Hello,

Friday (today!), July 3: $5 Monthly Meal in the Trinity Centre. 5pm for take-out and 5:30pm for eating in. We’ll be having pizza (pepperoni or cheese), veggies and dip, ice cream sundaes for dessert. Email susan.montague2@gmail.com to order.

Coming Up in the Week of July 5 and Beyond:

Next movie night: Friday, July 17, 6pm. We’ll be watching “Young@Heart” – about a senior rock choir…apparently, it’s hilarious (plus there’ll be good tunes!)

You can tell it’s summertime…less going on at the moment…

A Liturgical Note For You:   Why Colours Change on the Eve

You may have noticed – especially if you’ve had experience with being responsible for preparing the altar for worship – each day of the Christian calendar is assigned a colour (at the moment it is mostly green) but the colour of the day changes depending on what is being acknowledged and the colour of a single day can change in the evening. Why is this? Well, the answer is actually very simple. This goes back to the ancient way in which the Jewish people celebrated the Sabbath (and how they counted days in general). The Sabbath was celebrated from dusk on the Friday until dusk on the Saturday. And so, important holy days, like the Holy Day of The Birth of St. John the Baptist that we recently celebrated, are considered to begin with Evening Prayer the day before and end with the final worship service on the actual day listed on the calendar. This is, by the way, why, during our worship services on Christmas Eve, we are celebrating Christmas – the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. This also means that, when a saint’s day falls on Saturday, the colour of evening prayer on that day will actually change back to the colour of the season (green at the moment) because the Sunday celebration of Jesus’ resurrection is the more important celebration.

Why change the colours anyway? Our worship is multi-sensory, involving touch, sight, sound, physical movement, and so on. Visually engaging with the symbols and other elements involved in our worship is an important piece in our ongoing transformation…a very good reason to keep our eyes on what’s happening rather than looking at a book or a screen (except when absolutely necessary).

For Your Devotions:   

Monday, July 6th is the commemoration of Thomas More, lawyer, died 1535. More was loyal to King Henry VIII and defended the Catholic faith against Luther and other reformers when the Reformation began. He condoned the torture and burning of many ‘heretics’. Things turned sour for him when he supported the supremacy of the Pope over King Henry’s break with Rome – we all know what Henry did with people who didn’t agree with him or got in his way… More was charged with treason and beheaded on this day in 1535. Why do we acknowledge someone who actually opposed the forming of the Anglican Church?  Well, More was a brilliant scholar and stood against Henry’s intended break with Rome because it was politically motivated – Henry didn’t support the Reformation either. More’s final words were “I die the King’s good servant, but God’s first.” For more info…  https://www.biography.com/people/thomas-more-9414278

Saturday, July 11th is the memorial of Benedict of Nursia. Perhaps you recognize Benedict as the father of Western monasticism as we know it.  Benedict was born in Italy in the late 5th century and began his spiritual career as a hermit. News of his sanctity spread and he was encouraged to become the abbot of a monastery. True to form, the lives of these early church heroes are never easy…Someone did not take kindly to Benedict’s zealous reforms (aimed at adding structure and spirituality to these, sometimes questionable, institutions), and tried to poison him. Benedict returned to his life as a hermit but, thankfully, returned to monastic life to develop his now famous “Rule” providing the structure of prayer, work, and study for a monk’s day. For more info:  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Benedict-of-Nursia

In the joy of Christ,

Susan