Emmanuel Episcopal Church

Service Bulletin for Trinity Sunday

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Feast of The First Book of Common Prayer

The Collect -

Almighty and everliving God, whose servant Thomas Cranmer, with others, restored the language of the people in the prayers of your Church: Make us always thankful for this heritage; and help us so to pray in the Spirit and with the understanding, that we may worthily magnify your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Click here to learn more about The First Book of Common Prayer, 1549.

Feast of Augustine

The Collect -

O Lord our God, by your Son Jesus Christ you called your apostles and sent them forth to preach the Gospel to the nations; We bless your holy Name for your servant Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, whose labors in propagating your Church among the English people we commemorate today; and we pray that all whom you call and send may do your will, and bide your time, and see your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Click here to learn more about Augustine, First Archbishop of Canterbury, 605.

Feast of Bede the Venerable

The Collect -

Heavenly Father, you called your servant Bede, while still a child, to devote his life to your service in the disciplines of religion and scholarship: Grant that as he labored in the Spirit to bring the riches of your truth to his generation, so we, in our various vocations, may strive to make you known in all the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Click here to learn more about Bede the Venerable, Priest and Monk of Jarrow, 735.

Service Bulletin for the Day of Pentecost

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Feast of Alcuin

The Collect -

Almighty God, in a rude and barbarous age you raised up your deacon Alcuin to rekindle the light of learning: Illumine our minds, we pray, that amid the uncertainties and confusions of our own time we may show forth your eternal truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Click here to learn more about Alcuin, Deacon, and Abbot of Tours, 804.

Feast of Dunstan

The Collect -

O God of truth and beauty, you richly endowed your bishop Dunstan with skill in music and the working of metals, and with gifts of administration and reforming zeal: Teach us, we pray, to see in you the source of all our talents, and move us to offer them for the adornment of worship and the advancement of true religion; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Click here and here to learn more about Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 988.

Homily for Ascension Sunday - Betwixt and Between

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
Psalm 1
1 John 5:9-13
John 17:6-19

Homily by Fr R Christopher Heying

Here we are again. 

Here we are again in a place that despite its ostensible strangeness may seem hauntingly familiar to us, a kind of déjà vu, as if we may have been here before.

Here in the “betwixt” and the “between” (see Charles La Shure, “What is Liminality” 18 Oct. 2005, retrieved 16 May 2015).

Here betwixt that which was so familiar that we may have begun to take it for granted and that which is as yet unknown and unknowable.

Here between an old paradigm so comfortable it is much like a well-worn, beloved blanket we can wrap around ourselves and a new paradigm yet to be broken in. 

Betwixt and between. Much of our lives will be spent there—betwixt and between.  So much that it actually has been given a name—liminal space. “Liminal” from Latin “limin” or threshold, a crossing space, from one reality to another reality.

For many—perhaps for most—this betwixt and between, this liminal space, is as uncomfortable as it is uncertain.  As we find ourselves upon the threshold of a new reality, our minds (and hearts) tend to return to that which has been so familiar to us that it is ever in danger of becoming distorted through rose-colored glasses.

Consider the Hebrews, delivered from bondage in Egypt and now headed to the Land of Promise.  There in liminal space, we find them grumbling, not just a little but a lot, as they, tired of the bland food God is providing them in the wilderness, forget the harsh reality of slavery and hearken back to that time when stomachs were full of savory food. 

And we know what they do not yet know, of what is to come in the promised land of milk and honey, of judges and kings, and, one day, of the King of kings and Lord of lords.

It is in liminal space where the first disciples find themselves today, betwixt the ascension of Jesus last Thursday and Pentecost ten days later (seven days from now), between the leaving of Jesus and the coming of the Spirit.

Service Bulletin for the Seventh Sunday of Easter

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Service Bulletin for the Sixth Sunday of Easter

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The Feast of Gregory of Nazianzus

The Collect -

Almighty God, you have revealed to your Church your eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace that, like your bishop Gregory of Nazianzus, we may continue steadfast in the confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; for you live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.

Click here to learn more about Gregory of Nazianzus.

The Feast of Dame Julian of Norwich

The Collect -

Lord God, in your compassion you granted to the Lady Julian many revelations of your nurturing and sustaining love: Move our hearts, like hers, to seek you above all things, for in giving us yourself you give us all; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Click here to learn more about Dame Julian of Norwich.

The Feast of Monnica

The Collect -

O Lord, through spiritual discipline you strengthened your servant Monnica to persevere in offering her love and prayers and tears for the conversion of her husband and of Augustine their son: Deepen our devotion, we pray, and use us in accordance with your will to bring others, even our own kindred, to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Click here to learn more about Monnica.

Service Bulletin for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

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The Feast of Athanasius

The Collect -

Uphold your Church, O God of truth, as you upheld your servant Athanasius, to maintain and proclaim boldly the catholic faith against all opposition, trusting solely in the grace of your eternal Word, who took upon himself our humanity that we might share his divinity; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

 Click here to learn more about Athanasius.