Patrick Comerford
The change in Government pandemic regulations announced on Friday evening (27 November 2020) means churches may reopen next Sunday, 6 December 2020.
Next Sunday is the Second Sunday of Advent, but in some calendars 6 December is also marked as lesser festival for Saint Nicholas of Myra, the saint who gives rise to the traditions and legends of Santa Claus.
Although Saint Nicholas is not commemorated in the Calendar of the Church of Ireland, he has given his name to many churches in these dioceses, and some parishes may wish to mark the reopening of churches with a celebratory tone that engages with children and that allows the story of Saint Nicholas to prepare us for looking forward to Christmas.
This posting is divided into three sections:
● Part 1 looks at the provisions for the Second Sunday of Advent;
● Part 2 looks at the options for celebrating Saint Nicholas on 6 December;
● Part 3, looks at the options for lighting the second candle on the Advent wreath, recalling the Prophets, which can be used with either celebration.
PART 1: The Second Sunday of Advent
Sunday next (6 December 2020) is the Second Sunday of Advent. The readings in the Revised Common Lectionary for Sunday are:
The Readings: Isaiah 40: 1-11; Psalm 85: 1-2, 8-13; II Peter 3: 8-15a; Mark 1: 1-8.
There is a direct link to the readings HERE.
Since the First Sunday of Advent (29 November December 2020), we have been in Year B in the cycle of Scripture readings in the Revised Common Lectionary. We began on Advent Sunday with Mark 13: 24-37, with Saint Mark’s account of the Coming of the Son of Man.
But on this coming Sunday, we return to the beginning of Saint Mark’s Gospel. While Saint John’s Gospel begins at the beginning of Creation (‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God,’ John 1: 1), Saint Mark, unlike Saint Matthew or Saint Luke, has no Nativity narrative, has no story of the first Christmas (see Matthew 1: 18 to 2: 23; Luke 1: 1 to 2: 40).
Saint Mark, on the other hand, begins his Gospel with this passage, his account of the Baptism of Christ by Saint John in the River Jordan, which comes later in the other three Gospels (see Matthew 3: 1-17; Luke 3: 1-21; John 1: 19-34).
Indeed, because there is no Christmas story in Saint Mark’s Gospel, the main lectionary reading for the Principal Service on Christmas Day is going to be the Nativity Narrative in Saint Luke’s Gospel (Luke 2: 1-14 or 1-10) or the Prologue to Saint John’s Gospel (John 1: 1-14 or John 1: 1-18).
As we prepare for next Sunday, it is worth planning ahead and remembering that the theme for the Second Sunday of Advent is the Prophets and for the Third Sunday of Advent (13 December 2020) is Saint John the Baptist.
If we preach on Sunday next on Saint John the Baptist, we may find ourselves struggling with thematic continuity the following Sunday, when the Gospel story tells of Saint John baptising Christ in the River Jordan.
So, on Sunday next, it might be interesting to think on the Prophets as the theme of the day. This would allow us to say something significant about the second candle on the Advent wreath and allow us to develop the theme of the Prophets, perhaps referring to Saint John the Baptist as the fulfilment of the hopes spoken by the Prophets.
Then, on the following Sunday, we could develop this theme by looking at Saint John’s own promise and his prophetic role.
Isaiah 40: 1-11
This first reading is going to be familiar to many people, and will have immediate Christmas associations, because of the opening words of Handel’s Messiah:
1, Sinfonia (Overture)
2, Accompagnato
Tenor:
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is
accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness; prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (Isaiah 40: 1-3)
3, Air:
Tenor:
Ev’ry valley shall be exalted, and ev’ry moutain and hill made low; the crooked straight and the rough places plain. (Isaiah 40: 4)
4, Chorus:
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. (Isaiah 40: 5)
Prophets like Isaiah were a thorn in the side of the Temple hierarchy, proclaiming that God is not impressed by burnt sacrifices, does not dwell in a house built by human hands, is not confined to one holy land. The prophets proclaimed that God’s reach extends across every land, God dwells wherever justice and peace are lived out in community, and that justice and peace is the only sacrifice God wants.
Isaiah 40 speaks of a voice in the wilderness crying out that the Lord is coming, and we are to prepare the way.
This passage is a vision that marks the beginning of the part of Isaiah that was written from exile in Babylon. In verses 1-2, God speaks. Because ‘comfort’ and ‘speak’ are in the plural in Hebrew, God speaks to a group, probably of angels, but possibly of prophets. In other words, God says something like ‘may you comfort.’
They are to speak tenderly to Jerusalem. But the city is in ruins, so they are to speak to the idealised kingdom of God’s people. They are to tell them that their time of sorrow is over, that they have served their punishment for their waywardness, and that their Exile is about to end. A new era is dawning, and it is inaugurated by God’s Word.
In language that echoes the pomp of Babylonian royal pageantry in Babylon, a heavenly voice or the prophet announces in verses 3-5: ‘prepare the way of the Lord.’ God is coming, and he is about to lead a new Exodus through the ‘wilderness’ and the ‘desert’ to a promised land. God’s presence will be displayed for all people to see (verse 5).
Then a voice commands the prophet to ‘Cry out!’ (verse 6). But he asks what shall he tell them. Notice in verse 7 the use of the word breath, which also means spirit (see Genesis 1: 2, where the wind of God sweeps over the waters of creation.
Even though people fade and wither, the Word of God stands for ever (verses 6-8). The prophet is told on behalf of Jerusalem to tell out the ‘good tidings,’ to tell out the good news: ‘Here is your God!’ (verse 9-10). He is like a shepherd who gathers the weak (‘the lambs’) and gently leads them.
Psalm 85: 1-2, 8-13
In Psalm 85, we are told of God’s restoration of the people, and God’s overwhelming forgiveness (verses 1-2).
In between the verses we are reading, there is a prayer that God may again show favour to the people (verses 4-7). Then the psalmist hears God promising that he will bless the people with peace and steadfast love, which shall be the visible signs of God’s presence and power (verses 8-13).
II Peter 3: 8-15a:
The Epistle reading is written by Saint Peter at the end of his life. Aware that he is going to die soon, the apostle leaves an assurance of the fulfilment of God’s promises and a testimony of what being a Christian means as we wait for Christ to come again.
The writer says that the apparent delay in Christ’s coming is merely a delusion in time, for God does not measure time in the way we do (verse 8). Instead, God wishes all to be found worthy at the Last Day, and does not want any to perish. He is waiting patiently for all to repent of their waywardness (verse 9), but the end will come suddenly and unexpectedly, like a thief (verse 10).
The images of the end-times are drawn from popular Jewish and Greek philosophy of the day (see verse 10b).
The end is coming, what should our conduct be as we wait? The end is not annihilation, but ushers in ‘new heavens and a new earth.’
As we wait for this, we should be signs of it, being at peace, being ethically and spiritually perfect, prepared for Christ’s coming. His apparent delay is an opportunity for repentance and for attaining salvation.
Mark 1: 1-8:
We have seen the work of God, the Word and the Spirit in unison in the Old Testament reading. Now the story of the Baptism of Christ is the first revelation of the Trinity to the creation in the New Testament and is like the story of a new creation.
All the elements of the creation story in the Book Genesis are here: we know we are moving from darkness into light; the shape of the earth moves from wilderness to beauty as we are given a description of the landscape; there is a separation of the waters of the new creation as Jesus and John go down in the waters of the Jordan and rise up from them again; and as in Genesis, the Holy Spirit hovers over the waters of this beautiful new creation like a dove.
And then, just as in the Genesis creation story, where God looks down and sees that everything is good, God looks down in this Theophany story and lets us know that everything is good.
Or, as Saint Mark says: And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased’ (Mark 1: 11).
God is pleased with the whole of creation, God so loved this creation, κόσμος (kosmos), that Christ has come into it, identified with us in the flesh, and is giving us the gift and the blessings of the Holy Spirit.
Reflecting on the Gospel reading:
Both Saint Mark and Saint John have little interest in the first Christmas story. In this reading, Saint Mark begins telling the Good News with quotations from the Old Testament. God had promised the Israelites a ‘messenger’ (verse 2) to lead them. Tradition says that Saint John baptised near Jericho, in an arid region. People came to him in large numbers, repenting (changing their mind sets), ‘confessing their sins’ (verse 5), resolving to sin no more, and dipping or plunging themselves into the river.
Saint John dresses like a hermit or prophet (verse 6), yet sees himself as unworthy, compared to ‘the one who ... is coming’ (verse 7), so unworthy that he cannot untie his sandals, a task normally performed by a slave.
The Sadducees and the priests in the Temple believed that the blood spilled in the Temple sacrifices was sufficient to atone for all sins. The Pharisees said that God welcomes converts from any nation who wants to join God’s people and walk in accordance with God’s Torah.
On the other hand, Saint John the Baptist, who bases himself outside Jerusalem in the wilderness by the banks of the Jordan River, proclaims to all who listen that forgiveness is available to any who repent and are baptised. No Temple sacrifice is necessary. According to Saint Matthew and Saint Luke, John the Baptist teaches that in God’s eyes blood ties to Abraham are of no account. The High Priest needs the baptism of repentance just as much as a Gentile convert does, and Abraham’s inheritance is there for anyone who receives the offer of it through that baptism.
John’s baptism is a sign of purification, of turning to God, of accepting God’s forgiveness and judgment; Christ’s baptism re-establishes a spiritual link between God and humanity. This is the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
To us, Saint John the Baptist comes to prepare for, and to announce, Christ’s coming. But if all we expect from the coming of Christ and Christ’s work among us is finding forgiveness for sin, finding a relationship with God, and joining God’s people if we are willing to repent and experience conversion, then we are in for a surprise. As the opening verse of the Gospel reading tells us, this is just the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is only the beginning.
During this Advent season, we expect the coming of Christ and the fulfilment of his reconciling work on earth. As the Epistle reading (II Peter 3: 8-15a) tells us, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home, where God’s justice is done (verse 13).
Christ is coming and is reconciling the whole world, each of us with one another and with God. His is coming with a vision of a world in which all of the barriers that separate us – poor and rich, North and South, male and female, Jew and Gentile, nation and nation – will be no more.
His coming is just the beginning of the Good News. Let us prepare the way of the Lord: cast down the mighty and raise up the lowly, let justice and righteousness go before him, let peace be the pathway for his feet, do justice and make peace. And let this be just the beginning.
Mark 1: 1-8 (NRSVA):
1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight”,’
4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’
Liturgical resources:
Liturgical colour: Violet (Advent, Year B).
The liturgical provisions suggest that the Gloria may be omitted during Advent, and it is traditional in Anglicanism to omit the Gloria at the end of canticles and psalms during Advent.
These additional liturgical resources are provided for Advent in the Book of Common Prayer (2004):
Penitential Kyries:
Turn to us again, O God our Saviour,
and let your anger cease from us.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Show us your mercy, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Your salvation is near for those that fear you,
that glory may dwell in our land.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
The Collect of the Day:
Father in heaven,
who sent your Son to redeem the world
and will send him again to be our judge:
Give us grace so to imitate him
in the humility and purity of his first coming
that when he comes again,
we may be ready to greet him with joyful love and firm faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Advent Collect:
This collect is said after the Collect of the day until Christmas Eve:
Almighty God,
Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light
now in the time of this mortal life
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Collect of the Word:
God of all peoples,
whose servant John came baptising and calling for repentance:
help us to hear his voice of judgment,
that we may also rejoice in the word of promise,
and be found pure and blameless in the glorious day when Christ
comes to rule the earth as Prince of Peace;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Introduction to the Peace:
In the tender mercy of our God,
the dayspring from on high shall break upon us,
to give light to those who dwell in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1: 78, 79)
Preface:
Salvation is your gift
through the coming of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
and by him you will make all things new
when he returns in glory to judge the world:
The Post Communion Prayer:
Lord,
here you have nourished us with the food of life.
Through our sharing in this holy sacrament
teach us to judge wisely earthly things
and to yearn for things heavenly.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessing:
Christ the sun of righteousness shine upon you,
gladden your hearts
and scatter the darkness from before you:
Additional Prayer:
A prayer from the Mothers’ Union for use during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence:
Loving Lord,
your care and love are ever present in our lives.
We pray for our brothers and sisters throughout the world
who live in situations of abuse and violence.
Give them hope in their hopelessness;
help them find strength in their weakness;
grant them freedom from their oppression;
transform their brokenness into wholeness;
and heal their wounds, visible and invisible.
Grant us all the courage and wisdom, grace and humility,
to act at all times with compassion and care.
And grant all who are harmed by abuse or coercion, peace through justice.
This we ask in Jesus name. Amen.
Suggested hymns:
Isaiah 40: 1-11 [6-24]:
120: Comfort, comfort ye my people
122: Drop down, ye heavens, from above
644: Faithful shepherd, feed me
6: Immortal, invisible, God only wise
535: Judge eternal, throned in splendour
134: Make way, make way for Christ the King
141: These are the days of Elijah
Psalm 85: 1-2, 8-13
695: God of mercy, God of grace
539: Rejoice, O land, in God thy might
140: The Lord will come and not be slow
II Peter 3: 8-15a
567: Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go
162: In the bleak mid-winter
164: It came upon the midnight clear
634: Love divine, all loves excelling
537: O God, our help in ages past
Mark 1: 1-8:
126: Hark! a thrilling voice is sounding
419: I am not worthy, holy Lord
134: Make way, make way for Christ the King
136: On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
491: We have a gospel to proclaim
204: When Jesus came to Jordan
PART 2: Saint Nicholas, 6 December:
Saint Nicholas is not named in the Calendar of the Church of Ireland. But he is remembered throughout the Church on 6 December, which is marked as a Lesser Festival in the Church of England and in many other parts of the Anglican Communion.
As our churches reopen on 6 December, parishes may want to use this opportunity to introduce a note of joy, and to engage with the ways in which Saint Nicholas – like the Prophets who are recalled on the Second Sunday of Advent – prepares us for the coming of Christ.
The liturgical resources drawn on in this section include Common Worship in the Church of England and Exciting Holiness.
Readings: Isaiah 61: 1-3; Psalm 68; I Timothy 6: 6-11; Mark 10: 13-16.
There is a link to the readings HERE
Introducing Saint Nicholas:
On 6 December, the Church commemorates Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, who was also one of the fathers of the Council of Nicaea and became the role model for Santa Claus.
Saint Nicholas is celebrated today, 6 December, and not on Christmas Eve, and not on Christmas Day either. Nor is he celebrated or commemorated in the calendar of the Church of Ireland, which is surprising considering he was such a popular saint in mediaeval Ireland.
But there are liturgical provisions – including readings, collect, post-communion prayer and so on – in the Church of England’s Common Worship and a companion volume, Exciting Holiness.
In Exciting Holiness, it is recalled that Saint Nicholas was a fourth century Bishop of Myra in Asia Minor, now southern Turkey. His reputation as a worker of wonders was enhanced by a ninth century author of his hagiography or his biography as a saint, and it is through these stories that he is best known.
Many of these stories concern his love and care for children, how he fed the hungry, healed the sick and cared for the oppressed. He saved three girls from a life of prostitution by providing them with dowries – and so developed the tradition of bearing gifts to children on his feast day, a practice that we have since moved to the Christmas celebrations.
But, why should a bishop who makes free giving to children a priority in his ministry be worth rescuing from Coca Cola, marketing and merchandising?
Because, as Christ tells says in our Gospel reading provided in Common Worship, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it’ (Mark 10: 14-15).
Because Christ first himself comes to us as a little child with nothing at all, and yet is the most precious gift of all, given freely.
Saint Nicholas and his story:
Saint Nicholas, whose name means ‘Victory of the People,’ was born in Myra in Lycia, now known as Demre, near Antalya in present-day Turkey. He had a reputation as a secret giver of gifts, such as putting coins in the shoes of poor children, and because of this, perhaps, he was transformed into our present-day Santa Claus.
Saint Nicholas was such a favourite saint in mediaeval Ireland that many of our principal ports and towns have large churches named after him, including one in mediaeval Limerick, on Nicholas Street, close to Saint Mary’s Cathedral, and Saint Nicholas Collegiate Church in the heart of Galway.
Saint Nicholas is also the patron saint of sailors, seafarers, merchants, archers, pawnbrokers, children and students, and the patron saint of Amsterdam, Liverpool and other port cities. King’s College, Cambridge, was founded in 1441 as the King’s College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge – and is known around the world for the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve … yet another Christmas connection.
Legend says that young Nicholas was sent to Alexandria as a student. On the voyage, he is said to have saved the life of a sailor who fell from the ship’s rigging in a storm. In one version, on their arrival back in Myra Nicholas took the sailor to church. The previous Bishop of Myra had just died, and the freshly-returned, heroic Nicholas was elected his successor.
Another story tells how during a famine, a butcher lured three small children into his house, slaughtered and butchered them, and put their bodies in a pork barrel to sell as meat pies. Saint Nicholas, who heard of the horrific plans, raised the three boys back to life through his prayers.
The best-known story tells how a poor man had three daughters but could not afford proper dowries for them, meaning they would remain unmarried or become prostitutes. Saint Nicholas secretly went to their house under cover of darkness and threw three purses filled with gold, one for each daughter, through the window – or down the chimney.
I prefer the stories that link Saint Nicholas with the defence of true doctrine. In the year 325, the Emperor Constantine convened the Council of Nicaea, attended by more than 300 bishops, to debate the nature of the Holy Trinity.
It was one of the most intense theological debates in the early Church. Arius from Alexandria was teaching that Christ was the Son of God but was not equal to God the Father. As Arius argued his position at length, Nicholas became agitated, crossed the room, and slapped Arius across the face.
The shocked bishops stripped Nicholas of his episcopal robes, chained him and jailed him. In the morning, the bishops found his chains on the floor and Nicholas dressed in his episcopal robes, quietly reading the Scriptures. Constantine ordered his release, and Nicholas was reinstated as the Bishop of Myra.
As the debate went on, the Council of Nicaea came around to agreeing with his views. It decided against Arius and agreed on the Nicene Creed, which remains the symbol of our faith.
After the American Revolution, New Yorkers remembered the colony’s nearly-forgotten Dutch roots. John Pintard, who formed the New York Historical Society in 1804, promoted Saint Nicholas as the patron of his society and his city. Washington Irving joined the society in 1809 and published the satirical fiction, Knickerbocker’s History of New York, with numerous references to a jolly Saint Nicholas character – not a saintly bishop, but an elfin Dutch burgher with a clay pipe.
And so, began the legends about Saint Nicholas and New Amsterdam: that the first Dutch emigrant ship had a figurehead of Saint Nicholas; that Saint Nicholas Day was observed in the colony; that the first church was dedicated to him; and that Saint Nicholas comes down chimneys to bring gifts.
The New York Historical Society held its first Saint Nicholas anniversary dinner on 6 December 1810, and in an image by Alexander Anderson for the occasion, Saint Nicholas was shown in a gift-giving role with children’s treats in stockings hanging at a fireplace.
Other artists and writers continued the transformation of Saint Nicholas from a saintly bishop to an elf-like jolly, rotund gift-giver. In 1863, the cartoonist Thomas Nast began a series of drawings in Harper’s Weekly, based on the descriptions in Washington Irving’s fiction and Clement Clarke Moore’s poem, ‘A Visit from Saint Nicholas’ or ‘The Night Before Christmas.’ These drawings established a rotund Santa with flowing beard, fur garments, and a clay pipe, and the saint’s name shifted to Santa Claus – a phonetic alteration from the German Sankt Niklaus and the Dutch Sinterklaas.
By the end of the 1920s, a standard American Santa – life-sized, dressed in a red, fur-trimmed suit – was being portrayed by popular illustrators. In 1931, Coca Cola began 35 years of Santa advertisements that popularised and established this Santa as an icon of contemporary commercial culture.
Santa’s commercial success led to the North American Santa Claus being exported around the world, displacing the European Saint Nicholas who and his identity as a bishop and saint.
Mark 10: 13-16 (NRSVA):
13 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14 But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15 Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ 16 And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
Liturgical colour: Violet/Purple (Advent, Year B), White (Lesser Festival).
Collect:
Almighty Father, lover of souls,
who chose your servant Nicholas
to be a bishop in the Church,
that he might give freely out of the treasures of your grace:
make us mindful of the needs of others
and, as we have received, so teach us also to give;
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.
Post Communion Prayer:
God, shepherd of your people,
whose servant Nicholas revealed the loving service of Christ
in his ministry as a pastor of your people:
by this Eucharist in which we share
awaken within us the love of Christ
and keep us faithful to our Christian calling;
through him who laid down his life for us,
but is alive and reigns with you,
now and for ever.
Suggested Hymns:
630, Blessed are the pure in heart
318, Father, Lord of all creation
649, Happy are they, they that love God
651, Jesus, friend of little children
585, Jesus, good above all other
652, lead us, heavenly Father, lead us
618, Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all joy
543, Lord of the home, your only Son
634, Love divine, all loves excelling
524, May the grace of Christ our Saviour
361, Now thank we all our God
544, O perfect Love, all human thought transcending
PART 3: The Advent Wreath on the Second Sunday of Advent (Second Purple Candle):
The prayers at the Advent Wreath on the Sundays in Advent can help us to continue our themes from the Sunday before Advent [22 November 2020], which we marked in these dioceses as Mission Sunday.
The first candle to light on the Advent Wreath on the First Sunday of Advent was the Purple Candle, recalling the Patriarchs and Matriarchs. The purple second candle, which we light next Sunday, represents the Prophets.
The Anglican mission USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) suggests this prayer when lighting the second (purple) candle on the Advent Wreath:
The Prophets:
O God of history,
who has spoken through the prophets;
we pray for mothers in Ghana
who have learned to protect their children from cholera.
Bless those who bring life-saving knowledge
and bless families whose children are now healthy and full of life.
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
The hymn suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000).
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