Grace Anglican Parish

09/01/2026

“As the tide draws the waters close in upon the shore, make me an island, set apart with you, God, holy to you. Then, with the turning of the tide, prepare me to carry your presence to the busy world beyond, the world that rushes in on me, until the waters return and enfold me back to you.” - From the book "Celtic Daily Prayer" from the Northumbria Community. Words by Andy Raine.

By the time of Aidan’s ministry, Christianity had been present in the British isles for over 5 centuries, but paganism had displaced the progress of the Gospel in much of England. Aidan was a monk on the ancient, isolated island monastery of Iona. At the invitation of King Oswald, Aidan was sent as a missionary to Northumbria. Aidan founded churches and monasteries and ministered in gentleness and humility to all people, whether kings, slaves, or children. Aidan is credited with playing a pivotal role in the conversion of the Anglo Saxons.

Almighty and everlasting God, you called your servant Aidan of Lindisfarne to preach the Gospel to the people of Northumbria: Raise up in this and every land evangelists and heralds of your kingdom, that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Art & history by Ben Lansing

Order the book 📚 and listen to the podcast 🎙️ www.ourchurchspeaks.com

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09/01/2026

Did Jesus’ Female Disciples Violate Cultural Boundaries?

A wonderful question was asked today:

“Wouldn’t it have been culturally inappropriate for Jewish women to travel through the countryside with a group of men—some married and some single, including Jesus?”

That is a very good question.

And honestly, I appreciate the question because it forces us to slow down and think carefully about what we are actually reading in the Gospel accounts.

When we read that women followed Jesus, traveled with Him, supported His ministry, sat at His feet as disciples, witnessed His crucifixion, and became the first witnesses of His resurrection, we cannot simply read those accounts through our twenty-first-century cultural assumptions.

But neither should we dismiss the question by simply saying, “Well, that was just their culture.”

There is something much deeper happening in these accounts.

Because if women—some of whom were married—were traveling with Jesus and His disciples for extended periods of time, then we should ask some very reasonable questions.

How was this handled?

Where were these women staying?

Who was traveling with them?

What did their husbands think?

How did Jesus conduct Himself around these women?

And perhaps most importantly:

What does all of this tell us about the holiness of Jesus Christ?

That last question may actually be the most important one.

Because we can become so focused on whether something would have been considered culturally unusual that we miss what the Gospel writers are actually showing us.

They are showing us Jesus.

And the more carefully we read the story, the more remarkable it becomes.

Look at What the Gospel Writers Actually Tell Us…

Would it have been culturally unusual for Jewish women to travel with a group of men?

Certainly, we shouldn’t pretend that first-century Jewish culture was identical to ours.

But I don’t think the best answer is simply, “Well, it wasn’t culturally inappropriate.”

There is something much more significant happening here.

Look at what the Gospel writers actually tell us.

Luke doesn’t merely tell us that women happened to be present when Jesus taught.

He tells us:

“And the twelve were with Him, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities… and many others who provided for Him from their substance.” Luke 8:1–3

These women were with Jesus and the Twelve.

They were participating in the ministry.

They were traveling with the ministry.

And some were financially supporting it.

Luke even names Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, along with Susanna and “many others.”

So let’s ask the question your question naturally raises:

What kind of ministry was Jesus conducting that these women could travel with Him in this way?

And I think the answer tells us something profoundly important about Jesus Christ.

This was not a secretive, sexually charged, morally questionable environment where men and women were sneaking away together.

Quite the opposite.

Jesus’ ministry was conducted publicly.

There were multitudes.

There were crowds.

There were the Twelve.

There were other disciples.

There were women disciples.

There were families.

There were homes where people received them.

There were synagogues.

There were public gatherings.

There were people constantly coming and going.

And there were enormous crowds following Jesus.

The Gospel narratives repeatedly show us Jesus teaching publicly, healing publicly, eating with people, entering homes, and ministering in the presence of others.

This was not Jesus hiding women away from the public or sending them to the periphery.

This was Jesus openly teaching, discipling, healing, preaching, and building His kingdom in the presence of people.

“Whose Husband Would Have Allowed That?”

This question becomes particularly interesting when we remember that Scripture specifically identifies some of these women as married.

Joanna is identified as the wife of Chuza.

And she wasn’t apparently dropping by for an afternoon Bible study.

Luke describes her as one of the women who accompanied Jesus and supported His ministry.

That should make us stop and think.

Because apparently some husbands did.

We have to be careful about assuming that every married woman who participated in Jesus’ ministry was somehow violating her husband’s wishes.

The text doesn’t say that.

We don’t have to invent a scenario in which every woman abandoned her household and secretly followed a single man around the countryside.

That’s not what the text says.

In fact, Luke specifically tells us about Joanna, whose husband was Chuza, a man connected to Herod’s household. She was participating in Jesus’ ministry and supporting it.

The Scripture doesn’t stop and say, “But don’t worry—her husband gave her permission.”

It simply presents her as a woman participating in the ministry.

And that should tell us something.

The Gospel writers are not interested in constructing the kind of male-permission framework that some modern readers want to impose upon the story.

They are showing us what Jesus actually did.

And what Jesus actually did was invite people—men and women—to become His disciples.

Jesus’ Holiness Matters…

And there is another important point.

Jesus’ holiness matters.

A great deal.

If Jesus Christ is God incarnate—as we believe He is—then His treatment of women and the way women participated in His ministry tells us something about His character.

Jesus was not afraid of women.

He wasn’t afraid to teach women.

He wasn’t afraid to be alone with women when the circumstances of ministry required it.

He wasn’t afraid to receive women as disciples.

He wasn’t afraid to allow women to sit at His feet and learn.

He wasn’t afraid to engage women publicly.

And He wasn’t afraid to entrust women with significant theological truth.

Think about Mary of Bethany sitting at Jesus’ feet as a disciple.

Think about the Samaritan woman at the well.

Think about the woman with the issue of blood.

Think about the women who anointed Him.

Think about the women who followed Him.

Think about the women who stood at the cross.

And then think about the women who were the first witnesses of the resurrection.

That’s not an accident.

Jesus consistently treated women as morally responsible, spiritually capable human beings who could hear, understand, believe, respond, learn, proclaim, and participate in the work of God’s kingdom.

And that tells us something about the holiness of Jesus.

Because if we’re going to suggest that the very structure of His ministry would have been inherently scandalous or morally suspect simply because women were present among male disciples, we are actually suggesting something about Jesus’ ministry that the Gospel writers never suggest.

The Gospel writers don’t present these women as compromising Jesus’ holiness.

They present them as disciples.

These women weren’t sexual temptations wandering around a group of men.

They were disciples of Jesus Christ.

And that distinction is enormously important.

We Need to Examine Another Cultural Assumption…

We tend to picture Jesus’ ministry as Jesus plus twelve men wandering around the countryside.

But that’s not the picture the Gospels give us.

There were multitudes.

There were crowds.

There were disciples beyond the Twelve.

There were women.

There were families.

There were people providing hospitality.

There were homes where Jesus and His disciples were received.

There were people who traveled with them and supported them.

And when Jesus sent His disciples out to minister, we see another principle that is relevant here: He sent them in pairs.

That tells us something about accountability and the practical organization of ministry.

So when we picture Jesus’ ministry, we should not imagine twelve men isolated from everyone else, moving secretly through the countryside.

The Gospel narratives give us a much larger picture.

Jesus’ ministry happened openly, in the midst of communities and crowds, with disciples, families, hosts, followers, and witnesses all around.

What About the Cultural Question?

So I agree with you that the question is worth asking.

But I think the answer takes us somewhere much more beautiful than:

“Well, I guess first-century culture wasn’t as strict as we think.”

It takes us to Jesus.

Because Jesus’ holiness changes the question.

Rather than asking:

“How could these women possibly have been around these men without something improper happening?”

perhaps we should ask:

“What does it tell us about Jesus that women could safely become His disciples, travel within His ministry, learn from Him, serve alongside His followers, and participate in His kingdom work?”

And I think the answer is stunning.

It tells us something about His holiness.

It tells us something about His character.

It tells us something about the nature of His kingdom.

And it tells us something about the dignity He gave women.

We Must Be Careful Not to Project Our Own Failures Onto Jesus…

I think a comparison with today is important too.

We have to be careful not to project our own failures onto Jesus’ ministry.

Our modern culture has plenty of examples of sexual immorality, abuse, exploitation, and inappropriate relationships.

And sadly, the Church has not been immune from those things.

But we cannot take the corruption we see in our own culture and assume that Jesus’ ministry operated according to the same dynamics.

Jesus Christ is holy.

His disciples were being called to holiness.

His ministry was conducted openly.

And the women who followed Him are presented by Scripture as faithful disciples—not as scandalous companions.

That is a very different picture.

When Jesus sent people out to proclaim the kingdom, He didn’t establish a system in which women had to remain invisible because their presence might somehow compromise the holiness of men.

He established a kingdom in which holiness was expected of everyone.

Men were responsible for their own holiness.

Women were responsible for their own holiness.

Disciples were responsible for their own conduct.

And Jesus Christ was Lord over all of them.

That’s the model we should recover.

So What Does the Gospel Actually Show Us?

I think this question deserves more than simply saying, “It was culturally acceptable.”

The Gospel accounts give us something much more profound.

They show us women openly participating in the ministry of Jesus.

They show us women learning from Jesus.

They show us women supporting Jesus’ ministry.

They show us women remaining faithful when many of the male disciples fled.

And they show us women receiving and proclaiming the news of the resurrection.

That doesn’t diminish Jesus’ holiness.

It reveals it.

And perhaps one of the most beautiful things about Jesus is that He could elevate women without compromising His holiness, because His holiness was never dependent upon keeping women away from Him.

His holiness was—and is—who He is.

The more carefully we read the Gospels, the more clearly we see that Jesus did not need to diminish women in order to preserve the dignity or holiness of men.

He simply called everyone to follow Him.

And perhaps that is the point we most need to recover.

Jesus did not build His kingdom around a system in which women had to remain at a safe distance from ministry because their presence might somehow make men stumble.

He built His kingdom around discipleship.

He called men.
He called women.
He taught men.
He taught women.
He sent disciples.

He entrusted people with the proclamation of His kingdom.

And He demonstrated through His own life what holiness, dignity, purity, love, and service actually look like.

So perhaps the better question isn’t:

“How could Jesus possibly have allowed women to travel with Him?”

Perhaps the better question is:

“What kind of Savior is Jesus?”

And the answer the Gospels give us is beautiful.

He is holy.
He is pure.
He is trustworthy.
He is the Teacher.
He is the LORD.

And He calls people—men and women alike—to follow Him.

08/26/2026

Found a fat green worm stripping your parsley? Most people squish first and never find out what they paid for it.

Hold on. That is not a worm. It is a black swallowtail butterfly, about three weeks early. The green body with black bands and little yellow dots is the caterpillar stage, and parsley, dill, fennel and carrot tops are the only foods it can eat. Its family cracked the chemistry of plants that taste too strong for everyone else, and now it is stuck with them. Old garden books called it the parsley worm and recommended the jar of kerosene, which is how a lot of butterflies never happened.

Here is the honest math. One caterpillar borrows a few stems. A parsley plant regrows them inside two weeks and does not mind the pruning. The butterfly it becomes will work your flowers for the rest of the season, and her daughters will grow up in your garden instead of somebody else's.

The old fix still works. Plant one row of dill for the kitchen and one for them, and move any you find to the spare row.

The worm in your parsley is a butterfly paying rent in advance. 🦋

08/18/2026

CHURCH ANNOUNCEMENT: When you see somebody at church that you haven’t seen in a while, your assignment is not to interview them, it’s to love them. Stop meeting people at the door with, “Where you been?” “What happened?” “Why haven’t you been coming?” You don’t know what they had to survive just to make it back into the room. Everybody returning to church doesn’t owe you a testimony, timeline, or explanation.

Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can say is: “It’s so good to see you. I love you. We’ve missed you.”

08/17/2026

Come and worship
Sundays at 1 pm
201 Green Village Rd, Little River

“Nearer, My God, to Thee” is a Christian hymn written by Sarah Flower Adams in 1841 and inspired by the biblical story of Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28. The hymn expresses the desire to remain close to God even during suffering, hardship, and difficult moments. The best-known tune, “Bethany,” was composed by Lowell Mason in 1856.

The hymn later became famous because of its association with the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, although it is uncertain whether it was actually played during the sinking. Today, it remains a beloved hymn about faith, devotion, and finding strength by drawing nearer to God.

08/17/2026

A few words about Anglican worship…

WHY DO WE SAY “KYRIE ELEISON” THREE TIMES?

Have you ever wondered why, in the liturgy, we say:

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy?

Where did this prayer come from? Why is it still said in Greek? Who started it? Why did Christians once say it nine times? And is all this repetition the kind of “vain repetition” Jesus warned against?

Kyrie eleison is Greek for “Lord, have mercy.” Christe eleison means “Christ, have mercy.” No pope, council or famous bishop can be identified as the person who invented this prayer. Its roots are much older. They are found in Scripture itself.

In the Gospels, people repeatedly approached Jesus with this cry. The blind cried, “Lord, have mercy on us.” The Canaanite woman cried, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David.” Before Kyrie eleison became a formal part of Christian liturgy, therefore, it was already the language of desperate people coming to Christ because they believed He was merciful.

But did its liturgical use come from the Eastern Church? Yes, as far as our surviving evidence shows. By the fourth century we find Kyrie eleison clearly used in the Greek-speaking East as a congregational response in litanies. The deacon would offer petitions for the Church, the world, the sick, travellers, those who suffered and others, and the people would repeatedly answer, “Kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy.” The ancient Eastern pattern was not originally restricted to saying it three or nine times. It was the people's continuing response to the petitions being offered.

The practice eventually became established in Western Christianity too. By the time of Pope Gregory the Great around AD 600, the Kyrie was already part of Roman worship, although Gregory himself explained that the Romans used it somewhat differently from the Greeks. The West also developed the distinctive Christe eleison, “Christ, have mercy,” within the sequence.

And here is something fascinating. Even when Latin became the dominant language of Western worship, the Church did not translate these words into Latin. In the middle of a Latin Mass, Christians still sang: Kyrie eleison.

So this tiny Greek prayer remained like an ancient echo of the Greek-speaking Church inside Western worship.

But where did the number three come from? In Western Christianity, the Kyrie eventually developed into the familiar pattern:

Kyrie eleison.
Christe eleison.
Kyrie eleison.

Over time, Christians naturally recognised a Trinitarian resonance in this threefold structure. We should not, however, make it too mechanical by saying that the first “Lord” can refer only to the Father, “Christ” only to the Son and the final “Lord” only to the Holy Spirit. Jesus Himself is repeatedly called Lord in the New Testament. The deeper point is that the Church turns to the one God for mercy, and the threefold shape beautifully resonates with our faith in Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

But historically, the Western Church went even further. Each invocation came to be repeated three times:

Kyrie eleison, three times.
Christe eleison, three times.
Kyrie eleison, three times.

That produced the famous ninefold Kyrie, three times three. Christians later found rich Trinitarian symbolism in it, and this became the normal form of the Kyrie in the medieval Western Mass.

Now here is the interesting Anglican part.

Did Anglicanism originally reject the ninefold Kyrie? No.

The very first Book of Common Prayer of 1549 actually retained the old ninefold Kyrie in the Communion service. The congregation still prayed “Lord, have mercy,” “Christ, have mercy,” and “Lord, have mercy,” each three times.

So why did it disappear from the normal Anglican Communion service?

In 1552, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer substantially revised the Prayer Book. The standalone ninefold Kyrie was removed from that position and the Ten Commandments were introduced instead. But Cranmer did something very interesting. After each commandment, the congregation answered:

“Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.”

That pattern passed into the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and became deeply characteristic of classical Anglican worship.

Notice the irony.

Cranmer did not remove the ninefold Kyrie because repeating “Lord, have mercy” was supposedly unbiblical or vain repetition. In fact, after his revision, the congregation said “Lord, have mercy upon us” ten times, once after each Commandment!

What changed was not Anglican belief in repeated prayer. What changed was the liturgical setting. Cranmer connected the cry for mercy directly to hearing the Law of God. You hear God's commandment, recognise your failure and immediately pray:

“Lord, have mercy upon us.”

But you also add:

“and incline our hearts to keep this law.”

That is beautiful theology. We are not merely asking God to forgive what we have done wrong. We are asking Him to change our hearts so that we may live differently.

Mercy for our failure, and grace for our obedience.

So how did the shorter threefold Kyrie survive among Anglicans? It remained in other Prayer Book services, including Morning and Evening Prayer:

Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

Later Anglican liturgical revisions also restored the standalone Kyrie to Holy Communion, and modern Common Worship, for example, provides the familiar threefold form.

But is repeating it three times, nine times or even ten times contrary to Jesus' warning in Matthew 6:7?

No. Jesus condemned vain repetition, not repetition itself.

That distinction is important. In Gethsemane, Jesus prayed the same prayer again. Matthew tells us that He prayed “the third time, saying the same words.” The heavenly creatures cry “Holy, holy, holy.” Psalm 136 repeats “for his mercy endureth for ever” again and again. And when Bartimaeus was told to keep quiet, he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me.”

Was Bartimaeus guilty of empty repetition? Certainly not. He repeated himself because his need was real.

That is the difference between repetition and vain repetition. You can say the Lord's Prayer once while your mind and heart are somewhere else, and it can become empty words. But you can also cry Kyrie eleison repeatedly from the depths of your heart, and every repetition can be genuine prayer.

And what exactly are we asking when we say, “Lord, have mercy”? We are asking for much more than forgiveness. We are saying, “Lord, look upon me with compassion. Forgive me. Help me. Heal me. Restore me. Save me. Do for me what I cannot do for myself.”

That is why this tiny prayer has survived for so many centuries. The bishop needs mercy. The priest needs mercy. The deacon needs mercy. The congregation needs mercy. The Church needs mercy. The world needs mercy.

So when you next hear:

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy,

do not rush through it as though it were merely another response printed in the service book.

You are praying words rooted in the Gospel. You are joining a prayer heard in the ancient Eastern Church. You are using Greek words that survived even in the Latin-speaking West. And as an Anglican, you are inheriting a prayer that passed through the ninefold Kyrie of the medieval Church, the 1549 Prayer Book, Cranmer's 1552 reforms, the 1662 Prayer Book and into Anglican worship today.

Sometimes the deepest prayer does not need many words.

Sometimes all the human heart can say is:

KYRIE ELEISON.

LORD, HAVE MERCY.

Let’s keep learning Anglicanism.

08/16/2026

Come and worship
Sundays at 1 pm
201 Green Village Rd.
Little River, SC

Pause with us now to pray the Collect of the Day from the 2019 Book of Common Prayer, trusting our Lord to protect and lead us. 🙏

07/31/2026

“O Good Jesus, hear me. Within your wounds hide me. Permit me never to be separated from you.” - Ignatius of Loyola (c. 1491-155), Priest, mystic, Founder of the Jesuits

Ignatius of Loyola was born to a family of Spanish nobility. Dreaming of romantic chivalry, he became a soldier, known for his heroism and fancy dress, complete with sword, dagger, and dramatic cape. He also earned a reputation for his fierce temper, womanizing, and gambling. After a decade of exploits, he was seriously injured in battle and confined to a bed. He asked for reading material, hoping for stories about knights and battles. Instead, he was given the lives of Christ and the saints. These readings touched Ignatius and he was then struck to the heart by a night vision of Jesus and his mother. When Ignatius could walk again, he gave up his fine clothes and confessed his sins. After a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he studied at the University of Paris. There, he gathered six friends who took solemn vows of lifelong service to the church. These companions became the first members of the “Society of Jesus,” a religious society founded with the mission to evangelize the world through education and ministry. These early Jesuits journeyed to regions of the world unreached by the Gospel, including Japan, Paraguay, and Ontario. Ignatius’ influence continues to this day through the Jesuits and through his classic devotional, “Spiritual Exercises.” This set of Christian meditations has helped countless Christians discern the voice of God in their lives so that they too could commit themselves wholly to Jesus.

Almighty God, by your Holy Spirit you have made us one with your saints in heaven and on earth: Grant that in our earthly pilgrimage we may always be supported by this fellowship of love and prayer, and know ourselves to be surrounded by their witness to your power and mercy; for the sake of Jesus Christ, in whom all our intercessions are acceptable through the Spirit, and who lives and reigns with you and the same Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Art & history by Ben Lansing

Order the book www.ourchurchspeaks.com

07/05/2026

Join us in praying the Collect of the Day from the 2019 Book of Common Prayer, seeking to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to live righteous and godly lives. 🙏