The Twelve Days of Christmas (Redux)

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Merry Christmas A.D. 2019

Join us for each of the twelve episodes in our Seasonal Video series: The Twelve Days of Christmas.  There is a theological word or phrase for each day, presented with many illustrations and traditional music for each day.

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First Day – Dec. 25th – Love (Nativity of Our Lord)
Second Day – Dec. 26th – Forgiveness (Feast of St. Stephen)
Third Day – Dec. 27th – Peace (Feast of St. John)
Fourth Day – Dec. 28th – Compassion (Feast of the Holy Innocents)
Fifth Day – Dec. 29th – Obedience
Sixth Day – Dec. 30th – Joy
Seventh Day – Dec. 31st – Family
Eighth Day – Jan. 1st – Church (Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord)
Ninth Day – Jan. 2nd – Angels
Tenth Day – Jan. 3rd – Commandments
Eleventh Day – Jan. 4th – Glorifying God
Twelfth Day – Jan. 5th – Grace & Faith (Epiphany Eve)

The New Testament: Gospels – Episode One

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NT-Gospels-Title1-rev

After repeated delays for technical reasons, Episode One in the revised AIC Bible Study Video series, The New Testament: Gospels, is now available in both video and podcast version.   The new version is the third to be produced.  The first was a series of live videocasts from my former parish.  The second edition was introduced in A.D. 2015 after my retirement from pulpit ministry at Epiphany A.D. 2014.

Version Three includes many improvements, including a revised format more consistent with the style of the more recent AIC videos; many more examples of historic art from the 6th through the 20th C. from archives which have been digitized for wider audiences; and more direct quotations of Scripture, especially in the episodes on the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, which were the earliest in the series presented in a different format than later episodes.   The series retains the original focus on teaching for the Laity and the informal style of presentation.

Watch the Video of Episode One                   Listen to the Podcast of Episode One

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Luke Writing from Ms Harley 5785, Folio 187v, perspective correction applied, British Library, London, England.

Among the examples of historic art included in Episode One is Luke Writing His Gospel, an illumination in tempera and gold on parchment produced in the region of Constantinople in the late 11th to early 12th C.  I applied perspective correction to the original image from Ms Harley 5785, Folio 187v, British Library, London, England.   Our archive now includes nearly a thousand such images from libraries, museums, churches, and government archives in England, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Macedonia, Bulgaria and the United States.   These historic images are both beautiful and instructive on the spiritual message in the scenes depicted.  I have included works in nearly every artistic medium, including icons, frescos, mosaics, oil paintings, watercolors, etchings and engravings.  All examples which have been modified for correction of perspective and other flaws with the objective of presenting a finished work more like its original shape are so identified in the credit lines.  Examples from many libraries and other sources can only be used for non-commerical purposes.  I have removed the links to all video and podcast versions of the earlier series.

The text and slides for Episode Two through Episode Sixteen, the latter including material from the opening chapters of the Gospel of St. Luke, have been completed.  Each needs to be converted into video form, which is a multi-step and time-consuming process, but I hope to release one episode per week throughout 2019 A.D. until all 45 episodes in the series are complete.   Things that can upset the schedule include the temptation to go back into finished work to add historic art more recently discovered.

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

The Twelve Days of Christmas – A.D. 2018-2019 Edition

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All twelve episodes in the revised and improved AIC Seasonal Video series, The Twelve Days of Christmas, are now online in both video and podcast formats.  The finished works represent the fourth version of this series that I began at Christmas A.D. 2013.  The new versions incorporate many examples of religious art not used in previous versions, most dating from the 10th to 15th C.  The video links are shown below.  Podcast versions are linked from the Podcast Archive page.  Each episode opens with its own version of the title page below.  With the completion of this series I have completed or updated all our Seasonal Video series (listed on the Digital Library page in order of their appearance in the Church Calendar.  The title illustration is a 12th C. fresco of the Visit of the Maji from the Cappadocia region of Turkish Asia Minor.

TwelveDays-2018-Title 1-Episode 1

First Day of Christmas – Dec. 25th – LOVE
Second Day of Christmas – Dec. 26th – FORGIVENESS
Third Day of Christmas – Dec. 27th – PEACE
Fourth Day of Christmas – Dec. 28th – COMPASSION
Fifth Day of Christmas – Dec. 29th – OBEDIENCE
Sixth Day of Christmas – Dec. 30th – JOY
Seventh Day of Christmas – Dec. 31st – FAMILY
Eighth Day of Christmas – Jan. 1st – CHURCH
Ninth Day of Christmas – Jan. 2nd – ANGELS
Tenth Day of Christmas – Jan. 3rd – COMMANDMENTS
Eleventh Day of Christmas – Jan. 4th – GLORIFYING GOD
Twelfth Day of Christmas – Jan. 5th – GRACE & FAITH

Merry Christmas to all from the Anglican Internet Church.

Next year we’ll bring you revised versions of all 45 episodes in our New Testament: Gospels series and more revised versions of the Podcast Homilies  (revisions already complete through Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany).

 

Lessons & Carols for Christmas Eve

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Lessons and Carols-2018-Slide3The revised version of our unique Christmas Eve video, Lessons & Carols for Christmas Eve is now available in video and podcast format.  Many of the “new” historic Church art images added to our other programs have been incorporated, as well as new voice responses for the opening words, which repeat the closing antiphons for the companion series, The Great “O” Antiphons (also now available in seven revised episodes linked from the Digital Library and Podcast Archive pages.  My thanks to Fr. Ken Mills and his congregation at Holy Cross Anglican, Midlothian, VA for providing the voice responses.

Watch the video

Listen to the Podcast

My next Blog posting is about the revised edition of The Twelve Days of Christmas, which is now available through links on the Digital Library and Podcast Archive pages.

Christmas: the Nativity of Our Lord – Episode Two

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The Holy Family Flees to Egypt, miniature in colored inks and gilt on paper, Book of Hours, c. 1430 A.D. Netherlands. MSS Additional 50005, British Library, London, England,  Perspective correction applied.

Episode Two in the AIC Seasonal Video series, Christmas: the Nativity of Our Lord is now available in both video and podcast versions.  Episode Two is focused on the Collect, Epistle and Gospel readings for First Sunday after Christmas Day and Second Sunday after Christmas Day, plus the 17 hymns or carols of Christmas in our St. Chrysostom Hymnal and which are not in the venerable 1940 Hymnal or are arranged to different tunes.

 

Watch the video.       Listen to the Podcast.

Episode Two completes the cycle of having a teaching video for every season on the Anglican Church Calendar from the start of Advent through the end of Trinity season with Sunday next before Advent.    Videos for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Gesims (or Pre-Lent), Lent, Easter (up to Ascension), Trinity Sunday and Whitsunday plus Whitsuntide, Trinity season are now linked from the Digital Library page with Podcast versions linked from the Podcast Archive page.  All programs are displayed in calendar order, with Advent at the top and Trinity at the bottom.  The video versions include illustrations in the form of icons, frescoes, painting, murals, mosaics, paintings, etchings, photographs, illuminations, engravings and miniatures from the religious traditions of both the Western and Eastern Churches.  In each series you viewers and listeners will find cross-references to Other AIC Resources on the same topics, key words, and phrases.

In other on-going work, I’ve been updating the Podcast Homilies series, originally produced in 2015 A.D. based on 12-minutes homilies I read at my former parish.  The revised A.D. 2018 version will include additional material plus cross-referencing to Other AIC Resources on similar topics, words, or phrases, including our Seasonal, Christian Education and Bible Study videos and our AIC Bookstore Publications.   The new versions should be available well before the start of Advent season.  Also in production are revised versions of The Great “O” Antiphons for Advent; Lessons & Carols for Christmas Eve; and The Twelve Days of Christmas series.

As always, thank you for your interest and support.  Please consider clicking on the Follow Anglican Internet Church banner.  You’ll be asked to enter your email address so that our site provider can send you notice of each new posting.  Please be assured that we do not share email addresses with another other organization or jurisdiction.

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

 

Christmas: The Nativity of Our Lord – Episode One

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Christ-Nativity & Annun-Egbert_codex-Detail1-PCAI’ve completed and uploaded Episode One in Christmas: The Nativity of Our Lord, part of the final link in our chain of teaching videos for all the seasons in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  The series will have two episodes.  Episode One offers discussion of the evolution of the Christmas tradition; Anglican traditions of Christmas; and discussion and reading of both the first and second set of Collect, Epistle and Gospel readings for Christmas Day.   The series is illustrated with material from the 10th through the 20th C.  The oldest is a Byzantine-style illumination of the Nativity and the Annunciation to the Shepherds from the Codex Egberti, a Gospel book prepared in the Scriptorium of the Reichenau Monastery, Reichenau, Germany, between 980 and 993 A.D. for the incumbent bishop of Trier.  I applied perspective correction to the original file.  The Codex is part of the collection at the Trier Library, Trier, Germany.

Watch the video.     Listen to the Podcast.

Other illustrations include an early 11th C. illumination from the Bamberg Apocalypse; a 14th C. French depiction of the coronation of Charlesmagne at Rome in 800 A.D.; a 14th C. oil on panel of Malachi by Duccio di Buoninsegna; a 10th C. depiction of St. John writing his Gospel from the Ottonian era of the Holy Roman Empire; a 13th C. mosaic at the Basilica of St. Mark, Venice; a circa 1420 A.D. Nativity scene in colored inks on parchment made in the Netherlands; F. X. Zettler’s elegant and beautiful stained glass window of the Nativity at St. Gertrude’s Church, Stockholm, Sweden; and Nativity murals from St. Joseph’s Villa Chapel, Richmond, Va from the AIC Bookstore publication, Paintings on Light.

Episode Two has been recorded but not yet place into video format.  It is focused on First Sunday after Christmas Day, Second Sunday after Christmas Day; the AIC Seasonal Video series, The Twelve Days of Christmas, soon to be available in a new edition; and, finally, the fourteen hymns in The St. Chrysostom Hymnal that are either not in the venerable 1940 Hymnal or are used by different, more easily-sung tunes.

I will also be recording new versions of The Great “O” Antiphons and Lessons and Carols for Christmas Eve in late October and early November.  I spoke yesterday at a Clericus of the Orthodox Anglican Church, meeting at St. Joseph’s Villa Chapel, on the topic, The Mistaken Quest for Relevance.

As always, thank you for your interest and support.  Please consider clicking on the “Follow Anglican Internet Church” legend.  You’ll be asked for your email address and will receive automatic notice fro of all future Blog postings.   We do not share email addresses with any other organization.

 

 

Lessons & Carols for Christmas Eve

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Lessons and Carols-2018-Slide2A new 2018 A.D/ edition of the AIC Seasonal Video Lessons & Carols for Christmas Eve is nearing completion.   It will have it a new look, one consistent with the style of all our other Seasonal Video series which were revised and improved earlier this year.  I’ve also added historic art from the greatly-expanded AIC archive.   The sound track will be recorded on November 1st, with the congregation at Holy Cross Anglican, Midlothian, Va providing the voice responses to the opening verses, The Christmas Eve Antiphons, I used each Christmas Eve at my former parish.  Here’s the complete text:

Today shall ye know that the Lord will come and deliver you.
And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord.
Tomorrow the iniquity of the earth shall be done away.
And the Saviour of the world shall reign over us.
The Lord cometh; go ye out to meet him, and say ye: Great is his dominion, and of his kingdom there shall be no ending.
The mighty God, the Ruler, the Prince of Peace.
Minister & People: Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia

For the other series I have been working on, Christmas: the Nativity of Our Lord (two episodes) and The Great “O” Antiphons (seven episodes) the scripts and slides are complete.  My plan is to record both episodes of the Christmas program during the week of October 1st.  On the same November evening as the Christmas Eve Antiphons are recorded, the good people of Holy Cross Anglican are also going to participate in the recording to their responses each each of the seven antiphons for The Great “O” Antiphons.  Without any unexpected technical or other issues, I anticipate the recording stage to be complete during the first full week of November, with the production of the finished video the following week.

As always, thank you for your interest in and support of this Internet-based ministry.

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

The Great “O” Antiphons for Advent – 2018 A.D. Edition

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Christ in Glory, blessing the Blessed Virgin (on next page), mid-14th C, Pacino de Buonaguida, MSS Royal 6 E IX, Folio 4,  British Library, London, England. 

I’ve been busy updating The Great “O” Antiphons programs which were last updated in 2015 A.D., just after my retirement from pulpit ministry.  Since then I’ve learned a few new tricks and acquired many more images from the archives of the Western and Eastern Church traditions.  As viewers will have noticed, the style of AIC presentations has evolved since the launching of The Anglican Internet Church on the Web.  So far in 2018 A.D. I have updated our videos for Epiphany. Gesima (Pre-Lent) and Lent; expanded available offerings for Good Friday; and launched new series for the Easter, Trinity and Advent seasons.   I’ve completed the slides and script for a new 2-episode Christmas series, which will be available in October; and I am revising The Twelve Days of Christmas series, also with new slides and a revised style, with the revised version to be released in early November.

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David on his harp, inside an illuminated capital letter, Psalter of Humphrey of Gloucester, London, 15th C., MSS Royal 2 B 1, Folio 8, British Library, London, England.

The Great “O” Antiphons program for the last seven days in Advent will remain a 7-episode series.  It will include new illustrations, including the 14th C. Christ image above and the David graphic at left.  I’ve made the style consistent with the format used for the new and revised programs mentioned above, which reflect capabilities of iMovie for the Mac (vs. the iPad version).

The 2018 A.D. edition will also include new Voice and Response contributions by the members of a local church.  These will be heard in the closing response to each of the seven Antiphons and in the closing Antiphons for Christmas Eve.

The introduction of all these remaining revised versions during the months of October and November will mark the completion of the AIC Seasonal Videos for each of the seasons on the Anglican Church Calendar.  There will now be teaching videos, written primarily for the Laity but also useful for Clergy, for every Sunday in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  I hope these will prove useful for understanding the meaning of, and appreciating the spiritual beauty of, traditional Anglican worship.

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

 

Advent – Episode Two

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Add. 42497
4th Quarter 12th C. frieze on parchment of Jesus meeting John the Baptist and a group of John’s followers.  Source: Additional MSS 42497, British Library, London, England.  

This week I got back in the swing of things.  First, I uploaded Episode Two in Advent: a Season of Penitence & Preparation.  Episode Two is the final episode in this Seasonal Video series and it brings me closer to achieving my post-retirement objective of a teaching video for every season on the Anglican Church Calendar.

Episode Two is focused on the Third Sunday in Advent, Fourth Sunday in Advent, and other traditions of Advent, including the Great “O” Antiphons for the final seven days in Advent and Lessons and Carols for Christmas Eve.  The illustration at left is one of nine scenes in the life of John the Baptist, five on the front side and four on the back.  Another scene from the same source included in Episode Two depicts St. John the Baptist baptizing a man in a wooden tub.

Watch the Video

Listen to the Podcast

The final missing piece in the AIC Seasonal Video series, Christmas: The Nativity of Our Lord, is also nearing completion.  The script and slides are complete, awaiting  its soundtrack and final video editing.  I hope to finish both episodes in September or early October.  The series will be available in two episodes, each with historic art, much of which viewers may not have seen before.  Episode One will cover the evolution of the Christmas tradition in the Western Church, Anglican traditions of Christmas, the two Collect, Epistle and Gospel readings for Christmas Day, plus the changes made for Morning and Evening Prayer and the Proper Preface for the Octave of Christmas.  Episode Two will cover the First Sunday after Christmas Day, Second Sunday after Christmas Day and include discussion of the Twelve Days of Christmas tradition and information on the fourteen hymns or carols of Christmas in the St. Chrysostom Hymnal that are either not found in the venerable 1940 Hymnal or are arranged to different tunes.  The Twelve Days of Christmas video series, with one episode for each day of the twelve days from Dec. 25th through Jan. 5th, will be reissued with new content and many new illustrations in December 2018 A.D.  The changes will make the Twelve Days program consistent with the style and content of all the other Seasonal Video series.  Episodes are, or will be, linked from the Digital Library page (with Podcasts linked from the Podcast Archive page).

Please consider “following” the blog by clicking the Follow Anglican Internet Church legend in the right column.  You’ll be asked to enter your email address to which our site host, WordPress.com, will send notice of each new posting.  We do not share email addresses with any other entity.

As always, thank you for your interest in and support for this Internet-based ministry this is consistent reaching traditional Christian in many parts of the world.  We are solely supported by contributions and by royalties from sales of AIC Bookstore Publications (see the Virtual Bookstore link at the bottom of the Home Page).

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

Advent – Episode One

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Advent-2018-Mini-TitleThis morning I uploaded to our YouTube channel Episode One in a new AIC Seasonal Video series, Advent: A Season of Penitence & Preparation.  Episode One is focused on the history and purpose of Advent Season; Anglican traditions of Advent; the Collects, Epistles, Gospels, Canticles, and Opening Sentences for Advent in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer for First Sunday in Advent and Second Sunday in Advent; plus music for Advent Season in The St. Chrysostom Hymnal that is not found in the venerable 1940 Hymnal.

Episode Two (of two) in the series will cover the two remaining Sundays in Advent, plus my discussion of The Great “O” Antiphons, a 12th C. office created to celebrate the last seven days in Advent, and the AIC video series, Lessons and Carols for Christmas Eve, with music and contemplation in the English style made popular by Trinity College, Cambridge, to which I have added art work from historic archives.  Episode Two is currently in production, with completion anticipated in September.   I hope to produce new 2018 A.D editions, with new voice responses and some new or updated illustrations, for both these series in time for Advent and Christmas.

The Advent series bring me a step closer to completing my post-retirement objective of offering viewers teaching videos and other materials on all the seasons in the Anglican Church Calendar.  The final missing piece is an entirely new series, Christmas: The Nativity of Our Lord, also to be presented in two episodes.   These two new series will be added, placed in Anglican Calendar order, to the Digital Library and, for the podcast versions, the Podcast Archive pages on this site.

Watch the Video       Listen to the Podcast

Christ-In Majesty-Codex Amiatinus.jpg
Cover, Codex Amiatinus, a Vulgate Bible made 700 A.D., Laurentian Library, Florence (since 1787 A.D.).  Public Domain.

Observant viewers will realize that this new series on Advent does not have the customary historical art.  That is because there is no single image that can effectively symbolize a season meant to prepare Christians for two different but related events:  the Incarnation celebrated on Christmas Day and His promised Second Coming in judgment.  I have reserved the Nativity scenes for the Christmas series.   That does not mean that the episode is without historical art from both the Western and Eastern Church traditions.  An example is the image at left, Christ in Majesty, a symbolic image of the Second Coming from the Codex Amiatinus, an early 8th C. edition of St. Jerome’s Vulgate Bible.  Made in northeast England around 700 A.D., when the area was still under threat from Viking invaders, it has been in the collection of the Laurentian Library, Florence, Italy, since 1786 A.D.  The style is Byzantine, in the spiritual-minded manner preferred everywhere before the Renaissance.  The images were hand painted on vellum in tempera and gilt.

As always, I thank viewers, readers and listeners for their interest in and support for this online ministry.   With your support the site, and its related bookstore, is reaching people all around the world.   Just as a reminder, all royalties from AIC Bookstore Publications are contributed monthly to the AIC.

August is a special month for me and for my family.  Corkie and I celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary early in the month with a trip to Southwest Virginia and the region from Roanoke to Charlottesville.  Tomorrow will be my 76th birthday and we plan to celebrate with dinner at my favorite Richmond restaurant, The Rappahannock.

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