Sunday, August 30, the Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Dear Friends in Christ,
This week’s worship videos are now available:
Morning Prayer, Rite II:
Morning Prayer, Rite I:
Please support our ministries, if you aren't already doing so.
A turn of phrase in our Collect of the Day inspired me to do a bit of research. The petition, "increase in us true religion," undoubtedly has caught the attention of many worshippers. I'm sure many people have made unfortunate assumptions about what it might mean. It's not putting down other religions or other traditions within Christianity. Although when Thomas Cranmer adapted and translated the prayer from Roman Catholic sources, he added the word "true," so he might well have had an axe to grind. But the word "religion" comes from the Latin religio, meaning obligation, bond, or reverence. So it means acting on our beliefs, practicing our faith. For us, as we live through a time when familiar ways of practicing our faith are difficult or impossible, this petition takes on a new relevance and immediacy. Whatever ways God leads us to practice our faith are true indeed.
Thank you to everyone who filled out our regathering survey — we're up to 57 responses, which is great! Especially since it means we don't have to do a lot of follow-ups. But if you haven't gotten to it yet, there's still time to share your thoughts.
Please join us for our virtual coffee hour at noon:
• To join in the Zoom app, use the Meeting ID: 852 8633 0838 (no password).
• To join in your browser, click here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85286330838
• To join from a smartphone, tap here: +16465588656,,85286330838#
• To join from a conventional phone, call (646) 558-8656 and enter the Meeting ID.
Hope to see many of you then!
Here are Mark's music notes:
We welcome back music well known to our congregation, the Gloria from David Hurd’s New Plainsong Mass, S277 in a new recording by our singers. Also familiar is the Wisdom Anthem by yours truly with the wonderful words from Proverbs 9. Hymn 707 opens the liturgy, “Take my life, and let it be consecrated” a wonderful hymn with a perfect tune. Frances Ridley Havergal penned these words in February 1874 after a visit to Arely House in Worcestershire, England in December of the previous year.
She wrote:
There were ten persons in the house, some unconverted and long prayed for, some converted by not rejoicing Christians. He gave me the prayer, ‘Lord, give me all this house.’ And He just did. Before I left the house everyone had got a blessing … The last night of my visit I was too happy to sleep, and passed most of the night in praise and renewal of my own consecration, and these little couplets formed themselves and chimed in heart, one after another, till they finished, ‘ever, only, all for Thee.’
We’ll finish off with an old Swedish hymn (which we’ve sung several times in the past) “Day by Day.” Wikipedia includes this summary:
Day by Day is a Christian hymn written in 1865 by Lina Sandell several years after she had witnessed the tragic drowning death of her father. Sandell-Berg was a prolific Swedish hymn writer. Two of her hymns, "Day By Day" and "Children of the Heavenly Father" are widely known in the U.S. "Day by Day" started appearing in American hymnals in the latter half of the 1920s, and its popularity has increased since then. The hymn's tune was composed in 1872 by Oscar Ahnfelt. The hymn's Swedish name is "Blott en Dag," its first three words in Swedish. The words mean "just one day" or "just another day."
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The Rev. Bret B. Hays
Rector
Saint John’s Episcopal Church