About For All the Saints

One of the features of my near-defunct weblog, The Confessing Reader, was the posting of the commemorations of the saints in the sanctoral (saints’ days) calendars of the Churches of the Anglican Communion, along with some commemorations from the Lutheran Book of Worship and others (principally because that weblog also served as a conduit for English-language news from the confessional, that is to say theologically conservative, Christians in the Scandinavian Lutheran Churches, particularly in the Church of Sweden).

This weblog will continue that function of The Confessing Reader.  For each commemoration, or “lesser feast” as The Episcopal Church’s sanctoral supplement to the Book of Common Prayer described them, I will post a brief biographical sketch, the collect for the commemoration, and the propers for the day (or a link to the Lectionary Page’s propers for the day).  For most of the posts, there will also be an icon, or an iconographic depiction, of the saint whom we are commemorating and for whom we are giving thanks that day.  My prayer is that this will provide a devotional help to enable us more nearly to realize what we confess in the Apostles’ Creed:  “I believe…in the communion of saints”.

While most of the entries will be sanctoral commemorations, I will also provide brief descriptions (and icons or other artwork) for those Feasts of our Lord that fall outside Sundays (such as the Holy Name of Jesus, the Epiphany, the Presentation of our Lord, the Annunciation, etc.).

I also hope that this weblog may make some contribution toward the formation of a sanctoral Calendar for faithful North American Anglicanism, represented at the present time not only by the confessional Anglicans remaining in The Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada, La Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico, and Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America; but also the Church in Haiti and in the Dominican Republic (which are dioceses of The Episcopal Church) and the Church in the Province of the West Indies; as well as the diaspora Anglican bodies in North America:  the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC), the American missionary district of the Anglican Church of Rwanda (PEAR-USA), the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), and others.

O God, the King of saints, we praise and glorify your holy Name for all your servants who have finished their course in your faith and fear:  for the blessed Virgin Mary; for the holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs; and for all your other righteous servants, known to us and unknown; and we pray that, encouraged by their examples, aided by their prayers, and strengthened by their fellowship, we also may be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.