New Year’s Eve Koinonia
December 29, 2008
We will host an informal New Year’s Eve Koinonia—potluck, game night, prayer, and praise Wednesday, December 31st in the parish hall beginning at 7 PM.
Come fellowship with us.
Christmas Eve Service Audio Available
December 26, 2008
The audio recording of the Christmas Eve service is online now. If you didn’t attend this service, you missed a glorious celebration of the birth of our Lord.
All services and sermons are placed online shortly after the day of the service.
Schedule Reminders
December 26, 2008
There will be only one service, at 11:15 AM, on Sunday, December 28th, Holy Innocents.
There will be no Wednesday Supper Club or Salt and Light classes next week. Both will resume the following week.
Liturgy Lesson for Holy Innocents: Gestures of Reverence
December 26, 2008
In worship, you may note some parishioners make “gestures of reverence” such as signing themselves with the cross, bowing, genuflecting, or knocking on the breastbone to show repentance at various times in the service. Since the 1549 Prayer Book (the first in English instead of Latin, produced during the Reformation) all gestures of reverence—except the kneeling or standing when the rubrics of the Prayer Book require them—are a personal devotion left to the discretion of the individual. These gestures, when used in worship, are a matter of our hearts before Almighty God—strictly between the individual and our Lord. They reflect the courtesy and protocol of service in the court of a sovereign—in this case, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, whom we serve. Whichever of these we use, they should be done as service to honor God earnestly—worshipping with our bodies, souls and spirits, as led by the Holy Spirit.
Liturgy Lesson for Christmas: The Mass of Christ’s Day
December 25, 2008
Over the centuries, the liturgy of the church has developed a spirituality particularly for Christians during Advent. Both the Sunday liturgies and the daily Scripture readings have been designed to direct our journey into the Advent experience of the mystery of Christ. Our fathers in the faith have chosen Scriptures that accent three Advents: the Advent of Christ coming into our own lives, the Advent of Christ’s physical birth in Bethlehem, and the Advent of his second coming at the end of history. While the liturgies and daily readings of Advent begin with the second coming and move as in a funnel toward the first coming, we are called to a vital personal encounter with Christ through the readings and devotions of the season, leading us to Christmas.
Christmas, the Mass of Christ’s Day, is incomplete without the Holy Eucharist. We’ve prepared for Christ’s Coming and Return in Advent and embrace His birthing in our hearts. The faithful traditionally gather in the parish passing the hours in song and prayer, listening to homilies and waiting for the Great Day. Christmas is a feast of light. We’ve also brought flowers and the Gloria in Excelsis back to worship, celebrating Jesus’ arrival in our lives, bringing us light and life—and when we sing this ancient praise, we join the angels in proclaiming His Kingdom..
Upside Down
December 20, 2008
Upside Down from Pace Hartfield on Vimeo.
Liturgy Lesson for the Fourth Sunday in Advent: Conversion
December 19, 2008
In Advent spirituality, we meditate on Christ’s birthing in our hearts. In this, we deal with the conversion of life—the movement away from our old life, lived under the power of evil—to a new life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit. True conversion is a turning from one way of life to another. Christ calls us to be converted to Him, making him the pattern of our lives, our living and dying in Him. This can only be accomplished as we completely submit to Him and live our lives in respect to His paschal mystery and by the example He left for us to follow. In Advent we review, once again, where our faith rests and how we live. “Trust in Jesus” is not merely a onetime act, but a continuous choice, a moment-by-moment existence in Him. It’s a daily turning from a life lived for self to a life lived in step with the Spirit who continually molds us, if we will allow Him to do so, to be like Jesus.
Fear Not!
December 19, 2008
Christmas Is About a Savior
“Our world doesn’t know. They think that Christmas is about gifts under a tree and a spirit of good cheer, with Christmas dinner and family around the table. But as good as all that may be, it isn’t nearly as good as the Real Christmas.
“The Real Christmas message is this: God has sent a Savior for you. To save you from your sins and to help you in this life — to lift your burden and ease your fears. That’s it! A Savior who is Christ the Lord — God himself!
“The world is gripped by fear. But fear’s hold has been broken in those of us who believe the angel’s words:
Fear not … for a Savior is born to you — Christ the Lord!”
~ The Joyful Heart Newsletter, Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, Joyful Heart Renewal Ministries
Lessons and Carols Audio Available
December 18, 2008
The audio recording of the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols is online now. If you didn’t attend this service, you missed a magificent evening with glorious music from the choir, readings by parish leaders, and enthusiastic participation of the congregation.
All services and sermons are placed online shortly after the day of the service.
Christmas Letter from Bishop Martyn Minns
December 18, 2008
Good News of Great Joy for All People!
We need some good news. A worldwide financial collapse is happening before our eyes and in many of our neighborhoods. Armed conflicts around the globe seem to be never ending. Oppressive governments continue to retain power. Religious strife is on the increase. Poverty and disease continue to take their unrelenting toll of the most vulnerable. In many ways the world is not much different from that night of nights when the shepherds watched their flocks in the fields around Bethlehem. They needed some good news too!
The word from the angel was clear and simple: “I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people!” So . . . what on earth was this good news of great joy for all people?
First and foremost, the good news declared that the Creator of the universe had heard their cries and was about to intervene into their world and change the course of human history for good. This intervention had been long anticipated by the prophets but it was not to be a quick fix. The salvation of the world was now assured but it would take time — lots of it. God would bring healing and hope where there had been only brokenness and despair. God could have done all this by sheer force; but instead of following the pathway of power, God chose to work through one of the most vulnerable members of his creation — a newborn baby. It is a unique strategy that God continues to follow.
God also chose to make the good news very personal. Our salvation is not mechanical or automatic. It depends first on God¹s grace and second on the response of each person to this amazing gift. And the great joy that the angel spoke about was the promise of this abundant life. We are no longer stuck in patterns of alienation and brokenness, but now we can begin to dream of a new world with new possibilities where freedom reigns and where the ravages of sin no longer hold us in their grip.
The world is still in need of this good news. God is still in the redemption business. During this Christmas season it is good to remember that God chose to bring the promise of healing and hope through one of the most vulnerable of institutions — the church! We have no armies to command or weapons to deploy. We are merely a people whose claim to fame is the one we follow — Jesus of Nazareth. But we know that through this solitary life the world was and is changed for good — one life at a time. And it is by His Spirit that we offer this promise of a new way of living until that day when heaven and nature will sing, “Joy to the world, The Lord is come!” . . . that’s good news!
Your brother in Christ,
+Martyn
The Rt. Rev’d Martyn Minns
Missionary Bishop of CANA
