NEWSLETTER ADVENT/CHRISTMAS 2017

T H E   B E N E D I C T I O N
Newsletter of St. Benedict’s Anglican Catholic Church

O  WORSHIP  THE  LORD  IN  THE  BEAUTY  OF  HOLINESS
Our parish (founded in 1979) has maintained the Liturgy of the traditional Book of Common Prayer. Our preaching and teaching draw on the Holy Scriptures in light of the Tradition of the Church from the earliest days.

Advent/ Christmas 2017
From the Rector’s Desk
Advent is the first season of the Church year, and the idea of New Year’s resolutions ought to pale in comparison to the God-ward turning that is represented by the first of our two major Penitential seasons. I hope we all understand why we must resist the emphasis on shopping and the secular pressures about holiday preparation that compete for our attention. The world has decided that “Christmas” is the name of a shopping season that runs between Thanksgiving Day (or July 4th) and the Feast of Saint Stephen on December 26th. Don’t give in.
          The spirit of the world wants to take away your Advent, and then your Christmas too. Christmas is, first and foremost, a feast of the Church, named, as it is, the Christ Mass. It is the feast of the Incarnation and the feast of the Nativity. The emphasis is on Christ’s coming in the flesh and taking human nature into His uncreated, eternal divine Person: and, only in this understanding is it a celebration of His birth in Bethlehem.
          Advent is very important for what it is. It is not Christmas, not yet. Christmas starts on the 25th of December and lasts until January 6th. But, for now, it is Advent; it is a Penitential season. Because it is Advent we emphasize the last things of the resurrection and eternity: Death, judgment, Heaven and Hell. Mostly, we emphasize the coming again of Jesus Christ in glory to judge the quick and the dead.          
                                    *
And then it will be Christmas
On Christmas, this Feast of the Nativity, the hidden revelation we celebrate on the Feast of the Annunciation becomes visible.
"Then the babe, the world's Redeemer
First revealed his sacred face
Evermore and evermore."
I never tire of the prologue to St. John’s Gospel. This is the Gospel for the first Mass of Christmas, which is also the last Gospel of almost every High Mass. These words are hakadesh hakadeshim- the holy of holies- in all of scripture. We cannot hear it too often. It cannot become tiresome though we were to read it daily. In fact, listen to the words of our hymns this day. In Hark the Herald, look at Charles Wesley’s words, especially the second verse (the verse beginning Christ by highest heaven adored). Such words as these can never become tiresome either.        
          It is impossible to overemphasize the Incarnation. Many heresies come about by overemphasis on one little part of Christian truth at the expense of the rest of it. This cannot happen to the doctrine of the Incarnation, for it contains all of the truth in itself. This truth, that Christ is God the Son come to us in the fullness both of His Divine Nature, and of His human nature, is the truth, the central doctrine, of Christianity. Take it away and we have nothing. Keep it, and we have everything. No wonder St. John also tells us that this simple true statement, that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is the one doctrine that the spirit of Antichrist refuses to confess.
                                *    
Christmas hymns and carols have not only a joyful sound, but also, in some of them, very profound words about the Word made flesh. In our 1940 Hymnal I draw your attention to Hymn 12, especially the second verse, to hymn 27, also especially the second verse. Well beloved among High Church Anglicans is number 20. All of these express the great truth of the Incarnation with words of joyful worship.

Christmas Offering
Enclosed please see the envelope for your Christmas Offering. This is a good way to give thanks for the Incarnation and Nativity of our Lord.

Annual Meeting
Please take note: Every member of the congregation is hereby informed that the Annual Meeting for 2018, at which decisions are made by the voting members of the parish (those of you who come regularly, are over eighteen, have been Confirmed, and will have pledged to contribute financially to the parish) will be on Sunday January 28, following a potluck luncheon immediately following the 10:00 AM service of Holy Communion.

On Saturday December 16, Triangle Right to Life will hold it monthly meeting at the St. Benedict’s Parish Hall at 10:00 AM. Anyone who is morally sensible enough to be pro-life is welcome to attend the meeting and take part in the activities of the chapter. For reasons unknown your Rector is the only clergyman in the entire Triangle currently to be a part of this.

Our ministry to residents of the Stratford Senior Care Facility continues. For practical reasons, having to be flexible for ministry in a nursing home, we will provide their Christmas Service on Saturday the 23rd of December even though such a move may seem not entirely Kosher by the book.

The fourth Sunday in Advent services will be on the morning of December 24, the usual Sunday schedule. In the late hours of the night we will have our first Mass of Christmas. Our second will be on Christmas morning – see the full schedule below.

Schedule for Christmas Services
Christmas Eve
11:00 PM Holy Communion (Traditional Midnight Mass)
Christmas Day (Monday this year)
Holy Communion 10:00 AM

On Sunday January 7 we will celebrate the Epiphany in our regular Sunday schedule, moving the celebration by one day from the 6th.

Unchanging:
Sundays
8:30 AM Morning Prayer
10:00 AM Holy Communion with Sunday school for children in the parish hall.
11:40 Bible Study

Wednesdays
Holy communion 12:00 noon
Evening Prayer 6:30 PM

Saturdays
3:00PM Holy Communion at the Stratford Senior Care Facility

St. Benedict’s Anglican Church is a parish of the Diocese of the South, Anglican Catholic Church, Original Province.

Most Rev. Dr. Mark D. Haverland, Archbishop Ordinary

Rev. Robert Hart, Rector
Mr. James Lazenby, Music Director
Mr. Michael Murray, Senior Warden
Dr. Gordon Ibeanu, Junior Warden


St. Benedict’s website: www.saintbenedicts.net.


Phone# 919-933-0956

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