Finishing off the Week of May 3:
Guild of St. Joseph Breakfast: Saturday, May 9,9am; $10 for a hearty breakfast and discussion.
Coming Up in the Week of May 10 and Beyond:
In Person Easter Book Study: The Meal that Jesus Gave Us: Understanding Holy Communion by N.T. Wright. Next study is Tuesday, May 12 at 4pm in the Trinity Centre. What better time than during Easter, just following Jesus’ institution of this meal with his disciples, than to learn more about this astounding gift. You don’t need to have the book to benefit from the discussion. More dates to be announced soon…
Spring Fling Barbecue & Everything Sale: Saturday, May 23, 11am to 3pm in the Trinity Centre; craft tables, baking, “new to you”, sausages, hot dogs, pop, freshly baked cinnamon buns, and so on….
Next Movie Night: Friday, May 29, 6pm in the Trinity Centre, “Wild Hogs” starring Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence, and William H. Macy
A Liturgical Note For You: Wind and Fire Coming Soon to a Worship Space Near You
In a couple of Sundays, we will have the Principal Feast of The Day of Pentecost. The Paschal Alleluias that we have been saying during our liturgies throughout the Easter season can be doubled at the dismissal for the Pentecost liturgy. The Paschal Season comes to an end after the day’s final liturgy – whether it be Evening Prayer or Compline. This means that the Paschal candle is extinguished at the end of the day’s services and is not lit again except for baptisms and funerals. The Paschal candle is moved from the prominent position where it has been throughout the Paschal Season and is placed back in its customary place – usually near the font. The liturgical colour for the Day of Pentecost is red since red is associated with the image of the Holy Spirit as fire. (There are other associations with the colour red which is why we wear red on other days of the church calendar as well).
Pentecost comes from Greek and means the fiftieth day. We celebrate it, therefore, on the 50th day following Easter. It is the day when, in Luke’s account, the disciples were given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Many people were then inspired, by Peter’s speech explaining this strange experience, to be baptized and follow the way of Jesus Christ – beginning the phenomenal growth of the early church that Luke likes to point out here and there in Acts. Clearly, Pentecost is a day especially appropriate for baptisms. If nobody is being baptized, we renew our baptismal vows as part of the Sunday worship. In Jewish history, Pentecost (Shavuot) was primarily celebrated as a day of thanksgiving for the first fruits of the harvest and so Christianity’s use of the same festival name indicates the view that, for Christians, the giving of the Holy Spirit is the first fruits of a new God-given system of ordering our lives that fulfills the Law.
One last point of clarification: The Day of Pentecost is a part of the Easter season. The Easter season ends after the final liturgy on the Day of Pentecost. This means that Pentecost is not a season of the church. There is no “season of Pentecost.” When Pentecost is over, we enter into Ordinary Time and we count Sundays as Sundays after Pentecost – not in Pentecost and not of Pentecost. Liturgically and theologically speaking, if there were a season of Pentecost, we would be wearing red the whole time. Ordinary Time is a formative time for us as we hear more of our great Story. More about that at a later time.
For Your Devotions:
Tuesday, May 12th is the commemoration of Florence Nightingale, Nurse, Social Reformer, died in 1910. Despite strong resistance from her family (nursing was not considered a suitable occupation for a lady of her status), Florence entered nursing school and eventually ended up in Turkey caring for British and Allied soldiers during the Crimean War. Under her high standards, the mortality rate decreased dramatically and she became known as “the lady of the lamp” because she dedicated her time to the soldiers during the dark hours of the night. To read more… https://www.britannica.com/biography/Florence-Nightingale
Thursday, May 14 is the Ascension of the Lord: This is one of the seven Principal Feasts of the Anglican Church (Easter, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Epiphany, All Saints, and Christmas are the other six). Christ’s ascension into heaven signals a new relationship between Jesus and God (Jesus took his place as ruler of all things at the right hand of God) and between us and God since, with Jesus’ physical departure, the gift of the Holy Spirit was given to us enabling us to actually participate in the divine life as members of Christ’s body. That’s an amazing reality – The Holy Spirit draws us into the life of the Trinity. Wow. To read more about this pivotal day: Ascension | Description, Significance, Feast, & Art | Britannica
Friday, May 15th is the Holy Day of St. Matthias the Apostle. (This has been transferred from the 14th since The Ascension is a Principal Feast). According to the first chapter of Acts, it is Matthias who is chosen to replace Judas Iscariot. Matthias then receives the Holy Spirit along with the other disciples and, after that, the New Testament does not mention him. Early tradition credits Matthias with Christianizing Cappadocia and the region around the Caspian Sea. It is also believed that Matthias was crucified. To read more… https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Matthias
In the joy of the risen Christ,
Susan
Deanery of Algoma 