Electronic Church Calendar (web & mobile)

Through Google Calendar, we've created an electronic Church Calendar consisting of the seasons and the principal feasts and holy days in the Anglican tradition. Check out the E-Church Calendar page, and click here to access the calendar in your browser. It's also embedded below. (Note: the embed may not display correctly on some mobile devices.)

Click on each event to learn more. In the bottom right corner, click the plus sign (+) to add the E-Church Calendar and integrate it with your phone's calendar app.

We hope the E-Church Calendar is another tool for you, your family, and your church to stay immersed in the Gospel story throughout the year!

Fourth Sunday After Epiphany

This Sunday is the fourth Sunday after Epiphany. It's the last Sunday in "Epiphanytide," which culminates on February 2 (the Presentation of Our Lord). Here are resources to prepare you for the coming week.

Lectionary

This week's lectionary readings remind us that Christ's ministry and the church's mission are not about strength and power, but about justice and mercy, meekness and humility, about turning the world upside down. The way of Christ is often counterintuitive.

• Micah 6:1-8: "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"
• Psalm 15: "O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right."
• 1 Cor. 1:18-31: "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. . . . For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
• Matt. 5:1-12: "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."

Prayers

God our deliverer,
you walk with the meek and the poor,
the compassionate and those who mourn,
and you call us to walk humbly with you.
When we are foolish, be our wisdom;
when we are weak, be our strength;
that, as we learn to do justice
and to love mercy,
your rule may come as blessing. Amen.

- Revised Common Lectionary

Reflection

There is a besetting paranoia that plagues the superpower mentality and it is most often manifest in an anxious obsession with security. Anxiety over security is the price the aggressive pay for clawing their way to the top—they are fated to live in constant dread that someone will take away their position of privilege. They worry about who might be hot on their heels. But Jesus, endorsing the psalmist, says there is another way, a way that is blessed and peaceful—the way of radical trust. The meek are not the driven, self-assertive, hyper-aggressive, grab-my-piece-of-the-pie people—they are not the winners and go-getters, the movers and shakers, the large and in charge. The meek are the ones who believe in God and are willing to trust God for their portion and their security. The way of violence and aggression is the way of Caesar. The way of meekness and trust is the way of Christ. And they are in contradiction to one another.

- Brian Zahnd, "Blessed Are the Meek"

Music

"Open Up" by The Brilliance is based in part on the Prayer of St. Francis. The chorus is:

Make me an instrument of Your peace
Where there is hatred let me sow love
Where there is darkness let me shine light and
May Your love cause us to open up
Cause us to open up our hearts
May Your light cause us to shine so bright
That we bring hope into the dark

Art

The sculpture below is a detail of the Sermon on the Mount, part of Joseph Chaumet’s Via Vita sculpture, consisting of 138 gold and ivory figures representing scenes from the life of Christ. France declared the work a National Treasure in 2000. (Bible Odyssey)

Joseph Chaumet, detail of Via Vita, 1894-1904.

 - Grace & peace

Third Sunday After Epiphany

Next Sunday is the third Sunday after Epiphany. The season of "Epiphanytide" runs from January 6 to February 2, and the focus is on the proclamation of Christ as Messiah and the mission of His Church in the world. 

The emphasis on mission invites us also to think about unity within the body of Christ. Today, January 18, marks the beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, an ecumenical celebration that recalls Jesus’s prayer for unity in John 17: "that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me." 

Here are resources to prepare you for the coming week.

Excerpts from the lectionary

The lectionary themes for the week are Christ's calling of the disciples and the unity of the Church.

• Isaiah 9:1-4: "[I]n the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone."
• Psalm 27:1, 4-9: "One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple."
• 1 Corinthians 1:10-18: "I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.
• Matthew 4:12-23: "While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.'"

Prayers

O God,
you spoke your word
and revealed your good news in Jesus, the Christ.
Fill all creation with that word again,
so that by proclaiming your joyful promises to all nations
and singing of your glorious hope to all peoples,
we may become one living body,
your incarnate presence on the earth. Amen.

- Revised Common Lectionary

Everliving God, whose will it is that all should come to you through your Son Jesus Christ: Inspire our witness to him, that all may know the power of his forgiveness and the hope of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

- Book of Common Prayer ("For the Mission of the Church")

pOETRY

Anglican priest and poet Malcom Guite reads his sonnet "The Call of the Disciples," from his book Sounding the Seasons: Seventy Sonnets for Christian Year.

Music

The song selection for this week is "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" (lyrics), a congregational hymn especially popular in the UK. 

The second stanza in particular ties to the lectionary:

In simple trust like theirs who heard
beside the Syrian sea
the gracious calling of the Lord,
let us, like them, without a word
rise up and follow thee.

Art

Italian artist Duccio di Buoninsegna composed this piece, Christ Calling the Apostles Peter and Andrew, in 1319. 

View fullsize

Christ Calling the Apostles Peter and Andrew (Vanderbilt University Library)

Keeping the Church Calendar

Our goal at KeepingAdvent.com is to reacquaint Christians not only with the seasons of Advent and Christmas, but with the Church Calendar more generally. That's because all time is sacred. The annual seasonal cycle of the Church Calendar keeps us immersed in the Gospel story, helping us to walk with Christ throughout the year.

Advent and Christmas are now past, but this site keeps going. You'll see two big changes going forward:

• A redesigned and simplified home page, with a section called "What Time Is It?" that highlights the current church season, dates, themes, and how to learn more.

• Throughout the year, the blog will feature posts on the different church seasons and special days, with resources aplenty: lectionary readings, prayers, short reflections, and selections of music, poetry, and art.

We want to know if this site is useful to you, and whether and how we can improve it. Don't hesitate to contact us with feedback.

Grace & peace,
Ian