The old Christ Church, first built at the western limits of Bytown back in 1832, and continuously expanded to seat more people as the city grew, had now become an embarrassment to the young capital. The Hand-Book to the Parliamentary and Departmental Buildings just four years earlier had gone so far as to declare, “Ottawa is somewhat behind in Ecclesiastical Architecture,” and in a deliberate swipe at Christ Church, opined, “from some cause or other there is no English Episcopal Church worthy of the place, nor any present prospect of so desirable an addition to Ottawa’s Ecclesiastical Buildings.”

So Arnoldi must have been alternately pleased with this commission to build a landmark new church, yet at the same time frustrated by the phrasing that it be “in conformity with recent improvements.” He had already proven himself with the design of Saint-Alban-the-Martyr in Sandy Hill. What an architect wants to do is produce a design that will stand out, not one that is in conformity with the work of others. Even if that other was his own mentor, Thomas Fuller.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Despite the best efforts of the parish building committee, most of Arnoldi’s crafty design passed muster. Although they pared down his chancel to one quarter the size he proposed, sixty years later the larger structure was finally built, albeit to a less robust design. Although they managed to cut down the size of the west window to half the size he envisioned, he framed it with a Gothic arch and drip mouldings on the outer wall against the day that a larger aperture might be desired.

Conformity? It could be seen in the same hue of Nepean sandstone used in the parliament buildings. Conformity? It was apparent outside in the sloping sill of the west window, borrowed directly from the tower of the East Block of the parliament buildings. Conformity? It was evident in the buttresses and finials that were appropriated from the design proposed for the parliamentary library whose walls would soon start rising. Conformity? It could not be missed in the daring slender columns inside the new Christ Church that were copied directly from those in the House of Commons designed by Arnoldi’s mentor, Thomas Fuller.

But clever King Arnoldi made sure that Christ Church stood out as a distinctive building. The tall broach spire made sure of that, reaching higher into the skyline of the capital than that on any other church in the city. Perhaps the single feature that caused the large new church to stand out were the step gables on the front and rear gables and above the chancel arch. The latter two would disappear when the 1872 chancel was torn down in 1932, but the front step gable remains a defining feature on the Ottawa landscape, despite recent intrusions on either side.

We can only regret that Arnoldi’s plans on paper did not survive. By the time the Diocesan Archives was created 72 years later, the plans had disappeared. By contrast, plans for the 1958 Cathedral Hall, seen here, are preserved in the Cathedral collection at the Archives.

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.

The post Christ Church Cathedral, Ottawa – Cathedral Deanery appeared first on Perspective.

If we restrict our understanding and the practice of prayer as being an activity only of the head, it can be likened to a bird trying to fly with one wing. We would be missing the richness of the use of the senses that God has given us. To “sense” something is to understand and experience life, gaining knowledge and achieving our potential. As we do with the physical world around in touching, tasting, smelling, seeing, and hearing, so, too, we can use our senses to learn about, and experience. God.

In this article we explore the use of our sense of touch and prayer.

There are several ways of using the sense of touch in prayer, and most often we are inclined to our hands. Often people will hold on to a small cross, or other small smooth object when they pray. We can also hold a Bible in our hands, either open at a particular scripture passage, or just closed resting in our hands, to connect to the Divine Presence. It is a way of focusing on God and bringing Jesus into the particular time and space of the prayer.

For centuries, people have used prayer beads as an aid to prayer. The action of feeling the beads and moving from one bead to another provides an internal rhythm. Feeling the shape, the texture, the size of the beads, and the spaces around them relaxes and helps focus our attention, which then brings us into greater silence and into contemplation, before God. There is an Anglican Rosary (pictured here) that is a blending of the Marian (Roman Catholic) Rosary and the Orthodox Jesus Prayer Rope.

Our sense of touch is not restricted to our hands. Our sense of touch extends to all parts of our body. Those in need of healing of body mind and/or spirit often find the comfort of God’s presence using a prayer shawl, which has been knitted by hand, blessed by a priest, and given to them with a prayer.

We are encouraged to feel God in everything we touch.

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Alongside reporting on any diocesan contributions to the Communion Forest initiative (https://www.communionforest.org/), Crosstalk would welcome submissions of news about positive actions being taken for the environment. Generally, the news will emerge from the diocese, but I wanted to share a bit of global news that lifted my hopes and reminded me of how quickly large-scale change can happen.

This summer, our family travelled to Lebanon. I am trying to minimize air travel, but it had been 11 years since we visited my husband’s family, and we felt it was important for our daughter to know her family there.

Most of the news about Lebanon recently has focused on its economic collapse. Things are tough for many people. The value of the Lebanese lira has fallen so much that a monthly salary that was worth $2,000 in US dollars now translates to $130. The system for electricity has long been unstable, but the government now only supplies power for four hours a day.

That, however, brings me to the bright point that I wanted to share. Everywhere I looked, homes and businesses were using solar panels for power. Of course, many people still can’t afford solar panels and use diesel generators or make do with little electricity, but it was absolutely amazing to see how much necessity has accelerated this transition in the country.

The resilient Lebanese find ways. One woman I met sold her gold jewelry from better days to invest in panels for her family’s home. We visited a dairy cattle farm with 160 cows that now runs entirely on solar power with a wind turbine, instead of diesel fuel.

It made me think how much change is possible here in Canada where we are blessed with so many resources. The pandemic showed us how to pivot. We have new challenges to rise to.

Please do share your inspirations and stories with Crosstalk, so we can encourage one another.

The post Sharing encouraging environmental news appeared first on Perspective.

(Above, L to R) Perry McConnell, Debbie McCabe, John McCarthy. Steve Carkner, Steve Brabazon, and Bob Larochelle of the Retired Ottawa Fire Fighters Association served up a firehouse favourite—a spaghetti lunch—at Christ Church Cathedral for the Anglican Community Ministry Belong Ottawa. The lunch was sponsored by Frontline Financial Credit Union. Staff and participants from Belong Ottawa’s three locations enjoyed the delicious food and fellowship.

Right: lunch guest Ken Meldrum with Belong Ottawa’s program manager India Bedson.

The post Blazing support! appeared first on Perspective.

The June 2023 edition of Crosstalk included an article written by Bishop Shane Parker entitled “Growing hope locally and globally in the Communion Forest.” In this article, the bishop referenced the Lambeth Conference of 2022 when the Communion Forest concept was formally launched-—encouraging all of us to embrace an initiative that calls us “to the care and safeguarding of creation.”

“Let there be greening,” the theme of this year’s General Synod in Calgary, caught my attention. The reference to “greening,” from Revelation 22: 1-2, refers to the “tree of life,” portraying the “leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations.” We are to think of “forests” broadly because they will differ from country to country and place to place—encompassing a wide range of creation care activities to form a virtual, global “forest” that will eventually be shared across our world-wide Anglican Communion. Local projects might be virtual or include not only trees but grasslands, wetlands, or coastal habitats. They may also consist of spiritual practices or practical acts such as celebrating birthdays or anniversaries with gifts of seedlings and saplings or commemorating life events by growing native tree species on parish land.

Delegates to General Synod ’23 learned about a new resource entitled Parish Engagement Resource for Social and Ecological Justice. This document relates to greening: offering faith communities an invitation to “discern and engage in social and ecological justice [and to] “prayerfully consider God’s call to join in God’s mission to love and heal the world.” (You may access this document through the In Full Communion website: www.anglicanlutheran.ca.)

Recently, I spoke with Dr. Ryan Weston who serves as Lead Animator and Public Witness for Social and Ecological Justice in the Anglican Church of Canada. Ryan co-authored the aforementioned resource with the Rev. Paul Gehrs, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Ryan drew my attention to the resource’s five “exercises” to help parishes discern what “greening” means to them: (1) Dwelling in the word: let there be greening; (2) Called to seek justice; (3) Discerned priorities for Anglicans and Lutherans working together; (4) First Steps for engagement; and (5) Additional discernment tools from a variety of sources.

The PWRDF Diocesan Working Group has begun to discuss a “greening” project for 2023-2024. We plan to launch Branches of Hope at the diocesan Synod in October. Please visit us at our table to learn more about how the distribution of native tree seedlings locally will benefit communities here and in Uganda, where PWRDF partner Josephine Kizza runs a model farm that enables farmers from all over the world to access training in ecologically sound farming methods.

The post Living out the theme of the Communion Forest appeared first on Perspective.

Dwindling attendance was one of the main reasons for the decision to close, but a good crowd turned out to say farewell to a beloved church building.

People remembered long family histories—weddings, baptisms and funerals—in the parish, (which began in the 1920s in a smaller church building, which is now part of the Hulse Playfair funeral home on Richmond Road before the new larger building was built in 1956.)

Longtime parishioners Marion Xhignesse attended with her mother Enid Xhignesse. After the service, Marion wiped away a few tears. “I love that altar. I love the wood….It has elegance and simplicity,” she said. “I sang my first notes as a little person here, and now, l sing professionally,” she said. “It’s been home.”

Rebecca Veale, who was a choir member and co-ordinated the church school in 1990 when there were about 40 children attending, said she is concerned about seniors in the area, particularly shut-ins, finding another church to attend. All Saints Westboro, St. Stephen’s and Julian of Norwich are Anglican churches that are all relatively close, but it is a big change for parishioners in the neighbourhood who used to walk to St. Martin’s. Many said they would take time this summer to decide where to worship.

In an interview with Crosstalk in the spring, Ian Marsh, people’s warden for St. Martin’s, described the reasons the vestry voted to disestablish in December. St. Martin’s had been a big congregation with about 300 people attending most Sunday services until the 1980s, he said. When his own family joined about 20 years ago, “that heyday had peaked, but we were still getting 100 and 120 people a service,” with six or seven kids attending Sunday school regularly, he recalled. The annual bazaar was a “monster event,” with sale tables of all sorts and a silent auction. “It was fantastic, but it was intense. We did that full on until about 10 years ago. We’re always afraid we’re going to kill somebody,” he said wryly, “because you would get 90-year-olds coming and working like you wouldn’t believe for a Friday night and a Saturday. … But the people who are still able miss it terribly. It was a wonderful fellowship event that helped bond the people in the parish.”

Prior to the pandemic, he estimated attendance averaged about 60 people, but after the pandemic that declined to 35 to 40 people, “that includes the organist and the priest and the seven-member choir, so it’s pretty thin in the ranks on the floor.”

Marsh says the formal process of deciding to disestablish took nine or 10 months, but the parish has been seriously diminishing for about 10 years, he said. “Every year our budget would get a little bit smaller, and the parish council would get a little bit smaller. We used to have 25 people at parish council meetings, and a secretary, and an agenda… and then over the years, it ends up to being six people sitting around a table,” he said. “There are a lot of skills you need to run a parish… Our core group has gone from maybe 40 or 50 people you could draw from to 10 or 12, and that’s just not enough because in a group of 10 or 12 people you’re not going to have a broad range of abilities….And we’ve had people burn out and have to take a few years off.”

When they began discussions with the bishop last June, Marsh says the parish was running out of money in the bank.

“We’ve had some great, tremendously generous donations that went into the Consolidated Trust Fund (CTF).” That money is still there, but he explained that bequests are intended as legacy gifts. “Weekly giving is used to pay the priest, pay the gas bill, to rake the lawn, shovel the driveway…. A significant bequest… should be reserved for potential capital improvements, a new bell tower, a new heating system, a new organ, or better yet, some kind of outreach program or some kind of parish development initiative….You shouldn’t use it to buy salt to spread on the driveway or to cut the grass or to keep the gas flowing to the furnace….”

“We thought that rather than run until the tank’s dry, we’ll turn it over while there’s still some something substantial in the CTF that can go towards doing something positive for the future.”

Practical and realistic, but it’s still not easy to say goodbye to a church home.

The Venerable Rob Davis, who served the parish in its last months, acknowledged that sadness in his sermon and offered some words of comfort and encouragement drawn from the message of Pentecost. One of the most important gifts God gives us, he said, is that “by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, men or women—we are all made to drink of one Spirit. We are made family by the Spirit of God. And family makes all the difference in the world, especially at a time like this,” he said.

Then he shared a story about a rather rash decision he made to go travelling to visit his mother’s family in Australia instead of going to university when he was 19 years old. “Had it been possible to back out at the last minute I probably would have because I suddenly realized as I was getting on the plane in the Ottawa airport that I was all on my own. I was alone….” After long flights and delays on his flights to Vancouver and Los Angeles, he arrived in Sydney, sick with a cold and having missed his connecting flight to Melbourne. “So there I was in.. a strange airport, 19 years old, knowing not nearly as much as I thought I knew, and trying to figure out what to do.”

After wandering around, getting some Australian money, trying to call his grandmother’s number and getting no answer, he gave up. …”I was not in good shape,” he said.

Then a man sat down beside him and asked, “‘So, how was the flight from Ottawa?’ I looked at him, totally amazed. ‘Hi, I’m your Uncle Phil,’ he said.

My family, of course, had discovered that the plane was late and had phoned Uncle Phil who lived in Sydney and had come to the airport to meet me…. Suddenly, I was home again, I was with family. I was safe.”

Family makes all the difference in the world, especially in times like this, Davis reiterated. “That’s the gift that God is offering us today. Wherever I have been in this world, I have found family. Because there are Christians everywhere, and they have taken me in, they have welcomed me. They have made me at home because we are family, because we are all born of the one spirit…. So when I have had to leave, when I felt lonely, desolate and afraid, every single time I have met family and discovered I was at home again.”

The post Saying goodbye to St. Martin’s appeared first on Perspective.

She explains that the Métis associations have had to make these distinctions as a part of their efforts to have their rights and land recognized, as First Nations have done. “Ontario only recognizes Métis who are from settlement areas, the same for Alberta,” she explains. “The previous Métis Association of Labrador has changed their name to the Federation of Southern Inuit, so I have to reclassify.” But the official terms don’t change the identity of Lawrence and many others of mixed ancestry. The first person of mixed heritage was probably born nine months after the arrival of Europeans, she said in an Interview with Crosstalk this summer. “It’s just that the period of contact is so large. It’s over 450 years, whereas in BC it’s only 150 years, so it’s a lot easier out west to define.”

Lawrence’s father was born in Scotland, “which is a strange place for me to be claiming Indigenous ancestry from,” she acknowledges, “but my grandfather and my great-grandfather were born in Labrador.” Her grandfather worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company. In those times, men often married or had relationships with Indigenous women, sometimes known as “country wives,” while still maintaining marriages and families in England… “But in typical Hudson Bay fashion, they only record the names of men who lived in the community. They keep no records for women and children,” Lawrence said. “So, it’s really tricky for me to try to do family trees from Labrador, but that’s where my Indigenous ancestry comes from.” She added that she has found records online of Swaffields (her maiden name} in Fogo Island in 1783, so that would be an earlier ancestor,” she explained.

In her role as an advisor to the bishop, Lawrence said she is most comfortable representing the needs of urban Indigenous people…. “Because I spent quite a long period of my life working on nothing but Indigenous policy and policy-related concerns, I’m very familiar with what are the needs of Indigenous people. And even though I’m no longer in those roles, I read the papers in detail on what’s happening and look up the articles.”

Now retired, Lawrence has had a rich and diverse career, which began as a teacher. “I went to Macdonald College for my teacher’s certificate, and taught in Noranda, Que. and Shefferville in Northern Quebec for a few years…. Half my class were Cree children brought down from James Bay and the other half were town children,” she said. Lawrence did not attend or teach in any residential schools.

She completed her bachelor’s degree at McGill University and then moved to to Calgary, where she did her master’s degree in sociology with a thesis on criminal rehabilitation. and then moved to Edmonton and worked for government and hospitals. When her parents had health problems, she moved back to Ottawa and became a director of educational services at the Civic Hospital.

Lawrence completed her MBA at the University of Ottawa in 1997 and went on to work as a senior health advisor with the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (for Donnacona Inc.); as an Indigenous liaison co-ordinator with the Ontario government; director at the Nova Scotia Community College’s School of Health and Human Services; and executive director of the Indigenous Nurses Association of Canada. She also served as a chaplain for the Carlington Community Chaplaincy. In addition to these roles, she was also a caregiver for her husband who has since passed away as well as her son Darryl Socha, who passed away in 2016.

Because her father was in the military, Lawrence grew up with frequent moves to different parts of Canada. Her father was “a great believer in propinquity,” she said, so they attended whatever church was closest to them. “At the time of confirmation, the nearest church was an Anglican church, so I became an Anglican and have loved it ever since.”

She has been a member of the diocesan All My Relations Circle AMR) since it was created and has served as its co-chair for the past two years. Over the years, she said she has seen Anglicans’ understanding of Indigenous issues grow. “I’ve done a lot of presentations in different churches because I’ve been with AMR and it’s always responded to well,” she said, adding that in recent years more people self-identify as Indigenous.

“When the Doctrine of Discovery was declared null by the current Pope, I announced that in church and everybody applauded it. And I thought to myself, ‘I bet five or 10 years earlier, they wouldn’t even have known what that was about, so I detect big differences.”

Lawrence said she sees tremendous change in broader Canadian society as well. “There’s a lot of pride in being Indigenous now and a lot of concern, [with people] saying, ‘Now we have identified the issues, let’s start working together to resolve them, which is very important.”

Looking ahead to what Anglicans in the diocese can do to further reconciliation work, Lawrence suggested “doing a deeper dive into the issues and really identifying more of what they can do to work in partnership, either with an Indigenous community, or on continuing and deepening the understanding of the impact on Indigenous people, not just in Canada, but the whole effects of colonization throughout the world.”

Lawrence will be facilitating two sessions of PWRDF’s Mapping the Ground We Stand On” exercises with Karen Luyendyk at Julian of Norwich on Sept. 23. Please see our calendar on page 16 for details.

The post Getting to know the bishop’s advisor, Audrey Lawrence appeared first on Perspective.

The executive director of the OPC requires a diverse range of skills as a practicing psychotherapist and as an administrator and leader guiding a non-profit organization. What kinds of experiences prepared you for those very different roles?

I worked for 16 years at Christian Counselling in Ottawa (CCO) as a psychotherapist, so I have a strong footing in psychotherapy, a strong base from which to work, lots of experience. I actually got my Master’s degree back in ‘91 and I didn’t use it until 2007 when I started at CCO.

I have also worked in the business world. I had the great privilege of working for the Stratford Festival of Canada and at the Toronto Stock Exchange. I’ve been an HR manager for an insurance company. I’ve worked in individual or consumer and corporate sales for what was then Cantel and now Rogers, so a lot of varied business experience as well.

What did you do at the Stratford Festival?

I worked in the Toronto Development Office, on the Stratford Express…the premier fundraiser for the Stratford Festival. It was a massive undertaking. It took an entire year to plan and execute because we had a private VIA train and we had a raffle from Tiffany’s, plus we had the silent auction, plus we had a catered dinner on the way out to Stratford and then we had the shuttle buses to get us to the theatre for the opening night of the musical which was Fiddler on the Roof, and then we’d get everybody back [with food and wine] on the way home. So many moving parts, it was incredible.

I think [that  fundraising experience] will be helpful in doing some of the fundraising and promotions that we want to do for the OPC. We have the Counselling Support Fund … So many people don’t have [healthcare benefits through their work] and counselling is not inexpensive, so to be able to help counselling be accessible to the broader community is a huge passion of mine.

When did your interest in psychotherapy begin?

I was working in group homes… with young offenders and wards of CAS [Children’s Aid Society]. I was a house parent … a live-in position. I was often taking my young charges to appointments with social workers or psychiatrists, and at some point I thought, … maybe I want to be the person, not taking the person to the appointment, but the person who’s going to be holding the appointment. Maybe I want to be the person who can work with a population that really does want to make changes in their lives. The people I was working with weren’t necessarily interested… in being introspective, self-aware, thinking about what brought them to that place, how they could improve their lives. Probably about two-thirds just wanted to serve their time and get out….I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to work with somebody who really did want to make a change?’ So I got my Master’s in Counselling [from Providence University College and Theological Seminary in Otterburne, Man.]

My mom has always told me that my favorite question growing up was ‘Why?’ We think one of the biggest jokes in the world is that I get paid to ask, “Why? How come? Well, what’s that about?” It used to drive her crazy and now I get paid to do it. She just finds that hilarious.

What drew you to this position with the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa?

That one I can answer in one word, and it’s ministry.…I could go into private practice, charge $160 or $180 an hour, and make lots of money. Psychotherapy for me is about ministry, and the OPC is about ministry. It’s an opportunity to minister to hurting people whether they believe in God or whether they don’t. Hurting people are hurting people. And God’s simply given me the abilities to be good at what I do, to be good at psychotherapy. And so I share those. That is my passion and … my calling all my life…so that was the biggest thing.

And the second piece of that was the opportunity to work in a team of very capable and talented psychotherapists… as well as with the team at the ADO [diocese]. The people at the Ascension House have been nothing but warm and gracious and kind and supportive….To be able to work in that kind of a collaborative environment is something that I very much want.

How do you see the OPC growing in the future?

Right now, we have seven therapists because Sharon in her retirement has decided to continue to see clients, and we just hired two more therapists, so I don’t know how much more we want to grow at this point. One thing I do want is to work more with First Nations groups…. At CCO, we had strong alliance with the Cree Board of Health, and I’m thinking there are First Nation peoples that I hope that we could introduce ourselves to and be of service to them. But other than that, I just need to wait, get to know the organization better before I can make any determinations of how else we might consider growing. So, the growth of the Counselling Support Fund and the involvement in the First Nations community, those are two goals.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

One of my favorite things to do is to pack up our backpacks and take the canoe into the interior of Algonquin or Killarney or in one of the provincial parks. and you just go. We make our own beef jerky and just live for a week out. I just love that… I like rock climbing and hiking and cycling. And I’m a bit of a social butterfly. I just like getting together with people.…

I enjoy travelling whether across Canada or internationally, I am a very curious person.…I like to go and explore and see and do.

The post Meet Heather Fawcett: Executive Director of the Ottawa Pastoral Counselling Centre appeared first on Perspective.

Underlining the fact that Ottawa is not exempt from this issue, a conflict erupted between two groups on Broadview Ave. on June 9, during which five people were arrested. CBC reported that hundreds of demonstrators had “gathered to ‘drown out’ and counter a man who was protesting what he calls ‘gender ideology.’ The two groups chanted slogans like ‘protect trans rights’ and ‘leave the kids alone’ at each other, at times separated by a line of police officers.”

In his letter, the bishop wrote that: “As followers of Jesus, we are rightfully concerned and vigilant when we see any individual or group being unjustly targeted. In the Baptismal Covenant of our Church, we vow “to seek and serve Christ in all persons; to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being.”

Pride Season, he mentioned, refers to a range of events that take place from June to September. “It is a time that lifts and affirms the resilience and value of 2SLGBTQI+ individuals. Not everyone or every parish in our diocese participates in Pride events, but each of us are called to participate in making a safe, loving space for 2SLGBTQI+ people, and to build meaningful connections with one another.”

The bishop noted that “much of the current anti-2SLGBTQI+ rhetoric in Canada and across the globe is made under the pretext of religion.” He commended to Anglicans and all who read his letter, the Global Interfaith Commission on LGBT+ Lives and its safeguarding principles.

He urged all to read the  Commission’s 2020 Declaration, which he has signed, and to take its words to heart:

Declaring the Sanctity of Life and the Dignity of All

• We come together as senior religious leaders, academics, and lay leaders from around the world to affirm the sanctity of life and dignity of all.
• We affirm that all human beings of all sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions are a precious part of creation and are part of the natural order.
• We affirm that we are all equal under God, whom many call the Divine, and so we are all equal to one another.
• We, therefore, call for all to be treated equally under the law.
• We recognize with sadness that certain religious teachings have often, throughout the ages, caused and continue to cause deep pain and offense to those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex.
• We acknowledge, with profound regret, that some of our teachings have created, and continue to create, oppressive systems that fuel intolerance, perpetuate injustice and result in violence. This has led, and continues to lead, to the rejection and alienation of many by their families, their religious groups and cultural communities.

The Rev. Canon Doug Richards, vicar of Christ Church Cathedral, welcomed the letter as “a breath of fresh air.” During his 30 years as a priest in the Anglican Church, Richards said he has encountered bishops who did not want to talk about LGBTQ issues whatsoever. “And I’ve had very supportive bishops who have listened and journeyed with me and helped me along the way, but to have someone to say what Bishop Shane did in this letter publicly really affirmed my faith in the Church that I belong to.”

Richards was among delegates from the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa who travelled to Calgary for the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada in June. They participated in another sign of change within the church, as a large majority voted to approve using  gender transition and affirmation liturgies, where authorized by the bishop.

Karen Bryan, a parishioner at St. John’s, Smiths Falls, told Crosstalk that she read the letter with gratitude and pride. “I applaud our bishop’s acknowledgement of religion’s role in the perpetuation of intolerance, violence, and injustice against the 2SLGBTQI+ community.”

Christian Wright, a parishioner at St. Thomas the Apostle, in Ottawa said they were sincerely appreciative of the letter, especially at a time when they were concerned about other provinces of the Anglican Communion “endorsing heinous and oppressive laws targeting 2SLGBTQ+ people and relationships. In a time when our safety and rights are in a constant state of danger, it is empowering and reassuring to know that one’s church and bishop support and love you and your community.”

In a message to Crosstalk, they added, “Every human being is made in the image of God and beloved by Him. Nobody should ever be abused or oppressed by their government or society. The sanctity of all people, including Queer and transgender lives, is a fundamental principle of our faith found in our baptismal vows as Anglicans and as followers of Christ.”

The post Speaking out to support the 2SLGBTQI+ community appeared first on Perspective.