Channing Moore Williams Morning Prayer Wednesday, 2 December, 2020

Psalm 96:1-7 1 Sing to the LORD a new song; * sing to the LORD, all the whole earth.

2 Sing to the LORD and bless his Name; * proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day.

3 Declare his glory among the nations * and his wonders among all peoples.

4 For great is the LORD and greatly to be praised; * he is more to be feared than all gods.

5 As for all the gods of the nations, they are but idols; * but it is the LORD who made the heavens.

6 Oh, the majesty and magnificence of his presence! * Oh, the power and the splendor of his sanctuary!

7 Ascribe to the LORD, you families of the peoples; * ascribe to the LORD honor and power.

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First Reading

Isaiah 49:22-23

22 Thus says the Lord GOD: I will soon lift up my hand to the nations,

and raise my signal to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom,

and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. 23 Kings shall be your foster fathers,

and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,

and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD;

those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.

Second Reading

Acts 1:1-9

1 In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning 2 until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4 While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

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Gospel Reading

Luke 10:1-9

10 After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2 He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ 6 And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. 7 Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9 cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’

Channing Moore Williams

Missionary Bishop in China and Japan, 1910

Bishop Williams, a farmer’s son, was born in Richmond, , on July 18, 1829, and brought up in straitened circumstances by his widowed mother. He attended the College of William and Mary and the Virginia Theological Seminary.

Ordained deacon in 1855, he offered himself for work in China, where he was ordained priest in 1857. Two years later, he was sent to Japan and opened work in . His first convert was baptized in 1866, the year he was chosen bishop for both China and Japan.

After 1868, he decided to concentrate all his work in Japan, following the revolution that opened the country to renewed contact with the western world. Relieved of his responsibility for China in 1874, Williams made his base at Yedo (now ), where he founded a divinity school, later to become St. Paul’s University. At a synod in 1887 he helped bring together the English and American missions to form the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, the Holy Catholic Church of Japan, when the Church there numbered fewer than a thousand communicants.

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Williams translated parts of the Prayer Book into Japanese; and he was a close friend and warm supporter of Bishop Schereschewsky, his successor in China, in the latter’s arduous work of translating the Bible into Chinese.

After resigning his jurisdiction in 1889, due to failing health, Bishop Williams stayed in Japan to help his successor there, Bishop John McKim who was consecrated in 1893. Williams lived in and continued to work in the opening of new mission stations until his return to America in 1908. He died in Richmond, Virginia, on December 2, 1910.

Collect Almighty and everlasting God, we thank you for your servant Channing Moore Williams, whom you called to preach the Gospel to the people of China and Japan. Raise up in this and every land evangelists and heralds of your kingdom, that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

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