Volume 15, February 28, 2020
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The Feast of Lent
Remember, O Man, that dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.
These solemn words, or a contemporary translation of them, are said to each kneeling penitent on Ash Wednesday, as the priest marks his or her head with ashes.
The forty days of Lent are upon us. (Forty-six days if you included the Sundays that fall between Ash Wednesday and Holy Saturday). It was not always so. In the first three centuries of the Christian Church Lent did not usually last more than two or three days. The first mention of forty days is in the Canons of Nicea, in 325 A.D.
The number forty would have been suggested by the forty days fasting of Moses, Elias and of Jesus himself as the Bible tells us. The forty-day Lenten fast may have also been suggested by a lengthier fast prescribed for the catechumens who were preparing for baptism during the Easter Vigil ceremonies. From time set aside for fasting in that group the fast soon spread to the wider Church. At the time of the Reformation, the framers of our
Book of Common Prayer
were convinced to continue to keep Lent as a time for fasting, penance, almsgiving and exercises of devotion. And so our Church continues today.
I take my own personal cue for entering into the spirit of the Lenten feast---and it is a feast in the spiritual sense of the word—from the collect and epistle of the Sunday Next Before Lent that before the 1979 Prayer Book we called Quinquagesima Sunday. The epistle for Quinquagesima is the wonderful hymn to charity that comprises 1 Corinthians 13. The beautiful collect accompanying it, composed by Thomas Cranmer, is a succinct yet strongly moving echo of that hymn. It reads:
O Lord, who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth: Send thy Holy Ghost, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee. Grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.
May the Lord bless each and every one of us this Lent, that this may be a season in which we grow in love---- love for God our Father
who so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Yours sincerely,
Douglas Dupree
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O Lord Christ, who by thy love for mankind has taught us the power of love; Implant this love within us, that, loving thee with all our heart, we may love all others for thy sake; to the glory of the Name. Amen.
Eric Milner-White,
1884-1963
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Is this a fast, to keep
The larder lean?
And clean
From fat of veals and sheep ?
Is it to quit the dish
Of flesh, yet still
To fill
The platter high with fish ?
Is it to fast an hour,
Or ragg’d to go,
Or show
A downcast look and sour ?
No ; ‘tis a fast to dole
Thy sheaf of wheat,
And meat,
Unto the hungry soul.
It is to fast from strife,
From old debate
And hate ;
To circumcise thy life.
To show a heart grief-rent ;
To starve thy sin,
Not bin ;
And that’s to keep thy Lent.
Robert Herrick, 1648
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A gremlin or something got into the part of the January Bishop’s Institute Newsletter that advertised Bishop Howard’s upcoming retreat for lay and clergy members of our Diocese to be held this April 2020 at Camp Weed. The title advertising the retreat was meant to read:
There is a wideness in God’s mercy
(as taken from the old Gospel hymn that bears that name). But post-gremlin, the title came out reading
There is a wilderness in God’s mercy.
Oh, dear!
But there
is
a wilderness in the story of Jesus--- the wilderness of the Judaean Desert where, immediately following his baptism, Jesus went to fast for forty days. I have always read the Gospel story of the temptation in the wilderness as representing a desert scene very much like what I imagine the Sahara Desert to look like. By contrast, on my first visit to Israel I was amazed to discover that the Judaean Desert is mountainous and rocky—a hard and wild terrain not at all like any image of ‘the desert’ I had ever imagined in my mind’s eye.
I have been blessed with a number of both clergy and lay mentors over the forty-five years since my ordination. One of the very first was Fr William Ralston of Sewanee and Savannah. And I remember every Lent he always included a marvelous Lenten meditation in his parish newsletter by one of his priest mentors, the Rev. Miles Lowell Yates, sometime Chaplain of the General Seminary.
I share an excerpt of Fr Yates’ meditation with you here:
ASH WEDNESDAY
There is a wilderness in the vicinity of every man’s mind, and hence, of his faith. At any moment, in any situation, even the holiest, the mind may be driven into a bewildering terrain and lose its bearings . . .
Christ made a clearance in the wilderness not only for Himself but for man’s faith. He rejected and repelled the satanic whispers which continually endangered faith and sometime destroy it. They were the whispers which we too hear when we are tempted to think of God chiefly in terms of our own proposing. Too often we want God most as “a means to temporal ends, to personal protection and advantage, or to social and national prosperity”. And if He does not seem to meet such requirements, our temptation is to question His wisdom, power and love, perhaps his very reality. Jesus in the wilderness inexorably refused all sanction to this contingent approach to God; and if we can join Him in His refusal, we stand with Him in a clearance, and our faith has its chance . . .
But when we believe, however imperfectly, that God, to be God, must be beyond our testing, we restore to faith its freedom, and we are nerved by the Spirit’s power. Nor is this a kind of self-hypnosis; it is an adherence to the mandatory law of belief.
Miles Lowell Yates (1890-1956) author of
The King in His beauty.
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The February 2-10, 2020 Bishop’s Institute pilgrimage to the Holy Land led by Canon Aaron Smith and assisted by Canon Douglas Dupree was a blessing to one and all in attendance. There were 29 pilgrims in the final count who represented a good spread of our churches across the Diocese. We had an excellent guide, a young Palestinian Christian called Shafiq who knew the Bible inside and out and who was so patient and accommodating to us at every step of our journey. We are grateful also to George Maskubi Khader and George Marogi from Biblical Journeys who put this trip together with expertise and care.
Highlights of the trip included Holy Communion celebrated at the start of the pilgrimage in the chapel of the Discalced Carmelite Convent on Mount Carmel; on board our small ship on the Sea of Galilee and on the Sunday before our departure in St George’s Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem. There was also an unscheduled but much appreciated visit to Mount Tabor and the Church of the Transfiguration.
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See if you can spot one of our pilgrims in the photo above from your church family.
The group included: Sissy Barker, Sally Parsons, Steve and Sandy Emery, Peter and Susan Dearing, George and Patricia Letchford, Lee and Joan Martin, Dave and Nancy Rossetter, James and Pam Pierce, Preston Miller, Greg Euston, Vickie Haskew, Darlene Krippene, Linda Layton, JoAnn Chance, Denny McFarland, Sharones Myles, Thomas Frazer, Laurie Crofton, Sharon Chapman, Douglas Dupree and Aaron Smith.
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I am making inquiries with Biblical Journeys (who planned the Holy Land pilgrimage reported in this Newsletter) about a possible pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi for May, 2021.
The theme of the pilgrimage would be ‘in the steps of St Francis.’ It would be a two-center trip staying in Rome and in Assisi (from whence St Francis comes). From Assisi, in addition to spending enough time to enjoy the spirit of the town, we would explore Orvieto and Bagnoregio. In Rome we would visit the Pantheon and a number of important churches including Santa Maria sopra Minerva, San ‘Ignazio Sant’Agnese fuori le mura which includes catacombs, Santa Costanza and San Clemente. There would be an opportunity for first-timers in Rome to see some of the most popular sites on everyone’s list.
I would envision this as a nine day trip, i.e. two days devoted to travel to and fro and seven nights on the ground. I do not have a price point yet but I would work towards a price similar to the recent Bishop’s Institute Holy Land Pilgrimage, i.e. something in the region of $3,400-3,600 (that includes hotels, most all meals, the flights and transportation on the ground).
I am in conversation with two wonderful teachers and guides: Professor Timothy Johnson from Flagler College who is an internationally recognized scholar on all things Franciscan and Dr Charles Howard from the Episcopal School of Jacksonville, an expert art historian of the Italian Renaissance. If we can pin down the right dates in May when both are finished with their school year obligations that would be a real bonus to this pilgrimage.
But none of this ‘flies’ unless there are a sufficient number of folks interested in joining such a trip. I need to gauge that early on.
If you think you might be interested in joining this pilgrimage, please let me know:
ddupree@diocesefl.org
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A Way Other Than Our Own: Devotions for Lent,
by Walter Brueggemann, paperback, 2016.
Lent and Easter Wisdom from G.K. Chesterton,
edited by the Center for the Study of C.S. Lewis and Friends, paperback, 2008.
Life in Christ: Practicing Christian Spirituality,
by Julia Gatta, paperback, 2018.
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Disordered Loves: Healing the Seven Deadly Sins,
by William Stafford, paperback, 1994. [William Stafford is sometime Dean of the School of Theology, Sewanee and works closely with our Diocesan Board of Examining Chaplains.]
A Joyful Heart: Meditations for Lent,
by Martin Thornton, paperback, 2012 (reprint).
Sermons on the Parables,
by Howard Thurman, paperback, 2018 (reprint).
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The Seven Deadly Sins: How to Overcome Life’s Most Toxic Habits,
by Graham Tomlin, paperback, 2014.
A Time to Turn: Anglican Readings for Lent and Easter Week,
by Christopher L. Webber, paperback, 2004.
When I Pray, What Does God Do?
by David Wilkinson, paperback, 2015.
The Way of St Benedict,
by Rowan Williams, paperback, 2020.
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The Bishop's Institute for Ministry and Leadership
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Finding the Wideness in God’s Mercy:
Twenty-four hours of silence and conversation
Led by Bishop John Howard
Friday April 17 – Saturday April 18, 2020
Camp Weed and Cerveny Conference Center
A retreat for laity and clergy and their friends
Come escape the busyness of life for twenty-four hours in the beautiful surroundings of 500 acres of countryside at Camp Weed for a short retreat led by Bishop John Howard. The retreat starts with lunch at 12 noon Friday and closes with lunch at 12 noon on Saturday. The Bishop will share his reflections on prayer and lead us in prayer and in discussion. The program is balanced and relaxed.
The retreat is open to everyone young or old, lay or clergy. The camp will provide good food and comfortable accommodations.
Rates: (includes accommodation, meals, conference fee):
Single: $150 / Double: $112.50.
To register please call the office at Camp Weed, 386-364-5250.
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