Our worship schedule for September is found on the HOME page. A complete three-month worship schedule (August-September-October) is 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. Ninian, Missionary, first Bishop in Galloway, Scotland, c. 430 is commemorated on Monday, September 16th. St. Ninian was the first person to preach the gospel in western Scotland. Although no reliable source exists for the details of his early life, there is no doubt that his see was at Whithorn, known as Scotland’s cradle of Christianity. The monastery he founded there became an important Anglo-Saxon monastic centre. Travellers to Scotland will encounter many churches dedicated to Ninian and his missionary work among Celts and Picts.

This week, Wednesday, September 18th begins the Michaelmas Embertide, usually the Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday following Holy Cross Day on September 14th. This year Embertide is shortened because the Feast of St. Matthew falls on Saturday and is observed instead.

On Thursday, September 19th, we commemorate Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 690. Theodore was a Greek monk who was not yet a priest when Pope St. Vitalian appointed him to lead the Anglo-Saxon church in 667. He was over sixty years old at the time but his zeal, administrative talent, and wisdom brought about important and lasting changes not only to the Church in England but also in continental Europe.

On Friday, September 20th, we remember John Coleridge Patteson, Missionary, first Bishop of Melanesia, Martyr 1871. Bishop Patteson was a man ahead of his time, who treated the Melanesian islanders as equals. He worked to develop an indigenous ministry and to free workers who were reduced to near slavery by Englishmen from Australia and Fiji. Raiders from Australia had murdered five people from one of the islands shortly before he made a visit there. Unaware of this, Bishop Patteson was rowed ashore and murdered. His companions were also attacked and two of them later died of their wounds. However, the Bishop’s work had a lasting effect, and today the Anglican Church of Melanesia is an independent province in the Anglican Communion.

The Feast of St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist

Saturday, September 21st is the Feast of St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist, who is also known as Levi in the gospels of Mark and Luke. Matthew was a tax collector, distrusted by his own community. He was despised as a Roman collaborator who gained financially from his work on behalf of an occupying power. Even synagogue worship was denied him, yet Jesus chose him as one of his twelve disciples. The Venerable Bede wrote:

“This conversion of one tax collector gave many — those from his own profession and other sinners — an example of repentance and pardon. Notice also the happy and true anticipation of his future status as apostle and teacher of the nations. No sooner was he converted than Matthew drew after him a whole crowd of sinners along the same road to salvation. He took up his appointed duties while still taking his first steps in the faith, and from that hour he fulfilled his obligation and thus grew in merit.”