Palm Sunday. 28 March 2021. Saint Luke's, Augusta, GA Saint Matthew 27 verse 42 - Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. In Saint Matthew’s Passion…
Naomi Williams’s Burial
Burial Office for Naomi Williams. March 27, 2021. Saint Luke’s, Augusta, Georgia Romans viii, verse 18 - For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the…
Censorship, Part I
[This post concerns censorship. By ‘censorship’ I mean the exercise of power by one person or party that limits the free expression of belief or opinion by another person or party. The ‘expression’ usually is in the form of speech, written or oral, but might also include art, gestures, music, or anything else that expresses…
Bad Government English
I received a letter this month (February 2021) from the Internal Revenue Service, which is a branch of the Department of the Treasury. The letter concerned money sent to me, unsolicited, unbidden, and unneeded, as part of the government’s massive, multi-trillion dollar, scattershot, responses to the disastrous economic dislocation caused by the Corona Virus Disease-2019…
Decalogue III: The Second Table
20:12. The fifth commandment, to honor parents. The duties and commandments relating to God (the first table or tablet, commandments one through four) are followed by duties and commandments relating to other humans (the second tablet, commandments five through ten). There is a certain logical progress in these commandments. It is through parents and the…
The Decalogue II: The first table
20:2-3. The first commandment in the Orthodox/Anglican/Reformed reckoning. In rabbinical reckoning 20:2 is the first commandment. In the medieval Latin reckoning followed now by the Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches, this is the first half of the first commandment. 20:1. The Decalogue consists of God’s ‘words’, of what God ‘says’. Revelation can be perceived as…
The Decalogue I: General Comments
The Ten Commandments (20:1-21). The Hebrew term, Words (davarim), is preserved in the term ‘Decalogue’ (deka-, ‘ten’ + logoi, ‘words’). In the Septuagint text as in Hebrew the word for the commandments in 20:1 is ‘Words’, Logoi. In New Testament Greek, however, when Jesus is referring to one of the commandments he speaks of them…
Ash Wednesday Collect
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through…
Rubricism and the Liturgy
There are many imaginable approaches to the conduct of public worship, some of them amounting to little more than matters of taste or fashion. A period of liturgical experimentation and change gained momentum in the Roman Catholic Church after Vatican II. Around the same time in the Anglican world, after a series of rather conservative…
Vacations and Holidays
At my college the chaplain, who did double duty as the rector of the parish that used the college’s chapel, with some regularity had faculty members, and even the college’s psychologist, give guest sermons or addresses at the principal Sunday service. These addresses were usually interesting and often more orthodox than the priest’s offerings. The…
