Commontide
Liturgical Color: Red
Christ the King
Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Christ the King
Through your only begotten Son Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords; for you have seated him at your right hand in glory, and put all things in subjection under his feet, that he may present them to you, O Father, perfectly restored in beauty, truth, and love.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
Bishop of Rome and Martyr
Ecumenical Commemoration
Clement was one of the earliest leaders of the church at Rome, remembered by the church as the third bishop of the city after the apostle Peter, and counted among the Apostolic Fathers who stand nearest in time to the apostles themselves. His one certain work is First Clement, a letter written from the church of Rome to the church of Corinth about the year 96, urging peace and order upon a congregation that had wrongfully deposed its faithful presbyters; it is the earliest surviving witness to one church's pastoral care for another. Later tradition holds that he was exiled to the Crimea and drowned with an anchor about his neck. His feast is November 23.
Little is certain about Clement's early life. Irenaeus, writing around 180, lists him as the third bishop of Rome after Peter and places him among those who had seen and conversed with the blessed apostles. Origen identifies him with the Clement mentioned by Paul in Philippians 4:3, though this identification remains disputed. Clement appears to have been a Jewish Christian of education and learning, fluent in the Hebrew scriptures and versed in both Christian tradition and Greco-Roman rhetoric.
First Clement, written around 96 during the reign of Domitian, addresses a crisis in the Corinthian church where some presbyters had been deposed from their positions. Clement writes to urge their restoration, arguing that presbyters duly appointed by the apostles (or their successors) cannot lawfully be removed without cause. The letter is remarkable for its pastoral authority, its careful argumentation from Scripture and tradition, and its breadth of learning — Clement draws on the Hebrew Bible, early Christian practice, examples from nature, and Roman civic virtues with impressive skill.
The letter is historically significant as the earliest evidence for apostolic succession as a principle of church order, the first witness to the Roman church's exercise of pastoral authority over another church, and a testimony to the extent of the Roman church's engagement with Christian texts (including Paul's correspondence). Clement's own education is evident throughout — he writes in a classical Greek idiom and demonstrates familiarity with Stoic ethics and rhetoric.
Clement is traditionally dated to die around 99 AD or shortly thereafter. The accounts of his later life and martyrdom rest on much later sources of dubious reliability.
Traditionally, Clement is said to have been martyred under Trajan, exiled to the Crimea or Pontus, forced to work in the mines, and finally executed by being cast into the sea with an anchor tied about his neck. According to the legend, his martyrdom site became a shrine where the faithful could venerate his relics. Later versions of the tradition describe miracles surrounding the discovery of his body.