Posted on 11/26/2005 10:35:29 AM PST by sionnsar
Whether we like it or not, it's a fact that 'round the Anglican Communion our various provinces and national churches use different lectionaries. We are not all on the same page, so to speak, each Sunday. So we can't usefully refer, in these front-page scribbles, to a specific Gospel that 'we all heard' because we didn't all hear it. But wherever we are in the Communion, this Sunday is the last in the church's year. Whether it's called the Sunday of Christ the King, the last Sunday after Pentecost, or the Sunday Next Before Advent, this day stands as the end of one year and the gate of another. Advent is just over there; a hushed, solemn, waiting season, clad in dark Sarum blue or deep royal purple. A short sharp significant season whispering: 'Not long now! But not yet'.
A hard message for us get-it-now, on-demand 21st-century folk. Perhaps if there were an eighth deadly sin, 'impatience' would be a contender. It can cause errors of judgement, ruin finances, and run relationships ragged. Its smash-and-grab nature lets sound bites flourish and careful reasoning languish. Advent should bring us to our senses. 'Stop', it signals. 'Look both ways before crossing'. 'Slow down: incarnation ahead'. There is a saying that the two most important days of our lives are the day we were born and the day we know why. Our incarnation and our vocation, if you will. Many of us spend longer than we'd like in seeking that last important day; some, through grace, are born knowing it. Occasionally it seems that many of the roils and rumbles in the Anglican news come from people who cannot possess their souls in quiet and who thrash about seeking . . . well, we're not certain what. But now and again the Communion seems filled with people for whom issuing press releases, engineering power plays, and fulminating must bring a sense of purpose and point. Perhaps the Anglican Communion could indeed use a little Advent. A friend once wrote in passing of:
May God bring us this Advent to what God desires us to be. And may we accept that when we know it. Glory and honour and solemnity and joy and awesomeness, all intermingled in the season soon to come. See you next week, on Advent Sunday. |
"that anastasis icon where Christ grasps the hands of Adam and Eve with the tenacity of God, holy and strong -- and there is a hope there somewhere that grace will bring us to be what God desires us to be."
Very good! here's a little "light reading" on the subject of the Incarnation from the Holy Father in Faith +Athanasius the Great:
http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-04/Npnf2-04-16.htm#P1830_678055
He he! I was on the "Art and Environment Committee" of a progressive Catholic parish in Texas (I think I was volunteered because I liked to polish the brass), and we did all the Advent decor in dark blue one year. It was something of a shock to some of the parishioners, but I liked it.
I have dark blue candles on my mantel right now, for Advent starting tomorrow, and purple (and one red - Hobby Lobby was out of pink in the matching size) in the Advent wreath in another room.
And I'm almost finished the dusting!
"And I'm almost finished the dusting!"
Is that a good thing to do in your condition?
Better to dust now, than have it around when the baby is born. Things are sneezy enough here just because of the climate.
I used to climb up on the kitchen counters and scrub the cabinets with Murphy's Oil Soap in the last weeks of pregnancy, but now my kids won't let me!
That's beautiful.
Thank you! It didn't take a photographer's eye to figure out something was missing...
So what is the story on the various Anglican lectionaries? Is it fair to say that prior to the 20th c that all used the same lectionary?
And of the modern folks, they didn't coordinate worldwide on a lectionary? Doesn't ECUSA use some sort of pan-Protestant lectionary? I thought it was international or something. (I know that quite a few of the "old texts" disappeared in the new lectionaries!)
Do Anglican traditionalists generally use the same lectionary?
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