find distractions everywhere. What is Conversion? Turning round To gaze upon a love profound. For some of us see Jesus plain And never once look back again, And some of us have seen and known And turned and gone away alone, But most of us turn slow to see The figure hanging on a tree And stumble on and blindly grope Upheld by intermittent hope. God grant before we die we all May see the light as did St Paul. The Mystery of Faith in four poems Betjeman was a life-long Anglo-Catholic. In four poems – ‘Churchyards,’ ‘Advent 1955,’ ‘Christmas’ and ‘Lenten Thoughts of a High Anglican’ – Betjeman makes the mystery of the Christian faith a central issue. Professor Kevin J. Gardner of Baylor University, in Faith and Doubt of John Betjeman: An Anthology of Betjeman’s Religious Verse (London: Continuum, 2006), says that in these four poems Betjeman finds the sudden and wondrous appearance of God in the most unlikely of places, giving him “a sense of spiritual security” that
“renders him susceptible to the embrace of mystery and miracle.” 1, Churchyards Although it is one of his less-known poems, ‘Churchyards’ is one of the four poems – alongside ‘Advent 1955,’ ‘Christmas,’ and ‘Lenten Thoughts of a High Anglican,’ and– in which Betjeman
3, Christmas The third of these four poems, ‘Christmas,’ is one of Betjeman’s most openly religious pieces, in which the last three stanzas proclaim the wonder of Christ’s birth in the form of a question: “And is it true...?” And is it true, This most tremendous tale of all, Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue, A Baby in an ox’s stall? The Maker of the stars and sea Become a Child on earth for me? And is it true? For if it is, No loving fingers tying strings Around those tissued fripperies, The sweet and silly Christmas things, Bath salts and inexpensive scent And hideous tie so kindly meant,
makes the mystery of the Christian faith a central issue. He recalls the old English churchyards at the heart of village life, with their traditional headstones, and “Close to the church when prayers were said, / And Masses for the village dead.” Today, the churchyard is giving way to a “garden of rest,” although “Graveyard’s a much more honest name.”
No love that in a family dwells, No carolling in frosty air, Nor all the steeple-shaking bells Can with this single Truth compare – That God was man in Palestine And lives today in Bread and Wine.
Mid-Lent is passed and Easter’s near The greatest day of all the year When Jesus, who indeed had died, Rose with his body glorified. And if you find believing hard The primroses in your churchyard And modern science too will show That all things change the while they grow, And we, who change in Time will be Still more changed in eternity. 2, Advent 1955 In the second of these poems, ‘Advent 1955,’ Betjeman talks about how people today take the real meaning of Christmas for granted. No one seems to appreciate the real gift anymore. Yet this is God’s gift, the greatest gift of all, the birth of Christ. ‘The time draws near the birth of Christ’. A present that cannot be priced Given two thousand years ago Yet if God had not given so He still would be a distant stranger And not the Baby in the manger.
4, Lenten Thoughts of a High Anglican His poem ‘Lenten Thoughts of a High Anglican,’ is another of the four poems in which Betjeman makes the mystery of the Christian faith a central issue. If Betjeman’s imagination wanders in the joys of the beauty
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of worship and church architecture in ‘Sunday Morning, King’s Cambridge,’ then his mind wanders in the joys of beauty in a very different way in ‘Lenten Thoughts of a High Anglican’ – although he reaches similar conclusions. ‘Lenten Thoughts of a High Anglican’ – which in Betjeman’s drafts is titled ‘Lenten Thoughts in Grosvenor Chapel’ – was the first spontaneous poem he wrote after his appointment as Poet Laureate in October 1972. It was first published in the Sunday Express on 13 May 1973, and was included in the collection A Nip in the Air (1974). Alongside the joviality found in many of his poems, this poem has an unusual tonal complexity. Betjeman describes a mysterious and sexually alluring woman who receives Holy Communion each Sunday. In an attempt to refocus the devotional attention of the parishioners, the priest tells them not to stare around or to be distracted during his celebration of the Eucharist. But Betjeman’s experience contradicts the admonitions from the priest. In a peculiar way, through this mysterious and alluring woman, he suddenly becomes aware of the presence of God. The intrigue and arousal surrounding the women he describes as the “mistress” speaks to the poet of the mystery of God. From 1972 until his death in 1984, Betjeman worshipped at the Grosvenor Chapel in London, which had been redesigned and transformed, with an Anglo-Catholic emphasis, in 1912 by Sir Ninian Comper in 1912. It was a favourite church of Bishop Charles Gore, and for many years the congregation included such people as the writer Rose Macaulay, author of The Towers of Trebizond. In an interview with the Sunday Express, Betjeman said: “I saw this woman in church one Sunday. I didn’t know who she was. She was the most beautiful creature; and she had a slightly sad expression. And I didn’t even know her name – but it was probably all the better for that. She might have been terrible.” “I like there to be a mystery between me and my beloved,” he continued. “And I don’t think there was anything wrong with looking at her in church, do you? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with loving the beauty of the human figure whether it’s in church or in the street … I’m not sure if [the poem] is any good but I hope it will please people. I’ve always wanted my verse to be popular because I wanted to communicate.” Betjeman’s Dublin-born daughter, the author and journalist Candida Lycett Green, has identified the woman who inspired this poem as Joan Price, who used to go to church at Betjeman’s church, the Grosvenor Chapel. She was the Beauty Editor of Harpers & Queen – now Harper’s Bazaar – and was married to Michael Constantinidis, a sidesman at the Grosvenor Chapel. Two important places of Anglican worship Betjeman celebrates the social and cultural significance of the Church of England, yet he points to the social and spiritual failures of the Church, particularly the snobbery and hypocrisy of the clergy and churchgoers. Two of his poems, ‘In Westminster Abbey’ (1940) and ‘Sunday Morning, King’s Cambridge’ (1954), are set in two of the most important centres of worship in England, one with political signifi-
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cance, the other with academic significance. Taken together, these two poems give us a poet who believes deeply in Christ and who holds out hope for the Church of England and Anglicanism. One represents a place of public worship the closely links the Church with the political power in the nation; the other represents the very beauty of Anglican worship in a place associated not only with the academic, architectural and musical excellence of the nation. 1, In Westminster Abbey ‘In Westminster Abbey’ is one of Betjeman’s most savage satires. This poem is a dramatic monologue, set during the early days of World War II, in which a woman enters Westminster Abbey to pray for a moment before hurrying off to “a luncheon date.”
She is not merely a chauvinistic nationalist, but also a racist, a snob and a hypocrite who is concerned more with how the war will affect her share portfolio than anything else. Her chauvinistic nationalism leads her speaker to pray to God “to bomb the Germans” … but “Don’t let anyone bomb me.” But her social and ethical lapses are a product of her spiritual state, which is a direct result of her nation’s spiritual sickness. But she lets God know prayer and her relationship with God are low down her list of priorities: Now I feel a little better, What a treat to hear Thy Word,
Where the bones of leading statesmen Have so often been interr’d. And now, dear Lord, I cannot wait Because I have a luncheon date. 2, Sunday Morning, King’s Cambridge Some years ago, in a book review in the Times Higher Education Supplement, Timothy Mowl of the University of Bristol described ‘Sunday Morning, King’s Cambridge’ as of the “least important” of Betjeman’s poems, “because it is about a place, not people in a place.” Here he is at his best as he fuses together in one poem his different passions, and in ‘Sunday Morning, King’s Cambridge’ he presents a happy marriage of architectural detail, finely observed, and the sense of the worship of the eternal captured in a moment. He presents the beauty and splendour of Anglican worship, ablaze with colour. In ‘Sunday Morning, King’s Cambridge,’ the moment of worship exists out of time as the living and the dead, the choir and the poet, join in the eternal praise of God. In this poem, Betjeman captures a joyful and spontaneous reaction, albeit an emotionally restrained expression, and a sense of wonder in the celebration of Anglican worship
Stanza 2 sees the poet’s mind wander away from the service as he imagines being outside among the “windy Cambridge courts.” Again there is a great emphasis on the vast variety of colour, but all the colours are transformed into “waves of pearly light” reflected off the Cambridge stone. The image suggests that the divine is not to be found exclusively in the chapel but in the world, the space that contains both God’s works and humanity’s work. Stanza 3 is a geographical and historical expansion of these images and ideas. Here, the white of the “windy Cambridge courts” contrasts with the “vaulted roof so white and light and strong.” Betjeman imagines the tombs that fill churches throughout East Anglia, with the effigies of the deceased captured for eternity in postures of prayer: ... the clasped hands lying long Recumbent on sepulchral slabs or effigied in brass. The prayers of these dead are a “buttress” for the vaulted ceiling of the chapel at King’s, which, built near the end of the Gothic period, needs no architectural buttresses. Christianity exists not because of aesthetics but because of prayer, and the sanctuary is supported, not because of the marvels of 15th century engineering, but by a tradition of faith. In ‘Sunday Morning, King’s Cambridge,’ the moment of worship exists out of time as the living and the dead, the choir and the poet, join in the eternal praise of God. The poem has no irony, except perhaps in the last line: To praise Eternity contained in Time and coloured glass. Here Betjeman illustrates the futility of our human desire to share in God’s timelessness. All of us are being confounded by our foolish need to control God and time. A final poem: Loneliness The chilling poem ‘Loneliness’ is included in Betjeman’s 1974 collection, A Nip in the Air. While it speaks of how “The Easter bells enlarge the sky,” it shows Betjeman’s deep fear of death. He suffered nightmares about Hell because he was married to one
Stanza 1 describes the procession of the choir of the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, and the spiritually overwhelming aesthetics of the chapel – the stalls, the stained glass, and especially the stunning fan-vaulted ceiling, “a shower that never falls.”
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woman (Penelope Chetwode) but was living with another (Lady Elizabeth Cavendish). The last year’s leaves are on the beech: The twigs are black; the cold is dry; To deeps beyond the deepest reach The Easter bells enlarge the sky. O ordered metal clatter-clang! Is yours the song the angels sang? You fill my heart with joy and grief – Belief! Belief! And unbelief... And, though you tell me I shall die, You say not how or when or why. However, the poet Hugo Williams hears Betjeman speaking frankly to God: “If he has a well-developed sense of his mortality it is no more than any poet needs to make poetry out of.” Betjeman’s religious values come through in his poems, and he affirms his belief even while fearing it might be false. Betjeman celebrates the social and cultural significance of the Church of England, yet he points to the social and spiritual failures of the Church, particularly the snobbery and hypocrisy of the clergy and churchgoers. In his poems, he describes the perils of faith and the struggle to believe. He was a troublesome poet who persisted in believing, and in his poetry he explored his thoughts about his Anglican faith, about Englishness and about Christianity in general. Poems by John Betjeman © John Betjeman Society. Canon Patrick Comerford is Lecturer in Anglicanism, Liturgy and Church History, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, an Adjunct Assistant Professor, Trinity College Dublin, and a Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin Captions: in order 1, Sir John Betjeman … one of the great makers of the Christian imagination in the last century 2, John Betjeman and family at Collinstown House, Clondalkin, Co Dublin, where they lived in the 1940s 3, Magdalen College, Oxford ... John Betjeman was an undergraduate, and CS Lewis was his tutor 4, ‘For churchyards then, though hollowed ground, / Were not so grim as now they sound’ … the ‘saddleback’ grave in Saint Michael’s Churchyard, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford) 5, ‘A present that cannot be priced / Given two thousand years ago’ … the Christmas scene seen in a stained-glass window in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford) 6, ‘Now I’ll come to Evening Service / Whensoever I have the time’ … ‘In Westminster Abbey’ is one of John Betjeman’s most savage satires (Photograph: Patrick Comerford) 7, A Sunday morning at King’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford) 8, ‘The last year’s leaves are on the beech ... The Easter bells enlarge the sky,’ John Betjeman (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Deacon Jim King serving at Corner Brook Nursing Facility Mrs. Mary Jordan, a founding member of St. James, Kansas City is a current resident at Corner Brook Place Nursing Kansas City, MO. As her health began to decline she began a ministry at Corner Brook. Mary approached the Bishop for a sacramental ministry. The Bishop began celebrating the Mass once a month at Corner Brook. Until my own health began to decline, I was visiting the congregation on weekly Fridays for clergy presence and prayer each week. After being hospitalized for about a year, and upon returning to my ministry in the Church, the Bishop commissioned me to do the Deacon’s Mass ministry at Corner Brook. I elected to provide the sacramental ministry each Sunday at 1:30. Sunday Deacon’s Masses averages about 12 to 14 in attendance. Mrs Betsy Petersen celebrated her 100th Birthday on March 15th. We had a grand ole’ time singing hymns and other forms of music with guitar accompaniment and dancing. Oh Yes, there was a very nice birthday cake, cupcakes and brownies and a lavish vegetable tray with dips and soft drinks for all. Our attendance was about 50 loving family and congregants. WE HAD A GREAT TIME! May God, continue blessing such a fine lady with such a captivating smile. Reverend James King, Deacon St James ~ Kansas City
The crazy Blessing of the new age in lieu of what Jesus taught: “In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” by Shawn Branum In a world gone 1/2 mad, these are some crazy ways of the Trinity Blessing. Of course not approved of in the One Holy Catholic Church Crazy Substitutes for the Trinity: 1) The Healer, the Provider and the Enabler (Methodist) God above all, God for us and God with us **** 2) Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer (Episcopal) 3) In the name of the God that Created us, Redeemed us and Sustains us. 4) Presence, Wisdom and Power.(Episcopal) 5) Womb of life, word in Flesh, brooding spirit (UCOC) Almighty God, incarnate word, holy comforter.**** 7) Primordial nature, consequent nature, superjective nature (UCOC) 8) Holy Parent, Holy Child and Holy Spirit (UCOC) Special Category Holy Pops, the Junior and the Presents There is an other one. The Holy Spirit is referred to as the Spook I did not write it down.
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S
BOYS
S
ne blufs 64 2OT
vers 3 0-0 6, Hunter strom 0 0-0 0, Hesston r 1 2-2 7, Scott Gross 7 0, Trent Werner 2 0-0 rvey DeLa Cruz 0 0-1 0, 6-8 64. (Bill Despain 3, leman 1), Pine Blufs 6 . Total fouls: Rocky
, Greybull 49
iday
12 — 49 23 — 58 z 2 0-2 5, Fabian Davila 2, Ryan Sylvester 1 ryce Wright 2 0-0 4, Tracy 7 3-4 17. Totals:
aldez 1 0-0 2, Jared rd 4 11-15 19, Joseph r 0 2-2 2, Buell Robinson , Trevor Williamson 1 3-7
n Gonzalez 1, Ryan (Buell Robinson 1). ming Indian 22.
rns 39
nal, Friday 4 11 — 39 17 — 50 6, Noah Taylor 1 1-2 3, phy 0 0-0 0, Wyatt Berg -0 0, Taylor Kirkbride 1 ustin Burkett 0 4-6 4, 2 14-21 39. he 1 3-7 5, Zach Venable Hunter Dockery 5 4-8 k VandeBossche 2 4-6
master 1), Lusk 3 (Hunter tal fouls: Burns 26,
g Piney 65
nal, Friday 0 23 — 65 21 — 55 d 1 0-2 2, JD Fear 1 1-4 Stoutenburg 3 0-0 6, Shafer 2 5-6 9. Totals:
, Seth Kite 2 0-0 4, rzoli 9 5-8 24, Matthew ferty 5 0-1 10, Deven ty 0 0-0 0. Totals:
n Banks 2), Big Horn h 1). Total fouls: Big
S
undance 38
iday
11 — 38 6 17 — 57 0 5, Brooklyn Fossen ngela Reed 1 0-0 2, O’Connor 11 5-6 29, toddard 0 0-0 0. Totals:
n 1 1-2 3, Kennadi 0-2 2, Madison Vickery -2 2, Tia Tiller 10 3-8 28.
e O’Connor 2), Kemuls: Sundance 13,
ming Indian 44
iday
13 — 44 16 — 65 n Harding 1 0-0 2, Elsi ossribs 0 0-0 0, LovMitchell 0 1-2 1, Amryn 1 0-0 3, Taylor Harris 0 , Shauntae St. Clair 1 0-1 : 17 7-17 44. uller 6 0-2 14, Sarah emel 1 2-2 4, Tara 1 1-1 3, Kortni Sharp 6 shley Dodge 0 0-0 0, 24 14-22 65. 3 (Loveeda White 1, ll 1), Tongue River 3 ngs 1). Total fouls: ver 12.
ermopolis 40
nal, Friday 13 — 40 0 14 — 56 ice 6 1-2 13, Bailey 3 4-6 10, Jessica fs 0 0-2 0, Julia Blakes5-6 9, Kayla Conner 1 ssa Ward 0 0-0 0. Totals:
2 1-2 5, Taylen on 3 1-2 7, Sara Mullins 3, Brooke Darden 0 4, Dana Mullins 6 1-2 ndrea Baker 1 5-6 10, hlyn Culp 1 0-0 2. Totals:
ne Blufs 2 (Jadyn tal fouls: Thermopolis
heast 41
nal, Friday 3 8 — 41 8 14 — 57 rd 1 0-0 2, Noelle rd 2 0-0 4, Madison 2 0-1 4, Erin Buchanan Dani McManamen 3 Emily Buchanan 0 1-2 1.
0-11 14, Kassi Renner
Wilson is a member of our Church of the Morning Star, Ethete WY under Bishop Kinner
Courtesy: Casper Star Tribune
iday 4 20 18 — 71 4 13 11 — 64 Mangus 0 0-0 0, John 0-2 6, Bill Despain 4 , Cordell McFarlane 0 Cole Wambeke 0 0-0 ole Simmons 0 0-2 0, b Price 0 0-0 0. Totals:
RYAN DORGAN | STAR-TRIBUNE
Wyoming Indian’s Wilson Clifford drives down the court under pursuit by Greybull’s Fabian Davila and Bryce Wright on Friday during the Wyoming State High School Class 2A Boys Basketball Championship semifinals at the Casper Events Center. Wyoming Indian defeated Greybull 58-49 to advance to the finals.
WILSON’S WAY Clifford leads Wyoming Indian into title game By JACK NOWLIN Star-Tribune staf writer Wilson Cliford picked the right time to make his voice heard. With Wyoming Indian trailing Greybull 37-26 midway through the third quarter, the senior let his teammates know the Chiefs weren’t going to lose. Cliford sparked a late rally to lead Wyoming Indian (27-1) to a 5849 semiinal victory at the Class 2A Boys Wyoming State High School Basketball Championship on Friday. In the nightcap, Rocky Mountain held on for a 71-64 double overtime victory against Pine Blufs. “I talked to the younger guys and told them it was their time to shine,” Cliford said. It was Cliford that put on the brightest display, however. He scored seven consecutive points to cut the Greybull (23-5) lead to 3733. And his free throw with 3 minutes, 36 seconds remaining gave the Chiefs the lead for good at 43-42.
GIRLS
CLASS 2A BOYS Tracker ■ WHAT: Class 2A Boys Wyoming State High School Basketball Championship. ■ FRIDAY: Semiinals, Wyoming Indian 58, Greybull 49; Rocky Mountain 71, Pine Blufs 64, 2OT. ■ LEADING THE WAY: Wyoming Indian senior Wilson Cliford scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half to lead the Chiefs’ comeback. ■ HE SAID IT: “I knew my season would be over if I didn’t step up.” — Cliford.
NAMES & NUMBERS NAMES ■WILSON CLIFFORD, Wyoming Indian: The senior made 11 of 15 free throws and scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half to lead the Chiefs into the title game. ■ NOLAN JONES, Big Piney: The senior had 22 points and seven rebounds in the Punchers’ victory over Big Horn. ■ COLTER CARZOLI, Big Horn: The senior inished his career with 24 points and six rebounds. NUMBERS ■ 5: Times in the past six years that Wyoming Indian has played in the title game. ■ 45: Combined points for Big Piney’s Nolan Jones and Jordan Banks in the Punchers’ victory against Big Horn. “Wilson went from being the quiet one at the start of the game to being our vocal leader,” Wyoming Indian coach Craig Ferris said. “He knew what he had to do and he inally stepped up.” While Cliford was doing most of the scoring — he had 17 of his game-high 19 points in the second
throw shooting afair in the fourth quarter, and the Chiefs took advantage. They made 17 of 31 free throws for the game, with Cliford inishing 11 of 15 from the line. “I felt conident when I went to the line,” Cliford said. “I knew my season would be over if I didn’t step up.” Cliford also contained Kason Clutter, Greybull’s leading scorer. Clutter, who had 26 points in the Bufs’ quarterinal victory, only had 12 points Friday. The late game had even more drama. Rocky Mountain had a chance to win at the end of regulation, but Pine Blufs blocked a inal shot attempt. The Grizzlies returned the favor at the end of the irst extra session. Pine Blufs took a 64-63 lead on Kyle Steger’s 3-pointer, but Tanner Coleman put the Grizzlies ahead for good with a steal and layup. Coleman then made 1 of 2 free throws, but Joey Jewell rebounded the miss and scored a putback to make it 68-64. Jewell added a layup to send Rocky Mountain to the title game for the irst time since 1999.
half — his teammates also did their part. That included freshman Buell Robinson, who made the Chiefs’ only 3-pointer to push their advantage to 46-42. “Buell’s shot really sparked us,” Ferris said. “And we had some guys ■ contact sports reporter Jack Nowlin at 307-266-0528 or jack.nowlin@trib. come of the bench and help us.” The game turned into a free- com. Follow him on Twitter @CASJackN.
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http://fusion.net/Open_Source_with_Leon_Krauze/video/losing-religion-catholicism-273666 Annie Rose Ramos narrating: Like many a Latina girl, I was raised Catholic. Plain and simple the church and I have grown apart. I don't really consider myself religious anymore. Turns out, I'm not alone. As of 2012, 31% under the age of 30 consider themselves religiously unaffiliated like me. Compare that to the 1980s when there were only 12% religiously unaffiliated young adults. I decided to head back here to one of my childhood churches: St. Philips. Good times. (Sarcastic intonation). This is the site where I was grounded for falling asleep during Mass. Many a confession ranging from stealing my sister's lipstick to letting a guy get to third base with me in high school. Anyways, I figured I’d sit down with a real live priest to see why I bailed on the Catholic faith in the first place. Annie Rose Ramos sitting with priest Annie Rose Ramos: I came for a visit because I kind of have been having some issues with the church ABORTION Priest: The moment the sperm and the egg meet, that is the beginning of life. Something beautiful... Annie Rose Ramos: But it's not always something beautiful. Sometimes when two people have sex and they get together with one another, they don't want to have a child. Priest: We humans, we have been given so much by God: The power to create life, but with that power, comes responsibility. HOMOSEXUALITY Priest: With same sex there is nothing wrong with Love. God is Love. What the church has an issue is procreation. Genital expression. There's no potential for life. Annie Rose Ramos: But, you see some homosexual couples who are together and they are the essence of life. They are the expression of Love.
Priest: Some young guy asked me, “Do you think the church will ever change its position on this matter.” I said, “When two men can get together and procreate, the church will look at that.” Annie Rose Ramos: Why is it so important for you to have men popping out babies? Priest: The church would say if you are not at least open to one child— Annie Rose Ramos: That's the quota? Priest: --that’s, that's not a marriage Annie Rose Ramos’s jaw falls, she pulls back and makes an exasperated expression of shock. Priest: You see couples around with their dogs and stuff. Annie Rose Ramos: Yeah, that's a child Priest: Yeah, and that's pretty sad. Annie Rose Ramos: But what about before. People use birth control, namely myself. Priest: You're talking about before marriage? Annie Rose Ramos: Yes Priest: Why would you be on it? For health reasons? Annie Rose Ramos: Well, if you mean by: healthy is not being pregnant, then yes. Priest: Ah. Ok Annie Rose Ramos: What if I waited until I got married and this guy was awful at sex. That's a huge deal. That's a huge deal. You have to be able to sexually get along with someone…as much as you need to get along with them personality wise. Priest: I think this culture is overly concerned with pleasure and if you poll most people, particularly the men, they will tell you that they will tell the women anything they want to hear, just to use them, and the women think they are in control and “Oh we are liberated,” and their heart is being stepped on. CHURCH ATTENDANCE Annie Rose Ramos: Mass is sooooo incredibly boring. Priest: Think of all the time we waste, we can't give God one hour? BREAK Annie Rose Ramos narrating: So given the church’s policy on abortion, homosexuality, and premarital sex, that's an hour more than I'm willing to give the church right now. So my search continues.
Above interview appeared on Fusion TV under the title, Losing My Religion:. The HCCAR Study Group reviewed this video as part of our study of Moral Theology. The group of postulants, deacons, and priest was presented with this interview to see what they thought about the person, the priest and the hot button issues as presented by the media today. It is good to know the mind of the young in this changing nay evolving world and what we need to do in order to understand the young and help them in their spiritual journey, Where do our responses stem from, is a good question that we may ask ourselves, Here are the responses from some in the group: Dan Hartshorn, Postulant: The interviewer Annie Rose Ramos talks to a Catholic priest from the parish she attended as a young girl to see why she bailed on religion. Ramos’ problem seems to be moral in nature – not intellectual. Since she does not want to be accountable to God for her sexual behavior she rejects God’s claims on her in other areas. This problem she says started as far back as high school when she
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let a young man “get to third base” with her. Because she rejects God’s will in her sexual life, she also rejects God’s commandments as they pertain to abortion, homosexuality and birth control. She ends the interview with a statement “And so my search continues.” What she is searching for, however, she doesn’t say. Dn. Jason Rice, Deacon: What I saw in this video is an attitude among many these days who were “raised” in the church. I believe it displays first a fundamental failing of the Church to teach its members and its youth the scriptures, biblical morality, etc. It is so very important that clergy teach and instruct all members of their parish the relevancy of biblical morality and more important our relation as Gods created beings who owe every breath to His good will and mercy. The attitude of the young woman in the video is one of self, the “I” and “me” idea that we are all gods to ourselves. She expresses the “if it feels good, do it”, that self seeking pleasure is the end or center of our being. She believes that having fun and fulfilling the lust of the flesh is what will satisfy and bring happiness without any consequences or responsibilities. She wants to be free to do as she desires, as she determines is right or wrong. She becomes her own god which has been the lie of Satan from the beginning that “and ye shall be as gods.” (Genesis 3;5.) It is rebellion. It is lawlessness. She and others think that being a moral authority unto themselves will bring them true happiness but in reality it will only open the door to pain and suffering. She has either lost or was never taught that it is God who desires our good, that by living by His statutes and commandments He protects us from ourselves, sin suffering and pain. It is not that God wants to prevent us from enjoying life. What God desires is our good. Rebellion against him is detrimental to us and to society in general. It is out of Gods love that He gives us restriction and a moral code to live by, as loving parents do for their own children who know the suffering that bad decisions can bring. I think the Priest in the video could have done much better at explaining and teaching her what the scriptures tell us about moral living and being subject to Gods standards. This displays the importance that we as clergy have to be “apt to teach” (1 Tim. 3:2, 2 Tim.2:4), and that we “ be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” (1 Peter 3:15) Dn. Alfred Sturges - Deacon: My main criticism is that the majority of responses from the priest have to do with presenting the view of the church, but it is presenting the answer without pointing out the problem. All her questions stem from a misunderstanding of love. This young woman thinks pre-marital sex is preferable because she wouldn’t want to marry someone who is bad at sex. But how is it that someone would be bad at sex? Within a trusting, loving, and devoted relationship there would be expected to be a desire for both people to provide pleasure for each other. There would be the level of deep communication, intimacy, free from shame, to be open with each other about what they like and what they don’t like. In such a context there is no bad sex. And that context is love. If you want a recipe for disaster, have sex first and think that love will come later. Love has to be there first. The church has no prohibition against love. Instead of responding with what we are against it is better to state what we are for. On the topic of abortion, children are a wonderful blessing. Jesus loved the little children, the church loves the little children. So when one tells me that they do not want a child, that they want to kill it before it can take a breath, it breaks my heart. And what are the conditions which leads someone to make such a decision? Well in many cases we’re talking about an unwed woman who doesn’t have the support necessary for raising a child. In some cases it is a financial decision. But the church doesn’t want to force women to have children they cannot support, the church wants women to have the support. This is part of why the church promotes marriage and offers help to those who are impoverished, so that the support will be there for children. We also live in a country where there are more families who want to adopt than there are children put up for adoption. The church isn’t just making a decree against abortion, we are doing whatever we can to help women choose life. Again, this is changing the conversation from what we are against to what we are for. There is a temptation when people question our faith to be a defender. I would encourage instead for us to be promoters of the faith. Food For thought: Proverb tells us “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirit.” (Proverbs 16:2) Bishop Sanderson’s classical thoughts on Conscience is something that we can consider: they can never find a more faithful Adviser, a more active Accuser, a severer Witness, a more impartial Judge, a sweeter Comforter, or a more inexorable Enemy. Conscience is a faculty or habit of the Practical understanding, which enables the mind of man, by the use of Reason and Argument to apply the light which it has to particular moral actions. Conscience is full of eyes, she looks every way, and searches into all things: she sees clearly what is to come; and if you are rushing into Sin, she gives you fair warning, and advises you against it, She beholds you in the very Act of Sinning and then she murmurs and plucks you back. She gnaws, pricks and belabours you, in order to keep you back; she reflects upon what is past, and when the Guild of Sin is upon you she reproves, stings, accuses, condemns and torments you. On the contrary she incites you to good and laudable actions; in the execution of them, she persuades, soothes and encourages you, and afterwards she applauds and protects you, fills your breast with serenity and peace “Had it strength as it had right, had it power, as it has manifest authority, it would absolutely govern the world - Bishop Butler Sermon II on Human Nature.” Conscience derives its authority from God, Holy Scripture, and Tradition. Can we be satisfied with the media being the teacher and dispenser of morality? What is our part in understanding, discussing things that are important to the young - what can our families, church families do to bring the eternal perspective into our lives and the lives of the youth? -Bishop Leo Michael
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They also Serve... Meet Franklin Alphonse
F
Story & Photos by Holly Michael
ranklin Alphonse sold rosaries on Ebay ten years ago. Today, his business, Catholic Liturgicals, ships vestments and liturgical supplies to more than 50 countries. He has more than seven thousand customers and more than twenty-five full time employees in the pristine factory located in a separate lower level of his South India Seaside home.
Bishop Leo and I sat down with Franklin in his office, a large comfortable room with a separate outside entrance from his home as his employees cut cloth, stitched, embroidered, and packaged quality vestments and liturgical supplies a few steps outside the office and down a set of marble stairs. Franklin earned his Bachelors of mechanical engineering in India and worked in IT in the United States for six years. On trips to India, he’d purchase rosaries and carry them back to the US to sell on Ebay. One year, returning back to India, he offered a few remaining rosaries to a priest to use for a fund-raiser. “That priest asked me if I could bring back vestments the next time I returned,” Franklin said. “I brought one back and he asked for two more. A few trips later, I was taking sixteen vestments from India to the United States. I couldn’t keep up with the demand.” But Franklin says the vestments weren’t the best quality. “There were pencil marks left on the fabric and the cloth was thin, not top quality.”
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Franklin thought he could do better. Returning to India, he earned his post graduate degree in Business Management and Finance, took a leave from his job, and turned down a great job offer at IBM. He set up shop with one tailor in 2006 and opened the doors making altar linens. Franklin says it took the support of his family to get things off the ground. His grandfather had helped build sixteen churches and his father was also a faithful supporter of local parishes, so it was more than a job for Franklin. It was also a ministry. His focus was not solely on how much money he could earn, but how he could get quality vestments for a low cost to churches in India and abroad. He says he’s glad he turned down the IBM job. “There’s nothing like the freedom to work from your own home,” he says. “And more than that, the satisfaction you feel when others are satisfied.” He admits to a learning curve and even chastisements. “One priest sent me a five page note with links to liturgical sites after I sold chalice’s that weren’t gold plated.” Franklin studied details and rubrics of the liturgy to tailor vestment and liturgical supplies according to various liturgical rites. Now, customers can buy excellent quality pre-made vestments and liturgical supplies from the
website or custom order their vestments, even designing or sending design ideas. On a tour of his factory, Franklin showed us well-crafted hand designed and embroidered creations. Bishop Leo and I were amazed with his knowledge and skill and the beautiful display of vestments. Later, Franklin offered us a meal in his lovely home and introduced us to his wife, Golda, and young sons. Catholic Liturgicals is a family business. Golda takes care of accounts. “If we list on ebay, she takes care of those orders,” Franklin said. “She also updates shipment log details on the website to track orders, and handles regular orders while I take care of custom orders.” Like many businesses that help churches, Catholic Liturgicals is also a ministry. Franklin and his family have also helped countless employees through alcoholism and other issues. He’s hired single moms and supported his employees through personal troubles, even making employee’s medical bills. In a clean, impressive factory in the lower level of his home, Muslim, Hindu, and Christians work side by side. Though his employees are of different faiths, Franklin has taken them on trips to Vailankanni, a poplar South Indian Christian shrine. Franklin says the employees understand that the vestments they make robe priests who go before God Almighty in the Holy Mass and they are proud to make them for such a purpose. Some of the vestments, including an altar frontal, were blessed by Pope Benedict. “My employees watched the Mass on TV and got to see their work. They were so happy.” The Holy Catholic Church Anglican Rite has purchased several of the vestments from Catholic Liturgicals at low prices and high quality not found elsewhere. “There are five levels of quality checking,” Franklin says. From embroiderers, to the one who irons the fabric, to the tailor, to the trimmer, to the packager, if there are any quality issues, they are discovered. “If you serve the altar, the altar will serve you.” Franklin says. “I am not serving at the altar but I am a part of it.” Providing quality, beautiful investment at affordable prices is definitely a help for many churches, including the churches in the Holy Catholic Church, Anglican Rite.
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WHAT IF SOMEONE @ WORK TOLD YOU...
...that a corporate jet will pick you up to spend a fun-filled day with the CEO at the Corporate Headquarters. It happened to Russell Parsons of St. James Anglican Church Kansas City, a dependable customer service representative at Home Depot. He thought it was a joke. But here is how it happened in Russ’s his own words: “I was very honored to be selected, based upon my customer service, to travel to corporate headquarters in Atlanta. It was wonderful that they sent a corporate jet to pick me up and the wonderful opportunity to meet with and spend the day with Frank Blake, the CEO of Home Depot and others. I was, indeed, very blessed in many ways.” Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven. Keep up the great work Russ and God be praised. We are proud of you and Barb Parsons and your family. Editor’s note: If you have a work success story, please share with the Koinonia and let your light so shine to give glory to God
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Happy faces of St. Joseph of Glastonbury - Children on Ash Wednesday: Clockwise Nicole Jimenez the little organist at concert, group of children with ashes on their forehead on Ash Wednesday, the duo sisters on Ash Wednesday. And Oscar and Nicole upholstering kneelers and God bless them all. These children are an asset to the church because they are selfless and self-sacrificing. Nicole has been taking piano/organ/violin lessons and offers her musical talents by playing the organ during the Spanish Mass while her dad celebrates Holy Eucharist. And what about her mom? Mareus is the Altar Guild, Sunday School Teacher, and the Choir. And Natalia, above with Nicole, brings her own joy to the church family.
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L
ast Saturday, my husband and I took two of our grandsons, ages eleven and fourteen, to see the movie GOD’S NOT DEAD, a powerful, Indy Christian movie. We all enjoyed it very much, and when it was over, went to texting as the Christian band Newsboys suggested all the movie goers do – text everyone you know this simple, not-so-subtle message: ‘God’s Not Dead’. Opening weekend, March 21st, ticket sales landed the Pure Flix release in the top-five earning films with $8.6M though showing on only 730 screens. Christians showing up in droves doubled the per-screen revenues of ‘The Muppets Most Wanted’. While this surprised the analysts, it came as no shocker to the distribution company’s expectations due to the exciting engagement numbers prior to GOD’S NOT DEAD’s release. A college freshman, played by Shane Harper, wears his cross necklace signing up for a philosophy course even though forewarned that the professor will beat him down in an effort to crush his Christian faith. The first thing the atheist instructor (Kevin Sorbo) does is force every student in his class to write ‘God is dead’ on a sheet of paper and sign it. But Josh Wheaton refuses and Professor Radisson declares he will fail and break him. The two strike a deal that Josh will have twenty minutes in the next three classes to do his best to prove God is not dead to the students who have just all signed the papers. While these classes take place, other characters’ stories are introduced: a Muslim student hiding her recent conversion from her strict father, Reverend Dave serving in the college town trying to show his visiting Nigerian preacher friend a good time, a vegan reporter Amy who learns she has cancer and her wealthy, career driven boyfriend, Mark, his Christian sister Mena—Radisson’s live-in girlfriend—their mother suffering with dementia, one of the students in the class, a young Chinese man under conviction. Josh’s girlfriend Karen has their lives all planned out and demands that he not buck the professor who can ruin him and their future together. His parents, never on-screen, are also against taking that path, seems everyone is, but with the reverend’s encouragement, Josh defies them all to do what he believes is the
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right, and God blesses his efforts to prepare for his debate with his professor. A fun scene is when the real Duck Dynasty star Willie Robertson and his wife are ambushed by the reporter trying to dispel their religion, but end up sharing their testimony with the dying woman. There’s a minimal amount of violence in the film depicted when the Muslim father knocks his daughter around before putting her out of their home and at the end when Radisson, on his way to the Newsboys’ concert to make up with Mena, is hit by a car. All the stories are nicely tied up as the players all end up at the concert. Karen breaks it off with Josh, so he invites the Chinese student to use her ticket (bought earlier for his and Karen’s first date anniversary). The reporter barges into the band’s back room for an interview, but ends up getting prayed for. Seems everything is playing against Reverend Dave getting his friend to the planned trip, but the Nigerian continually encourages him that it’s okay because God is on the throne and in control. They end up being at the scene of the accident and pray with the professor. The three times that Josh addresses the philosophy class are wonderful and anointed and provide a powerful persuasion that God is not dead using philosophers through the centuries and up to Steven Hawking. Can he convince his fellow students though? The film exposes academia’s liberal agenda practiced today on college campuses across our country. To my grandsons chagrin— by the way, they sat on the edge of their seats by the end of the movie—I waited, blocking their exit, to read the all the credits that cited hundreds of ongoing legal cases that fight for the rights of Christian students and professors. It’s definitely a movie with a message, and for God, for Christendom, it’s a good one! For liberal agnostics and atheists, maybe not so much, except they may walk out converted. Journalists Adam R. Holtzand Steven Isaac banner on the Huffington Post Religion Blog claim the film Preys on Evangelical fear. They report GOD’S NOT DEAD pits conservative Christianity against the forces of plurality in contemporary culture. I’d agree and declare Christianity won! Endorsed by The American Family Association’s president, GOD’S NOT DEAD is purposeful family entertainment well worth the price of the tickets to take the whole family. I highly recommend that churches send their entire youth groups to see this great movie that honors God and advances His Kingdom on earth. I guarantee if you’re a follower of Christ, you won’t leave regretting your decision to see GOD’S NOT DEAD, but rather energized to go and share the good news that God lives! By Caryl McAdoo, author of Vow Unbroken and other books.
+ IN MEMORIAM
They married on September 3, 1948, in Brule. Both graduated from Chadron State and spent their entire working lives serving the Wyoming public school system as both teachers and/or administrators. Along the way the family home included stops in Farson, Pinedale, Ten Sleep, Wamsutter, Lusk and Sundance. During those early years each earned their Master’s Degree from the University of Wyoming. Terry exhibited a passion for learning at an early age and excelled in the English language. She taught the subject for over 30 years and finished her career as school librarian. But retirement did not slow down her love of language. She penned and published a series of three books after retiring. The first was The Suitcase Files soon followed by The Suitcase Files II and The Suitcase Files III. This 3-volume set is a series of short stories, notes, poems and anecdotes written by Terry over the decades and kept tucked away in an old worn leather suitcase. Some of the stories are serious, some are comical but all are impactful often yielding some of life’s best lessons and funniest outcomes.
Terence “Terry” Jean (McCarty) McNutt,
91, passed away peacefully on Monday, March 31, 2014, in Sheridan, WY, following a long battle with several health issues including advanced osteoporosis. Her love of the Lord and His love for her were monumental comforts for her especially during the latter years of life. She leaves behind a family and long list of friends who will miss her love, her friendship, her counsel, her humor and her wisdom. Terry was born on Sept.17, 1922 to Chester Arthur McCarty and Anna Carper-McCarty in Brule, Nebraska. She grew up on the family farm and after high school taught in a rural school nearby until she entered the Navy in 1943. She was the lone survivor of seven siblings including sister Treva and brothers Charlie, Bill, Joe, Jim, Gerald (Rick) and John.
Though a firm believer of tradition, Terry wished her passing to be a celebration of life and not a sorrowful event. Services will be held Thursday, April 3, 2014, at the Black Hills National Cemetery in Sturgis, SD, where Terry will be interred with Jack. A Requiem Mass was held at Holy Trinity Anglican Church HCCAR in Sheridan, WY. Our heartfelt sympathies to Tibbie Kinner and family, members of Holy Trinity.
Her immediate surviving family includes daughter, Treva (Cummings); and husband, Wayne of Casper; daughter, Tibbie (Kinner) and husband Mark of Sheridan. In addition, she will never be forgotten by the three people she bragged about most often…her three grandchildren, Colter Kinner, Karlie Kinner, and Cory Cummings. She is also survived by several nieces and nephews and their families. Terry was preceded in death in 1990 by her husband, Robert J. (Jack) McNutt. The two had met at Chadron State Teacher’s College after each had served their country in World War II; she as a Navy Wave and he as a fighting Marine in the South Pacific.
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HOLY TRINITY ANGLICAN SEMINARY GOOD FORMATION ENSURES GOOD MINISTRY!
The Holy Catholic Church Anglican Rite is working on its seminary program which will encompass online as well as on campus studies. Let us implore the Lord’s blessing on this initiative that we may raise up shepherds after God’s own heart (Jeremiah 3:15), who in turn will tend His flock.
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Publication of the Anglican Province of the Holy Catholic Church Anglican Rite St.. James Anglican Church 8107 S. Holmes Road Kansas City, MO 64131