2010 – Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music

December 31: Samuel Ajayi Crowther, Bishop in the Niger Territories, 1891

December 31, 2010gcoffice46 Comments

Welcome to the Holy Women, Holy Men blog! We invite you to read about this commemoration, use the collect and lessons in prayer, whether individually or in corporate worship, then tell us what you think. For more information about this project, click here.

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About this commemoration

In Canterbury Cathedral on St. Peter’s Day, June 29, 1864, Samuel Ajayi Crowther (c. 1807 – 1891) was ordained the first African bishop in Nigeria for “the countries of Western Africa beyond the limits of the Queen’s domains.”

Crowther’s gifts to the church were many. A skilled linguist, he helped translate the Bible and Book of Common Prayer into Yoruba and other West African languages. He founded schools and training colleges, where he encouraged the study of the Gospel, traditional subjects, and farming methods that allowed students to raise basic crops and cotton as sources of income. As a child, Crowther had been captured in 1822 during a Nigerian civil war and sold to Portuguese slave traders. Intercepted by a British anti-slavery patrol, the ship and its human cargo were taken to Freetown, Sierra Leone, a haven for freed captives after the British Parliament abolished the slave trade in 1807. There Crowther was educated at a Church Missionary Society (CMS) school, was baptized in 1825, and became a teacher in Sierra Leone, an active center of African Christian ministry that sent indigenous lay and ordained ministers throughout West Africa.

Crowther’s leadership skills were soon evident, and in 1842 the CMS sent him to their Islington, England, training college. He was ordained a year later, returned to Sierra Leone, and then moved on to Yoruba territory. He also made extended mission journeys to the interior of Nigeria, where in encounters with Muslims he was known as a humble, patient listener and a thoughtful, non-polemical partner in dialogue.

At the time of his ordination as bishop, the British tried to keep missionary activity solely under the control of white British clerics, some of whom set about subverting Crowther’s authority, something he patiently endured, while actively continuing his expansive work among Africans. Despite the difficulties, Crowther’s achievement was considerable, and he has been called the most widely known African Christian of the nineteenth century. He created a solid base from which a much later generation of indigenous African leadership emerged to chart their own political and ecclesial futures.

Collects

I Almighty God, who didst rescue Samuel Ajayi Crowther from slavery, sent him to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ to his people in Nigeria, and made him the first bishop from the people of West Africa: Grant that those who follow in his steps may reap what he has sown and find abundant help for the harvest; through him who took upon himself the form of a slave that we might be free, the same Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

II Almighty God, you rescued Samuel Ajayi Crowther from slavery, sent him to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ to his people in Nigeria, and made him the first bishop from the people of West Africa: Grant that those who follow in his steps may reap what he has sown and find abundant help for the harvest; through him who took upon himself the form of a slave that we might be free, the same Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Lessons

Isaiah 60:4–9

Romans 8:15–23

Matthew 9:35–38

Psalm

119:57–64

Preface of Pentecost

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December 30: Frances Joseph Gaudet, Educator and Prison Reformer, 1934

December 30, 2010gcoffice9 Comments

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About this commemoration

Frances was born in a log cabin in Holmesville, Mississippi, in 1861, of African American and Native American descent. Raised by her grandparents, she later went to live with a brother in New Orleans where she attended school and Straight College.

While still a young woman, Gaudet dedicated her life to prison reform. In 1894, she began holding prayer meetings for Black prisoners. She wrote letters for them, delivered messages, and found them clothing. Later, she extended this ministry to white prisoners as well. Her dedication to the imprisoned and to penal reform won her the respect of prison officials, city authorities, the governor of Louisiana, and the Prison Reform Association.

In 1900 she was a delegate to the international convention of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in Edinburgh, Scotland. Gaudet worked to rehabilitate young Blacks arrested for misdemeanors or vagrancy, becoming the first woman to support young offenders in Louisiana. Her efforts helped to found the Juvenile Court.

Deeply committed to the provision of good education, she eventually purchased a farm and founded the Gaudet Normal and Industrial School. Eventually, it expanded to over 105 acres with numerous buildings, and also served as a boarding school for children with working mothers. Gaudet served as its principal until 1921, when she donated the institution to the Episcopal Church in Louisiana. Though it closed in 1950, the Gaudet Episcopal Home opened in the same location four years later to serve African American children aged four to 16.

Frances Joseph Gaudet died on December 30, 1934.

Collects

I Merciful God, who didst raise up thy servant Frances Joseph Gaudet to work for prison reform and the education of her people: Grant that we, encouraged by the example of her life, may work for those who are denied the fullness of life by reasons of incarceration and lack of access to education; through Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

II Merciful God, who raised up your servant Frances Joseph Gaudet to work for prison reform and the education of
her people: Grant that we, encouraged by the example of her life, may work for those who are denied the fullness
of life by reasons of incarceration and lack of access to education; through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Lessons

Lamentations 3:26–36

Acts 16:25–34

John 13:31–35

Psalm

146

Preface of a Saint (2)

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December 29: Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1170

December 29, 2010gcoffice15 Comments

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About this commemoration

The life and death of Thomas Becket have intrigued scholars and church people for centuries. Was he a politician or a saint? or perhaps both?

He was born in London in 1118 of a wealthy Norman family and educated in England and in France. He then became an administrator for Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury. Later he was sent to study law in Italy and France and, after being ordained deacon, he was appointed Archdeacon of Canterbury. His administrative skills eventually brought him to the notice of King Henry II, who to Thomas’s surprise, appointed him Chancellor of England. He and the King became intimate friends, and because of Becket’s unquestioning loyalty and support of the King’s interests in both Church and State, Henry secured Thomas’s election as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162. Becket, foreseeing a break with his Royal Master, was reluctant to accept. As Archbishop he changed, as he tells us, “from a patron of play actors and a follower of hounds, to being a shepherd of souls.”

He also defended the interests of the Church against those of his former friend and patron, the King. The struggle between the two became so bitter that Thomas sought exile at an abbey in France. When he returned to England six years later, the fragile reconciliation between Henry and the Archbishop broke down. In a fit of rage the King is alleged to have asked his courtiers, “Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?” Four barons, taking Henry’s words as an order, made their way to Canterbury, and upon finding the Archbishop in the cathedral, struck him down with their swords. Later, when the monks of Canterbury undressed Thomas’s body to wash it and prepare it for burial, they discovered that under his episcopal robes their worldly and determined Archbishop was wearing a hair shirt. While such a garment hardly proves that a person is a saint, it clearly indicates that Thomas was motivated in the exercise of his office by far more than political considerations. His final words to the four barons before receiving the fatal blow were, “Willingly I die for the name of Jesus and in the defense of the Church.”

Collects

I O God, our strength and our salvation, who didst call thy servant Thomas Becket to be a shepherd of thy people and a defender of thy Church: Keep thy household from all evil and raise up among us faithful pastors and leaders who are wise in the ways of the Gospel; through Jesus Christ the shepherd of our souls, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

II O God, our strength and our salvation, you called your servant Thomas Becket to be a shepherd of your people and a defender of your Church: Keep your household from all evil and raise up among us faithful pastors and leaders who are wise in the ways of the Gospel; through Jesus Christ the shepherd of our souls, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Lessons

2 Esdras 2:42–48

1 John 2:3–6,15–17

Mark 11:24–33

Psalm

125

Preface of a Saint (3)

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December 22: Henry Budd, Priest, 1875

December 23, 2010gcoffice16 Comments

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About this commemoration

Henry Budd was the first person of First Nations ancestry to be ordained in the Anglican tradition in North America. He is remembered for his service among the Cree in Western Canada. Budd was an orphan and the date of his birth is unknown. He entered a mission school that was a joint venture with the Hudson’s Bay Company to provide a Christian education to the First Nations people in the area of Rupert’s Land, the vast expanse of land that encircled Hudson Bay before its division into Canadian provinces. Before embarking on a vocation as a priest and teacher, he worked as a clerk for the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Henry Budd’s ministry began as a lay teacher in the Red River region of Manitoba where he taught at St. John’s Anglican Parish School. He and his wife, Betsy, remained in the area for the next thirteen years where Budd taught school and served as a lay minister in the Anglican Church.

Ordained to the Anglican priesthood on December 22, 1850, having been trained largely by personal mentoring and tutoring from other clergy, Budd was assigned to the Mission at Nipawim where he worked as a pastor until 1867. Thereafter, Budd returned to The Pas where he was put in charge of a vast area encompassing several communities, and where he continued his vocation as both priest and teacher. Sadly, records of the Church Missionary Society indicate that Budd, a person of native, mixed race, was paid half of what the white missionaries were paid.

Henry Budd is remembered as an eloquent speaker and writer in both Cree and English. He endeared himself to those he served by exhibiting clearly in the living of his life the Christian principles he preached and the values he taught. Enduring among his many contributions are his translations of the Scriptures and the Book of Common Prayer into the Cree language.

Budd died on April 2, 1875, just a few days after he had conducted Easter services. He is buried in The Pas, Manitoba.

Collects

I Creator of light, we offer thanks for thy priest Henry Budd, who carried the great treasure of Scripture to his people the Cree nation, earning their trust and love. Grant that his example may call us to reverence, orderliness and love, that we may give thee glory in word and action; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

II Creator of light, we thank you for your priest Henry Budd, who carried the great treasure of Scripture to his people
the Cree nation, earning their trust and love. Grant that his example may call us to reverence, orderliness and love, that we may give you glory in word and action; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who with you and the Holy Spirit
lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Lessons

Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 11:1–6,14,17

1 Thessalonians 5:13–18

John 14:15–21

Psalm

Preface of a Saint (2)

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December 22: Charlotte Diggs (Lottie) Moon, Missionary in China, 1912

December 23, 2010gcoffice12 Comments

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About this commemoration

Born in Virginia, in 1840, Charlotte Diggs (Lottie) Moon was the child of pious, and affluent, Baptist parents. Precocious in schooling, she received an M.A. in Classics, thereby earning one of the first graduate degrees awarded a woman in the South. She had a gift for languages, learning first the Biblical and Romance languages—and then later, and famously, Mandarin.

Lottie Moon’s piety lagged behind her learning, and through her teens she remained indifferent to her Baptist heritage. During a revival at age eighteen, she experienced a powerful conversion and devoted the rest of her life to Christ.

After college, Moon taught school in Alabama, Kentucky, and Georgia, one of the few occupations open to educated women in the South. Another vocation became available to her when Southern Baptists began to appoint women as foreign missionaries in 1872, and the following year, at age 33, Moon accepted an appointment in China.

Moon settled in Northern China and continued her work of education for girls. She soon became restless in teaching and she began evangelizing among adults, particularly women. Her supervisors disapproved of her initiative, but Moon quickly gained credibility because of her ease in relating, woman-to-woman.

Lottie Moon’s ceaseless correspondence with Baptist women in the United States, seeking their support and encouraging would-be missionaries, was instrumental in the denomination’s burgeoning missionary movement. She appealed to women for a special offering for missionaries at Christmastime in 1887. Her influence led to the formation of the Women’s Missionary Union in 1888, which continues the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering as a hallmark of Southern Baptist practice.

On arriving in China, Moon remained aloof from the Chinese, thinking them her cultural inferiors. Over time, however, she found a deep respect for Chinese culture, adopting not only their language but their dress and customs. As she wrote, “It is comparatively easy to give oneself to mission work, but it is not easy to give oneself to an alien people. Yet the latter is much better and truer work than the former.”

Lottie Moon died on Christmas Eve, 1912.

Collects

I O God, who in Christ Jesus hast brought Good News to those who are far off and to those who are near: We praise thee for awakening in thy servant Lottie Moon a zeal for thy mission and for her faithful witness among the peoples of China. Stir up in us the same desire for thy work throughout the world, and give us the grace and means to accomplish it; through the same Jesus Christ our Savior, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

II O God, in Christ Jesus you have brought Good News to those who are far off and to those who are near: We praise you for awakening in your servant Lottie Moon a zeal for your mission and for her faithful witness among the peoples of China. Stir up in us the same desire for your work throughout the world, and give us the grace and means to accomplish it; through the same Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Lessons

Ruth 1:15–19a

2 Corinthians 5:16–21

John 1:29–33

Psalm

148:1–6

Preface of a Saint (2)

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December 21: Saint Thomas the Apostle

December 21, 2010gcoffice15 Comments

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About this commemoration

The Gospel according to John records several incidents in which Thomas appears, and from them we are able to gain some impression of the sort of man he was. When Jesus insisted on going to Judea, to visit his friends at Bethany, Thomas boldly declared, “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (John 11:16). At the Last Supper, he interrupted our Lord’s discourse with the question, “Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” (John 14:5).

And after Christ’s resurrection, Thomas would not accept the account of the other apostles and the women, until Jesus appeared before him, showing him his wounds. This drew from him the first explicit acknowledgment of Christ’s Godhead, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

Thomas appears to have been a thoughtful if rather literal-minded man, inclined to scepticism; but he was a staunch friend when his loyalty was once given. The expression “Doubting Thomas,” which has become established in English usage, is not entirely fair to Thomas. He did not refuse belief: he wanted to believe, but did not dare, without further evidence. Because of his goodwill, Jesus gave him a sign, though Jesus had refused a sign to the Pharisees. His Lord’s rebuke was well deserved: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (John 20:29). The sign did not create faith; it merely released the faith which was in Thomas already.

According to an early tradition mentioned by Eusebius and others, Thomas evangelized the Parthians. Syrian Christians of Malabar, India, who call themselves the Mar Thoma Church, cherish a tradition that Thomas brought the Gospel to India. Several apocryphal writings have been attributed to him, the most prominent and interesting being the “Gospel of Thomas.” Thomas’ honest questioning and doubt, and Jesus’ assuring response to him, have given many modern Christians courage to persist in faith, even when they are still doubting and questioning.

Collects

I Everliving God, who didst strengthen thine apostle Thomas with sure and certain faith in thy Son’s resurrection: Grant us so perfectly and without doubt to believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God, that our faith may never be found wanting in thy sight; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

II Everliving God, who strengthened your apostle Thomas with firm and certain faith in your Son’s resurrection:
Grant us so perfectly and without doubt to believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God, that our faith may never be
found wanting in your sight; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for
ever. Amen.

Lessons

Habakkuk 2:1–4

Hebrews 10:35–11:1

John 20:24–29

Psalm

126

Preface of Apostles

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December 19: Lillian Trasher, Missionary in Egypt, 1961

December 19, 2010gcoffice17 Comments

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About this commemoration

Lillian Hunt Trasher was born in 1887 in Brunswick, Georgia. As a young woman she worked at an orphanage in North Carolina, not knowing at the time that her life’s work would be devoted to caring for abandoned children.

In 1909, while engaged to a man she loved deeply, she heard the testimony of a missionary from India, and she was aware at that moment that she could not be married. God had called her to service as a missionary. Not knowing where she would go, she opened her Bible and read Acts 7:34: “I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee to Egypt.”

In 1910, she arrived in Alexandria, Egypt, with her sister Jenny, and they found their way to the village of Asyut near the Nile. Shortly after arriving, Lillian was called to the bedside of a dying mother whose malnourished daughter was also near death. Though ordered by the mission directors to return the child to the village, Lillian refused to abandon her to poverty and certain death. In 1911 she rented a small house and some furniture and nursed the child back to health.

As she took in additional children, she had to rely on charity, though she eventually received aid from the newly formed Assemblies of God in the United States. In 1916 she was able to purchase additional land, the buildings for which were built from bricks which Lillian and the older children made themselves. In 1919 she was ordered out of the country by the British government in the midst of political turmoil, and when she returned, she took in widows and the blind in addition to children. Despite the Nazi invasion of Egypt and the subsequent violence during World War II, she kept her orphanage running. When she died in 1961, she had become known as the “Mother of the Nile”and had cared for nearly 25,000 Egyptian children. Her orphanage remains open today.

Collects

I God, whose everlasting arms support the universe: We offer thanks for moving the heart of Lillian Trasher to heroic hospitality on behalf of orphaned children in great need, and we pray that we also may find our hearts awakened and our compassion stirred to care for thy little ones, through the example of our Savior Jesus Christ and by the energy of thy Holy Spirit, who broodeth over the world as a mother over her children; for they live and reign with thee, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

II God, whose everlasting arms support the universe: We thank you for moving the heart of Lillian Trasher to heroic hospitality on behalf of orphaned children in great need, and we pray that we also may find our hearts awakened and our compassion stirred to care for your little ones, through the example of our Savior Jesus Christ and by the energy of your Holy Spirit, who broods over the world like a mother over her children; for they live and reign with you, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Lessons

Genesis 21:8–21

2 Corinthians 1:3–7

Luke 17:1–6

Psalm

10:12–19

Preface of a Saint (1)

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December 17: William Llyod Garrison and Maria Stewart, Prophetic Witnesses, 1879

December 17, 2010gcoffice15 Comments

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About this commemoration

William Lloyd Garrison was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in
1805. His father, a sailor, had abandoned the family when he was five
years old. His experience of poverty at a young age awakened in him
a religious zeal for justice and a hatred for slavery. After working on a
Quaker periodical in Baltimore, Garrison returned to Boston and, with
the help of the black community, started his own antislavery paper,
The Liberator.

His proclamation of purpose in the first issue became famous around
the country: “On [the subject of slavery] I do not wish to think, or
speak, or write, with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is
on fire to give a moderate alarm … but urge me not to use moderation
in a cause like the present.”

The Liberator came to be the dominant voice in the abolitionist movement demanding immediate emancipation without compensation to slave owners. Garrison invoked the ire and rage of people all over the country, particularly in slaveholding states. In 1835 an angry mob attacked Garrison who was jailed for his own safety.

In what was a radical policy for the time, Garrison opened up his columns to black and female writers. Among those to respond to his call was Maria W. Stewart, a freeborn African-American woman who showed up at his office in 1831 with several essays that were published in The Liberator.

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Stewart was orphaned at the age of five and grew up in the home of a white minister. She married James W. Stewart, a successful shipping outfitter, but was widowed just three years later. Soon after she experienced a religious conversion and responded with her vigorous antislavery advocacy. Her efforts called
upon African Americans in the south to rise up against slavery and for northern blacks to resist racial restrictions. When her speaking career ended after three years, she became a schoolteacher and then Head Matron of Freedom’s Hospital in Washington D.C., which was later to become Howard University.

Collects

I God, in whose service alone is perfect freedom: We offer
thanks for thy prophets William Lloyd Garrison and Maria
Stewart, who testified that we are made not by the color
of our skin but by the principle formed in our soul. Fill us,
like them, with the hope and determination to break every
chain of enslavement, that bondage and ignorance may melt
like wax before flames, and we may build that community
of justice and love which is founded on Jesus Christ our
cornerstone; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and
reigneth, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

II God, in whose service alone is perfect freedom: We thank
you for your prophets William Lloyd Garrison and Maria
Stewart, who testified that we are made not by the color
of our skin but by the principle formed in our soul. Fill
us, like them, with the hope and determination to break
every chain of enslavement, that bondage and ignorance
may melt like wax before flames, and we may build that
community of justice and love which is founded on Jesus
Christ our cornerstone; who with you and the Holy Spirit
lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Lessons

Wisdom 10:9–14

1 John 2:28–3:3

Mark 5:25–34

Psalm

Preface of God the Son

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December 16: Ralph Adams Cram, Richard Upjohn, and John LaFarge, Architects, 1942, 1878, Artist, 1910

December 16, 2010gcoffice12 Comments

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About this commemoration

Ralph Adams Cram and Richard Upjohn were major architects whose influence on the design and decoration of Episcopal churches in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is without equal.

Cram was born on this day in 1863 in New Hampshire. After an apprenticeship in Boston, Cram established his own firmin1890 that specialized in designing churches. Heavily influenced by Anglo-Catholic principles, Cram was a leading proponent for an“American gothic revival”—buildings that were reminiscent of the ritual and structural dominance of the medieval period. Because ofhis many commissions for chapels and other buildings on college and university campuses, Cram is also remembered as the originator of the “collegiate gothic” style. Among his works is the great gothic nave of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City.

Richard Upjohn was born in England in 1802 where he trained as a cabinetmaker. He immigrated to the United States in 1829 and eventually took up residence in Boston where he worked as a draftsman, art teacher, and eventually an architect. His first major commission was for a gothic-style building for St. John’s Episcopal Church in Bangor, Maine, a building that was later destroyed by fire. He was commissioned in 1839 to design and supervise the construction of anew building for the Parish of Trinity Church, Wall Street, New York City. It was completed in 1846 and continues as Upjohn’s most well known accomplishment. Upjohn is also remembered for his sketchbooks of small wood-frame designs for churches in rural towns and villages. These designs were widely copied and adapted. As a result, Upjohn was among the early progenitors of “carpenter gothic.”

John Lafarge was born in 1835 in New York City and was a devout Roman Catholic. As an artist, LaFarge worked in a variety of media but is most often remembered for the murals that decorate Trinity Church, Boston, and the Church of the Ascension, New York City, among others. He also made significant contributions to ecclesiastical decoration in stained glass.

Collects

I Gracious God, we offer thanks for the vision of Ralph Adams Cram, John LaFarge and Richard Upjohn, whose harmonious revival of the Gothic enriched our churches with a sacramental understanding of reality in the face of secular materialism; and we pray that we may honor thy gifts of the beauty of holiness given through them, for the glory of Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

II Gracious God, we thank you for the vision of Ralph Adams Cram, John LaFarge and Richard Upjohn, whose harmonious revival of the Gothic enriched our churches with a sacramental understanding of reality in the face of secular materialism; and we pray that we may honor your gifts of the beauty of holiness given through them, for the glory of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Lessons

2 Chronicles 6:12–20

Ephesians 2:17–22

Matthew 7:24–29

Psalm 118:19–29

Preface for the Dedication of a Church

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December 15: Robert McDonald, Priest, 1913

December 15, 2010gcoffice9 Comments

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About this commemoration

Robert McDonald was a priest, missionary, and archdeacon, who served among the First Nations peoples of Canada.

McDonald was born in 1829 in Point Douglas, Manitoba. He attended local schools, worked alongside his father on the family farm,and married Julia Kuttag with whom he had nine children.

Although McDonald showed initial reluctance, he responded to the church’s call to mission service among the native peoples of Canada. He was ordained a priest in 1853 and took charge of the Islington Mission on the Winnipeg River. It was there that he discovered his gift for languages and it was there that he became fluent in the language of the Ojibway Tribe and began to translate the Bible.

In 1862, the Church Missionary Society persuaded McDonald to establish a new mission at Fort Yukon. It was here, as later at Fort McPherson, where McDonald made his enduring contribution to the tribes of the Tinjiyzoo Nation. He developed a written alphabet for the Tukudh language so that the people could read the texts of the Christian tradition. He also published a grammar and dictionary in Tukudh, both of which remain standard reference works. Over the next forty years, working together with his wife, Julia, and other translators, he accomplished the translation of the whole of the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, a hymnal and other texts. Possessing these commons texts was critical not only to the Christian mission, but also had a unifying impact on the common life of the various tribes in the region.

McDonald retired from the Church Missionary Society in 1904 and lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba, until his death in 1913. He is buried in the cemetery of St. John’s Anglican Cathedral.

Collects

I God of ice, sea and sky, who didst call thy servant Robert McDonald, making him strong to endure all hardships for the sake of serving thee in the Arctic: Send us forth as laborers into thy harvest, that by patience in our duties and compassion in our dealings, many may be gathered to thy kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

II God of ice, sea and sky, you called your servant Robert McDonald and made him strong to endure all hardships for the sake of serving you in the Arctic: Send us forth as laborers into your harvest, that by patience in our duties and compassion in our dealings, many may be gathered to your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Lessons

Isaiah 66:18–23

1 Thessalonians 1:2–8

Luke 9:1–6

Psalm

57:4–11

Preface of a Saint (3)

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