Rev'd Gavin Dunbar

Nothing comes from nothing. Things do not “just happen”. For every effect, there must be a cause adequate to explain the effect. So where did faith in Jesus as God come from? How did Christians come to affirm that the man Jesus is also God? The conventional explanation many would give is that the historical Jesus morphed into a mythical God, through a process of embellishment and misunderstanding; and that any use of the language of God in relation to Jesus must be understood not literally but as supercharged metaphor for an inspiring religious and moral teacher.

On January 1st, the church observes the octave day of Christ’s Nativity, commemorates his Circumcision, and begins a new (civil) year in his grace. Before drawing out the connections between these, a brief excursus into art history: St. Luke’s gospel…

A biblical and theological exposition of the ancient lessons for Christmas.¹ I Though rarely recognized as such, the account of Christ’s birth in Luke’s gospel is profoundly political. Even the shepherds summoned to his cradle are ancient biblical (and classical)…

C. S. Lewis wrote the Narnia books for children, but with a richness of imagination and a depth of psychological and spiritual insight that merit serious attention by adults. A recent conversation about the challenges of transitioning from childhood beliefs…

We asked Cathy Baxter, Executive Director of Hope Haven, to write about this new respite ministry at St. John’s for caregivers of persons with dementia. Cathy will be manning a table outside the church after the 11 a.m. service on…

“People look east”: but why east? Jews face Jerusalem when they pray, and Muslims face Mecca – but the ancient custom for Christians was to face east in prayer. Why not north, south, or west? Because east is the quarter from which the sun rises. In Latin the word for “east” is oriens, “rising”, and so to face east in alignment with the rising sun is the proper meaning of the word orientation.

One of my favorite collects (Trinity 4) makes this petition: “that [God] being our ruler and guide, may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal”. It’s a prayer for the right use of time, a prayer that our passage through time might not end in darkness, but in life with God. In the cycles of the sun and moon, the rotation of the earth, nature provides markers for the passage of time, in days, seasons, and years.

Thursday next we Americans keep a day of national thanksgiving for the blessings we enjoy, in hope that we may prove ourselves worthy of them. For Christians, however, the giving of thanks is not just an annual event, but the very substance of our lives; for we give thanks not just for “life and health and safety, power to work and leisure to rest, for all that is beautiful in creation and in the lives of men”; but “above all for our spiritual mercies in Christ Jesus, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory”.

Last week I travelled with Fr Jameson and St. John’s lay delegates (Skip Jennings, Stacy Jennings, John Bradshaw, and Rick Wright) to the annual Convention of the Diocese of Georgia, held in Tifton, about four hours drive west of Savannah. As we passed through the small towns of the hinterland we saw the damage wrought by storm Helene – huge trees uprooted, roofs patched in blue tarpaulin, piles of debris, and devastated pecan groves. It was an appropriate setting for the main topic of the Convention, which was the reality of institutional decline in the Episcopal Church, especially in the smaller congregations of a largely rural diocese.

All Saints Day is a festival, a time for rejoicing in the victory of the saints, all those who have been “the choice vessels of [God’s] grace, and the lights of the world in their several generations”, whose example of “stedfastness in [his] faith, and obedience to [his] holy commandments” we aspire to follow. But then comes All Souls Day – not a festival, but a penitential commemoration of the faithful departed, and (often) of prayer for them.

In the midst of a hotly-contested election in a sharply-divided country, we pray for the guidance of the minds of the voters, in making choice of fit persons to serve in public office, and for wellbeing of our country, whatever the outcome.

The commemorations of the Apostles and Evangelists are spread throughout the course of the Church’s year, and they conclude on 28th October (Monday) with the feast of Simon and Jude – the other Simon (not Peter), and the other Judas (not Iscariot). On this feast we give thanks for the completion of the foundations of the walls of the new Jerusalem: “for the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Rev. 21:14).