Five Ladies and an Archbishop

Today the church commemorates Thomas Cranmer – Archbishop of Canterbury and Martyr. This man is known as the author of Common Prayer. Cranmer was the person responsible for the most defining feature of Anglicanism – Common Prayer. It was important to him that all Anglicans would be a people of prayer and a people of the book. He found himself burned at the stake for not returning to Rome during the reign of Mary I. Cranmer was the man who inevitably annulled Henry VII’s marriage and acknowledged his marriage to Anne Boleyn. So today we offer our prayers in thanksgiving for this early father of Anglicanism and we commemorate his life.

Today was Church and Arby’s and the Church and the Outreach presentation. Alison Prieur was our speaker from the Homeless Coalition. She gave a very detailed presentation on the number of issues that face the homeless in our community. We certainly can as a church community do so much to reach out and help the homeless in Essex Windsor. Ironically, when I got home I watch a Mark Kelly Special on the National about Homelessness on Montreal – it was excellent! I only wish it had aired before…we could have used parts of it tonight. It is such a complex issue and it really requires societal change.

I did have the opportunity to pick up 5 women on a street corner. Now it is not what it sounds like. Five ladies on their way to the church tonight had a breakdown and needed to be retrieved. I was able to oblige and to help get these vehicular refugees home at evenings end. Thanks as well to Ed and Bob for also providing rides for the mobility deficient dames. I was kind of excited to say that I could rescue a van load of woman! In the meantime hope that Maureen’s car will recover  soon.

I finish tonight with the collect from the original Book of Common Prayer for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, which is coming up this week.  These words are penned by Cranmer. They are a little more extreme than our Collects today;

WE beseche thee, almyghtie God, mercifullye to looke upon thy people; that by thy greate goodnesse they may be governed and preserved evermore, both in body and soule; through Jesus Christe our Lorde.