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Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Almighty and merciful God, you raised up Gregory of Rome to be a servant of the servants of God, and inspired him to send missionaries to preach the Gospel to the English people: Preserve in your Church the catholic and apostolic faith they taught, that your people, being fruitful in every good work, may receive the crown of glory that never fades away; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
You may notice that the church seems a little plainer, a little less decorated than usual. You’re not imagining things—it is, and the reason, of course, is because we’re in Lent. Specifically, what you’re not seeing includes: flowers on the altar, and the Paschal Candle in its accustomed position near the baptismal font. In many places there are distinctive altar vestments (purple or unbleached linen) that denote the penitential character of the season, and sometimes different candlesticks are used. The liturgy itself also has a peculiarly Lenten feel: the Christian expletive of praise—Alleluia—is retired until the Easter Vigil, the General Confession is often moved to the beginning of the service. The service music is more restrained in tone. Instead of a blessing at the conclusion of the service, there is usually a “solemn prayer over the people.”
Nonetheless, please note that this is the second Sunday in Lent—the preposition is important, for Sundays in the season are manifestly not of Lent. Lent is a time of penitence and fasting; all Sundays are, by definition, feasts of the resurrection, “little Easters,” whenever they occur. For those observing dietary abstinence as a Lenten discipline, it would not be inappropriate to relax such measures on Sundays in Lent.
The word “Lent” is related to the same Old English root from which we get “lengthen,” alluding to the fact that, in the northern hemisphere, the days are getting longer at this time of year. Christians in the early centuries of the church put a great deal of energy into the annual observance of our Lord’s death and resurrection. Baptisms were saved up to be performed at the Great Vigil of Easter (Easter eve into Easter morning). Those who were under penitential discipline were restored to full fellowship with the church in time to make their communion at the vigil liturgy. It seemed appropriate that there be a time of focused preparation for these observances, a time in which all the Faithful could live in solidarity with those who were going to be baptized or restored. This period of preparation eventually evolved into Lent.
There are two lesser commemorations in our calendar:
Tuesday—St Gregory of Nyssa was one of the bright lights of eastern Christianity as a bishop, philosopher, and theologian in the last fourth century.
Friday—St Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome. Pope Gregory served in the late sixth century and briefly into the seventh. Through his administrative skill and pastoral aptitude, he did a great deal to consolidate the leading position of the Roman church in western Christianity. The plainsong musical idiom known as Gregorian Chant is named for him, as is the Gregorian Calendar. As Anglicans, our particular inheritance from Gregory flows from his sending the monk Augustine on a mission to the English kingdom of Kent (597), where the See of Canterbury was established.
How to Register on the Covenant site
In order to comment on the Covenant Forums, you must first register here. Enter your actual name, first and last (no pseudonyms), and a valid email, and a password will be sent to you. Your registration is not complete until you click the link sent to the email address you provide, so the registration email address must be valid, and it must also be one to which you have ready access. Once you receive the password, follow the link in the email, type in your user name and password, and you will be taken to your profile. From there you can return and comment on any post, subject to our comment policy.
If You Are Having Problems Registering
Once you complete the registration form, we will send you an email automatically that contain a request that you confirm your registration by clicking a link in the email. Your registration is not complete until you click this link and you will have only "guest" access to the site. If you believe that you have not received this confirmation email within a reasonable time, please ensure that the email has not been blocked by your spam filter or sent to your junk mailbox. If you don't receive the confirmation email, please send an email to the Covenant Editor (using the "Contact Us" button at the bottom right of your browser window) for assistance.
How to Login
Click the "Login" link just above the blue Covenant banner. Input your user name and password. Click submit.
If You Have Forgotten Your Password or Have Problems Logging In
Click the "Forgot your password?" link. You will be asked to input the email address you used to register at Covenant. Once you input the valid email address, our system will email you instructions for resetting your password.
How to Post on the Covenant Forums
You must be logged in to post a reply to post in the Covenant Forums. Once you're logged in (and only when you are logged in!), the "Fast Reply", "Post Reply", and "New Topic" buttons will appear on the right hand side of Forum posts. Compose your post (comment) in the "Message" box. Helpful formatting buttons are above the Message Box. Click "Preview" to see how your comment will appear once posted. Click the "Submit" button to submit your post it to the Covenant Forums.
Changing Your Account Information (Username, Password, Email Address, Password, etc.)
You must be logged in to change your account information. If logged in and on the Home page, click "My Profile." This will make visible the "Your Control Panel" option near the top of the page. The screens needed to change your account are accessed via the "Personal Settings" Menu on the left. To change your username or password, click "Username and Password." To change your email address, click "Email Settings." To change your profile information, click "Edit Profile."
Subscribing to Covenant's Email Newsletter
To subscribe to Covenant's Email Newsletter, navigate to the bottom of your screen and click the "Sign Up for Our Email Newsletter" option. Alternatively, click the orange "Email Newsletter" on the right hand sidebar. Provide a valid email address and click submit.
How to Widen the Three Column in the List View of the Home Page
To learn how to take advantage of the way Covenant scales as you widen your browser window and how to access the blog view, watch this very brief training video. (Be patient; it takes several seconds to download the video across the web to your browser.) Widen the columns on the home page by dragging the lower right corner of your browser window to the right. See the attached an image to show you where to grab the window.
When you do this, the text will automatically flow and the columns will widen to maintain their proportion of one-third of the available width for each column.
How to Switch Between List and Blog View on the Home Page
To select the blog view, click on the words “blog view” near the top middle of the home page. This will allow you to browse all posts in sequential order.
To browse “features” only, click on the word “Features” at the top of the Features column.
To browse “LIfe Together” items only, click on the words “Life Together” at the top of the Life Together column.
To browse all recent forum posts, click on the word “Comments” at the top of the Comments column.
To return to the list view, click on the words “List View” at the top of the screen (right next to the words “Blog View”).
Adjusting the Size of Text in Your Display
To adjust the font size, simply use your browser’s controls to adjust the font size and the text will automatically flow and the textual display will adjust. The font sizes of our site are currently set so that the average text size of paragraphs is appropriate for the average internet user (which works out to be about 16 points). If your own settings on your browser are set larger than that, then the text on Covenant will seem larger.
In both Mozilla/Firefox and Safari, use the View Zoom command to adjust the size of fonts to your pleasure dynamically. In both Internet Explorer v8 and Google Chrome, (similarly) adjust the text size using the Text Zoom feature. The shorthand way of doing this for all four browsers is the same: use CTRL + to make the text larger, CTRL 0 to make it “normal”, and CTRL - to make it smaller. If using Apple versions, you use the CMD or Apple key instead of the CTRL key for the same shorthand zooming technique.
You can make static (i.e. global and persistent) adjustments to your font size by modifying your browser’s default font size in the browser preferences. For Firefox, go to Preferences, Content. You will see on the Content tab the default setting for your machine. As I said, our design assumes that your setting is 16, which is the default setting for Firefox and Safari. For Safari, go to Preferences, Appearance to do the same thing.
View Previous Posts When Replying
The “Post Reply” feature offers some handy tools for communicating, but seems at first glance deficient because you can’t see the previous posts to which you are replying. The good news is that there is indeed a way to see those earlier posts, but that capacity is poorly presented on the screen such that most of us miss it entirely.
Click here to watch a brief (just over a minute) video I have prepared to show you how to find and use this feature.
Please be patient while the video downloads across the net. It may take a few minutes.
Canceling Your Membership
If you desire to cancel your membership, please send an email to the Covenant Editor using the "Contact Us" option at the bottom of the page.
Please note:
We are unable to delete accounts from our database, because delete your account entirely also deletes all posts/comments you've made. This presents substantive technical problems for our system due to the way posts are numbered and linked to to by other members.
If you wish to stop receiving emails from us, or otherwise change your incoming email settings, you can cancel all email communications from us by editing your preferences under "Email Settings" in the "Personal Settings" section of your Control Panel.
