Br Alex Swain

Beloved in Christ,

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, which takes place on June 29 (a Sunday). However, according to the Book of Common Prayer (BCP—see pp. 15-16), they do not take precedence over the observation of the Feast of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is every Sunday.

So, we transfer to the next closest possible day, which is… today! These two are often depicted together, with St. Peter holding a key (Matt 16:19), and St. Paul holding a sword symbolizing the “sword of the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:17).

These two apostles are the central leaders of the early church and have their own feasts as well, but today they are commemorated in “observance of the tradition of the church that they both died as martyrs in Rome during the persecution under Nero in 64.”*

These two saints had their disagreements—in Acts, St. Paul rebukes Peter for excluding gentiles from worship and fellowship (Galatians 2:11-14).

Despite major disagreements at times, these two are pillars of the church, and share a profound and common commitment to the mission of Jesus Christ. Both died for their faith, and tradition notes that St. Paul was beheaded, while St. Peter was crucified upside-down.

St. Clement of Rome writing a generation after them to the church in Corinth (around the year 96), writes of the deep faith and martyrdom of the Sts. Peter and Paul. Christians, even to this day, continue to be martyred for their faith—as 20 people were just killed on June 22 in a church in Damascus.

As we celebrate their feast, I hope that we can keep in mind that even though we may have disagreements within the faith and with one another, our shared commitment to Christ is stronger than anything that could tear apart our being bound together.

We stand on the shoulders of the Saints and find ourselves bound into the same body of Christ as they were. They continue to stand before Christ and intercede on our behalf, as we pray and serve the world.

May we give thanks for the witness of the lives of the Saints, and for the witness of St. Peter and St. Paul, who followed the call of Christ through their life.

May we do likewise!

Yours in Christ,

—Br. Alex

* Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 2022, pp. 294-295.