Ember Day
Psalm 31
In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness. Incline your ear to me; make haste to deliver me. Be my strong rock, a fortress to save me, for you are my rock and my stronghold; guide me, and lead me for your name’s sake. Take me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me, for you are my strength. Into your hands I commend my spirit, for you have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.
I hate those who cling to worthless idols; I put my trust in the Lord. I will be glad and rejoice in your mercy, for you have seen my affliction and known my soul in adversity. You have not shut me up in the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in an open place. Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am in trouble; my eye is consumed with sorrow, my soul and my body also. For my life is wasted with grief, and my years with sighing; my strength fails me because of my affliction, and my bones are consumed. I have become a reproach to all my enemies and even to my neighbours, n object of dread to my acquaintances; when they see me in the street they flee from me. I am forgotten like one that is dead, out of mind; I have become like a broken vessel. For I have heard the whispering of the crowd; fear is on every side; they scheme together against me, and plot to take my life.
But my trust is in you, O Lord. I have said, ‘You are my God. My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me. Make your face to shine upon your servant, and save me for your mercy’s sake.’ Lord, let me not be confounded for I have called upon you; but let the wicked be put to shame; let them be silent in the grave. Let the lying lips be put to silence that speak against the righteous with arrogance, disdain and contempt.
How abundant is your goodness, O Lord, which you have laid up for those who fear you; which you have prepared in the sight of all for those who put their trust in you. You hide them in the shelter of your presence from those who slander them; you keep them safe in your refuge from the strife of tongues. Blessed be the Lord! For he has shown me his steadfast love when I was as a city besieged. I had said in my alarm, ‘I have been cut off from the sight of your eyes.’ Nevertheless, you heard the voice of my prayer when I cried out to you.
Love the Lord, all you his servants; for the Lord protects the faithful, but repays to the full the proud. Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait in hope for the Lord.
2 Chronicles 35.20-36.10
After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, King Neco of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out against him. But Neco sent envoys to him, saying, ‘What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I am not coming against you today, but against the house with which I am at war; and God has commanded me to hurry. Cease opposing God, who is with me, so that he will not destroy you.’ But Josiah would not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, but joined battle in the plain of Megiddo. The archers shot King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, ‘Take me away, for I am badly wounded.’ So his servants took him out of the chariot and carried him in his second chariot and brought him to Jerusalem. There he died, and was buried in the tombs of his ancestors. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. Jeremiah also uttered a lament for Josiah, and all the singing-men and singing-women have spoken of Josiah in their laments to this day. They made these a custom in Israel; they are recorded in the Laments. Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and his faithful deeds in accordance with what is written in the law of the Lord, and his acts, first and last, are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.
The people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king to succeed his father in Jerusalem. Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; he reigned for three months in Jerusalem. Then the king of Egypt deposed him in Jerusalem and laid on the land a tribute of one hundred talents of silver and one talent of gold. The king of Egypt made his brother Eliakim king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim; but Neco took his brother Jehoahaz and carried him to Egypt.
Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. Against him King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came up, and bound him with fetters to take him to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also carried some of the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon and put them in his palace in Babylon. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and the abominations that he did, and what was found against him, are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah; and his son Jehoiachin succeeded him.
Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign; he reigned for three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. In the spring of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, along with the precious vessels of the house of the Lord, and made his brother Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.
Romans 8.18-30
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
The Collect
God of peace, who through the ministry of your servant Irenæus strengthened the true faith And brought harmony to your Church: keep us steadfast in your true religion, and renew us in faith and love, that we may always walk in the way that leads to eternal life; 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. Amen.
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It was another bad week for the Church of England (do they ever have good weeks?) This time the bad news revolved around four separate incidents that seemingly show just how morally corrupt the CofE is.
The first piece of bad news is the Bishop Peter Ball saga. Ball was a priest who sodomized his way through 16 boys and young men over a period of 15 years, was a protege of Britain's royal family and died this week in Taunton, in southwest England. He was 87. Mr. Ball had a sprawling network of well-positioned friends, among them Lord Carey and Prince Charles, who provided him housing on one of his estates.
Those powerful friends helped reinstate Ball to the ministry in 1993 after he had admitted to an act of gross indecency, as described under the law, with a 19-year-old man and accepted a police caution, which allowed him at first to avoid a criminal trial. Two decades later, in 2015, the case was reopened. His trial was an acute embarrassment to the church, unearthing a history of complaints about Mr. Ball that had gone ignored by church officials. He served 18 months of a 32-month sentence.
Then came news that Bishop Andy Lines was a victim of spiritual abuse and had undergone months of counselling and support.
"Those with spiritual authority are like all in authority. All authority is open to abuse or manipulation," he said.
"I have been coming to terms with elements of spiritual manipulation in my own life. It has been a very hard and painful process requiring months of professional counselling for me to come to terms with what I have experienced. I now realize the nature of what was happening. I have come to realize that this can happen to strong as well as vulnerable people. I have become aware that the particular
BOTTOM SMACKING. It seems to be the fetish of choice with the Church of England. First, we had a certain John Smyth, a British barrister, who was alleged to have carried out "sadomasochistic physical abuse" on young men in the 1970s and 1980s at Iwerne Trust camps, an evangelical camp where more than 80 survivors stepped forward with complaints that they were beaten by Smyth. The said gentlemen then fled to South Africa, where his activities sadly continued and 90 other young men were abused. Smyth died before being brought back to England. Survivors of abuse and campaigners expressed dismay at the news that Smyth died before he could be brought to justice.
Now another similar report in England has just been released, where the Rev. Jonathan Fletcher of Emmanuel Church, Wimbledon has been banned from preaching after "spiritually abusing" vulnerable adults, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Fletcher, 76, was stripped of his Church powers by the Bishop of Southwark in 2017, following complaints made to the London church where he used to be minister. In late September 2018, concrete allegations were made about conduct involving Jonathan and other men. In late 2018, a small number of allegations were made of the practice of physical discipline in the context of discipling relationships. One example of this involved men hitting each other on their naked backsides with a trainer for failing to meet personal targets. This took place over a period of time.
The Emmanuel Church has set up a website which offers support to those who have suffered from his "unacceptable behaviours", and since April there has been a hurried effort to ensure that those churches which have invited him to preach (without Permission to Officiate or presumably DBS certificate) withdraw such invitations as soon as possible.
Interestingly, Jonathan Fletcher's brother was Chairman of the Iwerne Trust which first invited, hosted and then excluded Smyth before he was "encouraged" to emigrate to South Africa following revelations of his hanky panky.
This is a bad time for the Church of England. A report from the Archbishop Cranmer blog says full extent of the damage has not yet come to full public prominence. There is more to come.
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