Patrick Comerford
In this time between All Saints’ Day and Advent Sunday, we are in the Kingdom Season in the Calendar of the Church of England. This week began with the Second Sunday before Advent (19 November 2023).
The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (20 November) remembers both Edmund (870), King of the East Angles and Martyr, and Priscilla Lydia Sellon (1876), a Restorer of the Religious Life in the Church of England. Before today begins, I am taking some time for prayer and reflection early this morning.
Throughout this week, I am reflecting on the seven churches in cities or places that give their names to the titles of nine letters or epistles by Saint Paul: Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae and Thessaloniki.
My reflections this morning follow this pattern:
1, A reflection on a Pauline church;
2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
Saint Paul’s Corinth:
The Apostle Paul wrote 14 of the 27 books the New Testament. He founded several Christian communities in Asia Minor and Europe from the mid-40s to the mid-50s AD, and wrote letters to the churches in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae and Thessaloniki.
Saint Paul appears to have been very disappointed with Athens. He did not visit it again, and it is never mentioned in his letters. When he left Athens he travelled 80 km west to Corinth (Κόρινθος), then the capital of the Roman Province of Achaia and effectively the capital of Greece.
Corinth was destroyed by the Romans, but was re-established by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE, and was made the capital of Achaia by Augustus. It was built on the southern extremity of the isthmus connecting the mainland with the Morea, and was on the great traffic route between East and West. It had two magnificent, lively and crowded harbours, one on each side of the isthmus.
Corinth was a centre of traffic, wealth and vice when Saint Paul arrived, probably about the end of 51 CE, and he spent up to 18 months there (see Acts 18: 9-11). He lived there with two Christian Jews, Aquila and Priscilla, who were refugees from Rome.
He began by preaching in the synagogue every Sabbath, ‘and he persuaded the Jews and the Greek.’ Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, and his family, and several of the Corinthians were converted and baptised. Some of them noble, wealthy, and learned people were converted too, but the great majority were neither learned, nor powerful, nor noble (see I Corinthians 1: 26). During this long period, Christianity was planted in Corinth and in other parts of Achaia, especially the eastern port of Cenchreæ.
Saint Paul wrote two letters or epistles to the Corinthians, I and II Corinthians, addressed to the community that he had founded in Corinth. They are now the seventh and eighth books in canon of the New Testament.
The first letter, I Corinthians, was written from Ephesus ca 53–54 CE. It deals with problems that arose in the early years after his initial missionary visit (ca 50–51) to Corinth and his establishment of a Christian community there. Saddened by reports of dissension, Paul addresses the issues dividing the church in Corinth, including morals, marriage, quarrelling, sharing and jealousy. Then in Chapter 13, one of the most significant of all Pauline texts, he explains that no gift in ministry has meaning unless it is accompanied by love.
For me, the core of Saint Paul’s teaching is found in this letter: ‘Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends’ (I Corinthians 13: 4-8a).
The second letter, II Corinthians, was written from Macedonia ca 55 CE. It may have been written after an actual visit by Paul to Corinth, when he was insulted and challenged. Because of this, Paul resolved not to go to Corinth again in person. Instead, he wrote an intervening letter (2: 3-4; 7: 8, 12), now lost, in which he told the Corinthians of his anguish and displeasure, and sent Titus to deliver the letter. Now, in this letter, Paul expresses his joy at the news he has heard from Titus, that the Corinthians have changed, and he urges them to give generously to the poor in Jerusalem.
The last four chapters differ markedly in tone from the earlier chapters, suggesting that chapters 10-13 may have been written earlier, before Paul had received Titus’ message, or are a misplaced part of another letter to the Corinthians.
After writing II Corinthians, Paul stayed in Corinth for about three months in the late winter, and there he wrote his Epistle to the Romans.
While Saint Paul was in Corinth, he was brought before the proconsul, Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, Seneca’s brother, accused of illegal teaching. Gallio, however, refused to judge what he saw as an internal religious dispute among the Jews.
According to tradition, the site of Paul’s trial in Corinth was the Bema, a large elevated rostrum in the centre of the Roman Forum and from where the city’s officials addressed the public. Probably because of the monument’s connection to Saint Paul, the Bema was turned into a church during the Byzantine period.
Ancient Corinth was one of the largest and most important cities of Greece, with a population of 90,000 in 400 BEC. The Romans demolished Corinth in 146 BCE, built a new city in its place in 44 BCE, and later made it the provincial capital of Greece.
The city was rebuilt after earthquakes in the years 365 and 375, Alaric’s invasion in 396, and an earthquake in 856. Four churches were located in the city proper, another on the citadel of the Acrocorinth, and a monumental basilica at the port of Lechaion.
When an earthquake destroyed Corinth in 1858, the present, modern city of Corinth was founded as Nea Korinthos (Νέα Κόρινθος) or New Corinth, 3 km north of the ancient city. It has been rebuilt after earthquakes and fires in 1928 and 1933.
The Corinth Canal, between the western Mediterranean and the Aegean, is about 4 km east of the city, cutting through the Isthmus of Corinth that connects the Peloponnese to mainland Greece. The canal was cut through the isthmus at sea level, without locks. It is 6.4 km in long and 21.3 metres wide, making it impassable for most modern ships.
The first attempt to build the canal was made to build it in the 1st century CE. Julius Caesar and Caligula both considered digging the canal but died before starting the project. The emperor Nero was the first to try to build the canal, with a workforce of 6,000 Jewish prisoners of war.
Modern construction started in 1882, after Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire, but the original builders went bankrupt. It was completed in 1893, but because the canal is so narrow, and due to navigational problems and periodic closures to repair landslips, it failed to attract traffic, and it is now used mainly for tourist traffic.
The modern cathedral in the centre of Corinth is dedicated to the Apostle Paul, patron saint of the city. The cathedral was built in the 1936-1937 on the site of an earlier cathedral destroyed in the earthquake in 1928.
The cathedral was designed by the architect Nikolaos Kotseronis of Corinth, and it is said he was inspired by the church of Aghia Sophia in Constantinople. It is a three-aisle basilica with a dome. The central aisle is dedicated to Apostle Paul and the two side aisles to his disciples, Saint Timothy and Saint Titus. The bell tower is almost 30 metres high.
Luke 18: 35-43 (NRSVA):
35 As he approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36 When he heard a crowd going by, he asked what was happening. 37 They told him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.’ 38 Then he shouted, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ 39 Those who were in front sternly ordered him to be quiet; but he shouted even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ 40 Jesus stood still and ordered the man to be brought to him; and when he came near, he asked him, 41 ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ He said, ‘Lord, let me see again.’ 42 Jesus said to him, ‘Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.’ 43 Immediately he regained his sight and followed him, glorifying God; and all the people, when they saw it, praised God.
Today’s Prayers (Monday 20 November 2023):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence’. This theme was introduced yesterday.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (20 November 2023) invites us to pray in these words:
Let us pray that girls around the world might grow up knowing that they are safe and have access to education and employment opportunities.
The Collect:
Eternal God,
whose servant Edmund kept faith to the end,
both with you and with his people,
and glorified you by his death:
grant us such steadfastness of faith
that, with the noble army of martyrs,
we may come to enjoy the fullness of the resurrection life;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God our redeemer,
whose Church was strengthened by the blood of your martyr Edmund:
so bind us, in life and death, to Christ’s sacrifice
that our lives, broken and offered with his,
may carry his death and proclaim his resurrection in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflection (Rome)
Continued Tomorrow (Galatia)
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
