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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!

My Podcast Homily in our Morning Prayer Homilies in the Psalter Series was recorded yesterday and uploaded to our Podbean, our Podcast host, this morning. It is linked from both the Morning Prayer H0milies and Welcome pages. The Psalm reading is Psalm 49.

Progress continues in the work toward the Angels: In Scripture, Prayer & Christian Tradition book. I have rewritten both the Preface and Part One-Chapter 1-A Primer on Angels. Two of the necessary written permission letters, out of four needed, have now been received. Only two images remain outstanding, both from the British Library. I anticipate receiving them later this month or in early October. My outside consultant on book design has promised her input on the draft version sometime next week.

I am organizing the promised new series of Blog postings, to be focused on things to do to defend yourself and your faith again the anti-Christian secular world.

As always, thank you for your continued interest in the AIC’s online presence.

Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

The Podcast Homily for Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity in our Morning Prayer Homilies-Psalter Series was recorded yesterday and uploaded this morning. The Psalm reading is Psalm 65.

Progress continues on the planned Angels book, which now will have a new title: Angels: In Scripture, Prayer & Christian Tradition. Items still needed are two images ordered from the British Library and permission letters from several sources for illustrations used in earlier books and a rewrite of Part I-A Primer on Angels. The changes will reflect what is actually in the book and a clearer statement of the purpose of the book. At this time there are 148 illustrations presented in 238 pages. I complicated the process with an error in a file name in the order from the British Library and ended up with an unneeded illustration and the necessity to order again with the correct file and folio number.

Two other projects underway are editing of seven earlier books to include all the new books added in 2022 and 2023 and fixing of some technical issues and writing of a new series of topical articles on the theme of defending your faith in the 21st C. Owing to price increasing in printing introduced earlier this year by KDP Publishing, prices for all our books will have to be increased.

As always, thank you for your interest in this online teaching site.

Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

My wife and I took a few days off over the weekend celebrating my 81st birthday. We were able to visit many wonderful cities, towns and villages in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia as well as viewing it from above from overlooks along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We ended the weekend by attending Sunday evening Holy Communion at Good Shepherd Anglican Church, Waynesboro, VA, which featured a powerful sermon on the Pauline letters to the Corinthians by Archbishop Peter Robinson, UECNA.

We are back at home, with both hands are almost fully recovered from Carpal Tunnel surgery in July and August. Today I recorded and posted the needed links to the AIC Podcast Homilies-Morning Prayer-Psalter Series for both Trinity 12 and Trinity 13. These are now linked from both the Welcome and Morning Prayer Homilies pages.

As part of the AIC’s continuing celebration of its second decade on the Web, my intention is to complete the proposed Angels book, which is now in the proof-reading stage, make some needed updates and corrections to several other AIC Bookstore Publications, and start a new series of blog entries focused on themes related to the defense of one’s personal faith against the onslaughts of the anti-religion craze, especially anti-Christian, of the 21st C. I am convinced we are witnesses another of those periods in which civilization collapses.

As always, thank you for your continued support for this Internet-based mission. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!