Staying Safe and Staying Connected
Good Morning Saint Stephen’s Church,
We continue our life of daily prayer. The Lord be with you!
Today’s Prayer
Sun of my soul, Thou Savior dear,
It is not night if Thou be near;
Oh, may no earthborn cloud arise
To hide Thee from Thy servant’s eyes.
When the soft dews of kindly sleep
My wearied eyelids gently steep,
Be my last thought, how sweet to rest
Forever on my Savior’s breast.
Abide with me from morn till eve,
For without Thee I cannot live;
Abide with me when night is nigh,
For without Thee I dare not die.
If some poor wand’ring child of Thine
Has spurned today the voice divine,
Now, Lord, the gracious work begin;
Let him no more lie down in sin.
Watch by the sick, enrich the poor
With blessings from Thy boundless store;
Be every mourner’s sleep tonight,
Like infants’ slumbers, pure and right.
Come near and bless us when we wake,
Ere through the world our way we take,
Till in the ocean of Thy love
We lose ourselves in Heav’n above.
John Keble, 1866
Ordained in 1816, John Keble was educated at Oxford and served as a tutor there from 1818 to 1823, when he left to assist in his father’s parish. In 1827 he published The Christian Year, a volume of poems for Sundays and festivals of the church year. Widely circulated, the book did more than any other to promulgate the ideas of the High Church movement in Anglicanism.
Keble was professor of poetry at Oxford from 1831 to 1841. By 1833, however, he had become known as a leader of the Oxford Movement, which was generally considered to have been initiated by his sermon “National Apostasy,” given that year on July 14 at the university chapel. Centered at Oxford, the movement sought at first to respond to government efforts to appropriate church funds and property but gradually expanded its activities to a more general theological and pastoral agenda. Keble wrote 9 of the Oxford Movement’s 90 Tracts for the Times, which were intended to rouse the Anglican clergy against the theory of a state-controlled church and which caused the movement’s advocates to be known as Tractarians. The Tractarians encouraged study of the early Church Fathers, edited their works, and arranged for their translation. When John Henry Newman’s conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1845 threatened the continuation of the Oxford Movement, Keble and E.B. Pusey managed by their persistence to keep the movement alive.
Keble, who served as a country vicar at Hursley from 1836 until his death, is remembered as much for his lyrics as for his Tractarian role. Among his books of verse are included The Psalter or Psalms of David (1839) and the poems for childhood, Lyra Innocentium (1846); he also wrote numerous hymn lyrics. In 1869 Keble College, Oxford, was founded in his honor.
From Our Prayers of the People
Today, let us pray:
For the just and proper use of your creation: for the victims of hunger, fear, injustice, and oppression.
For those affected by the wild fires in the west and Hurricane Delta in the south: for those who are grieving the loss of homes, possessions and loved ones, that their safety and security may be restored.
For comfort and healing for all who are affected by the Coronavirus: for physicians, nurses, and all others who minister to the sick and the suffering, may God grant them wisdom and skill, sympathy and patience, and may God keep them healthy and safe.
For all essential workers: for police, firefighters, EMTs, postal workers, sanitation workers, grocery personnel, delivery and transport workers, and all who must report to work because what they do is essential for our well-being, health, and safety.
For all historical acts of injustice and oppression: especially those perpetuated against native, Black, Hispanic and various Asian Americans in this abundant land, that we may recognize racism in ourselves, in our church, in our society, and the times we have failed to take action.
For those on the Parish Prayer Chain: Sylvia, Irene, Jeanne, Chris, Theresa, Emily, Bridget, Josh, Amy, Sid, Edwina and her husband, Donald, Mark, Cheryl and Marissa.
For those who are homebound: Stephen, Pauline, Joan, Janet and Marilyn.
Our Government Leaders: Donald Trump, President of the United States; Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York State; Gary McCarthy, Mayor of Schenectady
Our Church Leaders: Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop, William Love, and Daniel Herzog our bishops; James and Dennie our priests; Pat our deacon and Allison our Lay Reader
Those who are imprisoned: those particularly vulnerable at this time, especially the women in the Schenectady County Jail.
Members who request our prayers for strength and healing: Budd, Sid, Jean, Cindi, Mary Frances, Debbie, Joe.
For Diana – today is her birthday!
For all the blessings of this life.
For our dioceses in the Anglican Communion: Pretoria (Southern Africa), Concepcion (Chile).
For all who have died: especially Angeline, Theresa, Everett, Walter, Naomi.
For one another.
Something to share
Blest are the pure in heart
Blest are the pure in heart,
for they shall see our God;
the secret of the Lord is theirs,
their soul is Christ’s abode.
The Lord who left the heavens
our life and peace to bring,
to dwell in lowliness with men,
their pattern and their king.
Still to the lowly soul
he doth himself impart
and for his dwelling and his throne
chooseth the pure in heart.
Lord, we thy presence seek;
may ours this blessing be:
give us a pure and lowly heart,
a temple meet for thee.
Hymnal 1982, #656; Sts 1 and 3, John Keble; sts 2 and 4, William John Hall
Reminders
If you have an update/news, a prayer or poem or something inspirational you would like us to share with the congregation, please send it to us. Please also send us any prayer requests. We will incorporate these into the Morning Prayers as best we can.
If you need a prayerbook, and are not in a position to purchase one, please contact me: james.ross.mcd@gmail.com. I will make sure you have your own Book of Common Prayer.
Prayerbook Morning Prayer in Zoom – each morning. Join Dennie and me for an inter-active service of Morning Prayer at 9 am. Time to bring your prayer concerns will be provided. (contact me for the link: james.ross.mcd@gmail.com)
Our church campus is closed, except for our Eucharistic Ingathering on Sundays at 9:00 am. Please see our website for further information: https://st-stephens.church/. All other parish meetings and gatherings are canceled and postponed until further notice.
Our goal is for all of us to stay in touch and connected in this time of isolation.
Share this news, and spread some love, not the virus!
Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be at your back,
May the sun shine upon your face,
he rains fall soft upon soft upon your fields,
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.
Be of good courage. We are in this together, and we will be together again soon. God bless you and may God be with us in the days ahead.