Our worship schedule for December is found on the HOME page. A two-month worship schedule (November-December) is also available for download from the upper right sidebar on the RESOURCES page.

Commemorations and feast days are part of the Book of Common Prayer calendar throughout the year. In this second week of Advent, on Wednesday, December 4th, we commemorate Clement of Alexandria, Doctor, c. 210. Clement was a theologian who “laid the groundwork for later Christian mystical theology.” He was also learned in philosophy and believed it was “useful for the development of true religion, as a kind of preparatory discipline for those who arrive at faith by way of demonstration.” He wrote:

“For God is the source of all good, either directly as in the Old and New Testaments or indirectly as in the case of philosophy. But it may even be that philosophy was given to the Greeks directly; for it was a schoolmaster to bring Hellenism to Christ, as The Law was for the Hebrews. Thus philosophy was a preparation, paving the way for the person who is brought to perfection by Christ.”

Saint Nicholas of  Myra

St. Nicholas of Myra: Fresco at the church of St. Nicholas Nadein, 1620, west gallery; Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia; via Wikimedia Commons

On Friday, December 6th, we remember [Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c. 342.] Here is another saint whose history is shrouded in obscurity, yet he has been “one of the most popular saints in Christendom.” Despite all the stories and legends surrounding him, about all we know for certain is that Nicholas was a bishop in the fourth century at a town called Myra, now renamed Demre in Turkey. A sixth-century document lists him as one of the fathers of the Church who were present at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. The quality most mentioned in stories about him is that of generosity, celebrated by the Dutch people on his feast day with gift-giving.

When the Dutch tradition was brought to North America, Saint Nicholas was associated with Christmas. Two hundred years ago, in 1823, an anonymous author wrote a poem titled Account  of a Visit from St. Nicholas. Largely from this work, now known as (’Twas) the Night Before Christmas, artists, writers and marketers over the past two centuries have created the parody of St. Nicholas we call Santa Claus  today.

On Sunday, December 8th, we commemorate The Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Like other memorials associated with Mary, the mother of Jesus, this one has been the subject of controversy down through the centuries. It came from the pen of a creative writer sometime in the third century. Along with the memorial of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it is retained “on most calendars of the Anglican Communion,” including Canada’s BCP. The late Anglican writer Rev. Stephen Reynolds writes:

“Officially speaking, the Anglican Communion accepts neither the dogma of the Immaculate Conception nor the dogma of he Assumption. No Anglican is obliged to believe in them, and, generally speaking, Anglican theologians have tended to accept the theological arguments against these two dogmas which were advanced by Bernard of Clairvaux and Thomas Aquinas. But, by the same token, Anglican custom has never denied people the right to believe in these two dogmas, if they have been found to aid and nurture faith. As in so much else, the Anglican tradition’s attitude towards belief in the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary seems to be: ‘All may, none must.’”