Commontide
Liturgical Color: White/Gold
The 6th Sunday of Easter (Rogation Sunday)
O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Easter
But chiefly are we bound to praise you for the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; for he is the true Paschal Lamb, who was offered for us, and has taken away the sin of the world; who by his death has destroyed death, and by his rising to life again has won for us everlasting life.
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.
The 6th of Easter (Rogation Sunday)
Reformer and Pastor of Geneva
Ecumenical Commemoration
John Calvin, born at Noyon in Picardy in 1509, was a French lawyer and humanist who became the pastor and teacher of Geneva. Never ordained in the Roman church, he wrote the Institutes of the Christian Religion at twenty-six as a plea to a king who was burning his countrymen, was twice made a Genevan against his own plans, and left behind a church order, an academy, and thousands of sermons. He died on 27 May 1564 and was buried the next day in an unmarked grave, by his own instruction.
Born in Noyon, Picardy, Jean Calvin received a humanist legal education before converting to evangelical Christianity around 1533. Fleeing Catholic France, he published the first edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion in Basel in 1536 — a work he expanded through four editions (final 1559) into the most comprehensive Protestant systematic theology.
Calvin spent brief time in Strasbourg under Martin Bucer before settling in Geneva, where — after an initial exile (1538-1541) — he established the Ecclesiastical Ordinances restructuring church governance around four offices: pastors, teachers, elders, and deacons. Geneva became a refuge for persecuted Protestants and a training ground for Reformed ministers.
Calvin's productivity was extraordinary: he preached nearly daily, wrote commentaries on most biblical books, produced thousands of surviving letters, and shaped Geneva's religious, educational, and civil institutions. His theology emphasized God's sovereignty, predestination, Scripture's authority, and the invisible church. His role in the execution of Michael Servetus for heresy in 1553 remains controversial and reflects the coercive religious uniformity of the era. Calvin's influence extended across Europe, shaping Reformed traditions from Scotland to Hungary to the Netherlands. He died on May 27, 1564.
Calvin's legacy is interpreted differently across traditions. Reformed tradition celebrates his theological brilliance; Catholic and critical accounts stress his coercive governance and the Servetus execution. Modern ecumenical dialogue has produced more nuanced assessments.