Même lorsque l’impensable se produit et que la mort survient, nous en parlons par euphémismes. Les morts ne sont pas morts, mais « décédés ». Nos établissements funéraires sont des « maisons » ou des « salons » conçus pour paraître aussi banals qu’une bibliothèque ou un centre communautaire. Les funérailles sont devenues des « célébrations de la vie ». De plus en plus, le corps du défunt n’est plus présent, car après tout, la présence d’un cadavre est quelque peu déprimante lors d’une célébration de la vie.

On suppose souvent que les personnes ayant de fortes convictions religieuses devraient être capables d’affronter le moment de la mort sans crainte, que pour elles, le chemin à traverser est révélé et clairement balisé, qu’elles savent, grâce à leurs écritures sacrées et à leurs enseignements, ce qu’elles doivent s’attendre à trouver de l’autre côté. Cela peut être vrai pour certaines religions, mais ce n’est pas le cas du christianisme. Il n’existe pas de « Livre des morts » chrétien. Comme l’humanité tout entière, comme le Christ lui-même, nous aussi, lorsque notre heure viendra, nous devrons entrer dans l’obscurité de l’inconnu en ne comptant que sur Dieu.

Cela ne signifie certainement pas que les chrétiens ont été exempts de spéculations sur ce qui se passe à la mort. En Orient comme en Occident, il existe des récits de « révélations privées » et de visions de la mort et de l’au-delà. Certaines images de la mort, du jugement, et en particulier les descriptions effrayantes des tourments de l’enfer, sont devenues si populaires et si ancrées dans l’esprit et l’imagination des gens qu’elles sont devenues pour beaucoup une vérité évangélique.

Il est toutefois important de se rappeler que ces efforts pour scruter l’inconnu ne font pas partie de l’enseignement universel de l’Église chrétienne. En tant que produits de l’imagination et de la piété humaines, nous devons faire preuve d’une grande prudence et d’un grand discernement dans la manière dont nous les recevons et les transmettons aux autres. La même prudence s’impose en ce qui concerne les expériences de mort imminente, les récits de personnes qui ont subi une mort clinique mais qui ont ensuite été réanimées.

Dire que nous ne pouvons pas savoir ce qui nous arrive après la mort ou comprendre l’éternité qui nous attend, ne signifie pas qu’aucune lumière ne nous a été donnée pour pénétrer les ténèbres au-delà de notre existence terrestre. Mais cette lumière n’est pas celle de la raison, mais celle de la foi. La foi n’est pas l’acceptation passive de certaines définitions ou formules prononcées par une autorité quelconque. Il s’agit plutôt d’une reconnaissance intérieure que ce qui nous est enseigné est la vérité même qui a été semée dans notre âme et que nous pouvons déjà expérimenter, même si c’est « de manière obscure, comme dans un miroir » (1 Corinthiens 13, 12). C’est l’expérience des deux disciples sur le chemin d’Emmaüs, dont le cœur « brûlait » en eux lorsque le Christ leur parlait, même s’ils ne savaient pas encore qui il était.

Avant tout, la foi est une question d’amour. C’est l’assentiment donné dans le cœur, notre for intérieur, le centre de notre être. Comme l’écrivait au IVe siècle le grand Père de l’Église grecque, saint Basile

Lorsque nous contemplons les bienfaits de la foi, même maintenant, comme si nous regardions un reflet dans un miroir, c’est comme si nous possédions déjà les choses merveilleuses dont notre foi nous assure que nous jouirons un jour. (Saint Basile, De Spiritu Sancto 15, 36 : PG 32, 132)

Croire aux  « choses merveilleuses » que Dieu nous a préparées pour l’éternité signifie croire qu’elles sont vraies non seulement d’une manière générale – comme un fait historique – mais vraies pour nous, qu’elles sont une réalité présente pour nous, qu’elles deviennent la forme et le modèle de notre être.

De cette manière, nous pouvons commencer à voir que ce que nous appelons la mort et ce que nous appelons la vie sont deux aspects d’une même réalité. La mort n’est qu’une extension de la vie. Notre mort est un moyen pour nous de sortir des limites de notre petit moi, de « perdre notre vie » et de nous étendre dans l’infini de la vie du Christ. C’est ce mouvement constant de la vie vers la mort, et de la mort vers la vie, qui nous permet de « passer » et d’entrer dans l’éternité chaque jour de notre vie terrestre.

De temps en temps, nous cessons d’être absorbés par nous-mêmes et nous nous souvenons de Dieu. Nous pouvons le voir pendant une fraction de seconde dans la beauté de la nature, dans un visage aimé, dans une œuvre d’art. Nous pouvons l’entendre dans une grande musique, dans le chant d’un oiseau ou dans le bruit de la pluie. Lorsque nous nous souvenons que nous sommes en présence de Dieu, chaque fois que nous l’apercevons, nous réalisons qu’il n’y a pas d’autre « endroit » où nous préférerions être. Notre esprit est silencieux et clair, notre cœur est en paix, notre corps est détendu et nous sommes remplis de joie.

C’est l’espace spirituel dans lequel nous nous trouverons au moment de la mort, lorsque nous aurons tout laissé derrière nous et que nous nous tiendrons devant Dieu, les mains vides, conscients de notre pauvreté totale, ne comptant que sur l’amour.

Si nous amenons chaque action, chaque pensée, chaque sentiment et chaque souffle en présence de Dieu, si nous nous abandonnons à lui, cela devient pour nous une entrée dans l’éternité. Nous entrons dans la présence divine au cœur de toutes choses. Nous prenons conscience de chaque instant et nous apprenons à le laisser passer. Nous nous jetons dans les mains du Dieu vivant et nous apprenons à mourir.

Le révérend chanoine Kevin Flynn est le pasteur de la paroisse St-Bernard-de-Clairvaux

This text in English is available online in the October issue of Perspective: ottawa.anglicannews.ca

The post Se préparer à la mort appeared first on Perspective.

In 1843, the Reverend F.S. Neve of Clarendon began visiting the village of Portage-du-Fort and holding Anglican services. In 1856, the site for a church was donated by a village merchant, George W. Usborne, and building began on the first day of May 1856. A cornerstone was laid on 19 May 1856 by the Rev. J.S. Sykes, Rector of Clarendon. The church was named Saint George’s, and the first Divine Service within its walls was held before the year was out.

Developments came fast and furious in 1856. Portage-du-Fort was established that year as a new mission separate from the Mission of Clarendon, with outstations at Havelock (Bryson), Calumet Island, Fort Coulonge, Black River, and Horton & Renfrew. The Rev. John Gribble was appointed the first Incumbent in 1856, reputedly walking between the outstations. Just two years later, on 1 August 1858, Saint George’s was consecrated by Bishop Fulford of Montreal.

Portage-du-Fort when Saint George’s was built, we must needs remind ourselves, was part of the Diocese of Montreal. The new church was built before Thomas Fuller came to design the Centre Block of Parliament in Ottawa and a year before architect Frank Wills died at Montreal. It may well be that Saint George’s Church, bearing little resemblance to churches designed by Fuller around the new capital, was in fact designed by Frank Wills of Montreal.

There was one major player in the swift emergence of Portage-du-Fort as an Anglican centre. And that singular individual was village storekeeper George Usborne who is reputed to have put up most of the money to build Saint George’s. It was no coincidence that he shared the same given name as the church’s patron saint. Storekeepers, by definition, were prosperous members of society in pre-confederation Canada. We sense that Usborne took delight in visual good taste, as he was reported introducing two Christmas trees at Portage-du-Fort as early as 1842. Given George Usborne’s interest, it surely is no coincidence that the new church was named Saint George’s, and that he and his wife were buried in the crypt, a rare example of intramural burial in the Diocese of Ottawa.

What is striking in this photograph is that the front wall inside Saint George’s appears to feature cut building stone of two contrasting colours. We also note the finely cut arch of the chancel window, and what appears to be a chancel arch featuring a column and capital.

The chancel was a step up from the main body of the church. The sanctuary is defined by being up a step from the chancel and by the finely detailed communion rail featuring an arcade of pointed arches carved by a skilled cabinetmaker.  The altar is the focal centre of this house of worship.  If the overall design and the pointed arches indicate some familiarity with churches promoted by the Cambridge Camden Society, the large boards containing the commandments and creed tell of a time before most members of the congregation came to possess prayer books.

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 documents.

The post St. George, Portage-du-Fort — Deanery of West Quebec appeared first on Perspective.

The passage goes something like this: as Jesus enters the village, the lepers being deemed unclean keep their distance while crying out “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” Jesus tells them to go show themselves to the priests. While on their way they are healed, made clean. When the Samaritan notices his healing, he turns back to express his gratitude, falling at the feet of Jesus and giving thanks. What a perfect reading for celebrating Thanksgiving. Expressing gratitude brings with it a blessing.

Two things strike me. First the other nine did nothing wrong. In fact, they did exactly as they were told, and they received the blessing promised them. As lepers they were outcasts isolated and alone. Not only were they healed but they also received the blessing of being re-integrated with family and community, neither of which they would have had being deemed “unclean.”

Second, the one who turns back is affirmed by Jesus for returning to give thanks. Recognizing things that we are thankful for, grateful for brings with it another blessing. Blessed a second time? So, what does the man who returned receive? The blessing of healing, as did the other nine, and also the blessing that comes from naming blessing, giving thanks, expressing gratitude.

Have you ever noticed just how powerful it is not only to receive blessing but also to name it and give thanks for it? Maybe you’re at dinner with family or friends, and someone says, “This is great. This time, this meal, with all of you. Thank you.” And in seeing and giving thanks, the original blessing of the meal is somehow multiplied, you’ve been blessed a second time. Being aware and naming how we are blessed and voicing gratitude is wholly another blessing.

Gratitude draws us out of ourselves into something larger, bigger than we could imagine. Gratitude is a powerful emotion as it frees us from fear, releases us from anxiety, and emboldens us to do more and dare more than we’d ever imagined – even to return to a Jewish rabbi to pay homage when you are a Samaritan because you’ve realized that you are more than a Samaritan, or a leper, or even a healed leper. You are a child of God.

Our world is filled with trouble. The troubles are easy to name. At the same time our world and our lives are also filled with blessings, for which we can voice our thanksgiving, our gratitude: families that care for each other; governments and councils that are far from perfect yet strive to work for the benefit of others; relief agencies that tend to the afflicted; those on the front lines putting their lives on the line at home and abroad; good neighbours supporting each another.

As we near Thanksgiving, I invite you to think of different things for which you are thankful, grateful. For me of late it is fresh water, the privilege to go buy food to name two. Family and friends to name two more. As you become aware the things that you are grateful for in your life, find opportunities to name them out loud. What if one such opportunity is when someone you know well asks “How are you?” you respond “I am grateful for …”

This world is full of challenges as well as blessings for which we can express gratitude for. Which will we focus on? Truth be told, there is a time for lament, cries for justice and activism. But given that we live in a culture filled with trouble, imagine the breath of fresh air that comes with voicing gratitude. Maybe today, this week, this month, we can be heralds of blessing to the people in our lives, giving voice to the powerful words of gratitude and thanksgiving.

The post The blessing of thanksgiving appeared first on Perspective.

At Muripotana Health Centre in Nampula, midwife Ancha Amido Abdala used to begin every night shift in darkness, with no lights, no power, and no possibility of admitting patients after dark. That changed in 2022, when Alongside Hope and partner EHALE installed a Solar Suitcase – a bright yellow, wall‑mounted box powered by solar panels. Inside, it holds LED lights, a fetal Doppler, headlamps, phone chargers and a thermometer.

Abdala says it made an immediate difference. “There was no way to handle medical materials in the dark,” she recalls. After lighting went live, women began coming to the clinic at night; births increased, and transparency improved because the patients’ companions could follow procedures clearly.

“I gave birth at night,” said one new mother. “I felt very happy because I could see what the nurse was doing.” In districts with installations, night‑time births rose by about 17 percent, and more than 80,000 babies have been safely delivered since 2016, thanks to the installation of 80 Solar Suitcases across the province. The suitcases are made by We Care Solar.

Goal is eight more solar suitcases

Now in 2025, the Wild Ride aims to raise $52,000 – enough for eight more solar suitcases. Thanks to a generous donor, all funds will be matched until Oct. 31, 2025. So, for every solar suitcase that is funded, another will be added.

The Wild Ride is part of a larger initiative to provide 35 Solar Suitcases in Mozambique and 14 Solar Suitcases in Madagascar. The Coming Alongside Hope with Light project has a total budget of $320,000. All donations will be matched, up to $150,000, so $170,000 needs to be raised to ensure all 49 suitcases will be installed.

The Wild Ride has attracted fundraisers of all kinds from coast to coast. A veteran cyclist of the Wild Ride, Bishop Lynne McNaughton of the Diocese of Kootenay is ditching her bike this year in favour of walking 200 km. “I walk a fast 2 km up into the orchards near my house, a steep climb up onto the ‘bench’ where I can see a stunning view of Okanagan Lake. One Saturday at the end of the summer I’m inviting people to join me for a 5 or 10 km walk in a forest park in Kelowna.” She was inspired to get involved when seeing the Solar Suitcase demonstration at General Synod. “The suitcases are a brilliant design, portable and practical. They meet such a crucial need. I love walking and walk anyway so why not make that walk count for joining God in God’s work of mending the world.”

Jasmine Sandham, a parish rep at St. Paul’s, Thunder Bay, also has a personal motivation. “My mom’s pregnancy with my younger sister was highly complicated. And if they had to deliver her in darkness, both probably would have died.”

Also a veteran Wild Ride participant, this year Sandham is organizing a six-hour art bee. “I join every year because I feel that it’s a good way to get my church involved in an amazing project along with the rest of the Anglican Church of Canada,” she says. St. Paul’s is one of nine parishes in the Thunder Bay North Shore Deanery walking for the Wild Ride, and in honour of Archbishop Anne Germond’s ministry.

These efforts will make a big difference for midwives like Abdala. The Solar Suitcase is a tool that transforms the quality of care. She explains that even during suturing, the room is bright enough to explain and demonstrate each step to women and their companions. In one emergency, the light made it possible to resuscitate a preterm baby that wasn’t crying and begin immediate skin‑to‑skin contact with the mother.

That visibility builds trust. “At first, community members didn’t always respect me,” Abdala says. “But when they saw what I could do with the Solar Suitcase, attitudes changed. Now almost everyone respects my work.”

Even clinics that already have inconsistent grid power benefit from the solar backup. Abdala adds, “I ask that this be provided to other centres – even those connected to the grid – because electricity alone isn’t always enough.”

How to Help

It’s not too late to join the Wild Ride and help provide clinics with renewable energy in Mozambique and Madagascar! The Wild Ride continues until the end of October and anyone can take part – a group or an individual. Walk, cycle, knit, bake, paddle, pray, sing – choose any activity you enjoy. Register as an individual or as a team and help us raise funds for eight solar suitcases – which will become 16 with a matching gift!

Register today at AlongsideHope.com/Wild-Ride. And if you have any questions or need help, please contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Kim Umbach at kumbach@alongsidehope.org

Can’t join the Wild Ride this year? You can still help provide solar energy in Mozambique and Madagascar. Give at alongsidehope.org/wild-ride.

With files from Lucinda Congolo, Mozambique Country Director for We Care Solar

The post Lighting the way to Mozambique and Madagascar appeared first on Perspective.

Hopkins comes to the role with deep experience both in frontline work as well as in management and leadership roles.

Growing up in Orleans, she recalled that has always been concerned about people who were vulnerable, getting left behind or experiencing things that weren’t fair. “Very much a caretaker, I have always loved being part of a community and giving back. … So I went into community development right out of high school.”

Hopkins began her training in a community outreach and development program at Sheridan College in Brampton, Ont. “I did a couple of really good placements there that got me some actual frontline experience and really fell in love with being in this field.” When she returned to Ottawa, she earned her Bachelor of Social Work degree at Carleton University while working at in an administrative role Ottawa Inner City Health (OICH) from 2009 to 2017. During those years, she also volunteered at the emergency shelter Shepherds of Good Hope and later at the Salvation Army in an outreach van used to visit encampments, often taking people who were homeless to and from hospital.

In 2017, she became a manager at OICH as it launched a peer worker pilot program at Shepherds of Good Hope where they hired individuals with lived experience to help provide support to people in the community who were homeless and/or who were using drugs. “That project expanded drastically because the overdose crisis got very out of control very quickly,” Hopkins said. “I was running a team of peer workers who were essentially running around the shelters and around the downtown core, just responding to overdoses. And that was a wild, wild time. Later that year, InnerCity Health opened their supervised injection site. I was the manager there…. on the team of folks who opened it. It was one of the four in the city and the only one open 24 hours a day. And it was incredibly busy. It still is. I was a manager there for five years, and then I became a director of operations at InnerCity.”

Hopkins developed a good working relationship with Cornerstone through that work. Its Booth Street supportive housing residence has an aging at home program that is run jointly with OICH. “So, 20 of the 40 units here are run jointly with Inner City Health. And Inner City Health staff are on site here 24 hours a day, managing the healthcare of those 20 folks who are typically aging, have complex health issues, who need more medical care than what Cornerstone could give. So, we run the program together.”

Last year, Hopkins earned her MBA, a program she started online at the University of Fredericton during the pandemic, and she felt ready and wanted to be challenged in a new way after 17 years with OICH. “I really wanted to work with women. I didn’t want to leave the field of [working with] the homeless, mental health, substance use. Then this position came up and…it all worked out. The timing was amazing.”

What experience best prepared her to lead Cornerstone? “It’s absolutely my frontline experience. Working those frontline positions, being a very hands-on manager in the supervised injection site at Shepherd’s, responding to overdoses beside staff, really understanding the day-to-day realities. Working in this field, in social services and in healthcare, is so different now than it was 10 years ago. …But it’s really my foundation and frontline work that keeps me really connected to the work and that really drives my passion for wanting to run a really good and strong organization.

“I’ve loved community health care and social work,” including looking for ways to reduce barriers and to take care of diverse communities, and “really believing that the folks from those communities are the strongest experts that can tell us what they need and how they need it” Hopkins said.

“Working in an organization like InnerCity that really values peer work and lived experience really helped solidify, fundamentally for me, how I want to work with communities and have that very shared approach and that understanding of what it means to have power, what it means to have power when you’re working with an equity -seeking community. Those have always been passions of mine.

“There are some mental health challenges within my family, and so I have always had a personal connection to that … and those kinds of challenges. So that also has been sort of my North Star, my guiding fundamentals … and has very much has shaped a lot of who I am, how I am a social worker and how I lead.”

When asked what the biggest challenges that Cornerstone faces are, Hopkins said funding instability is major. “There are many incredibly important social services in this city and we’re all asking for money from the same pot…. There’s been a lot of changes and some instability with funding sources. It’s been really challenging. It’s also puts more pressure on our fundraising team.”

This is compounded by inflation. Cornerstone’s costs for food have increased dramatically, but Hopkins added that has also impacted donors. “If you look at reports from the Ontario nonprofit network, organizations are struggling to fundraise because people are in more precarious financial situations and aren’t in a position to donate as much.”

She said that another challenge is “trying to keep our employees well. This is a field that has a much higher burnout rate than it did 10 years ago,” she said. “When I first became a social worker, for probably the first five or six years, I never saw one overdose. It just wasn’t something that was part of everyday life. There were people who used drugs that we supported … but they could maintain a lot more function and stability than they can now…. There are many more difficult realities when you have a population that is … impacted by the toxic drug supply…. Each overdose is a hypoxic event, your brain is without oxygen, and that causes brain injuries [which] bring a whole other level of challenges to service providers,” she said. “It’s really difficult to have a really well employee base when they’re experiencing all these harsh realities.”

Cornerstone has now hired a clinical services specialist to support staff, providing debriefing and confidential counselling after critical incidents such as overdoses or a death, as well as helping to inform decision making about the best ways to support staff and reduce burnout.

Cornerstone grew in 2024 with the opening of its Eccles Street residence, which added 46 units of supportive housing, as well as expanding its emergency shelter capacity from 60 to 165 when it moved from O’Connor Street downtown to a new building on Carling Ave. So for now, Hopkins says the focus is on stabilization in the organization and ensuring Cornerstone is sustainable for the future.

She says she is enjoying the change from working in a head office where she didn’t see any clients to working on the main floor of Cornerstone’s Booth Street residence. Now, she said, “I always have my door open, and I can hear residents laughing with the staff….” Seeing women who have been homeless and in a constant state of fight-or-flight start to settle into a sense of safety is rewarding, she said. And hearing them say, “Oh my gosh, I love my apartment, there’s this little balcony…. I’m a part of the community now, and I feel so supported by the staff…. This case manager goes the extra mile for me.’ That’s the stuff that makes all the difficult things worth it,” Hopkins said. “They go on outings as a community. They had a beach day the other day … and they went to a farm and saw some horses and pet some animals, and the photos are just pure joy. … Anytime there’s a bad day, I need to go spend some time with residents because I’ll feel better.

“And that is sort of the beauty of Cornerstone, is that everything that is done here is done with such care and intention. I knew that before I started working here, but I don’t think I understood to what level.”

The post Anne Marie Hopkins joins Cornerstone Housing for Women as executive director appeared first on Perspective.

The Rev. Kerri Mooney is a priest in good standing with the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa. She left full-time parish ministry in 2024 to work full-time as a Registered Psychotherapist. After serving on the OPC’s board of directors for many years, she joined the team in 2024, serving clients both in person and online. She also holds a private practice in the Russell-Embrun area. We asked Mooney how the OPC serves members of the LGBTQ+ community:

“The Ottawa Pastoral Counselling Centre’s mission is to affirm the dignity and self-worth of all people. This includes offering safe space for members of the LGBTQ+ community,” she wrote in an email to Perspective.

“LGBTQ+ clients come for psychotherapy for the same range of issues as anyone else—depression, anxiety, relationship problems, trauma, identity questions, stress management, life transitions, etc. But they may also face unique concerns shaped by minority stress, social stigma, and marginalization. At the OPC, we support clients coming out, navigating questions around sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression, internalized homophobia, biphobia, or transphobia. They may be facing strained or rejected family relationships after coming out, challenges in parenting or family planning, or navigating romantic relationships in contexts where LGBTQ+ relationships aren’t fully accepted or understood.

“We understand that members of the LGBTQ+ community face higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation linked to minority stress. Gender dysphoria and body image concerns, medical transition decisions, and navigating social transition, and access to affirming healthcare are additional issues these clients may be confronting. Our priority as psychotherapists is to create safe spaces for all clients’ self-expression.

“The cancellation of Ottawa’s August 2025 Pride Parade—due to route-blocking by pro-Palestinian protesters—represents more than just the loss of a celebratory event. For many LGBTQ+ people, Pride is a profound space for community connection, identity affirmation, and mental health rejuvenation. Its abrupt cancellation can ripple through emotional well-being in several meaningful ways and the therapists at OPC are prepared to support clients through these impacts.

“In addition to serving members of the LGBTQ+ community, OPC also provides pastoral and therapeutic support to the family members and friends of LGBTQ individuals. Even when the person themselves is not LGBTQ, their loved one’s identity can bring up a range of emotions, challenges, and growth opportunities, such as grief, challenges to core beliefs and values, fear for the safety and well-being of their loved one, or identity shifts.

Although therapy at the OPC is not faith-based, how could its position as an Anglican Community Ministry benefit clients, we asked Mooney.

“As a Community Ministry of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa, we are uniquely sensitive to any potential religious trauma clients may have experienced within their faith communities. This can lead to exploring the client’s relationship with God, acceptance and equality within their faith community, or supporting them as they navigate feelings of grief, anger, rejection, or disillusionment related to past experiences of harm.”

The post How the Ottawa Pastoral Counselling Centre is serving the LGBTQ+ community appeared first on Perspective.

TENS is a ministry of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. and the Anglican Church of Canada. It is an association of church leaders that provides resources and training at low or no cost to clergy and lay stewardship leaders. The Anglican Diocese of Ottawa is a member, which means that all the parishes in the diocese can access all of TENS stewardship resources.

On Oct. 28, TENS and the Diocese are partnering to host an online webinar on stewardship, where attendees can bring all their questions, whether they are a veteran of parish stewardship campaigns or a bewildered beginner. In the lead-up to the webinar, Perspective interviewed TENS executive director Canon Davey Gerhard.

Anglicans are “often a little timid talking about money and faith,” he acknowledges. “We hope to kind of break through some of those barriers.… If we look at Jesus and his ministry, 40 percent of his parables are about money, stuff, things, and our attachments to them— 16 out of 40 parables,” he said. “That tells us Jesus spent a lot of time talking about money, too, because it’s stuck in our lives, and we relate to it in healthy and unhealthy ways. That comes up in faith, so why not find appropriate faith-based ways to talk about and engage our money and our ministry because they impact each other.”

Gerhard explains that TENS tries to help people see stewardship in a holistic way as a part of their faith. “So often I think we think of stewardship as transactional, and what TENS aims to do is make it transformational, where we understand that every dollar that we raise in church goes to ministry. There’s no waste. We steward those investments from our members well and that is an essential part of how we create community and how we fund our ministry. And it’s not just our outreach, it’s also how we care for ourselves, how we care for each other, how we are that model of love to each other within our walls and to our neighbors outside.”

For that reason, TENS offers resources for year-round formation and holistic campaigns that encourage people to give of their time, talent, and treasure. Anglicans, he says, may have heard a lot of metaphors about three-legged stools over the years, but he says all three legs are “equally important… You don’t just give your money. You also show up, and you volunteer, and you join committees, and you share your wisdom and your ideas. The church needs all of that. What’s a skill or gift you have that you’d like to use for the church?”

TENS Stewardship Resources

Each year, TENS creates a new annual pledge campaign with a new theme, artwork, logos, pledge cards and reflections. “We aim for this to be a year-round tool,” Gerhard said, “so our resources start in Advent, and they go right through Christ the King. There’s a seasonal reflection every time the colour changes in church. There’s another reflection so that you can relate the theme to what’s going on in the liturgy, which is how we as Anglicans see the world so often.”

He adds: “It’s a full package, and it is designed so that if this is your first campaign and you have no idea what you’re doing, you can download it and go with it. But if you’re a veteran fundraiser and you’ve been doing this for years and you know what you’re doing, we give it to you both in PDF and in Microsoft Word so that you can adapt it and change it.”

Annual campaigns aim to fit the needs of small and medium congregations, urban and rural suburban as well, Gerhard says. ” Large congregations such as cathedrals often have their own fundraising systems and staff. “Our products work no matter where you are at, but our sweet spot is more the medium sized parishes. Maybe there’s one clergy or two overworked clergy and a limited pool of volunteers,” he said. “We really are kind of trying to help them be able to run the very best campaign they can with limited people or maybe a limited budget.”

TENS hopes and recommends that congregations keep some formation programs going on throughout the year and provides materials such as weekly reflections. “The idea is that if the only time you’re talking about sharing gifts or stewardship is when the campaign is running, you’ve missed out on all these opportunities throughout the year to relate our gratitude to our generosity; to relate the life of the church to the ministry that we offer.,” says Gerhard.

The creation of the annual pledge campaigns are funded through diocesan partnerships. “We’re trying to make it as affordable as possible, so there’s a diocesan rate and then a congregation rate. If you have fewer than a hundred people on an average Sunday, it’s $100. And if you have more, it’s $250. Gerhard explains that TENS charges something for the pledge campaigns “because it is work for us to produce stewardship resources … but If we create materials and then charge too much for them, that defeats the purpose of trying to grow the kingdom of God and do this work.”

There is also a need for flexibility, Gerhard says. “We’re seeing a lot of resistance to pledge campaigns from our Gen Z members but also from members who maybe have seasonal employment or are a part of the gig economy …where they are making an income, but it’s not predictable like a salary. We’re looking at the truth that it’s a real privilege to have a job in which you can predict next year’s income…. If we’re asking everyone to pledge based on what they think they can do, we’re leaving out folks who really don’t know what generosity is going to look like next year. And so we’re looking at other models.

“A congregation in Houston, Texas, does a campaign called One Hour, One Hour, One Hour, where they ask someone to give an hour of their pay every week to the church, whatever that is, an hour of service to the community, and an hour of service to the church….If you have a week wherein you make more money, you can be more generous. You can always give that hour of service to the world. You can always give that hour of service to the church. … So it’s a very different kind of promise that we’re asking people to make. And it’s unlocking generosity in younger generations or in seasonally employed folks. … Are you any less a part of the community because your financial gift is smaller than somebody else’s? We don’t believe that. We don’t teach that.”

All of the material for the current pledge campaign “Tell Out My Soul” is available on the TENS website: The password is Luke1:46 (Please note that there are no spaces and it is case sensitive). Past years’ campaign materials are also available to use as well if a parish prefers a different theme.

Additional resources

Beyond the annual campaign materials, TENS has many great resources that are free and accessible without a password. Their resource library has articles, toolkits, and ideas for best practices, spirituality and formation, and liturgical resources. There is also an online webinar library, archiving many free webinars TENS has offered over the years.

Signing up for the free monthly TENS newsletter can also help parish stewardship leaders — lay or clergy — learn more.

Webinars

TENS holds online webinars throughout the year on various topics, as well as partnering with dioceses for specific webinars., “Every diocese that’s a partner gets one webinar a year from us to use however they want,” Gerhard explains. “It can be on best practices, which is what most of them use it for, but it can also be one of our more nuanced or deep dive topics of stewardship. I do many, many dozens of webinars a year for our diocesan partners, and I love that work.”

Registration

This year’s webinar for the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa “Why Stewardship? An Anglican Perspective” will be online at noon on Oct. 28.  Register online.

The post TENS ministry offers advice and resources for parish stewardship appeared first on Perspective.

The Rev. Robert Camara

The Rev. Dr. Mary-Catherine Garden has been appointed Priest-in-Charge at St. Mark’s Ottawa, effective Oct. 1.

The post Clergy News — October 2025 appeared first on Perspective.

As Bishop of Ottawa at the time, Parker noted “Canon Brittain is a respected scholar of our Church, with published research and expertise concerning relations within the global Anglican Communion, theological responses to crises, political theology, and ethics. He is resident in the Diocese of Toronto and has graciously consented to share his wisdom with our diocesan church when we require learned counsel on complex theological matters.”

Canon Brittain will be formally installed and offer the homily at the opening Eucharist service for the 145th Session of the diocesan Synod on Oct.23. He generously made time to meet with Perspective just as the new academic year was beginning.

How are things at the Faculty of Divinity this year? As the church shrinks is enrollment down?

The number of students applying for the Master of Divinity has been going down in North America for quite some time, for a decade at least, if not more. And that’s across the board, that’s not just at my college. Now, we’re still trying to figure out what the future is. This year, our student numbers are up….We’ve admitted more students to the MDiv this year than we have since I’ve been dean, and I’ve been dean eight years. I don’t quite know what to make of that. Is that a blip? Or is that a sign that the trend is not totally taking over? But certainly, one of the challenges I think most theological schools have is declining enrollment of some kind.

We do have one program at the Toronto School of Theology that’s increasing, but it’s not really preparing students for church ministry, it’s more preparing for them to work as chaplains in public health or as psychotherapists. That’s where, at the moment, there seems to be a growing interest among theological students, but who knows if that’s a momentary blip or going be a growing trend. But sure, there is an impact in slow shrinkage in church attendance and church membership, there’s going to be most likely a shrinkage in the number of students studying in theological programs proportionally.

Would you tell me a bit about Trinity’s Innovative Leadership for a Post-Christendom Church Ministry and its approach?

It’s a five-year program and we’re about halfway through it. We got a large grant to support it, and it has four components that are chiefly focused on training for church leadership. These focus on encouraging a more ‘missional’ and creative imagination among our students, supporting students new to the Anglican tradition, greater attention to issues of diversity and difference, and deepening spirituality for our students as they face the challenges of a rapidly changing society.…As we think about what the future of the church is and what the future needs in leadership will be, we don’t really know what the future will be. … In order for change to happen, we need to let some things go and we need to try new things, … alter or modify or even just ignore some former ways of doing things…. So, it’s sort of an experimental mentality that we’re trying to encourage.

Is decolonialization an element of that change?

That’s part of this project. A big piece of that is expanding the horizons of who is included in our imagination, in our practices in the church, and how we go about things. In one of our courses on issues of race and ethnicity, I have a guest come every year. She is a priest in Barbados, and she describes trying to be a priest in Toronto [15 or 20 years ago] and the politics of coffee hour. You don’t mess with the traditional coffee and cookies model even though it makes no sense from other cultures. If you’re from the Caribbean, you might want to have something else. She just described how that was not permissible….We don’t often recognize how rigid our way of being is at church, right? And the real sticky points are sometimes that mundane, … like what happens at coffee hour after church? We don’t realize how laden that is with tradition and ethnic assumptions and preferences and so on.”

Are there ways of preparing church leaders for ministry in a largely secular society that can also help renew the Church?

Absolutely, part of existing as a thriving, healthy church in a largely secular context, or part of our learning how to do that, is stop acting like we’re the norm. There’s been this sort of cultural presumption that what we do in church is largely an extension of the wider society or that the wider society is familiar with what we do, understands what we do, sometimes even appreciates what we do.

And it’s not imagining the secular society as somehow antagonistic to us, but we still presume that it understands us… And so part of nurturing a future not just church leadership, but also a way of being as a church is just being a little more focused on who we are, [and] … and being better at articulating our self-understanding and our values and what we think our mission is to people who aren’t very familiar with what we’re about. And that’s not been a skill set that we’ve really been teaching and encouraging.

And nor has it been up until recently where most of our students in theology come from. They’re coming from church contexts .. have largely been raised in the church and know the culture and are familiar with it, and so they’re not necessarily really equipped or used to or comfortable with explaining why they’re a Christian or an Anglican and why we do what we do to people who have no idea what we’re talking about.

In the past, you could assume most people had a basic knowledge of Christianity. Right, and increasingly that’s gone in our society, and increasingly my students showing up at Trinity College are relatively new Christians and even newer Anglicans.

So not cradle Anglicans anymore?

Exactly. We still have some of course, but more and more are not. And so that’s an interesting opportunity. It’s also like sort of a unique challenge too. Where do we start and what is our role in helping prepare them for life in the church and ministry in the church? …. They’ve got a different kind of learning curve than the students we’ve had in the past.

We’re looking forward to your visit to Ottawa and our Synod soon.

I’ve been to Ottawa many times. I have some family in Ottawa, and I have met students at Trinity from Ottawa, but I don’t know the diocese really well. I’m really looking forward to getting to know it better in its current challenges and gifts and hopes and vision.

The post Trinity College Dean of Divinity appointed Cathedral Canon and diocesan Canon Theologian appeared first on Perspective.