The Orthodox-Catholic Anglican

Fr Matthew C Dallman
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The Orthodox-Catholic Anglican

Homilies, catechetical resources, discussions, and interviews from your host, Father Matthew C. Dallman, Obl.S.B., founder of Akenside Institute for English Spirituality. Fr Dallman is an Anglican parish priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida; Rector of Saint Paul's, New Smyrna Beach. His public ministry focuses on mystagogical catechesis, domestic church, plainsong chant, and the intersections of Prayer Book life, orthodo-Catholic witness, patristic theology, and robust devotion to Our Lady. He is the leading authority on the theology of Martin Thornton and is a student of the English School of Catholic spirituality (true Anglican patrimony). He has led retreats in the Episcopal Dioceses of Springfield, Tennessee, and North Dakota. frmcdallman.substack.com

  1. NOV 10

    Introducing "Kingdom Culture"

    Our gospel story gives us again the beautiful, simple, and touching story of the poor widow. And it is held up in our lectionary in our stewardship season, as it is reaching its conclusion. And that is so very fitting. Because Christian stewardship, for as much as I have said about it in my recent preaching, really is as simple as the poor widow. Just as she put in everything she had, her whole living, so are we to give our time, talent, and treasure for the glory of God and for the benefit of this parish church. Giving to the church her whole living, everything she had, means she gave her heart. It means that her intentions in giving could not be but pure and godly. She was humble like the Tax Collector; she made no pretense of long prayers or showiness like the Pharisee. Her offering meant everything to her, and God beheld her offering and lifted it up to heaven, lifted it into glory for all to behold. I wish we knew the name of this poor widow. We are not told her name. But if we were told it, I am certain she would have the word “Saint” before her name and a feast day on the calendar. She surely was full of the Holy Spirit, and she shares that dual-quality of the Saints: that in all things she is to be admired, and that we should imitate her how we can. We admire her for her humility and her faith; let us imitate her in giving to the Church all we can: our heart. In all things of the Christian life, the Saints are always to be remembered, celebrated, and venerated. I spoke these words about the Saints last Sunday: The Saints are examples to us of genuine stewardship. We can speak of the Saints as gardeners, in that they are dedicated to helping growth happen. Likewise the Saints certainly show humility before Almighty God, Who alone gives the increase. Saints are filled with the awe and fear of God, of the fact that all creative power comes from God, Who is the maker of all things, and through Whom all things are made. And the Saints know that in Christ’s garden, which is the Church, the Holy Spirit dwells, the Holy Spirit acts, the Holy Spirit leads us to Christ. The Saints themselves do not imitate the Pharisee, who does works to be rewarded by God, but rather they imitate the Tax Collector, the Publican, who is pure humility falls to his knees before God and asks simply for His mercy. In the Apostles’ Creed, we say that we believe in the Communion of Saints. We say that because the Saints are the living foundation of the Church. They are the living foundation of the Church, the living foundation of the Body of Christ, because Christ lives in them. Certainly Christ was living in the poor widow. He lives in all the Saints. And Christ lives in the poor widow and all the Saints because the Saints are full of the Holy Spirit. We remember the Saints, we celebrate the Saints, we venerate the Saints, because in looking with the eyes of faith upon the Saints who are our fellow wayfarers, our friends, our contemporaries, our colleagues, the “Hall of Fame” Christians: in looking upon the Saints we see people whose ordinary lives were transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ into extraordinary lives of virtue, of faith, hope, and love, and divine wisdom. But it really is as simple as this: the Saints are full of the Holy Spirit. They were full of the Holy Spirit during their existence on earth, and they remain full of the Holy Spirit having run with patience the race set before them, and set before us, they have been taken up into heaven and received the crown of glory that fades not away, the same crown promised to all those who maintain a lively faith in Jesus Christ. I say “lively faith”—not just “faith,” but faith that is “lively.” What do I mean by that? A lively faith is life in the Holy Spirit: constant wonder, constant awe, ever-sensing the divine presence in our heart and in the world, and a constant openness to divine disclosure: a constant openness to God’s revealing something of Himself

    12 min

  2. NOV 6

    Evenings with Bede: S2, Ep. 18

    Evenings With Bede is a homily podcast. The episodes are taken from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services of Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., where I am Rector. SEASON TWO is devoted to understanding the Song of Songs with the Venerable S. Bede as teacher, and yours truly as interpreter. We will go verse by verse through the entirety of the Song of Songs. The format is a short passage from the Song of Songs, then comes commentary from the Bede, and finally an interpretive homily by yours truly expounding upon both. The audio for all three is found above. The text of the two passages is found below. A Lesson from the Song of Songs, 1.12 While the King was on His dining couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance. My Beloved is to me a bundle of myrrh that shall lie between my breasts. My Bloved is to me a grape-cluster from Cyprus in the vineyards of Engaddi. A Lesson from a Treatise by the Venerable S. Bede Surely the Church, having received such gifts or promises from her Creator, continually responded and further declared the devotion with which she would undertake these works, saying: “While the King was on His dining couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance.” Now “the King’s dining couch” is what she calls the time of His Nativity, during which He deigned to be humbled for our sake and to be brought down Himself so that we might be raised up. Clearly, on this dining couch He has willed both to refresh His Church with life-giving food and to be refreshed Himself with her good deeds. For this reason He says: “I am the living bread that came from heaven; whoever eats of this bread will live forever” (Jn 6.51); and again to the disciples, concerning the people who believe in Him, He says, “I have food to eat that you do not know about” (Jn 4.32). And the fragrance of nard represents the ardor of right action. “While the King was on His dining couch,” she says, “my nard gave forth its fragrance,” because when the Son of God had appeared in flesh the Church increased in its fervor for heavenly virtues – not that she had no spiritual persons devoted to God before His Nativity, but because she subjected herself without any hesitation to the more rigorous practice of virtues at the time when she learned that access to the heavenly kingdom is open to all who live rightly, as soon as the bonds of flesh are dissolved. Now we should note that the figure in this little verse was also fulfilled according to the letter in the deeds of Saint Mary Magdalene, who contained a type of the church when she anointed the Lord’s head and feet with an ointment of nard as He was reclining at supper, “and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment” (Jn 12.3), as the holy Gospel accounts bear witness. In one of them it is also indicated what kind of nard that was, for it is said, “A woman came with an alabaster jar of ointment of nard of very precious spikes” (Mt 14.3), evidently because its tips extend themselves into ears and therefore they will up the spikes and leaves with a double portion of nard oil. The naturalists write that it is the chief among ointments, hence it was deservedly used in anointing the body of the Lord. If you find this edifying, please consider (if you haven’t already) becoming a paid subscriber. Your support goes directly to supporting the ministry of Akenside Institute for English Spirituality, a project I started 12 years ago. Get full access to Fr Matthew C. Dallman's Substack at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

    23 min

  3. NOV 3

    On the Saints as All-Star Christians

    In professional sports there are all-star games. This is certainly true of professional baseball, professional basketball, professional hockey, and professional football (although football calls theirs the “pro-bowl” and basically no one pays any attention to it). To arrive at the group of players in these sports that participate in the all-star game involves balloting, they are elected. What are these all-star teams but those players who have been given gifts by God up and above their colleagues, and who have cooperated with those God-given gifts, in a way notable and singular, so as to be recognized by the peers as extraordinary? This same sort of thing is seen as well in the halls of fame in professional sports (and college sports, I might add). Those elected to the hall of fame play the same sport as young children do in their pick-up games, or their little league games. The game is basically the same no matter if you are playing in your backyard or the local park or arena, or if you are playing at the highest professional level. There is a spectrum of skill, and certain players are given gifts up and above the rest; those players are admired and imitated. It is the same with the Saints of holy Church. Whereas in sport the discipline is centered on developing skills, in Christianity the discipline is centered on discipleship. Every baptized Christian is a disciple, but like sport we see in the Church a spectrum of discipleship. On one end are the Christians baptized yesterday – no matter the age, because every baptized person starts at square 1 in terms of relationship with God, Who (in the teaching of both S. Peter and S. Paul) shows no partiality, emphasized by the famous teaching of S. Paul to the Galatians: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” And on the other end are the canonical Saints of the Church, “canonical” meaning on the Kalendar with the title “Saint” before their name. Saints are those holy men and women who have been given certain gifts by God of prayer and service, and who in recognizing the gifts given them by God have cooperated with this grace so as to give all of their time, talent, and treasure to the glory of God and the upbuilding of His Church. Thus we see how, on the Feast of All Saints, the Saints are examples to us of genuine stewardship. We can speak of the Saints as gardeners, in that they are dedicated to helping growth happen. Likewise the Saints certainly show humility before Almighty God, Who alone gives the increase. Saints are filled with the awe and fear of God, of the fact that all creative power comes from God, Who is the maker of all things, and through Whom all things are made. And the Saints know that in Christ’s garden, which is the Church, the Holy Spirit dwells, the Holy Spirit acts, the Holy Spirit leads us to Christ. The Saints themselves do not imitate the Pharisee, who does works to be rewarded by God, but rather they imitate the Tax Collector, the Publican, who is pure humility falls to his knees before God and asks simply for His mercy. In the Apostles’ Creed, which in Anglican liturgy is also called our Baptismal Creed, we say “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, and the Communion of Saints.” These all go together, not merely in a sequence of words but the very nature of God’s economy and saving plan: the Holy Spirit establishes the Church, which is Christ’s Body, and He calls men and women as Holy Saints to lead the Church, both in their life and in their heavenly intercession and supplication. The Saints are full of the Holy Spirit. The Saints have been transformed by the Gospel. Thus the Saints are concrete proof that the promises of the Gospel are true. We are in communion with the Saints through Jesus Christ: they are our friends, they are our colleagues, they are our teachers in how to follow Christ, they are our c

    17 min

  4. OCT 27

    On Receiving Our Sight

    “And Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ And the blind man said to Him, ‘Rabbi, let me recover my sight.’” What could sight be for us, except the capacity to discern what is holy from what is unholy? As we heard from the Epistle to the Hebrews, having the “faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.” To distinguish what is of the Holy Spirit from that which is from the flesh, the world, and the devil? So that we can recover our sight, so that we can truly see. And in seeing, all the more readily and effectively exercise our stewardship, through our threefold tithe of time, talent, and treasure. This is the third of my sermons on stewardship. I am offering sermons on this topic because our stewardship reflects our entire attitude to the Church, which is realized within our parish. In my first sermon I spoke of stewardship as seeing ourselves, members of this congregation, as gardeners: that we are to do what gardeners do: help growth happen, through cooperating with God; gardeners who have in mind an image of the harvest to get through the difficult work, which for us is the image of an adoring and merciful congregation in a beautiful church with a strong desire to know God. In my second sermon, I spoke of being gardeners who show humility before Almighty God. As Saint Paul teaches, it is not us but God Who gives the growth, only God Who gives the increase. And we are made humble by our awe of God, from Whom all growth comes – in awe of the fact that all creative power comes from God, Who is the maker of all things, and through Whom all things are made. Stewardship entails being a gardener in the garden of Christ with profound respect for the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life. In Christ’s garden, the Holy Spirit dwells, the Holy Spirit acts, the Holy Spirit leads us to Christ. For our parish to be Christ’s garden is for us to recognize that the Holy Spirit can act powerfully, such as to make the impossible possible. Our stewardship is thwarted by pride, yet it is genuine in humility. I spoke of always seeking to serve our awesome God, serve His awesome power, serve His incredible creativity, serve His loving energy that gives all things life, that fills all things with His sacramental blessing, that shines with the brightness of heaven in even the darkest of places, illumining all things with the torch of Christ’s light which ever burns with health, with salvation, with the peace that passes all understanding. In support of all of this understanding of stewardship, we hear this teaching from the Epistle to the Hebrews: “For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love which you showed for His sake in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” In hearing these words “our work and the love which we show for His sake in serving the saints,” as about us as well, we can hear them as directly about our stewardship. Our work and the love which show for God’s sake in serving the saints, which here means fellow Christians alive as well as faithfully departed, this is our threefold tithe of time, talent, and treasure. Our tithe is for God’s sake, that He will give the growth if we, as gardeners, through work and love shown for God’s sake, truly serve Christians; that is through work and love help Christians grow in their faith. For that to happen, we need to give our tithe: of time in worship and prayer, that we ourselves are fed by grace and remember God’s law to love Him with our whole being, and love Him in our neighbor; for that to happen, we need to give our tithe of talent, in support of the ministries ongoing in this parish (Vestry, liturgical ministry, ECW, Daughters of the King, Atrium catechesis, the various teams

    11 min

  5. OCT 22

    Evenings with Bede: S2, Ep. 17

    Evenings With Bede is a homily podcast. The episodes are taken from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services of Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., where I am Rector. SEASON TWO is devoted to understanding the Song of Songs with the Venerable S. Bede as teacher, and yours truly as interpreter. We will go verse by verse through the entirety of the Song of Songs. The format is a short passage from the Song of Songs, then comes commentary from the Bede, and finally an interpretive homily by yours truly expounding upon both. The audio for all three is found above. The text of the two passages is found below. A Lesson from the Song of Songs, 1.8 If you do not know yourself, O fairest among women, go forth and follow the tracks of the flocks, and pasture your kids by the shepherds’ tents. I have compared you, my friend, to my company of horsemen among Pharaoh's chariots. Your cheeks are beautiful as a turtledove’s; your neck as jewels; we will make you necklaces of gold, inlaid with silver. A Lesson from a Treatise by the Venerable S. Bede Emphasizing the importance of keeping the sobriety of a turtledove, the Bridegroom adds: “Your neck as jewels; we will make you necklaces of gold, inlaid with silver.” Surely it is through the neck that we both take in food to nourish the body and bring forth words with which we declare the secrets of our hearts to our neighbors. For this reason the role of the church’s teachers is rightly represented by the neck, since they both instruct the unlearned with an edifying word and in the process of that same instruction convey the food of salvation to the members of the holy Church entrusted to them. Clearly, this neck is rightly compared to jewels. . . . The necklaces are also ornaments for a virgin’s neck, namely, little chains woven with golden bands. . . . These aptly signify the weaving together of the divine scriptures through which the loveliness of holy Church increases when every single one of the faithful strives to shine with virtues by observing the words and deeds of the fathers more and more. For the gold from which He says that the necklaces are made is the splendor of the spiritual sense of Scripture, and the silver with which he states they are inlaid is understood as the luster of heavenly eloquence. Now what He promises in the plural (“We will make you”) is said with reference to those through whom sacred scripture has been ministered to us by the agency and cooperation of God’s spirit, of whom there have been very many from the time in which Solomon foretold these things until that which is to come. Therefore, He encircles the Bride’s neck with gold necklaces inlaid with silver because He has prepared divine diadems for the Church by inspiring those whom He has placed in authority with responsibility for teaching His faithful, and He encircles her neck with necklaces fashioned by the craftsman’s art when every faithful soul continually looks towards the holy Scriptures in all that she says or does, or perhaps I should say in everything that she lives and hopes, and diligently directs both her mind and her words according to their pattern, and thus this little verse is joined to the one above, for the reason that holy Church’s cheeks are beautiful as a turtledove’s (that is, that her modesty remains inviolate) is because frequent meditation on divine Scripture does not allow her to err. If you find this edifying, please consider (if you haven’t already) becoming a paid subscriber. Your support goes directly to supporting the ministry of Akenside Institute for English Spirituality, a project I started 12 years ago. Get full access to Fr Matthew C. Dallman's Substack at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

    21 min

  6. OCT 20

    On Serving Our Awesome God

    Our Gospel passage picks up with two of the close apostles of Christ – Ss James and John, sons of Zebedee, sons of thunder—asking our Lord to sit one at His right hand and one at His left in His glory. This is their processing of the Transfiguration of Jesus, which they, along with S. Peter, witnessed. They were in awe of Christ’s Transfiguration, and wanted to emulate the two they saw with Jesus at that moment: Moses and Elijah, and Christ’s right and left hand. They wanted to emulate Moses and Elijah out of their yearning for intimacy with Jesus, of Whom they were utterly in awe. And their awe, along with the awe of the whole of the Upper Room Church of Jerusalem grew when they read passages out of the prophet Isaiah as we hear today—that this Jesus, the eternal Son and Word of the Father, begotten before all worlds, King of kinds, Lord of lord, this Jesus has bourne our griefs and carried our sorrows; that this Jesus was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. And their humility grew when they realized they too were the sheep that had gone astray, that they too had turned every one to his own way, away from Him who poured out His soul to death, bearing the sins of us all. Awe and humility—I believe both are tied in to stewardship, as I will seek to illustrate. This is the second of my sermons on stewardship. I am offering sermons on this topic because stewardship summarizes our entire attitude to the Church, which includes the local expression of the One Church our parish. In my first sermon I spoke of stewardship as seeing ourselves, members of this congregation, as gardeners. Understanding the stewardship of this parish means seeing ourselves, seeing this congregation, as gardeners. I went into last Sunday what this means. God has brought each and every one of us here, to this Parish, to be gardeners of His new creation. God wants us to help Him bring about the increase of the harvest. God has called each of us forth to do in this Parish what gardeners do in their garden: help it grow. That is what our tithe of time, talent, and treasure is for: the means for growth. If we want this parish to grow, then let us do the hard work of giving our time in attending the Liturgy and praying at home, let us give our talent in support of the ministries ongoing in this parish, and let us give generously of our treasure, to allow the parish to operate within the financial realities of the world today. I also spoke last Sunday about having an inspiring image in our minds, as we take up the work of offering our threefold tithe. We need such an image because the work is often arduous, difficult, and in the immediate sense, it can be not very rewarding. A gardener would have in his mind the image of the harvest, and this image inspires hard work in the present. For us, I offered up the image of an adoring and merciful congregation in a beautiful church with a strong desire to know God. Adoring: in that with reverence we adore God Who transcends all conditions of time and space; merciful: in that we perform acts of mercy to help those in need; all with a strong desire to know God: in that we are a congregation with inquiring minds, discerning hearts, a courageous spirit that perseveres to know and love God, with the gift of joy and wonder in all of God’s works, and in God Himself, as He is known in the power of the Holy Spirit through His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. This image, this portrait, is both who we are now, and who we seek to become more intensely, more thoroughly. We seek here nothing less than participation in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ, not as a superficial social club as is sadly too common in today’s American Christianity, but as a holy organism, in holy fellowship, filled with the Holy Ghost. Another aspect of stewardship is humility. If we are gardeners in the garden of Christ, then we must be humble. As Saint Paul teaches, it is not us but God Who g

    12 min

  7. OCT 16

    Evenings with Bede: S2, Ep. 16

    Evenings With Bede is a homily podcast. The episodes are taken from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services of Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., where I am Rector. SEASON TWO is devoted to understanding the Song of Songs with the Venerable S. Bede as teacher, and yours truly as interpreter. We will go verse by verse through the entirety of the Song of Songs. The format is a short passage from the Song of Songs, then comes commentary from the Bede, and finally an interpretive homily by yours truly expounding upon both. The audio for all three is found above. The text of the two passages is found below. A Lesson from the Song of Songs, 1.8 If you do not know yourself, O fairest among women, go forth and follow the tracks of the flocks, and pasture your kids by the shepherds’ tents. I have compared you, my friend, to my company of horsemen among Pharaoh's chariots. Your cheeks are beautiful as a turtledove’s; your neck as jewels; we will make you necklaces of gold, inlaid with silver. A Lesson from a Treatise by the Venerable S. Bede Because the verse “I have compared you, my friend, to my company of horsemen among Pharaoh's chariots” teaches how the Lord protects the Church in the midst of misfortunes, it remains to be shown how much the Church herself preserves the love of the same Lord and Protector when misfortunes occur. There is added: “Your cheeks are beautiful as a turtledove’s.” It is said that it is the nature of the turtledove that if it is deprived of the companionship of its mate it will never be joined to another. This is appropriately applied to the chastity of the Church, for even though death has deprived her of the Lord Who is her Bridegroom, nevertheless she can by no means accept the company of strangers, since she holds so dear the remembrance of the One Whom she knows to have been resurrected from the dead and to reign now in heaven, and she is content with only the love of Him to Whom she longs to come one day. For this reason she is accustomed to declare in words she learned from an eminent teacher: “For neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, nor height, for depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39). This is what holy Church says when she is fearful that perhaps she might turn aside from the way of truth by wandering after the examples of the foolish: “Let I begin to wander after the flocks of Your companions.” Therefore, since the seat of decorum is in the cheeks, Truth Himself rightly says to her in reply: “Your cheeks are beautiful as a turtledove’s,” which is to say, “I have adorned you with such virtue of wholesome modesty that neither the desire for transitory things nor the noisy dogmas of the foolish ever seduce you into drawing back from the chastity you have promised to me in good faith.” If you find this edifying, please consider (if you haven’t already) becoming a paid subscriber. Your support goes directly to supporting the ministry of Akenside Institute for English Spirituality, a project I started 12 years ago. Get full access to Fr Matthew C. Dallman's Substack at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

    20 min

  8. OCT 13

    On Stewardship as Gardening

    This is the first of several sermons on stewardship. Yes, it coincides with the fact that pledge cards for next year are being sent out to every household. Yet it will be a sermon series not merely because of pledge cards. It is a sermon series because the topic of stewardship includes not only the household tithe for next year’s budget, but really the entire attitude we have toward the One, Holy Church and her local embodiment, this very church of Saint Paul in New Smyrna Beach where we are worshiping. To flesh that out will take a number of Sundays. I want to begin by noting that one of the primary themes of Saint Mark’s gospel is creation. It is Mark’s argument that Jesus of Nazareth initiates a new creation, and is Himself the new creation: that the new creation is embodied in Him. Saint Paul picks this up in his teaching, that everyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The first words of Mark’s Gospel account are: “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” and this was an intentional move by Mark to immediately bring to mind the Book of Genesis, which starts in a similar way, “In the beginning…”. Christ is the true beginning of the new creation, which is in Him. At the end of his Gospel, Mark describes the women at the empty tomb as full of astonishment. That is a translation of a Greek word, the root of which is our word “ecstasy,” but it has to do also with creation. That is shown by the fact that this same word “ecstasy” used to describe the holy women at Christ’s resurrection is the new word that Moses used in Genesis to describe Adam when God fashioned Eve from his rib, and Abraham when God was making a covenant with him, both moments of new creation. If Christ is the new creation, and every person who is in Him is a becoming a new creation, our human destiny, our vocation, the way God called (and calls) us into existence, is to become partners or agents of Christ’s new creation, ambassadors for Christ, that God makes His appeal to the world through us, His Church. Another image for this is that God has called us to be gardeners of His creation, the growth of the world and the people of the world into His new creation in Christ. And what do gardeners do but help things grow? It is patient work. It is work based upon hope—hope that the conditions will prevail and the flowers and fruits will bear forth. And indeed it is that thinking about the harvest that fuels the patient, arduous work. Understanding the stewardship of this parish means seeing ourselves, seeing this congregation, as gardeners. God has brought each and every one of us here, to this Parish, to be gardeners of His new creation. God wants us to help Him bring about the increase of the harvest. God has called each of us forth to do in this Parish what gardeners do in their garden: help it grow. The Church asks of her members, and this church is asking of each one of us, to continue and even increase our tithes—to continue and even increase our offerings to the Parish of our time, our talent, and our treasure. Our tithe is not merely of money: it is of time, talent, and treasure. This is the patient work of the gardener in the time before the flowers and fruits come: tilling the soil, planting seeds, watering, pulling weeds, pruning, fertilizing, and all the rest. Without that work, there will never be beautiful flowers, ripe fruit—and so without our tithe of time, talent, and treasure, the garden here will not grow, but its holiness will wither away. I said a moment ago that it is that image of the harvest that fuels the patient, arduous work. What such images can inspire us now to continue and even increase our tithe to the Parish? As your Rector I witness many inspiring images, and I know I am not alone in seeing them. We have a beautiful church, a truly holy house of God’s sacred presence and power. We have truly reverent worship, with real devotion to the Eucharist. We are a church that outwardly shows o

    16 min
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About

Homilies, catechetical resources, discussions, and interviews from your host, Father Matthew C. Dallman, Obl.S.B., founder of Akenside Institute for English Spirituality. Fr Dallman is an Anglican parish priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida; Rector of Saint Paul's, New Smyrna Beach. His public ministry focuses on mystagogical catechesis, domestic church, plainsong chant, and the intersections of Prayer Book life, orthodo-Catholic witness, patristic theology, and robust devotion to Our Lady. He is the leading authority on the theology of Martin Thornton and is a student of the English School of Catholic spirituality (true Anglican patrimony). He has led retreats in the Episcopal Dioceses of Springfield, Tennessee, and North Dakota. frmcdallman.substack.com

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