Author Archives: Christ Church
The Second Sunday after Pentecost
The Second Sunday after Pentecost
June 14, 2020
Morning Prayer – 8:00 AM
Holy Eucharist – 10:00 AM
Evening Prayer – 5:00 PM
The Sunday service sheet is found HERE
Click here to hear “Old 100th” at Westminster Abbey
When it is important enough to do right, the Church of England will usually find her way to Westminster Abbey. When it is important enough to evangelize the world, we are more often than not invited to join our collective voices to Psalm 100 sung to Ralph Vaughan Williams’s hymn tune Old 100th. The Nave and chancel are filled to their absolute capacity. Full organ, tympani, and military trumpets are employed, as people from all tongues and continents raise their collective voice to the heavens, all to the glory of God.
For why? the Lord our God is good, his mercy is for ever sure;
his truth at all times firmly stood, and shall from age to age endure.
The tune is at once simple and elegant; bold, and yet respectful. The collective voices stand firmly upon their faith while the tune itself appears to fill the four corners of the earth rather than simply the confines of an ancient abbey church. The boy choristers sing a descant that not only sends a chill up our spines but joins our voices with angels and archangels soaring high above a sea of beautiful hats. This, all to the glory of God while pushing the vaulted ceiling higher and higher toward the heavens.
In that moment, as the redeemed of Christ turn their hearts heavenward, we are given assurance of our favored place in the coming kingdom of God. For a moment in time, the temporal passes away and the High King of Heaven commandeers us, our souls and bodies for His particular use in this time, in this place, and under His own priority.
Although by our own choice we at times separate ourselves from such heavenly encounters, we thirst for those moments when only our best will do and we are being expected to appear in dress military uniform with ceremonial sabers strapped to our side. These liturgical expressions of heaven having come down to earth actually do serve a necessary purpose. They put the world on notice: Touch not mine anointed* and do my prophets no harm (Psalm 105:15).
Yet, before we are gathered in that celebrated manner we are called. We are called to have authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity. We are called to go forth in the name of Christ. I would argue that this is where we find ourselves today. We actually are living under battle conditions in which the trumpets are needed to sound and the sabers are intended to rattle.
As the most experienced among us can testify, these are the conditions in which a certain battle fatigue and fog of war sets in. We don’t have to look very far beyond our beautiful oak doors to identify where it is the healing touch of Christ is needed and expected. These are exigent times. Which brings us to the point of the gospel reading today. Currently, the world is ablaze with disease, discord, disunity, and fear. There is no better time for the Body of Christ to not only act but be present in the fray. The mission of the Church and the very reason for our existence is the salvation of souls.
I intend only for this written homily to encourage you and to strengthen your Christian resolve in the commission entrusted to you. Let it be said of us that during a world-wide pandemic we concerned ourselves with the salvation of souls. And on that last great day, when Christ’s kingdom comes down to earth as it is in heaven, we are found to be in battle fatigues with dirty hands but clean hearts. Let it also be said that although we concerned ourselves with advancing the cross of Christ through these turbulent times, we left not one man or woman on the battle field to fend for themselves. That we, too, preached as we went along, saying “The kingdom of God is at hand.”
St. Joan of Arc, Mystic and Soldier, 1431
Please know that during their regular June meeting, Vestry approved the plan for inviting the return of public worship while following State and Diocesan guidelines for social distancing and contact tracing. The plan was forwarded to a Diocesan task force today for their review and approval. As soon as we hear of our Diocesan’s approval to the plan, we will send out an Invitation to Public Worship at Christ Church brochure that articulates the exact manner in which we will invite the making of our Holy Communion while maintaining safe distancing under Governor Murphy’s Phase I reentry orders. You may be assured that every recommendation was taken quite seriously by your rector, wardens and Vestry. We look forward to sharing that invitation with you.
Holy Eucharist is the manner in which we ask God to change ordinary bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. It is how we ask God to change us into the Body and Blood of Christ. My concern as your priest reaches much farther than the protection of your body, it rest firmly on the salvation of your souls. There is a state of grace that we are all invited to traverse, inhabit, and remain within as the battle rages on. May we stand firm in our faith and may we never again allow the secular to define the reach of the sacred.
In the peace of God, which passeth all understanding;
Fr. Brian K. Burgess
Our Weekly Service Sheet – June 14, 2020
This is your weekly source for the components of the Episcopal Rite One Traditional Mass each week at Christ Church. These service sheets provide notices and announcements of interest to parishioners and the general public.
PLEASE NOTE: Services and activities listed in the announcements section of this sheet are subject to whether the current health and safety restrictions on public gatherings are lifted by the dates mentioned.
Special Food Collection This Week
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Our Acolytes Need Your Help
Trinity Sunday at Christ Church
The First Sunday after Pentecost: Trinity Sunday
Morning Prayer – 8:00 AM
Holy Eucharist – 10:00 AM
Evening Prayer – 5:00 PM
The Sunday Service Sheet is found HERE
Our Weekly Service Sheet – June 7, 2020
This is your weekly source for the components of the Episcopal Rite One Traditional Mass each week at Christ Church. These service sheets provide notices and announcements of interest to parishioners and the general public.
PLEASE NOTE: Services and activities listed in the announcements section of this sheet are subject to whether the current health and safety restrictions on public gatherings are lifted by the dates mentioned.
The Day of Pentecost
The Day of Pentecost
Sunday, May 31st
Morning Prayer – 8:00 AM
Holy Eucharist – 10:00 AM
Evening Prayer – 5:00 PM
The Sunday service sheet may be found HERE
You are invited and encouraged to join us at 10:00 AM in an Act of Spiritual Communion
- We will not meet for public worship within our sacred space on Trinity Sunday (June 7th), even under strict reopening guidelines and in an extremely limited capacity.
- The annual parish picnic hosted by our Brothers Andrew at Red Bank Battlefield scheduled for Sunday, June 7th is cancelled.
- We will await the findings/directives of the Diocesan task force on reopening.
- The work that your Vestry has already accomplished will be updated with any missing elements and immediately submitted for review and approval. Once we have that approval, the guidelines will be mailed to everyone as the means of inviting you back and articulating how we will move forward in faith rather than fear.
- Our new organist and choirmaster will be with us on July 1st and bring us through the summer months reverently and joyfully once we are given permission to open our doors.
- The manner in which we reinstate non liturgical use of our buildings will be articulated shortly after we concern ourselves with an Invitation to Public Worship.
- The manner in which we conduct home Communions will be rearticulated under taskforce guidelines.
- Scheduled Baptisms will have to wait.
- An anticipated wedding will have to wait.
- Confirmations are postponed until 2021.
- Our First Holy Communion Class has been postponed until September of 2020.
The Holy Spirit is poured out upon the Church in fulfillment of God’s promise. I pray that we are preparing ourselves and this parish for the moment of “suddenly.” May it not be said of us that the doors were open, and the lights came on and the redeemed of Christ were called forth by the power of the Holy Spirit and we did not know what to do next. If you want to bring your family more deeply into today, talk tonight how it is we are led by a pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. This, too, is of God. This, too, is God.
We will be back, we will be before our altar, we will offer our voice of common prayer and we most certainly will again taste and see how gracious the Lord is. (Psalm 34:8) It may not be now, but it will most certainly be recognized as being suddenly.
In the peace of God, which passeth all understanding;
Fr. Burgess
Our Weekly Service Sheet – May 31, 2020
This is your weekly source for the components of the Episcopal Rite One Traditional Mass each week at Christ Church. These service sheets provide notices and announcements of interest to parishioners and the general public.
PLEASE NOTE: Services and activities listed in the announcements section of this sheet are subject to whether the current health and safety restrictions on public gatherings are lifted by the dates mentioned.
The Seventh Sunday of Easter
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Memorial Day – Honoring the Fallen
Memorial Day
Monday, May 25th
Morning Prayer – 7:30 AM
Evening Prayer – 5:00 PM
Dear People of God:
On this Memorial Day, I invite you to offer the following prayers during your family meal or at 10:00 PM when the tower bell rings out De profundis (Psalm 130) reminding the Church to pray for the dead.
O Judge of the nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy. Grant that we may not rest until all the people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines. This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(The Book of Common Prayer – pg. 839)
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead: We give thee thanks for all thy servants who have laid down their lives in the service of our country. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence; and give us such a lively sense of thy righteous will, that the work which thou hast begun in them may be perfected; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen.
(The Book of Common Prayer – pg. 488)
Rest eternal grant to them, O Lord:
And let light perpetual shine upon them.
May their soul, and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
The following link is to a very interesting blog post to Navy Life entitled Honoring our Shipmates: The Heritage of the Military Funeral and Burial at Sea. The March 23, 2015 post was written by Annalisa Underwood of the Naval History and Heritage Command Communication and Outreach Division. I share this with you and your families on Memorial Day in interest of remembering, giving thanks for, and honoring our fallen heroes. Parents may want to consider introducing it to our students who are being homeschooled as a reading assignment on this hallowed day. As my liturgics professor would constantly remind us, liturgy is for the living as it teaches theological truths.
Burial at Sea: Honoring Our Fallen may be viewed here
May the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant: Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight; through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Father Brian K. Burgess, Rector