https://www.marriageprep.com/.

The pre-recorded webinar is designed to help participants learn and grow through viewing presentations and having couple conversations completed within 30 days of registration. A certificate of completion will be provided.

All couples are welcome and participation is not limited by gender, age, or previous marital status.

  For more information, please contact  mmurray@marriageprep.com

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The Christian Council of the Capital Area (CCCA) has for many years been encouraging ecumenical engagement through worship, education, and building mutual understanding and appreciation. During the pandemic, we discovered that online study series were more accessible for more people than our in-person gatherings. These sessions sparked friendships and discussions across Christian faith traditions. In celebrating the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, we held a series based on the theme “Do Good; Seek Justice,” co-facilitated by ecumenical leaders within our council as well as Saint Paul University.

Starting March 1, we will be holding our second 5-week (Wednesdays at 7 p.m.) online series based on the book “Our Home and Treaty Land” by Ray Aldred and Matthew Anderson, (Anglican and Lutheran, Indigenous and non-Indigenous co-authors). We are looking forward to open conversations and planning a nature walk together where we will take our learning to action, honouring the land that we walk together, seeking to create a shared story where it is built on mutual respect and regard for our common humanity.

To join these sessions, visit https://www.christiancouncilca.ca/events

Treaty is key to the shared narrative, shared spirituality, and shared respect for the land that Ray Aldred says are necessary for our peoples – Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike – to walk well, to live well together on the land because Treaty still is, or should be, a lived reality.

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As 2022 fades behind us and we look forward to the new year, we are pleased to announce our programs for spring 2023. Check out the brochure links below for program details including registration and payment information.

This spring we are again offering the afternoon Basic Training Course in-person as well as the evening Basic Course via Zoom. Both courses begin Monday, March 20, 2023 and run weekly until May 15, 2023 (including Easter Monday). Our Spring 2023 Basic Training Course brochure is available at https://ottawapastoralcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Spring-2023.Basic-Course-Brochure.pdf

We are also excited to present a Continuing Education event on Tuesday April 18th from 7- 9pm by Zoom. This session will feature Lisa Boulay as she leads us in a conversation we call Let’s Talk about Families. Together we will explore how challenging events can shift family dynamics and how pastoral care can bring support to family members. Check out the program brochure at https://ottawapastoralcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Spring-2023.Con-Ed-Brochure.pdf

Every second year, we hold a Coordinator’s event for Coordinators of Spiritual/ Pastoral Care Teams/Departments (or their delegates). This year›s event will take place in-person on Saturday, April 15th from 10am to noon. Check out the program brochure for details at https://ottawapastoralcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Coordinators-Event.April-2023.pdf

We invite you to share this information in your bulletins and newsletters. Spaces are limited so take a few moments and register today. For more information about these and other programs, visit our website’s home page at www.ottawapastoralcare.com

(613) 413-0384

ottawapastoralcare@gmail.com

www.ottawapastoralcare.com

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St. George Chapel Garrison Petawawa is the chapel on base that encompasses all the Christian denominations except the Roman Catholic. On Saturday, Jan. 28 and Sunday, Jan.29, the Anglicans celebrated two important events in the life of their community. On Saturday, the chapel hosted clergy from the Diocese of Ottawa and the Diocese of Central Newfoundland as Lt..Cmdr. Matthew Squires was ordained as a transitional deacon of the Diocese of Central Newfoundland jointly by Rt. Rev. Nigel Shaw Bishop of the Anglican Military Ordinariate, and Rt. Rev. John E. Watton of the Diocese of Central Newfoundland.

The event was supported by the chaplains on the garrison, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, as well as local Anglican clergy from the Parish of the Valley. Nathanial Glandon, who was the acolyte, was just confirmed by Bishop Shaw last November.

On Sunday, Bishop Shaw confirmed Autumn Bridgewater and Alex Whittaker. When Bishop Shaw visited in November, he also confirmed Tristan and Isabell Glandon and Isla Bridgewater. The children being confirmed are all children of current or retired military members. Alex Whittaker is a commander of a unit on the garrison. It is a way to get the families more involved in the chapel community.

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At first, it seems we need look no further than the pages of Faith of Our Fathers, a summary of early Anglican parish history published by the Anglican Book Society in 1957, when preparations were still underway for extensive flooding associated with the Saint Lawrence Seaway development.  Leonard Johnson wrote, “Progress exacts its toll!  In the path of the St. Lawrence Seaway stand three Anglican churches, one of them 120 years old, the other two 68 and 67, and two rectories which must, of necessity, be affected by this giant waterway system.”  At this time, Saint Mark’s, Avonmore, along with seven other Anglican churches was to be made redundant, to be replaced by two new larger churches and rectories.

But wait!  Avonmore was 10 miles inland from the Saint Lawrence.  It was in no danger of being flooded by the new seaway development.  Was it simply an excuse for some triumph of the philosophy that “bigger is better” in a time of ongoing clergy shortages?  Avonmore was one of eight small churches slated to be sacrificed by the Diocese so fewer clergy were needed to serve the same number of parishioners in two large new churches to be built by Ontario Hydro.

If that is what happened, we wonder what else lies beneath the surface of this idyllic little church?  Were the clapboards hiding actual stone buttresses and masonry walls in Saint Mark’s Church?  And, speaking of mysteries, which end of the church we see here held the chancel?

Avonmore began as part of the Mission of Newington, later renamed Newington & Northfield, as early as 1888.  Land was donated by Catherine and Oscar Fulton in 1891 where the main body of this frame house of worship was built in 1892.  Saint Mark’s Church, Avonmore was consecrated by Bishop John Travers Lewis on 31 October 1892.  In 1898, Avonmore became part of the Mission of Crysler & Newington.  In 1906, it was a church in the Mission of Newington & Avonmore, with an outstation at Saint Augustine’s Church, 8th Line.

By 1904, Saint Mark’s fabric was extended by building a tower and ample chancel.  This last piece of information suggests that we are looking at the chancel end of the church here.  The tower was a local landmark—a handsome composition that provided room for an ample vestry at the base, with its belfry distinguished by four turrets capped by finials.  The lancet arches of the belfry vents were placed below a handsome band of interlaced quatrefoils.  In the background a very long driveshed extends from one side of the photograph to the other.

In 1914, Saint Mark’s became part of the Parish of Newington.  In 1960, it was transferred to the Parish of Long Sault which had churches at Long Sault and Maxville.  The rectory (shown here on the right) was sold in June 1961, and that year Saint Augustine’s, 8th Line amalgamated with Saint Mark’s.  It was not until 1978 that Saint Mark’s Church closed, with the last regular service held on 12 November.  In the summer of 1982, Saint Mark’s Church was deconsecrated and closed permanently due to needed expensive repairs to the building and a greatly diminished congregation.  The land on which it stood was sold to Donald Duffy in 1985.

If you would like to help the Archives preserve the records of the Diocese and its parishes, why not become a Friend of the Archives?  Your $20 membership brings you three issues of the lively, informative Newsletter, and you will receive a tax receipt for further donations above that amount. insurance policies, letters, pew bulletins, photographs and paintings, scrapbooks, parish newsletters, and unusual records.

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The board also approved the introduction of Category A grants of up to $5,000 with no matching local funds required. “These category A grants were introduced for AFC’s 2021 Say Yes! to Kids Request for Proposal and proved very effective,” explains Rob Dickson, chair of the Grants Policy Working Group. “That experience demonstrated how the infusion of a few thousand dollars can have an enormously positive impact on ministry.”

The long-established traditional AFC grants—up to $15,000 and no more than 50% of the project budget—will become the new Category B grant.

Lastly, the AFC board approved the introduction of Category C grants of up to $50,000. “This new third category will allow the board greater discretion in approving larger grants where the impact will be most beneficial,” explains Brubacher. “It will also allow AFC to be a more flexible funding partner in dioceses where a cornerstone project needs a major boost.”

Rob Dickson says the new and much larger Category C grants have the potential to be a game-changer for smaller dioceses. “The opportunity to submit a $50,000 grant request is well-suited to a diocese that may have the capacity to bring only one project per year, but a transformational project the entire diocese can rally around.”

Dickson says the Category C grant will be the one application a diocese is allowed to submit in a calendar year. In terms of the matching funding requirement for such a project, that will be left to the discretion of the AFC board. Dioceses will need to articulate a strong case for merit, and the board will have to evaluate these applications very carefully.

The board also approved removing the requirement that grant applicants be current members of AFC. Dickson says, “It is more consistent with our value of generosity to invite applicants to donate out of a spirit of generosity to ‘pay it forward’.”

These changes mark the conclusion of AFC’s Grants Policy Working Group’s year-long review. “The Foundation’s role in resourcing a change-minded church in the wake of a global pandemic is only beginning to be defined,” says Brubacher. “We hope our members and friends across the Canadian church will see in these changes to our grant program a deep and genuine desire to resource the church as faithfully and abundantly as possible, so that we may drive change, together, with hope, courage, and vision.”

For more information on AFC’s new grant categories or to apply for an AFC grant, visit anglicanfoundation.org/apply.

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Many years ago, a wise person shared an observation that continues to resonate with me: You can only do a day’s work in a day. It was a gift of freedom and perspective that I desperately needed at the time (and still do today!). It names the truth that, at the end of the day, whatever has happened and whatever I had hoped might happen or whatever needed to happen, a day’s work has been done. It is, by definition, impossible for it to be anything other than that.

So many of us end our day burdened by the things we didn’t get done and go off to bed with minds full of what is waiting for us in the morning—because there is always more waiting. More work at the office, more work at home, more work on our bodies and souls, more work on our relationships, more work for our communities. No matter how much is done, there is always more. And, in the good moments, I am glad of that work (well, maybe not the dishes).  I’m glad to be busy and challenged and growing and learning. I will always choose busy over bored—but there is a difference between busy and burdened. Feeling burdened leads to feeling guilty and resentful and burnt-out, none of which increases productivity or health or faith. Busy turns into burdened when I forget two important truths.  First, everything doesn’t need to happen ASAP. Tomorrow will come, and it will have its own day’s work. Second, if I let something drop, the whole structure won’t come crashing down because I am not the only one holding it up.

You can only do a day’s work in a day invites us to pause in our rush to assume that we should have done more. It invites us to notice what we accomplished rather than what is still waiting for us. It invites us to remember that we are only human and that being human is all we need to be. That can be a surprisingly hard thing to remember, given that we have no alternative. And yet, even in the months of lock-down, the pressure to be productive and be successful and be on the go (even if the going was all online) can become pressure to somehow be more than human—to somehow do more than a day’s work in a day, which would require the ability to bend time itself!

When I was in university, I attended a Wednesday night Eucharist at the McGill Ecumenical Chaplaincy. Most weeks, we ended our service with a prayer that has become well-known around the Communion. It comes from Night Prayer in the New Zealand Prayer Book. It’s a beautiful prayer, but the part I always needed the most is this: It is night after a long day. What has been done has been done; what has not been done has not been done; let it be. That prayer was a balm for my weary student soul, giving me permission to put the books away for the night, release the guilt accumulated during the many minutes (hours) of procrastination and simply be held in God’s night, a beloved human child in need of rest.

You can only do a day’s work in a day. So, I do a day’s work each day (with an eye on the calendar so I know which work to do on which day) and, each night, I try to allow that to be enough. There is, after all, no real alternative.

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Let Me Go There: The Spirit of Lent

by Dr. Paula Gooder

Lent Fast for the Earth

Anglican Diocese of Toronto

https://www.toronto.anglican.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Lent-Fast-2022.pdf

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By the end of 2022, more than $257,000 had been donated. Using funds from the sale of a property, “the Diocese of New Westminster ACW provided $100,000 this past spring to launch the fund. Other ACWs across Canada then took up the challenge to do their part as well. And then an incredible $150,000 arrived in early December as a memorial gift, from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous,” says Brubacher.

“In 2023, we will continue to work through the granting and disbursement process in partnership with the Council of the North. We expect to receive requests from retired clergy in need of assistance through the Council, and our goal is to begin to disburse funds to beneficiaries this year.”

Canadian Anglicans began to learn more about the plight of northern clergy when the Anglican Journal published an article in December 2020 about the homelessness experienced by Rev. Jonas Allooloo, former dean of St. Jude’s Cathedral in Iqaluit, Nunavut.

“Non-stipendiary clergy have made the church in the North viable and yet they will not receive a pension from the Anglican Church,” says Gail Revitt, past president, New Westminster ACW. “Our members felt called to respond to this housing crisis in a meaningful and tangible way.”

“The council is very thankful to the New West ACW and the other visionary benefactors,” said Bishop David Lehman. Bishop of Caledonia and Chair of the Council of the North— “The response to date has given so much hope that we may look to a future where those who have served the church are well-served in their retirement.”

—Michelle Hauser, AFC

To make a gift to the ACW Council of the North Retired Clergy Fund please contact Michelle Hauser, AFC’s Development & Communications Officer at mhauser@anglicanfoundation.org or visit anglicanfoundation.org/donate.

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