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Mission Annunciation-Episcopal and Lutheran, 1223 Wire Road W, Perkinston, MS (2026)

09/04/2022

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." http://satucket.com/lectionary/albert_schweitzer.html

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.

09/03/2022

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost. August 28, 2022. I often hear people say they are BLESSED, but who are the blessed according to the Lord Jesus? Luke 14: 1. 7-14.

09/03/2022

Remembering PHOEBE
DEACON, 25 OCT. NT, (commemorated on September 3,) from the calendar, commentary by James Kiefer:
Phoebe (the name means "bright" or "radiant": Apollo and Diana, the god and goddess of the sun and moon respectively, were often referred to as "Phoebos" and "Phoebe"), was a DIAKONOS of the Church at Chenchreae, the eastern seaport of the city of Corinth. (Corinth was on a narrow isthmus that connected southern Greece (the Peleponessus) with northern Greece and the mainland of Europe. Attempts had been made to dig a canal through the isthmus in order to shorten shipping routes, but no attempt was successful till modern times. Accordingly many ships were simply dragged out of the water, put on rollers, and moved across the isthmus and into the water on the other side. Naturally, the crew got shore leave. Naturally, Corinth became famous as a port that accommodated sailors with shore leave. This may account for the fact that Paul has a great deal more to say about sexual matters when writing to the Corinthians than he does in other connections.) When Paul mentions her, she has left the vicinity of Corinth and is in Rome, so that Paul commends her to the Church there.

There has been some dispute about whether Paul means to say that she was a "deacon" in the Church (holding the same office held later by Athanasius in Alexandria and Lawrence in Rome), or whether he refers to another office, that of the "deaconess," not the same as a female deacon (but in that event, one would have expected a feminine form of the word), or whether he is simply using the word in a non-technical sense to mean someone known for her helpfulness and service to the Church. He calls her a DIAKONOS, a word which the KJV translates as "deacon" three times (Philippians 1:1, 1 Timothy 3:8,12), as "servant" seven times (including the reference to Phoebe) and as "minister" twenty times (including references to Paul himself). It is a word that originally had the meaning in secular Greek of "someone who is responsible for, attends to, ministers to, or waits on a person or group of persons or a task or area of responsibility." Later, it came to be used in a technical sense to denote a certain office in the church. One has to guess from the context whether it is being used in the technical sense or in the older, descriptive sense. A similar problem sometimes arises with ANGELOS, which is Greek for "messenger, bringer of news." The form EUANGELOS means "bringer of good news," and gives rise to our word "evangelist." When mysterious beings gave messages to men from God, and then disappeared, they were called "messengers of God," or simply "messengers," and so ANGELOS came to mean sometimes "messenger" and sometimes "angel." Sometimes the context does not make it clear which is meant. Again, the Greek MARTYROS means "witness," but came to refer to the particular kind of witness who says, "Jesus is Lord," when he faces death for saying it. Hence, MARTYROS is sometimes to be translated "witness" and sometimes "martyr." Similarly, EPISCOPOS can mean "overseer" or "bishop," and PRESBYTEROS can mean "older person" or "presbyter, priest."

Phoebe was in any event a person of consequence in a congregation near Corinth, someone who had made a valuable contribution there.

Prayer
Eternal God, who raised up Phoebe as a deacon in your church and minister of your Gospel; Grant us that same grace that, assisted by her prayers and example, we too may take the Gospel to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(This commemoration appears in Lesser Feasts & Fasts 2018 for trial use.)

09/02/2022

Remembering THE MARTYRS OF NEW GUINEA
(2 SEP 1942) From the calendar. Commentary from Padre Mickey's Dance Party blog:
"I don't know enough about the Martyrs of New Guinea, and almost everything I could find was basically the two paragraphs written by James Kiefer. I found the following reading from Celebrating The Saints: Devotional Readings For Saints' Days by Robert Atwell and Christopher L. Webber. The passage is from The White-Robed Army of Martyrs by David Hand, the first Archbishop of Papua New Guinea:

As the thrust of the Japanese invasion approached Papua New Guinea in 1942, Bishop Philip Strong broadcast over the radio a message to his staff which has become famous in the annals of missionary history. He said,

'We could never hold up our faces again, if for our own safety, we all forsook him and fled when the shadows of the passion began to gather around him in his spiritual body, the Church in Papua. Our life in the future would be burdened with shame and we could not come back here and face our people again; and we would be conscious always of rejected opportunities. The history of the church tell us that missionaries do not think of themselves in the hour of danger and crisis, but of the Master who called them to give their all, and of the people they have been trusted to serve and love to the uttermost. His watchword is none the less true today, as it was when he gave it to the first disciples: "Whosoever would save his life will lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake and the gospel's shall find it." We could not leave unless God, who called us, required it of us and our spiritual instinct tells us he would never require such a thing at such an hour. No, my brothers and sisters, fellow workers in Christ, whatever others may do, we cannot leave. We shall not leave. We shall stand by our trust. We shall stand by our vocation. Papua is a body, the Church: God will not forsake us. He will uphold us; he will strengthen us and he will guide us and keep us through the days that lie ahead. If we all left, it would take years for the Church to recover from our betrayal of our trust. If we remain --- and even if the worst came to the worst and we were all to perish in remaining---the Church will not perish, for there would have been no breach of trust in its walls, but its foundations and structure would have received added strength for the future building by our faithfulness unto death. This, I believe, is the resolution of you all. I know there are special circumstances which may make it imperative for one or two to go (if arrangements can be made for them to do so). for the rest of us, we have made our resolution to stay. Let us not shrink from it. Let us trust and not be afraid. To you all I send my blessing. The Lord be with you.'

What happened? To a man and woman, all the bishop's staff stood by their people until it became clear that the course might imperil their people. The Bishop himself was bombed and machine-gunned. He escaped injury, despite traveling freely and fearlessly around his diocese to care for, and encouraged his staff and people, as well as acting as senior chaplain to the military. Among those who died were the two Gona sisters, teacher Mavis Parkinson and nurse May Hayman. They were handed over to the Japanese, and bayoneted to death at Ururu where an altar-shrine now marks the spot. Elderly and holy Father Henry Holland, having served in Papua New Guinea for twenty-five years, first as a lay evangelist, and latterly as a priest at Isivita, stacks of whose translations of the Scriptures into the Orokaiva language were scattered and lost when the Japanese looted his station; he and John Duffill, his close colleague, were both killed. Father Vivian Redlich of Sangara, who refused to abandon his Sunday Mass when warning came that the Japanese arrival at this camp was imminent and Lucian Tapiedi, his devoted teacher-evangelist who had said to his married colleagues: "Take your wives and families to the bush and hide. I am single; I'll stay with the fathers and sisters; it doesn't matter if the Japanese get me;" the Sangara missionary-teachers Lilla Lashmar and Margery Brenchley, who had laid the foundations of the Church's educational work in the Orokaiva area, all perished. John Barge, recently posted to open up work in a totally un-evangelized area, refuse to "go bush" with the nearest Roman Catholic priest. Forced to dig his own grave he was then shot into it by Japanese guns.

Many people blamed Bishop Strong for not taking out all his staff to safety. But it was, ultimately, their own choice. To the world, it seemed a waste, a tragedy, a failure like Calvary. But look what God has done with it, with their "defeat." He has turned it into victory. Look at the rise of the Martyr's School in their honor---a living organism, not just a memorial, serving God and the nation. Look at the fruit of martyrdom in the ability of the Orokaiva Church to resurrect after the Lamington eruption. Look at the post-World War II leap forward into inland Papuan areas, the New Britain Resurrection and the great "putsch" into the New Guinea Highlands. Yes, "the blood of the martyrs" has once again proved to be "the seed of the Church" here in this country. Thanks be to God. Archbishop David Hand"

Prayer
Almighty God, we remember before you this day the blessed martyrs of New Guinea, who, following the example of their Savior, laid down their lives for their friends; and we pray that we, who honor their memory, may imitate their loyalty and faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

09/01/2022

Remembering DAVID PENDLETON OAKERHATER, (Making Medicine,) DEACON AND MISSIONARY (2 SEP 1931), Commemorated September 1, From the calendar. Commentary from a sermon by The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston:
Do you believe in miracles?

Well, that's what we have come to celebrate today: the miracles of Saint David Pendleton Oakerhater, the only Native American on our calendar of saints. Like all good saints, Saint David Oakerhater has miraculous events attached to his name: wonderful acts God performed through him that really do defy our attempts at explanation, and that leave us standing in a place of awe and acceptance based solely on our depth of faith. These miracles are testified to by scores of people. Even to this day most Native American people in the church, including myself, would witness to the truth of the miracles Saint David lived.

I say the miracles he "lived" rather than "did" because unlike other saints, this Native American saint never "did" a miracles. He never chased away snakes or walked through fire or made it snow in the summer. Rather, he lived his miracles, just as his people, the Cheyenne, lived the miracles; just as I, and every other Native person in this church, live the miracle.

Saint David, you see, embodies the miracles of God for our people because he lived them just as we live them now. And that's why he is a saint for us: not because he is set so far apart from us, but precisely because he is so much a part of us. What he lived, we live. His miracles are our miracles. We testify to the truth of Saint David because we live that truth each and every day.

The first great miracle of Saint David is this: he survived.

That's it: he survived. And while that may not seem like much of a miracle to you, believe me, from the Native American perspective of his time, this fact alone was a miracle.

Think of the chances of a Cheyenne warrior surviving constant battles with the United States army. Imagine what it must have been like to go up against that kind of firepower. Consider just how fragile life was for the Cheyenne as they were slowly encircled and even exterminated by the superior force of the Federal government.

Survival against odds like that is a miracle. It was a miracle for Saint David and for the Cheyenne. It was a miracle for all of the Tribes who came through the dark years of colonization. It remains a miracle for Native Americans today who continue to struggle to keep their way of life secure against the pressures of assimilation or cultural extermination.

Sometimes, just being alive is a miracle. It is a sign of God's constant care and protection for the dispossessed and the abused. It shows that there is a champion for the poor and the persecuted. Just being alive to tell the story is a miracle of survival for so many of the Earth's indigenous people. And the miracle continues. The miracle of a people's survival continues all across this hemisphere, each and every day. As long as there is a free and living Native community in the rain forests of South America or in the tundra of North America: the miracle of Saint David will continue. We survive against all odds because God is with us.

The second great miracle of Saint David is this: he believed in Jesus.

If you think of all that David had lived through, of all that he had seen and experienced that would have urged him to deny the religion of his persecutors: then the fact that David embraced the Christian faith is something of a miracle.

There are few communities in the United States today who would have a better excuse for denying the Christian message more than Native Americans. After all, the church and the military usually travelled together in our history. The government agents who stole Indian land were Christians. And certainly, the educators who broke the will of young Native men and women were Christians. All around him, David Oakerhater would have had ample evidence that the "white man's religion" maintained a clear double standard between Europeans and the darker step-children of the church.

So why did he join the Church? Why did he not only become a Christian, but live out his Christian faith to such a degree that he can truly be called a saint?

The miracle of faith is Saint David's miracle, just as it is the miracle of all Native American people. In spite of all evidence to the contrary, Native people like David Oakerhater were able to see beyond the sin of colonialism to the truth of the gospel. Even in their pain, they could look through racism and injustice to find the clear light of Christ.

There are few people as faithful as Native people. Their miracle is a commitment to Jesus that transcends even the most tragic history. In fact, the suffering of the Native American community has made it stronger in its dedication to the Jesus of the poor, the Jesus who preached justice and mercy. The words of this Jesus spoke to David Oakerhater in Cheyenne. The Scriptures spoke his language and bore witness to the truth of the suffering of his people. Like so many other Native Americans, when Saint David accepted the Christian gospel, he did not put it on as something foreign, given to him by the hand of his tormentors, but rather he entered into it as a living part of his own experience. The gospel was Native American. It is Native American. And the miracle is that so many Native people have upheld it through generations of faith: the witness of the poor to the truth that Jesus is one of their own.

Finally, the third great miracle of Saint David: he enjoyed his life.

Surely, in this day and age, that qualifies as a miracle. How few of us there are that can make that same claim.

We live in a way that makes the simple enjoyment of life almost impossible. For one thing: there isn't enough time. For another: we're too busy being alive to enjoy living. And ultimately: enjoyment for us is a business, a multi-million dollar business, and therefore something you have to treat seriously. We are grim about have fun.

The irony of this is that most of us in modern America who run through our lives as fast as we can worship a God who told us to be at peace and to savor life as though it were the most enjoyable thing we could ever experience. David Oakerhater is a saint for us, a symbol of Christian life to be admired and copied, because David was a man who never ran away from his life, but embraced it as any person embraces the object of love. He was not consumed by the bitterness of his experiences in life. He was not busy finding someone to blame or accuse. He did not see life as a career or a struggle to the top. He was not competitive, concerned about looking eternally youthful, or worried about making more money. Instead, he loved his family. He loved his people. He loved his church.

The beautiful miracle of Saint David is the miracle of Indian life. It is the miracle of all Native Americans who continue to walk gently on the Earth, as the Creator intended. It is the miraculous endurance of a culture that still values human contact over the Internet and still proclaims the family as the most important way to share that love with others. The miracle of abundant life, of seeing the world as a Garden, of feeling in balance with all of nature, of being intimately connected in the fabric of community life: all of these are parts of the miracle. They are the pieces of a hope that will not die for Native America. They are the promises of a peaceful world for any others who will join Native Americans in treasuring life than spending life.

These are the three miracles of Saint David that we celebrate today. As I say, they are not the stuff of legend or myth, but the very earthy miracles of a very natural saint. They represent the pragmatic, but profound wisdom of Native America. They symbolize the best of our faith and of our teachings.

Saint David lived these miracles, just as countless other Native Christians go on living them today. We survive. We are blessed by God to be the first people of this land. We believe. We remain faithful to the truth of God's liberating Word through all generations. We live. We are the stewards of a joy given to us as grace because we have suffered so much, just as we are the heralds of a truth for all others who would receive the Good News of Christ Jesus and be free.

These are the miracle of a saint and of his people. These are the miracles of God and of the church. They are the reason we remember a man like David Oakerhater, and, the reason we rejoice that he is one of us.
(Steven Charleston was born in Oklahoma. He is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, one of the original Five Tribes that were removed to Oklahoma by the Federal Government on the "Trail of Tears" in the early 1830's. Bishop Charleston has served the Episcopal Church in a variety of ministries. He was the staff officer for Native American ministries in the church at "815" under Presiding Bishop John Allin. He was director of the Dakota Leadership Program, a training ministry with the Lakota People of North and South Dakota. Bishop Charleston was a tenured professor in Systematic Theology at Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, just prior to being elected the sixth bishop of Alaska.)
https://thegoodheart.blogspot.com/2009/09/deacon-david-pendleton-oakerhater-1847.html?fbclid=IwAR3aCiDSCNKjMNa0u8CJjLda43Rdkbr9ocEV-MPJY260TYInKbWUAOqDhig

Prayer
O God of unsearchable wisdom and mercy, Liberate us from bo***ge to self, and empower us to serve you and our neighbors; that like your servant David Oakerhater, we might bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; through Jesus Christ, the captain of our salvation; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

08/30/2022

Remembering CHARLES CHAPMAN GRAFTON, BISHOP OF FOND DU LAC & ECUMENIST, 30 August 1912, From the calendar. Commentary by Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music:
"Charles Grafton was born April 12, 1830 in Boston, and attended Harvard Law School. He was confirmed at Church of the Advent— then a leading parish implementing the principles of the Oxford Movement—where he began seriously to explore his vocation. After graduation he moved to Maryland to study with the Tractarian Bishop William Whittington who eventually ordained him deacon on December 23, 1855, and priest on May 30, 1858.

Grafton served a number of parishes in Maryland but experienced a growing attraction to the religious life. In 1865, he left for England specifically to meet Edward Bouverie Pusey. In the following year, after a series of meetings held at All Saints, Margaret Street, Grafton and two others took religious vows and the Society of St. John the Evangelist had its beginning. In 1872, Grafton returned and was elected fourth Rector of the Church of the Advent, Boston.

In 1888, Grafton was elected second bishop of Fond du Lac. His consent process was difficult as many thought him too ritualistic, but he soon became known not only as an Anglo-Catholic but also as an ecumenist, deeply committed to improve relations with the Orthodox and Old Catholics. He founded the Sisters of the Holy Nativity.

Perhaps the most famous event during Grafton’s long episcopate was the ordination of his successor in 1900. He invited the Russian Orthodox Bishop Tikhon and the Old Catholic Bishop Anthony Kozlowski to participate. The service stirred up furor across the country with the publication of a photograph (called derisively “The Fond du Lac Circus”) that showed all eight Episcopal bishops and the two visiting bishops in cope and miter. It caused a church-wide furor over ritual and vestments that lasted for over six months, with accusations and threats of ecclesiastical trial flying from all corners, and with scurrilous attacks and virulent justifications. When the dust finally settled, the legitimacy of traditional catholic ritual and vestments had thereafter gained a permanent place in the liturgy in the Episcopal Church.

Bishop Grafton died August 30, 1912." https://standingcommissiononliturgyandmusic.org/2010/08/30/august-30-charles-chapman-grafton-bishop-of-fond-du-lac-and-ecumenist-1912/?fbclid=IwAR1IT0razgGr8ej43sHJuYAOVF2zzPGUsAb-CeE8rtP5rc8eF6Fu-L_wpYI/

Prayer
Loving God, you called Charles Chapman Grafton to be a bishop in your Church and endowed him with a burning zeal for souls: Grant that, following his example, we may ever live for the extension of your kingdom, that your glory may be the chief end of our lives, your will the law of our conduct, your love the motive of our actions, and Christ’s life the model and mold of our own; through the same Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, throughout all ages. Amen.

08/29/2022

Remembering THE BEHEADING OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST, August 29, This commemoration appears in Lesser Feasts & Fasts 2018 for trial use. commentary from Satucket. com:

The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist commemorates the martyrdom by beheading of John the Baptist on the orders of Herod Antipas through the vengeful request of his step-daughter Salome and her mother Herodias.

According to the Synoptic Gospels, Herod, who was tetrarch, or sub-king, of Galilee under the Roman Empire, had imprisoned John the Baptist because he reproved Herod for divorcing his wife (Phasaelis, daughter of King Aretas of Nabataea) and unlawfully taking Herodias, the wife of his brother Herod Philip I. On Herod's birthday, Herodias' daughter (whom Josephus identifies as Salome) danced before the king and his guests. Her dancing pleased Herod so much that in his drunkenness he promised to give her anything she desired, up to half of his kingdom. When Salome asked her mother what she should request, she was told to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Although Herod was appalled by the request, he reluctantly agreed and had John executed in the prison.

The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus also relates in his Antiquities of the Jews that Herod killed John, stating that he did so, "lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his [John's] power and inclination to raise a rebellion, (for they seemed ready to do any thing he should advise), [so Herod] thought it best [to put] him to death." He further states that many of the Jews believed that the military disaster that fell upon Herod at the hands of Aretas, his father-in-law (Phasaelis' father), was God's punishment for his unrighteous behavior.

None of the sources gives an exact date, which was probably in the years 28–29 AD (Matthew 14:1-12; Mark 6:14-27; Luke 9:9) after imprisoning John the Baptist in 27 AD at the behest of Herodias his brother's wife whom he took as his mistress. According to Josephus, the death took place at the fortress of Machaerus.
http://satucket.com/lectionary/beheading_John_the_Baptist.html

Prayer
Almighty God, who called your servant John the Baptist to go before your Son our Lord both in life and death; grant that we who remember his witness may with boldness speak your truth and in humility hear it when it is spoken to us, through Jesus Christ, the firstborn from the dead, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns one God forever and ever. Amen.

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