From the Rector

Recent Messages from Our Rector

The Nativity of St. John the Baptist

June 24th

Today, the Church commemorates and solemnizes the birth of St. John the Baptist. He is called the precursor of Christ, the one foretold in scripture, to prepare the way of His coming. John the Baptist is also the cousin of our Lord through his Mother’s lineage. As we read in the Gospel according to St. Luke, he was born six months before Jesus. So, the world of retail will now remind us that Christmas is only 6 months away!

St. John the Baptist held populist sway despite his strong declarations to repent and turn one’s orientation away from the world of sin. Despite his rockstar status, he was emphatic that he must decrease and God in Christ must increase! Of course, according to St. John the Baptist, if one is converted to Christ in this way, they must produce fruits worthy of repentance; otherwise, the stones are of more value to God than those who are literally and spiritually descendants of Father Abraham.

Collect of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist

Almighty God, by whose providence your servant John the Baptist was wonderfully born, and sent to prepare the way of your Son our Savior by preaching repentance: Make us so to follow his teaching and holy life, that we may truly repent according to his preaching; and, following his example, constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Appointed Lessons and Psalm

Isaiah 40:1–11

Psalm 85

Acts 13:14b–26

Luke 1:57–80

June 19, 2022

Dear Friends,

Last Sunday we started a new liturgical season, the “Season After Pentecost,” or “Ordinary Time” as others call it. The season starts with Trinity Sunday and ends with the first Sunday in Advent. During this season we revisit the stories of our Salvation as they pertain to our new life in Jesus Christ. It is a season of new hope in full anticipation of Christ’s coming again. He fulfilled his Easter promise, and as Christians, we trust his promise that he will come again.

The color of this season is green. Green represents anticipation and newness. The earth teaches us the benefits of newness in God as we watch for the green sprigs of the field in anticipation of the coming harvest. All of creation gives glory to our Creator and directs our attention to Him and to things eternal. We’re fortunate to live in this beautiful part of the world where the abundance of the earth surrounds us to sustain our lives and make our hearts glad. Here the creeks and rivers flow to the seas and gives life to the soil and the creatures below, the trees draw our orientation upward to the eternal expanse above us, and the rush of the wind speaks with the mystery of Him who breathed new life into our first parents. Apart from earth’s natural wonders, this season is also a time for our refreshment and re-creation.

I wish you all a safe, happy, and GREEN Ordinary Time.

Your friend in Christ,

Copeland+

June 2, 2022

“Veni Sancti Spiritus”

Dear Friends in Christ,

Veni Sanctus Spiritus is the title of a historic and popular prayer in the Church. Translated from Latin to English it means “Come Holy Spirit.” The prayer was written by the Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton (see picture of statue) around the year 1200 and is commonly called “The Veni.” It has been used for centuries in public worship and private devotions.

The prayer was later added to music and was regularly sung as a sequence hymn to the reading of the Holy Gospel during a liturgy. Today, in the Episcopal Church, a version of The Veni is sung or said before a bishop lays hands on candidates for Holy Orders to make them deacons and priests.

This coming Sunday, we will read a lesson from Acts 2:1-21. We will hear the following segment from the lesson: “and suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.” To recreate that first Day of Pentecost, it became a tradition in Christian households to open doors and windows and recite The Veni as a way to invite the wind of the Holy Spirit into one’s home.

I am including this prayer in my message today as an invitation for you to use it domestically as a way to invite the Holy Spirit into your homes anew this Pentecost. I hope it will inspire in you a deeper devotion to Jesus Christ through the power of His gift, the Holy Spirit.

Your friend in Christ,
Copeland+

Veni Sancti Spiritus
Come, O Holy Spirit, come!
From your bright and blissful
Home
Rays of healing light impart.

Come, Father of the poor,
Source of gifts that will endure
Light of ev’ry human heart.

You, of all consolers best,
Of the soul, most kindly Guest,
Quick’ning courage do bestow.

In hard labor You are rest,
In the heat You refresh best,
And solace give in our woe.

O most blessed Light divine,
Let Your radiance in us shine,
And our inmost being fill.

Nothing good by man is thought,
Nothing right by him is wrought,
When he spurns Your gracious Will.

Cleanse our souls from sinful stain,
Lave our dryness with Your rain
Heal our wounds and mend our way.

Bend the stubborn heart and will,
Melt the frozen, warm the chill,
Guide the steps that go astray.

On the faithful who in You,
Trust with childlike piety,
Deign your sevenfold gift to send.

Give them virtue’s rich increase,
Saving grace to die in peace,
Give them joys that never end.

Amen. Alleluia.

Saint Mark the Evangelist

April 25th

A disciple of Jesus, named Mark, appears in several places in the New Testament. If all references to Mark can be accepted as referring to the same person, we learn that he was the son of a woman who owned a house in Jerusalem. Church tradition suggests that Mark may have been the young man who fled naked when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul refers to “Mark the cousin of Barnabas,” who was with him in his imprisonment. Mark set out with Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey, but he turned back for reasons which failed to satisfy Paul (Acts 15:36– 40). When another journey was planned, Paul refused to have Mark with him. Instead, Mark went with Barnabas to Cyprus. The breach between Paul and Mark was later healed, and Mark became one of Paul’s companions in Rome, as well as a close friend of Peter’s.

An early tradition recorded by Papias, Bishop of Hieropolis in Asia Minor at the beginning of the second century, names Mark as the author of the Gospel bearing his name, drawing his information from the teachings of Peter. In his First Letter, Peter refers to “my son Mark,” which shows a close relationship between the two men (1 Peter 5:13).

The Church of Alexandria in Egypt claimed Mark as its first bishop and most illustrious martyr, and the great Church of St. Mark in Venice commemorates the disciple who progressed from turning back while on a missionary journey with Paul and Barnabas to proclaiming in his Gospel Jesus of Nazareth as Son of God, and bearing witness to that faith in his later life as friend and companion to the apostles Peter and Paul. (Lesser Feasts & Fasts 2018, pp. 202-203)

Collect for St. Mark

Almighty God, by the hand of Mark the evangelist you have given to your church the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God: We thank you for this witness, and pray that we may be firmly grounded in its truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Palm Sunday

April 10

The holiest week in Western Christianity begins this Sunday with our celebration of Palm Sunday. Throughout the season of Lent we’ve learned the stories of Jesus making his way to Jerusalem. We recall this Palm Sunday his triumphal entry into the city as people shout “hosanna!” and make other gestures of adoration, only to be betrayed by one of his disciples. He is then stripped away from us on Maundy Thursday after demonstrating loving service and endowing the Church with his Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. We then survey the wondrous cross on Good Friday. It is upon Golgotha’s Hill Jesus gives his life for the life of the world. Throughout his gruesome and horrific Passion and crucifixion, his mother, St. Mary, never leaves him. She is a faithful mother and servant to the bitter end.

On Easter, the third day, Mary Magdalene arrives at the tomb and finds it empty. Weeping, a voice said to her, “woman, why are you crying?” She turned to realize it was our risen Lord! As he promised, he rose from the dead! Through Holy Baptism, we now share in his Passion, death and Resurrection. This means we are joint heirs of eternal life through Jesus Christ!

The stories and liturgies will be intense, but I pray they will be meaningful to us as we remember the great drama of our redemption. I wish you all a blessed Holy Week.

The Annunciation of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Blessed Virgin Mary

March 25th

Pour your grace into our hearts, O Lord, that we who have known the incarnation of your Son Jesus Christ, announced by an angel to the Virgin Mary, may by his cross and passion be brought to the glory of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

“Today’s feast commemorates how God made known to a young Jewish woman that she was to be the mother of his Son. The Annunciation has been a major theme in Christian art, in both East and West, and innumerable sermons and poems have been composed about it. The term coined by Cyril of Alexandria for the Blessed Virgin, Theotokos (“the God-bearer”), was affirmed by the General Council of Ephesus in 431.

Many theologians stress that Mary accepted her vocation with perfect conformity of will. Mary’s self-offering in response to God’s call has been compared to that of Abraham, the father of believers. Just as Abraham was called to be the father of the chosen people, and accepted his call, so Mary was called to be the mother of the faithful, the new Israel. She is God’s human agent in the mystery of the Incarnation. Her response to the angel, “Let it be to me according to your word,” is identical with the faith expressed in the prayer that Jesus taught: “Your will be done on earth as in heaven.”

[Our] salvation is only possible because of Mary’s free cooperation with God in that salvation. It has been said, “God made us without us, and redeemed us without us, but cannot save us without us.” Mary’s assent to God’s call opened the way for God to accomplish the salvation of the world. It is for this reason that all generations have called her “blessed.” ” (taken from Lesser Feasts & Fasts 2018, p. 150)

Lessons and Psalm

The Feast of St. Joseph

March 19

Today, we remember the faithfulness of St. Joseph, carpenter, father, guardian, and man of faith.

O God, who from the family of your servant David raised up Joseph to be the guardian of your incarnate Son and the spouse of his virgin mother: Give us grace to imitate his uprightness of life and his obedience to your commands; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

In the face of circumstances that distressed even a man of such tenderness and obedience to God as Joseph, he accepted the vocation of protecting Mary and being a father to Jesus. He is honored in Christian tradition for the nurturing care and protection he provided for the infant Jesus and his mother in taking them to Egypt to escape Herod’s slaughter of the innocents, and in rearing him as a faithful Jew at Nazareth. The Gospel according to Matthew pictures Joseph as a man of deep devotion, open to mystical experiences, and as a man of compassion, who accepted his God-given responsibility with gentleness and humility.

Joseph was a pious Jew, a descendant of David, and a carpenter by trade. As Joseph the Carpenter, he is considered the patron saint of the working man, one who not only worked with his hands, but taught his trade to Jesus. The little that is told of him is a testimony to the trust in God which values simple everyday duties, and gives an example of a loving husband and father. (Lesser Feasts & Fasts p. 192)

Lessons and Psalm