darkness. Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.’
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Luke 11.33–36
Post Communion
God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with William Law
to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
10 April
William of Ockham
Friar, Philosopher, Teacher of the Faith
England: Commemoration
If celebrated otherwise, Common of Teachers
Born at Ockham in Surrey in about the year 1285, William entered the Franciscan Order and, as a friar, studied and then taught at Oxford. His writings were ever the subject of close scrutiny, this being a time when heresy was suspected everywhere, it seemed, but he never received any formal condemnation. Later in life, he entered the controversy between the rival popes and had to flee for his life. His much-used principle of economy – often referred to as ‘Occam’s Razor’ – stated that only individual things exist and that they are directly understood by the thinking mind and that this intuitive knowledge is caused naturally. His doctrine of God led him to destroy the thirteenth-century concept of the relationship between theology and philosophy and took the study of the philosophy of religion onto a new level. He died on this day in the year 1347.
11 April
George Augustus Selwyn
first Bishop of New Zealand
England, Scotland: Commemoration – Wales: V
If celebrated otherwise, Common of Bishops
George Augustus Selwyn was born in 1809, educated at Cambridge and ordained as curate of Windsor. In 1841 he was made the first Bishop of New Zealand and remained there for twenty-seven years, during the first years travelling when few roads or bridges existed. In the wars between colonists and Maoris he stood out heroically for Maori rights, at the cost of fierce attacks from both sides and grave personal danger in his efforts to part the warriors, until later he was revered as one of the founders of New Zealand as well as of its Church. He taught himself to navigate and gathered congregations in the Melanesian Islands. His constitution for the New Zealand Church influenced the churches of the Anglican Communion and he was a chief founder of the Lambeth Conferences of bishops. In 1868 he was persuaded to become the Bishop of Lichfield in England and died there on this day in 1878.
Collect (Wales)
Jesus, incarnate God,
good news for all who have ears to hear and eyes to see:
we thank you for George [Augustus Selwyn]
and for all who bring the gospel to New Zealand and Melanesia:
raise up in this and every land
heralds and evangelists of your kingdom,
and hasten the time when the earth is filled with your glory;
for with the Father and the Holy Spirit
you live and reign,
God for ever.
12 April
William Forbes
Bishop of Edinburgh
Scotland: Commemoration
If celebrated otherwise, Common of Bishops
Born in Aberdeen in 1585, William Forbes was for a time Professor of Logic in the university there. He ministered in Alford and Monyausk, then at St Nicholas’ Church, Aberdeen. A theologian of European rank, his strongly patristic, eucharistic theology led him into controversy. His work has been used in international talks between Anglicans and Roman Catholics in modern times. He was nominated by Charles I in 1633 to be first bishop of Edinburgh, but he died within two months of his consecration.
15 April
Padarn
Bishop
Wales: V
If celebrated otherwise, Common of Bishops
The Welsh Triads describe Padarn as one of the ‘three blessed visitors of the Island of Britain’, along with David and Teilo. There is a tradition that the three saints travelled together on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It is said that Padarn was presented with a choral cope there and the saint has thus become regarded as a singer and musician. Padarn founded a major ecclesiastical centre at Llanbadarn Fawr in Ceredigion, of which he may have been the first bishop. Padarn’s churches may be linked to the network of Roman roads and this might suggest that this connects the saint with residual Romano-British Christianity in mid-Wales (Padarn being the Welsh version of the common Latin name Paternus). This could imply that his missionary work preceded that of his two fellow ‘blessed visitors’.
Collect
Almighty God,
by whose permission
Padarn was invested with the staff of pastoral authority
and called to govern the Church in our land:
grant to those who follow in his office
grace to be faithful shepherds of your flock,
healing the wounds of those entrusted to their care;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
whom by the power of the Spirit
you raised to live with you,
his God and Father,
for ever and ever.
16 April
Magnus of Orkney
Martyr
Scotland: Commemoration
If celebrated otherwise, Common of Martyrs
At the end of the eleventh century, the Earldom of Orkney was divided between cousins Haakon Paulson and Magnus Erlingsson, one a war-like Viking chief, the other a man of peace. They ruled jointly but uneasily for some years, but eventually Haakon claimed sole sovereignty. A council was called for Easter 1116, but Haakon arrived with a large force and refused to allow Magnus the option of flight or exile. Magnus faced his death heroically and with faith. The shrine for his remains, Kirkwall Cathedral, was erected only twenty years after his murder.
16 April
Isabella Gilmore
Deaconess
England: Commemoration
If celebrated otherwise, Common of Pastors
Born in 1842, Isabella Gilmore, the sister of William Morris, was a nurse at Guy’s Hospital in London and in 1886, was asked by Bishop Thorold of Rochester to pioneer deaconess work in his diocese. The bishop overcame Isabella’s initial reluctance and together they planned an Order of Deaconesses along the same lines as the ordained ministry. She was made a deaconess in 1887 and a training house developed