Our worship schedule for January is found on the HOME page. An end-of-December 2024-January 2025 schedule is available for download on the RESOURCES page.

Commemorations and feast days are part of the Book of Common Prayer calendar throughout the year. On Friday, January 10th we commemorate William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr 1645. In Laud’s time, Puritanism threatened the established Church. To counteract this influence, he and others restored “a sense of beauty and dignity in the celebration of the liturgy.” He was subsequently impeached, imprisoned, and ultimately beheaded, but as Stephen Reynolds writes:

“Laud’s vision of the Church at prayer survived and became the standard of Anglican liturgical practice for the next two centuries. So we honour him today for giving our tradition a richer sense of worship and a fuller delight in ‘the beauty of holiness.’”

On Sunday, January 12th we remember Benedict Biscop, Abbot and Scholar, 689. Also known by his family name of Biscop Baducing, he founded a monastery at Wearmouth and a sister house at Jarrow. He was a learned man whose libraries, formed at the two monasteries, made possible the work of the Venerable Bede (commemorated May 27th). The arts he supported to the glory of God added much to the lives and work of the monks who were his pupils. We are thankful for the devotion and energy he brought to developing the Church in northern England.

Also on this day, we remember John Horden, Missionary, first Bishop of Moosonee, 1893. Horden was a man of great energy and foresight, whose calling to bring the Gospel to far places began in childhood. It was greatly to our benefit that the Church Missionary Society sent him to northern Canada instead of to India, which had been his dream. He travelled throughout his territory and trained ministers from the tribes he served.

Building on the work of a predecessor, he produced a version of the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, and many hymns in the Cree language, as well as a book of devotions in the Inuit language. Through his efforts, the Diocese of Moosonee was established and he became its first bishop. His greatest regret was his inability to visit communities in the diocese more often because it stretched over such a vast area. After one journey he wrote:

“Fancy travelling a whole fortnight, and during that time not seeing one hundred persons. A feeling of great sadness sometimes crept over me as my solitary canoe glided over the bosom of some beautiful and sea-like lake; myself and my canoe-men were alone in the wilderness.”