Saturday, January 19, 2008

Wulfstan of Worcester: January 19; Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Wulfstan of Worcester is the saint of the day in our Episcopal calendar today, January 19.

Wulfstan was one of the few Saxon bishops who survived, administratively speaking, after William the Conqueror showed up. He is best known for his opposition to the slave trade in Western England.

This is the 6th anniversary of my formal reception into the Episcopal Church. (I became a member of an Episcopal congregation in the second half of the previous year and had been in discernment about the move for a year before that.) For this and so much else, I give thanks.

It is also the second day of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.* As an ecumenist, I love this holy coincidence.

* I just found out when looking for a link that this year is the Week's centenary celebration! Click on the link above for more info.

Most of the text of this post is taken from a group letter to friends two years ago.

3 comments:

June Butler said...

Happy Anglican Birthday! I'm at 10 or 11 years, but I don't remember the date. Should I? I could look it up.

OK, I looked it up: October 12, 1997.

I took the inquirers' class the year before, but I chickened out before the bishop's visit. I wasn't received until a year later. It was better that I waited.

johnieb said...

Oooo, Mimi! I thought I was the latest arrival among us; I go back to 1991, I think. Maybe 1990.

Ken said...

October 15, 2000, under the outstretched hands of the former Bishop of Southern Virginia, David Bane. He was visiting New Jersey to baptize a new grandchild in the parish to which I now belong. He is one of the best men I have ever met.