St. John's Church

Our Weekly Bulletin and Parish News contains important information about the Worship Services and Activities at St. John’s Anglican Church. You can view the latest issue or refer to one of our previous bulletins.

In the Weekly Bulletin and Parish News for Sunday, July 8, 2018:

A New Addition
We have a new addition to the office! Our very own Christy Medina has taken on the role of church secretary. If you haven’t met her, stop by the church during office hours to say hi!

Adopt-a-door
Would you be able to adopt-a-door and help us pay to refinish and restore our outside doors? We are in the process of doing just that. Philip Stanback is doing the work. He is sanding the solid oak doors down and properly restoring and refinishing each one. It costs us roughly $300.00 to fully finish one door. Can you adopt-a-door? If not any part of that will help us out a great deal. You can make your contribution online from our Parish Website. Go to www.stjohnsfortworth.com and click on “Online Giving” from the front page. Find the option “Adopt-a-Door”. Thank you so much, Gerald Gregory, Jr. Warden.

The Fraction
The words, “Alleluia, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the Feast, Alleluia” are the opening words of the “Pascha Nostrum” (BCP 46 or 83) which is a canticle used in Morning Prayer during Eastertide. The canticle is composed of the words from 1 Corinthians 5:7–8, Romans 6:9–11, and 1 Corinthians 15:20–22.

But, these words are also repeated weekly at the Holy Eucharist during the “Fraction Rite”. This is when the consecrated Bread is broken and elevated to God. These words have been said at the conclusion of the consecration since the 1979 Prayer Book. They will remain in the 2019 Book of Common Prayer for ACNA. Now, what’s important is to note how the words are composed in the present tense. This declares that what is now before us when the Holy Spirit consecrates the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ is the on-going, living reality of the sacrifice of Christ.

Is this important? Most certainly. The sacrifice of Christ is not something that is locked into the past, only to be recalled as a fact of history. The reason Christ celebrated the Passover meal in the style and way He did on Maundy Thursday is so that sacramentally He could make His historic sacrifice an on-going, living reality until His return in glory.

In doing it this way, every soul baptized into Christ has living contact with and communion with the sacrifice of Christ that brings them salvation.

Let us be grateful that our Holy Eucharist is the historic sacramental service Christ gave to the Apostles over 2000 years ago. Let us be grateful to Feast on this divine Mystery every week! Amen.