PHOTO: Roger Weld
Each week of the liturgical year, a reading from Second Advent Scripture is delivered as part of the Saturday Communion of Fellowship Service held in the Chapel of the Holy Child. This reading follows the Sacred Calendar of the Church; that is, Prophecies and Revelations that have been received by The Church on sacred dates are recalled in a liturgical context during the appropriate season each year. This reading is delivered by the Officiant of the Communion Service (that is, Bishop Gene Savoy, or occasionally in his stead, Bishop Sean Savoy) just before the final blessings. Each service also includes a reading from the ancient scriptures, prayers, or wisdom sayings of various world religions past and present and is usually thematically related to the Second Advent Reading. This reading is delivered by the Reader right after the announcements that begin the service and is thus the first reading of the service. An audio recording of the reading from Second Advent Scripture delivered on the date above is provided here below together with a transcript of the first reading of the service that day.
SECOND ADVENT PROPHECY AND REVELATION
A Reading from Second Prophecy to the Americas, chapter 32, “On the Error of the Old Churches,” (pp.219-225):
< Click here to listen to this week’s reading on YouTube. (4 minutes) >
ANCIENT SCRIPTURE AND WISDOM SAYINGS
A Reading from the First Letter of John:
< Click here to listen to this week’s reading on YouTube. (3 minutes) >
This is what we proclaim to you: what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and our hands have touched (concerning the word of life—and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us). What we have seen and heard we announce to you, too, so that you may have fellowship with us (and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Christ). Now this is the good-news message we have heard from him and announce to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep on walking in the darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth. But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.
Now by this we know that we have come to know God: if we keep his commandments. Whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected. I am writing a new commandment to you which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. The one who says he is in the light but yet hates his fellow in the community is still in the darkness. The one who loves his fellow resides in the light. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world (the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away with all its desires, but the person who does the will of God remains forever.