The full text of Pope Francis’s Christmas message, Urbi et Orbi, is here. He departed from his prepared text: And I also invite non-believers to desire peace with that yearning that makes the heart grow: all united, either by prayer or by desire. But all of us, for peace. It has been noted that “Francis’s
Christmas messages 2013 Read More »
The Church of England is debating its rules on clergy vesture. Much discussion has followed from the Mail Online article. Note the motivation: “Rules requiring the clergy to don traditional vestments are set to be swept aside as part of a ‘makeover’ designed to make services more relevant to modern congregations.” Read my lips: Absolute
The Crowning – by Sara Star Any words I say could too quickly detract from rather than add to this image. I am grateful to my e-friend, Rev. Scott Gunn, for pointing me to it on Christmas morning. The original is in acrylic paints and 23 kt gold leaf on a 5ft/1.5m hand-built, wooden-frame canvas.
Crowning: Mary giving birth to Jesus Read More »
Blessings to you and yours for the Christmas Season and for the Year of Our Lord 2014. Thank you for being part of this virtual community. Whether you regard the Christmas Season as concluding on Christmas Day, Epiphany, the Baptism of the Lord, Candlemas, the Sunday following Candlemas, or are Orthodox, or Armenian, and celebrate
Responsory for the first Nocturn at Matins on Christmas Eve, found in a manuscript from the Abbaye de Fleury, dated c. 1170. The full text reads: Reno erat Rudolphus Nasum rubrum habebat; Si quando hunc videbas, Hunc candere tu dicas. Omnes tarandri alii Semper hunc deridebant; Cum misero Rudolpho In ludis non ludebant. V. Sanctus
I believe One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church. Book of Common Prayer from 1549-1928 I believe one church, one Christian community. I’ve already explained that “I believe in one church” may be better expressed as “I believe one church“. And there are many ways to think about that. 1) Spiritually there is only one church.
I believe one Church Read More »
I only realtively recently fell over some research that the whole 8-hours-sleep-in-a-row pattern is relatively recent (see here, here, and here). The research of Roger Ekirch, professor of History at Virginia Tech, (presented in his book At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past) indicates we used to sleep in two shorter periods with wakefulness of
Sleeping like a monk Read More »
According to me, General Synod Te Hinota Whanui (GSTHW) has messed up in its regulations about weddings. I would, once again, love to be demonstrated to be incorrect. GSTHW has quietly swept previous liturgical irregularities it had produced under the ever-lumpier carpet. With so much debate around marriage it is a little surprising that it
NZ Anglican Marriage Requirements Read More »
