'Coronatide'
Dearly beloved in Christ,
Recently, a clever clergyman characterised our current situation as the liturgical season of 'Coronatide,' and indeed a very long season it has already proven to be. The past six week period has been unlike anything anyone alive has ever experienced and witnessed, as we now continue to live through the coronavirus pandemic, the worst international health crisis since the 1918 Spanish influenza outbreak. The year 2020 will already be recorded in infamy in the history books. We may call it a plague or a pestilence - and it has compelled us to remain in our homes, sheltering in place, effectively quarantined. For the first time in American history, almost all Churches have been closed, in order to contribute to the effort of slowing the spread of coronavirus and in order to help protect and preserve the lives of our own people and others.
Please know we love you, we care for you, and we are praying daily for you and for your health, safety, and peace. Please feel free always to contact me personally on 404.313.9448 and bspchj@gmail.com. We are here for you, and available to provide pastoral and spiritual support via telephone. In turn, we ask you please to pray for our Church family, for our clergy and people, and for the work and mission of our Church.
Please continue to support us with your prayers and, yes, your financial giving. We need your financial contributions now more than ever. One may donate electronically by using the feature located on our parish website. For the most updated parish information available as the pandemic continues to unfold, please visit our website on www.stbarnabasatl.org.
In the midst of this coronavirus crisis, we have now commemorated the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ during Holy Week, and we have celebrated His glorious Resurrection during Easter Week. Jesus Christ lives. Jesus Christ reigns. Jesus Christ is Lord. Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat! – Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands. 'Our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen' (I Timothy 6.15-16).
We are reminded in this holy season that Our Lord’s real human death is unrepeatable and has resulted in His ultimate physical glorification and immortality: because Christ destroyed death by His own death, to which He was freely and voluntarily subject, His risen humanity, body and soul, is forever victorious over death. Now for all eternity Christ lives, Christ conquers, Christ reigns – and we shall live, conquer, and reign because of Him, in Him, and through Him and for Him.
Christ has destroyed the power of sin through death, and, thus united to Him in His death, we shall overcome sin and live forever in Him. No longer should we fear death, for Christ has overthrown death. He has conquered our own death and will manifest that victory in our own bodies in our own resurrection on the Last Day. The Christian, the one found in Jesus, already possesses the victory!
'For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's' (Romans 14.8) 'Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, Jesus also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage' (Hebrews 2.14-15).
In I Corinthians 15.20-22, Saint Paul uses the ancient Jewish liturgy to explain the mystery of the Resurrection. In ancient Israel, the first portion of a crop was offered to God in the Temple as a consecration of the entire expected harvest to come (Leviticus 23.10-14); so the Lord Jesus is the first of many to be raised in glory, and His resurrection Body is an offering that ensures a whole harvest of believers will be raised to eternal life as He was. The contrast of Adam and Christ demonstrates the power and impact of Our Lord’s Resurrection. Death is the result of sin. Sin began with and in Adam, and because of Adam’s transgression, the totality of the human race since has been destined to enter the world alienated from God and to die.
Christ saves us from death, because His victory over sin reverses the disobedience and consequences of Adam’s fall and provides us with the promise that our fallen and mortal bodies, once broken by sin, will be raised to eternal glory and new life. Christ, the New Man, the New Adam, the New Creation, restores us to communion with God by His glorification and healing of our human nature. Adam was the head of a wounded and corrupted humanity; Christ is the Head of the New Creation, the Church.
At this unprecedented time, we are employing digital technology and video broadcasting in order to make the Liturgy available to the faithful who are sheltering in place at home. 'Virtual' liturgy is not ideal, of course, but it is certainly the best option we have during this unparalleled situation. The broadcast of the Liturgy enables us to unite our hearts, minds, and souls with the offering of the Church's Sacrifice and invites us into an active and engaged participation in the worship of the Church, in union with our fellow Christians, our Church family. We can draw together with our fellow parishioners in a spiritual way and feel that we are with them as the Church's Liturgy is celebrated. We are able to join our own prayers, intentions, and sacrifices, our own adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication, with the whole Catholic and Apostolic Church across time and around the world - in a virtual format. We are able through prayer to 'plug into' the Action of Christ in His Mystical Body, the Church.
The virtual liturgy also allows us to witness, both live and in recording, the actual Sacrifice of the Mass, the Consecration of the Precious Body and Blood of Christ, and the offering of the Eternal Sacrifice of Calvary made present on our Altars. The Church extends us the opportunity to make our own intentions and to offer them in spirit with Our Lord in the offering of the Eucharist. One may feel free to cross oneself, kneel, stand, and sit as one would usually do in Church. In beholding the Mass, we may say with Blessed Lancelot Andrewes, 'It is finished and done, so far as in our power, Christ our God, the Mystery of thy dispensation. For we have held remembrance of thy Death, we have seen the figure of thy Resurrection, whereof graciously vouchsafe to make us all partakers in the world to come.'
Additionally, one may make the Act of Spiritual Communion during the Holy Communion of the Celebrant, using the form provided on the website. As the Book of Common Prayer teaches, 'But if a man, either by reason of extremity of sickness, or for want of warning in due time to the Minister, or by any other just impediment, do not receive the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood, the Minister shall instruct him, that if he do truly repent him of his sins, and stedfastly believe that Jesus Christ hath suffered death upon the Cross for him, and shed his Blood for his redemption, earnestly remembering the benefits he hath thereby, and giving him hearty thanks therefor, he doth eat and drink the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ profitably to his soul's health, although he do not receive the Sacrament with his mouth' (Page 323).
Please watch our liturgies and sermons on the parish website, on our YouTube channel, and on our Facebook page.
When, one may understandably ask, will Saint Barnabas reopen for public worship? At this time, we do not yet know when we will be able once again to open worship to the public. Currently, all parishioners are dispensed from the Sunday obligation of attendance at Holy Communion until further notice. Please remember that the Church has the authority to dispense from the ecclesiastical requirement to attend Mass on Sunday, and she has done so in this case. Please remember that until the Georgia statewide stay-at-home order is lifted, Saint Barnabas will have to remain closed. We are generally following the guidance provided by our local, state, and federal authorities and institutions, the Georgia Department of Health, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Johns Hopkins University, and also following the guidelines provided by our sister Apostolic Churches in the Atlanta metropolitan area, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese. As soon as it possible and safe to do so, we shall resume our Sunday schedule.
In the fullness of time, we pray that we shall be able to send notice that we shall return to something of a usual way of doing things. But in the meantime, each one of you abides in my love, my prayers, my heart.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia! May the Lord Jesus Christ, our True God, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world and risen from the dead, bless you and all you love in this Eastertide.
God bless you!
+Chad
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