What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • A Preface for Ash Wednesday

    The following preface was written to mark the beginning of Lent and reflects the language and character of the Lenten material in the Scottish Liturgy 1982 and Daily Prayer of the Scottish Episcopal Church

    Dear Friends in Christ, it is the custom of Christian people to prepare to mark the time of Christ’s passion and resurrection by a season of penitence and fasting.

    The church calls each of us during these forty days to repent of all that causes harm to ourselves, harm to our earthly dwelling place and harm to our relationship with God.

    By carefully keeping these days, Christians take to heart the call to repentance and the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel, and so grow in faith and devotion. In turning our hearts towards God, we discover anew the boundless grace of God.

    For God will help us to create beauty even within the turmoil of this chaotic world and will help us to gather a harvest of joy and gladness from lives of sorrow and care. Today and every day, God calls the wandering exile home.

    We are invited therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy word.

10 responses to “Sermon for 18 October 2009 – The Whirlwind”

  1. fr dougal Avatar
    fr dougal

    This good thanks.

    Reply
  2. Rosemary Hannah Avatar
    Rosemary Hannah

    Even among habitually good sermons this one shone.

    Reply
  3. Stewart Avatar
    Stewart

    Great sermon – sorry I missed it, but surprised you were not celebrating the feast of St Luke.

    Reply
    1. kelvin Avatar
      kelvin

      The feast of St Luke is today, Monday.

      Reply
  4. Stewart Avatar
    Stewart

    I am really getting puzzled at to the observence of Saints Days. Following a small straw poll, St Mary’s was the only Anglican Church (checking various friends and websites in Scotland and Englandshire) that transfered St Luke from the recognised date of 18 October to the following day (19 October). the SEC church I attended on Sunday morning was observing St Luke.

    The appearance of various Saints Day during the sundays – after Trinity / after Pentecost / in Ordinary Time (select your prefered term) – has in the past seemed to given us a means every few years to consider these Saints in detail. However the wholesale translation away from the Sunday to my mind means we are losing the richness and inspiration that these days has and can provide.

    Reply
  5. Stewart Avatar
    Stewart

    Wikipedia entry on Luke the Evangelist.

    Reply
  6. kelvin Avatar
    kelvin

    We celebrated St Luke with a Eucharist in St Mary’s on the day on which the Scottish Episcopal Church commemorates him. This was 19 October this year. Normally it is 18 October.

    There is no confusion in the Calendar and Lectionary of the SEC. Churches with any particular devotion to the Blessed Doctor can celebrate on the Sunday according to local custom. There is no local custom here to warrant that and no whim of the Provost to do so.

    Reply
  7. Stewart Avatar
    Stewart

    Then it is a loss to the SEC.

    None of the churches I checked were dedicated or had a particluar devotion to St Luke (including the SEC one I attended).

    What was the reason behind moving this and all other saints days away from the relevant sunday in ordinary time when they fell on a sunday?

    Reply
  8. kelvin Avatar
    kelvin

    Sunday is more important.

    The rules have not changed since we went through this all before, Stewart. If you kept every saints day on the day, you would barely get Sundays at all.

    Neither the SEC nor St Mary’s can be said to be losing out as we kept both the normal Sunday and St Luke’s day.

    Reply
  9. RevRuth Avatar
    RevRuth

    Great sermon, thanks.

    It is good to know that our cathedrals are keeping the great Feasts on the proper days.

    Reply

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