through Jesus Christ our Lord.
2 January
Munchin
Abbot
Ireland: Commemoration
If celebrated otherwise, Common of Religious
Munchin, a seventh-century monk, affectionately known as the wise, is honoured in Limerick and known as patron of the city. The ‘little monk’ inaugurated a tradition of prayer and study in a golden period of Irish Christianity and Celtic monastic life.
Collect
Source of all wisdom,
you so inspired your servant Munchin
that he became affectionately known as ‘The Wise’:
renew in your church the tradition of prayer and study,
that we may for ever honour you with heart, soul and mind;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
2 January
Seraphim
Monk of Sarov, Spiritual Guide
England, Scotland: Commemoration
If celebrated otherwise, Common of Religious
Born in 1759 at Kursk in Russia, Seraphim entered the Monastery of our Lady at Sarov near Moscow when he was twenty years old. He lived as a Solitary for over thirty years but his gifts as a staretz, or spiritual guide, became more widely-known until he found himself sharing his gift of healing spirit, soul and body with the thousands who made the pilgrimage to his monastery. The ‘Jesus Prayer’ formed the heart of his own devotional life and he stressed the need for all Christians to have an unceasing communion with the person of Jesus. He died on this day in 1833 and is revered in the Russian Orthodox Church as ‘an ikon of Orthodox Spirituality’.
2 January
Vedanayagam Samuel Azariah
Bishop in South India, Evangelist
England: Commemoration
If celebrated otherwise, Common of Bishops
Samuel Azariah was born in 1874 in a small village in South India, his father Thomas Vedanayagam being a simple village priest, and his mother Ellen having a deep love and understanding of the Scriptures. Samuel became a YMCA evangelist whilst still only nineteen, and secretary of the organization throughout South India a few years later. He saw that, for the Church in India to grow and attract ordinary Indians to the Christian faith, it had to have an indigenous leadership and reduce the strong western influences and almost totally white leadership that pervaded it. He was ordained priest at the age of thirty-five and bishop just three years later, his work moving from primary evangelism to forwarding his desire for more Indian clergy and the need to raise their educational standards. He was an avid ecumenist and was one of the first to see the importance to mission of a united Church. He died on 1 January 1945, just two years before the creation of a united Church of South India.
3 January
Morris Williams
Priest and Poet Wales: V
If celebrated otherwise, Common of Spiritual Writers
Morris Williams (usually known as ‘Nicander’, his bardic name) was born at Caernarvon in 1809. He was apprenticed to a carpenter. Once his literary and academic gifts became clear, Nicander was helped to enter King’s School, Chester, and Jesus College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1835. He was ordained in the same year, serving his first curacy at Holywell. In 1847 he was appointed perpetual curate of Amlwch, becoming rector of Llanrhuddlad in 1859. Nicander assisted with the revision of the Welsh version of the Book of Common Prayer and edited the 1847 edition of Llyfr yr Homiliau (The Book of Homilies). He was a pioneer of the Tractarian movement in the diocese of Bangor and used his considerable poetic gifts to promote its ideals. Some of the poems from his collection Y Flwyddyn Eglwysig (The Church Year), published in 1843, were adapted into hymns which had a profound impact on the spiritual lives of Welsh-speaking Anglicans. He died in 1874.
Collect
Lord of heaven and earth,
whose affection and love for us
inspired your servant Nicander
to praise the wonder of your unfailing grace:
grant that we may be faithful to the covenant
you made with us in Jesus Christ our Lord,
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit
be all honour and glory now and for ever.
6 January
The Epiphany
Gold or White
England: Principal Feast – Ireland: Principal Holy Day – Scotland, Wales: I
The subtitle in the Book of Common Prayer of this, one of the principal feasts of the Church, is ‘The Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles’. This emphasizes that, from the moment of the incarnation, the good news of Jesus Christ is for all: Jew and Gentile, the wise and the simple, male and female. Nothing in the Greek text of the gospels indicates that the Magi were all male: even the idea that there were three and they were kings is a much later, non-scriptural, tradition. The date of this feast goes back to the tradition of the Eastern Church, which celebrated both the Nativity and the Baptism of Christ on 6 January, whilst the West celebrated the Nativity on 25 December. As often happens, the two dates merged into a beginning and an end of the same celebration. The Western Church adopted ‘the twelve days of Christmas’ climaxing on 5 January, the eve of Epiphany, or ‘Twelfth Night’. The implication by the fifth century was that this was the night on which the Magi arrived. The complications of dating became even more confused with the changing in the West from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar, the Eastern Church refusing to play any part in such a radical change. So this day remains the chief day of celebrating the incarnation in Orthodox Churches.
Collect
O God,
who by the leading of a star
manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth:
mercifully grant that we,
who know you now by faith,
may at last behold your glory face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
A reading from the prophecy of Isaiah.
Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
Nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Lift up your eyes and look around;
they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from far away,
and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms.
Then you shall see and be radiant;
your heart shall thrill