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©1999 The Society of Archbishop Justus, Ltd

Hallo again to all.

Usually at Anglicans Online we talk about the church calendar in advance: we mention Easter topics during Lent, and so forth. But the past few weeks have been such a blur that we have hardly had time for reflection. The Church Times observed that 'there seemed also to be rather more Sundays than one might have expected, so that dutiful attendance combined with joyful to make it a period solid with faith.'

We at Anglicans Online try to spend more time thinking and less time writing. We figure that there have been a lot of words written about Christianity, and that nobody has read most of them. We want to be sparing in creating yet more words. Like us, you may have felt that the secularisation of Christmas is overwhelming, and that it's hard any more to make the primary focus of that day be Christ. But Three Kings Day, Epiphany, the Twelfth Day of Christmas, January 6, has not been claimed by any merchandisers, greeting-card publishers, red-nosed reindeer, or grinches. Three Kings Day is the day we celebrate the recognition of Jesus by foreign kings.

For centuries the Hispanic Christian world has made Three Kings Day an important event. We would like to suggest that Anglicans everywhere can help recover the religious basis of Christmas by moving their attention to the end of the Christmas season, to Epiphany, to Three Kings Day, instead of the beginning. Next year in time for the Christmas season we hope to have a greatly expanded collection of Twelfth Night ceremonies, liturgies, and traditions to tell you about. If your parish has a cherished Twelfth Night tradition, please do tell us about it.

We are delighted to have a huge collection of newly-listed resources, parishes, and dioceses this week. As always, you fill find the complete collection in our New This Week section. We are particularly thrilled to list new web pages for Spain, Liberia, Brazil, Japan, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico. We are always happy to get new listings for parishes in any country, which this week we have in Canada, the US, and England.

Don't forget our News Centre. Anglican newsmakers have climbed out of their Y2K bunkers and have resumed the activities that attract the attention of reporters. No news about sex or violence this week, though.

A faculty member of a theological college wants to track down images of the leading figures in the first six centuries of church history to use for class presentations and web-based resources. Are you part of a parish named for a patristic-period saint (especially the more obscure ones)? Do you have access to photos of stained-glass windows, statuary, or painted ornamentation on websites or on postcards? If so, please email Professor AKM Adam, who will gratefully acknowledge all sources.

See you next week.

Cynthia McFarland cmcf@justus.anglican.org		Brian Reid reid@justus.anglican.org

Last updated: 9 January 2000
URL: http://anglicansonline.org