Trinity 16 and Other Subjects

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Detail, Raising the Son of the Widow of Nain, watercolor, James Tissot, 1886-1896, Brooklyn Museum. Public Domain
Raising the Son of the Widow of Nain, detail, opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, James Tissot, 1886-1896, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, Public Domain.

The readings for Trinity 16, including comments on the changes to the original Collect by Archbishop Cranmer, the Gospel reading (Luke 7:11-17) (The Raising of the Son of the Widow of Nain), and St. Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians (Ephesians 3:13-21) were discussed and illustrated in my Father Ron’s Blog posting for September 12, A.D. 2024 and are also discussed in Episode Seven in the video series, Trinitytide: the Teaching Season, found on the Video Archive page with a podcast version found on the Podcast Homilies page.

This week I have been very busy trying to update the maintenance of my yard, somewhat neglected owing to joint discomfort and procrastination, before the first frost arrives. I have not had time to continues the series of posts on the broad topic of Liturgical Worship. I will once again emphasize that “worship” is the operative word; that is, compared to other descriptive words including praise, joy and song in the list of priorities. Next time, I will focus on more of the repeated uses of Old and New Testament verses in the Holy Communion liturgy in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

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

Liturgical Worship: Scripture-based – Part 2

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This week I continue my discussion about Liturgical Worship in the Anglican tradition using the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. The illustration below shows clergy officiating at Holy Communion using the Sarum Rite. Sarum is modern day Salisbury, England. The Sarum Rite in England is a predecessor of the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, the first England language liturgical prayer book produced under the supervision of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer.

Priests Celebrating at Altar, using the Sarum Rite, illumination, Book of Hours, circa 1400, Ms. Richardson 5-92, Folio 44v, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Public Domain.

One of the best commentaries on the 1928 Book of Common Prayer was written by Massey Shepherd. It includes an introductory commentary plus section-by-section commentary on the entire BCP. On the Holy Communion liturgy, pages 67-89, he observes that the words to be spoken by clergy and people before an after the Gospel reading (“Glory be to thee, O Lord” and “Praise be to thee, O Christ”) are “a reminder that liturgical worship is a corporate action of both minister and congregation, conducted under the inspirational judgment of the Lord.”

Shepherd also notes that the Sanctus prayer, spoken during the Preface, is a paraphrase which is derived from the prophet Isaiah’s vision of the heavenly throne, in which the seraphim sing (Isaiah 6:1-3). Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, Heaven and earth are full of thy glory: Glory be to thee, O Lord most high.”

Another interesting observation by Massey Shepherd concerns the opening words of the Prayer for the Whole State of Christ’s Church (BCP p. 74) is evidence of the Church’s acceptance of the understanding that God listens of the prayers/petitions of His faithful people and, further, that the text affirms that the people/congregation, in hearing the remainder of the prayer, acknowledge the obligation to be obedient unto His divine will: “all those who do confess thy holy Name may agree in the truth of thy holy Word, and live in unity and godly love.” This understanding is more directly addressed in the preface to the General Confession (p. 75).

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


Liturgical Worship: Scripture-based – Part 1

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Earlier this month my Blog post promised additional commentary on the value of liturgical worship, specifically, worship using the 1928 Book of Common Prayer in the Anglican tradition. This is the first entry in the series. More will follow on an unpredictable schedule.

Liturgical worship is practiced in several denominations, especially the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and, to a lesser extent, among some jurisdictions with the Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian traditions. The origin of these traditions is derived from early Church worship, both in the Western and Eastern Church jurisdictions. For Anglicans, the “gold standard” is those liturgies derived from Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s preparation (with assistance from many whose names are not commonly noted) of the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, the first set of liturgies written in the English language. Cranmer found inspiration in liturgies developed on the European continent, especially in the Lutheran Church, but also from the liturgy named in honor of St. John Chrysostom. Prior to the production of the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, Cranmer also wrote the office known as The Litany, or General Supplication, which still appears on pages 54-59 in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

Archbishop Cranmer did not compose something new but a working collection of liturgies for Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, the Litany & the Penitential Office for Ash Wednesday, as well as other offices and collections of prayers for specific occasions. All of these liturgies, offices and prayers have a common characteristic: They are based upon Holy Scripture, both of the Old Testament and the New Testament. For example, the Holy Communion liturgy begins with the Lord’s Prayer and a Collect, commonly called the Collect for Purity, written in the late 8th or early 9th C. by the Blessed Alcuin of York. The Collect sets the tone for the entire liturgy with understandings, both Jewish and Christian, concerning the nature of the God who sees all and knows all. It also serves as a warning against trivializing the meaning of the words that are to follow in the Holy Communion liturgy. It is useful to recall that Theos, a name of God, is the root word of “theology,” means The One Who Sees.

ALMIGHTY God, unto whom all hearts are open,
all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid;
Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name;
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Alcuin of York, and his importance in the development of Christian doctrine since the 9th C., is discussed in the Blog posts for Lent 4 and Lent 5.

Other examples of the use of Holy Scripture are the responsive reading of the Ten Commandments, or Decalogue. The full text must be used at least once per month. On other occasions, the clergyman may read the “Summary of the Law,” which is a paraphase of Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, and to which Jesus referred on Mark 12:28-34. Christ cited the two Old Testament sources in response to the question by some Scribes regarding which is the most important Commandment.

Another example is the Comfortable Words, which are quotations Matthew 11:28; John 3:16; 1 Timothy 1:15 and 1 John 2:1, 2. These follow the General Confession and Absolution. Yet another is the selection of New Testament and Old Testament verses which may be used during the Offertory, although the most commonly used in the first in the sequence, “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive,” based on Acts 20:35.

In Part Two, I will focus on indirect or paraphrases of Scripture which appear in the offices of Morning and Evening Prayer, the Holy Communion liturgy and are provided in other offices for special occasions, ranging from baptisms to funerals.

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

Feast of St. Bartholomew

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The Church’s celebration of the Feast Day of St. Bartholomew fell on a Sunday this year for the first time since A.D. 2014. It will not do so again until A.D. 2031, 2036 and 2042. The Collect for the Feast of St. Bartholomew in the Anglican tradition was composed by Archbishop Cranmer in 1549 and revised for the 1662 B.C.P.

St. Bartholomew, opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, James Tissot, 1886-1896, Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn NY. Public Domain.

O ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who didst give to thine Apostle Bartholomew
grace truly to believe and preach thy Word; Grant, we beseech thee, unto thy Church
to love that Word which he believed, and both to preach and receive the same;
through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

St. Bartholomew is named in all three synoptic Gospels but not in the Gospel of John. Since St. John includes two references to Nathaniel (John 1:45-51 and 21:2) and does not mention anyone called Bartholomew scholars assume that the two men are one and the same. In St. John’s account he is described as a native of the village of Cana in Galilee (John 21:2). Early Church scholar Eusebius wrote in the 4th C. that Bartholomew evangelized in present-day India, although some modern scholars insist that he preached in modern Saudi Arabia and not India. The relics of St. Bartholomew were moved to Rome and installed at the Cathedral of San Bartolomeo (Latin spelling) on the banks of the Tiber by Holy Roman Emperor Otto III. The location was said to have been used previously by pagans as a medical center. From than connection arose the modern usage of the saints name in association with hospitals, including renown St. Batholomew’s Hospital in London, England.

There are more illustrations and commentary in Episode Thirteen of the AIC Video series, The Lives of the Saints, First Series, with a podcast/MP3 audio version linked from the Podcast Archive page.

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

Catching Up

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Apologies to regular site visitors for the absence of new posts for several weeks. It’s been a somewhat lazy summer, trying to catch up on personal and Church affairs since returning from a vacation in Hawaii in early June. My garden got ahead of me and my muse for writing these posts deserted me.

This week’s post is something of a “catching up” with topics I had planned to wrote about. At the top of the list is the broad subject of Liturgical Worship. In today’s world given to transitory things, a tendency toward single and trendy topics, 21st C. people seem to prefer things short and snappy and which do no make too many demands upon our time. As an Anglican, I find that set version of worship helps focus the mind and heart on truly important issues rather than that which is transitory. I was reminded of this in happening upon a “worship” service in a public location in which the focus seemed purely on expressions, spoken repeatedly, on the phrase “we love Thee.”

Instead, I offer on this occasion a catena, or collection of Scriptural verses, based on Psalm 5:1-3, 7-8, & 12-13, which focuses on the two-way aspects of faith and worship. It appears as the first of two Psalm readings in the Third Hour Office, in Hear Us, O Lord: Daily Prayers for the Laity. Information about the book is found on the AIC Bookstore page. Like all AIC books it is available through my Amazon Author Central page. In the book it is formatted as below in responsive reading style. The text does not include verse numbers because the WordPress system assumes that a number is part of a list and the text reverts to the left margin and does not include small caps letters, which are used for “Lord” in verses 1, 3, 5, 7 & 9. Psalm 9 is traditionally credited to King David.

Ponder my words, O Lord,
Consider my mediation.
O hearken thou unto the voice of my calling, my King and my God:
For unto thee will I make my prayer,
My voice shalt thou hear betimes, O Lord;
Early in the morning I will direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
But as for me, in the multitude of thy mercy will I come into thine house;
And in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.
Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness, because of mine enemies;
Make thy way plain before my face.
And let all them that put their trust in thee rejoice:
They shall ever be giving of thanks, because thou defendest them; they that love thy Name shall be joyful in thee:
For thou, Lord, wilt give thy blessing unto the righteous,
And with thy favourable kindness wilt thou defend him as with a shield.


In future posts in this series I will focus on specific aspects of Liturgical Worship in the Anglican tradition.

Thank you for your interest and support. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

    Feast of St. Peter, June 29

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    Saving Peter from Drowning, detail from an illumination in tempera and colors on parchment based on Matthew 14:27-31, Codex Egberti, circa 980-993 A.D., Codex 24, Folio 27v, Wissenschaftliche Bibliothek der Stadt Trier, Trier, Germany. Public Domain.

    Sunday, June 29th, is the Feast Day of St. Peter. The readings appointed for the Feast of St. Peter are rarely heard in Anglican Sunday worship, but it did on Sunday, June 29, A.D. 2025. This is because the Feast of St. Peter rarely occurs on a Sunday. It last appeared on a Sunday in A.D. 2014. In the Second Quarter of the year it will appear again only in A.D. 2031, 2036 and 2042. The image above appears in a high-resolution version as Illustration No. 75, in the AIC Bookstore Publication, The Gospel of Matthew: Annotated & Illustrated, which is available through my Amazon Author Central page, with details shown on the AIC Bookstore page. It was also used in Slide 33 in Episode Three of the AIC Christian Education Video series, Trinitytide: the Teaching Season.

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

    Apophatic vs. Cataphatic Prayer

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    One of the objectives of the Anglican Internet Church online ministry, as stated in the Our Mission statement on the back page of all our publications and on our Web Site, is “Eastern Church Teaching in Western Church Language.” The title of this week’s post, Apophatic vs. Cataphatic Prayer is a good example. In the Eastern Church since the 5th and 6th C. the concept that God can only be described by words that define what He is not (apophatic) vs. the Western style of positive statements (cataphatic). This same concept is reflected in the link which was part of my post for Whitsunday/Pentecost, June 8, A.D. 2025.

    Here is an example of an apophatic prayer from the Eastern Church tradition which I have modified by substituting more commonly-understood terms from the Western Church. The proper word for somethings that is too complex to be rendered in plain language is “ineffable.” Here is have substituted: “whose love for men is above words.” The prayer is the Fourth Prayer in the Third Hour (9 AM) Office in Hear Us, O Lord: Daily Prayers for the Laity, a volume available through my Amazon Author Central page, with a summary found on the AIC Bookstore page. The original version is popular in both the Armenian and Russian Orthodox traditions. The prayer is found in Part Three of the book. Part One includes prayers of Praise and Thanksgiving; Penitence; Righteousness; Songs of Praise; and Other Prayers. Part Two is Little Prayers: Catanae on the Psalms.

    O LORD, our God, whose power is unspeakable,
    Whose glory is beyond imagining, Whose mercy
    is measureless; Whose love for men is above words,
    look down upon us, O Master, and bestow upon all
    here present the riches of thy goodness and mercy,
    for to thee belong all glory, honor and worship.
    In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
    now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

    Another prayer which observes the apophatic tradition is not from an Eastern Church saint but was composed by the Blessed Alcuin of York, spiritual advisor to Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor in the West since the Vandals sacked from in the 3rd Qtr., 5th C. Charlemagne was coronated at Rome on Christmas Day, 800 A.D. I adapted this version from a recent history of Alcuin published in England. Alcuin is best known in the Anglican worship tradition for his Collect for Peace which is found in the opening prayer in the Holy Communion liturgy in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Alcuin’s collect reflects the ancient Hebrew understanding of God as the all-knowing, all-seeing Almighty.

    O ETERNAL L:ight, shine into our hearts:
    O ETERNAL Goodness, deliver us from evil;
    O ETERNAL Power, be our support;
    O ETERNAL Wisdom, scatter the darkness of our ignorance;
    O ETERNAL Pity, have mercy on us;
    That with all our hearts and minds and souls and strength
    we may seek thy face and be brought by thine infinite mercy
    to thy holy presence. Amen.

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

    Whitsunday/Pentecost

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    Welcome to this first entry in a new series of posts on topical themes. These themes may be focused on timely events of the week or upon details and further exposition on the Collect, Epistle or Gospel reading for any particular Sunday or on any topics that seems relevant, especially those which, in my view, are not receiving sufficient attention in the media.

    For this first posting, I offer a selection of prayers from the Third Hour (9:00 A.M.) office in Part Three in the AIC Bookstore Publication, Hear Us, O Lord: Daily Prayers for the Laity. This 3-part volume is available in paperback through my Amazon Author Central page, with a summary on the AIC Bookstore page. Part One, Awesome Prayers to Our Awesome God, includes prayers on the themes of Praise & Thanksgiving; Protection & Deliverance; Penitence; Righteousness; Songs of Praise; and Other Prayers. Part Two includes a selection catnap, or short prayers, based upon Psalm verses.

    Great is the day of Sunday;
    And blessed is he who keeps it in faith;
    Because on it Our Lord rose from the grave;
    And the nations confessed the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
    Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.
    Halleluia! Halleluia! Halleluia!
    Source: Syrian Antiochian Orthodox Church

    Creator of the morning, who drove out the darkness and brings light and joy to thy creation; create in us habits of virtue and drive from us all darkness of sin; give us light and joy by the glorious rays of thy grace, O Lord our God, for ever and ever. Amen.
    Source: Syrian Jacobite prayer, 5th C. or earlier.

    For this first posting I offer a link to an interesting article posted on May 26th in The Catholic Herald. I hope that the article gives us evidence on why the new Roman Catholic Pope whose the name, Leo XIV. In a later post I will explain and discuss the concepts of apophatic and cataphatic prayers which are implied in the article linked below.

    https://thecatholicherald.com/for-monday-why-pope-leo-xivs-gentle-criticism-of-contemporary-western-liturgy-is-a-vital-wakeup-call/

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

    Sunday after Ascension

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    Anglican worship for the Sunday after Ascension marks the close of the prayer cycle focused on historical events, beginning with First Sunday in Advent and including the seasons of Advent, Christmas/Nativity of Our Lod, Epiphany, and Eastertide/Ascension. Next Sunday, Whitsunday/Pentecost, marks the start of what the AIC refers to as the “Teaching Season.” During this second half of the year, the collects and readings are focused on elements of doctrine rather than events.

    For Sunday after Ascension, instead of another prayer adapted from one of three primary sources in the Western Church tradition, that is, the Leonine, Gregorian or Gelasian sacramentaries, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer turned to the traditions of the English Church. His Collect for Sunday after Ascension was adapted from a song which was sung for The Venerable Bede during Bede’s final illness in 735 A.D. In the English Church, the words of the song had been incorporated into a prayer in the Vespers office, usually celebrated around 5 P.M. or local sunset. The words of the Collect, very much like the Gospel reading from John 16 for Fourth Sunday after Easter, were intended to prepare worshippers for the transition from the celebration of Christ’s Ascension, celebrated on Ascension Day, the Thursday following Fifth Sunday after Easter, into the recognition of the Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost/Whitsunday. In the King James Version and the Book of Common Prayer, the Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit, is referred to as “Comforter.” In the New King James Version He is called the “Helper.” Bede is also venerated in the Roman Catholic tradition, although he was not canonized by the Roman Church until the reign of Pope Leo XIII in 1899 A.D. The Venerable Bede was the author of the earliest history of the Church in England, Ecclesiastical History of England, covering the period up to 731 A.D., the year the book was published. An online version is available through CCEL.org.

    The Ascension, the left panel of a triptych in tempera on wood, Andrea Mantegna, 1463-1464 A.D., Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy. Image from The Yorck Project: 10,000 Masterworks. Public Domain.

    O GOD, the King of glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph
    into thy kingdom in heaven; We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost
    to comfort us, and exalt us into the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before,
    who liveth and reigneth with thee and same Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

    The Epistle reading, 1 Peter 4:7-11, begins with St. Peter’s advice concerning preparation for final judgment (verse 7), goes on to extol the Christian virtue of love (Verse 8, translated as “charity” in the King James Version and the Book of Common Prayer) and acknowledges that virtues come to mankind as a sovereign gift from God. The final verse (verse 11) includes words which have been incorporated into many Christian liturgies and prayers, here printed in the Prayer Book translation:

    If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God;
    If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth:
    that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ,
    to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

    The Gospel reading, John 15:26 to John 16:4a, the fifth of five selections from the Gospel of John in the Sundays after Easter and Sunday after Ascension, includes a warning about the earthly dangers for followers of Jesus Christ, not only for those immediately within His hearing but also for those who would follow Him in the generations to come. Perhaps that is why the reading is presented in the Book of Common Prayer out of chronological order, with reference in verse 26 to an event already celebrated on Ascension Day.

    But these things I have told you, that when the time comes,
    you may remember that I told you of them.

    The Ascension, illumination in tempera and gold on parchment, Rabbula Gospels, produced in the region of present-day Syria, then known as Mesopotamia, at the monastery of St. John of Zagba, 586 A.D. Codex Pluteus 1, 56, Folio 13v, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenzina, Florence, Italy. The document has been in Florence since the 16th C. The volume also includes the oldest surviving image of the Crucifixion. This version is from The Yorck Project: 10,000 Masterworks, published on a DVD and released into the Public Domain in 2002 A.D.

    The actual descent of the Holy Spirit is celebrated annually on the Church Calendar on Whitsunday/Pentecost. The descent is described vividly by St. Luke in Acts 2:1-11, which is the Epistle reading for Whitsunday. The illustration displayed above the Collect for the Day represents the Western style of literalist interpretation of Christ’s Ascension. The illustration above this paragraph represents a more spiritual style. Both illustrations and twelve others were used in our publication, Easter: The Resurection of Our Lord in Scripture, Art & Christian Tradition, available through my Amazon Author Central page, with details of the volume found on the AIC Bookstore page. The Collect, Epistle and Gospel readings for Sunday after Ascension are discussed and illustrated in Episode Three in the AIC Christian Education Video series, Eastertide: From Resurrection to Ascension, linked from the Digital Library page and, in MP3 audio format, from the Podcast Archive page.

    Next week I plan to begin a new series of topical Blog postings. Readers are reminded that Blog entries for the other Sundays on the Church Calendar are linked from the Fr. Ron’s Blog tab for the years from 2023 through 2025. The page includes links to all posts going back to the opening of this site in August 2014. The Blog includes topical links following the actual blog entries.

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

    Fifth Sunday after Easter

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    For Fifth Sunday after Easter, also known as Rogation Sunday, Archbishop Cranmer again turned to the Gelasian Sacramentary as the source for the Collect for the Day. The first line in the Collect is a paraphrase of James 1:17, which was part of the Epistle reading for Fourth Sunday after Easter. The Christian tradition of praying for bountiful harvests is traced to practices endorsed by Pope Leo the Great in the late 5th C. Rogation comes from the Latin verb rogare, meaning to ask. In the English Church the first Rogation liturgy was used in the late 12th-early 13th C. in the Sarum Rite. Sarum is modern Salisbury in Wiltshire in southwest England.

    O LORD, from whom all good things do come;
    Grant to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration
    we may think those things that are good, and by thy
    merciful guidance, may perform the same, through
    Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

    The Epistle reading, James 1:22-27, another example of Christian “wisdom” writings during the Sundays after Easter, opens with the famous advice to Christians to “be doers of the word, and not hearers only and ends with other sage advice, to “keep oneself unspotted from the world.”

    Christ Pantokrator, apse mosaic, Cathedral of Cefalu, Sicily, 11th C. with inscriptions in Greek and Latin. Christ offers a blessing with his right hand and hold the Gospel of John, open to the “I Am the Light of the world” (John 8:12) in his left hand. © Can Stock Photo, Inc./VLADJ55

    The Gospel reading, John 16:23-33, is the third and last reading from the unique Gospel of John in Eastertide. Like the earlier readings for the Sundays after Easter, the words were spoken by Jesus after the Last Supper on the evening of Maundy Thursday. In verse 26, Jesus grants to the faithful the right to pray to the Father in HIs name and acknowledges that He came forth from the Father. Jesus closes with words that are both a forewarning and a comfort: “In Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (NKJV text). These readings along with the readings for Fourth Sunday after Easter, Ascension Day and Sunday after Ascension are discussed and illustrated in Episode Three in our video series, Eastertide: From Resurrection to Ascension, linked from the Bible Study: New Testament page. The audio version in MP3 format is linked from the Podcast Archive page. The readings from John 16, although unique to the Gospel of John, are not easily illustrated and therefore were not commonly represented in Christian art across the centuries. Instead, for this fifth and final of the numbered Sundays after Easter, I have used another Christ Pantokrator image, an Apse mosaic at the Cathedral at Cefalu on the northern coast of Sicily east of Palermo, created under commission from Roger II, the Norman king of Sicily. These Byzantine-style mosaics in the Cathedral were commissioned in the 11th C. but were not completed until the 13th C., with the Christ Pantokrator image completed around 1150 A.D. Under the Christ Pantokrator image is the Blessed Virgin Mary flanked by the Archangels Gabriel (left) and Michael (right). In a wider view of the area under the Apse mosaic, the Archangels Raphael and Uriel are shown.

    During the Sundays after Easter there have been a number of new subscribers to these blog postings. I thank each of you, as well as earlier subscribers, and invite other viewers to “follow” this blog by clicking the “Follow Fr. Ron’s Blog” and the WordPress logo. You will receive an email from WordPress for each future posting. Next Sunday, Sunday after Ascension, will be the last in this series of postings based upon the Collect and appointed readings. All the other Sundays on the Church Calendar already have appropriate postings during the last two years. My focus in Fr. Ron’s Blog will shift to theme-based commentaries, some based on appointed readings, others based on interesting topics currently under-represented in earlier posts, and anything else that I believer would help site visitors better understand the Anglican worship tradition and Christian art over the centuries.

    As always, thank you for your interest and support.