Welcome to Anglican Kossacks, a group for Anglican/Episcopalian Kossacks to discuss developments in the worldwide Anglican Communion, the Church of England and the Anglican Church of Canada as well as issues related to social justice and church polity, liturgy and music in a mutually respectful and tolerant online environment.Open to all, regardless of religious affiliation. Some of our diaries are action, informative or historical diaries and others are meditative and prayerful. We, like the Episcopal Church, welcome you! Thank you for joining us.
Low Sunday, also called the Octave of Easter, the Second Sunday of Easter, St. Thomas Sunday and, most deliciously, Quasimodo Sunday not for the famous Notre Dame inhabitant but like him, for the Introit, Quasi modo geniti infantes "Like newborn children...".
It is somewhat obscure where "Low" comes from, though traditionally it is certainly one of low attendance though not at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. Luke here in Portland this morning. Baptisms, while traditional at the Easter Vigil also often take place on this Sunday and indeed that was how it was at St. Luke's.
Follow me over the fold for a quick look at Episcopal worship as it was for many of us this Sunday.
Propers for The Second Sunday of Easter:
The Collect of the Day:
Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, etc.
First Lesson:
Acts 2:14a-22-32. Peter reminds an assembly that David foresaw the resurrection of the Messiah.
Psalmody:
Ps. 16 Conserva me, Domine 5-11. O LORD, you are my portion and my cup; * it is you who uphold my lot. (v. 5).
Second Lesson:
1 Peter 1:3-9. "Even though you have not seen Him, you hove him..."
The Gospel:
John 20: 19-31 Thomas needs to see for himself the wounds of Christ
In the Anglican Cycle of Prayer: The Diocese of Papua New Guinea.
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">Gregorian Introit: Quasi modo
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Doubting Thomas
It's a simple story, really. Thomas was absent when the other disciples had seen the resurrected Jesus, who had shown them his wounds. Thomas, rather sensibly, wanted to see for himself, and soon had his chance to inspect Jesus for himself.
This is such a central story, in a way, one which believers and non-believers alike find interesting. The author(s) of John have Christ say later "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe". Yet he didn't condemn Thomas and his probing, curious fingers. Thomas, apparently, was from Missouri. "Show me!". It wasn't enough that his fellow disciples had seen and believed. He had to see for himself.
A famous theologian once said that it would be best for all of us to doubt everything at some point in our lives. I tend to share this point of view. Most serious churchwomen and men I know also tend to agree with this idea. Reality unchecked and beliefs and even empirical evidence unquestioned lead to a paucity of inner character, a shallowness of science (in the case of the aforementioned empirical evidence) and on too many occasions a kind of incuriosity and rigidness which stifles personal and intellectual growth and when it comes to religion, can lead to dangerous fundamentalism and a lack of openness to grace both human and divine.
When I was young, I was a great devotee of seeing as believing. I was always terrorized by the Santa myth and to be honest, couldn't get the picture of my great-grandmother and her legendary rabbit-hunting out of my mind when it came to the Easter bunny (as delightful a pagan symbol as imaginable who's true symbolism I only came to appreciate as I entered my early teens). The Resurrection, however, came to mean something to me as I matured in my learning and in what I suppose would be called my faith. Its historicity--unlike for St. Thomas--has long been completely meaningless to me as a fact or at least as a potential one. Grace, I have come to realize, is a mystery. While facts and reality and doubt and scientific exploration are one of the miraculous pursuits of humankind, I find that they are as dry as old biscuits without mystery. For some of us, it is religious or spiritual sentiment. Others pepper the meat of our intelligence with fiction, poetry, or fantasies of deep space and alternate universes. Those intangibles, those inventions of the human mind, those things some of us dote on like religious and spiritual mysteries sugar our berries, salt our greens, add art and beauty to our lives.
Blessed, indeed, are we who rejoice in those things we do not see or have not seen, but keep us wondering all the same, keep us as enthralled by what we do not know as by what we are certain that we do.
Peace and grace be with all of us--doubting, all the while, as we do.
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NOTE: Due to the recent holiday and some other projects of mine, there are diaries by other Anglican Kossacks which are in queue but have not yet been published. I will be rectifying that situation this week and I apologize for not having spent as much time editing the queue as befits the time other diarists spent writing. --commonmass.
A Collect for Labor Day
On the occasion of International Labor Day, the First of May:
Almighty God, you have so linked our lives with one another that all we do affects, for good or ill, all other lives: So guide us in all the work we do, that we may do it not for self alone, but for the common good; and, as we seek a proper return for our own labor, make us mindful of the rightful aspirations of other workers, and arouse our concern for those of us who are out of work; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns, etc.
(US Book of Common Prayer, p. 261 collect 25)
The floor is open. What are we grateful for today, what are our concerns?
Updated by commonmass at Sun May 01, 2011 at 04:31 PM EDT
Update: It occurred to me that my suggestion that even scientific evidence be subject to further experimentation and research is not meant to refer to the Theory of Evolution or, for that matter, to theories of intelligent design. It is simply something I learned from living for nearly ten years with a physician, surgeon and research scientist. Even the fact that the rubbish had already been placed on the kerb for pickup was subject to repeated fact-checking through visual observation of the "evidence". --CM