Commontide
Proper 22
Liturgical Color: White/Gold
The 18th Sunday after Trinity
Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in continual godliness, that through your protection it may be free from all adversities, and devoutly serve you in good works, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
Deacon and Evangelist
Ecumenical Commemoration
Philip was one of the seven men chosen in Jerusalem to serve the widows of the early church, and after the apostles he became its first great missionary. Scattered from the city by persecution, he preached in Samaria, baptized an Ethiopian court official on the desert road to Gaza, and settled at Caesarea, where his four unmarried daughters prophesied and where he later lodged Paul. Acts calls him Philip the evangelist. His feast is October 11. He is not Philip the Apostle.
Philip first appears in Acts 6 as one of seven men 'of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom,' chosen to resolve a dispute over the daily distribution of food to Greek-speaking widows in the Jerusalem church. Though appointed to a practical ministry of service, Philip quickly proved himself an evangelist of extraordinary power.
When persecution scattered the Jerusalem believers after Stephen's martyrdom, Philip went to Samaria—a bold move, given the deep hostility between Jews and Samaritans. His preaching was accompanied by healings and exorcisms, and 'there was much joy in that city.' Even Simon the Magician, a figure of considerable local influence, believed and was baptized. The apostles Peter and John came from Jerusalem to confirm Philip's work, laying hands on the Samaritan believers.
Philip's most celebrated act was his encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace (queen) of Ethiopia. Directed by an angel to the desert road, Philip found the Ethiopian reading Isaiah's suffering servant passage in his chariot but unable to understand it. Philip explained the passage as fulfilled in Jesus, and the eunuch responded with immediate faith: 'See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?' The baptism of a Gentile, a eunuch, and an African—each category carrying barriers under Jewish law—demonstrated the radical inclusiveness of the gospel.
Philip settled in Caesarea Maritima, where he was still living when Paul stopped there on his final journey to Jerusalem (Acts 21:8-9). Luke notes that Philip had four unmarried daughters who prophesied—suggesting a household formed by the Spirit's gifts. Later tradition places Philip's eventual ministry in various locations, but the New Testament record ends with him at Caesarea.
Traditionally, Philip's mission to Samaria has been understood as the first formal breach of the Jewish-Gentile boundary, preceding even Peter's vision of the clean and unclean animals. The Ethiopian eunuch's conversion is regarded as the seed of African Christianity. Philip's four prophesying daughters were remembered by Papias and Polycrates as important sources of apostolic tradition and wisdom sayings in the early Church.