John Cassian, Monk and Teacher of the Faith, 453

According to the fifth-century monk and historian Gennadius Scholasticus of Massalia (Marseilles), Cassian was born in the Roman province of Scythia Minor (modern Dobrudja). As a young man he joined a monastery at Bethlehem, but left soon after (c. 385) to study monasticism in Egypt, where he was influenced significantly by the monk and ascetic Evagrius Ponticus (the Solitary). Cassian was known to be in Constantinople c. 404, where he was a deacon of that church, and he was sent by John Chrysostom on an embassy to Pope Innocent the First, to plead Chrysostom’s cause after the bishop had been forced into exile by the imperial family. He seems thereafter to have established himself permanently in the West, and around 415 he founded two monasteries near Massilia (Marseilles).

There he wrote hist two books, the De institutis coenobiorum (Institutes of the Monasteries) and the Collationes patrum in scetica eremo (Conferences of the Desert Fathers), from material collected during his years in the East. The Institutes, which set out the ordinary rules for the monastic life and discuss eight chief hindrances to the monk’s perfection, became the basis of many Western monastic Rules, including the Benedictine Rule. The Conferences take the form of conversations with the great leaders of Eastern monasticism. Cassian shared the unease of many of the monks of Gaul with some aspects of Augustine of Hippo’s understanding of grace, works, and predestination, and attacked Augustine’s doctrine in Conf. 13. His position later came to be known as Semipelagianism, a doctrine that holds that while grace is necessary to salvation, the initial steps towards God’s grace are ordinarily taken by the human will and grace supervenes only later. The position is called “semi” Pelagian because it falls roughly midway between the radically opposed doctrines of Augustine and Pelagius. Key Semipelagian doctrines were condemned along with Pelagianism at the Council (or Synod) of Orange convened in 529, and from then onwards Augustine’s teaching on grace was generally accepted in orthodox Western theology.

Cassian also wrote c. 430 a work in seven volumes, De incarnatione Domini, at the request of Leo the Great of Rome in order to acquaint the West with the teachings of Nestorius.

The Eastern church regards Cassian as a saint and commemorates him on February 29, whenever this day occurs. In the West he has never officially been canonized (likely due to his Semipelagianism), though he is commemorated in Marseilles on July 23. His inclusion in the calendar of the Anglican Church in North America marks the first time he has been commemorated in an Anglican calendar. He is remembered and honored for his contribution to the development of Western monasticism, not for his heterodox teachings on grace.

adapted from The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church

The Collect (Of a Monastic or Religious)

O God, your blessed Son became poor for our sake, and chose the Cross over the kingdoms of this world: Deliver us from an inordinate love of worldly things, that we, inspired by the devotion of your servant John Cassian, may seek you with singleness of heart, behold your glory by faith, and attain to the riches of your everlasting kingdom, where we shall be united with our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

George Herbert, Presbyter and Poet, 1633

George Herbert was born in 1593, a member of an ancient family, younger brother of Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, a philosopher and poet. The younger Herbert received his education at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where his classical scholarship secured him a Fellowship in 1614. He became Public Orator of the University in 1620, bringing him into contact with the Court of King James the First. Marked by his success for the career of the courtier, the death of King James and the influence of his friend, Nicholas Ferrar, led him to study divinity, and in 1626 he took holy orders. In 1630 he was ordained to the presbyterate and was persuaded by (then Bishop) William Laud to accept the rectory of Fugglestone with Bemerton, near Salisbury, where in humble devotion to duty he spent the rest of his life.

Herbert is portrayed by his biographer Izaak Walton as a model of the saintly parish priest. Unselfish in his devotion and service to others, Walton writes that many of Herbert’s parishioners “let their plow rest when Mr Herbert’s saints-bell rung to prayers, that they might also offer their devotion to God with him.” His most famous prose work, A Priest in the Temple; or The Country Parson describes a well-balanced ideal of the English parish priest. Herbert portrays the parson as a well-read divine, temperate in all things, a man of duty and prayer, and devoted to his flock, providing a model for future generations of clergy.

On his deathbed, Herbert entrusted his collection of poems entitled The Temple to Nicholas Ferrar. The poems received their publication in 1633, after Herbert’s death. Two of his poems became well known hymns: “Teach me, my God and King” and “Let all the world in every corner sing”. Herbert was a man of deep Christian conviction and remarkable poetic gifts, with a mastery of both meter and metaphor. The grace, power, and metaphysical imagery of his poetry would influence the poetry of Henry Vaughn, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Gerard Manley Hopkins, as well as the hymns of Charles Wesley. Herbert himself described his poems as “a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed betwixt God and my soul, before I could submit mine to the will of Jesus my Master; in whose service I have found perfect freedom.”

No poem better captures that meaning than this one, rich with eucharistic meaning and entitled, “Love”:

LOVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack’d anything.

‘A guest,’ I answer’d, ‘worthy to be here:’
Love said, ‘You shall be he.’
‘I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on Thee.’
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
‘Who made the eyes but I?’

‘Truth, Lord; but I have marr’d them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.’
‘And know you not,’ says Love, ‘Who bore the blame?’
‘My dear, then I will serve.’
‘You must sit down,’ says Love, ‘and taste my meat.’
So I did sit and eat.

adapted from The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church
and Lesser Feasts and Fasts

The Collect

Our God and King, you called your servant George Herbert from the pursuit of worldly honors to be a pastor of souls, a poet, and a priest in your temple: Give us grace, we pray, joyfully to perform the tasks you give us to do knowing that nothing is menial or common that is done for your sake; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Saint Matthias the Apostle

In the nine days of waiting between the Lord’s Ascension and the Day of Pentecost, the disciples remained together in prayer. During this time, Peter reminded them that the defection and death of Judas had left the fellowship of the Twelve with a vacancy. The Acts of the Apostles records Peter’s proposal that “one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us – one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection” (Acts 1:21-22). Two men were nominated: Joseph, called Barsabbas who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. After prayer, the disciples cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias, who was then added to the eleven Apostles.

Nothing further is told of Matthias after his selection. The accounts of his ministry and death are vague and contradictory. Nicephorus, a medieval Byzantine historian, writes that Matthias first preached the Gospel in Judea, then at Colchis on the Black Sea ( in what is now Georgia), and that he was crucified there. A marker placed in the ruins of a Roman fort at Apsaros in the Georgian region of Adjara claims that Matthias is buried at the site. The Synopsis of Dorotheus and an extant Coptic Acts place his evangelistic work in Ethiopia (which Nicephorus treats as a synonym for Colchis). Another tradition holds that he was stoned to death at Jerusalem and afterwards beheaded (hence his being depicted in Western iconography with an executioner’s axe). Helen, mother of Constantine, is said to have brought the relics of Saint Matthias to Rome, though the apostle may have been confused with another Matthias, an early second century bishop of Jerusalem.

The traditions are unanimous in depicting Matthias as an exemplary apostle. He seems an appropriate example to Christians of one whose faithful companionship with Jesus qualifies him to be a suitable witness to the resurrection, and whose service is unheralded and unsung.

adapted from Lesser Feasts and Fasts, with additions

The Collect

Almighty God, who in the place of Judas chose your faithful servant Matthias to be numbered among the Twelve: Grant that your Church, being delivered from false apostles, may always be guided and governed by faithful and true pastors; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

The Lesson
Acts 1:15-26

In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) “For it is written in the Book of Psalms,

“‘May his camp become desolate,
and let there be no one to dwell in it’;

and

“‘Let another take his office.’

So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

Psalm 15
Domine quis habitabit

Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle? * Or who shall rest upon your holy hill?

Whoever leads an uncorrupt life, * and does that which is right, and speaks the truth from his heart.

He has not spoken deceitfully with his tongue, nor done evil to his neighbor, * and has not slandered his neighbor.

In his eyes the wicked is rejected, * and he makes much of those who fear the Lord.

He swears to his neighbor and disappoints him not, * though it were to his own hindrance.

He has not given his money for usury, * nor taken a bribe against the innocent.

Whoever does these things * shall never be overthrown.

The Epistle
Philippians 3:12-21

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

The Gospel
John 15:1-16

[Jesus said] “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

_______________________________________________________

The scripture texts for the Lesson, the Epistle, and Gospel are taken from the English Standard Version Bible. The Collect and Psalm are taken from the Book of Common Prayer (2019).

The icon of Saint Matthias is from the workshop of Simone Martini, 14th century.

Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Martyr 156

Polycarp was one of the leaders of the Church who carried on the tradition of the apostles through the troubled period of Gnostic heresies in the second century. According to Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, who had known him in his early youth, Polycarp was a disciple of John the Apostle, and had been appointed a bishop by “apostles in Asia”. Polycarp is traditionally believed to be the “angel of the church in Smyrna” addressed in Revelation 2:8-11.

We possess a letter from Polycarp to the Church in Philippi, whose text reveals his firm adherence to the faith and his pastoral concern for fellow Christians in trouble.

The epistle concludes:

“May God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the eternal High Priest himself, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, further your growth in faith and truth and in meekness that is perfect and without a vestige of resentment, as well as in patient endurance and long-suffering and perseverance and purity. May he also grant perfect fellowship with his saints to you, and along with you, to us, and indeed to all who are under heaven and destined to believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and his Father, who has raised him from the dead. Pray for all the saints. Pray also for kings and magistrates and rulers, and for such as persecute and hate you, as well as for the enemies of the Cross. Thus all will come to see how well you are doing, and you will be perfect in him.”

Polycarp traveled to Rome around the year 155, shortly after Anicetus became bishop of Rome, to discuss questions regarding the time for observing the Pasch (Easter). Polycarp, with many Christians in Asia, observed the Pasch according to the Quartodeciman reckoning; i.e., on the fourteenth day of the Jewish month of Nisan (the day of Passover, whether that fell on a Sunday or not), while Anicetus, in common with most Christians in the West, observed the Pasch on the Sunday following the fourteenth day of Nisan. According to Irenaeus,

“Anicetus could not persuade Polycarp to forgo the [Quartodeciman] observance inasmuch as these things had been always observed by John the disciple of the Lord, and by other apostles with whom he had been conversant; nor did Polycarp persuade Anicetus to keep it: Anicetus said that he must hold to the way of the elders before him.”

Neither Polycarp nor Anicetus could persuade the other of the correctness of his reckoning, but they did not consider it sufficient cause to justify a schism. Indeed, Irenaeus tells us that Anicetus conceded to Polycarp in Church the celebration of the Eucharist, by way of showing him respect, and the two parted in peace with the matter unsettled.

In his Book on Ecclesiastical Writers, Jerome writes that while in Rome, Polycarp found heretics there who had been led astray by the doctrines of Marcion and the gnostic Valentinus, and that he brought many of them back to the faith. Marcion met Polycarp one day by accident, and asked him, “Do you recognize me?” to which Polycarp replied, “I recognize the devil’s eldest son!”

An authentic account of the martyrdom of Polycarp on February 23 is also preserved, written from the account of an eyewitness named Marcion (not to be confused with the second-century heretic of the same name). The martyrdom probably occurred in the year 156. The account tells of Polycarp’s courageous witness in the amphitheater at Smyrna. When the proconsul asked him to curse Christ, Polycarp said, “Eighty-six years I have served him, and he never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?” The account reports that the magistrate was reluctant to kill the gentle old man, but his hand was forced by the mob, who clamored that he be thrown to wild beasts, as was the fate of other Christians on that dreadful day.

The magistrate refused to throw Polycarp to the wild beasts, claiming he had no authority to do so, but he had Polycarp burned at the stake. Before his ordeal, the saintly bishop looked up to heaven, and prayed:

“Lord God Almighty, Father of your beloved and blessed child Jesus Christ, through whom we have received knowledge of you, God of angels and hosts and all creation, and of the whole race of the upright who live in your presence, I bless you that you have thought me worthy of this day and hour, to be numbered among the martyrs and share in the cup of Christ, for resurrection to eternal life, for soul and body in the incorruptibility of the Holy Spirit. Among them may I be accepted before you today, as a rich and acceptable sacrifice, just as you, the faithful and true God, have prepared and foreshown and brought about. For this reason and for all things I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you, through the eternal heavenly high priest Jesus Christ, your beloved child, through whom be glory to you, with him and the Holy Spirit, now and for the ages to come. Amen.”

adapted from Lesser Feasts and Fasts with additions,
and with texts from Ancient Christian Writers: The Works of the Fathers in Translation, no. 6

The Collect

O God, the maker of heaven and earth, you gave your venerable servant, the holy and gentle Polycarp, boldness to confess Jesus Christ as King and Savior, and steadfastness to die for his faith: Give us grace, following his example, to share the cup of Christ and rise to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

William Franklin “Billy” Graham, Evangelist, 2018

Billy Graham was one of the most significant religious figures of the twentieth century, and the organizations and the movement he helped spawn continue to shape the twenty-first century.

During his life, Graham preached in person to more than 100 million people and to millions more via television, satellite, and film. Nearly 3 million have responded to his invitation to “accept Jesus into your heart” at the end of his sermons. He proclaimed the gospel to more persons than any other preacher in history. In the process, Graham became “America’s Pastor,” participating in presidential inaugurations and speaking during national crises such as the memorial services following the Oklahoma City bombing and the 9/11 attacks.

“He became the friend and confidante of popes and presidents, queens and dictators, and yet, even in his 80s, he possesses the boyish charm and unprepossessing demeanor to communicate with the masses,” said Columbia University historian Randall Balmer.

Billy Graham was born in 1918 in Charlotte, North Carolina, attended (briefly) Bob Jones College, graduating from Florida Bible Institute near Tampa, and Wheaton College in Illinois. He was ordained a minister in a Southern Baptist church (1939) and pastored a small church in suburban Chicago and preached on a weekly radio program. In 1946 he became the first full-time staff member of Youth for Christ and launched his evangelistic campaigns. For four years (1948–1952) he also served as president of Northwestern Schools in Minneapolis. His 1949 evangelistic tent meetings in Los Angeles brought him to national attention, and his 1957 New York meetings, which filled Madison Square Garden for four months, established him as a major presence on the American religious scene…

Sherwood Wirt, who for seventeen years edited the Graham organization’s Decision magazine, described one Scottish minister who made this observation about Graham: “My first impression of the man at close quarters was not of his good looks but of his goodness; not of his extraordinary range of commitments, but of his own ‘committedness’ to his Lord and Master. To be with him even for a short time is to get a sense of a single-minded man; it shames one and shakes one as no amount of ability and cleverness can do.

taken from Graham’s 2018 obituary in Christianity Today

The Collect (Of a Missionary or Evangelist)

Almighty and everlasting God, you called your servant William Graham to preach the Gospel to the peoples of the earth: Raise up in this and every land evangelists and heralds of your kingdom, that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Martin Luther, Presbyter and Reformer of the Church, 1546

Born in 1483 at Eisleben, Martin Luther entered the University of Erfurt in 1501 and completed his Master of Arts in 1505. His father wished him to become a lawyer, but Martin was drawn to the study of the Scriptures and joined the Augustinian canons, spending three years at their monastery in Erfurt. In 1507 he was ordained a priest and went to the University of Wittenberg, where he lectured on philosophy and the Scriptures, becoming a powerful and influential preacher. He was awarded a doctorate in theology in 1512 and joined the theological faculty of the University.

Luther had entered on the search for evangelical perfection with serious zeal and sought exactly to fulfill the rule of the Augustinian order, but he soon found himself struggling against uncertainties and doubts. His inward, spiritual difficulties were enhanced by theological problems, particularly the ambiguities in the nature and scope of the sale of indulgences and his discovery of the message of grace.

As professor of biblical exegesis at Wittenberg, his courses of lectures on the Psalms, Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews during the years 1513 to 1518 show the growing richness and maturity of his thought. In 1514 he became preacher in the parish church, whose pulpit became the center of a long and fruitful preaching ministry in which Luther expounded profoundly and beautifully the Scriptures for the common people and related them to the practical context of their lives.

Having observed much that he found wrong with his Church and the world Luther “for the purpose of eliciting truth” drew up the Ninety-Five Theses and fastened them on the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, the eve of All Saints’ Day. The theses did not deny papal prerogative, though by implication they criticized papal policy; still less did they attack such established teaching as the doctrine of purgatory. But they did stress the spiritual, inward character of Christian faith. Luther sent copies of the Theses to the Archbishop of Mainz (primate of Germany) and to his own bishop, but the printing press intervened. Copies of the theses circulated far and wide, so that what might have been a mere local issue became a public controversy discussed in ever widening circles.

The Reformation that was triggered soon spread over northern Europe and later over much of the world through Protestant missionaries. Luther’s recovery of the doctrine of “justification by faith” alone (sola gratia) led to a reformation of medieval doctrine and , along with other factors, to the rise of the protestant churches. (We should note that several unreservedly Roman Catholic clerics of the time, including Gasparo Cardinal Contarini and Reginald Cardinal Pole, recognized that justification was by God’s grace alone, and that the teaching of sola gratia was agreed upon by a number of Lutheran Churches and the Roman Catholic Church in Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, published in 1999.) Luther was a prolific writer, and his commentaries, polemics, and practical devotional works became the hallmark of Reformation writings. His translation of the Bible into the vernacular High German made the Scriptures more widely available in his own homeland, influenced German literature, and influenced the translation of the Scriptures into many other vernacular European languages.

Luther remained professor of biblical exegesis at Wittenberg until late illness prevented his teaching, and he directed much of the reformation of the churches of Germany and beyond by personal contact and by his writing. He died February 18, 1546, in Eisleben, the town of his birth, and was buried in Castle Church in Wittenberg.

prepared from various sources

The Collect

O God, our refuge and our strength: you raised up your servant Martin Luther to reform and renew your Church in the light of your Word. Defend and purify the Church in our own day and grant that, through faith, we may boldly proclaim the riches of your grace which you have made known in Jesus Christ our Savior, who with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Janani Luwum, Archbishop of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Boga-Zaire, and Martyr, 1977

On 6 January 1948 a young school teacher, Janani Luwum, was converted to the charismatic Christianity of the East African Revival, in his own village in Acholiland, Uganda. At once he turned evangelist, warning against the dangers of drink and tobacco, and, in the eyes of local authorities, disturbing the peace.

But Luwum was undeterred by official censure. He was determined to confront all who needed, in his eyes, to change their ways before God.

In January 1949 Luwum went to a theological college at Buwalasi, in eastern Uganda. A year later he came back a catechist. In 1953 he returned to train for ordination. He was ordained deacon on St Thomas’s Day, 21 December 1955, and priest a year later. His progress was impressive: after two periods of study in England, he became principal of Buwalasi. Then, in September 1966, he was appointed Provincial Secretary of the Church of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Boga-Zaire. It was a difficult position to occupy, and these were anxious days. But Luwum won a reputation for creative and active leadership, promoting a new vision with energy and commitment. Only three years later he was consecrated bishop of Northern Uganda, on 25 January 1969. The congregation at the open-air services included the prime minister of Uganda, Milton Obote, and the Chief of Staff of the army, Idi Amin.

Amin sought power for himself. Two years later he deposed Obote in a coup. In government he ruled by intimidation, violence and corruption. Atrocities, against the Acholi and Langi people in particular, were perpetrated time and again. The Asian population was expelled in 1972. It was in the midst of such a society, in 1974, that Luwum was elected Archbishop of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Boga-Zaire. He pressed ahead with the reform of his church in time to mark the centenary of the creation of the Anglican province. But he also warned that the Church should not conform to ‘the powers of darkness’. Amin cultivated a relationship with the archbishop, arguably to acquire credibility. For his part, Luwum sought to mitigate the effects of his rule, and to plead for its victims.

The Anglican and Roman Catholic churches increasingly worked together to frame a response to the political questions of the day. On 12 February 1977 Luwum delivered a protest to Amin against all acts of violence that were allegedly the work of the security services. Church leaders were summoned to Kampala and then ordered to leave, one by one. Luwum turned to Bishop Festo Kivengere and said, “They are going to kill me. I am not afraid.” Eventually, all were permitted to leave but one. The others waited for Luwum to join them but he never came out. The next day the government announced that Luwum had died in an automobile accident. In reality, he had been taken away, tried by a kangaroo court, and executed on February 17, 1977. Four days later, despite government threats, 45,000 Ugandans gathered in the Anglican cathedral in Kampala for a memorial service honoring their fallen archbishop. His body was buried later near St. Paul’s Church, Mucwini.

adapted from the Westminster Abbey website

The Collect

O God, whose Son the Good Shepherd laid down his life for the sheep: We give you thanks for your faithful shepherd, Janani Luwum, who after his Savior’s example gave up his life for the people of Uganda. Grant us to be so inspired by his witness that we make no peace with oppression, but live as those who are sealed with the cross of Christ; who died and rose again, and now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

_______________________________________________________

The image is of a statue of Archbishop Janani Luwum sculpted by Neil Simmons for the Martyrs Wall of Westminster Abbey.

Thomas Bray, Presbyter and Missionary, 1730

Thomas Bray, an English country parson, was invited in 1696 by Henry Compton, the Bishop of London, to have oversight of the Church’s work in Maryland as the Bishop’s Commissary. Long delayed by legal complications, Bray set sail for America in 1699 for his first, and what would be his only, visitation. Though he spent only two and a half months in the Maryland, Bray was deeply concerned about the neglected state of the Church in America and the great need for the education of clergymen, lay people, and children. At a general visitation of the clergy in Annapolis prior to his return to England, he emphasized the need for the instruction of children and insisted that no clergyman be given a charge unless he had a good report from the ship he came over in, “whether…he gave no matter of scandal, and whether he did constantly read prayers twice a day and catechize and preach on Sundays, which, notwithstanding the common excuses, I know can be done by a minister of any zeal for religion.” Implementing a plan for the provision of free libraries that he had worked out while awaiting his departure for America, Bray founded thirty-nine free libraries in the colony as well as a number of schools. Back home, he raised money for missionary work and influenced young English priests to go to America. Bray’s endeavors for the consecration of a bishop for America were unsuccessful.

Among Bray’s educational endeavors was the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SPCK), founded in 1698 by him and four laymen “to promote and encourage the erection of charity schools in all parts of England and Wales; to disperse, both at home and abroad, Bibles and tracts of religion; and in general to advance the honour of God and the good of mankind, by promoting Christian knowledge both at home and in the other parts of the world by the best methods that should offer.” The work of the SPCK developed to such dimensions that, on his return to England, Bray founded the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) in 1701 as a separate society for foreign missions.

In 1706 Bray was appointed Vicar of St Botolph Without, Aldgate, where he ministered until his death in 1730 at the age of 74. He served the parish with energy and devotion, while continuing his efforts on behalf of African slaves in America and in the founding of parochial libraries. Before his death he had been instrumental in the establishment of some eighty parochial libraries.

When the deplorable condition of English prisons was brought to his attention, Bray set to work to influence public opinion and to raise funds to alleviate the misery of the inmates. He organized Sunday “Beef and Beer” dinners in prisons and advanced proposals for prison reform. It was he who first suggested to James Oglethorpe the idea of founding a humanitarian colony for the relief of honest debtors, though Bray died before the Georgia colony became a reality.

Bray’s most widely circulated work was A Course of Lectures upon the Church Catechism, published in 1696. He is commemorated in several Churches in the Anglican Communion on this date.

adapted from material in Lesser Feasts and Fasts (1980) and
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church

The Collect

O God of compassion, you opened the eyes of your servant Thomas Bray to see the needs of the Church in the New World, and led him to found societies to meet those needs: Make the Church in this land diligent at all times to propagate the Gospel among those who have not received it, and to promote the spread of Christian knowledge; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Cyril and Methodius, Monk and Bishop, Missionaries to the Slavs, 869, 885

Cyril and Methodius, brothers born in Thessalonika, are honored as apostles to the southern Slavs and as the founders of Slavic literary culture. Cyril, who was originally named Constantine, was a student of philosophy and a deacon who eventually became a missionary monastic. Methodius was first the governor of a Slavic colony, then turned to the monastic life, and was later elected abbot of a monastery in Constantinople.

In 862, the king of the Moravians asked for missionaries who would teach his people in their native language. Since both Cyril and Methodius knew Slavonic, and both were learned men—Cyril was known as “the Philosopher”—the Patriarch of Constantinople chose them to lead the mission.

As part of his task among the Moravians, Cyril invented an alphabet to transcribe the native tongue, probably the glagolitic, in which Slavo-Roman liturgical books in Russian and Serbian are still written. The Cyrillic alphabet is thought to have been originated by Cyril’s followers.

Pressures by the German clergy, who opposed the brothers’ teaching, preaching, and writing in Slavonic, and the lack of a bishop to ordain new presbyters for their people, caused the two brothers to seek foreign help. They found a warm welcome at Rome from Pope Adrian the Second, who determined to ordain both men bishops and approved the Slavonic liturgy. Cyril died in Rome and was buried there. Methodius, now a bishop, returned to Moravia as Metropolitan of Sirmium.

Methodius, still harassed by German bishops, was imprisoned at their behest. Eventually, Pope John the Eighth released him, on the condition that Slavonic, “a barbarous language,” be used only for preaching. Later, the enmity of the Moravian prince caused Methodius to be recalled to Rome on charges of heresy. Papal support again allowed him to return to Moravia and to use Slavonic in the liturgy.

Methodius completed a Slavonic translation of the Bible and of Byzantine ecclesiastical law, while continuing his missionary activities. At his funeral, celebrated in Greek, Latin, and Slavonic, “the people came together in huge numbers…for Methodius had been all things to all people that he might lead them all to heaven.”

adapted from Lesser Feasts and Fasts

The Collect

Almighty and everlasting God, by the power of the Holy Spirit you moved your servant Cyril and his brother Methodius to bring the light of the Gospel to a hostile and divided people: Overcome all bitterness and strife among us by the love of Christ, and make us one united family under the banner of the Prince of Peace; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Ash Wednesday takes liturgical precedence of this commemoration this year.

Absalom Jones, Presbyter, 1818

Absalom Jones was born into slavery in 1746 in Delaware. He taught himself to read from the New Testament, among other books. At sixteen, he was sold to a store owner in Philadelphia, where he attended a night school for African Americans, operated by the Quakers. At twenty, he married another slave and purchased her freedom with his earnings.

Jones bought his own freedom in 1784. He subsequently became involved with St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church, where he served as a lay minister for its African American membership. The active evangelism of Jones and of his friend, Richard Allen, greatly increased that community’s membership at St George’s, where the vestry, alarmed at the greatly increased Black membership, decided to segregate them into an upstairs gallery without notifying them. During a Sunday service when the ushers attempted to remove them, the African Americans walked out en masse.

In 1787, African American Christians organized the Free African Society, the first organized African American society in the United States, and Absalom Jones and Richard Allen were elected overseers. Membership of the Society paid monthly dues for the benefit of those in need. The Society established communications with similar associations in other cities, and in 1792, the Society began construction of a church in Philadelphia, which was dedicated on July 17, 1794.

The African Church applied for membership in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania on three conditions: that they be received as an organized body; that they have control over their own parochial affairs; that Absalom Jones be licensed as Lay Reader, and if qualified, be ordained as minister. In October 1794 the church was admitted as St Thomas African Episcopal Church. Bishop William White ordained Jones to the diaconate in 1795, and to the presbyterate in 1804.

Jones was an earnest preacher. He denounced slavery, and warned the oppressors to “clean their hands of slaves.” To him, God was the Father who always acted on “behalf of the oppressed and distressed.” But it was his pastoral care, his constant visitation and mild manner that made him beloved by his parish and by the community. St. Thomas Church grew to over five hundred members during its first year. Known colloquially as “the Black Bishop of the Episcopal Church,” Jones was a example of persistent faith in God and in the Church as God’s instrument.

Jones died on this day in 1818.

Jones friend, Richard Allen, who with Jones was one of the first African Americans to be licensed as preachers by the Methodist Episcopal Church, followed a parallel path. Allen and his congregation converted a blacksmith shop in Philadelphia into a church that was dedicated on July 29, 1794 as Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1799, Allen was ordained as the first African American elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church by Bishop Francis Asbury. In 1816, Allen gathered four African American Methodist congregations in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland to establish the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first autonomous black Church in Methodism. In 1816, Allen was elected the Church’s first bishop. He died in 1831.

prepared from Lesser Feasts and Fasts (1980) and other sources

The Collect

Set us free, heavenly Father, from every bond of prejudice and fear; that, honoring the steadfast courage of your servant Absalom Jones, we may show forth in our lives the reconciling love and true freedom of the children of God, which you have given us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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The image of Absalom Jones is taken from the portrait by Raphaelle Peale.