The Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull, 1819 June 6, 1756 – November 10, 1843, “The Painter of the Revolution” Born in Lebanon, Connecticut, to Jonathan Trumbull and Faith (née Robinson) Trumbull. His father served as Governor of Connecticut from 1769 to 1784. He entered the 1771 junior class at Harvard College at the age of fifteen and graduated in 1773. After services as a soldier in the American Revolutionary War, he travelled to London, where upon an introduction from … [Read more...]
A Reflection — from the Grosvenor Chapel
Above: The Holy Roman Emperor Frederic II with Al-Kamil the Sultan of Egypt This short reflection: https://soundcloud.com/user-140188366/meditation-for-evening-of-26th-june-grosvenor-chapel by Canon Alistair Macdonald-Radcliff features music performed by the Choir of the Grosvenor Chapel and opens with one to the Chandos Anthems by Handel: "In the voice of Praise and Thanksgiving". The reflection itself touches upon the life of St Edmund of Abingdon (1175-1240), who was … [Read more...]
First Sunday after Trinity – Readings for the day and Sermon
The Rich Man and Lazarus, Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588-1629) A Sermon for the First Sunday after Trinity 14th June 2020, The Revd. Fr. Gavin Dunbar Rector, Saint John’s Church, Savannah O Lord, my trust is in thy mercy, and my heart is joyful in thy salvation: I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt so lovingly with me. Ps 13:5,6 We are just past the midpoint of the Christian year. From Advent to Trinity we have rehearsed the story of the Son of God’s becoming … [Read more...]
Audio Recording of Liturgy for Whitsunday
Liturgy with Procession for The Day of Pentecost Whitsunday Missa “Dum complerentur" Tomás Luis de Victoria (c1548-1611) at The Church of the Advent, Boston / May 31, 2020 With music from the Sound Archive https://soundcloud.com/mark-dwyer-2/20200531-sunday-mass-webcast The Rev’d Douglas Anderson, Celebrant The Rev’d Jay C. James, … [Read more...]
Sermon for Pentecost, Whitsunday – St John’s Savannah
A Sermon for the feast of Pentecost, or Whitsunday Sunday By Fr Gavin Dunbar, Rector, and PBS USA President 31st May 2020, at Saint John’s Church in Savannah ... with many other words did [Peter] testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 2:40 Pentecost bursts on the disciples of Jesus with the sound of a mighty rushing wind – the power of the storm-wind, the untameable hurricane, terrifying and exhilarating all at … [Read more...]
Soothsayers, Magic & the end of Fanaticism: the case for Bishop Butler
Canon Macdonald-Radcliff reflects upon a week that began with the Feast of St Augustine of Canterbury and considers the relevance of Bishop Butler's thought to the current pandemic and our responses to it. Please use the link below: https://soundcloud.com/mark-dwyer-2/20200529-daily-meditation-webcast Please follow this … [Read more...]
Sermon for the Sunday after Ascension Day
Hans (Suess) von Kulmbach, 1513 (born c. 1480 in Kulmbach, Franconia, died. c. 3 December 1522 in Nuremberg), He was the artist who created the Kraków St John's Altar. Preacher: The Revd. Fr Gavin Dunbar St John's Church Savannah If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.1 … [Read more...]
Fifth Sunday After Easter (Sixth of Easter) Rogation Sunday
Above: Blessing of the Fields for a good harvest and walking of the parish bounds during WWII Book of Common Prayer Collect and Readings for the day and Sermon The Collect. O LORD, from whom all good things do come; Grant to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. The … [Read more...]
The Fourth Sunday after Easter
The Fourth Sunday after Easter For an Audio webcast of The Liturgy for the Fourth Sunday After Easter (From The Church of the Advent Boston) use the following link https://soundcloud.com/mark-dwyer-2/20200510-sunday-mass-webcast Vidi Aquam – Tomás Luis de Victoria, (c1548-1611) Paschal Kyrie - John Sheppard (c1515–1558) The French Mass – John Sheppard O Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house - Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656) Domine, quis habitabit in tabernaculo tuo … [Read more...]
Prison Chaplains and the Corona Virus Pandemic – a view from London
The chapel of HMP Wormwood Scrubs a prison built in 1874 (mainly for prisoners awaiting deportation) to a design by the military engineer Edmond du Cane (c.f. https://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/historic-buildings/art66719) PRISON CHAPLAINS AND THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC By John Plummer a member of St George's Parish, Mayfair and Coordinator of the London Prisons Mission (This article was originally published in the Parish bulletin and while not … [Read more...]
Second Sunday After Easter Sunday liturgical resources
Above: The Supper at Emmaus Rembrandt, 1648, The Dulwich Picture Gallery, London The Second Sunday after Easter Sunday For an Audio webcast of The Liturgy for the Second Sunday After Easter (From The Church of the Advent Boston) With Sermon by the Revd. Dr Jeff Hanson Click here For the Friday reflection on St Cyprian and the Early Church in a time of Plague (Canon Alistair Macdonald-Radcliff) Click here St John's … [Read more...]
Allelulia, Christ is risen…..
(The Church of the Advent, Boston above) To hear the Easter Sunday Webcast CLICK HERE Holy Week EASTER DAY AT Morning Prayer, instead of the Venite, the following shall be said, and may be said throughout the Octave. CHRIST our Passover is sacrificed for us : therefore let us keep the feast, Not with [the]* old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness : but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 1 Cor. v. 7. CHRIST being … [Read more...]
The Liturgy of Good Friday
(St George's Hanover Square) To hear the opening of the St Matthew Passion by J.S. Bach as traditionally sung in the parish on this day Click here Holy Week GOOD FRIDAY The Liturgy of Good Friday audio is available HERE A Sermon for Good Friday is available HERE (further listings are also placed below the Collects and Litany) The Collects: ALMIGHTY God, we beseech thee graciously to behold … [Read more...]
Tuesday in Holy Week — audio and video resources
Entry into Jerusalem, Pietro Lorenzetti. (Assisi, Lower Basilica, San Francesco, southern transept) Public domain Holy Week ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility; Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his … [Read more...]
Some prayer resources for these difficult days
The Prayer Book Society offers the following short selection of resources at this time of crisis, when many of the Churches across the country have to be closed. More will be provided in the days ahead. To hear a short meditation with music for the day click here St John's Parish Savannah offers links to Morning and Evening Prayer with The PBS President Fr. Gavin Dunbar here as well as a selection of prayers from The Book of Common … [Read more...]
How you can help !
The PBS: Teaching what Classical Anglicanism truly is Does anyone know what Anglicanism is? Is there even a thing – coherent and unified – which we could identify as Anglicanism? Even manyAnglicans don’t seem to know – and some even boast of it. It should be no surprise therefore that our Anglican Communion is fractured and fragmented, since our understanding of the truth is fragmented. But the Lord said, “gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost” – and as faithful … [Read more...]
Anglicans and Crisis
Some historical reflections bring out the importance of asking What is Classical Anglicanism? - the topic of the 2019 PBS Anglican Way Conference James II of England by Peter Lely (Public Domain) Reports of the collapse and incipient demise of Christianity, in one or another form, are not a new phenomenon, even if nowadays, vituperative debates in which one branch seeks gleefully to put down another is, happily, quite rare. By contrast with such ecumenical amity as we may now … [Read more...]
Human Rights and Wrongs – Further Reithian thoughts of Jonathan Sumption
Lord Jonathan Sumption (BBC) The Invention of Rights would be a tempting if extreme subtitle to add to the third of the recent Reith Lectures given by Lord Sumption. It is tempting because he makes clear that just such an activity has cone to define the work of one of the most influential courts in the field of human rights, namely that of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. This Court, established by international Treaty interprets the European Convention on Human Rights which … [Read more...]
Grounding the normative in the State: Part 1: Law’s expanding empire and human rights – notes on the 2019 Reith Lectures
(Image above: The Bench by William Hogarth, Public Domain) The rise of what is often called "judicial activism" in the United States is part of a much wider phenomenon in which the roles of democratic legislatures and lawmakers have come, increasingly, to be circumscribed by the Courts, which often perform this role citing a seemingly ever expanding domain of human rights in justification. The recent series of lectures by a distinguished British Appellate Judge and Law Lord, Jonathan … [Read more...]
Reformed and Catholic? Bradford Littlejohn on the quest for Identity in a Rootless Church
Reformed and Catholic? Searching for Identity in a Rootless Church By Dr. Bradford Littlejohn Director of the Davenant Institute Introduction: Reformed or Catholic? Ten years ago now, in 2009, the growing hodgepodge of congregations and bishops that protested against the spreading corruptions in the Episcopal Church formally banded together to form the Anglican Church in North America. Since that time, many other churches, like lifeboats from the sinking Episcopal Church, have … [Read more...]
ACC 17 and the GAFCON Primates’ Statement
The ACC 17 meeting convenes in Hong Kong and the GAFCON Primates’ Council convenes in Sydney Recent days have seen two meetings of wide import for the future of the Anglican Communion, namely the convening of the GAFCON Primates’ Council in Sydney Australia from April 29th – May 2, 2019, and the Anglican Consultative Council in Hong Kong from 28thof April 5thMay. These meetings comprised two very different events which reflect in their very differences something of the … [Read more...]
The Curious Case of Admiral Byng
“il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres”. THE CURIOUS CASE OF ADMIRAL BYNG The month of March brings with it the anniversary of one of the stranger episodes in the history of the British Royal Navy – namely the execution in 1757, on his own Quarterdeck, of Admiral John Byng an event which occasioned the famous remark of Voltaire in Candide that in this country, “il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les … [Read more...]
Why I am still an Anglican by Dr. Roberta Bayer
What possible reason could there be for someone who is Anglican/Episcopal and faithful to the theology of historic Christianity, not to be drawn to that greatest of churches within the Western tradition, the Roman Catholic Church? It is remarked by many that over the last few decades there has been a steady movement of Anglicans to Rome whenever the leaders in the Episcopal or Anglican Church advance teachings which do not accord with Scripture. Yet, the migration to Rome is … [Read more...]
Lessons for Lent : Chastity (from the Archives)
Virtus vel voluptas? Lorenzo Lotto: Allegory of Chastity, c. 1505, .National Gallery, London nhttps://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.288.html The Revd. Samuel L. Edwards in 1986 wrote a long article for the Newsletter of the Evangelical and Catholic Mission which he later summarized for the Journal of the Prayer Book Society in 1995, under the heading: Sexuality and the Christian. The article set out with his usual clarity four lines of thought. First, he reframed our … [Read more...]
A Sermon in the Season of Epiphany
The Baptism of the Lord Sermon Notes A. Macdonald-Radcliff For an audio version please go to: https://www.theadventboston.org/sermon-preached-by-fr-macdonald-radcliff-january-13-2019/ (The Readings of the day are appended Isaiah 42:1-9, Psalm 89, Acts 10:34-38, Luke 3:15-16, 21-22) In the name of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost… It is striking that the Church calendar, after the great Feast of Christmas plunges rather rapidly after Low Sunday into two particularly … [Read more...]