Trinitytide: the Teaching Season – Episode Five

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Christ-Destruction of Jerusalem-Gospels of OttoIII
The Vision of the Destruction of Jerusalem, Gospels of Otto III. 11th C., Bavarian State Library, Munich, Germany. Public Domain.

Episode Five in our Trinitytide series was uploaded to our YouTube and Podbean channels earlier this morning.  The focus of Episode Five is the Collects, Epistle and Gospel readings for Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Sunday after Trinity.  There are three more readings from the epistles of St. Paul and the final two of the eleven traditional hymns to the Holy Trinity in The St. Chrysostom Hymnal and not in the venerable 1940 Hymnal.  There are three more accounts from the Gospel of St. Luke.  I’ve included 12 examples of historic art, 1 from the 11th C.; 1 from the 14th C.; 2 from the 15th C.; 1 from the 17th C.; 2 from the 18th C., and, four from the 19th C.  The art comes from both the Western Church and the Eastern Church traditions, including icons, statuary, watercolors, oils on canvas (a Western Church innovation), illuminations on Scripture, and one fresco (by Giotto).

Watch the video.       Listen to the Podcast

The oldest illustration, shown nearby, is an illumination in tempera and gilt on parchment of Jesus’ vision of the destruction of Jerusalem from the Gospels of Otto III, with art in the Byzantine-style produced at the Benedictine Monastery on Reichenau island in Lake Constance in southern Germany.  The account is unique to the Gospel of St. Luke.  Holy Roman Emperor Otto III, an Ottoman inheritor of the mantle of the Holy Roman Empire following from the revival of it in Western Europe by Charlesmagne, was also responsible for commissioning the Bamberg Apocalypse, from which I used 51 illuminations through the cooperation of the Bamberg State Library, Bamberg, Germany.  Otto’s mother was a princess of the Byzantine Empire.  He brought artists from Constantinople to Germany to teach Eastern Church techniques to the local artistic community in the Scriptorium at the monastery on Lake Constance.  These are among the many Byzantine-style works of Church art from before the catastrophic rift between Rome and Constantinople, most of them before the emergence of uniquely Western art during the Renaissance and later.

I’ve been trying out some changes to the model for these Seasonal Videos.  Since the intent of these videos and related podcast is to help Christians understand and better appreciate the historic traditions of Christianity, I’ve put more focus on explaining the evolution of the Prayer Book Collects and the Scripture readings derived from them.  These modification are not isolated to just the Collects but also extend to the commentaries on the Epistle and Gospel readings.  The breadth of the artistic content has also been improved, with a broader selection of Church art, many of which, except for scholars both of the Church and of the art world, are not commonly seen in Western Church teaching.  These are included not just for the sake of breadth but also as teaching tools.  The art works are chosen not just for availability (some public domain and some purchased from several vendors), but also for the subject matter and, whenever relevant, how the artist conveyed the theological meaning of the events displayed.

The script and slides for Episode Six, focused on the next four Sundays after Trinity (12th through 15th) is complete and ready for recording of the soundtrack and putting together the video sequences, coordinating the sound with the pictures.  Barring technical and other glitches, I expect to have it ready by next Friday. There will be a total of nine episodes in the series, with the final episode covering the extra Sundays needed when Trinity season goes beyond the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity and also the Sunday Next before Advent, which finishes the season.  I will also discuss the several alternative readings, most of which are no longer used.

As always, I thank you for your interest and support of this Internet ministry.   I hope you will considering becoming a follower of this site by clicking the Follow Anglican Internet Church tab found below my picture in the right column and also following both our YouTube and Podbean channels.

May the Lord bless you in all that you do in His Name.  Glory be to God for all things! Amen.

Images of St. Paul

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In working on Trinitytide: The Teaching Season I realized that readings from St. Paul’s work occupy 80+% of all the Epistle/For the Epistle readings for Trinity Season.  My inventory of historical images had only 4 or 5 representations of St. Paul and I had often fallen back to Andrei Rublev’s tempera and silver on panel unfinished icon, which dates to the 1st decade of the 15th C.   The search for more images took me through a lot of terrible art but, in the end, I found about 15 additional images of the prolific Evangelist to the Gentiles and who is often substituted for Matthias in imagery of the Twelve. especially in the Eastern Church tradition.

dreamstime_l_43347360-Paul-PCA
St.Paul, 11th C. mosaic at Chora Church (Church of the Holy Savior), Istanbul, Turkey, now a museum.  Image copyright Andrey Andronov|Dreamstime.com).  Perspective correction applied.

Not wanting to give away too much, I have included here only one of the new impressions.  As Trinity season progresses, and I release more episodes in the Trinitytide series, all 15 of the new images will appear in slides.

In the example at left the 11th C. artist captured three historical understandings about images of St. Paul:  receding hair line, full bear, intense facial expression.   He hold a book, representing either the Gospels or, more likely, the Pauline Epistles.  Since this is a Byzantine image and not one from the Western Church tradition, he does not hold an object which symbolizes the manner of his martyrdom.  In nearly all Western Church icon, painting, mosaic or statue  St. Paul holds a sword or a broken sword.  I applied perspective correction to the original image to make it more closely resemble the frontal view of the same mosaic by another photographer.  Apologies to the Dreamstime photographer.  As always, I am impressed by the way the Byzantine mosaic-maker managed to give the sense of flowing robes with lapis blue and the suggestion of indirect light.  Based on the colors and the pose, I wonder whether this mosaic was the inspiration for Rublev’s unfinished work.  Perhaps, but perhaps not, since other sources date the mosaic to a later century, before the Moslem conquest of Constantinople.

Next week I will upload Episode Four in the series, which covers the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Sundays after Trinity, plus three more of the eleven Trinitarian hymns in the AIC Bookstore publication, The St. Chrysostom Hymnal.  To learn more about the Hymnal, visit my Amazon Author Central page.

As always, thank you for your interest and support.

May the Lord bless you in all that you do in His Name!  Amen!  Glory be to God for all things!  Amen!

Trinitytide: The Teaching Season – Episode Three

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Luke-with Symbol-2nd Version- Gospel of Otto III
Luke the Evangelist with his traditional symbol, the Ox,an illumination strongly influenced by the Byzantine-style, from The Gospels of Otto III,, painted in tempera and gilt on parchment at the Benedictine Monastery on Reichenau Island, Lake Constance, Southern Germany, in the mid-11th C. The original is at the Bavarian State Library, Munich, Germany. Public Domain.

Episode Three in our newest Seasonal Video series, Trinitytide: The Teaching Season is now available in both video and podcast version.  There are thirteen illustrations which, I hope, help increase understanding of the Collect, Epistle and Gospel reading for Third Fourth and Fifth Sundays after Trinity.   The one chosen for this Blog entry is from the late Ottonian Empire, successor to the revived Holy Roman Empire started by Charlesmagne.  AIC regulars will remember that Otto III was responsible for the production of the Bamberg Apocalypse, now at the Bamberg State Library, Bamberg, Germany and used in the AIC Bookstore publication, Revelation: An Idealist Interpretation.

Watch the video version.

Listen to the Podcast version

The episode includes the only two readings from the writings of St. Peter during Trinity Season.  The Gospel readings jump back and forth on the historical timeline and include the Parables of the Lost Sheep and Lost Coin (Luke 15:1-10); the Parable of the Blind Leading the Blind (Luke 6:36-42); and the calling of the first four Disciples (Luke 5:1-11).   In my related Podcast Homily (linked from the Podcast Homilies page) for Fifth Sunday after Trinity I explain the early Church understanding of why Jesus was seated while the people stood and the spiritual meaning of “Launch out into the deep” (Luke 5:4).  For those who like a dose of Church history, I offer an interesting observation on a change in wording of the Collect for the same Sunday made in the 1662 B.C.P.

I also include mention the next three of 11 Trinitarian hymns not in the venerable 1940 Hymnal from the AIC Bookstore publication, The St. Chrysostom Hymnal.  The theme music for the video is again Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, played by Richard M. S. Irwin from his dedicated web page: https://play.hymnswithoutwords.com.  I thank Richard for granting permission of its use.  The hymn is always inspirational, but played by Richard on his church organ, it truly represents the majesty of Reginald Huber’s original scoring.

I have started work on Episode Four in the series, which will be available in late June, will feature the Collect, Epistle and Gospel readings for the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Sundays after Trinity and the next three of 11 hymns to the Trinity.   The readings will require more research in suitable illustrations readers/viewers might not have seen.

As always, thank you for your interest in and support of this online ministry dedicated to traditional teaching of the ancient Christian Faith.  Please consider clicking the “Follow Anglican Internet Church” tab in the far right column.  You’ll be asked to enter your email address if you wish to receive notice of each new posting.

May God bless you in all that you do in His Name.  Amen!  Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

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Mea culpa, mea culpa

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AGreat Supper-Jan Lukyen-Bowyer Biblepologies to readers/viewers for the incorrect attribution of a scene in Episode Two of Trinitytide: The Teaching Season.  The credit line for Jan Luyken’s etching of the Invitation to the Great Supper should have read:

Invitation to the Great Supper  Late 17th-early 18th C. etching by Dutch artist Jan Luyken, The Bowyer Bible, Bolton Library, Bolton, England, published, London, 1840 A.D. Public Domain photography by Harry Kossuth and text by Phillip Medhurst, Early Life of Christ in the Bowyer Bible, 2018 A.D. electronic edition.

There are several other examples from The Bowyer Bible which will be used in remaining episodes in the series.  These will bear the correct credit line.   Again, thanks for your interest and support.

 

Trinitytide – Episode Two

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Somehow, with all the other issues which needed attention this week, I completed and uploaded Episode Two in the AIC Seasonal Video series, Trinitytide: The Teaching Season.  This episode is focused on the Collects and readings for Trinity Sunday, First Sunday after Trinity and Second Sunday after Trinity, plus seasonal music.

As a teaching season it should be no surprise that major doctrinal issues are covered through both the Collects and the Epistle-Gospel combinations.  The season starts with a rare liturgical reading from Revelation (Revelation 4:1-11), with the heavenly voice like a trumpet inviting St. John to “come up here” for a view of events to come from a heavenly perspective and the iconic pericope from the Gospel of St. John (John 3:1-15) recounting the nighttime visit of Nicodemus.

Rich Man and Lazarus-Codex_Aureus
Codex Aureus of Echternach, Folio 78, 1035-1040 A.D., Benedictine Abbey, Reichenau Island, Lake Constance, Germany; National Library of Germany, Nuremberg, Germany.  Public domain.

Week Two moves along to St. John’s essay on Love (Greek: agape) (1 John 4:7-21), which is paired with St. Luke’s account of the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.  For the latter I chose a strikingly Byzantine-style representation painted in three panels at the Benedictine Monastery on Reichenau Island in southern Germany during the mid-11th C.   The dinner is shown in the top row; the fate of Lazarus (in the “Bosom of Abraham”) in the second; and the Rich Man in, fittingly, the lower tier.

 

In week three, the final set of readings are another of St. John’s essays on love, plus the need for putting it into action, and St. Luke’s version of the Parable of the Great Supper, delivered much earlier that the Wedding Supper account in St. Matthew’s Gospel.

I’ve also included mention of the first three of 11 hymns to the Holy Trinity in The St. Chrysostom Hymnal which are not in the venerable 1940 Hymnal.  The remaining hymns will be mentioned in remaining episodes in the series.

The series continues in Episode Three with discussion of the next three Sundays after Trinity.

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!

Trinitytide: the Teaching Season – Episode One

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Holy_Spirit-Descent-Belarussian-18thC
Descent of the Holy Spirit, Russian Orthodox tempera and gilt on panel icon, 18th C., National Arts Museum of the Republic of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus.  Public Domain.

At last!  Glitches overcome (or fixed), on Wednesday morning I completed and uploaded Part 1 and Part 2 of Episode One in the newest AIC Season Video series, Trinitytide: the Teaching Season.  As noted in a previous blog posting, the episode ran too long and was split into two parts.  There is only a transition slide between the end of Part 1 and the start of Part 2 so viewers will need to watch Part 2 to hear the discussion of seasonal music for Whitsunday and Whitsun Week.

For thematic focus (after all, this is a teaching video series) I included a discussion of Whitsunday and a short history of Trinity season and its relationship to Pentecost in the new Trinitytide series.   Viewers will find an outstanding collection of illustrations in Episode One, with 15 of them on the first Pentecost.  Many are rarely seen in the Western Church, except among religious scholars and art historians.  The oldest Pentecost illustration was made in 586 A.D.  The most recent example was prepared near the end of the 19th or early in the 20th C.   Viewers will also learn about the 14th person in the Byzantine icons of Pentecost (12 Apostles, the Blessed Virgin, and — watch and find out).

Watch Episode One-Part 1.     Listen to the Podcast of Episode One-Part 1

Watch Episode One-Part 2.     Listen to the Podcast of Episode One-Part 2

Episode Two in the series will be focused on Trinity Sunday, First Sunday after Trinity and Second Sunday after Trinity, plus more seasonal music from The St. Chrysostom Hymnal.  I expect to have the episode ready next week or the following week.

As always, thanks for your interest in and support for this Internet-based ministry which seeks to teach traditional Christian doctrine and practice to the faithful wherever they live — and make it available 24/7.

May God bless you in all that you do in His Name!

Glory be to God for all things!  Amen!

Glitches & Other Issues

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Last week I avowed to finish production of Episode One in Trinitytide; The Teaching Season.  Alas, glitches, several of them, caused me to delay production by one week.  In addition to typographical errors, difficulties with sentence structure, there is the fact that the final recording ran over 40 minutes.

The problem will be resolved by splitting the episode into two parts, with a transition slide at the end of Part One and a new opening slide for Part Two.   Part One will contain all the introductory material on Trinity Season as well as the B.C.P. readings for Whitsunday.  Part Two will not have a separate introduction but will continue where the first episode left off (with a new opening slide only) and include discussion of Monday and Tuesday in Whitsun Week plus seasonal music for Whitsuntide and Trinity season from The St. Chrysostom Hymnal.

All the changes have been made to both script and slides and I anticipate being able to record both Part One and Part Two on Monday.  Unless there are other glitches, I expect to complete and upload the finished programs before the end of next week, well ahead of Whitsunday.

Thanks for your patience, continued interest, and on-going support.

May God bless you in all that you do in His Name! Amen.  Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

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!