The Tractarian The Parish Newsletter of the Anglican Cathedral of the Epiphany

Transcription

1 The Tractarian The Parish Newsletter of the Anglican Cathedral of the Epiphany Vol. 7, No. 2 February 2016 The Curate s Corner By The Reverend Zachary Braddock Brothers and Sisters in the Lord, As Septuagesima and Lent arrive, I want to let you know about several things coming up in the next few weeks. Beginning on Sunday, January 31 st, the Adult Sunday School will begin a discussion of the Rosary, and of other bead-based prayers. Devotions such as the Rosary and Prayer rope are common to both Eastern and Western Christianity, and have long been an important part of spiritual practice. This follows on the heels of our discussion of American Heresies, which went very well. On Palm Sunday, we will be looking at Holy Week and Easter exploring why we do what we do in our liturgies that week. Our Wednesday Night Bible Study is continuing to read through Scott Hahn s book, The Lamb s Supper, which draws the connections between the Eucharist and the Book of Revelation. Beginning on the first Friday in Lent, February 12 th, we will have Stations of the Cross following 5:30 Evening Prayer. After Stations, we ll have a light soup supper in the Parish Hall, with a Bible Study looking at Holy Week, from Jesus entry into Jerusalem to the Resurrection. May you have a holy Lent, and grow in faith and love. Fr. Braddock On choosing a Lenten Discipline When trying to decide what Lenten discipline to adopt, it s important to be realistic, while still seeking to run the race which is set before us, and to stretch and grow one s self spiritually. Remember that your aim is to grow closer to Jesus not to take the world s record in fasting. Here are a few suggestions from our clergy: 1. Attend those weekday masses and offices which you can. 2. Read a section or chapter of a spiritual work, such as the Philokalia, The Imitation of Christ, or the daily office readings. 3. Say the Rosary, the Angelus, or Morning and Evening Prayer daily. 4. Reading, alone or with others, the Family Prayers in the back of the Prayer Book. 5. Fast or abstain from food, or a particular type of food such as meat. 6. Abstain from electronics, movies, television, or other forms of entertainment. 7. Participate in acts of mercy, for example, volunteering at Streetside Ministries, or at Harvest Hope Food Bank.

2 Parish Notes We will celebrate the Feast of the Presentation (Candlemas), on Tuesday the 2 nd with Evening Prayer at 5:30 and mass following at 6:00. Our Organist & Choir Master, Matthew Ganong, will be giving recitals Thursdays at noon, beginning Thurs, Feb 4 th. Free & open to the public! Family Movie Night on Saturday, February 6 th, beginning at 6:00 p.m., join us for pizza, popcorn, and soft drinks as we watch The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug! Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper on Tuesday the 9th, following 5:30 Evening Prayer. Priests will be available for Confessions from 4:30-5:30, and after supper. ASH WEDNESDAY (February 10 th ) there will be three opportunities for the imposition of ashes. See the full schedule on page 8. Stations of the Cross every Friday in Lent, following 5:30 Evening Prayer. The Stations will be followed by a light soup supper and Bible Study we ll call it Even-soup. Volunteers are needed to make soup for three of the five days. The next Vestry meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 17, after the 6 p.m. Mass. Adult Sunday School class (Sunday, 9:45-10:15) join us as we discuss the Rosary. Join us Wednesday evenings after the 6:00 Mass for a Bible study. The 2016 Diocesan Synod (April 14-15) will be hosted by the Cathedral Church of the Epiphany in Columbia, S.C. The Tractarian 2 February 2016

3 Chapel Chatter By Fr. Paul Sterne WE NEED YOUR HELP As announced at our annual parochial meeting, St. Theodore's Chapel is looking for a couple of volunteers to help us face a conundrum in the coming months. Our long-time student president and bi-weekly pizza deliverer, Virginia Noxon, is finishing her degree and relocating to Maryland. She has dutifully brought pizza to our Sunday evening Bible study every other week for many years, and Maryland s gain will be USC s loss. On alternate Sundays, we have homemade soup prepared by Rhetta Hartin and Nancy Eversmann. Thus, we need someone to fill the gap! We also have been looking for a volunteer for some time to come in every other week to do light secretarial tasks, but have not had anyone step up as yet. However, if you would like to join the soup ministry, this would help solve both problems, for it would provide another supper for students, as well as freeing up funds from our pizza budget (allowing us to hire a starving student for the secretarial position). Meals don't even have to be soup; anything is appreciated. And any amount you spend on food can easily be counted as a donation to write off on your taxes, so everybody wins! Please speak to Fr. Sterne if you have any questions or would like to volunteer. Weekly Recitals at Epiphany! Greetings from Matthew Ganong: I am going to be starting a series of weekly concerts on Thursdays at noon, at the Anglican Church of the Epiphany, beginning on Thursday, February 4 th, with an organ recital. I'll be playing works by Sweelinck, Buxtehude, Bach, Mendelssohn, and Ganong. The concerts will take place every Thursday at noon, and will present a variety of musical offerings. I will present recitals on the organ and piano, and colleagues are also welcome to perform at these concerts. I want to create a space for the musicians of Columbia to gather together and vitalize the musical life of the city, in a church that has some of the finest acoustics in town. If you want to hear live classical music in Columbia on any Thursday at noon, you know where to go! (Matthew Ganong is Organist & Choirmaster at Epiphany) Bring the family for our annual Pancake Supper on Shrove Tuesday February 9 th in the Undercroft! Kick back and enjoy the pancakes, bacon, and sausage prepared by the men of the Parish! Help feed the students! There may be a hymn-sing again this year, so bring your singing voice! The Tractarian 3 February 2016

4 The Seminarian s Soapbox A Meditation on Psalm 78: Deconstruction for Reconstruction By Matthew Crutchfield St. Augustine wrote once that to be human means to be in error. If this is indeed the case, then Lent is the most honest and the most human event in the liturgical year. It is the most honest because it shows each and every one of us our innate humanness; which is, to error, to be disordered. Year after year, I am to give up something that makes me wrestle with my own sinfulness, my own inability to love God. Year after year, I place myself within the narrative of Scripture and realize that I am the nation of Israel. Psalm 78 is a reiteration of Israel s history. But is it just Israel s history? No, it is mine. I cannot divorce myself from Israel any more than I can divorce myself from my own humanity. I am of the generation who is stubborn and rebellious, whose spirit [is] not steadfast with God. Even in God providing my daily bread, I demand more. Yet he who tells me my history is the Word Himself, the One who was and is to come. Christ, who speaks in parables, speaks to me in this Psalm. My confrontation with Lent year after year is a confrontation with myself; with my own humanity. It serves as a mirror. I cannot escape Lent; I cannot escape myself. But [He] made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the Contemplation by Leonid Afremov wilderness like a flock. Christ does not reject me in light of my rejection. Even as the word of rebellion leaves my lips, the Word comes to me. Even as my words are filled with hate, the Word of Love comes to me. As we continue in this discovery of our humanness, may we become aware of the precious Grace that is in our midst. Dear Almighty Father, forgive us, Thy wayward children! Forgive us our arrogance that besets us even in our good deeds, in our self-righteous indignation. We thank thee for Thy Grace and Thy Word that besets us in the same moment. Oh, that we may know the peace that exceeds us! Oh, that we may dwell in Thy Goodness! Open my eyes to see that I am Israel, that I am the one who strives against You. Open my eyes to behold myself in dire need of Thy Grace. Oh precious Word, words fail, yet Love drives us to use syllables we don t understand. Amen. The Tractarian 4 February 2016

5 Movie Night Saturday, February 6 6:00 p.m. Please join us on the 6 th as we continue the Hobbit trilogy with The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug! The dwarves, along with Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey, continue their quest to reclaim Erebor, their homeland, from Smaug. After successfully crossing over (and under) the Misty Mountains, Thorin and Company seek aid from a powerful stranger before taking on the dangers of Mirkwood Forest. If they reach the human settlement of Lake-town, the party must complete the journey to the Lonely Mountain, locate the Secret Door, and burglar Baggins must confront the dragon Smaug, who is steadfastly guarding the treasure hoard. And where has Gandalf gone? What is his secret business to the south? Pizza, popcorn, and soft drinks will be provided! You provide the fellowship! Invite friends and family a great evening is in store for those who attend. Parish Rummage Sale We are planning to hold a parish rummage sale in March. It s been a while since our last one, and we re coinciding a sale with everyone s Spring Cleaning schedule! If you have items you d like to donate toward this fundraiser (and you KNOW you do), please bring them to the church and alert either Fr. Zach or Kate Moore that the items have been brought in. A good place to begin storing the donations is in the alcove at the bottom of the stairs. Also, if you d like to volunteer to assist on the sale day (still to be determined, but it will be on a Saturday), by all means speak up! The Tractarian 5 February 2016

6 Liturgical Questions and Quandaries Have a question about the way that we worship, or about the Prayer Book or Hymnal? Ask one of the clergy. Each month some of these will be featured here. How do we figure out the date of Easter? Easter Day is always the First Sunday after the Full Moon, which happens upon or next after the Twentyfirst Day of March; and if the Full Moon happen upon a Sunday, Easter Day is the Sunday after. (BCP, page l) To see how the date of Easter relates to the dates of other important days in the liturgical calendar, see page lv of the Prayer Book. What is the point of Pre-Lent? Historians debate how the season of Pre-Lent began, but it dates to approximately 568 AD, and was likely either an extension of Lent or a vestige of a celebration of the Roman New Year, and was connected with agriculture and growth. Another indication of this is that the daily office lessons begin on Septuagesima Sunday with the first chapter of Genesis. For us, Pre-Lent is a reminder that Lent will soon be upon us, and we should prepare our Lenten disciplines. Lent has not begun, but as we would prepare to work towards a goal by making sure that we are ready, so we should prepare for the race that is set before us this Lent. For to despise the present age, not to love transitory things, unreservedly to stretch out the mind in humility to God and our neighbor, to preserve patience against offered insults and, with patience guarded, to repel the pain of malice from the heart, to give one s property to the poor, not to covet that of others, to esteem the friend in God, on God s account to love even those who are hostile, to mourn at the affliction of a neighbor, not to exult in the death of one who is an enemy, this is the new creature whom the Master of the nations seeks with watchful eye amid the other disciples, saying: If, then, any be in Christ a new creature, the old things are passed away. Behold all things are made new. ~ St. Gregory the Great St. Gregory the Great was Pope from 590 to 604 The Tractarian 6 February 2016

7 Prayer Intentions February 1. St. Ignatius of Antioch, B.M. 110 For all persecuted Christians 2. PURIFICATION OF THE BVM In thanks for the light of Christ in our souls 3. St. Blase, B.M. 316 For those who suffer from afflictions of the throat 4. St. Gilbert of Sempringham, Pr.C For grace to bring good out of our troubles 5. St. Agatha, V.M. 251 For those who suffer from diseases of the breast 6. St. Titus, B.C. 1 st Cent. For love & respect among all members of the Church 7. St. Romuald, Ab For those who live alone 8. St. John of Matha, C For those who are rejected by the world 9. St. Cyril of Alexandria, B.C.D. 444 In thanks for Christ s uniting God & Man 10. St. Scholastica, V. 543 For all women called to the monastic life 11. Feria For peace in the world 12. St. Benedict Biscop, B. 690 For grace to use our resources wisely 13. Feria For all our departed ancestors 14. St. Valentine, Pr.M. 270 For an increase in true Christian love 15. The Martyrs of Japan, 1597 For the Church in Asia 16. Feria For the forgotten 17. St. Finan, B.C. 661 For the unity of Christ s Church 18. St. Simeon, kinsman of the Lord B.M. 107 For the virtue of justice 19. Feria For the hungry 20. The Holy Martyrs & Missionaries of Africa For the mission of the Church 21. Feria For all the faithful departed 22. St. Joseph of Arimathea, C. 1 st Cent. For those who care for the dying 23. Vigil of St. Matthias For grace to accept the vocation God gives us 24. ST. MATTHIAS THE APOSTLE For all bishops in Christ s Church 25. St. Walburga, V. 780 For detachment from worldly goods 26. St. Ethelbert, K.C. 616 For an increase in self-control 27. Bl. George Herbert, Priest and Poet 1633 For the grace to forgive others 28. Bl. Richard Froude, Pr In thanks for this past month s blessings 29. Feria For the forgotten SEXAGESIMA QUINQUAGESIMA Shrove Tuesday ASH WEDNESDAY (fast & abstinence) FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT For the growth of our parish For an increase of love within our parish In thanks for the opportunity for quiet & reflection in Lent For grace to keep a holy Lent For a penitent spirit in our parish In thanksgiving for our parish For the growth of our parish The Tractarian 7 February 2016

8 Schedule for Ash Wednesday 7:30- Morning Prayer 8- Penitential Office, Imposition of Ashes, Mass 12- Penitential Office, Imposition of Ashes, Mass 5:30- Evening Prayer 6- Penitential Office, Imposition of Ashes, Mass Priests will be available before and after all services, and by appointment, for confessions. Anglican Church of the Epiphany The Rt. Rev. Paul C. Hewett, SSC, Bishop/Rector The Rev. Paul A. Sterne, SSC, Assisting The Rev. Zachary Braddock, Curate The Rev. Mark Johnson, Deacon 2512 N. Beltline Blvd. Columbia, SC (803) A Catholic and Evangelical Parish in the Anglican Tradition Diocese of the Holy Cross Affiliated with Forward in Faith Member of FACA 2015 Vestry George Ashbridge Tristram Bethea John Blocker Lee Honeycutt Kate Moore The Tractarian 8 February 2016