Born to a wealthy family in Yorkshire England, William Wilberforce was a British Abolitionist, Politician and Social Reformer. He suffered ill health most of his life but this did not slow him in his efforts to abolish slavery, a trade that brought the British Empire 80% of its foreign income.
Wilberforce gained a seat in the House of Commons at the young age 21. He was independently wealthy and spent his early years in the pursuits of gambling and drinking. During a European trip he experienced a Christian conversion in 1785 wherein he became a man of great faith, believing God called him to the institution of right and just social reform. He wrote, “God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Manners.” He saw no separation between a man’s private faith and his public office stating, “Religion is the peculiar concern of the political man.”
In the midst of slander, failure and bad health, Wilberforce tendered a bill to end slavery and joined the ranks of famous abolitionists such as Thomas Clarkson and a group of anti-slave-trade activists, including Granville Sharp, Hannah More and Charles Middleton. He headed the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for twenty-six years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act 1807.
Wilberforce founded the Church Mission Society and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and was convinced of the importance of religion, morality, and education. His efforts included improving conditions of factory workers, missionary work in India, reduced prison time for women and the creation of a free colony in Sierra Leone.
Wilberforce continued to fight for the total abolition of slavery in the English Empire and died 3 days after the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. He left a wife and 6 children and was buried next to his friend William Penn in Westminster Abbey. An Evangelical Christian, he is celebrated in the Anglican Church.
The Proper for the
Sixth Sunday after Trinity
Book of Common Prayer, page 197 Anglican Missal C63
PROCESSIONAL HYMN Hanover Hymnal #288
INTROIT. Dominus fortitudo. Psalm xxviii. The Lord is the strength of his people, and he is the wholesome defence of his Anointed. O Lord, save thy people, and give thy blessing unto thine inheritance. Feed them, and set them up for ever. Psalm ibid. Unto thee will I cry, O Lord, my God, think no scorn of me, lest, if thou make as though thou hearest not, I become like unto them that go down into the pit. V. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. R. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Psalm xxviii. The Lord is the strength . . .
Please go to Visitor’s Guide or Book of Common Prayer (BCP) for Collect for Purity.
COLLECT FOR TRINITY VI. O God, who hast prepared for those who love thee such good things as pass man’s understanding; Pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we, loving thee above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end.
OLD TESTAMENT LESSON. 1 Kings i. 32. And king David said, Call me Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada. And they came before the king. The king also said unto them, Take with you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down to Gihon: And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there king over Israel: and blow ye the trumpet, and say, God save king Solomon. Then ye shall come up after him, that he may come and sit upon my throne; for he shall be king in my stead: and I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah. And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, and said, Amen: the LORD God of my lord the king say so too. As the LORD hath been with my lord the king, even so be he with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord king David. So Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, went down, and caused Solomon to ride upon king David’s mule, and brought him to Gihon. And Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet; and all the people said, God save king Solomon. And all the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them.
RESPONSIVE PSALMODY Eructavit cor meum Psalm 45
Please turn to page 396 in the BCP.
EPISTLE. Romans vi. 3. Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
GRADUAL VERSE & ALLELUIA. Psalm 90. Turn thee again, O Lord, at the last, and be gracious unto thy servants. Lord, thou hast been our refuge from one generation to another. Alleluia, alleluia. Psalm 31. In thee, O Lord, have I put my trust, let me never be put to confusion. Deliver me in thy righteousness, bow down thine ear to me, make haste to deliver me. Alleluia.
GOSPEL. St Matthew v. 20. Jesus said unto his disciples, Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: but I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hellfire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
Please return to Visitor’s Guide or BCP for the Nicene Creed.
OFFERTORY VERSE. Psalm 17. O hold thou up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not. Incline thine ear to me, and hearken unto my words. Show thy marvellous loving-kindness, O Lord, thou that art the Saviour of them which put their trust in thee.
OFFERTORY HYMN Russia Hymnal #523
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COMMUNION HYMN Picardy Hymnal #197
COMMUNION VERSE. Psalm xxvii. I will offer in his dwelling an oblation with great gladness. I will sing, and speak praises unto the Lord.
Please return to Visitor’s Guide or BCP for the Post-Communion Thanksgiving.
RECESSIONAL HYMN St Leonard Hymnal #518
Richard of Wyche was born in 1197 at Droitwyche, the son of a prosperous yeoman farmer. He and his brother were orphaned at an early age, and an incompetent guardian wasted the inheritance. Richard worked long and hard to restore the family property, and when he had succeeded, he turned it over to his brother and went off to Oxford to become a scholar. He was too poor to afford a gown or a fire in winter, but he did very well at his studies, with Robert Grosseteste among his teachers, and he established what would be a lifelong friendship with his tutor, Edmund Rich (Edmund of Abingdon). He studied canon law at Oxford (and probably also at Paris and Bologna) and, having acquired a doctorate, he became Chancellor of Oxford in 1235.
Meanwhile, his tutor had become Archbishop of Canterbury, and soon asked Richard to become his Chancellor. When the Archbishop rebuked King Henry III for keeping various bishoprics vacant as long as possible (because as long as they were vacant their revenues went to the Crown), Henry forced him into exile, and Richard accompanied him to France and nursed him in his final illness. After the Archbishop’s death in 1240, Richard studied at the Dominican house in Orleans, and was ordained priest in 1243.
In 1244 he was elected Bishop of Chichester, but Henry would not recognize the election, locked him out of the bishop’s residence, and pocketed the revenues. Richard accepted shelter with a village priest, and spent the next two years walking barefoot through his diocese, preaching to fishermen and farmers, and correcting abuses. He held synods to legislate, and insisted that the sacraments must be administered without payment, and the Liturgy celebrated with reverence and order. The clergy were required to be celibate, to wear clerical dress, and to live in the parishes they were assigned to and carry out their duties in person. The laity were required to attend services on all Sundays and holy days, and to know by heart the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, and the Apostles’ Creed. After two years, Henry was pressured into recognizing Richard as Bishop, but Richard continued to live as he had before.
One of his concerns was that the moslems then in control of Jerusalem would not admit Christian pilgrims. In 1253 he travelled about appealing for a new Crusade, aimed solely at pressuring the moslems into permitting pilgrimages. He caught a fever and died in 1253. A well-known prayer written by him reads in part as follows:
Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, for all the benefits Thou hast given me, for all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me. O most merciful redeemer, friend and brother, may I know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly and follow thee more nearly, day by day.
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