Welcome to the website of the Anglican Parish of Prince William, Dumfries, Queensbury, and Southampton. Thank you for taking the time to visit with us and discovering a little bit about our parish. The Parish of Prince William follows the Safe Church polices as outlined by the Dioceses. Father David Mercer, Priest in Charge 454-9998 dmercer98@bellaliant.net
To find out more about us, please click on the About us link. News & EventsService of Holy Eucharist Sundays St Clements Church, Prince William 11 AM Yellow Level of Covid 19 recovery Masks are mandatory Household bubbles and 6 feet distancing All Are welcome! THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER Easter is the transforming event in the Christian Year. This is even more dramatic because it follows Lent. The rigor that Lent offers us gives us an opportunity to see more clearly what is important in our daily lives. We are called upon to strip away the things that close us off from God, the Christian Church and each other. With Easter all of that seems to fade, there seems to be an over access of celebration when Easter Day arrives, and that explosion of joy vibrates through the Easter Season and as we will discover into the rest of the Christian Year. The cry of “Christ is risen!” crowds out all else and the Propers for the Easter Season remind us that Christ’s Victory changes everything. The Church is determined to call her people to remember this great truth and to remind her people and the world that this great event is at the centre of the Christian message. The Faithful who have forgotten that every Sunday is a little Easter need to remember their promises in Confirmation. The is no place for “armchair” Christianity, we are called to be active, to live out in our lives the life of Christ. Saint James makes it clear in his Epistle that God cannot be tempted and that he temps no one. Yet in the Lord’s Prayer we ask that God will “lead us not into temptation”. When our Lord gave us this prayer what does he mean? The sense of the phrase is not lead us but, fail us not in the test. In other words, God is always with us and we ask that he will give us strength in the test that temptation places before us. Cardinal John Henry Newman in a mediation that he wrote tells us that we are placed in this life to do some work that no one else can do. It is our task to find out what this work of is and then do it. If we do not seek the task in this life, we will most certainly be told what it is in the next. It is certain that it has in some way to do with the love of God. It is for this reason that Saint James urges us to set aside all the evil things that attempt to lead us away from God and his love and turn to the work of God which will save us. The Gospel of this day calls us back to the events in the Upper Room where our Lord tells the Disciples that he will be betrayed, and they will be scattered. They are not to fear because he must leave them. If he does not leave them the Comforter will not come. He must come and when he does come, he will lead them into all truth. The Comforter, the Holy Spirit is he who give us strength. All that has happened up unto this point in our Lord’s life has been an expression of the will of God and all that follows is his will as well. In our daily lives we walk in the light of Christ’s love that is his will as well. The disciples came to know that these events transformed their lives as they have transformed us. We need to remember that every day is an opportunity to do the will of God, but this will not happen in our lives until we bend our will to the will of God. This act of bending is in fact an act of surrender, a surrender of our will to God the Father’s will. The events in the Garden on the night the Gospel speaks of, demonstrates to us how difficult this act is. Our Lord comes to the garden and askes the Father if there is not another way in which he can accomplish the victory over sin and death. The Father does not answer his Son, there is nothing but silence, the Son is alone, he must himself make the choice. Saint Luke tells us that after the third temptation in the wilderness, Satin leaves Christ, but Luke adds that Satin waits for an opportune time. An opportune time for what? To continue the temptation and when does this take place? In the Garden when the Father has remained silent. Here our Lord is alone until he realized that his will and the Father’s will are the same. The temptation to leave and not face the Cross is rejected, and Christ goes to the Cross in faith and trusting in the Father’s will. Our struggle with temptation is not unlike our Lord’s in that we must come face to face with the consequences of our failure if we do not trust in God. We cannot blame anyone for our failures, not even God. Remember Saint Paul tells us that in any temptation God will always provide us with a way out, in every case the way out has to do with his love. The message of Easter is that God forgives because of the sacrifice of his Son. The joy of Jesus’ victory is expressed in the forgiveness of God the Father. Of all the things that Easter tells us the most important is that, because of the Father’s love for the Son, we are forgiven. We are of consequence after all, it is because of our value in the eyes of God that our Lord goes the Cross in an act of love. The Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He does this not because he is a hireling, but because the sheep are his own and he values each of them. With Easter Day the circle is complete. The Fall in the Garden in the beginning and the damage that it has done is undone by the death and resurrection of God’s Son on Easter Day in the morning. Father David Mercer, Priest in Charge 454 9998 dmercer98@bellaliant.net Anglican Parish of Prince William |
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