Transcript
This year we have been celebrating the fullness of the body of Christ. We have been led primarily in our Bible study and in our convocation hour by brothers and sisters who find their spiritual homes in the diverse currents that make up the unity of the Christian tradition as it has nourished communities of faith on this continent. Some of our leaders for this week may be in the congregation now and I hope they will rise as I
identify them briefly by name and I'll make fuller introductions during the first session of their offering. So if you're one of this week's leaders and you're in the congregation, if you could just rise so that we can all see you. Clarice Martin, who will be leading our Bible study, has just come in. Anthony Ugolnik, Cynthia Campbell, Elizabeth Dodson Gray, Dale Morgan. No, I know she's not here. Dale's congregation is in Santa Barbara and she and her
parishioners have had a very hard time with the fires there. Her word to me was, I must be with my congregation so we can cry together on Sunday morning. I'll be there late. That's where she is. Bill Beeners is not here. Jeff Woods, I hope they get here tomorrow. David Willis Watkins. Okay, well, for those who are here, thank you. A word about tonight's service. As I told Father Weber before we began here, this service takes
me deep into my nostalgia. The time my father could afford to spend with his children was Sunday night. Every Sunday evening, he would gather us together and we would go down into Harlem to St. Philip's congregation, the largest congregation in the worldwide Anglican communion made up almost entirely of West Indians. When the weather was bad or he was late coming home from work, we'd go to our own little St. Margaret's where we had been baptized into
the church and it was in the services of Evensong on Sunday night that I was first introduced to the faith. The service of Evensong is a treasure that has been maintained by the Anglican communion and it has its roots not as some of us might believe in the monastic practice. Evensong has its roots in the lay piety of the early Christian church in the first three centuries of the Christian church and was recovered. Evensong was recovered
by Luther and then by Cranmer and it appears first in the, but I'm telling you more about paupers than you really want to know, it appears first in Cranmer's prayer book of 1549. There are two services. There's matins or morning prayer and evening prayer or Evensong and many of us during the first week have been gathering here in this place at 7:30 in the morning for morning prayer as we have shared scripture readings and prayers and
silence with one another and we invite you to join us here at 7:30 in the morning for morning prayer each day of the Institute. This evening in Evensong we are favored to be led by our own choir, the choir of the Institute of Theology and by Father Bruce Weber who is the associate rector of Trinity Parish here in Princeton, a neighbor of the Seminary.
(music)
The reading is from the book of the prophet Isaiah, beginning in the second chapter, beginning with the tenth verse, these words, Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust from before the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of God's majesty. Our haughty looks shall be brought low, and our pride shall be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. For
the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that are lifted up and high, against all the cedars of Lebanon lofty and lifted up, and against all the oaks of Bashan, against all the high mountains and against all the lofty hills, against every high tower and against every fortified wall, against all the ships of Tarshish and against all the beautiful craft. And our haughtiness shall be humbled, and our pride
shall be brought low, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
(music)
The reading is from the book of Romans in the sixth chapter beginning with the third verse. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of God, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like
his. We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin, but if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again, death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died
to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. The word of the Lord. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into
hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
(congregational singing)
I ask your prayers for God's people throughout the world. For this gathering and for all ministers and people, pray for the Church. I ask your prayers for peace, for goodwill among nations, and for the well-being of all people. Pray for justice and peace. I ask your prayers for the poor, the sick, the hungry, the oppressed, and those in prison. Pray for those in any need or trouble. I ask your prayers for all who seek God for a deeper knowledge of him. Pray that they may find and be found by him. I ask your
prayers for the departed. Pray for those who have died. I ask your prayers and thanksgivings for all our own needs and those of others. Praise God for those in every generation in whom Christ has been honored. Pray that we may have grace to glorify Christ in our own day. Let us pray together in the general thanksgiving. Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we, thine unworthy servants, do give you most humble and hearty thanks for all thy
goodness and loving-kindness to us and all thy creatures. We bless thee for your creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life. But above all, for thy inestimable love, in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace and for the hope of glory. And we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we may support thy praise,
not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen.
(congregational singing; music)
I want to encourage those of you who have registered in for the second week and maybe even some of those who have been with us for a while to join the choir. They will be singing. It will be singing for us each evening this week. And as I said, David says he can teach anyone to sing. So you need not be bashful. What we want is your enthusiasm and your time, not necessarily a mellifluous voice. That will come. Thank you.