Daily Archives: June 14, 2024

(Church Times) Knighthood for John Rutter in King’s Birthday Honours list

The composer and choral director John Rutter has been appointed a Knight Bachelor in the King’s Birthday Honours list, published late on Friday evening.

Sir John, who is 78, has composed hundreds of choral anthems, carols, and extended compositions, including opera and orchestral pieces. He has conducted orchestras around the world (Interview, 9 September 2005).

He is a vice-president of the Joyful Company of Singers, president of the Bach Choir, and president of the Association of British Choral Directors (ABCD).

Sir John was educated at Highgate School, where he was a chorister. He read music at Clare College, Cambridge, where he was also a choir member, and as an undergraduate had his first compositions published. He served as director of music at Clare from 1975 to 1979. In 1981, he founded the Cambridge Singers, which he conducts, and with whom he has made several recordings of sacred choral repertoire, including his own works.

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Posted in England / UK, Liturgy, Music, Worship, Politics in General, Religion & Culture

(Phil Ashey) GFSA Egypt Gathering Day 3: The Ratification Of The Cairo Covenant

In his workshop today on Anglican identity and how Anglicans read the Bible, the Rev. Dr. Ashley Null made this very point by citing Cranmer’s work. He explained how Cranmer is the forebearer of the Thompson Chain Reference Bible, the first Bible my parents gave to me. If you’ve ever read that Bible, you know that when a particular word or topic appears in the scripture, there is a number that takes you to a list of all the scriptures that cite that same word, theme, or topic. This is exactly what Cranmer did in his work. He took to heart St. Augustine’s teaching that we should always let scripture interpret itself. Scripture interprets scripture. When a passage of scripture is “dark,” in Cranmer’s words, we should look for a passage where the same word, passage, or theme is used in a way that brings its meaning to light.

Therefore, the sixteenth century Anglican reformers understood sola scriptura to mean that we read the scripture together in light of both the scripture itself and the church that has gone before us. As an example, Dr. Null described a historic incident where a German prince sought a biblical interpretation from Luther and Melanchthon that would have allowed him to consort with one favorite mistress over his many others—a scandal they sought to justify using the Old Testament. Cranmer responded with a condemnation of their supposed biblical defense on the grounds that, since the time of Christ and the New Testament, no one in scripture ever permitted or justified bigamy. In other words, if you come up with a new interpretation of the Bible that no one has ever come up with, by definition, it must be wrong.

The Bible study this morning raised questions about the extent to which deep listening (as Archbishop Chung described it) is within the boundaries of the fundamental declarations in the Cairo Covenant which are the plain and grammatical reading of scripture and its historic interpretation by the Church fathers. At best, the message of deep listening struck a confusing chord. This may be a moment for the primates of the Global South to bring clarity out of the confusion by restating how we study the Bible together in keeping with the fundamental declarations of the Cairo Covenant and not simply in keeping with our own cultures.

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Posted in - Anglican: Analysis, Egypt, Global South Churches & Primates

(Bloomberg) US Consumer Sentiment Unexpectedly Falls to Seven-Month Low

US consumer sentiment unexpectedly fell to a seven-month low in early June as high prices continued to take a toll on views of personal finances.

The sentiment index dropped to 65.6 in June from 69.1, according to the preliminary reading from the University of Michigan. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for the measure to rise to 72.

Consumers expect prices will climb at an annual rate of 3.1% over the next five to 10 years, up slightly from the 3% expected in May, the data out Friday showed. They see costs rising 3.3% over the next year, the same as in the previous month.

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Posted in * Economics, Politics, Consumer/consumer spending, Economy, Psychology

The Ballad of God-Makers for G.K. Chesterton’s Feast Day

A bird flew out at the break of day
From the nest where it had curled,
And ere the eve the bird had set
Fear on the kings of the world.

The first tree it lit upon
Was green with leaves unshed;
The second tree it lit upon
Was red with apples red;

The third tree it lit upon
Was barren and was brown,
Save for a dead man nailed thereon
On a hill above a town.
That night the kings of the earth were gay
And filled the cup and can;
Last night the kings of the earth were chill
For dread of a naked man.

”˜If he speak two more words,’ they said,
”˜The slave is more than the free;
If he speak three more words,’ they said,
”˜The stars are under the sea.’

Said the King of the East to the King of the West,
I wot his frown was set,
”˜Lo, let us slay him and make him as dung,
It is well that the world forget.’

Said the King of the West to the King of the East,
I wot his smile was dread,
”˜Nay, let us slay him and make him a god,
It is well that our god be dead.’

They set the young man on a hill,
They nailed him to a rod;
And there in darkness and in blood
They made themselves a god.

And the mightiest word was left unsaid,
And the world had never a mark,
And the strongest man of the sons of men
Went dumb into the dark.

Then hymns and harps of praise they brought,
Incense and gold and myrrh,
And they thronged above the seraphim,
The poor dead carpenter.

”˜Thou art the prince of all,’ they sang,
”˜Ocean and earth and air.’
Then the bird flew on to the cruel cross,
And hid in the dead man’s hair.

”˜Thou art the son of the world.’ they cried, `
”˜Speak if our prayers be heard.’
And the brown bird stirred in the dead man’s hair
And it seemed that the dead man stirred.

Then a shriek went up like the world’s last cry
From all nations under heaven,
And a master fell before a slave
And begged to be forgiven.

They cowered, for dread in his wakened eyes
The ancient wrath to see;
And a bird flew out of the dead Christ’s hair,
And lit on a lemon tree.

–G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

Posted in Church History, Poetry & Literature, Theology

A Prayer for the Feast Day of G. K. Chesterton

O God of earth and altar, who didst give G. K. Chesterton a ready tongue and pen, and inspired him to use them in thy service: Mercifully grant that we may be inspired to witness cheerfully to the hope that is in us; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Posted in Apologetics, Church History, Poetry & Literature, Theology

A Doxology for today from Thomas Ken

To God the Father, who first loved us, and made us accepted in the Beloved; to God the Son, who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood; to God the Holy Ghost, who sheddeth the love of God abroad in our hearts: to the one true God be all love and all glory for time and for eternity.

Posted in Spirituality/Prayer, The Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit

From the Morning Bible Readings

Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.

–Galatians 6:7-9

Posted in Theology: Scripture