Month: December 2020

During the seasons of Advent and Christmas I’ve been working to update and, in some cases, upgrade the AIC catalogue of Seasonal and Christian Education videos. The seasonal videos for Epiphany through Trinitytide are being upgraded and will be released as they are completed, hopefully before the start of each season. Here is a short summary of the state of the work so far:

Seasonal Videos: Episodes for Advent and Christmas have been updated and are now linked to our new host site at Vimeo.com. A few changes to these episodes will be made early in A.D. 2021.

Christian Education Videos: During the week of Christmas I took advantage of access to my host’s high-speed Internet service and uploaded all Christian Education videos, including the sixteen episodes of The Lives of the Saints (First Series); the thirty-one episodes in The Lives of the Saints (Second Series); both episodes of The Lord’s Prayer: Phrase-by-phrase; all eight episodes in The Nicene Creed; and the seven completed episodes in The War on Christianity. All these videos are now linked from the Digital Library page on this site.

Bible Study Videos: I have completed the editing of Episode One through Episode Twenty-five (the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke). I am about 1/3 of the way through on Episode Twenty-six to Forty-five (the Gospel of John). All episodes in the series are getting a new masthead/logo, minor adjustments to page layout; plus changes to the Other AIC Resources sections. The changes will standardize the style and add new page(s) with cross-references to where and how the same text appears in the new AIC Bookstore Publications, one each on the four Gospels. The Gospel of John: Annotated & Illustrated is now available for purchase (use the Virtual Bookstore link at the bottom of the Home Page). The Gospel of Luke: Annotated & Illustrated could be ready before the end of January. I expect to complete the changes to the Bible Study series on cold winter days in the 1st Qtr of A.D. 2021.

As always, thank you for your interest and support. May God bless you in all that you do in His Name. Amen! Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

I have successfully (I hope) moved all the videos for Advent and Christmas seasons to our new site with Vimeo.com. By the end of Wednesday, Dec. 16th, you will be able to use new links to all seven episodes in the Great “O” Antiphons; Lessons & Carols for Christmas Eve; and The Twelve Days of Christmas on the Home page. They will also be linked from the Digital Library page later in the week.

I am still learning the details of Vimeo’s site. I plan to create separate folders for each of the series that the AIC offers in the subject areas of New Testament; each separate Seasonal Video series; and the Christian Education Videos, with separate folders for each of the seasons. This means there will be some disruption of service until the transition is completed.

With these changes, traditional Christians, although limited in their choice of live services, will be able to watch and listen to programs during Advent and Christmas.

Thank you for your patience during the long transition.

Here’s a progress report on the upgrading of the New Testament: Gospels series. There are 45 episodes consisting of almost 1600 slides that must be rebuilt one-at-a-time. It’s very slow work, with six slides per page, each of which is separately trimmed to size. The primary objective is to integrate the videos series and the new The Gospel of ... series of AIC Bookstore Publications, so that visitors interested in either will be exposed to the same material in another setting or media. Every episode is getting a facelift, with some new illustrations and some changes in text and picture layouts. In the Fourth Edition, the Other AIC Resources section of each episode is being standardized across the series.

As of 12/11/20 I have remade all the slides in Episode One (the Introduction to the series); Episodes Two through Six (focused on the Gospel of Matthew); Episodes Seven through Eleven (focused on the Gospel of Mark); and Episodes Twelve through Sixteen (up to start of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee in the Gospel of Luke).

I am very pleased to let you know that the Universitats- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt, custodians of the Hitda Codex (circa 1020 A.D.), have generously granted written permission to use the high-resolution images of Christ in Majesty; Healing the Man with a Withered Hand; Healing Peter’s Mother-in-Law; and Healing the Demon-possessed Man (or Gadarene Man) that we purchased for Gospel book series. All are used in Episode Eight (Gospel of Mark).

I have not yet overcome several issues involved in moving our videos from the current vendor to Vimeo.com. I hope these issues can be resolved in the next few days.

The next step in the process is recording the soundtrack for these 16 episodes. My plan is to start on that task tomorrow.

Looking at the propect of updating a series with 45 episode and over 1500 slides was daunting. As always, getting started is the hardest part. Here in the second week of Advent Season in Church year 2020-2021 A.D., I’ve made surprisingly good progress in the conversion of the New Testament: Gospels Bible Study Video series into its Fourth Edition. The series has a modified logo which will be used in the Other AIC Resources section of each episode where appropriate. Over the next few weeks, I will be moving all the video series to the Vimeo.com platform. I am still encountering unexpected difficulties in processing and moving the episodes. The resolution of the first effort was not satisfactory and the episode will be deleted and reposted. Please accept my apology for any inconvenience regarding unavailable episodes.

The Fourth Edition, in addition to the revised graphic, includes many revisions to the appearance of slides. To date, I have remade over 200 slides for Episode One through Episode Six. The new version of Episode One, which is the series introduction, is now available on our Vimeo channel. Episodes Two through Episode Six, all focused on the Gospel of Matthew, include new slides which integrate material from the four newest AiC Bookstore Publications focused on the Gospels. The Gospel of John: Annotated & Illustrated is already available for purchase in paperback and Kindle editions through my Amazon Author Central page, which is linked from the bottom of the Home Page. The Kindle edition is an electronic facsimile of the print version. The Luke edition is currently in the final stages of proofing and will be available later this year or very early in 2021 A.D. The next two books, the Mark edition and the Matthew edition, are ready for proofreading.

Episode One in the Fourth Edition of the AIC Bible Study Video series, New Testament: Gospels, is now available on our new Vimeo channel. The production of the Fourth Edition is part of our continuing celebration of the start of the AIC’s second decade on the Internet. All forty-five episodes will be reissued in revised form during the Church Year 2020-2021 A.D. The image is linked here and from the New Testament page.

The newest episode features revised and expanded content and a new musical theme, All Glory, Laud and Honor, attributed to St. Theodulph (8th C.). The music is played on the church organ by Richard M. S. Irwin and is used with permission. Richard’s wonderful, inspired playing can be heard at https://play.hymnswithoutwords.com. He has made his music accessible to local congregations. I thank Richard for his generosity in permitting its use for this series.

Each new episode will feature material from the new illustrated Gospel books which we are adding to the catalogue of AIC Bookstore Publications. The release of The Gospel of Matthew: Illustrated & Annotated is planned for the first half of A.D. 2021, pending proofreading of the completed text. The book will have 262 pages and 114 illustrations, including 14 images of Matthew, the oldest made in the early 8th C. at Lindisfarne, England.