St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

At St. Paul’s Parish today, Tuesday, September 16, 2008:

• Morning Prayer at 9:30 a.m. (in the Worship Space);
• Women’s Book Discussion Group at 10:00 a.m. (in the Common Room);
• Brown Bag Concert (Lynne Lofton, bagpipes) at 12:00 noon (in the Nave);
• Church Health Team at 7:00 p.m. (in the Common Room);
• Al-Anon at 7:45 p.m. (in the Parish Hall).

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

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

On the calendar tomorrow, September 17, 2008:

• Holy Communion at 6:30 p.m. (in the Worship Space);
• Midweek Study Group beginning Kerygma study of the Gospel of John at 7:00 p.m. (in the Parish Hall);
• Youth Group at 7:00 p.m. (in the Dining Room);
• Overeaters Anonymous at 7:30 p.m. (in the Common Room).

Today on the calendar of the Episcopal Church we commemorate St. Ninian, Bishop in Galloway (an area in southwestern Scotland) in the early- to mid-Fifth Century. The Catholic Encyclopedia (published 1911) offers this entry about St. Ninian:

Bishop and confessor; date of birth unknown; died about 432; the first Apostle of Christianity in Scotland. The earliest account of him is in Bede (Hist. Eccles., III, 4): “the southern Picts received the true faith by the preaching of Bishop Ninias, a most reverend and holy man of the British nation, who bad been regularly instructed at Rome in the faith and mysteries of the truth; whose episcopal see, named after St. Martin the Bishop, and famous for a church dedicated to him (wherein Ninias himself and many other saints rest in the body), is now in the possession of the English nation. The place belongs to the province of the Bernicians and is commonly called the White House [Candida Casa], because he there built a church of stone, which was not usual amongst the Britons”. The facts given in this passage form practically all we know of St. Ninian’s life and work.

The most important later life, compiled in the twelfth century by St. Ælred, professes to give a detailed account founded on Bede and also on a “liber de vita et miraculis eius” (sc. Niniani) “barbarice scriptus”, but the legendary element is largely evident. He states, however, that while engaged in building his church at Candida Casa, Ninian heard of the death of St. Martin and decided to dedicate the building to him. Now St. Martin died about 397, so that the mission of Ninian to the southern Picts must have begun towards the end of the fourth century. St. Ninian founded at Whithorn a monastery which became famous as a school of monasticism within a century of his death; his work among the southern Picts seems to have had but a short lived success. St. Patrick, in his epistle to Coroticus, terms the Picts “apostates”, and references to Ninian’s converts having abandoned Christianity are found in Sts. Columba and Kentigern. The body of St. Ninian was buried in the church at Whithorn (Wigtownshire), but no relics are now known to exist. The “Clogrinny”, or bell of St. Ringan, of very rough workmanship, is in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh.

The following is the collect for today from Lesser Feasts and Fasts:

O God, by the preaching of your blessed servant and bishop Ninian you caused the light of the Gospel to shine in the land of Britain: Grant, we pray, that having his life and labors in remembrance we may show our thankfulness by following the example of his zeal and patience; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.