Right on past the end

About 8 AM this morning Matt sent an e-mail asking if I'd stand in for him as Epistler and server this Sunday. I'd missed enough of my scheduled turns this fall I knew I was in somebody's debt so I agreed, figuring a little more recovery from my cough and I'd be fine. (Our little group of Lay Readers don't really make a big deal of "duty" -- I think we all enjoy serving. At least I hope we do!)

3 hours later, on my way over to the British Pantry to have lunch with Fr. McGrath (something we haven't done for months now), I was less sure. The cough was back though different, and the cough syrup that had been working wonders wasn't doing a thing. During lunch I felt some illness definitely coming on so after lunch I went back to the office, packed up and came home. (In case you're reading this, Claire, the previous bug caused a slight fever but this lowered my temperature -- it's something different and I think a cold. Too much travel with a compromised immune system? We'll see. Please don't worry -- nobody in Vienna seemed to have anything like this and it's not a relapse.)

But I had mentioned 'reading' to Fr.McGrath, and he noted that we'd run on past the end of Trinity, at least as it appears in the lectionary in the 1928 Prayer Book, that I should prepare to read the Epistle for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity, and pointed to me to the "lengthy" rubric following the 24th Sunday after Trinity, to wit:

¶ If in any year there be twenty-six Sundays after Trinity, the service for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany shall be used on the Twenty-fifth Sunday. If there be twenty-seven, the service for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany shall be used on the Twenty-sixth, and the service for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany on the Twenty-fifth. If there be fewer than twenty-five Sundays, the overplus shall be omitted.

All of which is a little confusing (and clearly not written by a software engineer nor is it in good Standards English -- "overplus"?), because the next Collect, Epistle and Gospel (oops -- there's a word for those collectively, Fr. McGrath used that in a class this summer, and I have forgotten it!) is for the Sunday Next Before Advent. But an annotated online copy of the BCP notes that that used be the 25th Sunday and with a different set of rubrics. I think I see why the change was made -- those are an excellent lead-in to Advent, as Fr. McGrath noted.

But however things go Sunday, we're coming to the end of this church year and I find I'm really looking forward to the new church year.