St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

At St. Paul’s Parish This Week:

In Church News:

News in the Episcopal Church this week includes the first ordination of a woman to the priesthood in the Diocese of San Joaquin: read about it here.

Find other news of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion at Episcopal Life Online.

The July issue of St. Paul’s Epistle, our monthly newsletter, is available on line as a .PDF file readable with Abobe Reader by PC users and with Preview by Mac users.

On the Calendar of Saints - St. Peblig:

Today is a feria in the American church. Since we will be commemorating Independence Day tomorrow, today we will make note of a Welsh saint whose feast day is July 4, St. Peblig. Exciting Holiness - 2007 tells us:

Tradition has it that Peblig was the son of the would-be Roman Emperor Macsen Wledig (Magnus Maximus) and his wife Elen or Helen. Macsen left Britain in 383 at the start of an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to seize the throne of the Western Empire. Sulpicius Severus describes Macsen’s wife as a devoted disciple of Martin, the ascetic Bishop of Tours. If Peblig was indeed her son he may have embraced some of Martin’s teachings and practices. Peblig (the Welsh form of Publicius) is remembered as the founder of the church of Llanbeblig, within the walls of the Roman settlement of Segontium near the later Caernarfon. He seems to have played an important part in ensuring the survival of Christianity in that area of Wales in the troubled period during and after the withdrawal of the Roman legions.

A prayer for today:

A prayer for commemorating St. Peblig is found in Exciting Holiness:

Almighty and ever-living God, who called Peblig to proclaim the gospel to the nation of Wales: give us, your servants, such faith and power of love, that, as we rejoice in his triumph, we may profit by his example; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit by all honour and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

At St. Paul’s Parish:

The July issue of St. Paul’s Epistle, our monthly newsletter, is available on line as a .PDF file readable with Abobe Reader by PC users and with Preview by Mac users.

Today’s news in the Episcopal Church - Episcopal Life Online.

About Today’s Commemoration:

Today is a feria on the calendar of the Episcopal Church. Commemorated yesterday in the Church of England were the father and son duo of John and Henry Venn, 19th Century priests who are known as “Evangelical Divines”.

Exciting Holiness - 2007, the Church of England’s book of commemorations, includes the following information about the Venns:

John Venn was born at Clapham in March 1759, where his father, Henry Venn Senior, was a curate. Later that year, Henry took his family to Huddersfield, where he had been appointed vicar, and they remained there until 1771. John was educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and became rector of Little Dunham in Norfolk and eventually of Clapham in 1792. He was one of the founders of the Church Missionary Society in 1797. It was here that he also became a central figure in the group of religious philanthropists known as the Clapham Sect. John was also an active participator in the movement for the abolition of the slave trade.

John’s son, Henry Venn, was born at Clapham in 1796. After his time in Cambridge, he was ordained and held various livings, but in 1846 he devoted himself entirely to the work of the Church Missionary Society. He was secretary for thirty-two years and his organising gifts and sound judgement made him the leading spirit in the counsels of the Society. In his later years, he was recognised as a leader of the evangelical body of the Church of England. John Venn died at Clapham on this day in 1813 and his son Henry died at Mortlake on 13 January 1873.

A prayer for today:

The following prayer for their commemoration is suggested in Exciting Holiness:

Eternal God, you called John and Henry Venn to proclaim your glory in a life of prayer and pastoral zeal: keep the leaders of your Church faithful and bless your people through their ministry, that the Church may grow into the full stature of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

At St. Paul’s Parish:

The July issue of St. Paul’s Epistle, our monthly newsletter, is available on line as a .PDF file readable with Abobe Reader by PC users and with Preview by Mac users.

Today’s news in the Episcopal Church - Episcopal Life Online.

About Today’s Commemoration:

Today is a feria on the Episcopal Church calendar. On the calendars of two other Anglican provinces, the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Church in Wales, we find commemoration of two Celtic bishops, respectively, St. Serf and St. Euddogwy. Exciting Holiness tells us about St. Serf (whose Latinized name was “Servanus”):

Serf is one of the heroes of the Celtic Church known to us only through fragments of his story which are not always consistent. Tradition locates his activity at Culross and in the foothills of the Ochils, where he evangelized the Pictish tribe occupying the land to the north of the Forth. Also associated with him is the village of Dysart, a name derived from his retreat or “desertum”. He is thought to have been a disciple of Palladius and to have fostered and educated Kentigern [who is also known as St. Mungo in Ireland], which would place his activity in the first half of the sixth century.

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About St. Euddogwy, Exciting Holiness tells us:

Euddogwy is the third saint to whom Llandaff Cathedral is dedicated, but little is known of him. It would seem that he was a nephew of Teilo, and a monk of Llantwit Major. On the death of Teilo, Euddogwy was elected Bishop of Llandaff by the abbots of the South Wales monasteries, and consecrated in 569.

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(A longer biography of Euddogwy may be found at David Nash Ford’s Early British Kingdoms site here.)

A prayer for today:

A prayer for commemorating Sts. Serf and Euddogwy is adapted from Exciting Holiness - 2007:

Almighty and ever-living God, who called Euddogwy and Serf to be bishops in your Church and to proclaim the gospel: give us, your servants, such faith and power of love, that, as we rejoice in their triumph, we may profit by their examples; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be all honour and glory, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

At St. Paul’s Parish:

The June issue of St. Paul’s Epistle, our monthly newsletter, is available on line as a .PDF file readable with Abobe Reader by PC users and with Preview by Mac users.

Today’s news in the Episcopal Church - Episcopal Life Online.

About Today’s Commemoration:

Today is a feria on the Episcopal Church calendar, so we look back to Sunday when we skipped commemorating St. Irenaeus, Third Century Bishop of Lyons, because his feast was supplanted by the Lord’s Day. An article on Irenaeus at Prof. Glenn Davis’s The Development of the Canon of the New Testament website tells us:

Relatively little is known of the life of Irenaeus. As a boy he had, as he delighted to point out, listened to the sermons of the great bishop and martyr, Polycarp of Smyrna, who was regarded as a disciple of the apostles themselves. Here he came to know, ‘the genuine unadulterated gospel’, to which he remained faithful throughout his life. Perhaps he also accompanied Polycarp on his journey to Rome in connection with the controversy over the date of celebrating Easter (154 CE). Later he went as a missionary to southern Gaul, where he became a presbyter at Lyons. …

Irenaeus was absent from the city when the persecution there reached its zenith. It seems that he had been sent to Rome by the Gallican churches in order to confer with Pope Eleutherus, perhaps as a mediator in the Montanist disputes. Evidently Irenaeus stayed in Rome for just a short time, and soon after the end of the persecution we find him again in Lyons as the successor to Bishop Pothinus (178). When and how he died is unknown to us. Jerome and others state that he died as a martyr in the persecution under the Emperor Septimus Severus (202), but there is no certainty about this tradition.

In short, we know Irenaeus almost solely from his writings, and these have not been preserved in their entirety. (Read the entire article here.)

A prayer for today:

A prayer for commemorating St. Irenaeus is found in Lesser Feasts & Fasts - 2006:

Almighty God, you upheld your servant Irenaeus with strength to maintain the truth against every blast of vain doctrine: Keep us, we pray, steadfast in your true religion, that in constancy and peace we may walk in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.