Christminster

Queen’s Christmas Message

christminster — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:54:23 +0000

So impressed was I by the clear and forthright Christian message in Her Majesty’s recent Christmas speech, that I sent notices and a video link to many of our friends to watch. Indeed we were moved to write to Her Majesty a letter from Christminster thanking her for her forthrightness in witnessing to Christ, and for her nearly sixty years of dedication to her role as sovereign.
The closing words of her address are worth hearing again:

“The importance of family has, of course, come home to Prince Philip and me personally this year with the marriages of two of our grandchildren, each in their own way a celebration of the God-given love that binds a family together.
For many, this Christmas will not be easy. With our armed forces deployed around the world, thousands of service families face Christmas without their loved ones at home.

The bereaved and the lonely will find it especially hard. And, as we all know, the world is going through difficult times. All this will affect our celebration of this great Christian festival.

Finding hope in adversity is one of the themes of Christmas. Jesus was born into a world full of fear. The angels came to frightened shepherds with hope in their voices: ‘Fear not’, they urged, ‘we bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

‘For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord.’
Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves – from our recklessness or our greed.
God sent into the world a unique person – neither a philosopher nor a general, important though they are, but a Saviour, with the power to forgive.

Forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian faith. It can heal broken families, it can restore friendships and it can reconcile divided communities. It is in forgiveness that we feel the power of God’s love.

In the last verse of this beautiful carol, O Little Town Of Bethlehem, there’s a prayer:

O Holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us we pray.
Cast out our sin
And enter in.
Be born in us today.

It is my prayer that on this Christmas day we might all find room in our lives for the message of the angels and for the love of God through Christ our Lord.

I wish you all a very happy Christmas”

God bless the Queen and grant her many years!

Dom James
Abbot
Christminster

First Mass of Christmas

christminster — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:14:45 +0000

For the first Mass of Christmas, the monastics of Christminster were joined on Christmas Eve by several dozen friends of the monastery. One of the gifts of being here in Canada now nearly four years is the friendships that have grown between the monks and visitors. Their presence with us for this feast is always a joy and a treat.

Christmas altar flowers

We were blessed again this year by the presence of the Chant Schola of the Gregorian Institute of Canada, under the direction of Dr. William Renwick. This choir rehearses at the monastery on Tuesday nights throughout the year and provides music for various concerts and liturgical events in the greater Hamilton area. This year Bill Renwick – a music professor at McMaster University – provided chant propers from his scholarly edition of Sarum chant in English. This was, so far as we know, the first use of his Midnight Mass Propers in a liturgical setting. The Ordinary of the Mass was the Missa de Angelis (in English). The Schola and congregation sang traditional carols; and the Schola, with Dr. Renwick on the organ, sang the motet Tollite Hostias from the Oratorio de Noel of Camille Saint-Saens.

Following the Mass a festive buffet was served in the refectory, provided by Lillias Sherwood, widow of our recently deceased deacon and benefactor, Fr. Robert (Polycarp) Sherwood, and in his memory. Our good friends Tammy Wheeler and her sister Lea prepared the food and served it amid suitable decorations.

Crèche

We ask your prayers for all who helped make our Christmas celebration a memorable one; and we ask for God’s choicest blessings on all our relatives, friends, oblates, and benefactors in this holy season and throughout the coming year.

Invitation to Celebrate Old Calendar Christmas at Christminster

christminster — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:04:51 +0000

The Abbot and Monastics of Christminster

Cordially invite you to attend

Christmas Eve High Mass

On Friday, 6 January 2012,

At 7:00PM,

Celebrated in the monastery

Church of Our Lady of Glastonbury,

390 Cannon Street East,

Hamilton, Ontario.

Music by the Gregorian Schola of Hamilton,

Under the direction of Dr. William Renwick,

Whose scholarly edition of Sarum Plainsong

Christmas Mass Propers in English

Will be used liturgically for the first time,

Along with traditional carols.

Mass will be followed by a festive buffet

in the monastic refectory.

Canonical Western-Rites Conference

christminster — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 02:39:29 +0000

In early October, Abbot James, accompanied by Fr. Daniel, attended the Canonical Western-Rites Conference sponsored by ROCOR

Fr. Deacon David Kinghorn chanting Gospel during Liturgy of St. Tikhon

and held in Wappingers Falls, New York, from 4 to 7 October. About fifty attended, from both ROCOR and the Antiochian western rites, along with several priests’ wives and children, as well as others interested in joining the canonical western rite.

After an opening address by Metropolitan Hilarion of ROCOR, the conference settled into its round of meetings and worship services. On the first full day of the conference Bishop Jerome, Vicar for ROCOR’s western rite, celebrated a Pontifical Mass. The music – William Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices – was sung by a small but professional choir. On subsequent days, the Liturgy of St. Tikhon and the Gallican Liturgy were celebrated. Bishop Jerome was present for the full time of the conference.

Meetings were either presentations or discussions of mutually agreed-upon topics, and were conducted in a brisk but truly fraternal spirit.

One of the sessions dealt with the issue of monastic oblates. The general consensus was that the present arrangement left much room for greater accountability and responsibility for oblates scattered throughout (mostly) North America. It was decided that in each western-rite mission or parish that opts for oblates, either the priest-in-charge or a resident oblate will be responsible for regular meetings of the local oblates and for maintaining communication with Christminster so that all oblates are regularly accounted for. With the consent of the Very Rev. Father Edward Hughes, Vicar for the Antiochian Vicariate, information on this will be emailed to each western-rite mission or parish in ROCOR and in the Antiochian Vicariate.

The hospitality of the Franciscan friars at Mount Alvernia was warm and comprehensive, from personal greetings to excellent food service, and spacious rooms, each with private bath.

All in all, the conference was deemed a real success , and there is much interest in and enthusiasm for next summer’s conference. Much credit goes to Father Anthony Bondi, monk of Christminster, for organizing the conference and ensuring its smooth operation and good spirit. We are all grateful to him for all the hard work he, with the help of others, poured into making this conference a resounding success. After the conference, in his own chapel, he was formally clothed with the Benedictine habit by Abbot James.

From the conference Dom James rode to Rhode Island with Fr. Deacon David Kinghorn and Matiushka Patricia, where he spent several weeks resolving some financial and legal issues as well as looking in on the refurbishing of our former house in Providence, which is being prepared for rental. In Rhode Island he celebrated Mass each Sunday at the Saint Cuthbert Mission in Pawtucket, assisted by Fr. Deacon David Kinghorn, and with the Kinghorns visited the local OCA parish (Dormition , in Cumberland) for Saturday Vespers. Dom James returned to Christminster on the eve of Fr. Joseph’s sixty-fifth birthday.

Reading of Epistle during Gallican Liturgy

Requiem at Christminster

christminster — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:26:45 +0000

On 9 June 2011, the day of his burial in Colorado, a Sung Requiem was celebrated for Fr. Deacon Robert Sherwood at Christminster in Hamilton for those unable to be present for his interment. Friends and colleagues remembered him with prayer and song.
In his homily Abbot James pointed out how brief Bob’s course of being a deacon was — being ordained only some few weeks ago. But the point was really otherwise. “Most men are ordained deacons early in life and serve a long period in the Church. Bob actually spent his adult life selflessly in the service of the Church and of needy children, and only at the end was this career crowned — appropriately — with the diaconate, the office of service in the Church. And his burial at the St. Lawrence property in Colorado — how appropriate that is too. For St. Lawrence was the famous deacon of Rome who distributed the Church’s riches to the poor. And when persecutors came to question him where the real treasures of the Church were, he pointed to the poor and needy: “These are the Church’s treasures.” Bob Sherwood too serviced the needy and poor with a tireless energy that finally, in his lack of concern for his own health, failed to sustain him. How often we would tell him to rest, to take some time off, to follow the sabbath principle that God himself set forth — to rest on the seventh day. And now he does rest, but continues too his loving concern for those he cared for in this life and in this suffering world. Indeed, as I pray for his own blessedness, I pray to him too not to abandon us but, in the joy and freedom of that great sabbath rest, to pray for us and ask God’s continued mercies on us.
May he rest in peace.”

A tribute to Robert H. Sherwood

christminster — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:30:16 +0000

Celebration of Life

A tribute to

Robert H. Sherwood

Wednesday June 15th 2011

1:00pm

The Salvation Army Mountain Citadel

835 Stone Church Rd. E.

Hamilton, Ontario, L8W 1R8

In lieu of flowers, Bob’s wishes are that donations be made to local Children’s Aid Societies

Funeral arrangements for Fr. Robert Sherwood

christminster — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:20:53 +0000

To Friends of Robert Sherwood:

The official funeral and internment of our beloved friend, brother and benefactor Robert Sherwood will take place on Thursday, 9 June 2011, at St. Mark’s Orthodox Church in Denver, Colorado.

On Saturday, at a time and place in Hamilton to be announced, there will be a non-religious memorial testimonial for him.

On Thursday at 10:00am, at Christminster, in the monastic church of Our Lady of Glastonbury, a Sung Mass of Requiem will be celebrated by Abbot James and the monastic community for the repose of his soul. We invite all his friends and colleagues to join us as we remember and pray for our departed brother and friend.

For further information on the Saturday memorial, please contact us later in the week.

In our Saviour,
Fr. James
Abbot of Christminster

REPOSE OF FR. DEACON ROBERT SHERWOOD

christminster — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 01:08:17 +0000

It was with great shock and sorrow that we learned of the sudden repose of our benefactor, deacon, and friend — Robert (Polycarp) Sherwood. He suffered a massive heart attack at his home in Barrie earlier this afternoon (Saturday, 4 June). No further details are available at this time. But we ask you to remember him kindly in your prayers and devotions, as well as his beloved wife Lillias and his family.
Further information will be made available as it becomes known to us.
May his soul rest in peace. May the angels lead him into paradise, at his coming may the martyrs receive him, and with Lazarus, who once was poor, may he rest in peace.

Dom James M. Deschene
Abbot of Christminster

JOYOUS WEEKEND AT CHRISTMINSTER

christminster — Mon, 30 May 2011 18:27:24 +0000

The weekend of 28-29 May 2001 was marked by great joy at the monastery as we received on his first visit to Canada and to Christminster our Bishop Jerome. He had come to ordain our monk Dom Joseph (DelGiorno) to the diaconate. In an impressive and well-attended Mass on Saturday, celebrated according to the western rite, Bishop Jerome first tonsured Father Joseph as a cleric, then ordained him, successively, as a Reader, Subdeacon, and finally Deacon. The newly ordained Father Joseph chanted the Gospel at the Mass.

Fr. Joseph chanting Gospel

Abbot James assisted the Bishop in the role of Archdeacon, presenting the candidate and assisting at the altar. Recently ordained in New York, Father Deacon Robert Sherwood also assisted at the service.

A professional videotape of the service was made, and after being edited will be available in a ten-minute and a thirty-minute version on YouTube. Father Daniel assisted in taking numerous still photos of the services.

Several local Orthodox and Anglican clergy attended as well as many friends of the monastery. A sumptuous and festive meal was served in the monastic refectory to honour our two new deacons, the feast having been prepared by Lillias Sherwood and her able team of assistants, and served with the help of, and under the watchful eye of, our Mother Sophia. The weather cooperated, and many were able to bring their food out to the patio-garden and enjoy the plants and flowers recently arranged there by Fr. Constantine.

Bishop Jerome remained for the celebration of our Sunday Mass and preached on the liberty of the Christian. At Lauds on Sunday, he formally blessed Dom James as Abbot, and bestowed on him the miter and crosier of the abbot’s office. While Dom James had been abbot for years, the formal ceremony of the blessing of an abbot had never been performed until now.

All were genuinely delighted at Bishop Jerome’s company and his kindliness. We look forward to his visiting us again.

Deacon censing Fr. James

Bishop giving blessing

BISHOP’S VISIT & ORDINATION

christminster — Tue, 24 May 2011 15:03:21 +0000

Friends of Christminster are invited to attend the ordination of Fr. Joseph DelGiorno to the diaconate on Saturday, 28 May 2011, at 10:00am in the monastery chapel. His Grace, Jerome, Bishop of Manhattan, will be presiding and meeting our friends and visitors. A festive meal is to follow in the monastic refectory, honouring the Bishop’s visit, as well as the ordination of Fr. Joseph and (at an earlier date in New York) Father Robert Sherwood to the Diaconate. Bishop Jerome will also celebrate the Sunday Mass on the 29th. Please join us for this festive event.