Guiding light

A guiding light Epiphany marks wise mens' visit to holy family
By NICOLE GERRING
Port Huron (MI) Times Herald

Many people already have thrown away their Christmas trees, cleaned up decorations and removed Christmas lights from the homes.

For many Christians, however, the Christmas season continues on Sunday with the feast of Epiphany.

The purpose of Epiphany, which means "to reveal" or "to make known," is to celebrate God's act of revealing his son, Jesus, to the world.

Also called Three Kings Day and Twelfth Day, Epiphany commemorates the wise men's visit to Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Although it's often portrayed as having taken place at the manger after Jesus' birth, some scholars believe the visit happened when Jesus was a few years old, said the Rev. Robert Trask, priest at Grace Episcopal Church in Port Huron.

It’s all here …

Enlightened season
Orthodox Anglicans celebrate Epiphany this month with music and introspection
By Pat Gee
Honolulu (HI) Star Bulletin

In the secular world, Christmas is the culmination of shopping and partying that usually comes to a halt Dec. 25, the big day of frenzied gift opening.

Unfamiliar to most is that Jan. 6, the first day of Epiphany (Greek for "to make known"), is the climax of the Christmas season for orthodox Anglican churches, said the Rev. Barbara Grace Ripple, a retired United Methodist Church minister.

The monthlong Epiphany season is "a celebration of light" emitted from the star that led the Magi (the Three Wise Men) to Jesus' birthplace, and it symbolizes hope in the face of darkness or "the light of Christ within us," said Ripple, who also served as UMC superintendent in Guam, Saipan and Hawaii.

It’s all here …but what, pray tell, is “Orthodox Anglican” in this context? As opposed to “heterodox”? Or is it (as we suspect) that the reporter, having heard the term misused in intramural church polemics for so long, doesn’t know that a simple “Anglican” or “Episcopal” would suffice as a description?