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)
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.