Good morning,
Here are some happenings coming up:
The Guild of St. Joseph breakfast will be Saturday, Nov.21, 9am in the Trinity Centre. A $10 donation is appreciated.
The annual Snowflake Tea and Bake Sale is Saturday, Nov.14, in the Trinity Centre, 11am – 2pm; $15.
Elvis is in the Building! Saturday, Nov.21: Come enjoy a couple of hours (2pm – 4pm) of fabulous tunes and fellowship for just $5. Elvis impersonator, Mike Catling, will be sharing his talent with us. Hotdogs $2 and other snacks and drinks available. In the new Trinity Tower Common Room. Enter through the church doors (north entrance of 360 Northern Ave. E; off Old Garden River Road). Call 705-254-1692 or email me (susan.montague2@gmail.com) to reserve your tickets – they’re going quickly!
Next movie night is Friday, Nov.27, 6pm in the Trinity Centre. We’ll be watching “The Nightmare Before Christmas”. $5 entry and all the snacks you can eat.
ADVENT QUIET DAY – JOY: Saturday, November 28, 10am -2pm in the Trinity Centre. Feeling frazzled? Busy? Unfocused or lost? Come join me for conversation and reflection as we rediscover and reignite the deep-rooted joy of being a follower of Christ. Lunch will be provided so please let me know if you’re coming.
“Muffins & Market” is Saturday, December 5 in the Trinity Centre, 10am – 2pm; with various vendors, “new to you” table, baking, etc. Come enjoy a coffee (or tea) and muffin and browse the tables.
Emmaus also has an event – A Not-So-Silent Night – on the evening of December 5. Please see below for more information.
A Liturgical Note For You: Marking Remembrance Day
With Remembrance Day approaching it is important to know what we should do in our churches on the Sunday before (Nov.8).
Remembrance Day is a very important and solemn occasion that we should, indeed, mark with ceremony. You can check with your closest Legion Branch to find out the details of the ceremonies taking place on November 11 in your area. You will notice, though, that “Remembrance Day” is not a Christian calendar observance. If you check our November calendar on p.32 of the BAS (p.xii of the BCP), it’s not there.
What about in our churches? Congregations could choose to have a Remembrance Day service on November 11 and then process (or drive) to a war memorial, cenotaph, or graveyard for prayers of remembrance. But what about on Sunday, Nov.9? It is appropriate to have a Holy Eucharist or Morning Prayer worship service that names, in the Prayers of the People, parishioners who have died over the past year and those who have died in wars. This worship service could also contain an Act of Remembrance. Immediately before the “Sending of the Church” would be the time to name the parishioners who have died in war and served in war. Prayers for the faithful departed can be said along with a prayer for the peace of God to come and end all wars and other violence. The propers for All Souls Day could be used for a “Remembrance Sunday” worship service.
Please note that this Sunday worship service is not a Remembrance Day service – it is not meant to replace the cenotaph service or Legion Branch service that takes place on November 11. The Sunday worship is the commemoration of the departed within the context of the usual Sunday Feast of our Lord. You may want to read about Martin of Tours (below) and wonder to yourself why the Church has chosen to acknowledge this day on November 11. Also, here is something that may cause you discomfort – but the Gospel is not meant to be comfortable: Jesus died to defeat the power of empire. How much of the ways of empire get included in worship services on special days like Remembrance Sunday?
For Your Devotions:
Tuesday, November 10th is the memorial of Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, Teacher of the Faith who died in 461. Leo was the bishop of Rome from 440-461 and is best known for two things. The first is that he was an ardent defender of orthodoxy (i.e. true worship). He wrote against the heresy which said Christ only had one nature because his human nature was completely absorbed into his divine nature. We believe that Christ was fully human and fully divine at the same time which is what Leo wrote in his famous “Tome” used at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 to condemn the heresy. Stemming from this is the second thing for which Leo is known. He vigorously supported “papal supremacy”. Other bishops who supported this position had his tome declared as “the voice of Peter”. This was one of the causes of the strain and eventual split between the churches of East and West. For more info: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Leo-I
Wednesday, November 11th is the memorial of Martin, Bishop of Tours, died 397. Martin, against his will, was a soldier in the Roman army. While a soldier and a catechumen (learning the faith in order to be baptized), legend says Martin tore his cloak in half in order to share with a beggar. Martin dreamed that night that it was Christ who was clothed in the half cloak given to the beggar and, when Martin awoke, his cloak had been restored to wholeness. Martin petitioned the Roman emperor to leave the army saying that he was Christ’s soldier and not allowed to fight with weapons other than the word of God. He was charged with cowardice but offered to stand at the front of the battle line armed only with the sign of the cross. He was eventually allowed to leave the army. On Remembrance Day, as we remember all those who died or suffered harm during the conflicts of our world, I pray that humanity will embrace the way of God’s kingdom so that all swords will be beaten into plowshares and every spear be made into pruning shears (Is.2:4). More info on p.340 here: https://www.anglican.ca/wp-content/uploads/ForAlltheSaints.pdf
Thursday, November 12th is the commemoration of Charles Simeon, Church of England presbyter who died in 1836. “High Church” and “Evangelical” at the same time? Charles Simeon did it (and was criticized by people at both ends of the spectrum). He was educated at Cambridge and spent his entire ministry there as well. His influence is best summed up by this quotation from the Gregorian website: The influence of Simeon and his friends was thus described by the historian William Edward Hartpole Lecky: “They gradually changed the whole spirit of the English Church. They infused into it a new fire and passion of devotion, kindled a spirit of fervent philanthropy, raised the standard of clerical duty, and completely altered the whole tone and tendency of the preaching of its ministers.” We need more of all of that these days for sure! For more information… http://prayer.forwardmovement.org/the_calendar_response.php?id=401112
Saturday, November 14th is the commemoration of Samuel Seabury, the 1st Anglican Bishop in North America, died 1784. Seabury was a medical doctor and a priest at the same time – talk about busy! He was chosen by the clergy of Connecticut in 1783 to be their bishop but, at that time, the Law forbade the Archbishop of Canterbury to consecrate a ‘foreigner.’ To get around this little glitch, Seabury traveled to Scotland to be consecrated in the disestablished Episcopal Church in Scotland. To read more, check this out: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Samuel-Seabury
In the joy of Christ,
Susan
