Dear Friends,
The church is abuzz with excitement as we welcome the American Priory of the Venerable Order of St. John for a host of services honoring this ancient and storied organization. The Order of St. John is perhaps best known for the health organizations it founded and continues to run, including St. John Ambulance in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and the St. John Eye Hospital Group. Recently, Mo. Turner was asked by the Order to run a pilot project at the Choir School to introduce our choristers to First Aid. Using materials supplied by the New Zealand Priory who run this program in schools all over the world, and assisted by our school nurse, the choristers have been learning the basics of first aid, including CPR.
The involvement of the Order of St. John in providing health care is ancient. Just over a year ago, Hamas attacked Israel, a matter of weeks before we were due to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the founding of the hospital of St. John in Jerusalem. I had been asked to join the Prior, Nigel Heath, together with a small number of members, to visit the hospital in Gaza City – and it is sobering to think that we might have been there at the time of the terrible violence. A year later, there is still so much sadness in the Holy Land, and we must all pray so hard for a settlement that allows for all people, including the beleaguered Christian population, to find a voice and a true home.
At Evensong last night, for Saint Luke’s Day, attended by several hundred members of the Order, we prayed the Litany for Peace in the Holy Land that is prayed each day in St. George’s Cathedral, Jerusalem. I encourage you to pray this Litany, and join your prayers with Christians all over the world who seek peace. Click on the image of St. George’s Cathedral, Jerusalem to find the Litany.
On October 19 at 10am, we will host the Annual Service of Dedication and Investiture of the Venerable Order of St. John, and we invite you to attend in-person or join the hundreds of viewers from around the world to watch the livestream. It is a service filled with ancient pageantry as one might expect from an order of chivalry. However, do not be misled by that, for the Order is also an hospitaller order in which service to ‘our lords, the sick and the poor’ is the real reason it exists. On the Saturday afternoon, members of the Order will gather at an event organized by Rise to Hunger to bag food for food-insecure school children in Ghana, reminding all of us of the words of Jesus in Matthew Chapter 25:31-46, in a parable that contains the words “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
On Sunday, we will keep the Feast of the Anniversary of the Dedication of the Church. In addition to the 7:45am said mass, and the 9am sung mass with the Noble Singers, there will be a Procession and Solemn Eucharist sung by the Choir of Men and Boys at 11am. The Ordinary for the Mass will be Missa Brevis in F by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – you won’t want to miss this beautiful setting for what promises to be a special service. In keeping with the theme of honoring our past, consider coming to the 10am theology lecture, which will explore an architectural history of the church, led by Cole Wagner, who has poured himself into preparing this lecture.
The anniversary of the dedication of the Church is an important day in the life of any church. We are very blessed at Saint Thomas in that we know the actual date of the consecration of our Church, which happened on St. Mark’s Day, April 25, 1916. Unfortunately (like the date of our Patron Saint’s feast day) it often falls at an awkward time of the year – usually just after Easter when the choir is not present (though we were able to keep the feast properly this last Bicentennial year). However, like the Patronal Feast, we are allowed to keep this anniversary at another time, and traditionally this happens throughout the Anglican world in October. So, as we continue our annual appeal, and think about our beautiful Church, let us give thanks for all that it means. But remember, it is not the Kentucky Limestone that makes our church an oasis of prayer…it is you and the thousands of people who visit week in week our that are the living stones that make this place so precious.
Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:1-5
See you on Sunday!
Affectionately,
Your Priest and Pastor
