Arts and Culture Archives - Anglican Journal

The Chosen: Writers approach task with ‘fear and trembling, but also anticipation’

Sean Frankling — Fri, 31 May 2024 21:01:26 +0000

Fleshing out the gospel accounts of Jesus’ disciples, the TV series The Chosen adapts the bedrock of Christianity as a high-production-value drama. To do so, it dives deep into the text, directly lifting key moments from Scripture, but also attempting to flesh out the characters, setting and political realities of the first century A.D. That work, the show’s creators say, involves a careful process of bringing sainted and beloved characters like Mary Magdalene and Simon Peter to life in ways audiences can relate to while ensuring their portrayals remain true to the historical accounts of their lives.

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Eternity’s light and the door of forgiveness

Joy Kogawa — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 15:00:22 +0000

Mama never lied. Her eyes were wide with shock as if she could not believe what she had just said. I don’t know what it took for her to speak. She said it was her fault. I couldn’t move. After some time—I don’t remember how long—I walked away from her, past Dad in his room lying in his cot, blanket up to his chin. He knew she had told me. His eyes registered this. I had to go through his room to reach the stairs to my attic room.

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“God doesn’t choose the qualified, he qualifies the chosen.”

Sean Frankling — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 17:24:42 +0000

“Can I just get rid of the subterfuge and say that it’s Gaius?” said Ryan Swanson, appearing with fellow writer of the TV series The Chosen, Tyler Thompson, revealing some minor spoilers about the show’s Roman soldier character at a Jan. 31 Q&A at a cineplex in Oakville, Ont.

“Don’t worry, we’ve read the book,” someone called back amid the chorus of agreement from the audience.

That unnamed theatre-goer was right. Many people in the full-house audience were intimately familiar with the show’s source material (the gospels, as hardcore fans know them) and have been attending a weekly lecture (or sermon, as some call it) unpacking its key themes and applicability for much of their lives. It’s a level of fandom even some of pop culture’s biggest franchises—Marvel, Game of Thrones, Star Wars—can’t count on from their average fans.

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‘Music will teach you how to feel’

Sean Frankling — Thu, 31 Aug 2023 15:05:04 +0000

A scholar and composer ponders the role of church music amid a 1,700-year-old culture war As an educator, composer, curator and practitioner, Robert Busiakiewicz has been working with sacred music for much of his adult career. Busiakiewicz, who holds a master’s of philosophy in music from Cambridge University, has served as music director for St. […]

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A risen Christ hides in plain sight

ajadmin — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 14:00:03 +0000

The Anglican Journal continues Capturing the Light, its series of readers’ photo and text submissions on stained-glass windows. Send us a photo of a stained-glass window that has been especially important to you, and tell us why. Photos should be high resolution files in jpg format. Please email them to editor@national.anglican.ca. Submissions are subject to […]

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‘Holy Goose Window’ adorns Ottawa-area church

Anglican Journal Staff — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 20:00:44 +0000

Between 2006 and 2012, I was privileged, as a volunteer for the diocese of Ottawa archives, to create a photographic inventory of all the stained-glass windows in the diocese. That project resulted in a printed and digital database of more than 900 windows that included their descriptions and other information.

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Gathering as ‘life-giving offering for the brokenness of our world’

Ruth Jellicoe Sheeran — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 20:32:06 +0000

The pandemic brought us remote learning, remote working, remote meetings, remote parties. Now that we can gather again, why should we make the effort when we can continue to worship remotely from the comfort of our homes? The short answer to this question is, of course, community.

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‘Be of good cheer: It is I; Be not afraid.’

Anglican Journal Staff — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 13:00:58 +0000

St. Bartholomew Church, in Pelican Narrows, Sask., is at the end of the road on a rock, almost surrounded by water. If you’re out on a boat coming back to the point where the church sits, the water seems deep and wide.

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Listening to Holy Week

Scott Brubacher — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 13:00:26 +0000

For me, it's all about the music. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, given my training as a classical composer. After two years of near-silence from professional and amateur musicians alike, save for pre-recorded virtual performances, what I am most looking forward to this spring is the return of live choral and congregational singing—especially during Holy Week.

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Hoping window not fated for the wrecking ball

Alfred Nichols — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 12:50:51 +0000

The beautiful chancel window with its figure of Christ knocking at the door, referred to by various speakers and in many sermons, was placed by the congregation “To the Glory of God and in memory of the Rev. Captain R. J. Kain,” rector from 1916 to 1918, when he enlisted for service in World War I.

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