From the Rector - Feb 2012
Candlemas on the first Sunday of February brings the season of Epiphany to an end. On Ash Wednesday 22nd February Lent begins.
Revelation always needs a time of assimilation.
I was always good at passing exams (not necessarily with high grades!) because I was good at ‘cramming’. This is not good learning! Stuffing your mind with facts does not advance understanding or build up a fund of digested knowledge. In fact, what is quickly acquired is often as quickly forgotten.
Christ has been and continues to be revealed to us. ‘Seeing what it is all about’
like Nathaniel did at Philip’s behest in John 1:46 needs a bit of thinking
through. What does it mean for me? Will it change me?
God is the only one who is ‘unchanging, always new’ because the depths of God can never be fully known.
As people made in God’s image, we are a reflection. And as we all know, reflections change according to the light. Where we live in darkness the reflection will be dim and indistinct; where we live in the light as Jesus taught us, not only do we see God, but God is reflected out from us into the world.
During Epiphany God was revealed in Christ to the Magi, at Jesus baptism, and in the miracle of water made wine. In John’s words, Jesus ‘revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him’ John 2:11 but it took a while for them to come to terms with what they were being asked to believe.
In Luke’s gospel, on the day of the resurrection, and after accompanying Jesus
throughout his ministry, they were still struggling with it! ‘Oh, how foolish
you are, and how slow of heart to believe’, Jesus (despairingly?) cries.
Luke24:25
The Season of Lent is a time to open our heart to the possibility that Jesus is telling the simple truth when he says that to see him is to see the Father John 14:9. In knowing God we begin to know ourselves better.
Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. 1 John 3:2
We are people on a journey: we don’t yet see the destination but we know from our companion and guide what it will be like. Our trust increases as we journey on – I say trust not understanding because so much remains mysterious but we become more able to believe in the God who continues to call us on.
Let this Lent be a time for the truth to settle down deep within; use the Lenten devotions to meet God in Christ in us.
Links:
Rector's Letter,
Holy Days,
Back to top
Holy Days . . .
2nd Candlemas celebrated on Sunday 5th February.
Candlemas, or the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, is based on the account
in Luke’s gospel of a visit to the Temple in Jerusalem forty days after the
birth of Jesus.
Luke’s account 2:22-40 combines several themes. The purpose of the visit is to
mark the end of Mary’s ritual uncleanness forty days after giving birth to a
son. Older members of the congregation will remember the custom of ‘Churching’
women after giving birth; in the Prayer Book the feast is known as the
‘Purification of St Mary the Virgin’.
Luke adds a ‘presentation’ of Jesus as the first born Son. The offering of the
first born male, including first born male animals, to God was required by the
Law. In the case of first born sons, the ritual custom was to redeem the child
by payment of five shekels.
The third element is the prophecy of Simeon, a holy man prompted by the Spirit to be in the Temple to see the Holy Family. He prophesies that Jesus ‘is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel’. Then turning to Mary he says, ‘a sword will pierce your own soul also’. Mary participates in the salvation of the world through Christ in her own suffering. And invites us to join with her in ‘completing what is lacking on Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, the Church’ Colossians 1:24.
Like Palm Sunday, Candlemas has an extra liturgy before the mass.
The blessing of the candles and procession takes place in the chancel to
celebrate Christ as the light of his people. The Song of Simeon (‘Nunc
Dimittis’) is sung and we process to our seat in the nave.
17th Janini Luwum – Archbishop of Uganda, Martyr 1930-77.
The church in Uganda began towards the end of the c19th with the martyrdom of
James Hanninton and his companions. The country became a British protectorate in
1900, and independent in 1962.
In 1971 Idi Amin led a successful coup. He was a brutal man: he had all who had
opposed him arrested, shooting hundreds of soldiers in their barracks. He also
exiled most of the Asian population.
Janini was born is Mucwini in Uganda in the 1922. His parents were poor and could
not afford schooling until Janini was ten. Janini went on to train as a primary
school teacher and it was in school that he was converted to Christianity in
1948.
He was priested in 1956 and consecrated Archbishop of Uganda in 1974.
Archbishop Luwum was a leading voice in criticizing the excesses of the Idi Amin
regime. An army rebellion in 1977 led to widespread massacres and the church
leaders bravely made a public protest.
Archbishop Luwum hand delivered a note of protest to dictator Idi Amin against
the policies of arbitrary killings and unexplained disappearances. In return,
President Amin accused the Archbishop of treason supported by false confessions.
On 16 February 1977, Luwum was arrested together with two (Christian) cabinet
ministers. The same day Idi Amin convened a rally in Kampala with the three
accused present. A few other "suspects" were paraded forth to read out
"confessions" implicating the three men.
The next day, Radio Uganda announced that the three had been killed when the car
transporting them to an interrogation centre had collided with another vehicle,
supposedly after the prisoners had attempt to cease control of the vehicle.
When Luwum's body was released to his relatives, it was riddled with bullets. Henry Kyemba, Minister of Health in Amin's government, later wrote in his book A State of Blood,
that “The bodies were bullet-riddled. The archbishop had been shot through the
mouth and at least three bullets in the chest.
Janini was buried next to Hannington in Kampala and his wife and children were
forced to flee the country after receiving threats. His martyrdom brought many
back to the faith.
John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, was born and raised in rural Uganda. He studied law, trained as a barrister and served as a High Court judge all before reaching the age of 25.
Surviving several beatings under the regime of Idi Amin, he was forced into exile in England after he refused to co-operate in Amin's racist programme of expulsion of Ugandan Asians.
Dr Sentamu's decided to seek ordination followed the arrest and killing of
his friend and mentor Archbishop Janani Luwum in 1977. The archbishop says he
made this vow in response to Luwum's murder: "You kill my friend, I take his
place."
14th Cyril and Methodius – Patrons of Europe
827 – 869 and 826 – 885 respectively.
Cyril, or Constantine as he was originally named, and Methodius were brothers brought up in Thessalonica and therefore probably familiar with the Slavonic language. They were eligible for high civic office but Methodius retired to a monastery and Cyril to scholarship.
Because of their mastery of the language, they were sent as missionaries first to
the Khazars and then to the Moravians, in what we now know as Ukraine.
This was as much a political as spiritual decision: the Slavs wanted independence from German rule and saw that the use of the Slavonic language in the church would strengthen nationalist sentiment.
Cyril devised a new Slavonic script (which later developed into the Cyrillic script still used today) for their translations of the liturgy and scripture. Because there were no bishops, they returned to Rome to have their newly trained priests ordained.
Opposition from the German missionaries, who had enjoyed little success in their work, might have prevented this. But the death of Pope Nicholas and the succession of Adrian allowed their consecration as bishops. Cyril died before he could return but Methodius continued the work by returning to Kocel, Moravia being too much of a hot bed of German opposition!
In 1980 Pope John Paul II declared Cyril and Methodius to be Co-Patrons of Europe with Benedict of Nursia.
Links: Rector's Letter, Holy Days, Back to top