Eastertide-2018-Episode Three

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

I’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!