Feast Day of William Augustus Muhlenburg

From James Kiefer at the Lectionary:

William A. Muhlenberg was born in Philadelphia on 16 September 1796, to a distinguished German Lutheran family. Attracted to the Episcopal Church by its use of English, he was ordained in 1817. He was active in promoting the Sunday School movement, and concerned that the Church should minister to all social groups. He wrote hymns and compiled hymnals, greatly expanding the range of music in Episcopal churches. In 1828 he founded, and for twenty years headed, Flushing Institute (later St Paul's College), a boys' school in Flushing, New York. There he made extensive use of music, flowers, vestments, and an emphasis on the Church year and on sacramental worship, with the weekly reception of the sacrament of Holy Communion, while at the same time preaching with great force and conviction the Reformation doctrines of grace and of justification by faith. Out of his ministry came inspiration for the establishment of Church schools and hospitals, and an outreach to the poor. In 1846 he founded the Church of the Holy Communion in New York City, with a parish school, a parish unemployment fund, and trips to the country for poor city children. He called himself an "Evangelical Catholic," and by his firm stand for Evangelical Faith, Apostolic Order, and Corporal Works of Mercy, he spoke to all parties in the Church while belonging to none. As one writer has said, "There was not a significant area of the Church's life, during his ministry, that he did not elevate and strengthen by the pureness of his life and the vigor of his consecrated imagination."

As the words in bold type (emphasis by me) demonstrate, Muhlenburg was a living example of one person embracing both the catholic and the evangelical strains within the Episcopal Church, with the result that his life bore much fruit. Thanks be to God.

From his obituary in the New York Times (PDF):

At St. Luke's Hospital no day passed that his slender figure was not seen passing through the wards and cheering the sick by his mere presence. Last Winter he never failed to knock at the doors of certain boarders at the hospital and wish them a cheery good-night. Many of the sick who could hear his voice would wait for the sound before they themselves could sleep. From his own private table he used to send wine to certain old ladies; frequently he was known to take meat from his own table to feed the destitute; and doubtless, had he followed his natural impulse, he would have stripped off his coat in the street, like the famous early saint, and covered the rags of beggars.

He sounds like a lovely man.

Readings:

Psalm 84:1-6 or 133
Ephesians 4:11-16
Matthew 21:12-16

PRAYER

Do not let your Church close its eyes, O Lord, to the plight of the poor and neglected, the homeless and the destitute, the old and the sick,the lonely and those who have no one to care for them. Give us the vision and compassion with which you so richly endowed your servant William Augustus Muhlenberg, that we may labor tirelessly to heal those who are broken in body or spirit, and to turn their sorrow into joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

UPDATE: Here's a picture of the Church of the Holy Communion, which C.W.S., in the comments, tells us was last known as the Limelight Disco