St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

At St. Paul’s Parish today, Wednesday, June 4, 2008:

• ECW Holy Communion at 11:00 a.m. (in the Church);
• ECW Field Trip to Wooster 12:00 noon (carpool from the parking lot);
• Holy Communion at 6:30 p.m. (in the Church);
• Youth Group at 7:00 p.m. (in the Dining Room);
• Midweek Study Group at 7:00 p.m. reading The Celtic Way of Evangelism by George Hunter (in the Parish Hall);
• Overeaters Anonymous at 7:30 p.m. (in the Common Room).

The June issue of St. Paul’s Sword of the Spirit, our monthly newsletter, is available on line, as is the calendar of parish events for June 2008

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

On the calendar tomorrow, June 5, 2008:

• Men’s Fellowship Breakfast at Yours Truly at 8:00 a.m.;
• There will be no further Thursday evening choir practices until late August or early September.

Today is a feria on the Episcopal Church calendar. Worth considering is yesterday’s commemoration, in the Church of Ireland (the Anglican Communion church in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland), of the Feast of St. Kevin of Glendalough.

St. Kevin was the founder and first abbot of Glendalough, an abbey in County Wicklow, Ireland, south of Dublin. He was born about 498, the date being very obscure, of noble birth, the son of Coemlog and Coemell of Leinster. “Kevin” is the English transliteration of the Irish name Caoimhghin which means “fair-begotten”. He was baptized by St. Cronan and educated by St. Petroc of Cornwall, a Briton who had come to evangelize Leinster. From his twelfth year he studied under monks, and eventually becoming a monk himself and founding the monastery of Glendalough in the Valley of the Two Lakes in the Wicklow Mountains. So numerous were his followers that Glendalough became a veritable city and eventually an episcopal see, although it is now incorporated with Dublin. St. Kevin’s house and St. Kevin’s bed of rock are still to be seen: and the Seven Churches of Glendalough have for centuries been visited by pilgrims. He died on June 3, 618.

A legend about St. Kevin tells how a blackbird nested in his hand as he prayed with arms outstretched. So as not to disturb her or her eggs, he did not move until the chicks were hatched and flew away. He is, thus, considered the patron saint of blackbirds, as well as of Dublin and Glendalough. His Feast is celebrated in Ireland on the date of his death.

A very informative page about St. Kevin and the many legends about him written by Bridget Haggerty can be found at Irish Culture & Customs.

St. Kevin is also reported to have been a poet and a musician. On his feast day the Church of Ireland’s Among the Cloud of Irish Witnesses urges that we give thanks “for all who use their skills in poetry and music in the service of the Gospel: for composers and poets, organists and organ-builders,” and offers this prayer for his commemoration:

God of the quiet hills and the busy city: we thank you for places of beauty which draw people close to you and for those like Kevin of Glendalough who inspire us as they communicate their love of you in music and poetry. May we respond with deeper devotion to our Lord and in loving service of our neighbours. Hear our prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.