I’ve been reviewing reader/viewer comments and various email message concerning the Anglican Internet Church, particularly its various presences on the Web. Two common threads, not actually spoken, are Why the Seasonal Videos; Why the Focus on the 1928 B.C.P.?; and Why No Actual Video of the author? I hope the following provides readers/viewer with acceptable answers.
Seasonal Videos: One of the original objectives of the AIC, when it was just the broadcast arm of St. John Chrysostom Anglican Church at St. Joseph’s Villa Chapel, Richmond, VA, was to extend the reach of traditional homilies and traditional local doctrinal teaching and Bible Study. Today, the AIC reaches a broad audience in many parts of the world. The Seasonal Videos, which will eventually include programs on the entire Church Calendar, offer viewers and listeners through the Podcast version, are a way of providing traditional teaching, easily-available, without either going over the heads of the viewers or insulting their intelligence — and giving them a glimpse of the treasures of Church art from both the Western and Eastern Church.
Why the B.C.P. Focus: The greatest treasure left to Anglicans by the English Reformation is the American 1928 Book of Common Prayer (as amended in the 1940s). The liturgies provided, especially for Holy Communion, provide a valuable link backwards in time to the early Church both at Rome and at Constantinople and at Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem and the many Christian communities throughout Asia Minor. Every time an Anglican hears a Collect read he or she is reminded of the continuity of the Christian heritage which came down from the Apostles through the clergy, bishops, and archbishops who defended the Nicene Creed in the face of “reform” movements. The Seasonal Videos, with their focus on how the Calendar is brought to life in Holy Communion or Morning Prayer, help Anglicans understand exactly where these beliefs came from, including the source of the Collects; provide the short summaries of the Epistle and Gospel readings, with appropriate religious art; and enrich the experience with commentary on appropriate Seasonal Music from The St. Chrysostom Hymnal, which is offered as a supplement to the 1940 Hymnal.
Why No Actual Videos of the Author: All our video series, whether in the Bible Study, Seasonal, or Christian Education categories, are intended to keep the focus on the content. Nothing would be gained by watching the author while he narrates a video. In fact, I believe, such video content would take time away from both the Script and the extensive archive of icons, frescoes, mosaics, engravings, paintings, watercolors, illuminated manuscripts, bas reliefs, statues, monuments, and church buildings, all of which, I hope, leave the viewer reminded that 21st C. Christians are not alone! We are part of a continuing legacy begun by the teaching, healing, preaching, Nativity, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and by the untiring work of His Apostles, whether of the 1st C., or the 4th when the Nicene Creed was written; or the 5th-6th-7th-8th C. when most of the Collects were composed; or in all the intervening years until the 21st C. That legacy remains alive, vibrant, and threatening to the secular world as long as modern day Christians continue to worship God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, constantly reminded by the words of the liturgies spoken by millions of Christians who have come before us.
As always, thank you for your interest and support. May God continue to bless you in all that you do in His Name! Amen!
Glory be to God for all things! Amen!
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.
Episode 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).
This morning I uploaded Episode One in our newest Seasonal Video series, Eastertide: From Resurrection to Ascension. The episode includes 17 illustrations from the 13th to the 19th C. (with a photograph from the 21st C.), mostly Resurrection imagery. Artists include, in order of use, fresco-makers at Constantinople, James Tissot, William Holman Hunt, Giotto, fresco-makers at Milan, Byzantine icon-painters, and Russian Orthodox icon painters, including the celebrated Andrei Rublev, from the 15th to the 18th C. Regular viewers will have noticed the change in the series graphic from Portrait to Landscape orientation. This became necessary when I switched production of videos from the version of iMovie on my iPad to the enhanced version on my Mac. The “Ken Burns effect” program on the Mac, which has many additional features, especially in the area of multi-source soundtracks, is strongly biased toward Landscape imagery. Viewers will easily see the difference in the way the images scan during the video. For those especially fond of icons: the image in the title graphic is one of the best, most carefully drawn representations of the classic “Harrowing of Hades” depiction of Christ, standing on the destroyed gates of Hades and the pit with the “keys to Hades and Death,” lifting Adam (in white) and Eve (in red) from Hades. The figure with halo at left center (near the tip of Jesus’ right hand) is John the Baptist, observing in his status as the Last Prophet of the Old Testament. The blue oval is a classic representation of the Glory of the Lord, sheckinah in Hebrew.
In the earlier podcast versions I read both the Verse and the Response lines and said the Amen. In the new video version, I enlisted the help of the congregation at Holy Cross Reformed Episcopal Church in North Chesterfield, VA. I thank them for their enthusiastic participation. They and I speak the opening Confession (left), repeated at the start of each section); the opening Verse and Response that includes the Lord’s Prayer; the internal transition Verse and Response (see below) in each of the seven parts; the closing Verse and Response which includes the Nicene Creed; and, throughout, the Amen for each prayer. To enhance the viewing experience and make it as much as possible like participation in the original 3-hour program, I have inserted an Intermission slide between
each of the sections, with the instruction to pause the video. Each transition slides notes the starting time of the next section.
The video version includes 117 slides, each with an illustration. There are about 48 different illustrations, ranging from the oldest known representation of the Crucifixion from around the mid-6th C. in Northern Mesopotamia (part of modern Syria), to mosaics, frescoes, watercolors, engravings, and paintings from the 6th through the 18th C. in the Western and Eastern Church artistic traditions; and, from the 19th C., stained glass windows. One of these windows, a stunningly-beautiful piece at St. Gertrude’s Church, Stockholm, Sweden, is used as the transition slide that marks the start of the Verse and Response for each part of the program. For the Confession slide, I inserted a Christ Pantokrator mosaic (top left) from the Hagia Sophia at Constantinople commissioned by the Byzantine Emperor Justininian in the 6th C. The picture credit lines are not mentioned in the narrative, both to save time and to avoid distraction from the meaning of the text and the solemn mood of the presentation.
Episode Three in the AIC Seasonal Video series, Lent A.D. 2018, was uploaded this morning to our You Tube and Podbean channels. The focus of the episode is Fifth Sunday in Lent (Passion Sunday), Sixth Sunday in Lent (Palm Sunday), and Holy Week (Monday before Easter through Easter Even). The text includes historical background plus commentary on all the Collects, Epistle, “For the Epistle” and Gospel readings plus a selection of seasonal music from The St. Chrysostom Hymnal.
An offshoot arising out of the production of Episode Three was an idea that came to mind very, very early in the morning a few weeks ago. I pondered it carefully and when I got up and went to my Mac I tried to assemble my thoughts on how to implement the idea. When I retired from the pulpit ministry a few years ago, I had intended to make the 3-hour presentation for Good Friday, In the Cross of Christ I Glory, into an AIC Seasonal Video presentation. Other projects (podcasts, videos and books) overwhelmed me and I just never got around to it. In the Cross of Christ I Glory has been available only in the Podcast Homily versions recorded in 2014-2015 A.D. and presented in eight parts. The program was built upon the foundation of a 1946 A.D. presentation for Good Friday by Bishop William Moody, which I augmented with comments by the Very Rev. George Hodges from his Good Friday services and lectures from 1904 A.D. To this base I added material for the mini-homilies accompanying the seven words from the Cross from the homilies of St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory of Nyssa.
With Episode Seven in The War on Christianity I conclude my discussion of the Te Deum Laudamus in its function as a First Line of Defense for any Christian in the world’s on-going battle with Christianity. The focus of the discussion is Part Two (“Thou art the King of Glory: though “numbered with thy saints in glory everlasting”) and Part Three (“O Lord save thy people” through “let me never be confounded”). I close the episode with an exploration of the Scriptural origin and usage of “confounded,” especially in the sense of its meaning as not letting oneself get led away from Christian Truth.
In other news, I’ve decided to produce a video version of In the Cross of Christ I Glory, the three-hour Good Friday meditations I developed and used in my former parish. The videos will be produced in however many parts are required to keep each episode to under 35 minutes. There will be Intermission slides between each of the segments so that viewers can pause the video until the appropriate hour. There will be no separate podcast versions, since Podcasts of an earlier version are already available from the Podcast Homilies page:
Anglican Internet Church 