Category: Christianity

I thought to share with readers my plans for the Blog and Web Site for the rest of Spring and also for the coming Summer.

This coming week I expect to finish the first video produced on our new iMac laptop using the more advanced version of iMovie.  It is a short preview with page images for the AIC Bookstore – Spring A.D. 2017 Preview.  You’ll see the stylistic differences right away, with new page transitions not available in the iPad version used for all earlier videos.  There will be information about all publications, including the pending revised edition of The Prayer Book Psalter.   The revised version includes some design changes to type faces and content.  Some of these include the first line in Latin for each Psalm and additional focus in the commentaries on how the same issues and verses are addressed in other AIC Publications, including books, videos and podcasts.  The publication date depends upon completion of the proof-reading, but I hope it can be finished by early summer.

In June there will be new episodes on The Lives of the Saints – Second Series, including one of my favorite saints, Basil of Caesarea (Jun 14th).  Later in the summer will be Cyril and Methodius (Jul 11th);Joseph of Arimethea (Jul 25th); and Augustine of Hippo (Aug 28th).

As always, thank you for your interest and support.  The sales of our books have been very encouraging, with 100% of all royalties donated to the AIC.

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

Episode Sixteen in The Lives of the Saints, Second Series, celebrating the life and remarkable contributions to the Church Universal of St. Athanasius of Alexandria, is now on line at our Web Site and through our You Tube channel.   St. Athanasius is celebrated in the Western Church on May 2nd, the date of his death.

Regular readers of his blog will notice the familiar black, while and gold on blue in the accompanying 12th C. fresco from Macedonia.  There’s nothing like that shade of blue in western religious art.

Athanasius is also called Athanasius the Great to distinguish him from the many Eastern saints of the same name.  He’s also known as the Father of the Canon; the Father of Orthodoxy, and was recognized among the first four men named “Doctors of the Church” in the Roman Catholic tradition (with St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil of Caesarea, St. Basil the Great, and St. Gregory Nazianzen).  For five decades in the middle of the 4th C. he defended Nicene Christianity against Arians and others, even at the risk of persecution and expulsion from office.  Today, his accusers are long gone, most of their names forgotten, but Athanasius the Great remains among the most-revered figures in the Church in both the Eastern and Western traditions.

The episode runs just over 18 minutes and includes many other works of art viewers might not have seen before.

Watch the Video        Listen to the Podcast.

As always, thanks for your interest and support of the Anglican Internet Church ministry.  Glory be to God of all things!  Amen!

Two new episodes in The Lives of the Saints (Second Series) were uploaded this week. Episode Nine celebrates the life and contributions to the Church Universal of St. Gregory Nazianzen, whose Feast Day is Jan. 25th.  St. Gregory is also known by two other names:  St. Gregory the Theologian and Gregory Nazianzus, which recognizes the name of his jurisdiction as Bishop in Asia Minor (now southeastern Turkey).

Watch Episode Eight        Listen to Episode Eight

The illustration is a Byzantine Orthodox mosaic, possibly 12th-13th C., of St. Gregory at Chora Church, Istanbul, wearing the regalia of an Eastern Church Bishop and carrying a golden and jewelled Gospel books.  This is the same church featured on the Home page at our Web Site.  It was originally known as Church of the Saviour in the Field (or Outside the Walls) and is now a museum.

St. Gregory is little known in the modern Western Church.  Roman Catholics would recognize him as one of the four “Doctors” of the Church (with his friend Basil of Caesarea, plus Athanasius and John Chrysostom).  He is one of only three men officially called “Theologian” in the Eastern Church, with St. John the Evangelist and Symeon the New Theologian.  He was granted the title at the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon in 451 A.D.

His fame is based largely on his Five Theological Orations, delivered at Constantinople circa 378 A.D. and his testimony at the Second Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in 381 A.D.), all of which attempt to provide the Scriptural foundation of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, especially the equality of the Holy Spirit with God the Father and God the Son.  In the episode I explain the theft of his remains in 1204 A.D. and their return to Eastern Church jurisdiction in November 2006 A.D.

Episode Nine celebrates the life of the AIC’s patron saint, John Chrysostom, which literally means John the Golden Mouth.  He was perhaps the most gifted pulpit orator of the Church in the first 1,000 years of Christianity.  He left behind an enormous legacy of homilies on Genesis and the Psalms as well as the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, all the epistles of St. Paul, and St. Luke’s Acts of the Apostles.  He served the Church first at Antioch, the second See of the early Church, and later as the 12th Bishop of Constantinople, the last of the five early Sees of the Church.  St. John was forced from office by Empress Eudoxia in 403 A.D.  He returned briefly, owing to the strong public outcry against his expulsion, but was exiled a second and final time around 405 A.D.  He died in exile in 407 A.D.  HIs last words were: “Glory be to God for all things!”  His remains, along with those of Gregory Nazainzen, were stolen in 1204 A.D. during the Fourth Crusade.  For centuries, they remained in St. Peter’s Basilica (first the old one and then the current one). They were returned by Pope Benedict XVI in time for the Feast of St. Andrew in November 2006 A.D.

Watch Episode Nine        Listen to Episode Nine

In Episode Ten, to be released either this weekend or early next week, I will read the seven Nocturne Prayers traditionally associated with him and a selection from his extensive writings.

As always, thank you for your interest and support.  I invite you to visit our Web Site and use the links to our Virtual Bookstores.  100% of all book royalities are contributed to the AIC ministry.

Glory be to God for all things!  Amen!