The following are the services for the 2023 Christmas season:
Christmas Eve Morning Service
Sunday, December 24th at 10:30 am to be held at St. John’s Anglican Church in Antrim
Ante-Communion*
Christmas Eve Services
Sunday, December 24th
St. Mark’s Anglican in Pakenham at 5:00 pm
St. John’s Anglican in Antrim at 7:00 pm
Monday, December 25th – No service
Sunday, December 31st – No service
Services for January 7th to March 24th, 2024
All Sunday services will be held at St. Mark’s Anglican in Pakenham at 10:30 am
* What is ‘Antecommunion’?
The prefix ante- means ‘before’, so the service of Antecommunion is the Service of Holy Communion before, or leading up to and excluding, the actual celebration of Communion. Antecommunion is a uniquely Anglican practice.
In the Prayer Book tradition, provision was made for the celebration of Holy Communion every Sunday and major Holy Day of the year, but, people were not used to such frequent reception of Communion, and despite the Reformers’ best efforts, the average English believer still only came to the Holy Table once a month at best. The priests, however, were still expected to fulfill the liturgical demands of the Prayer Book, and so provision had to be made for situations in which there was a Service of Holy Communion offered but no communicants prepared to receive Holy Communion.
Now that Anglicans almost the world over are accustomed to weekly Communion, this “need” for Antecommunion is no longer common.
Source: https://saint-aelfric-customary.org/2019/08/14/antecommunion-what-why-and-how/
