Holy Women, Holy Men - DioBeth newSpin

1 IHoly Women, holy MenCelebrating the SaintsConforming to General Convention 2009 Copyright 2010 The Church Pension Fund. For review and trial use Copyright 2010 by The Church Pension FundPortions of this book may be reproduced by a congregation for its own use. Commercial or large scale reproduction, or reproduction for sale, of any portion of this book or of the book as a whole, without the written permission of Church Publishing Incorporated is 978-0-89869-637-0 ISBN 978-0-89869-662-2 (Kindle) ISBN 978-0-89869-678-3 (E-book)5 4 3 2 1 Church Publishing Incorporated 445 Fifth AvenueNew York, NY 10016 Copyright 2010 The Church Pension Fund. For review and trial use only.

2 IiiBlessed feasts of blessed martyrs, holy women, holy men,with affection s recollectionsgreet we your return deeds they wrought, and wonders,worthy of the Name they bore;we, with meetest praise and sweetest,honor them for century Latin text,translated John Mason Neale#238, The Hymnal 1982 Copyright 2010 The Church Pension Fund. For review and trial use This resource has been many years in development, and it represents a major addition to the calendar of saints for the Episcopal Church. We can be grateful for the breadth of holy experience and wisdom which shine through these pages. May that light enlighten your life and the lives of those with whom you worship! The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal ChurchCopyright 2010 The Church Pension Fund.

3 For review and trial use only. vContentsForeword viiPreface ixThe Calendar of the Church Year 3 The Weekdays of Advent and Christmas until the Baptism of Christ 23 The Weekdays of lent 31 The Weekdays of Easter Season 67 holy Women, holy Men 87 Appendix 708 The Commons 709 The Common of Saints from the Book of Common Prayer 711 New Commons for Various Occasions 727 Guidelines and Procedures for Continuing Alteration of the Calendar 741 Copyright 2010 The Church Pension Fund. For review and trial use A Six-Week Eucharistic Lectionary with Daily Themes and Suggested Collects 747A Two-Year Weekday Eucharistic Lectionary 753 Index 779 Copyright 2010 The Church Pension Fund.

4 For review and trial use only. viiForewordIn one of the prayers in the Book of Common Prayer we pray: Almighty God, by your holy Spirit you have made us one with your saints in heaven and on earth: Grant that in our earthly pilgrimage we may always be supported by this fellowship of love and prayer. This fellowship of love and prayer is the communion of saints affirmed in the Apostles the years, Lesser Feasts and Fasts has helped the Church grow in appreciation of this communion. With each successive General Convention more names have been added to the calendar. At the same time, questions have been raised regarding some of the biographies, choices of scripture, and composition of the Collects.

5 During my term as Presiding Bishop, I therefore asked the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to undertake a review and revision of Lesser Feasts and Fasts, and to consider anew each entry in the existing Calendar of Saints, alongside any proposed new commemorations. To that end, a committee of the Commission was established. holy Women, holy Men: Celebrating the Saints is the fruit of the committee s careful and painstaking Women, holy Men: Celebrating the Saints seeks to expand the worshiping community s awareness of the communion of saints, and to give increased expression to the many and diverse ways in which Christ, through the agency of the holy Spirit, has been present in the lives of men and women across the ages, just as Christ continues to be present in our own day.

6 Faced with circumstances most often very different from our own, these courageous souls bore witness Copyright 2010 The Church Pension Fund. For review and trial use to Christ s death-defying love, in service, in holiness of life, and in challenge to existing practices and perspectives within both the Church and men and women commemorated in the Calendar are not simply examples of faithfulness to inspire us: they are active in their love and prayer. They are companions in the Spirit able to support and encourage us as we seek to be faithful in our own , the Prayer Book invites us to pray, O God, the King of saints, we praise and glorify your holy Name for all your servants who have finished their course in your faith and fear: for the blessed Virgin Mary; for the holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs; and for all your other righteous servants, known to us and unknown; and we pray that, encouraged by their example, aided by their prayers, and strengthened by their fellowship, we also may be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

7 It is my hope that holy Women, holy Men: Celebrating the Saints, with its expanded Calendar of commemorations, will deepen and enrich our congregations awareness and appreciation of the Spirit s freedom to indwell human life and render it revelatory of Christ s reconciling loveFrank T. Griswold Twenty-Fifth Presiding BishopCopyright 2010 The Church Pension Fund. For review and trial use only. ixPreface There the Lord will permit us, so far as possible, to gather together in joy and gladness to celebrate the day of his martyrdom as a birthday, in memory of those athletes who have gone before, and to train and make ready those who are to come hereafter. (Martyrdom of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, )From its earliest days the Church has rejoiced to recognize and commemorate those faithful departed who were extraordinary or even heroic servants of God and of God s people for the sake, and after the example, of their Savior Jesus Christ.

8 By this recognition and commemoration, their devoted service endures in the Spirit, even as their example and fellowship continue to nurture the pilgrim Church on its way to Women, holy Men: Celebrating the Saints marks a further stage in the recovery within the Episcopal Church of the liturgical commemoration of the first English Book of Common Prayer (1549) retained a small number of the many feasts contained in the Calendar of the Sarum Missal. All but one of these were major holy Days directly linked to the New Testament; no post-Biblical saints were included. The 1662 Prayer Book, which Anglicans living in the American colonies used in the Copyright 2010 The Church Pension Fund. For review and trial use decades preceding independence, listed the names of sixty-seven saints in its Calendar, but made no provision for their liturgical first American Book of Common Prayer (1789) listed no minor holy Days (lesser feasts) in its Calendar, and this continued to be the case in the 1892 and 1928 Prayer Books.

9 Only in 1964 did things change. In that year General Convention approved the inclusion in the Calendar of more than a hundred saints days with liturgical propers to facilitate their commemoration in the Church s worship. Since then the number of saints listed in the Calendar has gradually increased, and as a consequence Lesser Feasts and Fasts has been revised every three years to take account of these 2003 General Convention called for a wide-ranging revision of Lesser Feasts and Fasts, a revision ample enough to reflect our increasing awareness of the ministry of all the people of God and of the cultural diversity of the Episcopal Church, of the wider Anglican Communion, of our ecumenical partners, and of our lively experience of sainthood in local communities.

10 Several years of extensive study and consultation led to the submission of holy Women, holy Men: Celebrating the Saints which was approved for trial use by General Convention in July 2009. None of the commemorations listed in Lesser Feasts and Fasts has been omitted, and just over a hundred new commemorations have been added (almost identical to the number added in 1964).The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews said: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith ( :1-2a). The greatly enriched Calendar contained within these covers gives flesh-and-blood reality to that host of witnesses which is not restricted by ordained status, denomination, gender, culture, or professional calling.