Dear Friends in Christ, Christmas was forty days ago this Friday, and that is why 2 February is the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. According to Chapter 12 of Leviticus, every Jewish woman who gave birth required a ritual purification from her flow of blood, and a sacrifice was to be offered to…

Dear Friends in Christ, This Thursday, 25 January, is the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, the Church’s annual celebration of the day when Saul of Tarsus met the Lord Jesus on the Damascus Road — an event that changed Saul’s life and the history of the world. 25 January is also each year…

Dear Friends in Christ, As the Prophet Samuel and the Apostle Peter were both called by name, so we too have each been called by name on the day of our Baptism. In a universal Church of more than a billion people, in a diocese of more than 200,000 people, and in a parish of…

Dear Friends in Christ, The Solemnity of the Epiphany is one of the richest feasts in the Christian liturgy, and for this reason, it is also among the most misunderstood. The Greek word which we translate epiphany simply means “appearance” or “manifestation”, and in the Western liturgical tradition the Epiphany is linked most strongly to…

Dear Friends in Christ, Christmas is not just one day on the calendar; Christmas is an entire season of the Church’s liturgical year. The season of Christmas Time or Christmastide begins with Vespers on Christmas Eve and ends with Vespers on the Feast of the Baptism the Lord, this year on Monday 8 January. And…