By Drew Nathaniel Keane (*This original article was first published online on Covenant, the weblog of The Living Church to whom grateful thanks is most warmly extended) This first section of the article (published here earlier) covered the proposals for Morning Prayer, Baptism.This section now looks at the proposals for Holy Communion and the Lectionaries in the forthcoming ACNA Prayer Book By way of introducing this second Section of the original Article it … [Read more...]
Reflection and Choral Evensong commemorating St Gilbert of Sempringham
Introit : Praise ye the Lord, ye children (Ps 113:1-4) -- Christopher Tye (1500-1572) Preces and Responses*: Wlliam Smith of Durham (1603-1645) Psalm 23: Dominus regit me -- Sir John Goss (1800-1880), The Lord is my shepherd; * therefore can I lack nothing. 2 He shall feed me in a green pasture, * and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort. Magnificat sexti toni -- Adrian Willaert (1490-1562) Nunc dimittis tertii toni -- Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611) Reflection on St … [Read more...]
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – Address and Vigil service
The sisters of the Community of Grandchamp in Switzerland were invited by the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity to produce the liturgical material for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity this year. The link below may be used to access the Audio of a webcast from the 2nd of three Vigils held over the course of the week of Prayer for Christian Unity, in this case held jointly (online) by the congregations of The Grosvenor Chapel Mayfair and the … [Read more...]
New Archbishop of Dublin makes waves – on women Deacons, Priests, same-sex unions and clerical celibacy
Considerable interest has been generated far beyond the shores of Ireland by the recently announced appointment of Dermot Farrell as the new Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, in succession to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin a former Vatican diplomat. The Archbishop elect gave a long interview to the Irish Times that has occasioned alarm among traditional Roman Catholics who understood him to have stated that he is "in favor of women deacons and married priests. He does not find in … [Read more...]
The Revd. Dr. Robert Crouse remembered
The Rt. Revd Anthony Burton, of the Parish of the Incarnation in Dallas, yesterday noted the tenth anniversary of the death of the Revd. Dr Crouse with this tribute on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bishopburton The Rev. Dr. Robert Crouse, one of the most influential Canadian theologians of his generation, died ten years ago tonight in his rural childhood home on Crouse Road, Crousetown, Nova Scotia, where his family had lived for more than 200 years. He was 80. He … [Read more...]
Reflection for the Season of Epiphany (with particular reference to Giotto’s Scrovegni Frescoes)
To hear the audio please use this link: https://soundcloud.com/user-140188366/epiphanytide-reflection-with-music Organ voluntary: Toccata del secondo tono, (Anon.), played by Alessandro Bianchi, on the organ of the Basilica di S. Paolo Cantù, Como.. Anthem: For unto us a child is born, (The Messiah), Handel Reflection, part 1, Canon Alistair Macdonald-Radcliff The Shepherd’s Carol, Robert Chilcott Reflection, … [Read more...]
Reflection On The Last Great O Antiphon Of Advent, with Choral Music for Christmas Eve
Above: Mary Greets Elizabeth after the Annunciation, Fresco attributed to Isidoro Bianchi, Il Santuario di Santa Maria de Ghirli, Campione D'Italia To hear the Audio please click on the link below https://soundcloud.com/user-140188366/reflection-on-the-last-great-o-antiphon-of-advent-choral-music-for-christmas-eve Organ Voluntary: Cathedral Suite – Sarabande Played by Alessandro Bianchi The Organist and Director of Music at the Church of St Edward … [Read more...]
Of Alcuin and Antiphons…..
Raban Maur (left), supported by Alcuin (middle), dedicates his work to Archbishop Otgar of Mainz (Right) From the 9th Century Fulda - Manuscript: Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, cod.652, fol. 2v A reflection with Advent Choral Music including two settings of the O Antiphon: O Sapientia Organ Voluntary: Prelude on Rhosymedre -- Ralph Vaughan Williams Hymn: On Jordan’s bank (Winchester New) O Sapientia (the first of the “O Antiphons”) as set by Paweł Łukaszewski … [Read more...]
Advent Hope
BLESSED HOPE By The Revd. Fr. Gavin Dunbar (Rector St. John’s Episcopal Church, Savannah President of the Prayer Book Society, USA) I once listened to a clergyman speaking on the theme of hope: a great theme, and he knew how to talk. It became apparent, however, that the more he spoke the less he was saying. In particular I was struck by what he managed not to say: what we might hope for, and what we should hope in. His was a vague, generic hope, without any actual … [Read more...]
What is Common Prayer – by the Revd. Dr. Peter Toon
What is Common Prayer? The word “common” is used in all kinds of ways, and so what do Anglicans mean by the word “common” when it is associated with public prayer and worship? Since we are referring to the worship of our Creator and Redeemer, Almighty God, we can dismiss quickly the popular meaning of “common” as that which is ordinary, undistinguished or even of inferior quality. The texts of the services and rites used before God to address him are surely intended to be of high not low … [Read more...]
The First Sunday of Advent – Reflection with Choral Music
The Three Wise Men, John La Farge (1835-1910) La Farge, whose work in stained glass was widely admired is commemorate on 16th December together with Ralph Adams Cram and Robert Upjohn The Collect for the First Sunday of Advent: ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the … [Read more...]
Reflecting on the life to come…
A Reflection on the Last Things interspersed with choral music (The image above - public domain - is part of The Last Judgment a triptych attributed to the Flemish painter Hans Memling and painted between 1467 and 1471 now in the National Museum in Gdańsk in Poland) To listen click on this link below https://soundcloud.com/user-140188366/a-reflection-on-the-last-things-for-the-grosvenor-chapel-in-the-parish-of-mayfair-london Hymn, Now is the Evening Introit: Almighty and … [Read more...]
J. I. Packer on Revaluing the Book of Common Prayer
As we recall the great work and achievements of the late Professor J I Packer (image above from Regents College, Canada) who died in July this year, it is apposite to recall from the Society's archives this article first published in 2000: For Truth, Unity, and Hope: Revaluing the Book of Common Prayer (Comprising part of a very slightly edited version of an address first given to the Canadian Prayer Book Society It references the Canadian BCP of 1962 as well as the Book of … [Read more...]
Choral Evensong with Sermon, Commemoration of Bishop Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667)
Choral Evensong with Sermon upon the occasion of the Commemoration of Bishop Jeremy Taylor, on 12 August, 2020, for the The Grosvenor Chapel in the Parish of Mayfair. Officiant and Preacher: The Revd. Canon Alistair Macdonald-Radcliff To hear please click on the link below: https://soundcloud.com/user-140188366/evensong-sermon-commemoration-of-bp-jeremy-taylor-12-august-2020 Prelude: the Corrente from Bach’s Cello Suite no. 1 in G major_BWV 1007, transcribed for the Viola, … [Read more...]
What are the duties of Christians, … in a time of such dire calamity? – John Keble
That was the Question posed by John Keble in his famous Assize Sermon that launched the Oxford Movement in July 1833 Commemorated in a Choral Evensong with Sermon upon the Feast of John Keble https://soundcloud.com/user-140188366/choral-evensong-sermon-for-the-feast-of-john-keble-july-2020 With music from the sound archives of The Grosvenor Chapel under the Direction of Richard Hobson and the Church of Advent Boston, under the Direction of Mark Dwyer assisted by Jeremy … [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...]
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...]
The Third Sunday After Easter Sunday
The Third Sunday after Easter The Collect Almighty God, who shewest to them that be in error the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness: Grant unto all them that are admitted into the fellowship of Christ's religion, that they may eschew those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. The Epistle 1 St. Peter 2.11-17 Dearly beloved, I beseech … [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...]
If a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully….
Christ the Good Shepherd c.1540 Lucas Cranach the Younger Angermuseum, Erfurt A Sermon for the Second Sunday after Easter (Good Shepherd Sunday) 26th April 2020, at Saint John’s Church in Savannah From the FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF SAINT PETER THE APOSTLE 2:19 i . In the ancient world slaves supplied needed muscle in mines and fields, skilled labor in workshops and households. They occupied positions of responsibility as managers, doctors, … [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...]
Good Friday Sermon
Good Friday Sermon by Alistair Macdonald-Radcliff My God, my God, look upon me; why hast thou forsaken me… Psalm 22, 1 In the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost…. AMEN Today we come to the darkest point in the church’s liturgical calendar In a bare and somber church intentionally emblematic of the utmost earthly desolation --as is uniquely appropriate to that terrible moment which we have just heard narrated in the Gospel, namely the … [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...]
The Way of the Cross & the Way of Salvation
Image above by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay Words from the Gospel of John 19: 16 – 17 So they took Jesus, and he went out,bearing his own cross, to the place called “The Place of a Skull”,which in Aramaic is called Golgotha A Sermon 19thApril 2019 AMR In the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost….. AMEN Having just heard in the uniquely striking way (that happens only on Good Friday) the Passion narrative of St John’s Gospel -- we should perhaps remind ourselves just how distinctive St … [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...]