I live close to a major town in Northern Ireland with numerous Anglican parishes (at least 8 between my home and the far end of the town). Not one will be celebrating the Holy Eucharist on this Feast of the birth of St John the Baptist. Thankfully a small handful of Anglican parishes in Belfast have a Eucharist on this day. It is another, however, illustration of the failure of the Church of Ireland to live out key patristic, catholic practices - it is clear from St Augustine that the Church celebrated this feast in his day.
Today we celebrate the Forerunner, the voice who pointed to the Word.
The Church observes the birth of John as in some way sacred; and you will not find any other of the great men of old whose birth we celebrate officially. We celebrate John’s, as we celebrate Christ’s. This point cannot be passed over in silence, and if I may not perhaps be able to explain it in the way that such an important matter deserves, it is still worth thinking about it a little more deeply and fruitfully than usual.
John is born of an old woman who is barren; Christ is born of a young woman who is a virgin. That John will be born is not believed, and his father is struck dumb; that Christ will be born is believed, and he is conceived by faith ...
Zachary is struck dumb and loses his voice, until John, the Lord’s forerunner, is born and releases his voice for him. What does Zachary’s silence mean, but that prophecy was obscure and, before the proclamation of Christ, somehow concealed and shut up? It is released and opened up by his arrival, it becomes clear when the one who was being prophesied is about to come ... The tongue is released because a voice is being born ...
John is the voice, but the Lord in the beginning was the Word. John is a voice for a time, but Christ is the eternal Word from the beginning.
From St Augustine's sermon on the Feast of the birth of St John the Baptist.
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