When we moved into our new sanctuary a year and a half ago we made some liturgical changes. Among them was a change in the words of distribution for Holy Communion. We changed from repeating the words of institution (which are said in the consecration) to the formula: the Body of Christ, the Blood of Christ, to which God's people answer "Amen" completing, as it were, the c...

The Eucharistic Foundation of Christian Prayer Rev. Dean Kavouras, PastorApril 26, 2016 Introduction Today let us take a fresh look at Christian prayer. But unlike presentations I've been exposed to (and maybe you have too) I have no plans today to provide you with a dogmatic review. Nor to burden you with urgent exhortations to pray more often, faithfully, or ardently....

Looking at this coming Sunday's epistle I think I see more support for my idea that there is a liturgical and sacramental foundation in all of Paul's epistles. That they are not simply letters. Prose. Even prose with a purpose. But that they were read on Sundays in the assembly of the baptized, and at certain points he either accesses liturgy with which the given church wa...

Contrary to the voice of critical scholarship for the last 200 years, I think we must re-assert that each of the four gospels stands on its own, and that each possesses its own internal logic. But what that logic is, is not always clear. Here is a possible solution. In macro all four gospels begin with, or highlight early on, the Lord's baptism. Likewise each features at ...

This is a sectional essay presented on January 17, 2018 at the Fort Wayne Seminary Theological Symposia....

Please see this beautiful commentary by St. John Chrysostom (347 - 407 A.D.), one of the greatest fathers of the church. It isn't for nothing that he is called Chrysostom: "golden-mouthed." "When the Deacon prays, 'Let us beseech for them yet more earnestly that God would deliver [the catechumens] from every evil and disordered thing,' we ask for them that they ma...

A commentary on the Gospel for Lent 1 St. Mark 1:9-15 by: Hippolytus of Rome 170 A.D. to 235 A.D. Do you see, beloved, how many and how great blessings we would have lost if the Lord had yielded to the exhortation of John and declined baptism? For the heavens had been shut before this. The region above was inaccessible. We might descend to the lower parts, but not ascend ...

Sunday's Collect, while beautiful and apropos, seems to omit something important. The divine logic of this event, it's raison d'etre. It reads: "O God, in the glorious transfiguration of your beloved son you confirmed the mysteries of the faith by the testimony of Moses and Elijah. In the voice that came from the bright cloud you wonderfully foreshadowed our adoption by g...

In his outstanding sermon, Subdue, Rev. Peter Mills writes: Pastor Mills: [In] Last Sunday['s gospel reading] a demoniac suddenly and brazenly interrupted Jesus' Sabbath sermon in the synagogue of Capernaum. Modernly we tend not to give credence to demon possession. In first world countries our complacency is no doubt the result of Christianity's missionary success and hi...

Note: when discussing liturgics the word "cult" (from the Latin for "worship") has no negative connotations, but simply denotes a system of religious worship....