http://www.stjohnsabileneks.org/

St. John's Episcopal Church, 519 N Buckeye Avenue, Abilene, KS (2026)

09/06/2026

Remembering HANNAH MORE
RELIGIOUS WRITER AND PHILANTHROPIST, 1833, commemorated on September 6, from the calendar, commentary from Satucket. com:
"Hannah More (2 February 1745 – 7 September 1833) was an English religious writer and philanthropist, remembered as a poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, as a writer on moral and religious subjects, and as a practical philanthropist. Born in Bristol, she taught at a school established there by her father and began writing plays. Her plays and poetry became more evangelical and she joined a group campaigning against the slave trade. In the 1790s she wrote several Cheap Repository Tracts on moral, religious and political topics, for distribution to the literate poor.

Born in 1745 near Bristol, Hannah More was the fourth of five daughters of Jacob More (1700-1783), a schoolmaster. In 1758 Jacob established his own girls' boarding school in Bristol for the elder sisters, Mary and Elizabeth to run. Hannah More became a pupil when she was twelve years old, and taught at the school in her early adulthood.

Hannah More's first literary efforts were pastoral plays, written while she was teaching at the school and suitable for young ladies to act, the first being written in 1762 under the title of The Search after Happiness. By the mid-1780s over 10,000 copies of this had been sold. In 1767 More gave up her share in the school which freed her for literary pursuits, and in the winter of 1773–74 she went to London in the company of her sisters, Sarah and Martha – the first of many such trips she made at yearly intervals. In London, More attempted to associate herself with the literary elite, including Samuel Johnson, Joshua Reynolds and Edmund Burke.

In the 1780s Hannah More became a friend of James Oglethorpe, who had long been concerned with slavery as a moral issue. More published Sacred Dramas in 1782 and it rapidly ran through nineteen editions. These and the poems Bas-Bleu and Florio (1786) mark her gradual transition to more serious views of life. By this point she was intimate with William Wilberforce and Zachary Macaulay, with whose evangelical views she was in sympathy. She published a poem on Slavery in 1788, and was drawn into the group of prominent campaigners against the slave trade such as Wilberforce.

In the late 1780s, Hannah and Martha More did philanthropic work in the Mendip area, following encouragement by Wilberforce, who saw the poor conditions of the local people when he visited Cheddar in 1789. She was instrumental in setting up twelve schools by 1800, where reading, the Bible and the catechism were taught to local children. More also donated money to Bishop Philander Chase for the founding of Kenyon College, and a portrait of her hangs there in Peirce Hall.

The More sisters met with a good deal of opposition in their works: the farmers thought that education, even to the limited extent of learning to read, would be fatal to agriculture, and the clergy, whose neglect she was making good, accused her of Methodist tendencies. In her old age, philanthropists from all parts made pilgrimages to see the bright and amiable old lady, and she retained all her faculties until within two years of her death."

PRAYER
Almighty God, whose only-begotten Son led captivity captive: Multiply among us faithful witnesses like your servant Hannah More, who will fight for all who are oppressed or held in bo***ge; and bring us all, we pray, into the glorious liberty that you have promised to all your children; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

09/06/2026

SUNDAY, September 6
The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Romans 13:10. "Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law."

According to Rev. Dr. Google, the word "love" is mentioned frequently in the Bible, approximately 310 times in the King James Version and 690 times in the English Standard Version. With that many mentions, you'd think we would have this word and at least some of its meanings down pat. Well, think again.

Love is a challenging concept. It's easy when looking at a newborn grandson, perhaps harder when the boss doesn't think you deserve a raise. Easier again when you swing your partner around the dance floor, much harder when an unhoused person approaches you. Yet Paul uses the word love 150-200 times. In Romans 13:10, he gives us a wonderful prescription: "Love does no wrong to a neighbor." Imagine what it would look and feel like to begin each day wrapped in a robe of love. Think of love that's easy: a beloved spouse, a longtime friend, a flower beginning to bud. Then imagine your love not doing wrong to the broadest definition of neighbor.

MOVING FORWARD: How does loving another challenge you?

https://prayer.forwardmovement.org/fdd/2026-09-06

09/06/2026

Holy Eucharist for the Feast of Creation in Christ...

09/05/2026

Remembering GREGORIO AGLIPAY
PRIEST AND FOUNDER OF THE PHILIPINE INDEPENDENT CHURCH, 5 Sept. 1940, From the calendar. Commentary from Wikipedia:
"Gregorio Aglipay Cruz y Labayan (Latin: Gregorius Aglipay; 5 May 1860 – 1 September 1940) was a former Catholic priest who became the first head of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, an independent Catholic Church in the form of a national church in the Philippines.

Known for inciting patriotic rebellion among the Filipino clergy, he was also a political activist who became acquainted with Isabelo de los Reyes, who would start an Independent Christian Filipino Church named after Aglipay in 1902.

Aglipay was previously excommunicated by Archbishop Bernardino Norzaleda y Villa of Manila in May 1899, upon the expressed permission of Pope Leo XIII. Aglipay later joined Freemasonry in May 1918. Aglipay later married Pilar Jamias y Ver from Sarrat, Ilocos Norte in 1939 and then died one year later. Followers of Aglipay through the church colloquially sometimes refer to their membership as Aglipayans.

Born in Batac, Ilocos Norte, Aglipay was an orphan who grew up in the to***co fields in the last volatile decades of the Spanish occupation of the Philippines. He bore deep grievances against the colonial Spanish government of the islands, stemming from abuses within the agricultural system and the radical ecclesiastical reforms he championed. Arrested at fourteen when a to***co-picking worker for not meeting his to***co quota, he later moved to the capital of Manila to study law under the private tutelage of Julian Carpio.

After two years of study under Carpio, Aglipay continued his studies at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran and at the University of Santo Tomas. After obtaining his degree, he then entered the seminary in Ilocos Sur in 1883 and was ordained to the priesthood seven years later. He began a career as an assistant priest in various parishes around the main northern island of Luzon. Despite being a priest, Aglipay, like other revolutionaries, joined Freemasonry.

In 1898, the Katipunan was led by the Supremo, Andrés Bonifacio. Archbishop Bernardino Nozaleda asked Aglipay to confront the revolutionary leaders, offering them a level of autonomy in the future for the Philippines if they would end the rebellion. Aguinaldo, in turn, sent Colonel Luciano San Miguel to Aglipay with the intention of getting him to join the rebellion. In the course of Aglipay's journey north, the Philippine–American War started.

When Aglipay returned to Manila and discovered that the Americans had attacked, he joined the revolution. On 20 October 1898, he was appointed Military Vicar General of the revolutionaries. The next day, Aglipay sent a letter to various members of the clergy asking them to ask Rome to appoint Filipinos in all local church positions. On 5 May 1899, Archbishop Bernardino V. Nozaleda excommunicated Aglipay.

Following the end of the war in 1902, Isabelo de los Reyes was working towards the formation of a national church, that is independent of Rome. On 3 August he suggested that Aglipay be its first bishop. Aglipay, a devout Catholic at the time, was reluctant, and initially did not accept. He was approached by Jesuit priests, Francisco Foradada and Joaquin Villalonga. They attempted to get him to sign a document swearing his continued allegiance to the Catholic Church.

Aglipay said he would sign it if the Church would continue to work towards appointing more Filipino priests. Foradada asked him why he wanted more Filipino priests so badly, as he (a Spaniard) felt they were inefficient and vicious; this statement so offended Aglipay (some reports say that he punched Foranda afterwards). He severed his ties with the Catholic Church, and accepted de los Reyes' offer to establish an independent church. On 18 January 1903, Aglipay was appointed Supreme Bishop of the "Philippine Independent Church" by the bishops of the dioceses of Manila, Cavite, Nueva Ecija, Isabela province, Cagayan, Pangasinan, and Abra province.

During the theological discussions while visiting other churches while travelling abroad, Aglipay rejected the belief in the Trinity, becoming theologically accepting of the main Unitarian belief however, his own church refused to accept his amended theology. Aglipay's unitarian and progressive theological ideas were evident in his "novena", "Pagsisiyam sa Birhen sa Balintawak", 1925[3] and its English translation, "Novenary of the Motherland", 1926.
Bishop Gregorio Aglipay bust (Samal, Bataan, "Iglesia Filipina Independiente" (Philippine Independent Church).

Aglipay ran for elections as President of the Commonwealth along with the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas Norberto Nabong in a joined Republican-Communist Party ticket in 1935, but lost to Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmeña of the Nacionalista Party. He married D. Pilar Jamias y Ver in 1939 since his church permits married clergy, but Aglipay died the following year on 1 September 1940.

Aglipay is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church in the United States on 5 September."

PRAYER
Eternal God, you called Gregorio Aglipay to witness to your truth in the renewal of your Church in the Philippines: Help us, like him, to be guided by your Holy Spirit, that people everywhere may hear the saving words of our Savior, so that all may believe and find eternal life; through the same Jesus Christ who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

09/05/2026

Remembering KATHARINA ZELL
CHURCH REFORMER AND WRITER, 1562, from the calendar, commentary from Satucket. com:
Katharina Schütz Zell (1497/8 - September 5, 1562) was a Protestant reformer and writer during the Protestant Reformation. She was one of the first Protestant women to marry a clergyman. Katharina lived all of her life in Strasbourg, now part of France.

Katharina Schütz Zell was most likely born in early 1498 in Strasbourg. Her family was not overly wealthy, but most-likely lived comfortably. Katharina received an excellent vernacular education. It is clear that she learned to read and write German fluently, and eventually developed some basic knowledge of Latin. Katharina’s interests in learning were mainly religious, as well as professional training, particularly preparation for an independent profession.This was also not the end of her education. She took it upon herself to continue independent learning throughout the rest of her life.

When Katharina was still fairly young, the teachings and writings of Martin Luther gained fame and began to spread. Katharina was introduced to much of these new teachings and views of religion by Matthew Zell, the pastor who took charge of the St. Lawrence Cathedral in Strasbourg in 1518. Katharina eventually started to take these beliefs as her own through Zell’s sermons and Luther’s teachings. A few years after Matthew came to Strasbourg, he and Katharine were married by Martin Bucer on December 3, 1523. Katharina Schütz was convinced that she was called to marry Matthew Zell as an expression of her faith in God and her love for others. Katharina was one of the first people to get married to a pastor, even before the marriage of Martin Luther, something that was not necessarily thought too highly of at the time. Her marriage was what would be seen as a true equal partnership in a society that required that the good wife be silent and obedient, and in which women usually only achieved independence as widows. Katharina had two children with Matthew, although they both died at very young ages. Mathew died on January 9, 1548. Though Katharina mourned and grieved his death, this did not stop her work.Katharina herself became ill in 1561 and died on September 5, 1562.

Katharina is noted greatly for her writings and unique personal beliefs. She was very open-minded for a person of her time period and showed it through her actions and writings.

One of Katharina’s occupations was that of a pamphleteer. Pamphlets were essential for Protestantism during the Reformation. The pamphlets served to inform a wide audience quickly and with dogmatic effectiveness on current affairs. As a woman of this time period, Katharina did have challenges not faced by male pamphleteers would not have had. In facing criticism Katharina would remind her criticizers that she never forgot her responsibility as a wife and that she was her husband’s partner. “This is why my pious husband only called me his curate, although I never stood on the pulpit – something I did not have to do in my line of duties.”

Katharina’s experiences do not reflect those of the majority of women during the Reformation. Women of this time period were expected to conform to certain roles and rules which were institutionally and socially enforced on them. Katharina is an example of a woman who broke through these barriers to get her beliefs out to the public. Katharina also differs from some other women reformers in that she was not subject to much threatening opposition. One woman who faced some of this opposition was Argula von Grumbach, another influential pamphleteer.

PRAYER
Almighty God, we thank you for those women and men in our midst who, like Katharina Zell, work to build up your kingdom not only with words but with deeds—not only the work of the mind but also the work of the heart—not only with pens but with their presence. Fill us, like her, with the wisdom to speak out in defense of your truth. Fill us, like her, with love for you and for our neighbor, that we may serve you and welcome all your people with a mother's heart. Amen.

09/05/2026

SATURDAY, September 5 KATHARINA ZELL, Church Reformer and Writer, 1562
John 10:16a. "I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice."

Over the years, I've heard several sermons about this parable, with the emphasis on Jesus as the shepherd willing to lay down his life for his flock. Several verses after Jesus states that he is the Good Shepherd are these words from John, which invite me to think about the sheep that were of the flock, yet for whatever reason, do not belong.

Although I grew up in the church, I have many friends who did not. But I strongly believe they are part of Jesus's flock, too. With these friends, I may use non-religious references or share experiences they're more familiar with than biblical ones. But it's curious to me that one of these friends often uses the phrase "gospel truth" to make a point, and another offers an "amen" when he agrees with me.

Perhaps they are the sheep not obviously in the fold, but nevertheless in the flock. In these words from John, I hear Jesus calling me to help bring these friends to the fold, to witness to the love of Christ, so they can listen to his voice and come to know the Good Shepherd.

MOVING FORWARD: How will you share Christ with those "outside the fold?"

https://prayer.forwardmovement.org/fdd/2026-09-05

09/04/2026

Remembering PAUL JONES
BISHOP (4 SEP 1941) From the calendar, (Icon written by the Rev. Canon Robert TwoBulls ) Commentary from The Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music:
"Paul Jones was born in 1880 in the rectory of St. Stephen’s Church, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Yale University and the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he accepted a call to serve a mission in Logan, Utah. In 1914 Paul Jones was appointed Archdeacon of the Missionary District of Utah and, later that year, was elected its Bishop. Meanwhile, World War I had begun.

As Bishop of Utah, Paul Jones did much to expand the Church’s mission stations and to strengthen diocesan institutions. At the same time he spoke openly about his opposition to war. With the United States entry into the war, the Bishop of Utah’s views became increasingly controversial. At a meeting of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Los Angeles in 1917, Bishop Jones expressed his belief that “war is unchristian,” for which he was attacked with banner headlines in the Utah press. As a result of the speech and the reaction it caused in Utah, a commission of the House of Bishops was appointed to investigate the situation. In their report, the commission concluded that “The underlying contention of the Bishop of Utah seems to be that war is unchristian. With this general statement the Commission cannot agree … ” The report went on to recommend that “The Bishop of Utah ought to resign his office,” thus rejecting Paul Jones’ right to object to war on grounds of faith and conscience.

In the spring of 1918, Bishop Jones, yielding to pressure, resigned as Bishop of Utah. For the next 23 years, until his death on September 4, 1941, he continued a ministry within the Church dedicated to peace and conscience, speaking always with a conviction and gentleness rooted in the Gospel.

In his farewell to the Missionary District of Utah in 1918, Bishop Jones said: “Where I serve the Church is of small importance, so long as I can make my life count in the cause of Christ … Expediency may make necessary the resignation of a Bishop at this time, but no expedience can ever justify the degradation of the ideals of the episcopate which these conclusions seem to involve.”

PRAYER
Merciful God, who sent your beloved Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Raise up in this and every land witnesses, who, after the example of your servant Paul Jones, will stand firm in proclaiming the Gospel of the Prince of Peace, our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

09/04/2026

Remembering ALBERT SCHWEITZER
4 September 1965, From the calendar, Commentary by James Kiefer:
"Albert Schweitzer, theologian, philosopher, organist, authority on Bach, physician, and missionary, was born in 1875, son of a Lutheran pastor, in Alsace, then German but now French. (Alsace and Lorraine are two provinces lying between France and Germany, and for centuries they have belonged to whoever won the last war.) He studied at Strasbourg and at Paris, and around 1900 he became a doctor of philosophy and a doctor of theology, and was ordained to the Lutheran ministry and became a preacher and a lecturer in philosophy. He became an outstanding organist, and in 1905 published a study of Johann Sebastian Bach. He simultaneously wrote a book called The Quest of the Historical Jesus, in which he argued that, of all the sayings attributed to Jesus in the Gospels, the ones that are most certainly His are the ones that give the impression that the end of the world is at hand. (Interestingly, the well-known group called the Jesus Seminar, which likewise sets out to rate the sayings attributed to Jesus with different degrees of certainty, has drawn the opposite conclusion, and rejects all the so-called apocalyptic sayings of Jesus as unauthentic.) Schweitzer himself drew the conclusion that Jesus believed in the imminent end of the world, that he was wrong, and that therefore he was not infallible or inspired or divine. In 1905 he announced his intention of becoming a missionary doctor, and resigned his positions, giving up a brilliant career, to go to medical school. In 1913 he and his wife set out for Lambarene in Gabon (then part of French Equatorial Africa), where they built a hospital. His work there was interrupted by World War I. Since he was a German citizen, he was interned by the French as an enemy alien, and spent his prison time writing. He published his Philosophy of Civilization, in which he urged "reverence for life," a philosophy of compassion for all living things. (A visitor to Lambarene saw a mosquito on his arm and was about to swat it. Schweitzer saw it and said: "Think twice. Remember that you are a guest in its country.") After the war, Schweitzer returned to Lambarene and rebuilt his hospital, adding a l***r colony. His autobiography, Out of My Life and Thought, was published in 1933. In 1952 he received the Nobel Peace Prize. He died 4 September 1965.

A student of Schweitzer's thought has written:

"We typically use 'optimism' or 'pessimism' to describe our Intellectual predispositions in how we view the world. For Schweitzer, however, those words relate not to the intellect only, but also to the will and to the positive actions which we may take: "True optimism has nothing to do with any sort of lenient judgment. It consists in comtemplating and willing the ideal in the light of a deep and self-consistent affirmation of life and the world. ... Optimism and pessimism, therefore, do not consist in counting with more or less confidence on a future for the existing state of things, but in what the will desires the future to be. They are qualities not of the judgment, but of the will.
Schweitzer also distinguished between how individuals and societies approach their ethical roles: "The ethic of ethical personality is personal, incapable of regulation, and absolute; the system established by society for its prosperous existence is supra-personal, regulated, and relative. Hence the ethical personality cannot surrender to it, but lives always in continuous conflict with it, obliged again and again to oppose it because it finds its focus too short." Schweitzer also holds that "even a society whose ethical standard is relatively high, is dangerous to the ethics of its members", because the individual spiritual ethic may be corrupted and overwhelmed by the more practical ethic of the society.
I think the challenge for the Christian is to try to develop a reflective, compassionate understanding of life which will lead to devotion to others. As Greg Singleton said, "Schweitzer was looking for method, not answers." We need to find methods by which we can become "optimistic" actors in the world.
Society will not resolve the world's problems. I guess that leaves it up to us as individuals to try, however futile the goal my be. But I think that Schweitzer would say that the ethical person must not consider whether the goal is reasonable, but rather, must act according to the necessity of his own inner compulsion to do good in the world."

Schweitzer was not without his critics.

Some of them were shocked by his hospital, which they found primitive. Instead of hospital wards, there were rows of huts. When a patient came to stay there, his family came along and moved in with him, bringing a few chickens and a goat and some pots and pans, and they cooked their own meals, which the patient shared. His critics said that this was no way to run a hospital. He replied that if the patients were isolated from their families and fed from the hospital kitchen, most of them would not come to the hospital at all. Life on a 20th century European-style hospital ward would have been unfamiliar and terrifying. He admitted that his hospital was practicing nineteenth-century medicine, but said that this was better than the alternative, and that until his critics were prepared to finance and maintain a better hospital themselves, they ought to shut up.

Some of them were shocked by his racism. In an age when everyone was denouncing colonialism as an unmixed evil, he said bluntly that the European rulers were managing African affairs better than the Africans had managed them when left to themselves, and that it was in the interests of the Africans that the Europeans should continue to be in charge. He said that the European ought to say to the African, "I am your brother, but your elder brother."

Some of them were shocked by his personal autocracy. He ran his hospital as he saw fit, and expected others, black and white alike, to fall in line. It was, perhaps, a natural attitude for a man who was in fact considerably more intelligent than almost anyone else he met, black or white.

Some were shocked by his religious beliefs, his forsaking of traditional Christianity; for although he continued to regard himself as in some sense a Christian, his views on the deity of Jesus Christ were at best shaky.

The fact remains that he was a dedicated humanitarian, one who had the world at his feet, and gave up everything to serve Christ in the person of the least of His brethren. He prodded the conscience of the world. Without believing in the deity of Christ, he did more in the service of Christ than most of those who do; and without believing in the right of all peoples to instant self-government, he did more to improve the lives of Africans than most of those who do."

PRAYER
O God, who endowed your servant Albert Schweitzer with a multitude of gifts for learning, beauty, and service: Inspire your Church that we, following his example, may be utterly dedicated to you that all our works might be done to your glory and the welfare of your people; through Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen.

09/04/2026

FRIDAY, September 4 PAUL JONES, Bishop, 1941
Psalm 31:4. "Take me out of the net that they have secretly set for me, for you are my tower of strength."

I have sung in several choirs and always enjoy how music can inspire people to let loose, even in the often-solemn confines of the church and its rituals. I love seeing how music moves people during the singing of communion hymns. I enjoy seeing parishioners walk to and from the altar, mouthing the words of a familiar hymn or singing out loud with a stirring refrain. It's as though they're being pulled out of a net they didn't realize they were in, like the music is reaching inside and allowing release while at the same time providing the cadence for celebrating the gift of eucharist.

The Book of Common Prayer shines a light on the importance of music in worship in the prayer For Church Musicians and Artists: "Be ever present with your servants who seek through art and music to perfect the praises offered by your people on earth; and grant to them even now glimpses of your beauty..." (p. 819). These very glimpses so often take us out of our nets. Hallelujah!

MOVING FORWARD: When did you realize something previously hidden was holding you back? How did you move forward?

https://prayer.forwardmovement.org/fdd/2026-09-04

09/03/2026

THURSDAY, September 3 PHOEBE, Deacon
Psalm 37:33. "The law of their God is in their heart, and their footsteps shall not falter."

Psalm 37 is filled with encouragement to trust and to be patient. There are examples of how righteousness and humility pay off, and how wickedness is dealt with, sometimes harshly. The psalm offers reminders that living a righteous life will keep us safe and, for those who live a righteous life, justice will be ours.

Verse 41 encourages us: "But the deliverance of the righteous comes from the Lord; he is their stronghold in time of trouble." There's a challenge to holding discouragement at bay, to waiting patiently, hoping, and believing that living righteously will soothe our anxieties and lessen our fears. How appropriate that this psalm occurs on a day that honors Phoebe. The collect for today calls her a "deacon in your church and minister of your Gospel" and prays that we might be granted the same grace so "we too may take the Gospel to the ends of the earth."

I envision Phoebe having the law of God in her heart and Jesus's love centered in her body, being sure-footed as she freely shares these gifts in her first-century world.

MOVING FORWARD: In what ways have you embraced the law of God?

https://prayer.forwardmovement.org/fdd/2026-09-03

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