Palm Sunday 2020 A.D.

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Collect for Palm Sunday (Sixth Sunday in Lent)

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the Cross, that all mankind should follow the example of His great humility; Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his Resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Composed by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer
for the 1549 Book of Common Prayer,
based on a collect from the Gregorian Sacramentary
to which he added a closing
phrase of his own composition..

Most Christians won’t be able to properly celebrate Palm Sunday this year because of the rules restricting movement during the Coronavirus situation.  But does not mean the AIC cannot offer viewers and listeners material appropriate for the occasion.  Below are some views of how the Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem has been commemorated over the centuries:

Palm_Sunday-Jesus_Enters_Jerusalem_Sicily_12thC-Alt1
Entry into Jerusalem, detail, mosaic, Palace of the Normans, Palermo, Sicily, 12th C.  Public Domain.
Christ-Entry into Jerusalem-Gospels Otto III-Clm 4453-Image 94-96dpi
Entry into Jerusalem, illumination in tempera and gold on parchment, Gospels of Otto III, produced at Reichenau, Germany, circa 996-1002.   Clm 4453, Image 94, Hessische Landesbibliotek, Darmstadt, Germany.   CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

 

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

Harley 5785 f 187v
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!

Podcast Homilies for Lent

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All seven episodes in my revised and, hopefully, improved Podcast Homilies for Lent are now online.  Previously, there was no Podcast Homily just for Ash Wednesday.   In this version Ash Wednesday, St. Gregory the Great’s gift to the world in 601 A.D., has its own Podcast Homily.  This leaves the Podcast Homilies for Easter, Ascension, Pentecost/Whitsunday, and Trinity remaining to be recorded later in the Spring.  You can listen to any episode using the links on the Podcast Homilies page.

In my remarks for Palm Sunday I offer a combined reading based upon all the Gospel accounts of Palm Sunday.  Among the images I used in the companion Seasonal Video video series for Lent, Episode Three, I used the image below.

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Entry into Jerusalem, Romanesque apse fresco, Medieval period, unspecified Lutheran Church, Jutland region, Denmark.   Image copyright Stig Alena|Dreamstime.com

Meanwhile, I continue making excellent progress on the revised versions of our Bible Study Video series, The New Testament: Gospels.  Scripts are written and slides prepared for the first eleven episodes, taking the series through the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark.  I recorded and edited Episode One earlier this week and hope to have it available online next week.  Episode One is focused on the New Testament’s history and a lot of background information about how it was developed, when and by whom.  I hope viewers will be pleased with the illustrations I chose for the episode, including an illuminated cover from the Book of Kells, circa 800 A.D., and a text page with the words from  John 1:1  painted in the last Qtr of the 9th C-1st Qtr of the 10th C. and used in English Coronations for generations afteward.

As always, thank you for your interest and support.  Please consider becoming a follower by clicking the Follow Anglican Internet Church tab in the right side column.   Please rest assured that we do not share email addresses with any other entity.

Glory be to God for all things!  Amen!

Podcast Homilies for “Gesima” Season

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Laborers in the Vineyard.jpg
Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, Matthew 20:1-16, miniature in tempera and gold on parchment, Codex Aureus of Echternach, 1030-1050 A.D., Made at the Abbey of Echternach, Echternach, Luxembourg (then Germany), German National Museum, Nuremberg, Germany.  The scenes is one three on a single sheet of miniature illuminations.

The revised and expanded Podcast Homiles series now includes three Homilies for Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima Sundays.  In the style of the revised material being produced for the 2018-2019 Church Year, the homilies include cross-reference to Other AIC Resouces linked from this Web Site.

Septuagesima Sunday:
1st Corinthians 9:24-27/Matthew 20:1-16
Sexagesima Sunday:
2nd Corinthians 11:19-31/Luke 8:4-15
Quinquagesima Sunday:
1st Corinthians 1:1-13/Luke 18:31-43

Podcast Homilies for Ash Wednesday, the Sundays in Lent, Easter, the Sundays after Easter; Ascension; Sunday after Ascension; Whitsunday; Trinity Sunday, the Sundays after Trinity will be recorded and uploaded in the coming weeks, hopefully before Easter Day.

Meanwhile, I continue to work on the revised versions of all 45 episodes in our Bible Study Video series, New Testament: Gospels.  Slides and Script for Episode One through Episode Seven, focused on the Gospel of St. Matthew, are complete, but the voice track has yet to be recorded.  There are about twice as many slides in the new version and all episodes include many of the examples of historic art which have been used in our video series, plus a great many more which were made into the correct format late last year.  There will be illustration which viewers most likely have never seen, especially in a higher resolution format.

As always, thanks for your interest in and support for this online ministry.  Please consider become a follower by clicking “Follow Anglican Internet Church” legend in the far right column.  Once you’ve shared your email address, you will automatically receive notice of all new postings.  Your information is never shared with any other organization and you can remove your name at any time.

Glory be to God for all things!  Amen!

Podcast Homilies Redux

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I have now finished Phase I of the rebuilding of the Podcast Homilies page I announced in October.  Viewers and listeners will now find new links to freshly-recorded versions of my four theme-word or theme-phrase homilies for the Four Sundays in Advent; plus new Podcast Homilies for Christmas Day, First Sunday after Christmas Day, and Second Sunday after Christmas Day; and revised homilies for Epiphany (Day) and all six Sundays after Epiphany.  Within each homily are internal cross-references to Other AIC Resources on the same words, readings, topics or phrases.

These Other AIC Resources include:

  • Seasonal Videos:  our now-complete array of Seasonal Videos beginning with our two episode series, Advent: a Season of Penitence & Preparation, and ending with our nine episode series, Trinitytide: the Teaching Season.  Seasonal Videos are linked from the Digital Library page, displayed in order of the seasons on the Anglican Church Calendar.
  • Bible Study Videos:   both our Bible Study Video series, New Testament: Gospels (presented in 44 episodes) and Revelation presented in 28 episodes.  New episodes in the New Testament series will be recorded during late Winter and Spring, 2019 A.D.  Bible Study videos are linked from the Bible Study page.
  • Christian Education Videos: These include The Nicene Creed (presented in eight episodes), The Lord’s Prayer (presented in two episodes), The Lives of the Saints (presented in two series); and the on-going series The War on Christianity.  Christian Education Videos are linked from the Digital Library page, following the Seasonal Video links.
  • AIC Bookstore Publications:  all our books are available by special order from commercial bookstores and through the Virtual Bookstore link on the Home Page, which connects viewers to my Amazon Author page.  There will likely be one new books added in 2019 A.D., a Nativity account using the complete text from the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke, illustrated with many of the historic works of art which were used for the Seasonal Video series.

Phase 2 in the rebuild, to be completed in January A.D. 2019, will include revised Podcast Homilies, with internal cross-references, for Gesima (Pre-Lent); Lent; and Easter.   The texts for all three seasons have been written and need only a final review before recording.  Texts for Good Friday remain unchanged, since they were revised in Spring A.D. 2018.   Phase 3, to be completed in February A.D. 2019, will include Podcast Homilies for Whitsunday/Pentecost, Trinity Sunday and the Sundays after Trinity.   The texts for Trinity season are only in the early stage of editing.   Both Phase 2 and Phase 3 will be work to be accomplished in the cold, dark and wet days of Winter in Virginia, when working on the yard, garden and house cannot be comfortably accomplished.

Please consider becoming a Follower of this blog by clicking the “Follow Anglican Internet Church” tab in upper area of the right-hand column.  You’ll be asked to enter your email address in order to receive notice from our vendor, WordPress.com, of all new postings.   Be assured that the AIC does not share such information with any other organization or with any vendor.

As always, thank you for your interest in and support of this unique Internet-based ministry.  May God continue to 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 Two

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Add.50005, f.52v
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!

 

The Podcast Homilies Rebuild

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Just a little bit of introspection today.  I thought readers might want to know what’s in store for 2019 A.D. at the AIC web site.  With the coming completion of the Seasonal Video series (with Christmas: The Nativity of Our Lord‘s Episode Two in late October), attention turns to restructuring the Podcast Homilies platform, last changed early in 2015 A.D.

The Podcast Homilies page grew out of the 12-15 minutes homilies I delivered before my retirement from pulpit ministry.  The PH series is primarily focused on the Epistle and Gospel readings for the Sundays in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.   The restructuring will involved integrating the Podcast Homilies into the inventory of teaching material available through Other AIC Resources.    For each of the Podcast Homilies I will add mentions of where the verses cited in the script are used in the 1928 B.C.P. liturgies and also cross-referencing each homily to where the same words, phrases, concepts, subjects are treated in Other AIC materials.

When the project is complete, hopefully by late Winter 2018-2019 A,D., readers and listeners will be able to take full advantage of the greatly-enlarged library of materials available on or through the AIC Web Site.  For example: in a homily which includes a reading from the Gospel of St. Luke, there will be cross-references to where the same reading appears in our Bible Study video series New Testament: Gospels; the appropriate Seasonal Video series with episode number; appropriate Christian Education series (Nicene Creed; Lord’s Prayer; Lives of the Saints; The War on Christianity); appropriate AIC Bookstore Publications, especially Layman’s Lexicon.

As always, thank you for your interest and support for this online 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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Royal 6 E.IX, f.4v
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.

David-Ps4-UK-15thC
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!

 

Trinitytide-2018-Episode Nine

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Feeding the 5000-loaves-fishes-Tissot-300dpi-Detail1
The Feeding of the 5,000 – a detail from a watercolor by James Tissot, painted between 1886 and 1894 A.D. as part of his Life of Christ series.  From the collection of the Brooklyn Museum.

The final episode in our Seasonal Video series, Trinitytide: The Teaching Season, is now available in video and podcast versions.  Episode Nine is focused on the Collect, Epistle and Gospel readings for Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity and Sunday Next before Advent, plus discussion of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer‘s complex rules for transferring surplus Sundays from Epiphany Season for years with 26 or 27 Sundays after Trinity.   I hope I have succeeded in explaining in layman’s terms the system which insures that Sunday Next before Advent, called Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity until the 1892 Book of Common Prayer, will always end up as the final Sunday in Trinity season, no matter how many or how few Sundays there are “After Trinity.”

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

Many changes have been made in the details of the format of the Seasonal Video series since I started them in 2011 A.D.  I’ve incorporated more historic art – our archive now includes about 800 images – and also added slides which explain “Other AIC Resources” containing information on the same topics and readings within a given episode.  I am pleased to let you know that the change has resulted in greater sales of AIC Bookstore Publications, including both paperback and Kindle editions.   100% of all book royalties are contributed to the AIC ministry on a monthly basis as they are received.   This income helps offset the cost of annual fees for our various web presences, including WordPress, where this Blog is hosted and which expects to be paid the next 12-month fee in August.

When I started doing the Seasonal Videos after my retirement from pulpit ministry, my intention was to offer programs on all the seasons in the Church Year.  The first series, focused on Epiphany, was incomplete.   It was edited and re-released in a full length version in time for Epiphany Season earlier in 2018 A.D.  I chose to focus on getting the AIC Bookstore Publications edited and ready for uploading instead of launching new programs.

Earlier in 2018 A.D. I produced series for the Gesima Sundays (pre-Lent) and the seasons of Lent and Easter and an updated version of In the Cross of Christ I Glory for Good Friday.  With the completion of the Trinitytide series, only Advent and Christmas remain without a teaching video/podcast series.    These last two series (Advent in two episodes; Christmas in one episode) are on schedule for release later in the year.  I anticipate releasing Advent: A Season of Penitence and Preparation in mid-September and early October.   I also plan to produce updated versions of the Great “O” Antiphons and The Twelve Days of Christmas series, with updated graphics.  Changes to the Great “O” Antiphons depend upon finding enough volunteers to speak the Voice and Response lines.

As always, I thank you for your interest in and support for this Internet-based ministry that is reaching people around the world daily.  Please consider becoming a follower by clicking the Follow Anglican Internet Church legend in the righthand column.  You’ll receive a request for your email address so that our site host (WordPress.com) can notify you of all new postings.  We do not share such information with any other organization.

May God bless you in all that you do in His Name.  Amen.

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!