First Sunday After Easter

Anglican Internet ChurchLeave a comment

Corkie and I got back from our first trip in the Volvo XC90 AWD late yesterday.  This morning I put together a short Podcast Homily for the First Sunday After Easter based on the prayer book readings from 1 John 5:4-12 and John 20:19-23.  LIsten to the Podcast

John-RohanMaster-15thCThese two readings are both highly-spiritual, in which St. John shares his first hand experience as a Disciple and his own passionate understanding of the importance of the Christian virtue of Love (from the Greek, agape) and the equality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son (or the Word in the Gospel of St. John).  In his epistle he once again indulgences in a preference for stressing the importance of the symbolic number 3.  Three stands for the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as well as for the three baptism-like symbols in his narrative:  the spirit, the water and the blood.  As he did in his Gospel account, he speaks of the Holy Spirit as witness of the Truth, meaning the Christian belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that through Him only can salvation be obtained.  In his Gospel, he frequently uses the comparison between Truth and Falsehood.  For those moderns who give advice on the need for inclusiveness, St. John offers unwanted stress upon the certainty that there is only one path to the Father:

And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

How much clearer can an Epistle be?

The Gospel account is unique in many ways.  It offers details of the appearance in the Upper Room, safely locked against possilbe intrusion by hostile Jews, including the granting to the faithful of the Peace of God, access by His breath to the Holy Spirit, and later, after the end of the reading, the comments of a skeptical Thomas, as well as providing the Scriptural basis for the Sacrament of Confession/Penance.  As I note in the Podcast Homily, the granting of the sacrament providing Absolution and Remission of sins is yet another example of God’s unqualified love, Agape, for His Creation.

Advent – Christmas – Epiphany A.D. 2014-2015

Anglican Internet ChurchLeave a comment

The combined Advent-Christmas-Epiphany season will be celebrated by the Anglican Internet Church this season with one new series and an expanded version of another.

O-Antiphons-Title1The new series is The Great “O” Antiphons, which will appear in both You Tube and podcast versions, one each day, between December 18th and December 24th.   Based upon a modified version of the Christmas Eve celebration in our publication, Occasional Services for Anglican Worship, it celebrates the seven verses of the hymn, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.  The “O” Antiphons service is thought to date from the 12th Century.  The original purpose of the “O” Antiphons service was to provide a transition from the lasts days of the penitential season of Advent into the festive celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord on Christmas Day.  You can learn more about this and other services in the book and order your own copy of Occasional Services for Anglican Worship in either paperback or Kindle editions at Fr. Shibley’s author page at Amazon.com.

Each episode will feature music, art and graphics, plus Old Testament readings and a short mini-homily for each of the seven theme words:  O Sapentia (Wisdom); O Adonai (Lord); O Radix Jessee (Root of Jessee); O Clavis David (Key of David); O Oriens (Dayspring); O Rex Gentium (King of Nations); and, on Christmas Eve, O Emmanuel (God With Us).   The purposes of the series are to revive this ancient celebration that was once nearly universally used in the week before Christmas and to promote the concept of Christian Spirituality as an active defense against the assaults of our aggressively anti-religious, anti-Christian secular world.  The most recent AIC Bookstore publication, Christian Spirituality: an Anglican Perspective, an exploration of the same theme, is also available at Fr. Ron’s author page.

TwelveDays-Title1This year the AIC will offer the third podcast version and second You Tube video version of The Twelve Days of Christmas, posted daily on each of the days from Christmas Day through Epiphany Eve.    The series has nothing to do with the song of the same name, which is focused on material things, but focuses instead on events or spiritual and theological virtues, one for each day on the Anglican Church calendar.

In this expanded and updated version for A.D. 2014-2015, Fr. Ron Shibley will discuss the key word(s) or virtues for each day:  Love (Christmas Day); Forgiveness (December 26th); Peace (December 27th); Compassion (December 28th); Obedience (December 29th); Joy (December 30th); Family (December 31st); Church (January 1st); Angels (January 2nd); Commandments (January 3rd); Glorifying God (January 4th); and, finally, Grace and Peace (January 5th).