From the Rector
This Sunday we have much to celebrate! A king has been crowned. It is Mother’s Day. We have parishioners being confirmed and reaffirming their faith. And Bishop John will be with us! I hope you’ll come and join in the festivities!
In addition to all this, the sixth Sunday of Easter is also traditionally known as Rogation Sunday. Rogation Days are technically the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday preceding Ascension Day. (That’s this Thursday, May 18, if you’ve lost track of where we are in Easter season.) They likely evolved from the Roman festival of Robigalia, which prayed for the protection of the crop from mildew. Their Christian origin is often ascribed to St. Mamertius of Vienne in the fifth century, who ordered processional litanies to be sung when his diocese was threatened by volcanic eruptions. Rogation Days were adopted in England in the eighth century, and were observed with outdoor processions “beating the bounds” of the parish, walking around the perimeter of the geographic area of the parish and blessing the fields.1
The readings and prayers prescribed for Rogation Days emphasize fruitful seasons, as we pray for the coming harvest. In addition, they call to mind the reality that, as we say in a beautiful prayer at compline, “Our common life depends upon each other’s toil.” The poet George Herbert interpreted the Rogation procession as a means of asking for God’s blessing on the land, of preserving boundaries, of encouraging fellowship between neighbours with the reconciling of differences, and of charitable giving to the poor.2 We pray, therefore, not just for the earth and its crops, but for all those who work in agriculture and fishing, as well as for ourselves, that we might be good and responsible stewards of all that has been entrusted to us.
If you are a gardener, I’d like to invite you to bring something with you that symbolizes your garden. Perhaps you have seeds or bulbs to be planted, whether outdoors or in a countertop herb garden. Or maybe you would like to bring a small tool or some gardening gloves. You could even bring a container of soil (just please make sure it’s sealed tightly!). At the end of the service, Bishop John will be delighted to bless the symbols of our labour as we pray for God’s blessing upon the growing season ahead.
Love,
Mother Terry+
1 Leonel Mitchell, Pastoral and Occasional Liturgies: A Ceremonial Guide (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield), 41.
2 The Church of England, Common Worship (https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/times-and-seasons-4#:~:text=The%20Rogation%20Days%20(from%20the,of%20Easter%20in%20Common%20Worship).)