A week of saints - Rector's Rambling for April 19, 2026

     Although we are primarily focusing on the Resurrection this Eastertide, we also have the opportunity to look at a variety of Saints this month particularly some notable ones this week.

Today, if it weren’t Sunday in Eastertide, we could be commemorating the Feast of St. Alphege.  An Archbishop of Canterbury during the time of the viking invasions in the 10th and 11th centuries, he negotiated a peace treaty between King Aethelred and the Norse King Olaf Tryggavon in 994.  In 1011 he was captured by the invading Danes.  According to the Episcopal Church’s Lesser Feasts and Fasts, St. Alphage refuse to allow the people to college money to ransom him.  The Danes beat him to death, eventually dispatching his soul to heaven with a blow to the head with an axe-iron in 1012.

April 21 is the Feast of St. Anselm, another Archbishop of Canterbury about about a century later.  Italian by birth, he became a monk in France (Normandy) and eventually Archbishop of Canterbury.  He is best known for his disagreements with the King over the rights of the Church in England, and for what is known as the Ontological Argument for the existence of God.  In a nutshell, “God is that than which nothing greater can be thought.” and that God can be said to exist in reality as well as in the intellect, but not dependent upon the material world for verification.” (LFF, p. 224).  He is also known for the phrase “faith seeking understanding”  “I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order that I may understand. For this , too, I believe, that unless I first believe, I shall not understand” (LFF . 224). 

On Thursday the 23rd we celebrate the Feast of St. George, the Holy Protector of England (Edward the Confessor being the Patron Saint of England).  Little is known historically about St. George other than his martyrdom in Palesine about the year 303.  to him was deeply held in the East as a patron protector of soldiers, and the knights from the west brought that cultus back to the west as a result of the crusades. 

The Flag of St. George, a white field with a red cross, is the flag of England, and the basis of the heraldry of our denomination. One flies this week on the flagpole behind the ministry center. 

Saturday if the Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist.  Author of the Gospel in his name, it is attributed as the teaching of St. Peter.  Mark appears in several places in the New Testament, including Acts of the Apostles and St. Pauls letter to the Colossians and St. Peter’s 1st Epistle.

He is believed to have been the bishop of Alexandria in Egypt and there was martyred for the faith. 

 

10 year anniversary of our Prayer Wall - Rector's Rambling for April 12, 2026

 Alleluia, Christ is Risen!  The Lord is Risen Indeed, Alleluia!

We continue our celebration of Easter today, and throughout the remainder of the 40 days of the Easter Season.  It seems only fair that if we spent 40 days of fasting and penitence for Lent, then the celebration should be at least as long!  The Easter Seasons ends with the Feast of the Ascension, which falls on May 14th this year.  We then add 10 more days of special prayer and intention in preparation of the gift of God the Holy Ghost on the Feast of Whitsunday, also known as Pentecost. 

Thank you to the many people who pitched in last week for our grand celebration of the Feast of the Resurrection.  The music was sublime, the liturgy transcendent, coffee hour delicious and plentiful, and the congregation joyful and exuberant.  It was a wonderful day and I am thankful to God for the Feast Day and to the many people of St. John’s who participated in making it such a wonderful day.

Today marks an interesting milestone.  It was on the First Sunday after Easter in 2016 that we dedicated The Prayer Wall on Montcalm Aveue. 

Joe Alff, who with his wife Marge now live the Chicago area, had a great idea that we needed a place were people could offer their prayers in a tangible way 24 hours a day, without having to come inside the church.  The design is based on the idea of the Western Wall of the former Temple in Jerusalem where people write their prayers on slips of paper and insert it in the slots between stones of the foundation of a place were God dwelt in a special way, until it became redundant because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Joe approached his neighbor Gene Pluhar with an idea for the design, and from there was born the the prayer wall we now have located on Montcalm Street on the side of the parish parking lot.  People walking by for events at the stadiums, arena, and, as well as those  just passing by, stop to put a prayer in the wall.  On Sunday a team of parishioners spend a few minutes out there reaffirming their prayers, asking God to grant them as may be most expedient for them.   I have personally witnessed people stopping to pray very late at night, and very early in the morning.

 

He is risen indeed! - Rector's Rambling for April 5, 2026

     
    Alleluia!

Christ is Risen!

The Lord is Risen indeed!

Alleluia!

 

This is our Easter Proclamation as we celebrate Jesus’ victory over sin and death.  What a wonderful statement of faith, which is absolutely essential and central to who we are as members of the Body of Christ, the Church.  His Resurrection is an absolute basic requirement for belief, along with our statement that Jesus Christ is Lord!

This past week we have had a glorious journey, starting with Palm Sunday.  There we celebrated Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, being welcomed with cries of  “Hosanna to the Son of David.”  Surely this would be the great king who would throw off the yoke of Roman oppression.  But his kingship was not to be of this world.  On Thursday he had his Passover celebration with the apostles where he took that meal and with it instituted the Blessed Sacrament of His own Body and Blood.  From there he is arrested, tried, and as we commemorated on Good Friday, was put to death.

Today we celebrate His Resurrection!

Welcome to St. John’s Church.  We give thanks for the many people who make St. John’s their High Holy Day destination, and for those worshipping with us for the first time.  Easter is a grand day, especially with the brass accompanying the choir.  The flowers are glorious, and it is always wonderful to see the Easter joy on each other’s faces!

The other 51 Sundays a year are also a celebration of the Resurrection—the reason we worship on Sundays!  Although we won’t have the brass each week, the choir leads us in sublime worship as we work our way through the Liturgical Year.  We work our way through Eastertide, Trinitytide, Advent, Christmastide, Epiphanytide and then back to pre-Lent and Lent!   Each season and each week has a different emphasis, teaching us about Our Lord and His Will for us.

He is Risen!  Let us rejoice today, and each week of this year!