Author: Bishop Tim

Sunday After The Nativity

We give thanks to You!
Every soul and  heart is lifted up to You, undisturbed name,
Honored with the name ‘God’, and praised with the name ‘Father’
For to everyone and everything (comes),
the fatherly kindness and affection and love,
and any teaching there may be that is sweet and plain,
Giving us mind, speech, (and) knowledge:
Mind, so that we may understand You,
Speech, so that we may expound You,
Knowledge, so that we may know You.

We rejoice, having been illuminated by Your knowledge.
We rejoice because You have shown us Yourself.
We rejoice because while we were in (the) body, You have made us divine through Your knowledge.

The thanksgiving of the man who attains to You  is one thing:
That we know You. We have known You, intellectual light.
Life of life, we have known You.
Womb of every creature, we have known You.
Womb pregnant with the nature of the Father, we have known You.

– The Hermetic Prayer of Thanksgiving, Nag Hammadi Library

In Australia, as in many Commonwealth nations, we celebrate the day after Christmas Day as Boxing Day. Custom of uncertain origin in the British Middle Ages suggests that on this day we pack those belongings for which we no longer have use, and pass them onto others in need, in gratitude for all that we presently have.

In this way, on Sunday after the Nativity, one may be instilled with a sense of renewed appreciation for all that is brought forth in that moment of radical transformation, the moment where the light shines through the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it. With a lightened heart and mind, we can extend this gratitude through our participation in the human experience, bringing grace and revived agility to our contact with others and the world.

The Coming of the Divine Light

The Virgin today brings forth the Superessential, and the earth offers a cave to the Unapproachable. . . . . I behold a Mystery strange and wonderous: the cave is Heaven and the Virgin is the throne of the Cherubim; in the confines of the manger is laid the Infinite.

With such grand vision and lofty words we enter the Collect prayer of the Menaion, taken from the proper for the Greek Orthodox liturgy, celebrated on the 25th December.

The Menaion gives a hint of what we might find is available to us, when we engage in the witnessing the presence of the Divine at this time of year, in the Coming of the Divine Light.

The word ‘Superessential’ in the prayer above is grounded upon the use of the original word ‘hyperousion’, St Dionysius’ peculiar term which describes a space above every conception the mind can form. The Christian tradition holds that at the moment of the Lord’s birth, it was as if all Nature had missed a beat and paused in its course, a moment of universal revelation, spread to all creatures and all places.

 

Third Sunday in Advent – Contemplative Eucharist

Please come join us on Sunday 12th December, as we gather together to engage in contemplative practice, blended with liturgy.

The Contemplative Eucharist takes the essentials of eucharistic celebration, and intertwines the contemplative practice of centering prayer, allowing that we might still our mind, and attend to our heart, and engage more deeply with the sacramental mystery always present in communion.

In this third week of Advent, we're invited to recognise the coming of the messenger, to set aside our ordinary mundane concerns to allow the joy and bliss of the celebrations of the coming of the Light to arise and be present within our awareness.

As we read in the introduction of the Secret Book of John:

"A little child appeared before me in the light.
 I continued looking at him as he became an old man
 And then he changed again, becoming like a young man.

I didn't understand what I was seeing,
But the one likeness had several forms in the light,
And these likenesses appeared each through the other
And the vision had three forms."

Source:
http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/apocjn-davies.html

We understand that many layers may be present or 'seen', in our each moment, but that we might attend to them more closely and understand the mystery contained within, a little more deeply.

The Contemplative Eucharist graces us with an opportunity in this time of preparation for the coming of the light, of Christmas, to engage with more presence in the practice of contemplation, seeking to enrich our understanding of that Divine transformation which we celebrate, the coming of a change herebefore unknown on earth, that which is the celebration of the birth of Christ, in the Christmas feast. 

Service – 6:30pm
The service this Sunday will be the "Contemplative Liturgy", written by our very own Reverend Tim Mansfield. The service alternates engagement and stillness, provoking a meditative attitude and the cultivation of deeper perceptions. The service features prayer and contemplative practice, including a period of silent meditation, as well as sharing of the Body and the Blood, in the form of bread and wine.

We follow the service with some conversation, hot drinks and snacks. Pleas come along and join the discussions, sharing in fellowship and hospitality. 

 

Advent Sunday

I Kings 1:40:  And all the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them.

Advent comes from the Latin word ‘adventus’, meaning ‘coming’. It is a translation of the Greek word ‘parousia’, which is used to refer to both the coming of the Messiah, and the Second Coming, of Christ. The Western Christian liturgical year begins, on this day. Advent started in the Frankish church during the dark ages as a penitential season, in preparation for the Nativity, but when the Roman expression of it came to the fore a century later, it became a season of joy, and the sense of somberness was lost, in time.

There are ways to get it back, however.  Perhaps seeing it as a different type of penitential season is the key.  There are two main ways of penitence, the via negativa (the way of eschewing dross from one’s life), and the via positiva (the way of taking on new things to enhance one’s spiritual life).  Lent and Advent can be seen as two halves of the same coin.  Lent is a time of giving up, a time of austerity.  It is along the via negativa.  Advent, however, can be penitential in the sense of taking on things in a penitential way.  Doing good deeds for others (preferably in secret), working in a soup kitchen during the season, praying for people you know on a daily basis during the season, singing Christmas carols at a nursing home…these are all things we can do to both be acts of penance and also build our spiritual lives as the holidays approach.

Please come along and join us in liturgy, prayer and song as we welcome in the Advent season with a sense of joy and anticipation, this Sunday.

Service – 6:30pm

The service this Sunday will be the “Johannite Gnostic Divine Liturgy”. The service alternates engagement and stillness, provoking a meditative attitude and the cultivation of deeper perceptions. The service features prayer and chant, and the sharing of the Body and the Blood in the form of bread and wine.

We follow the service with some conversation, hot drinks and snacks. Please stay and and share some time and company.

Saints and Holy Martyrs of the Knights Templar

This Sunday, we will commemorate the destruction of the public form of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ as the Martyrdom of the Knights Templar (Oct 13) and take time to acknowledge the saints of our church, in recognition of All Saint's Day (Nov 1).

At first glance, it might be difficult to see what the notoriety that lives on in witness of the chivalrous and virile Knights Templar has in common with the commemoration that we ascribe to those that lead the way in gnosis, the saints of the Apostolic Johannite Church.

But it may be no accident that the intent for the readings this week, the week in we will recognise both in liturgy, have at their heart 'Perseverance', as a focal point.

On Templar Sunday, we recite the full litany – the name of every grandmaster of the order – as well as the Insititutional Narrative, the grand story of the lineage which we inherit from the Johannite Church of Primitive Christians found in the 19th Century, as a part of the French Gnostic Restoration. We light memorial candles to recall the perseverance with which they followed their witness, to the truth of gnosis.

We recognise the saints of the Apostolic Johannite Church similarly, each less likely to be commemorated for tales of conversion, intercession or posthumous miracle, than in honour of their perseverance, in accounting for their observance of the deeper wisdom, of gnosis.

Please join us for this haunting, solemn service which illustrates a core aspect of our spiritual lineage.

If you are planning to come along on Sunday, and would like to bring any saints relics or icons that you might have to the service, this is the perfect opportunity to have them blessed by Fr Tim+.

Service – 6:30pm
The service this Sunday will be the "Johannite Gnostic Divine Liturgy". The service alternates engagement and stillness, provoking a meditative attitude and the cultivation of deeper perceptions. The service features prayer and chant and the sharing of the Body and the Blood in the form of bread and wine.

We follow the service with some conversation, hot drinks and snacks. Please stay and and share some time and company.

Just a reminder too that Fr Tim+ will be presenting a one-day workshop, 'Introducing Integral Christianity', next Sunday, October 31, 2010.

Please register here to come along and be a part of a delightful day of exploration into the individual stages and collective shape of the Christian tradition:

http://integralspiritualitysydney.eventbrite.com/

If you'd like to attend, but can't register straight away, please drop us an email at [email protected] to record your interest, and we will be in touch.