Sunday, June 4, 2023
Liturgical Color: White/Gold
Trinity Sunday
Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Trinity Sunday
Who, with your co-eternal Son and Holy Spirit, are one God, one Lord, in Trinity of Persons and in Unity of Substance. For that which we believe of your glory, O Father, we believe the same of your Son, and of the Holy Spirit, without any difference or inequality.
Bishop of Rome, Ecumenist, and Reformer of the Church
Ecumenical Commemoration
Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, John XXIII, was Bishop of Rome from 1958 to 1963 and the pope who summoned the Second Vatican Council. A diplomat's son of the Bergamo peasantry in Italy, elected at seventy-six as a caretaker, he instead opened the Roman church toward the other Christian communions and toward the world. The affection in which he was held has long outlived him, and his impact on simplifying and unifying the Roman church still resonates today. The maxim he commended in his first encyclical was an old one: in essentials, unity; in doubtful matters, liberty; in all things, charity.
Pope John XXIII (Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, 1881–1963) was an unexpected revolutionary pope. Born to a peasant family in Bergamo, Italy, he rose through diplomatic service as papal nuncio (ambassador) to Bulgaria, Turkey, France, and Venice before his election as pope at age 77 in 1958. As pope, he inaugurated the Second Vatican Council in 1962—a watershed moment for global Christianity. Vatican II (1962–1965) fundamentally reformed Catholic liturgy, theology, and ecumenical engagement, transitioning the church from institutional defensiveness to evangelical openness. His encyclicals Mater et Magistra (1961) and Pacem in Terris (1963) addressed social justice, human dignity, and peace during the Cold War. Pacem in Terris, issued just months before his death, called for disarmament, international cooperation, and respect for human rights in language that transcended confessional boundaries and influenced global statecraft. His pastoral gentleness and accessibility—evident in his Journal of a Soul (spiritual diary)—revealed a man of deep prayer and humble conviction. He reached out to Orthodox and Protestant churches, demonstrating concrete ecumenical friendship. Though he did not live to see Vatican II's conclusion, its trajectory was set by his vision. The Roman Catholic Church canonized him in 2014.
Pope John XXIII represents the possibility of institutional renewal grounded in pastoral gentleness and evangelical vision. He demonstrates that hierarchy and reform are not incompatible, and that ecclesial tradition can be reinterpreted for new times without being abandoned. His ecumenical openness presaged the modern trajectory toward Christian unity. His social encyclicals established the pope as a prophetic voice for justice and peace. For Anglicanism and other traditions, he embodies unexpected kinship across historic divisions.