Next Week: Trinitytide Series Begins

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Next week I expect to post Episode One in the newest AIC Seasonal Video series, Trinitytide: The Teaching Season.  I have completed the script and slides.  There will be 20 illustrations, 15 of them of the first Pentecost.  The oldest dates to 586 A.D.; then a selection from the 9th C. and another from the early 11th C.  The “new” one is a fresco in Israel from the late 19th C.-early 20th C.    There is also a selection of seasonal music for Whitsuntide from The St. Chrysostom Hymnal.

For the sake of clarity of focus, I’ve included Whitsunday, or Pentecost to nearly everyone but Anglicans, in the opening episode.  The decision was based upon a desire to accommodate viewers from other denominations and make it clearer to them, and to Anglicans, how to adjust the labelling to the post-Vatican II system of celebrating Pentecost and virtually abandoning the centuries-old celebration of Trinity Sunday and the following season.  Western Christians have been celebrating Trinity since about the time of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlesmagne in Western Europe.

The pictures are, in my opinion, stunning and inspiring, both in the choice of detail in content and in the artistic and spiritual aspects of the style.  With the little research on my part I was able to have a better understanding of the intent of the Byzantine Church in its choice of both how and what to include.  Join me next week for a fuller explanation and links to the episode.

As always, thank you for your interest in and support for this Internet-based ministry.  May God continue to bless you in all that you do in His glorious Name!  Amen.  Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

Eastertide-2018-Episode Three

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Christ-Ascension-Novgprod-14thC
The Ascension in the Novgorod style, painted in the 14th C., now in the Museum and Gallery, Bob Jones University, Greenville, S.C.  Public domain.

Last week I was so busy getting the garden ready for Spring and with issues related to my secular occupation that I just couldn’t put together my usual Weekly Update nor, owing to technical glitches with the Script/slide pairings, was I able to complete the final episode in Eastertide 2018 series.   This afternoon, I completed and uploaded Episode Three, which is focused on Fourth Sunday after Easter, Fifth Sunday after Easter (Rogation Sunday), Ascension Day and Sunday after Ascension. Not counting book covers and episode graphics, there are 15 illustrations, from the oldest surviving illustration of the Ascension, drawn in Northern Mesopotamia around 586 A.D. to an illumination for Ascension Day from the Bamberg Apocalypse, painted in the early 11th C., to several splendid Russian Orthodox icons of the Ascension by unknown artists and by the renowned Andrei Rublev from the 15th to the 17th C., to a relatively new stained glass window of the Resurrection from the 2nd quarter of the 20th C.  Note that all the traditional representations of the Ascension show the Blessed Virgin in the foreground plus the two men in white mentioned by St. Luke shown as angels, and a representation of the Glory of the Lord, usually a blue oval surrounding Jesus.  In one of the illustrations, by Italian artist Andrea Mantegna circa 1423-1424 and now at the Uffizi in Florence, Italy, the blue oval is formed by several angels.

Episode Three completes the series on Easter.  For thematic emphasis, I included Ascension Day and Sunday after Ascension in the discussion, which has the effect of completing the cycle begun with the Resurrection on Easter Day.   Similarly, I will touch upon Whitsunday/Pentecost at the start of the next series, Trinitytide: the Teaching Season, which should be available on or before May 20th, Trinity Sunday in 2018 A.D. The juggling for the Trinity series to include Whitsunday/Pentecost is necessary owing to the non-Anglican way, prevalent since Vatican II in 1969 A.D., of ignoring Trinity Sunday and counting the Sundays as being after Pentecost.   By making these adjustments, viewers will be able to follow the entire Church Calendar from Advent to Sunday next Before Advent in our Christian Education video series without missing any of the Collect-Epistle-Gospel pairings or missing any of the other changes (special verses or canticles and seasonal Propers).

Watch the video.    Listen to the Podcast version

Trinity-Title-miniI’ve begun work on the series for Trinitytide A.D. 2018, with a series graphic using Andrei Rublev’s c. 1420 A.D. icon in which the three visitors to Abraham under the Oak of Mamre represent the Holy Trinity.  Until the Renaissance, any representation of God the Father was forbidden, which they still are in the Eastern Church, which uses only images of Christ, who was seen by mankind.   The Holy Spirit is always the Dove described in the Gospels or a flame of fire described by St. Luke in Acts 2.  The type face is a new one I bought from a vendor for use with the series.  Each episode will include a small logo in the upper left of each slide without the icon.

Thanks for all the support, especially the viewing of the Good Friday videos.  May God bless you in all that you do in His Name.  Glory be to God for all things!  Amen!

Eastertide 2018 – Episode Two

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Christ is Risen from the dead! Allelulia!

Christ-Emmaus-w2-Disciples-DuccioEpisode Two in the AIC Seasonal Video series, Eastertide: From Resurrection to Ascension, is now available in both video and podcast versions.  Subjects are services for Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday, each commemorating a post-Resurrection appearance of Christ, and the First, Second and Third Sundays after Easter.  There are 16 illustrations from the 11th, 12th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th C., including the tempera on panel work, Jesus on the Road to Emmaus, by Duccio di Buoninsegna in the Byzantine style at the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (Siena), Siena, Italy, painted between 1308 and 1311 A.D. (Public domain: Yorck Project, 10,000 Masterwerke).

Watch the video.    Listen to the Podcast

Other artists whose work is represented in illustrations are Andrei Rublev (St. Paul; Jesus Christ); Altobello Melone (Road to Emmaus); Rembrandt (Supper at Emmaus); Raphael (Christ Resurrected); and Guadenzio Ferrari (the Resurrection scene, one of 21 images in Scenes in the Life of Christ).  Also included are a 10th C. mosaic and 14th C. bas relief of St. Peter; three stained glass windows from the 19th and 20th C. (Good Shepherd; St. Gregory the Great; Incredulity of St. Thomas); and a splendid 17th C. Russian Orthodox Resurrection icon with five scenes and a tooled silver cover.  For each of the three Sundays after Easter are related hymns from The St. Chrysostom Hymnal.

Episode Three in the series, to be available in mid-April, will include the Fourth and Fifth Sundays after Ascension, Ascension Day and Sunday after Ascension.

As always, thank you for your interest in and support for this Internet-based ministry.  You can help by sharing links to this site (and/or its topical pages), subscribing by clicking the Follow Anglican Internet Church tab in the right column, and by subscribing to the AIC’s YouTube channel (https://www.YouTube.com/c/saintjohnc) and its Podbean channel on which our over 600 podcasts are hosted (http://www.saintjohnc.podbean.com).

Be unrestrained in celebrating Christ’s Resurrection today, the Day That Changed the World, at a church of your choice.  Glory be to God for all things!  Amen!