Credit: The Cheltenham Trust and Cheltenham Borough Council
May 25- Rogation Day
Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth: We humbly pray that your gracious providence may give and preserve to our use the harvests of the land and of the seas, and may prosper all who labor to gather them, that we, who are constantly receiving good things from your hand, may always give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
Bishop's Letter
May 25, 2022
Dear People of Kootenay,
Happy Ascension Day!
Thursday, Ascension day, is 40 days after Easter and a critical day in the Church Calendar, a day essential to the foundation of the Church. Not a Hallmark holiday, no secular day off, for the world it will go by unnoticed, but for those of us who are disciples of Jesus, crucial to our life of faith. The Risen Jesus has appeared in many gatherings since the Resurrection, teaching and preparing the disciples for their mission. After 40 days (Biblical shorthand for “enough time”, “fullness of time”) he leaves the disciples and returns to the full presence of God; he will no longer be physically present to the disciples. However, he tells the disciples to wait and pray, to wait and pray for the Holy Spirit to come upon them to empower them for ministry. Karl Barth, 20th century theologian, called this next 10 days between Ascension and Pentecost a “significant pause” in the life of the Church. This time of waiting and praying, of gathering without the Risen Jesus in their midst but trusting in and preparing for the promised Spirit to empower them…this is a space we know, a liminal in-between time, with the past experience of Jesus no longer available to us and the new presence of Jesus not here yet. The Book of Acts of the Apostles is full of these moments when the disciples gather to wait and pray, to discern their future actions, to listen together for where God is calling them next. The departure of Jesus at Ascension creates a space for a new thing to happen, the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost. The old way of Jesus being with them had to end first so they could let go. The angels ask the disciples “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will in the same way as you saw him go”. We are called to not look back to the familiar and known, but to the future kingdom from which God is calling us. We are called to “wait and pray”, not passive but active, hopeful, gathering in community in a stance of expectant openness to God. After Pentecost, the presence of Jesus will now be, through the Holy Spirit, available everywhere, to all disciples, through all time, not the earthly body limited to time and space, but the Cosmic Christ, present to us now! Still preparing and teaching us for Christ’s mission of love to the world. Thanks be to God.
Collect for Ascension Day
God unheld by word or wall:
lift us from dullness and cynical contempt;
make us ready for your Spirit of transforming power;
and turn our hearts to the mending of the world,
through Jesus Christ, the name above all names. Amen.
(From Alternative Collects, Anglican Church of Canada. Prayers for an Inclusive Church (2009) alt.)
Yours in Christ,
+Lynne