Liturgical Piety Archives - Page 2 of 18 - All Saints Anglican Church, Charlottesville VA

October 25, 2016 By Fr. Spencer

This Week at All Saints

Mass Schedule – Trinity XXII (Oct. 23, 2016)

24, Feria
25, St. Raphael, Archangel
26, Alfred the Great, King
27, Feria
28, St. Simon & St Jude
29, Martyrs of Uganda

+ When the Gospel was first preached in Britain, the island was inhabited by Celtic peoples. In the 500’s, pagan Germanic tribes, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, invaded Britain and drove the Christian Celts out of what is now England into Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. The new arrivals (called collectively the Anglo-Saxons) were then converted by Celtic missionaries moving in from the one side and Roman missionaries moving in from the other. (They then sent missionaries of their own, such as Boniface, to their pagan relatives on the Continent.) In the 800’s the cycle partly repeated itself, as the Christian Anglo-Saxons were invaded by the Danes, pagan raiders, who rapidly conquered the northeast portion of England. They seemed about to conquer the entire country and eliminate all resistance when they were turned back by Alfred, King of the West Saxons. Alfred was born in 849 at Wantage, Berkshire, youngest of five sons of King Aethelwulf. He wished to become a monk, but after the deaths (all in battle, I think) of his father and his four older brothers, he was made king in 871. He proved to be skilled at military tactics, and devised a defensive formation which the Danish charge was unable to break. After a decisive victory at Edington in 878, he reached an agreement with the Danish leader Guthrum, by which the Danes would retain a portion of northeastern England and be given other concessions in return for their agreement to accept baptism and Christian instruction. From a later point of view, it seems obvious that such a promise could not involve a genuine change of heart, and was therefore meaningless (and indeed, one Dane complained that the white robe that he was given after his baptism was not nearly so fine as the two that he had received after the two previous times that he had been defeated and baptized). However, Alfred’s judgement proved sound. Guthrum, from his point of view, agreed to become a vassal of Christ. His nobles and chief warriors, being his vassals, were thereby obligated to give their feudal allegiance to Christ as well. They accepted baptism and the presence among them of Christian priests and missionaries to insruct them. The door was opened for conversions on a more personal level in that and succeeding generations.

+ Among the new nations of Africa, Uganda is the most predominantly Christian. Mission work began there in the 1870’s with the favor of King Mutesa, who died in 1884. However, his son and successor, King Mwanga, opposed all foreign presence, including the missions. James Hannington, born 1847, was sent out from England in 1884 by the Anglican Church as missionary Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa. As he was travelling toward Uganda, he was apprehended by emissaries of King Mwanga. He and his companions were brutally treated and, a week later, 29 October 1885, most of them were put to death. Hannington’s last words were: “Go tell your master that I have purchased the road to Uganda with my blood.”The first native martyr was the Roman Catholic Joseph Mkasa Balikuddembe, who was beheaded after having rebuked the king for his debauchery and for the murder of Bishop Hannington. On 3 June 1886 (see Bio), a group of 32 men and boys, 22 Roman Catholic and 10 Anglican, were burned at the stake. Most of them were young pages in Mwanga’s household, from their head-man, Charles Lwanga, to the thirteen-year-old Kizito, who went to his death “laughing and chattering.” These and many other Ugandan Christians suffered for their faith then and in the next few years.In 1977, the Anglican Archbishop Janani Luwum and many other Christians suffered death for their faith under the tyrant Idi Amin. Thanks largely to their common heritage of suffering for their Master, Christians of various communions in Uganda have always been on excellent terms.

+ All Saints Men’s Group will meets next on Tuesday, November 1, at 7:00 a.m. in undercroft.

+ Our Monday Morning Bible Study will meet next on Monday, October 31, 10:00 a.m.

+ The Holy Communion is celebrated Monday through Saturday at 12:15 p.m.  + All Saints parishioner may obtain a Mass card from the Church office. A Mass card is a greeting card given to someone to inform him or her that a deceased loved one or friend was remembered and prayed for at a weekly Mass. It is a specifically Christian way to express one’s love. Call Julie McDermott at the Church office (434-979-2842) and she will help you fill out the form. The celebrant will sign the card and we will mail it from the Church to the family of the loved one.

October 18, 2016 By Fr. Spencer

This Week at All Saints

St. Luke Evangelist - 17th Century French unknown — St. Luke Evangelist – 17th Century French unknown

Mass Schedule – Trinity XXI (Oct. 16, 2016)

17, Feria
18, St. Luke
19, St. Frideswide
20, Feria
21, St. Hilarion
22, Martyrs of New Guinea

+ St. Frideswide, Virgin, patroness of Oxford, lived from about 650 to 735. According to the earliest accounts, she was the child of King Didan and Safrida, and was brought up to holiness by Algiva. She refused the proffered hand of King Algar, a Mercian, and fled from him to Oxford. It was in vain that he pursued her; a mysterious blindness fell on him, and he left her in her cell. From this eventually developed the monastery in which she died in 19 October (her principal feast), and was buried. The earliest written life now extant was not composed until four hundred years after her death, but it is generally admitted that the substance of the tradition has every appearance of verisimilitude. From the time of her translation in 1180 from her original tomb to the great shrine of her church, her fame spread far and wide; for the university was now visited by students from all parts, who went twice a year in solemn procession to her shrine and kept her feasts with great solemnity. Cardinal Wolsey transformed her monastery into Christ Church College, King Henry made her church into Oxford cathedral, but her shrine was dismantled, and her relics, which seem to have been preserved, were relegated to some out-of-the-way corner of the parish church.

+ All Saints Men’s Group will meets next on Tuesday, October 25, at 7:00 a.m. in undercroft.

+ Our Monday Morning Bible Study will meet next on Monday, October 24, 10:00 a.m.

October 11, 2016 By Fr. Spencer

This Week at All Saints

Mass Schedule – Trinity XX (Oct. 9, 2016)

10, Feria
11, Feria
12, Wilfred, Archbishop of York
13, Feria
14, Feria
15, Our Lady of Walsingham

+ Wilfred was born around 634 in Northumbria, educated for a while at the island monastery of Lindisfarne, after which he went south to London, where he became an enthusiastic supporter of Roman liturgical customs, as contrasted with the traditional Celtic customs that were prevalent in the North and in other areas that had been evangelized by Celtic rather than Roman missionaries. The two questions that were in dispute were (1) the method of calculating the date of Easter, and (2) the method of tonsuring a monk — which areas of the head ought to be shaved. In about 654, Wilfred left England for Rome (stopping for a year in Lyons, France) and then returned (stopping for three more years in Lyons), arriving back in England in about 660. He was made abbot of Ripon in Northumbria, and there imposed the Roman rule. In 664 the Synod of Whitby was called to settle the usages controversy, and the Roman party triumphed, thanks in large part to the leadership of Wilfred. He was appointed Bishop of York by Alcfrid, sub-king of Deira (a division of Northumbria), but he was unwilling to be consecrated by bishops of the Celtic tradition, and so he went over to France to be consecrated and he did not return for two years. On his arrival back in York, he found that King Oswy of Northumbria had appointed Chad as bishop of York. Wilfred returned quietly to Ripon. But in 669 the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore declared that Wilfred was rightful bishop of York. Chad quietly withdrew, and Wilfred was installed at York. For the next few years, Wilfred enjoyed peace and prosperity, stood high in the favor of King Efrith of Northumbria, and was undisputed bishop of a diocese that included the entire kingdom of Northumbria, with his cathedral at York. But trouble was brewing. The queen wanted to leave her husband and become a nun, and Wilfred encouraged her in this. After she had left in 672, the king was not as cordial to Wilfred as he had been, and in 678, Archbishop Theodore, acting in close concert with the king, divided the Diocese of York into four smaller dioceses, and appointed new bishops for three of them, leaving Wilfred with the fourth, which did not include the city of York. Wilfred decided to appeal to the pope. On his way to Rome, he spent a year preaching in Frisia, and so was the beginning of the movement by Christian Anglo-Saxons in Britain to convert their relatives on the Continent. The pope eventually sided with Wilfred, but the ruling was not accepted in England, and Wilfred was banished from Northumbria. He went to Sussex, the last center of Anglo-Saxon paganism in England, and preached there. When he arrived, there had been no rain for many months, the crops were ruined, and the people were starving. Wilfred showed them how to construct fishnets for ocean fishing, and so saved the lives of many. They listened to his preaching with favorable presuppositions, and soon a large number of them were ready for baptism. On the day that he baptized them, it rained. He remained in Sussex for five years, preaching with great success. Eventually he was reconciled with Archbishop Theodore, and returned to Northumbria, where he was again given a bishopric. He served there a bishop for five peaceful years, but then a royal council found him unfit; he was deposed again, appealed to Rome again, and ended up bishop of the small diocese of Hexham, with jurisdiction over the various monasteries that he had founded. In his will, he bequeathed his money to four causes: (1) to various Roman congregations; (2) to the poor; (3) to the clergy who had followed him into exile; and (4) to the abbots of the various monasteries under his jurisdiction, “so that they could purchase the friendship of kings and bishops.” He died 12 October 709.

+ All Saints Men’s Group will meets next on Tuesday, October 18, at 7:00 a.m. in undercroft.

+ Our Monday Morning Bible Study will meet next on Monday, October 17, 10:00 a.m.

+ The Holy Communion is celebrated Monday through Saturday at 12:15 p.m.

+ All Saints parishioner may obtain a Mass card from the Church office. A Mass card is a greeting card given to someone to inform him or her that a deceased loved one or friend was remembered and prayed for at a weekly Mass. It is a specifically Christian way to express one’s love. Call Julie McDermott at the Church office (434-979-2842) and she will help you fill out the form. The celebrant will sign the card and we will mail it from the Church to the family of the loved one.