On this Sunday Next before Advent, the final Sunday in the long season of Trinity, which this year had its full complement of twenty-four Sundays plus Sunday Next before Advent, I share some good news about the AIC’s online and bookstore activities.

The AIC Web Site Upgrades

This morning, with the help of an unnamed “Happiness Engineer” at WordPress.com, I completed a sequence of changes to the AIC’s Web Site. The changes were designed to enhance the appearance of the site and improve the ease of use for visitors. Many of the changes are part of the WATCH | LISTEN | READ initiative begun earlier this year. Visitors to the site will now see, at the bottom of the Welcome page, a graphical explanation of how to use the many resources developed during our more than ten years on the Web. No special software or technical skill is required and nothing needs to be downloaded.

Using the links at the top or bottom of each page, site visitors can access the full resources of the AIC in their preferred manner: video, audio or print media. Each page on the site now has a distinctive graphic at the top of the page. With the arrival of Sunday Next before Advent, the new Podcast Homilies-Morning Prayer series is now complete. For those who prefer to learn by reading, there is now a revised page offering summaries of all twenty-two books in the AIC Bookstore Publications library.

The AIC Bookstore Publications Library

With the pending arrival later this year of the 2024 upgrades and one new book, the Library will be complete in 22 volumes. There are six books in the Christian Education Studies – New Testament Series: one each for the four Gospels plus The Acts of the Apostles and Revelation. There are three books in the Christian Education Studies – Old Testament series: One volume on the writings of the Old Testament prophets plus two books focused on the Psalter. The Christian Education Studies – General Series includes three books. Finally, Other Publications includes several general and specialty publications. Of these books, 17 have been revised, with the proof copies expected in the middle of the week of 11/27. The remaining five volumes will be edited and revised during December or January.

I anticipate that additional episodes in our unique video series, The War on Christianity, will be produced during the Winter months of the new year 2024 A.D. The AIC Web Site, the Podbean site which hosts all our MP3 podcast and the Vimeo site which hosts nearly 200 videos continue to attract visitors from all over the world. As the Advent and Nativity seasons come upon us, I thank every viewer, listener and reader for their contribution to making this site possible.

Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

Hello. The journey we began a year ago with the Podcast Homily for Morning Prayer in our series based upon the Psalm readings in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer and inspired by the publication of The Prayer Book Psalter-Picture Book Edition comes to a close this Sunday with Sunday Next before Advent, when the reading is Psalm 39, Dixi custodiam. Tomorrow I will be sending material to KDP Publishing for the 2024 update to the PBP-PBE volume. Also being sent are the updates for our original Psalms volume, The Prayer Book Psalter: History, Text & Commentary, and eleven other volumes from the AIC Bookstore Publications. The revised edition of that original Psalter volume will soon be available with some changes, including some general editing intended to enhance its “readability” plus enhancement of the Glossary with a 19th C. version of a circa 1020 B.C. map of Palestine intended to help identifiy the places named in the text. The volume will also have up-t0-date summary information about the other 21 books in the AIC Bookstore library, plus images from the revised version of this web site.

As always, thank you for your interest in this online ministry. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

A busy two weeks here at the AIC. The Podcast Homily for Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity in our Psalter Series of Morning Prayer homilies was uploaded earlier today and is now live on the Podcast Homilies-Morning Prayer and Welcome pages. The Podcast Homily for Sunday Next before Advent will be uploaded early next week. The Welcome page to the AIC Web Site will be adjusted to reflect the start of Advent season after Thanksgiving.

I have completed updates to 21 of 22 books in the AIC Bookstore library and have begun sending the updates to our publisher. Further, I have sent the text and cover for the 22nd of 22 books, Angels: In Scripture, Art & Christian Tradition, to our publisher. I expect to get the proof on Friday, 11/17. The finished version will have 152 illustrations on 252 page. The proof copy is expected to arrive today with proof copies of seven additional books expected to arrive on Thursday and Friday. The Angels book, is still missing one high-resolution image from the British Library. A medium resolution image is in place in the proof copy.

In the updating process, I have made a number of design and content changes to each book intended to harmonize the style across all 22 volumes and also include the most recent information about every book. Also being introduced into the Library are cross-references to Other AIC Bookstore Publications. These new editions will begin to be introduced after Thanksgiving, with the goal of completing the updates before the end of January A.D. 2024. With the completion of the updates, the AIC Bookstore Publications library will be complete in 22 volumes. These will remain unchanged thereafter, unless there is a need for a major change or correction.

All 22 books will be reviewed one final time before being approved for distribution. Our publisher raised the printing prices of all books last month. Most of the effect of higher prices is on those books printed in color. So far, only one book, Revelation: An Idealist Interpretation, will have a retail price increase. I still do not know if adjustments will have to be made to the remaining five books in the Christian Education Studies: New Testament series. The effect o the increased printing cost remains unknown until after the revisions to each volume is submitted for publication. Our objective remains keeping the retail costs as low as we can.

After January, my full attention will be re-directed to making several important web site changes, mostly to reflect the actual content of the Bookstore, to my Amazon Author Central page and additional postings to the Fr. Ron’s Blog page. Now that the AIC will no longer be carrying the cost of acquiring images for books, the focus can shift to advertising strategies for both the Web Site and the AIC Bookstore. If all goes according to plan, there will be additions to some of our Video Series, especially The War on Christianity, and related Podcasts.

As always, I thank you for your interest in the AIC Web Site and Bookstore Publications. You can help by sharing links with others and by “Following” the AiC web site and the Fr. Ron’s Blog page. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

Trinity Season’s final weeks are here. This afternoon I uploaded links to my Podcast Homily-Morning Prayer Series for Trinity 23. My wife and I are already resetting our minds toward the Nativity season.

This week we went to Waynesboro, VA to the Wayne Theater for two one-man shows performed by Gerald Dickens, the great-great grandson of Charles Dickens through the line of Dicken’s son, Charles, popularly Charlie. Tuesday evening’s event was in two parts. Part One was Mr. Dickens Is Coming, a look at the life and times of Charles Dickens with dramatic performances of selected works of Dickens, presented to the public in the manner of Dickens’ own live performances. Part Two was about Dickens’ complicated relationship with Queen Victoria, a great admirer of Dickens, even though he turned down her many requests for private performances. This second half was just as rivetting as the first and a great lead-in to the second night performance of A Christmas Carol, with Gerald Dickens speaking both the author’s narration and the voices–and the appearance and mannerisms of all thirty characters! It’s A Christmas Carol like you’ve never seen it performed before – unless you have seen Gerald D’s show. You can see the show via his 70-minute video filmed in and around Winchester, England. View a preview: https://vimeo.com/475926662. There is a link on Gerald’s Web Site to the site through which you can rent the Vimeo video using the “Film” tab at the top of the page: https://geralddickens.com.

Progress continues on the book updates. Over the next several weeks I will be uploading the new pages and new covers to our printer, KDP Publishing. With luck and Grace I hope to have all twenty-two books, including the new Angels volume, before the start of Epiphany season.

As always, thank you for your interest in this online ministry. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

I’ve been swamped this week with business and other work, including projects at home, but I did upload the Podcast Homily for Trinity 22 in our Psalter Series. This week’s episode is focused on Psalm 71.

Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

My Podcast Homily for Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity was upoloaded earlier today to both the Welcome and Podcast Homilies-Morning Prayer pages. There are two readings: Psalm 119-Part 17-Verses 129-136-Miribila and Psalm 119-Part 18-Verses 137-144-Justus es, Domine. Psalm 119 is the longest Psalm. In the Hebrew tradition it is presented as an acrostic with the initial letter coming from the Hebrew alphabet.

In other news, the AIC has now paid permission fees to the British Library and the German National Museum for the use of images in Angels: In Scripture, Art & Christian Tradition. Only one image remains outstanding, which will come from the British Library. Proof-reading for the book has advanced to the page concerning Angels in the Gospels, here being the Gospel of Mark. This marks the halfway point in the design review. Sometime next week the work will resume. Meanwhile, I have been busy making corrections and completing the Inside Pages pdf which will be sent to KDP Publishing. All but the four Gospel books remain to be edited for the 2024 edition. These will become the Archive copies of all the AIC Bookstore Publications. In future years I will be focusing entirely on Podcasts and Videos and updating the AIC Web Site’s pages and general design. The first project will be focused on some new episodes in The War on Christianity (and completion of some planned older episodes).

As always, thank you for your interest and support. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

I have now recorded all the remaining episodes in the Podcast Homily-Morning Prayer series. Only five remain after this Sunday. The episode for Twentieth Sunday after Trinity was uploaded earlier today and is linked from the Welcome page and the Podcast Homilies-Morning Prayer pages. The Psalm readings are Psalms 11 and 12.

I have been busy with updates to the various AIC Bookstore Publications. I am hopeful of getting the first batch completed in the next two weeks for forwarding to KDP Publishing and their production of proofs. The offcial release date for all of them is Epiphany 2024. As noted last week, I’ve beent trying to standarize the books into a consistent format for footnotes, illustrations, Sources of Illustrations, and internal cr0ss-references from older materials to the new books and videos. The objective is making the AIC library of videos, podcasts and books easier to use, following the LISTEN – WATCH – READ mantra introduced in 2022.

As always, thank you for your interest in this site. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

Lots to report this week, as Trinity season winds down and First Sunday in Advent approaches rapidly.

First, the Podcast Homily for Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity in our Morning Prayer-Psalter Series of podcasts was recorded and uplinked earlier this afternoon. You’ll find the links on both the Welcome/Home page at this site and also on the Podcast Homilies-Morning Prayer pages. Because I had read the appointed Psalms for Trinity 19 in earlier podcasts I substituted Psalms 120, 122 and 123, three of the fourteen Songs of Ascent. I chose these three from the readings appointed for Saturday after Trinity 19. Many scholars believe the Songs of Ascent are the “hymns” mentioned by St. Matthew (Matthew 26:30) in his account of the evening of Maundy Thursday, the night of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest.

I’ve been focused this Fall on preparing all the AIC Bookstore Publications for their 2024 Editions. This means going back over every book from beginning to end, looking for typos (and yes, in spite of multiple proofreadings by multiple people, they persist), adding cross-references as appropriate for the books published since the last cycle of editions and older books that might not have been mentioned earlier, plus making stylistic changes to harmonize the appearance of the entire library of AIC Bookstore Publications. Prayers in the Christian Tradition, our first publication which dates back to my work at now-closed St. Chrysostom Anglican in Richmond, has received some polishing of its appearance and some further clarifications concerning the sources. For instance, instead of just “1928 Book of Common Prayer” the notation will explain where it appears (example: “Family Prayers for Joy in God’s Creation,” which is found on p. 596 but the page number won’t be cited since there is not enough room). Beliefs of the Anglican Church will be getting several block of notations concerning other resources on the same or similar topics. There, because of the topical way the book was designed, these new notatations will show up at the start of the end of a section. The St. Chrysostom Hymnal has been re-imagined as a more generic type of book for a broader audience. Like The 1928 Book of Common Prayer – Service Book Edition, it will have no AIC logos (except the very small one on the spine) and no mention of the other publications or of our video or podcast series. Other changes include moving all hymn numbers on the left hand page to the far left corner. For the 2022 edition, our printer added a requirement for much wider inside margin, which caused some uneven results in text placement (too close or too far from the outside edge). Hopefully, the design changes I have made will solve the problem. Hear Us, O Lord: Daily Prayers for the Laity, which was produced from three separate small books, received some minor changes design, especially in the Hours Office in Part Three. Fr. Ron’s Kitchen Companion, which is the ninth version of a booklet I started circa 1981, is getting some major changes, including a new cover, several new recipes and an expanded “Sources” section which also removes references to products no longer available (most owing to complications casued by Covid poliicies). The Prayer Book Psalter: History, Text & Commentary is getting a selective editing based on how it was used in the preparation for the Morning Prayer Homilies-Psalter Series and the companion volume, The Prayer Book Psalter: Picture Book Edition. I’ve have not yet started on those pesky typos in the New Testament series of books or revised editions of The Writing Prophets of the Old Testament and Revelation: An Idealist Interpretation.

The focus for the upcoming year of 2024 will be completing the War on Christianity video series and a companion set of podcasts.

As always, thank you for your interest and support. Our Web Site and Podcast host site continue to attract interest around the world.

Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

My Podcast Homily for Morning Prayer in our Psalter Series for Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity was uploaded earlier today. The Psalm is Psalm 10. The Podcast Homily is linked from both the Welcome and Podcast Homilies-Morning Prayer pages. The Psalmist worries that the ungodly seem to be prevailing, a common theme both in the pre-Christian and Christian eras.

Work continues on the Angels book. I was very surprised to get three proof copies one day earlier than promised by KDP Publishing. This revised version incorporates many changes in both content and design. My wife, Corkie, had proofread the entire book during the late summer. Taking her comments, both about design and content into consideration, I revised both the Preface and Chapter 1. Other changes involved increasing the size of many images and adding several new images – “new” to the book but still very old. These include another image of the Annunciation to Mary by the Archangel Gabriel made in western France around 1500 A.D. and an illumination of the Archangel Michael trampling the Devil produced between 1486 and 1506 in Bruges, Netherlands for Joanna of Castille. This brings the total to 152 illustrations from the 3rd to the 20th C. I am still awaiting two images from the British Library. I was informed last week that they currently have a backlog of 600 requests for digital imagery!

Meanwhile, I have been busy planning revised editions of most of our books. This will allow correction of known errors/typos, the addition of material about the current AIC Bookstore Publications catalogue, including all the books published between late 2021 and the present. These will be published with an Epiphany 2024 date. The process is very time-consuming and also frustrating, because Adobe has updated InDesign, Photoshop and Acrobat, necessitating many adjustments to how things work and, surprise! surprise! taking up much more space on my Mac’s hard drive. I plan to move all old material to portable hard drives, leaving only the current versions in place.

As always, I thank you for your interest and support.

Glory be to God for all things! Amen!