This evening we are gathering for our first discussion of the angels. There is no required reading for this evening. We will simply read a series of passages from Scripture or the Book of Common Prayer and discuss what those selections say about angels. This week will explore the general nature of angels and the similarities that we share with them. We’ll also look at the angelic worship of God within scripture and how that worship provides the template for our own worship of the Divine. I have attached an excerpt from St. John of Damascus’s Exposition of the Orthodox Faith (Bk. 2, Ch. 3) which provides a good summary of the angelic nature. (Don’t worry, we won’t be reading him tonight.) Next week we will discuss the heavenly hierarchy of the nine choirs of angels, and in the final week, we will look at specific angels in the Scriptures and discuss our personal experiences with angels.
Please bring your Bibles and prayer books (we have extra). Dinner is at 6. The menu is chicken-potato casserole. Hope to see you here.
Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted in a
Collect “Of the Holy Angels” 1979 BCP 251
wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals:
Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and
worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may
help and defend us here on earth; through Jesus Christ our
Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one
God, for ever and ever. Amen.