Willliam Wilberforce, Renewer of Society, 30 July 1833
William
Wilberforce was born in 1759 and served in Parliament from 1780 to 1825. A
turning point in his religious life was a tour of Europe. In the luggage of a
travelling companion he saw a copy of William Law's book, A Serious Call to a Devout and
Holy Life. He asked his friend, "What is this?" and received the
answer, "One of the best books ever written." The two of them agreed
to read it together on the journey, and Wilberforce embarked on a lifelong
program of setting aside Sundays and an interval each morning on arising for
prayer and religious reading. He considered his options, including the clergy,
and was persuaded by Christian friends that his calling was to serve God
through politics. He was a major supporter of programs for popular education,
overseas missions, parliamentary reform, and religious liberty. He is best
known, however, for his untiring commitment to the abolition of slavery and the
slave trade. He introduced his first anti-slavery motion in the House of
Commons in 1788, in a three-and-a-half hour oration that concluded: "Sir,
when we think of eternity and the future consequence of all human conduct, what
is there in this life that shall make any man contradict the dictates of his
conscience, the principles of justice and the law of God!"
The motion was
defeated. Wilberforce brought it up again every year for eighteen years, until
the slave trade was finally abolished on 25 March 1806. He continued the
campaign against slavery itself, and the bill for the abolition of all slavery
in British territories passed its crucial vote just four days before his death
on 29 July 1833. A year later, on 31 July 1834, 800,000 slaves, chiefly in the
British West Indies, were set free.
The biographies were written by James Kiefer
Mary and Martha of Bethany, 29 July NT
Mary and Martha
lived with their brother Lazarus at Bethany, a village not far from Jerusalem.
They are mentioned in several episodes in the Gospels.
On one
occasion, when Jesus and His disciples were their guests (Luke 10:38-42), Mary
sat at Jesus' feet and listened to Him while her sister Martha busied herself
with preparing food and waiting on the guests, and when Martha complained,
Jesus said that Mary had chosen the better part.
When Lazarus,
the brother of Mary and Martha, had died, Jesus came to Bethany. Martha, upon
being told that He was approaching, went out to meet Him, while Mary sat still
in the house until He sent for her. It was to Martha that Jesus said: "I
am the Resurrection and the Life." (John 11:1-44)
Again, about a
week before the crucifixion, as Jesus reclined at table, Mary poured a flask of
expensive perfume over Jesus' feet. Mary was criticized for wasting what might
have been sold to raise money for the poor, and again Jesus spoke on her
behalf. (John 12:1-8)
On the basis of
these incidents, many Christian writers have seen Mary as representing
Contemplation (prayer and devotion), and Martha as representing Action (good
works, helping others); or love of God and love of neighbor respectively.
They see the
same symbolism also in Leah and Rachel, the daughters of Laban (Genesis 29 and
35). Leah was dim of sight, but had many children. Rachel had few children, but
one of them saved the whole family from destruction. Leah represents Action,
which is near-sighted and cannot penetrate very far into the mysteries of God,
but produces many worth-while results. Contemplation has fewer results, but one
of those results is Faith, without which it is impossible to please God."
(Hebrews 11:6) Yet, there is a sense in which Action comes first -- "If a
man love not his brother, whom he hath seen, how shall he love God, whom he
hath not seen?" (1 John 4:20) So it is that Leah must be wed before Rachel.
On some
calendars, Lazarus is commemorated together with his sisters, on others his
resurrection is remembered separately on 17 December.
The biographies were written by James Kiefer
LinK: http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/home.html
J. S. Bach, George Frederick Handel, Heinrich Schuetz. Musicians
J. S. Bach,
Musician 28 July 1750
George Frederick Handel, Musician 14 April 1759
Heinrich Schuetz, Musician 6 November 1672
George Frederick Handel, Musician 14 April 1759
Heinrich Schuetz, Musician 6 November 1672
In addition to
his secular music, Bach wrote a considerable amount of music for worship. He
drew on the German tradition of hymn-tunes, and arranged many of them as
cantatas, with elaborate choir settings for most stanzas, and a plain four-part
setting for the final stanza, to be sung by the congregation with the choir.
Normally each stanza is unique, using the melody traditional for that hymn, but
with variations, particularly in the harmony, that reinforce the meaning of the
words of that stanza. He wrote altogether about two hundred cantatas, including
at least two for each Sunday and holy day in the Lutheran church year (matching
the subject of the cantata with that of the Scripture readings prescribed for
that day). Two of the better known are "Christ lag in Todesbanden"
(Christ lay in the bonds of death"), based on an Easter hymn by Martin
Luther; and "Jesu, meine Freude" (Jesus, all my gladness).
It is an
ancient custom that during Holy Week the Gospel readings shall be from the
accounts of the Passion (=suffering and death) of Our Lord, and that, where
possible, these accounts shall be read, not by a single reader, but with the
speeches of different persons read by different readers (and the crowd by the
choir or the the congregation).
This may be said, or chanted to a simple tune.
Bach wrote, for the St. Matthew Passion, and again for the St.
John Passion, an elaborate musical setting, with the Gospel narrative sung
by a soloist, with the dialog by other singers, and commentary by the choir in
the form of hymns and more elaborate pieces. He also wrote a setting for the
traditional Latin Liturgy, his famous B Minor Mass. The Liturgy (or
Order for the Celebration of the Lord's Supper and the Administration of Holy
Communion, Commonly Called the Mass) is divided into the Ordinary (the parts
that are the same every time) and the Propers (the parts that vary from day to
day, such as the Bible readings). The choral parts of the Ordinary include the
KYRIE ("Lord, have mercy" or "Hear us, O gracious Lord"),
the GLORIA ("Glory to God in the highest," based on Luke 2:14), the
CREDO ("I believe in one God, the Father Almighty..."), the
SANCTUS-BENEDICTUS ("Holy, Holy, Holy" and "Blessed is he who
comes in the name of the Lord", based on Isaiah 6:3 and Matthew 21:9), and
the AGNUS DEI ("O Lamb of God," based on John 1:29).
Bach wrote choir
settings for these (in case anyone is wondering why a devout Lutheran would
write choir settings for a Mass, I point out that the language of the Liturgy
is ancient, and contains nothing not taught by Lutheran and Methodist and
Presbyterian churches), and his work is not simply a matter of supplying
pleasant-sounding melody and chords. For example, in the Creed, there occurs
the line, "And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church." In
Bach's setting of this line, there are two melodies sung by the choir
simultaneously. One is a traditional plainchant melody, most frequently sung by
Roman Catholics. The other is a Lutheran chorale melody. The two melodies are
interwoven, and they harmonize perfectly. Bach was not just a musician. He was
a Christian, and a preacher of the Gospel.
The biographies
were written by James Kiefer
William Reed Huntington, Priest. 27 July 1909.
[Of interest
chiefly to Anglican (or Episcopalian) readers]
W. R.
Huntington, although never a bishop, had more influence on the Episcopal Church
than most bishops. He was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1838, the son of a
physician, studied at Harvard, and was ordained a priest in 1862. In each of
the thirteen General Conventions (held every three years, in years that have a
remainder of 2 when divided by 3) of the Episcopal Church that met between 1870
and his death, he was a member, and indeed the most prominent member, of the
House of Deputies. In 1871 he moved for the restoration of the ancient Order of
Deaconesses, which was finally officially authorized in 1889. His parish became
a center for the training of deaconesses. Huntington's was the chief voice
calling for a revision of the Book of Common Prayer (completed in 1892), and
his the greatest single influence on the process of revision. The prayers he
wrote for it include the following, used during Holy Week and on Fridays.
Almighty God, whose dear Son went not up to joy but
first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none
other than the way of life and peace; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our
Lord.
In his
book The Church Idea (1870), Huntington undertook to discuss
the basis of Christian unity, and he formulated the Chicago-Lambeth
Quadrilateral, a statement adopted first by the House of Bishops of the
Episcopal Church in 1886 and then, with slight modifications, by the Bishops of
the world-wide Anglican Communion assembled at Lambeth in 1888. The statement
set forth four principles which Anglicans regard as essential, and offer as a
basis for discussion of union with other Christian bodies.
I append the
preface as adopted by the House of Bishops in Chicago in 1886, followed by the
Four Points in the slightly different wording adopted by the Lambeth Conference
of 1888.
We, Bishops of
the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, in Council
assembled as Bishops of the Church of God, do hereby solemnly declare to all
whom it may concern, and especially to our fellow Christians of the different
Communions in this land, who, in their several spheres, have contended for the
religion of Christ:
(1) Our earnest
desire that the Saviour's prayer: "That we all may be one," may, in
its deepest and truest sense, be speedily fulfilled;
(2) That we
believe that all who have been duly baptized with water, in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, are members of the Holy Catholic
Church;
(3) That in all
things of human ordering or human choice, relating to modes of worship and
discipline, or to traditional customs, this Church is ready in the spirit of
love and humility to forego all preferences of her own;
(4) That this
Church does not seek to absorb other Communions, but rather, co-operating with
them on the basis of a common Faith and Order, to discountenance schism, to
heal the wounds of the Body of Christ, and to promote the charity which is the
chief of Christian graces and the visible manifestation of Christ to the world;
But
furthermore, we do hereby affirm that the Christian unity... can be restored
only by the return of all Christian communions to the principles of unity
exemplified by the undivided Catholic Church during the first ages of its
existence; which principles we believe to be the substantial deposit of
Christian Faith and Order committed by Christ and his Apostles to the Church
unto the end of the world, and therefore incapable of compromise or surrender by
those who have been ordained to be its stewards and trustees for the common and
equal benefit of all men.
As inherent
parts of this sacred deposit, and therefore essential to the restoration of
unity among the divided branches of Christendom, we account the following, to
wit:
[Here I switch
to the Lambeth wording.]
(a) The Holy
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as "containing all things
necessary to salvation," and as being the rule and ultimate standard of
faith.
(b) The
Apostles' Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and the Nicene Creed, as the
sufficient statement of the Christian Faith.
(c) The two
Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself -- Baptism and the Supper of the Lord --
ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of Institution, and of the elements
ordained by Him.
(d) The
Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to
the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the Unity of
the Church.
A personal
observation: The reader will notice that the four points of the Lambeth
Quadrilateral: Scriptures, Creeds, Sacraments, and Ministry, correspond roughly
to the points listed in Acts 2:41f, where Luke speaks of those who received the
Gospel as it was preached on Pentecost.
So those who received his word were baptized, and
there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they continued
steadfast in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in the breaking of
bread, and in the prayers.
These early
Christians were in the apostles' doctrine. That is, they believed what the
apostles taught about the Resurrection of Jesus, and about His victory on our
behalf over the power of sin and death. That is to say, they believed the
doctrine summarized in the Creeds.
[For background
articles on the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, send the one-line messages:
GET CREED
APOSTLES
GET CREED
NICENE
GET CREED
FILIOQUE
GET CREED
CHURCH
to the address
LISTSERV@ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU or consult the web at http://www.ihi.aber.ac.uk/~spk/library/author/index.html. ]
They were in
the apostles' fellowship. That is, they did not seek to serve God as unattached
individuals, nor did they form groups of persons of like minds with their own
in whose company they might worship. They joined themselves to the existing
band of believers, whose nucleus was the apostles. That is, they were united by
participation in the ministry of the apostles and those whom the apostles
deputized to carry on their work.
They
participated in the breaking of bread. That is, they were regular participants
in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. (That they had received the Sacrament of
Holy Baptism has already been specified.)
They
participated in the prayers. As far back as our records go, Christian services
of worship have consisted principally of two things: (1) the reading of the
Holy Scriptures and preaching based on them, accompanied by prayer, and (2) the
celebration of the Lord's Supper. The pattern was set by Our risen Lord at
Emmaus (L 24:13-35), when He first opened the Scriptures to His companions, and
then "was known to them in the breaking of bread." The former part,
the prayers and readings and sermons, would often be referred to simply as
"the prayers."
End of personal
observation.
Despite his
involvement in the national affairs of the Church, Huntington was foremost a
parish priest, for 21 years (1862-1883) as All Saints' Church in Worcester,
Massachusetts, and for 26 years (1883-1909) at Grace Church, New York City. He
died 26 July 1909.
The biographies were written by James Kiefer
Suscribirse a:
Entradas (Atom)