Good day,
Tomorrow I’ll be “attending” a free webinar offered by The Lewis Centre for Church Leadership. It is called “Improving Worship Attendance in a Post-Pandemic World.” Anyone interested in joining me? (Noon – 1:30 pm) The link to register is below…(Hopefully, this will be time well spent):
All Saints’ Day Zoom Evening Prayer: Jay and I will be worshiping on Zoom with anyone who would like to join us. As I mentioned before, All Saints’ Day is a Principal Feast of our church – one of just seven such feasts – and the actual day is not supposed to be ignored. When churches celebrate an All Saints’ Sunday after November 1st, this Sunday celebration is meant to be in addition to celebrating on the actual day of November 1st. Zoom is a great way to allow this to happen. The worship service will begin at 7pm on November 1st. I’ll send out the Zoom invitation that morning.
This Saturday, October 29th is a busy day for some people…beginning at 9am at Holy Trinity, SSM, is our deanery council meeting until noon. The meeting is also offered on Zoom. You will get the link if you’re meant to be at this meeting. The Saturday is also the day of Emmaus’ Rummage Sale (If this has changed, someone please let us know).
A Liturgical Note For You: Churches and chapels yearly mark the anniversary of their day of dedication or consecration. Sometimes, though, this day is not known or it falls on a Sunday in Advent, Lent, Easter, or on Feasts of Our Lord and other Feasts taking precedence of Sunday. These Sundays of our weekly celebration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ are never, ever bumped for anything else. So, if your anniversary falls on one of those “unbumpable” Sundays or you don’t know the anniversary date, our church calendar provides you with a day – Tuesday, October 25th. Well, Tuesdays don’t really work well for most congregations to throw in an extra worship service so our calendar also says you can have your Feast of Dedication on the Sunday before All Saints’ Day. (Notice you do not celebrate All Saints’ Day on the Sunday before All Saints’ Day. It doesn’t matter if the Sunday before is closer to November 1st than the Sunday after…You don’t celebrate All Saints’ Day on a Sunday before All Saints’ Day).
For Your Devotions:
Wednesday, October 26th is the commemoration of Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons, who died in 899. Alfred had wanted to become a monk but, with the successive deaths of the heirs to the throne ahead of him, he became king of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain instead. After defeating the invading Danish army, Alfred made a deal with their leader – “swear allegiance to Christ and be baptized and I’ll let you keep some land.” Deal! Alfred turned his efforts to repairing the cultural damage done to his people by the ravages of war and is the only English monarch to be called, “Great.” For more info… http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/60.html
Friday, October 28th is the Holy Day of St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles. We actually know extremely little about the apostles we celebrate today but they are both thought to have come from the Zealots (the uncompromising and aggressive Jewish nationalist group who were opposed to pagan Rome). Simon is only mentioned on the lists of the apostles but Jude (actually, “Judas, not Iscariot”) is recorded as asking Jesus (in John’s Gospel) why he will choose to reveal himself only to the disciples and not to the world after his resurrection. For more information… https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saints-simon-and-jude/
Saturday, October 29 is the commemoration of James Hannington, Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa and his Companions, Martyrs, 1885. This is, sadly, a short story. James spent a few years serving a parish in England but then heard of two missionaries murdered on the shores of Lake Victoria in Africa. This turned his thoughts to mission and, after being consecrated as bishop, he arrived on the shores of Lake Victoria in 1885 only to be murdered, along with his colleagues, a few days later by order of King Mwanga of Uganda. An important member of the king’s household – Joseph Musaka (a Roman Catholic) – reproached the king for the massacre and was beheaded for speaking up. This was just the beginning of the atrocities. We remember additional martyrs of Uganda on June 3. For more info, see p.320: https://www.anglican.ca/wp-content/uploads/ForAlltheSaints.pdf
In the hope of the risen Christ,
Susan
Deanery of Algoma 