John Wycliff: The Word of God Should Be Accessible to All

Today the Church remembers John Wycliff (also spelled Wycliffe, Wyclif, Wicliffe, or Wiclif) who was born in Yorkshire around 1330, and was educated at Oxford, becoming a doctor of divinity in 1372.

 

John is known for being a forerunner of the Reformation. He fought corruption in the Church. He argued that the Church had fallen into sin and that it ought therefore to give up all its property and that the clergy should live in complete poverty.

 

 

Wycliff also placed Scripture at the center of life trying to make God’s Word accessible to all advocating translation of the Bible into the English of the day.

 

Let us pray: O God, your justice continually challenges your Church to live according to its calling: Grant us who now remember the work of John Wycliff contrition for the wounds which our sins inflict on your Church, and such love for Christ that we may seek to heal the divisions which afflict his Body; through the same Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

 

Please keep in your prayers all of our friends, loved ones and those who are unknown to us out of harm’s way in the path of Hurricane Sandy. Please also remember to offer thanks for all of those who have survived untouched by the storm. Bob Newding in Maine and Peggy Tuthill in Virginia report that all is well. Thanks to Pat Tate and Jillian Bain for keeping tabs on everyone.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Time to fall back! Remember to turn your clocks back one hour this Saturday night.

 

Next Sunday is All Saints. We will read the names of all of those who have left us marked with the sign of faith.

 

We will have a Community Garden work day on the 3^rd and the 10^thof November. There will also be a pot luck lunch meeting on the 3^rdof November.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially the family of Charles F. Doyle, the father of Bishop C. Andrew Doyle, who died on the 27th of October, Steve Poirier who died on Tuesday, everyone who is will, all those who are seeking employment and everyone who has no one to pray for them.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550