Subscribers will receive a daily email with a reflection from Dr. Keesmaat, “on what health, well-being and good living require of us in our lives and our relationships with one another, with creation and with God. As you will read, things begin to break down when human beings separate themselves from creation, exploiting it as a com-modity, or separate and exploit one another. In so doing, we separate ourselves from the Creator.”

Dr. Keesmaat will guide meditations and [offer] lessons in repair and restoration that are both profoundly ancient and current.”

The resource will also be available as a free download on the PWRDF website, so parishes may use it as a Bible study.

www.pwrdf.org/lent2024

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Epiphany emerged from the amalgamation of two parishes, the Church of Saint Christopher in Gloucester, and Saint Paul’s Church, Overbrook. These two emerged in the 1960s, either at the same time or just a little after an Ontario conference on church architecture was being held in Toronto in 1961.

At the conference, Edward Frey from the department of church architecture of the United Lutheran Church in America challenged the traditional way in which building committees arranged for the design of churches. “For them it is a settled matter that the interior of the building should be longer than it is wide, filled with the familiar furnishings so arranged as to conform to the stereotyped image of the meeting house or the medieval cathedral,” he asserted.  “The building and the idea of the building are all pervasive and this must not be because the building is not the thing. Worship is the thing.”

Frey noted that an important aspect of the liturgical awakening taking place in contemporary Christian society was the rediscovery of the laity. Worship in church was not a solo activity of the priest or minister, but rather the essential and active participation of the “whole people of God.” To encourage such participation, the architecture and furnishings of new churches should encourage people to participate fully in public worship rather than be forced into the passive role of mere observers.

The same year as this conference, Victor Fiddes published with Ryerson Press at Toronto The Architectural Requirements of Protestant Worship. In his survey history Fiddes, like Frey, urged a return to worship in the round such as the early Christians had practiced in their house churches before the toleration granted to Christians by the emperor Constantine had prompted the church to merge its worship practices with those of established pagan religions. Principally, Frey and Fiddes argued for locating a communion table in the middle of a circle of worshippers.

Back in Gloucester, both St. Christopher’s and Saint Paul’s claimed to be innovative in physically arranging worship. Take Saint Christopher’s for example.  Lacking the funds to build a church, they settled for building a functional parish hall, making use of stacking chairs rather than pews, but laid out for worship facing a free-standing altar at one end. As for Saint Paul’s, the new house of worship they built at the end of the decade had the altar in the centre, as Frey and Fiddes recommended. The only problem was no immediate prospect of growth.

With prodding from the Diocese, the two small churches amalgamated as Church of the Epiphany, and their new worship space opened in 2003. Not only was the altar in the centre, but baptisms took place there too in a cruciform immersion tank seen here in the foreground. The only connection with traditional local church architecture was the octagonal shape of the worship space. The only colour in that space was provided by the red chairs grouped in a circle.

The Diocesan Archives collects parish registers, vestry reports, service registers, minutes of groups and committees, financial documents, property records (including cemeteries and architectural plans), insurance policies, letters, pew bulletins, photographs and paintings, scrapbooks, parish newsletters and unusual records. 

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1) by 2028, each of our parishes and congregations will be engaged in contextual mission, and each will be involved with at least one new venture;

2) by 2031, the 135th anniversary of our diocese, we will have 35 new worshipping communities, in a great variety of shapes and sizes.

Depending on your perspective, this is either very daunting or an exciting development in our ministry in this part of creation. One thing is certain: we must learn how to do contextual mission.

Paul Mugarura has some valuable insights on this topic. Having immigrated to Canada from Uganda, he wrote a reflection last year that highlighted some of the difficulties new Canadians, even Anglicans if they are from a different culture, face when trying to find a church home in Canada. (“My prayer is that “helpful” sorting out of people will cease.” Crosstalk, Feb. 2023 p.14). He and his wife Evelyn also lead a new worshipping community on Sunday afternoons at Trinity Anglican Church in Ottawa with Archdeacon Mark Whittall. So, it seemed appropriate to share some of the words of inspiration he offered at Synod as parishes across the diocese enter into “A Time of Prayer,” to discern how God might be calling them to serve in their changing communities.

Our experience of change is not new. … With the exception of people descended from Indigenous peoples, every single one of us can trace our lineage to a person or group of people who chose to leave their homes and try to start something new in North America. While some may act with surprise at the changes happening in society around us, in truth, we have always been a country for which change is constant. We have always been a country that is a destination for people from all over the world. The mosaic of multiculturalism has been an ever-present reality in our country, even though it may have been historically dominated by one ethnic majority.

As leaders and members of faith communities, we have seen this inevitable change. We’ve seen our communities change, and the makeup of our congregations change as a result. And as the contexts around us change, we’ve all been part of initiatives within our congregations to try to meet the needs of the communities in which we are situated. For example, many of us at one time or another have raised money for new immigrants to Canada. Many of us have responded to calls to be a part of meeting the needs for unhoused people or those facing incredible financial difficulty. Many are on a journey to be more inclusive in our language and posture towards society. Many more still are growing in our desire to see the dignity and voices of Indigenous peoples of this land restored.

As we all know, not every change in our contexts has resulted in a net-positive change for our congregations around the city. Through the years, we’ve even seen the position of privilege that our houses of faith held in our communities change, and as a result, we’ve had to walk through years of contracting membership within our congregations. This is no longer a theoretical conversation, but it is a reality that presents a real challenge to the church of today to continue ministry in a context in which we can no longer coast on the position of privilege and authority that the church held in society in the past.

Rising to meet the challenges of our changing contexts is not something new to us.

I believe that the reason the Anglican church has persisted for so long and did not die off after a generation was because those who were stewards of this movement before us, met the challenges of their changing contexts head on. What is different, however, is the accelerated pace of demographic, cultural, societal and religious change. And so, I am persuaded that the pace of our response has to be adjusted. Our capacity to respond has to be increased. Our imagination has to be activated. Our willingness to try new things has to be encouraged.

As our context changes, the questions that spiritually seeking people ask will change. As our demographics change, we will have to navigate the tension between stewarding our legacy and imagining a new Anglican movement that thrives in the future. As the ethnicities in our communities change, we will have to make room for expressions of faith that may differ from our historical expressions. As minorities of all kinds are allowed to find their voices in an increasingly progressive society, we are going to have to find ways to speak with humility and be champions for justice where we may have been silent or complicit with injustice in the past.

The rapidly changing context in which we currently live may look daunting to some, but I have come to see things differently. I believe that this is an opportunity to add new pages to the story of the Anglican movement in this city. I believe that we can be stewards of the necessary work that is needed to reach spiritually seeking people. I believe that we can build on the work of legacy congregations by starting new faith communities which are not viewed as competition because they are reaching new people. I believe that we can be agents of justice in a world beset by injustice. I believe that we can be instruments of grace and peace in a world of deep division and suspicion. I believe that the work the church has to do is not yet complete. Our changing context illuminates exciting new roads to travel. I believe that the Spirit beckons.

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It has been a long goodbye. The parish voted to disestablish at a special vestry meeting more than a year ago on Jan. 22, 2023, and Anglican services have not been held there for months.

“It was a wonderful church. We really enjoyed it,” said warden and long-time parishioner Myrna Peters. “We just didn’t have the numbers,” she said, explaining that the congregation was aging and everyone who was able took on responsibilities at the church. “I was the cleaner,” she said.

Warden Tom Gardiner, who was baptized in the church and has been a parishioner for 85 years, remembers when the church was a very different, bustling place. “In the Sunday School room, there are pictures of the 50th and the 75th [anniversaries], he said. “I don’t know, we got all the people in the church for the 50th… . The crowd was huge,” he said. “Now when you get to the 75th, it was probably down by 40 percent.” By the time, the church reached its 100th anniversary, “we didn’t even take a picture,” he said. “We had a special service alright, and it was well attended. We had an anniversary dinner and dance for the 100th.  The billing that we did was kind of novel. We had a midnight service on New Year’s eve in 2011. But we didn’t have the numbers that they had at the other two.”

Even as late as the 1990s, “We’d have probably 50 to 60 parishioners on a Sunday,” Gardiner said. The pandemic was the final blow, but “our numbers had gone down by attrition because it was an older population, and every year, there were a few more who weren’t able to go or had passed away,” he said. “

And with fewer people going to church in general, attendance fell off. “The last number of years before COVID, I tried to have a few concerts and musical events every year as fundraising, and they were fairly successful, enough to keep the doors open anyway,” said Gardiner, “but during COVID you couldn’t have anything like that either.”

The church is still being used by St. Porphyrios Orthodox Church, a Carpathian congregation that has been renting and sharing space with the Anglican congregation for some time.

The building is for sale, but Gardiner explained that it is not easy for new owners to repurpose the building for residential or commercial use because the cemetery is attached and cannot be severed. Both he and Ron Dickinson, secretary treasurer of the cemetery board, say they hope another denomination or faith group will purchase the property.

“I’d hate to see it used for anything else than a place of worship,” said Gardiner, who is a fourth-generation parishioner. His great-grandfather attended the church before the original wood-framed building that was replaced by the current stone building. There is some question about when the original church was built. The earliest date on a tombstone in the cemetery is 1842.

The current stone building was finished in 1912.

Dickinson is a third-generation parishioner, who was baptized and married in the church.  His family members are buried in the cemetery, so his work on the cemetery board and caring for the cemetery itself for 40 years is personal.

Dickinson said he has received telephone calls from people whose family members are buried in the cemetery or who want to be buried there in the future. They are concerned about what will happen to the cemetery, but Dickinson has reassured them that there are strict government regulations about the care and maintenance of cemeteries. Still, he said, he would prefer to see another denomination buy the property to keep that a more personal connection to the cemetery.

Parishioners looking for a new church home have quite a few choices in the vicinity.

“We’re part of the Parish of Mississippi Lake, so there’s St. James, Franktown and St. James, Carleton Place, and Christ Church Ashton, still within the parish,” said Gardiner, who has also attended the nearby Boyd’s United Church. “What’s happening in a lot of these small rural churches is the same as the decision we faced,” said Gardiner. “Because they were built in the days of the horse and buggy, they had to be within close proximity, but “distance now isn’t that much of a problem. Once you get in the car, another five minutes’ drive, from my point of view, doesn’t really make much difference. It’s wherever you feel comfortable and that’s convenient.”

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Friday, Feb. 2, 6 pm – 9 pm

On Friday, Feb. 2 at 6 pm, the talented and enthusiastic multi-instrumentalist Sadio Sissoko will set the tone of our month-long celebration. The participants can expect to use more than 25 drums and multiple instruments. Through Sadio’s teachings, we will gain a deeper understanding of the rhythmic beats of African drums, which hold a vital role in African customs, particularly in worship and community celebrations. In African communities, drums hold the same significance as organs and pianos, as they are integral to both traditional and religious music. A Zimbabwean Anglican Church service without the use of drums is comparable to a Christmas Eve service at Christ Church Cathedral without the accompaniment of organ music. I think that truly understanding the art of drumming is a way to honour the deep roots and cultural significance of the Black African Community.

Sadio’s enthusiasm and expertise are sure to make this learning experience both educational and enjoyable for everyone. Sadio plays the djembé, sabar, doun-doun and tama (talking drum). Sadio is a singer, dancer, musician and songwriter. In 2018 and 2019, he won the Juno Award for best world music group in Canada with the group Okavango.

Anyone may join in on the fun at this exciting event. The bigger the group, the livelier the atmosphere. All that’s needed is your sense of wonder, desire to learn, and an open mind and heart.

Along with the drumming we will feast on delectable African-Caribbean dishes

Since St. Stephen’s boasts a diverse representation of people of African and Caribbean descent, be sure to come hungry and indulge in the delectable dishes from the African Caribbean Community.  On the menu you can expect dishes like sadza and fat cooks, as well as international favorites such as Nigerian jollof rice, rice and pigeon peas, conch fritters, and jerk chicken.

Sunday Feb. 4, 10 am

The Voices of Praise referred to as the “funky disciples of Gospel” will be the guest choir at the Sunday Eucharistic service and will lead the congregation in worship, praise and dance.

This year, St. Stephen’s is focusing on Black music in an attempt to help our community understand the context within which the African-American music grew in order to gain a deeper appreciation the Black people’s music.

I once read an article about an accomplished musician who casually played more like a token, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” The musician was surprised when Black ministers and members of the congregation began to look at him uncomfortably. The musician failed to recognize that Black songs were a product of slavery, colonization, and apartheid. The melody was a signal that the time for freedom had arrived. In addition, the song can trigger strong emotional responses in those who encounter racism in their daily lives, whether it is subtle or blatant. “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” was sung at Harriet Tubman’s funeral and became an unofficial underground anthem during apartheid in South Africa. The rich tapestry of African-American music is woven with the threads of pain, resistance, sorrow, and a tumultuous history of bigotry, violence, and oppression.

African-American songwriter and storyteller Courtney Ariel, in “How not to appropriate: a guide for white people,” for Sojourners magazine offers the following advice, “Listen. Lead with empathy, always. Be mindful when appropriation becomes misappropriation and exploitation. You are human, lovely and amazing. You did not create these constructs and systems. But you might likely be in a position to affect positive change through awareness, greater understanding and meaningful action. I pray you choose to do so.”

Prior to singing or playing a song by an African-American writer, be sure to dedicate time to understanding its history and culture, and deliver a meaningful rendition. Although music is meant to be shared and enjoyed by everyone, it can cause issues when there is a lack of understanding about its historical and cultural roots.

May your Black History Month celebrations be filled with positivity and joy. Join us for a delicious feast and then dance the night away!

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Doing some more research over that summer, he was told that use of the student-run food bank on campus had increased far beyond its capacity, and its office often ran out of food mid-week, even though students are limited to going there once a month.

“The chaplaincy office exists in the mental health and wellness area of the university, which is great, but it’s hard to talk about mental health and wellness if you’re starving,” he told Crosstalk.

Before the pandemic, St. Albans had been a part of a long-running ecumenical project with the United and Presbyterian churches called Open Table, in which the churches hosted a meal for students once a month. That ended when they could no longer gather during the pandemic, but with a bit of the leftover funds, St Albans created a food cupboard in the chaplaincy office and promoted awareness of it by giving away boxes of macaroni and cheese in the first week of school last fall.

Garner says the food cupboard in the chaplaincy office is stocked with non-perishable items such as canned beans, lentils, tomatoes and pasta, oatmeal, crackers and peanut butter. “There are two challenges. One is making students aware. Two, it’s overcoming the feeling of shame…. If you’re a second-year student, and you’re in what’s supposed to be the best time of your life and you’re having to go to a food bank…..It’s a challenging time.” One of the first people who came to get some food from the cupboard was a graduate student from Senegal who was living at the Shepherds of Good Hope shelter,” he said.

Garner also met with the head of residences for the university, learning that while many students live in residences with meal plans, there are five buildings where the students are responsible for providing their own food, and many of those students are in those residences because the meal plans are beyond their means. He asked if it might be possible for St. Albans to host a meal in one of the residences for students without meal plans, and was pleasantly surprised when her answer was ‘absolutely.’

So now, bolstered and supported by a $5,000 grant from the Anglican Foundation, St. Albans is planning a pilot project, hosting a meal once a month for any students living in the residences without meal plans in January, February and March. Residence staff told Garner to be prepared to feed about 150 students.

“The Anglican Foundation of Canada (AFC) is pleased to support St. Alban’s in this multi-faith chaplaincy initiative benefiting students at the University of Ottawa. AFC has a history of supporting ecumenical campus ministry projects across Canada, and to see a new project come from our 2023 RFP Viriditas is deeply rewarding,” said AFC executive director Scott Brubacher.

If the pilot project goes well, Garner hopes to expand to a weekly program next year. St. Albans would seek partners who could host one meal per semester. The partners don’t need to be Anglican, he said. “It could be another Anglican church, that would be lovely, or it could be a synagogue or a mosque, … and through the Open Table we have some links to the United Church and the Presbyterian Church, so hopefully we can talk to them.”

Garner also began some advocacy work on this issue. As an alumnus of the University of Ottawa, he received an invitation to the alumni association annual general meeting, decided to attend, asked a question and was able to share what he had learned about student food insecurity. “The Alumni Association [members] were totally unaware, just like I had been totally unaware,” he said. Discussions with the alumni association since have led to plans for them to fund another food pantry somewhere on campus, but Garner has also suggested that the association could get involved with bigger projects such as a breakfast program for students.

“The problem … is not unique to Ottawa U. It’s pervasive on campuses,” said Garner. “My hope is that there’s a bigger alumni movement….For any of the myriad of issues facing our communities, we need to work in networks…. We can’t solve the student hunger problem, but we can advocate, and we can get some momentum and then bring in other people alongside.”

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St. James has been actively advocating for an affordable housing project, badly needed in the town, since 2021. Instead of going it alone the parish enlisted well-known Perth citizens in a steering committee under the name Caring Community Housing Initiative Perth (CHIP).

In consultations with the town council and staff, the committee developed a project, and the town identified a specific lot for the project.

Early last year, the town provided the CHIP team with advice about how to apply for the land that would be gifted, with the waiving of development fees. A positive spirit of co-operation continued until two meetings in December.

“We felt that we were being treated as strangers, even while members of council smiled and spoke politely to us,” summed up the Rev. Canon Ken Davis following the second meeting.

The council decided it would take no further action on affordable housing in the town until it consulted Lanark County Council.

Further, it said the land it had identified last summer as suitable for the project and had agreed to do preparatory work on it should instead be put out to anyone interested through a Request for Proposals (RFP).

Comments by Mayor Judy Brown and some councillors suggested reluctance to gift the land. During the municipal election campaign in 2022 Mayor Brown had promised to identify suitable town-owned land for the project.

Other municipalities within the county, Mississippi Mills (Almonte) and Smiths Falls did gift land for a nominal fee that has resulted in expanded affordable housing, including the 35-unit project supported by St. John the Evangelist in Smiths Falls.

Brown said she intended to have a housing strategy meeting for council and staff in 2024. The CHIP committee members vowed to do their own strategizing in the hope that obstacles can be overcome.

St. James’s commitment to support affordable housing has its roots in another cause. In 2015, the parish rose to a challenge to help settle Syrian refugees. Back then, Canon Davis said, he was approached “by more than a few people in this town with critical comments like, ‘Why can’t we do more to help people right here? There are lots of people in our own community who need our help.’ They were right in saying so.”

Thus began St. James’s challenge to develop affordable housing, at the same time reflecting the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa’s priority for community outreach. It began with a modest vision to create three units a year for three years. It turned out that the land identified by the town was zoned for 10 to 12 units. The CHIP group happily expanded the scope of their project.

Carebridge Community Support, the social services organization in Lanark County with a proven track record in developing and managing affordable housing, came onboard as the potential owner and operator.

Numerous formal and informal meetings were held with town staff and councillors—always collaborative and positive in tone—until December.

What happened?

Comments by the mayor about the need for “fiscal responsibility” and by a councillor about determining the value of the land before sending out any RFP suggested possible second thoughts about gifting the land.

Councillors cited a decision by Lanark County in November to issue its own request for proposals (RPF) in the amount of $1.5 million to build, own and operate affordable housing in the county.

Emily Hollington, the county director of social services, told Crosstalk the RFP was not intended to influence or in any way affect the Perth project. It was intended solely to encourage more affordable housing. “Hopefully they can get something going there.”

As it happens, the county’s RFP fits the Perth project quite well. But CHIP can’t apply for it until Carebridge owns the land and has completed surveys.

A likely issue is confusion over what constitutes “affordable housing.” For-profit developers who attended one of the December meetings have been claiming to offer affordable rents in their projects. But “affordable” rates for developer projects run in the $1,500 to $1,800 range, beyond the reach of the more than 700 people on the county waiting list.

Councillor Isabel McRae tried to convince her colleagues that the CHIP project is quite different, providing housing for the most vulnerable at below market rates. This is often 30 per cent of a household’s monthly income. She has offered advice to the CHIP group and help to salvage the project.

The post Perth group works to save affordable housing project appeared first on Perspective.

Archdeacon Zoorob serves in the only Anglican parish in Lebanon, All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Beirut, which has two congregations, an international English-speaking community and an Arabic-speaking congregation, who are mostly Palestinian. The parish also includes St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Center, located in a town on the edge of Beirut, which provides education, vocational training and care for about 50 special needs children with various cognitive disabilities at no cost to their families.

The archdeacon came to Canada to visit family after Christmas and graciously took time for a brief interview with Crosstalk after the service at the Cathedral.

While all of Lebanon is affected by the war in Israel and Gaza, Archdeacon Zoorob has felt its impact very directly because his home village of Alma el-Chaab is adjacent to the border where Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging rocket fire. Several houses in Alma have been destroyed and the archdeacon’s family’s home was damaged. Most of the residents have fled to Beirut.

The war weighs heavily on the diocese and especially on Archbishop Hosam Naoum, as he worries about how to meet the needs of the people not only in Gaza but in Lebanon. “We’re doing a lot to help the people there,” the archdeacon said, noting that the Diocese runs the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza, which is still open even though it was hit by airstrikes in October.

“Our diocese is thankful for the help of Christians and all the people, all the dioceses around the world,” he said. “We are calling out for peace….Wars and bloodshed are not good for anyone. … We pray for every family that lost dear ones. We don’t want this to happen to anyone….As a church we cannot declare the love of God unless we apply this on a daily basis to everyone.”

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Crosstalk is delivered as a supplement to the national newspaper the Anglican Journal, but as our publisher Bishop Shane Parker mentioned in his column (p.2) both of the print editions of Anglican Journal and Crosstalk will be discontinued in the coming years in favour of more timely and cost-effective online versions. For now, however, readers have the best of both worlds and their choice of reading in print or online.

Looking ahead to an online-only future, the Anglican Journal and national church invited editors of diocesan newspapers across Canada into a collaborative effort in 2021 to determine what type of online platform would best serve their needs and help to connect publications and Anglicans across the country. Then they built it. Anglican News Canada or anglicannews.ca is a website that has been hosting the Anglican Journal and eight diocesan newspapers. Perspective is the ninth paper to join this network, and from the site readers can read stories in all of the publications and learn more about what Anglicans from British Columbia to Newfoundland and Labrador are doing and experiencing.

When Archbishop Linda Nicholls attended the diocesan Synod in Ottawa in 2022, I thanked her for the gift of this valuable tool offered to the dioceses from the collective resources of the Canadian church (in much the same way Bishop Shane encourages all to see the collective strength of the diocesan church.) Individually, it would have been very difficult for each diocese to create an online version of their publication, but together, through the national church, it was possible and has been realized.

Many thanks also go to Brian Bukowski, web manager for the Anglican Church of Canada and his team for leading the creation of the network, the creativity and countless hours of work involved, and for making a great resource of how-to videos to remotely train editors scattered across the country.

There were still some bumps and delays along the way to launching the online paper here while the communications team was stretched by staff shortages and work to launch the new diocesan website in 2023.

An executive review of potential new names led to a final shortlist of three titles, with “Perspective” emerging as the leading option after thoughtful deliberation and consultations with archdeacons, other parish leaders, and senior staff at Ascension House. Sandra Hamway, the director of communications and development, then presented Perspective to Diocesan Council last spring as the recommended choice. From there, work began to select the typography for the masthead, while aligning the look and feel to the diocese brand.

Now that Perspective is up and running, we hope it will serve readers as Crosstalk and its predecessor The Ottawa Diocesan News have done since 1948.

An online edition will allow time-sensitive articles to be promptly published online, independent of the schedule of monthly print issues. It will also make it easy for our community to immediately access the newest happenings around the diocese, to share stories via social media and for readers to share articles with their friends. We hope you will share stories you enjoy and share your feedback and suggestions with us.

To subscribe to Perspective visit www.ottawa.anglican.ca/subscribe/

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