16
A NGLICAN Life SERVI VI VI VI VING NG NG NG NG THE D D D D DIO IO IO IO IOCE CE CE CE CESE SE SE SE SES OF OF OF OF OF WEST ST ST ST STERN N N N N NEWFO WFO WFO WFO WFOUNDL UNDL UNDL UNDL UNDLAND AND AND AND AND + C + C + C + C + CENTRAL AL AL AL AL N N N N NEWFO WFO WFO WFO WFOUNDL UNDL UNDL UNDL UNDLAND AND AND AND AND + E + E + E + E + EAST AST AST AST ASTERN N N N N NEWFO WFO WFO WFO WFOUNDL UNDL UNDL UNDL UNDLAND AND AND AND AND & L & L & L & L & LABR ABR ABR ABR ABRAD AD AD AD ADOR OR OR OR OR March March March March March 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 in in in in in NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR A Section of the A Section of the A Section of the A Section of the A Section of the Anglican Journal Anglican Journal Anglican Journal Anglican Journal Anglican Journal Almighty and merciful God, you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent; create in us new and contrite hearts, so that when we turn to you and confess our sins we may receive your full and perfect forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Redeemer who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever. Amen. Bishop Percy Coffin Diocese of Western Newfoundland A Lenten low-carbon diet Among the many things I like about the Anglican way is the regard it holds for sci- ence. Biblical writings took place long before the age of natural science. The writers of these ancient texts may take some credit for the star that pointed to Bethlehem but they lay no claim to discov- eries in physics, chemistry or geology or genetics. I like to think of the Bible and science in this manner: Scientist will speak of lu- nar dust; solar wind and cos- mic ray; Of quarks, recessive and dominant genes; vast black hole and DNA. By parable, psalm and miracle; God in Christ resists the foe. The Bible teaches how to go to heaven; not how the heavens go. The writers of Holy Scrip- ture likely did not know how the heavens go but they un- derstood the ways of the earth particularly in the way in which the sower plants a seed, waits for it to grow and then reaps the harvest. Our faith ancestors knew how to grow olive trees and grapes so that they would “have wine to gladden the heart and oil to make a cheerful coun- tenance”. (Psalm 104:15) They knew the need to let the land lie fallow on Sabbath. They knew enough to pre- serve a safe place between farm land and flowing streams. Abraham and Lot allowed their flocks to go far afield because the land could not sustain both. They never spent a day in the agricultural college but they knew ecol- ogy when they saw it. Ecology is the interde- pendence of living organisms and their environment (hu- mans in nature, for example). We maintain a wholesome balance in this relationship only if we do it right. Insights from Hebrew Scripture might help us here. We need that help because our current eco- logical crisis gives testimony to the fact that we have an inability to cope with our own relations to nature and our natural resources. What can you do about it? Go on a diet...a low-car- bon diet. A low-carbon diet means making lifestyle choices that reduce green- house gas emissions resulting from energy use. A low car- bon diet minimizes the emis- sions released from the pro- duction, packaging, process- ing, transport, preparation and disposal of food. To re- duce your carbon output eat less industrial meat and dairy, eat less industry-produced food in general, eat seasonal, locally grown food, eat less process and packaged foods and reduce waste from food by selecting smaller portions, recycling and composting. A steward is one who takes cares of what has been entrusted to him/her. Take care of the earth because it belongs to the Lord. Lent is a time to focus on our relation- ship with God and all that God provides. Here’s our chance to reflect on how we can care for the environment and our bodies while sacrific- ing a few comforts. Drive less. Try a media fast! It can be rewarding to turn off the TV, the computer, the Blackberry etc in favour of a board game with the family. Give up texting in order to detoxify from the virtual world and join the real one. Back off from Facebook and other forms of social networking for the sake of having time to pray and meditate or do service. Say “thank you” to the scientist because they hold before us the sad realities that result from our poor sense of stewardship. That’s part of their job. The Bible is about keeping our earthly existence divine, godly or at least hu- man, even humane; using code words like holiness, righteous- ness and love. Take care (of the earth).

March 2011

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Anglican Life March 2011

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Page 1: March 2011

1ANGLICANLife March 2011

ANGLICANLife

SSSSSEEEEERRRRRVIVIVIVIVINGNGNGNGNG TTTTTHHHHHEEEEE D D D D DIOIOIOIOIOCECECECECESESESESESESSSSS OFOFOFOFOF WWWWWEEEEESTSTSTSTSTEEEEERRRRRNNNNN N N N N NEEEEEWFOWFOWFOWFOWFOUNDLUNDLUNDLUNDLUNDLANDANDANDANDAND + C + C + C + C + CEEEEENNNNNTTTTTRRRRRALALALALAL N N N N NEEEEEWFOWFOWFOWFOWFOUNDLUNDLUNDLUNDLUNDLANDANDANDANDAND + E + E + E + E + EASTASTASTASTASTEEEEERRRRRNNNNN N N N N NEEEEEWFOWFOWFOWFOWFOUNDLUNDLUNDLUNDLUNDLANDANDANDANDAND & L & L & L & L & LABRABRABRABRABRADADADADADOROROROROR

MarchMarchMarchMarchMarch20112011201120112011ininininin NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADORA Section of theA Section of theA Section of theA Section of theA Section of the

Anglican JournalAnglican JournalAnglican JournalAnglican JournalAnglican Journal

Almighty and merciful God, you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent; create in us new and contrite hearts, so that when we turn to you and confess our sins we may receive your full and perfect forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Redeemer who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever. Amen.

Bishop Percy CoffinDiocese of

Western Newfoundland

A Lenten low-carbon diet

Among the many things Ilike about the Anglican wayis the regard it holds for sci-ence. Biblical writings tookplace long before the age ofnatural science. The writers ofthese ancient texts may takesome credit for the star thatpointed to Bethlehem butthey lay no claim to discov-eries in physics, chemistry orgeology or genetics. I like tothink of the Bible and sciencein this manner:

Scientist will speak of lu-nar dust; solar wind and cos-mic ray;

Of quarks, recessive anddominant genes; vast blackhole and DNA.

By parable, psalm andmiracle; God in Christ resiststhe foe.

The Bible teaches how togo to heaven; not how theheavens go.

The writers of Holy Scrip-ture likely did not know howthe heavens go but they un-derstood the ways of theearth particularly in the wayin which the sower plants aseed, waits for it to grow andthen reaps the harvest. Ourfaith ancestors knew how togrow olive trees and grapes

so that they would “havewine to gladden the heart andoil to make a cheerful coun-tenance”. (Psalm 104:15)They knew the need to let theland lie fallow on Sabbath.They knew enough to pre-serve a safe place betweenfarm land and flowingstreams. Abraham and Lotallowed their flocks to go farafield because the land couldnot sustain both. They neverspent a day in the agriculturalcollege but they knew ecol-ogy when they saw it.

Ecology is the interde-pendence of living organismsand their environment (hu-mans in nature, for example).We maintain a wholesomebalance in this relationshiponly if we do it right. Insightsfrom Hebrew Scripture might

help us here. We need thathelp because our current eco-logical crisis gives testimonyto the fact that we have aninability to cope with ourown relations to nature andour natural resources.

What can you do aboutit? Go on a diet...a low-car-bon diet. A low-carbon dietmeans making lifestylechoices that reduce green-house gas emissions resultingfrom energy use. A low car-bon diet minimizes the emis-sions released from the pro-duction, packaging, process-ing, transport, preparationand disposal of food. To re-duce your carbon output eatless industrial meat and dairy,eat less industry-producedfood in general, eat seasonal,locally grown food, eat less

process and packaged foodsand reduce waste from foodby selecting smaller portions,recycling and composting.

A steward is one whotakes cares of what has beenentrusted to him/her. Takecare of the earth because itbelongs to the Lord. Lent is atime to focus on our relation-ship with God and all thatGod provides. Here’s ourchance to reflect on how wecan care for the environmentand our bodies while sacrific-ing a few comforts. Drive less.Try a media fast! It can berewarding to turn off the TV,the computer, the Blackberryetc in favour of a board gamewith the family. Give uptexting in order to detoxifyfrom the virtual world and jointhe real one. Back off from

Facebook and other forms ofsocial networking for the sakeof having time to pray andmeditate or do service.

Say “thank you” to thescientist because they holdbefore us the sad realities thatresult from our poor sense ofstewardship. That’s part oftheir job. The Bible is aboutkeeping our earthly existencedivine, godly or at least hu-man, even humane; using codewords like holiness, righteous-ness and love.

Take care (of the earth).

Page 2: March 2011

March 2011 ANGLICANLife2

The Rev’d George Gardner - part twoFounder of the Society of United Fisherman, 1873

Submitted byNorman Hiscock

The Society of Fishermencontinually petitioned the gov-ernment with respect to roads,health care, social benefits, im-provement of education, andany other issues that affectedthe life of the people. It was aleader in this respect and madea difference in the lives of thepeople.

The focus of the Order as a“benefit’ society has changed inrecent years because of the ad-vent of government social pro-grams, improved health care,greater educational opportuni-ties, a vastly improved stand-ard of living, and culturalchanges. No longer do membersneed the historical benefits ofmoney or extensive living sup-port. They do receive support,financially and otherwise, in anyemergency, or death. It is wor-thy to note that the Order hasextended its benevolence to thecommunity in terms of financialhelp to local scholarships inschools, recreation activities, firedepartments, churches, localhospitals, community projects,etc. The Order has donated, inrecent years, approximatelythree hundred thousand dollars($300,000.00) to the JanewayChildren’s Hospital Foundation.

During his tenure as Rectorof the Mission he traveled thou-sands of miles by walking, or byhorse and carriage in Summerand sleigh in Winter to the fourcommunities in the Mission,where he held meetings, churchservices, visited the sick and dis-tressed, and worked to estab-lish schools whereby childrencould learn to read and write.

In addition to his regularduties as a Minister in theChurch, he saw to the construc-tion of church buildings at ScillyCove (Winterton) and NewPerlican in 1863, and the fol-lowing year, one at Heart’s De-light. A new church building wasalso constructed at Heart’s Con-tent. Realizing the value and theimportance of women in the lifeand welfare of the church, heorganized the ladies into an or-ganization called, ‘The Church ofEngland Women’s Association’.The first such group was organ-ized at Scilly Cove (Winterton)that held its first meeting in May1876. This was the beginning ofwhat is now called the AnglicanChurch Women. He was a dedi-cated priest, who cared deeplyabout the physical and spiritualwelfare of the people.

His parishioners wereshocked in 1878 when he ten-dered his resignation to take upministerial duties in Canada. One

can but speculate on the rea-sons for his resignation. Per-haps he just wanted a change,a new environment. Maybe itwas to satisfy a thirst for newchallenges, or to give vent toan adventurous spirit or just toexperience life in a new coun-try. In any event, Rev. GeorgeGardner, his wife, Frances, andtheir daughter, Isabelle, de-parted Newfoundland forCanada on July 27, 1878.

Few details are knownabout the life of Rev. GeorgeGardner after his departurefrom Newfoundland, becausethe early records of Lodge No.1 were lost, the records of theparish at Heart’s Content werelost in a fire, and early GrandLodge records were destroyedin the great St. John’s fire of1892. One letter and a fewreferences to him are all thatcan be found in the records ofthe Order.

In Canada he first servedin a parish in Hampton, NewBrunswick. It is known that hewas the Rector of a parish inMorris, Manitoba, in 1880,and that he served at TrinityChurch, Colbourne, Ontario,from November 14, 1880 toAugust 31, 1881, and the fol-lowing year at Thomasburg inthe Parish of Roslin. He seemsto have vanished after this. Inthe summer of 1881, the Soci-ety, as a testimonial to theirfounder, sent him thirty-fourpounds, twelve shillings andeight pence, with a letter thatexpressed the high esteem inwhich he was held. A letterdated June 27, 1881, was dulyreceived from Rev. Gardner,the only correspondence fromhim known to exist, and as suchit is printed here in full.

The minutes of GrandLodge of March 22, 1891,records that S.U.F. Lodge No.1 had received a letter fromFrances, the wife of Rev.Gardner, advising that he hadsuffered a stroke the year be-fore, and that they were inneedy circumstances. [This let-ter in all probability was re-ceived in mid 1890 but did notget recorded in the GrandLodge records before itsMarch 1891 meeting.] GrandLodge sent one hundred dol-lars. There is no record ofwhere the letter came from,and no other reference of Rev.George can be found in GrandLodge records. Where hetraveled, where he died andwhere he is buried remains amystery. Grand Lodge is in-debted to Mr. WallacePinhorn, who with his col-leagues, Doris Gates (Mrs. Pe-ter) Trope, Jim King and Bill

Gardner, continue to workwithout charge, to seek thesolution to that mystery.

It is possible, but inconclu-sive, that Rev. GeorgeGardner, his wife Frances anddaughter Isabelle immigrated toCalifornia about 1887 and thatthey settled in Los Angeles nolater than the first half of 1889.Can one reasonably assumethat that is where he died andis buried? If so, when did hedie and where is he buried?Isabelle’s death and burialrecords have been found, butnone for Frances or George.Why? Were they buried else-where? And so the search con-tinues.

Rev. Gardner left a legacyin Newfoundland, a place heloved, and a place he hoped to‘some day to return’. That wasnever to be. His legacy lives onin the Society of United Fish-ermen, in the Anglican Parishof Heart’s Content, in the

Church of England Women’sAssociation, now the AnglicanChurch Women, in his work inthe relief of poverty, destitu-tion and suffering of the peo-ple, his achievements in educa-tion, roads, and his Christianwork in the Anglican Missionof Heart’s Content. He was aman of great compassion, firmand steady in his principles, adevoted and caring minister ofhis church, who was loved andrespected by all.

In 1973, the 100th Anni-versary of the Society ofUnited Fishermen, the SupremeGrand Lodge erected a bronzeplaque to honour the legacy ofRev. George Gardner, itsfounder, and for his Christianwork in the Mission. It was in-stalled and dedicated in St.Mary’s Church AnglicanChurch, Heart’s Content. In1985 it was destroyed by fire,when the church burned. Also,one thousand dollars

($1,000.00) was donated toQueen’s Theological College inhis memory. On November 20,2010, a replacement graniteplaque was unveiled and dedi-cated by the Rt. Rev. CyrusPitman, Bishop of EasternNewfoundland and Labrador,in the new St. Mary’s Churchbuilding. The new plaque con-tained the same wording as theoriginal. Rev. Frank King, PriestIn Charge, conducted the serv-ice and the Bishop preached thesermon. A large contingent ofthe members of the Order,were in attendance.

The plaque was unveiledby Mr. Frank Piercey, P.M.Lodge No. 1, Mrs. BeverlyCanning, Superior Council VicePresident, and the Grand Mas-ter, Mr. Herman Sooley. It wasdedicated by Rt. Rev. CyrusPitman, Bishop of EasternNewfoundland and Labrador.A donation was made to theSeafarer’s Mission Fund.

Colbourne, Ontario

June 27, 1881

My Dear Mr. James,

Your letter containing the testimonial and thesubscriptions from the Members of the Society of UnitedFishermen came duly to hand.

Words cannot convey my feelings of thankfulness andgratitude to them for such an unexpected expression ofregard accompanied by a handsome sum of money as atangible proof of the sincerity and good feelings of thedonors towards me and while I feel that no services ofmine rendered to the Society or any of its members couldin any way deserve such recognition for whatever I mayhave done was only a duty and a pleasure. I appreciate,however, most cordially and thankfully their kindremembrance of an absent Brother.

Will you kindly convey to the members of the GrandLodge and to the Brethren of all Lodges my sincerethanks and assure them that in all my travels from NewBrunswick to the banks of the Red River in the far northwest I have never forgotten my old association with theflag of the triangle and the many happy gatherings withthe Brethren I enjoyed in dear old Newfoundland. Ilive in hope that some day I may in God’s goodprovidence, be permitted to meet with you again. Inthe meantime, I sincerely trust that our Noble Societymay flourish and prosper and that our memberseverywhere will maintain, Faith, Hope and Charity andReligion and that God may shower the blessings ofUnity, Peace and Prosperity upon all our Brethren inthis world and at last provide them a hopeful retiringplace in the Grand and Glorious Lodge above, shallever be the prayer of yours,

Thankful and Faithful BrotherGeorge Gardner.

Page 3: March 2011

3ANGLICANLife March 2011

Submitted byRobert Lynch

Harbour Grace church gives towomen’s shelter

As part of the missionand outreach ministry of St.Paul’s Anglican Church ofHarbour Grace members ofthe St. Paul’s Church familysought a way to contribute tothe new women’s shelter inCarbonear. Vestry dis-cussed ways to contributeand it was decided to have awalk-a-thon in October witha view to raising $1000 to fur-nish a bedroom. The pro-ceeds from this walkamounted to $2400, this com-bined with funds fromSpiritfest rounded the totalamount to $3000.00 Thecheque was presented toKrista Foote, shelter supervi-

sor at O’Shaughnessy House,by treasurer Tom Caines at aChristmas Candlelight serviceheld at St. Paul’s Church.

Along with the chequethere was also a framed printpresented to be hung inO’Shaughnessy house. Theprint was donated by a localartist, Pete Sampson, and theframing was donated by DonRegular of Frame It. Both aremembers of the congregationjoining others in this venture.This presentation is part of thecontinued support of the shel-ter for battered women andthe vital ministry offered tothe women and children of ourcommunities.

Reverend Shirley said, “Iwould like to acknowledgethose who walked for their

efforts, concern and kindnessgiven to this fundraiser. It isonly through their caring andthe caring of the communityat large that we were so suc-cessful.”

Gail Tobin Executive Di-rector, Iris Kirby House/O’Shaughnessy House said“On behalf of the women andchildren who avail of the criti-cal programs and services of-fered by O’ShaughnessyHouse, I would like to extendour deepest appreciation foryour recent donation. Reach-ing out a hand to warm aheart is the spirit that helpsgrow healthy communities. Ithank you most sincerely foryour kindness and generos-ity.”

Reaching our into the Community. On hand for the presentationof a framed print and cheque are (left to right) Krista Foote,shelter supervisor: Reverend Shirley Noseworthy and ParishTreasurer Tom Caines

[Episcopal News Service]Bishop Mouneer Anis of theDiocese of Egypt has writtena letter of appreciation for allthe prayers and messages sentfrom around the world in lightof the recent instability andanti-government protests inthat country.

“In the midst of the turmoilwhich Egypt is going through,we have felt that the Lord isvery near to us. We have ex-perienced his peace, and wewere assured of his protec-tion,” he said, noting that all thechurches in the diocese are safeeven though the government-provided security was with-drawn Jan. 28.

“This assured us that theone who protects the churchesis the Lord of the church.”

For just over a week, dem-onstrators have been protest-ing the 30-year rule of Egypt’sPresident Hosni Mubarak whohad appeared determined tocling onto power until he an-nounced Feb. 1 that he wouldnot seek re-election when histerm ends in November.

With his announcement,Mubarak appointed IbrahimSoliman as vice president, Anissaid. “He has a good reputa-tion among Egyptians,” saidAnis in the statement releasedby the Anglican CommunionNews Service. “This appoint-ment ruled out the possibilityof appointing the president’sson as a successor.”

Mubarak also appointed

Ahmed Shafiq as new primeminister. “He is a very good manand has done a lot of improve-ment in his previous ministry”as minister of civil aviation, saidAnis. “President Mubarak alsocalled for a review for the con-stitution to allow democracy;he also assured the people thatthose who were responsible forthe violence, destructions, loot-ing, escape of prisoners, etc…will be brought to judgment.”

But Anis’ statement wassoon followed by news thatviolence between thousands ofMubarak supporters and op-ponents had erupted in Cairo’sTahrir Square.

Several thousand prisonershave escaped since the protestsbegan on Jan. 25; looters haverobbed and set fire to severalstores and some hotels havebeen completely ransacked.

“I was touched to seeyoung adults, Muslims andChristians, guarding the streets,homes, and our churches,” said

Anis. “They did not allow anythieves or looters to come nearthe area. They also arrestedsome of those and handedthem over to the Army. I ap-plaud our local Egyptian clergyand people who joined theyouth in the streets in guardinghomes and churches.”

Anis, president bishop ofthe Episcopal/Anglican Prov-ince of Jerusalem and the Mid-dle East, said he “admired allour expatriate clergy and dioc-esan staff who refused to leaveEgypt in order to stay in themidst of the people who de-cided not to go, even whentheir embassies encouragedthem to leave and provided

airplanes to do so.”One priest who decided to

remain in the country is the Rev.Paul-Gordon Chandler, anEpiscopal Church mission part-ner who has served since 2003as rector of an internationalEpiscopal church. He told ENSon Jan. 31, “If ever I’ve had arole to play, it’s right now.”

Chandler said he and hiswife Lynne are needed as apoint of contact for his com-munity in the Maadi district ofCairo and to stand in solidaritywith Egyptians friends and col-leagues, both Christian andMuslim.

Meanwhile, in Yemen,where similar protests have

Bishop of Egypt sends message of hope, appreciationArticle by

Matthew Daviesbeen underway, President AliAbdullah Saleh has said he willstep down in 2013 when hecompletes his current term.

“Egypt is a very importantcountry in the whole of theMiddle East, and whateverhappens in Egypt affects therest of the countries,” said Anis,commenting on Saleh’s an-nouncement. “We pray that wecan set a good example to thesurrounding countries.”

— Matthew Davies is edi-tor and international corre-spondent for the EpiscopalNews Service.

Egyptian Bishop Mouneer Anis

Page 4: March 2011

March 2011 ANGLICANLife4

ANGLICAN LIFE in Newfoundland and Labrador is thenewspaper of the Anglican Church in the Province ofNewfoundland and Labrador. A co-operative effort of thethree Dioceses in Newfoundland and Labrador, it ispublished monthly, except July and August, with anindependent editorial policy.

A section of the Anglican Journal

Editor-in-Chief:The Rev’d Sam Rose8 Croydon StreetParadise, NLA1L 1P7Email: [email protected]

Advertising Rates and other information may beobtained from:Bishop Donald Young34 Fraser Road, Gander, NL, A1V 2E8Phone: (709) 256-7701Email: [email protected]

Subscription Rates:Newfoundland and Labrador: $15.00Outside the province: $20.00International: $25.00

New subscriptions, cancellations, & changes of addressshould be sent to:CirculationThe Anglican Journal (attn. Bev Murphy)80 Hayden Street, Toronto, ON, M4Y 3G2(416) 924-9192 (O) (416) 925-8811 (fax)Email: [email protected]

Each parish is responsible for maintaining its ownsubscription list - please notify your parish office of anychanges. Changes sent to parish offices may take monthsto take effect. Please also send your updated information toCirculation at the Anglican Journal (above) or to DonYoung at 34 Fraser Road, Gander NL A1V 2E8.

Articles and photographs: Send to the Editor-in-Chief(above)

Parish Bulletins and Letters to the Editor: Send to theEditor-in-Chief, Sam Rose (address as above). All lettersmust include the writer’s name, address, and telephonenumber. Telephone numbers will not be published.Anglican Life does not publish letters under nom de plume.Letters should not exceed 300 words (one double spacedtypewritten page), and are subject to editing at thediscretion of the editor.

These policies were adopted by the Anglican Life Committee.Layout & Design: Sam RosePrinted by:Signal Star Publishing, A Division of Bowes PublishersLimited,Industrial Park, 120 Huckins Street,Goderich, Ontario, N7A 4B6

Circulation: 23,058

ANGLICANLifein NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR Lenten renovation

EDITORIAL

Father Sam RoseEditor

I am a huge fan of homerenovation shows that youfind on television. I havesome favorites – “RealRenos” and “Holmes onHomes.” On Holmes onHomes, there is a contractornamed Mike Holmes who ishired by clients to fix reno-vation projects gone wrong.He comes in and inspects allthat other contractors havedone wrong in the home andpromises to fix their mis-takes. His signature catchphrase is “Make it Right.” Heoften has to tear out all themistakes made in the build-ing’s structure and start overfrom the beginning. At theend of the show you see howhe has fixed the mistakes andcompletely renovated thehome in order to make itright, as it should have beenin the first place.

Renovation is hard work.It often means having to takewhat we don’t like and re-place it with something bet-

ter. Sometimes it is easier tojust build a new home insteadof renovating an older one -it is often more costly torenovate than starting fromscratch.

The Bible speaks of reno-vation. In Exodus we read ofGod giving His people theTen Commandments. Hav-ing guided the people underMoses’ leadership out ofslavery, into the wilderness,and to the foot of Mount Si-nai, God summoned Moses tothe top of the mountain.There God spoke Ten Com-mandments. We are to haveno other God than the LordGod who delivered the Isra-elites out of slavery. We arenot to misuse God’s name.We are to observe the Sab-bath day. We are to honourparents. We are not to kill;not to commit adultery; notto steal; not to tell lies, slan-der, or speak ill of a neigh-bour; not to desire or try totake away a neighbour’shouse; and not to desire or tryto take away a neighbour’sfamily or possessions.

When God gave thesecommandments to his peo-ple, they were just set freefrom hundreds of years ofcaptivity in Egypt. If youhave been a slave your wholelife, when you are grantedfreedom you often can mis-use it. God offered these Ten

Commandments as guide-lines for remaining faithful.They are guideposts for life.They are God’s recipe forhow we can live together infreedom. They are God’s of-fering in love to people whoGod knows will wander.They are the promise that alife of freedom is possiblewith God.

Sometimes we can mis-use the Ten Commandments.Too often they are used tobeat people over the head andto pronounce everythingthat’s wrong with a person ora group or a society. I onceheard a famous Americantelevangelist say that becauseAmerica had abandoned theTen Commandments, theSeptember 11 terrorist at-tacks were God’s punishmentupon a faithless society. Ithink that is a gross misuseof the Ten Commandments.

I see the Ten Command-ments more of God’s gift tous for helping renovate ourlives. When you renovate ahome, you need a set of plansor blueprints to make sure thejob is done right. The TenCommandments are a lotlike that. They offer usguidelines to live together asfaithful members of God’s

Continued on page 6See ‘Renovation’

Page 5: March 2011

5ANGLICANLife March 2011

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A very special AnglicanChurch Women (ACW)installation took place atthe Cathedral of St. John theEvangelist, Corner Brook onSunday 6 February 2011.The National President ofthe ACW, Mrs. Terri Parrillwas present for theinstallation and presentedthe new executive withbookmarks and the newlydesigned ACW pin. Photo– Front left to right –Millicent Sheppard, ConnieLamswood, Terri Parrill,Nellie LeMessurier, HelenHall; 2nd row – BarbaraHughes, Greta Barrett,Norma House, EileenChurchill; 3rd row – MaryHardy and Dean MichaelRice. Missing – ElaineThorne, Muriel Randell,Elaine Watton. Submittedby Patty George.

What is A.W.A.R.E.?AWARE stands for An-

glican Women, Alive, Re-newed and Enriched. At anAWARE event in 2009 abeautiful weekend was heldunder direction of EmmaMarsh. The attendees ex-plored this beautiful story ofMary and Martha with Jesus.

Emma touched our verysouls again with her teach-ings of this wonderful story.Twenty five beautiful Chris-tian women spent the week-end realizing that in thisMARTHA world we most

Submitted byOlive Grunert

definitely should becomeMARYS but we realized thatwe have to be a little of both.Sometimes, in our rushedworlds as women, with ourown families, aging parents,our jobs and our own spir-itual journeys and with try-ing to function in our parisheswe must remember thatthere is more expected of usthan to be fund raising andthat we need time for fellow-ship and learning together.This is what Jesus wouldwant us to do.

Rev. Dana Mellis usedbeautiful little tulips plantedin separate pots, growing at

different stages to show usthat we are not all “at thesame place” in our faiths.Duncan, the Lavrock care-taker, had planted tulip bulbsin pots in the ground, and hadjust dug them up and laidthem on the front steps in thiscold May weather. Rev.Dana in her contemplativeway, brought these inside andshowed us with her teachingthat we are all like the plants,some at different stages ofour faith, not quite bloomingyet, while others are show-ing color, but then again oth-ers are really young yet andexplained to us it is alright

that we are at different stagesof our faith’s journey anddemonstrated the beauty ofeach one. It was most heartwarming and comfortable.

Our workshops were pro-ductive as women broughtforth their different ideas andquestions, we all learnedmuch from that. The prayertime was most sacred and themusic lifted our souls in thatbeautiful country. As we re-ceived communion on Sun-day morning we had an altarcloth that was inscribed byeach woman, most beautiful.

Lavrock offered us, asusual, wonderful meals and

caring and the staff have be-come precious to us.

Come join us on 4 June2011 at the Church of theGood Shepherd in MountPearl for a one day AWAREevent from 9:00 a.m. until4:00 p.m. Women of allfaiths are welcome. Lunchwill be served.

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March 2011 ANGLICANLife6

Gift of securities

Kevin Smith

Kevin Smith is a gift planning consultant for the AnglicanChurch of Canada. He can be contacted at 739-5667 or

[email protected]

There are many ways tomake a planned gift to yourchurch. One that has grown insignificance in recent years isthe gift of shares or securities.When you donate listed secu-rities to your church, you get atax receipt for the full marketvalue of the gift and pay NOtax on the gain derived fromgifting the securities. It is themost tax effective way tomake a donation.

One such gift was receivedin the closing days of 2010. Itwas a gift of securities from aparishioner of St. Michaels andAll Angels in St. John’s. You may

or may not know that St.Michael’s is in the process ofraising $400,000 as part of acapital campaign to build anew church building. The do-nor – let’s call him George –for he wants their gift to beanonymous - gave a numberof securities totalling approxi-mately $25,000. Why wouldhe do that? Because, in hiswords, it’s a win-win situa-tion. Here’s what he said:

“Upon reviewing myvarious options for paymentlisted in the campaign mate-rial, I chose Publicly TradedSecurities. This payment typefor anyone who holds sharesis a win / win situation. Rev-enue Canada some time agochanged the income tax actsuch that any capital gainaccrued on shares is not sub-ject to tax if they are trans-ferred to a registered charita-ble organization. The donorwins (not having to pay tax)and the church wins (it will getthe full value of the shares).”

I pressed him further. But,

why would he and his wife sup-port the parish at this time?George replied:

“The year 2010 was the125th anniversary of the Par-ish of St. Michael and All An-gels. Through all those yearsthere have been thousands of

Father Sam Rose receives a gift of$25,000 from a parishioner through aPlanned Gift of Securities

STEWARDSHIP

people who have devoted theirtime, talent and treasure tomould St. Michael’s to be the

unique parish that it is today.With the direction of longterm dedicated rectors, tra-ditions were established thatcontinue today and are thereason that many of our pa-rishioners travel long dis-tances to worship and findcomfort in our midst doingGod’s work. Having been amember of the parish formost of my life, I recognizethe value of this ministry.When I think about the con-tribution of all the peoplethat have come before me, Ihave a real sense of a re-sponsibility that has beenpassed to me to carry on intothe future.”

The current Rector of St.Michael & All Angels, FatherSam Rose, was obviously de-

lighted. He said:“St. Michael’s has been

blessed with innovative lead-ership who have, since 1885,realized that our parish is a

unique expression of theCatholic faith. Parishionersconsider St. Michael & All An-gels not just a church to at-tend but a family in which theybelong. The relocation of ourparish family to a new area isour response to God’s call tomission. Our family have beengenerous in making this tran-sition a reality. This plannedgift is one way in which God’smission can be achieved.”

What a wonderful legacythat George and his wife haveleft for their parish. Their actof generosity and stewardshipis indeed remarkable.

I leave the final words toGeorge:

“We need to spread theword of our ministry to newareas and new people and thiswill happen with the relocationof our new church. I am com-mitted to contribute in any wayto make this happen. I havegiven this contribution at thestart of the campaign as it mayserve as an encouragement orincentive to others.”

family. It is not so muchabout not breaking them, butas living faithfully by them.

So instead of havingmany small gods in our life– the god of money, the godof pleasure, the god of self-ishness - we have the free-dom of worshipping the onetrue Lord God Almighty.Instead of working our fin-gers to the bone, we have thefreedom of a Sabbath rest.Instead of always comparing

our possessions against ourneighbour’s (keeping up withthe Jones’ as the expressionsays), we have the freedom tobe content and happy withwhat we have been blessedwith.

Through the Ten Com-mandments, God is renovat-ing you and me – He allowsus to remove the things thatare barriers to Him – and of-fers us the freedom of trueworship, true faithfulness,and a true relationship withHim. In short, God is offer-

ing us a better life - a life ofblessed freedom. It’s a reno-vation of our lives and of ourrelationship with God.

Lent is a great time for apersonal renovation. Whatneeds renovating in your life?What are the barriers thatkeep you from worshippingthe Lord your God with yourheart, all your soul, all yourmind, and all your strength?What would Christ renovatein you?

RenovationContinued from page 4

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7ANGLICANLife March 2011

NEWS FROM ACROSSTHE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA

Churches support food co-opChurches support food co-opChurches support food co-opChurches support food co-opChurches support food co-opChristian leaders from nine denominations, including Anglican, and one faith-based group

have signed a letter of support for a co-operative that will offer local, fresh, low-cost and healthyfood in an inner city area in Saskatoon that has not had a grocery store for over a decade.The church leaders have asked their parishioners to raise $650,000 to build and equip the GoodFood Junction co-operative grocery store, which will be located at Station 20 West.

“…In Jesus’ ministry, we see his profound concern for those who were in need. He gavedignity to those who were poor, suffering or oppressed,” the leaders said in their letter toparishioners. “He identified himself with those who were hungry or thirsty, saying that whateverwe do for those most in need, we do for him…. As his disciples, we have a moral imperative tofollow his example.”

They noted that staying healthy is “a challenge for many in the area whose needs are highand whose resources are limited.” The absence of a grocery store, they said, has meant residentsin the city’s core neighbourhoods have had no access to healthy, affordable food.

Aside from the Anglican Church of Canada, the other signatories are: Ukrainian CatholicEparchy of Saskatoon, Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon, Mennonite Church Saskatchewan,Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Presbyterian Church in Canada, Mennonite CentralCommittee, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, United Church of Canada, and EvangelicalMinisters Fellowship.

—The Saskatchewan Anglican

Investing in religious heritageInvesting in religious heritageInvesting in religious heritageInvesting in religious heritageInvesting in religious heritageThe Anglican diocese of Quebec’s Cathedral of the Holy Trinity and St. James, Hatley,

have been granted almost $400,000 through the provincial government’s religious heritagerestoration program.

The cathedral will receive $114,446—70 per cent of the amount needed ($163,494) torestore its doors, windows, entrance and masonry work. St. James, Hatley, will receive $280,000—70 per cent of the amount required to restore its parish hall ($400,000).The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, built from 1799 to 1804, is the first Anglican Cathedral to havebeen built outside the British Isles, and is located near the Chateau Frontenac and the Placed’Armes.

St. James hall, originally built in 1831 as a school house, is the last remaining two-storeywooden school building in Quebec. For 44 years, it has been used as a parish hall, and from 1990until last summer, its second floor housed the municipal library, in what once were Sunday schoolclassrooms.

The grant will help cover costs of a new roof, restoration of the building’s windows andexterior, and updating of electrical wiring to comply with building code.Since 1995, the Quebec government, through its Ministry of Culture, Communications and theStatus of Women, has invested $6 million in the diocese of Quebec, out of $240 million overall forreligious heritage restoration.

—Quebec Diocesan Gazette

Milestone for Inuit communityMilestone for Inuit communityMilestone for Inuit communityMilestone for Inuit communityMilestone for Inuit communityThe Inuit community marked a milestone recently when Aigah Attagutsiak received a

license authorizing her to serve as a lay reader in the Anglican diocese of Ottawa.For the first time, a member of the Inuit community may now serve in a ministry outside thediocese of the Arctic. The hope is that Attagutsiak, rector’s warden for St. Margaret’s Church,Vanier, eventually will be ordained to the diaconate for the diocese of the Arctic and commissionedto serve in the diocese of Ottawa. Ottawa, particularly the Vanier area, is home to the largestsettlement of Inuit people outside Nunavut and Nunavik. In 2009, St. Margaret’s Church introduceda regular monthly Inuit service.

—Crosstalk

Letter to the EditorThe Rev’d Greg Mercer

recently (Anglican Life Feb-ruary 2011) presented his im-passioned displeasure of aBiblical literalist publicationdropped into manymailboxes throughout theProvince, that denouncedChristmas as Biblically un-justifiable and even pagan inorigins: thus true Christiansshould not celebrate it. Icouldn’t help but to connectthe whole affair with the re-cent celebration ofGroundhog Day. That mightseem to be a strange twist,but hear me out.

Many of our parentswould be able to relate to usthis old poem, or someclosely related version of it:

If Candlemas Day is coldand glum, the rest of Winteris yet to come.

If Candlemas Day is fairand fine, the worst of Win-ter is left behind.

Not that long ago,Candlemas day was what to-day’s Groundhog Day is, butthat the day, in folklore hadbecome a predictor of theweather is not important. What needs to be noted isthat February 2 was knownin the mind of the people asCandlemas Day, NOTGroundhog Day. In otherwords, the day was rooted inChristian memory. Now ithas been ‘paganized,’ for nogood purposes than a sillynews story and mid-winterhumor.

Candlemas, in its origins,is rooted in the developmentof the Church Year. It is ex-actly forty days after Christ-mas, and celebrates the Pres-entation of Christ in the Tem-ple and the Purification of theVirgin Mary. The feast be-came known as Candlemasafter the development of theBlessing of the Candles to beused in the Church for thecoming year. This arose fromthe Gospel reading for theFeast Day where St. Simeonsays that Jesus would be, “…aLight to lighten the Gen-tiles.” Celebrating such anevent is of far greater benefitto those of the Christian faiththan wondering if agroundhog in the UnitedStates will cast a shadow.

I agree with the BiblicalLiteralists that Christmas isnot established by the Scrip-tures, but because they do nothave a developed under-standing of the living witnessof the Body of Christ, HisChurch, they cannot under-stand the validity and impor-tance of the Nativity Feast inthe Life of the Church andChristian formation. Any

brief research of the originsof Christmas will reveal thatit was a very deliberate place-ment by the Church of thecelebration of the Nativity ofChrist at the same time of theRoman Pagan festival of theSun. Thus Christmas is not afeast of Pagan origins: it is asupreme example of how aChristian Feast can and didreplacereplacereplacereplacereplace a pagan feast. TheChurch Year with its rhythmsof Feasts and Fasts developedvery quickly throughoutChristianity, and for the ex-press purpose of keepingChrist and the Biblical wit-ness in the minds and heartsof those who would come toChrist in and through HisChurch. Let us understandthat when we forget God andHis Christ we become pa-gans, or worst, but when weremember Him we are trans-formed. Knowing this theChurch very deliberatelyovershadowed a pagan festi-val with a Christian Festival,and good on the Church!

That being said, the Bib-lical Literalists are making agood point in noting thatChristmas is very quicklybecoming pagan, not unlikeCandlemas Day is nowGroundhog Day. And this isbecause we are forgettingChrist as revealed in theChurch and the Bible. AsAnglicans, I believe we mustreturn to the roots of our Bib-lical and Liturgical witness,to deliberately engage in theFeasts and Fasts of the Churchbecause they help us to re-member Christ, and thus betransformed into His like-ness, and light.

Rev’d Brian CandowGander

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March 2011 ANGLICANLife8

Article and Photo byDonna King

Candlemas celebrated on Bell IslandCHURCH

LIFE

A very ‘special’ delivery!Article by

Susan Haskell

Photo byLeslie Hardy

To commemorate theFeast of The Presentation ofOur Lord in the Temple, alsoreferred to as Candlemas, theParish of Bell Island held acelebratory weekend. OnFriday 28 January 2011, therewas a Dinner and Dance atSt. Michael’s Parish Hallwith a guest speaker in theperson of Dr. Myrle Vokey.Dr. Vokey, who grew up onBell Island and was a parish-ioner of St. Cyprian’s Church,reminisced of his childhooddays which had the audiencerolling in laughter. This wasimmediately followed by adance that saw the floor con-stantly full. There was nodoubt in anyone’s mind thata good time was had by all!

On Saturday evening, theparish held a Pot Luck Sup-per at the Masonic Lodge,which included a “Jail andBail” activity. Four mem-

bers of the parish were ar-rested and handcuffed by thelocal RCMP detachment andput on trial. The judge placeda condition on each of theirbail - they had to raise a cer-tain amount of money. In theend, the parish realized awonderful donation from thisfundraising venture. This ac-tivity was followed by a de-licious meal that was thor-oughly enjoyed by everyone.

The parish concluded thiswonderful weekend with ourweekly Sunday worship serv-ice. During the service, can-dles that were to be used inthe church and at home wereblessed and the Holy Eucha-rist celebrated. It was a fit-ting conclusion to a fantasticweekend of fellowship andfriendship. We look forwardto participating in similarevents in the near future asour parish continues to grow.Special thanks go to ourPriest-in Charge, FatherMark Janes.

Order in the court! Convicted Parishioners of the Parish of Bell Island listen to their sentencehanded down by the Judge ‘Hop Sing.’ This was one of many festivities over the Candlemasweekend in which the Parish came together to celebrate the Light of Christ that shines in theworld.

Good Shepherd Parish delivers 4379 diapers to children’s centre

Christmas came early atthe Daybreak Parent ChildCentre this year. On Decem-ber 23, Archdeacon GeoffPeddle, Christopher Fowler,and servers of the Parish of theGood Shepherd made a sizablecontribution to the Centre’sPrograms.

The collection of 4379 dia-pers that were delivered thatday began in response to theparishes’ recent awareness ofdiaper need in the community.A Telegram article inadvert-ently sparked the outreach ini-tiative when it presented thestark facts on nappy need in thiscountry. Nearly 1 in 5 Cana-dian mothers report struggling

to provide clean diapers fortheir babies and have had to cutback on basics such as food,electricity, and child care in or-der to afford them. Some par-ents said they have had to re-sort to using more diaper creamor let their child go without adiaper and prepare for acci-dents. 29% of moms in diaperneed said they let their babystay in a soiled diaper for alonger period of time and 4%reported cleaning out soiled dia-pers for reuse.

Daybreak personnel werevery appreciative of the pam-pers and echoed the needs cap-tured in The Telegram report.The Parish of the Good Shep-herd continues to help makehappy endings for Moms andBabes with an ongoing collec-tion of diapers at the parish.

Happy Bottoms! As part of their outreach in the community, the Parish of the Good Shepherddonated 4379 diapers to the Daybreak Parent & Children Centre. The motivation for this act was areport that said many parents in the St. John’s/Mount Pearl area actually cannot afford diapers fortheir children resulting in having to re-use soiled diapers.

Send Anglican Life yourparish stories and photossamrose@nl .rogers.com

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9ANGLICANLife March 2011

Onward in MissionCHURCH

LIFE

Article byFr. Sam Rose

Photo byJoan Dawe

St. Michael & All Angels launch $400,000 campaign

There have been manysignificant moments in thehistory of the Parish of St.Michael & All Angels in St.John’s when members of theparish have ventured tomove, to build, to change orto enhance their churchbuildings and worship spacein an effort to shape their fa-cilities to serve the needs ofmission. St. Michael’s is inthe midst of one of thosemoments right now. Havingsold their former Church andHall facility last year that hasserved well for over 50 years,the parish is now embarkingon re-locating their ParishFamily to a growing newarea in the St. John’s/MountPearl/Paradise region.

This is being done for themission that God has givento His Church - to “go intothe world and preach theGospel to the whole crea-tion.” (St. Mark 16.15) Now,more than ever, God is call-ing His Church to be faithfulto this mission.

The estimated budget forthis re-location is $2.5 mil-

lion. Some members of theparish have already pledgedor donated to this greatproject and now they areready to widen this appeal tothe whole parish family.Therefore the Campaign“Onward in Mission” waslaunched in January 2011at the CLB Armoury in St.John’s. Over 125 parish-ioners came to the speciallaunch dinner to learnmore about the plans forrebuilding St. Michael’s ina new neighbourhood. Inaddition music was pro-vided by the CLB Regi-mental Band and St.Michael’s Choir.

A campaign goal of$400,000 has been estab-lished based on a Feasibil-ity Study conducted byMinistry & Money Inter-national, a fundraisingfirm from Toronto, On-tario.

The Campaign Com-mittee has carefully con-sidered the costs and poten-tial revenues including fi-nancing to make this visiona reality that is affordable forthe current and future parish-ioners of St. Michael & AllAngels. The parish will beactively pursuing additionalrevenue towards the pay-

ment of the mortgage and themaintenance costs. The Dio-cese and Cathedral has showntheir support by providingthe land on Kenmount Road.

The new neighbourhoodwill be an exciting place forgrowth and renewal. Thenew church will be sur-rounded by existing homesand new development withinthree municipalities. TheCity of Mount Pearl has de-veloped Pearlview with ap-

proximately 3,000 residentsin the Mount Carson area andhas approved expansion of anadditional 350 homes whichwill accommodate 1000 resi-

dents. The City of St. John’sis in the process of develop-ing Kenmount Terrace, a newsub-division within a halfkilometre of the new churchlocation containing 2700 newhomes, one-third of whichhave already been com-pleted. Finally, Elizabeth

Park in Paradise, a commu-nity of 5000 people, contin-ues to expand eastward withplans for additional growth.The parish is walking boldly

ahead having recognizedthat their destinationchurch in downtown St.John’s could not meet thegoal of mission as ourcongregation aged with-out the vitality of new andyounger families. In addi-tion to regular Sundayworship, the new locationwill provide opportuni-ties to reach out to thispopulation in new and in-novative ways.

The purpose of St.Michael & All Angels isto Worship God, LovePeople, and Serve theWorld. This three-foldcommitment to worship,fellowship and outreachhas permeated the missionof St. Michael’s since1885. It is vital that thechurch’s ministry grow

and expand along with thecommunity it serves. It is fit-ting that the parish is reach-ing out in mission on their125th Anniversary of serviceto God’s world.

Onward in Mission. Bishop Cyrus Pitman (left) and CampaignCommittee Chairperson Mr. Adrian Heffernan (right) at the launch ofSt. Michael & All Angels Capital Campaign at the CLB Armoury.

Thank you Dave& Sally Saunders

On 23 January 2011,friends and family of Dave andSally Saunders gathered at St.Edward’s Church inGlovertown to celebrate fiftyyears of licensed lay ministryfor Dave and more than fortyyears for Sally as church organ-ist.

Diocesan bishop, DavidTorraville officiated at the serv-ice of Holy Eucharist and Mr.Saunders gave a reflection ofhis call to ministry which beganon Flat Island with a birthdaygift of a Bible from his sister,Kate.

The Glovertown Commu-nity Choir sang two anthemsand Dave and Sally’s niecessang a duet. Their two sons,David and Jason accompanied

their mother on guitar.The elements for Com-

munion were brought forwardby their daughter Paulette andtheir grandchildren, Jack,Emma, and Nicholas. Thescripture readings and theprayers were led by LicensedLay Ministers of the other con-gregations of the parish. Thecongregation was led in thereading of the psalm byClarence Riggs, himself a Li-censed Lay Minister of 65years. Mr. Riggs also led in thesaying of the table grace at themeal which followed. Presen-tations were made by the Li-censed Lay Ministers Associa-tion, the Congregation, theACW and the Choir.

Article & Photo byThe Rev’d Betty Harbin

Dave & Sally Saunders are honoured for their longstanding ministry in Glovertown.

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March 2011 ANGLICANLife10

30 Roe Avenue, P.O. Box 348,Gander, NL A1V 1W7Telephone: (709) 651-4100Fax: (709) 256-2957email: [email protected]

Hodges Cove churches thankIgor volunteers

Submitted bySarah Sharpe

On 23 January 2011, St.Mary the Virgin Church inHodges Cove hosted an Ecu-menical Service of Recognitionand Prayer for the area churchesto thank the groups who vol-unteered their time during theaftermath of Hurricane Igor.

The service was led by TheRev. Jessie Broaders, on behalfof the Anglican Church andDeacon The Rev. Myrna Veywas also in attendance. TheReverend Robert Tuck repre-sented the United Church. Thechurch was filled to capacityand special quests included theHonorable Ross Wiseman(representing the Governmentof Newfoundland & Labra-dor), the Southwest Arm FireDepartment and Firettes, the

Hodges Cove Local ServiceDistrict, the Southwest ArmLions Club, and a representa-tive of the Clarenville area Co-op Supermarket .

Each group and or indi-vidual was asked to stand whilewords of praise and thanksgiv-ing on behalf of the entire com-munity was bestowed. A fire-man’s helmet and a wreathwere laid in memory of de-ceased firefighters. The serv-ice ended with the blessings ofthe new fire truck. A socialwas held at the Lions Club atwhich attendance was great!

The Hon. Ross Wisemandelivered a wonderful messageon behalf of the Government,while Rev. Broaders and Rev.Tuck also praised the fire de-partment and the Lions club fortheir continued support in the Southwest Arm area.

The Honourable Ross Wiseman (centre), with Fire chiefs David Spurrell (left) and Randell Meadus(right) at the Ecumenical Service St. Mary’s Church, Hodges Cove.

The Rev’d Graham M. HillThe Rev’d Graham M. HillThe Rev’d Graham M. HillThe Rev’d Graham M. HillThe Rev’d Graham M. HillNov 12, 1947 – Feb.28, 2010

A man so true to God

Rev. Graham was a man so true to GodWho was faithful and wise

I can say this for a fact my friendBecause I seen it with my own eyes

He truly inspired so many of usAs he spoke of God in powerful ways

And his congregation listened to his wordsAs he gave God’s name so much praise

He would serve God’s people in God’s holy homeAnd he would smile to bring light on God’s word

It was his passion and his prideLike nothing I ever heard

Holy Communion he loved to performTo show that Jesus is true

He done this through the guidance of GodFor all people like me and you

He was always there for all of usRight from the very start

His love he has shown all was truly strongBecause God’s love filled his heart

Poem by Charlotte Dyson

Across the Anglican Com-munion on Back to Church Sun-day 100,000 Christians had100,000 invitations acceptedbut only twenty percent of ourcongregations actually pluckedup the courage to invite. Whathappened at your church? Dothose statistics of 80% not in-viting relate to your church?

Here is a learning tool(adapted from the 12 steps ofbecoming an inviting church)any church leadership teamcould use to assess how theydid in mobilising their congre-gation to invite and addingthose who were invited to ournormal congregation on subse-quent weeks.

Step One Did you as thechurch leader manage to get thevision of doubling your congre-gation across as a compellingvision?

Step Two Did you as thechurch leader model invitationby inviting someone?

Step Three Did everymember of the congregation geta personal invitation from youas the church leader or the lead-ership team to invite?

Step Four Did we explainthe spirituality of friendship?

Step Five Did we use thePower of Story?

Step Six Did we ask God

Great ExpectationsSubmitted by

Michael Harvey

who He might want us to in-vite?

Step Seven Did we prac-tice the question would you liketo come to church with me?

Step Eight Did we pray asa church?

Step Nine Did the congre-gation courageously make in-vitations?

Step Ten Did we walk ordrive with our guests to church?

Step Eleven Did we intro-duce our invited guests to ourfriends at church?

Step Twelve Did we invitethem again the following week?

On scale of 1 to 10 with 1being poor and 10 being excel-lent evaluate how things went.Out of 120 how did you do?

This tool gives you an op-portunity to understand the ar-eas in which you can improvein terms of leadership. Thesetwelve questions give us thefeedback we need in order towork out a better plan of ac-

tion for the next time you at-tempt a big invitation Sunday.

On your next InvitationSunday or for Back to ChurchSunday in September 2011, Iwould suggest that you set avery high expectation of actu-ally doubling your congregationand retaining every single in-vited guest. Now I know youmight be thinking that is notgoing to happen but….“Thehigher goal has more to do withwho you have to become,what your church has to be-come, how many more peopleyou will have to serve and in-vite. Everything has to changewhen you are trying to have ahigher goal than a lower goal.”

Set your goals for God high.If you have a goal for God’swork that is small that may bethe result. One of the problems

Continued on page 14See ‘Expectations’

Page 11: March 2011

11ANGLICANLife March 2011

170th anniversaryArticle by

Clayton HuntThe Coaster

Anglican Fellowship of PrayerDiocese of Central Newfoundland

is sponsoring a

LENTEN RETREATat St. Catherine Renewal Centre

Grand Falls-Windsor

APRIL 5 TO 7, 2011

Retreat Leader: Rev. John WattonRector St. Martin’s Cathedral

COST: $75.00(Includes meals from noon on 5th to noon on 7th)

Apply to: Synod Office:Rev. Perry Cooper

34 Fraser RoadGander, NL A1V 2E8

email: [email protected]

The Anglican Parish ofHarbour Breton will cel-ebrate its 170th anniversaryin 2011. Doug Wells is thechair of a committee that hasbeen formed to organize sev-eral activities that will beheld later this year to cel-ebrate the special year for theparish.

Wells said that it isthrough the writings of Rev-erend Phillip Tocque (1814-1899) that the committee wasable to obtain details on thefirst Anglican Church in Har-bour Breton and the earlyclergy. The first church builtin the community in 1841was 45 feet by 25 feet andcould seat 250 people. Thischurch was referred to as the‘Cathedral Church’ of For-tune Bay.

The Harbour Breton Par-ish at this time included com-munities all along the For-tune Bay North shore area.The parish was reduced insize in 1872 when Belleorambecame a separate charge.Further restructuring of theparish occurred over theyears and before resettlementthe communities of JerseyHarbour, Sagona Island, Lit-tle Bay West, Red Cove,Great Harbour, Brunette Is-land and Bay D’ Leau Islandwere a part of the HarbourBreton Parish. Today onlyfour communities are in-cluded in the Harbour BretonParish - Harbour Breton,Wreck Cove, Boxey andCoomb’s Cove.

Each community in theparish has its own church -St. Bartholomew’s, HarbourBreton; All Saints, WreckCove; St. John the Evangelist,

Boxey and Holy Trinity,Coomb’s Cove. The oldestchurch in the parish is HolyTrinity, which is over 100years old. The present churchat Boxey was brought to thecommunity in 1971 from theresettled community of Jer-sey Harbour.

Approximately 30 min-isters have served the parishsince the early 1840s.Two ofthe longest serving ministerswere Rev. William K. Whitewho served from1854 to1886 and Rev H. MacKaywho was the ministerfrom1923 to 1947. The cur-rent minister serving the par-ish is Rev. Juanita Freemanwho began her ministry withthe parish in 2010.

Rev. Juanita said, “We’recertainly looking forward tolearning about who we wereand in celebrating who we aretoday.

“Our history is so richand there are so many placesthat have been a part of thisgreat parish. Although thoseplaces were lost because ofthe resettlement program westill see the names being car-ried forward here today be-cause the names, even thoughthey are from other places,are still with us.

“This anniversary is veryspecial in the way it will helpus acknowledge those peopleand the strong efforts theyput into building the parishas a whole.”

While details of the cel-ebrations to mark the specialyear for the parish have to befinalized, Wells said thatthere will be special servicesand activities held in the par-ish throughout the year withthe main celebration beingheld in Harbour Breton fromAugust 19 to 22, 2011.

St. Luke’s Homevolunteers honoured

Meryl and Marilyn Vokey were recognized by Anglican Homes Inc. for their volunteercontributions to Saint Luke’s Homes. The Vokeys have organized and performed in tenannual “Old Fashion Christmas” concerts. The proceeds from these concerts, about$100,000, helped purchase buses in 2001 and 2010. Robert Sexty (right), Anglican HomesBoard chair, is pictured with the Vokeys who were presented with a DVD of concertappearances. Photo credit: Sandra Piercey. Submitted by Robert W. Sexty.

Page 12: March 2011

March 2011 ANGLICANLife12 OURHISTORY

David Davis

The Document

John Leigh, 1822 (part two)John Leigh is well known

in Newfoundland, on the posi-tive side, for his vocabulary ofthe Beothuk aboriginal peopleand his reconstruction of theparish registers of Twillingatewhich are found in the samecorrespondence file as thedocument in this article comesfrom. On the negative side, hewas presiding with CaptainDavid Buchan in the SurrogateCourt when the notorious But-ler and Landrigan cases camebefore the court. By subject-ing these people to severe cor-poral punishment Mr. Leigh andCaptain Buchan sank into theemerging Newfoundland politi-cal environment and found aquestion mark placed after theirnames. Any reader interestedin the Beothuk vocabulary canlook at the article on John Leighin the Dictionary of CanadianBiography on the internet bydoing a Google search namingthe dictionary and then followthe links offered. Mr. Leigh ap-peared in two previous articlesin this series: in April 2008 (theprice of provisions in New-foundland) and February 2008(life in Twillingate). We will seea theme from this last articlerepeated later in this article.

Readers should have theusual warning that becausesome words in the text of thearticle are missing due mainlyto damage to the microfilm onwhich document is available inNewfoundland and Mr. Leigh’shabit of jumping from one topicto another with little connec-tions in his letter, it is not al-ways easy to follow his threadof his thought. However, thisdocument is one of the largestfrom a missionary in New-foundland discussing issues ofimportance to the church so thewriter will devote three articlesto it. Readers might want tosave the previous articles tohelp make sense of the currentone(s).

The church in Newfound-land had laboured under a se-vere disability for many years;the lack of any oversight orleadership position to make thechurch operations more effec-tive. Also, it was exceedinglydifficult to find missionaries andto hold them, for any length oftime. The first step in this proc-ess was appointing a visitingmissionary as is noted in thetext. This position would be atraveling supervisory positionsuch as was used for manyyears in education in New-foundland, a combination of aninspector of work and a re-source person for improvedwork.

When we began the firstpart of this document in the lastarticle, we found Mr. Leigh had

been appointed EcclesiasticalCommissary for Newfound-land; the somewhat vague “vis-iting missionary” has been givenmore substance. He has beenmade a sort of an assistantbishop reporting to the Bishopof Nova Scotia. But as onewould expect, the appointmenthas made him none too popu-lar among his colleagues in thechurch. Accusations are beinghurled at Mr. Leigh, or maybehe thinks they are being cast athim. Now with the prospect ofhigher positions being created,there is space in the church inNewfoundland for clerical ad-vancement. However, his ap-pointment was one small stepthat led to Aubrey Spencer’sappointment as Bishop ofNewfoundland later.

A very interesting histori-cal note is the statement by Mr.Leigh that there were threeCatholic priests stationed atHarbour Grace at this time. Hewas feeling out gunned and sohe raises the need for anotherpriest to support him; one totravel and one to stay home inturns. The church was oftentoo dependent on/too close tothe government both in Londonand St John’s: the results on theground did not make for a vi-brant church.

Another aspect of thesame issue is the incident of Mr.Williams and the funeral. Mr.Leigh is getting hammered fromall sides. The issues of Mr.Pickavant being an ordainedminister and Mr. Williams’ be-ing something like a lay reader,ordained vs. not ordained hasalways been a problem. JohnPickavant was twenty years aMethodist missionary and oneof the leaders of the Methodistchurch in Newfoundland. Thenote about Methodist mission-aries being ordained by theBishop of London probablycomes from Laurence Coughlin.He came to Conception Bay inthe previous century, was afollower of the Wesley broth-ers and had been ordained bythe Bishop of London and sentto Newfoundland at the re-quest of John Wesley whoprobably had lots of contactsin the Church of England.

At the end of this part ofhis report Mr. Leigh summarizesthe persons who need the sup-port of the society such as Mrs.Lampen who might be indigentwithout her husband’s salarybut usually the society was re-luctant to do this. Also notedare the needs of school mas-ters and catechists and theirsituation with the lack of priestsand signs of church and schooldevelopment in ConceptionBay.

Due to the missing word(s) the symbol “. . .” has been used to mark the gaps.

Harbor Grace12 January 1822My Dear Sir:(Continued from the last issue)

July 30 1819 / more . . . has been inserted .beyond necessity my reason was ill health and the wantof all medical assistance. I was extremely sorry to have been obliged to trespass so long on yourtime, but under the present impressions in some people’s that I have been the sole cause of Mr.Carrington’s not getting the same addition as the rest, that I have been putting myself to theSociety for the purpose of assuming the office of Rural Dean, by stating that I had established aNational School, that I have made an improper use of . . . to . . . , any assertions to be. must be ina great measure abortive - and until some reproduction of the two first accusations reaches me,that I will give publicity to, and a statement also that I recommended the person living at St John’sfor the office of rural dean, is in vain for me to attempt calling a public meeting at St John’s forthe . . . Society for . . . knowledge - I ask for nothing, but what you will I think allow, I am entitledto - The Catholics too are not over pleased with my remarking their advantages from the residenceof their ordinaries in the Country - no communication relative to them from any missionary shouldever be published in the Report, particularly in a Country like this, where they are few to oneprotestant, and scarce ever let any rematch that they may imagine has a tendency to infringeupon, and counteract their very overwhelming power to . . . by with impunity - in future, I will takeyour advice and draw up my report myself when you can always curtail it as much as you please,and if I have anything I wish to communicate to you privately, I can do it by letter accompanyingthe Report - Mr. Williams made a report to me on his having met with considerable . . . in preformingthe Services of the Church, and in one case when he was about to bury a corpse on Sunday the29th Octr, I lament that this should be the second complaint of this kind that I have been obliged -to mention I have not put it into the report because I wish first to sift it & examine some peoplewho attended the funeral I will then send you an official report on it - Mr. Williams states this “heattended the funeral at the request of, and with the Grandfather of the deceased, who had themanagement of the funeral - that he had finished the evening Service of the Church, when Mr.Pickavant, a dissenting Minister entered, and ordered him to desist, that he Mr. P asked him if hewould think of hindering a useful extempore sermon, to his Mr. Williams reading one, Mr. P preachedthe Sermon, & Mr. W was about to inter the corpse, when Mr. P said he would do it, as Mr. W wasno ordained Minister, but that he was - and did therefore inter the corpse - the Grandfather inconsequence would not go to the . . . I have since heard Mr. Pickavant’s conduct was veryreprehensible indeed - I will sift it thoroughly & let you know in the Spring, the Dissenters opposeus, and interfere with our flocks more than the Catholics for the mean time something might besaid, with effect too. relative to their not only being blessed by the Bishop, but as to their beingordained by the Bishop of London which some have asserted - I would very strongly recommendthe Society to appoint two missionaries in this bay altho’ the inhabitants of Carbonear failed insome measure in complying the terms entered in by them - There are many individuals amongstthem whose spirited and zealous conduct in the cause cannot be too highly eulogised, & theyshould not be entirely deserted, besides two . . . together of course much cheaper, than separately,and be more careful, and one can always be home whilst the other is visiting but then only one ineach case should be a married man - All three Catholic Priests live here together, and visit thedifferent outharbors in the Bay - I...missionary out that all the Catechists & Schoolmasters expectthat they are to keep the Sunday School gratis, therefore the 4th Resolution proposed by me shouldbe altered, and instead of the words “instruct three poor children at least gratis” the followingshould be inserted “we teach the children gratis.” - because if the resolutions should come out &that resolution appear, those Catechists already employed, will discontinue what they withouthesitation now perform - The Catholics I hear have a school master appointed for this place witha salary of £80 p, a. house fuel. -

I have been induced to ask for a donation for the widow of Mr. Lampen in consideration of his longservice & in case the Society could not grant such, may she draw for the whole year’s Salary, herhusband having died in August after the commencement of the last half year - His family havegiven up a number of useful things in the Schoolroom which were private property.

By reference to Louis’s Map you will find Bay Roberts lays about so from Harbor Grace 12 Miles,and Bareneed lays about 4 miles thence Southward, it is not drawn on the Map, but it is close toPort de Grave - Brigus lies about 6 Miles to the So. of that - I believed I marked all the places onthe Map. I left with you as having places of worship built - At Bearneed there is a very neatChurch built by the inhabitants - James Miner Harris has been performing the duties of a Schoolmaster and Catechist at Brigus the last 12 months under the promise that if he behaved well hewould be adopted & I understand he was, . . . within the Report, he has been dead some years- . . . Mr. Harris has drawn for his salary before I discovered his name was not in the Report, Ihope it will be paid as he will be distressed without it -

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13ANGLICANLife March 2011

The loss of a child

The Rev. Greg Mercer

STRAIGHTTALK

It has often been saidthat life is full of losses, oneafter another. From the timewe are born until the time wedie, life is more or less per-petual grief with an equal pro-portion of joy and laughtermixed in to keep us this sideof sanity. It begins with theloss of infancy, childhood andthen the devastating newsthat Santa Clause isn’t real.Then we lose our friends andprobably a job. Moving awayfrom family isn’t easy either –homesick for some, emptynest syndrome for others.Divorce is a difficult loss andfor others it might be the lossof mobility or some otherbodily function: hearing, eye-sight, etc. The death of a sib-ling or a parent is particularly

difficult, especially when theydie young leaving a youngfamily behind. But profes-sionals tell us that none is sogreat as losing a child, no mat-ter if that child is one year oldor 50 years old, or if the childdies because of natural causesor some tragedy. Circum-stances may complicate mat-ters but it is still your child andyour children are not sup-posed to die before you.There is something unnaturalabout that, isn’t it? But thenagain life can be terribly un-fair sometimes.

I speak as one who haslost a child. She was bornwith an incurable genetic dis-ease and a prognosis of just afew years to live. Oh, thetears that flowed and the gut-wrenching sickness that hit uswhen we first heard the news.And may I add stayed withus for quite some time. Formany years if we smiled at allit was often pretence. Shewas also a special needs childwhich complicated things. Ithas been almost twenty yearsnow since we laid her to rest.She was a beautiful little blondonly 7 years and 8 months

old.You are terribly alone dur-

ing those years. It seems likethe world just carries on whileyou remain stuck in your grief.At times you just feel like hol-lowing out, “Does anyonecare?” Friends are great andthey try their best but theydon’t always know what tosay and sometimes in theireffort to be kind and com-forting often say the wrongthing. “I lost my husband lastyear and I know what you aregoing through.” With all duerespect, and I realize that theloss of a spouse or a parent isnot easy, but it just doesn’tcompare to losing a child. Ihave spoken with and coun-selled others who have lostchildren, some stuck in per-petual grief and their horrorsometimes is what others sayto them, things like, “It’s timeto get on with your life”, or,“you have other children.”

Now folks let’s STOPthere for a moment because Ihave to say a word in defenceof those who have lost achild. First of all you don’t tellthem to get on with their life.And secondly, they don’t need

to be reminded that they haveother children as if to say theyare being neglected or that fo-cusing on them will help thepain. Moreover, regardless ofhow many other children youhave, or how much you lovethem, it doesn’t replace theone you have lost.

Grief is very individualis-tic. It varies from person toperson, and how one personresponds to tragedy is natu-ral for that person regardlessof what others may think. Infact, grief is so personal Iwouldn’t be able to say to an-other parent who has lost achild, “I know what you aregoing through.” The best thatI can do, having been throughthe experience, is to be anempathetic listener and to of-fer some hope, and then prob-ably to suggest some smallsteps as a means of dealingwith the hurdles that stand intheir way. And we have tostop trying to get back tobeing normal again, whateverthat may have been. Grief willeventually lead you to a newnorm but it will be a rockyroad ahead.

For those of you who are

reading this and have lost achild I encourage you to workon keeping the faith becauseif you lose your faith then youare dealing with a double trag-edy. It is not easy; I attest tothat. More than once Godwas at the runt of my anger.But I can truly say that it wasfaith that bore the load andthrough the whole grief proc-ess have blossomed into amuch more mature faith. Andso be patient with yourselfand keep praying. And seekout the support of a faith com-munity. It will be difficult attimes, singing those old hymnswhile still feeling empty inside.You can be sure it will resur-rect a few uncomfortablefeelings and probably sprouta fountain of tears — but itwill be worth it. The won-derful thing about a faith com-munity is that everyone hasexperienced loss to some de-gree or another, even if it isnot your loss.

Grief is God’s mechanismfor coping with loss. The faithcommunity is but a means tooffer that grief back to Godthrough a shared response.

What is the Christingale?Christingle simply

means “Christ light.” Manychurches all over the worldmake christingles as a re-minder that Christ is the lightwho came into the world atChristmas. Families gath-ered at the Church of theGood Shepherd on January16th were also treated to thetasty and symbolic messageof the Christingle during aspecial morning service.Having its origins in theMoravian Church, theChristingle service is a fun,inspiring, and unique way toexpress the Christian mes-sage to children and families.The Christingle orange rep-resents the world and the red

ribbon tied around it repre-sents the blood of Jesus whichwas shed for us so that oursins may be forgiven. Thefruits and sweets on the fourskewers represent God’s giftsto us, the fruits of the earth,and the four seasons. Thelighted candle in the centrerepresents Christ – the lightof the world.

Round orange, round or-ange, you serve as a sign ,That God made the roundworld with purpose divine.

Red ribbon, you tell of thebloodshed and pain. Whichled to forgiveness when Jesuswas slain.

Ripe fruits, freely given,this truth you recall, WhenGod hands out presentsthey’re meant for us all.

Bright candle, the mes-sage you carry is clear, Thetrue light from God found ahome with us here.

Christingle, Christingle,shine out in the night To kin-dle among us the marvellouslight.

The power of love is al-ways the same: Be glad, givethanks, rejoice in God’s name.

Article bySusan Haskell

Photo byJoe O’ Quinn

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March 2011 ANGLICANLife14

A kind of ministry

Ronald Clarke

COLUMN

In the early 1970’s (about40 years ago), I was asked towrite a column for our churchpaper, then called, and nowfondly remembered as, TheChurchman.

As a university graduate,though, I didn’t consider my-self a particularly good writer.I honestly didn’t believe I couldproduce material that wouldinterest people all over New-foundland and Labrador. So, Ideclined.

A good priest, however,put me on the spot. He solemnlyreminded me that this could bea real ministry for Jesus Christ.“Try it,” he urged, “and with

Award of Merit. Canon Gerald Brown (left) and Mr. Ronald Clarke (right) recently received theDiocesan Award of Merit from Bishop Pitman at the Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist on16 January 2010. Photo by the Editor.

God’s grace you can do morethan you can ask or imagine.”So I did try.

Eventually I discovered hewas right. By God’s grace thecolumn reached thousands ofhomes in Newfoundland andLabrador. Kindly people as-sured me that the columnhelped, and sometimes in-spired, them.

Without a whit of falsemodesty I must give all thecredit and the “glory to God.”

Every month I’ve prayedfor inspiration, and God alwaysgives it. I am only the mediumthrough which he works.

Recently, Bishop Pitmanpresented me with a DiocesanAward of Merit. Am I that“good”? Not at all!

Anybody, everybody cando great things to the glory ofGod. All we have to do is tobe willing to do work for him.We listen; he guides, and pro-vides. With God’s help successis completely assured!

God bless you all!

Allison Billard

Be a rebel

I always wanted to therebellious type. As a child,I wished with all my mightto have the courage to dosomething “wild”. Lookingback I don’t really knowwhat that might have been,but I really wanted to bebad.

But, alas, I just didn’thave it in me. I was tooafraid of the consequencesto try and break the rules. Isaw other kids around medoing things I thought wereso cool (probably not socool in the rational light ofsemi-adulthood) and I justwanted to be like them. Butthat wasn’t their point,right? They were rebellingagainst authority to standout and be unique. Theydidn’t want anyone copying

them.That’s not to say I didn’t

behave inappropriately attimes and get myself introuble because all childrendo at somepoint. But Iwasn’t verycourageous,and when I gotin trouble Imore oftenthan notstarted to cryand apologizeprofusely.

But now Iknow wherethis desire torebel comesfrom. AsC h r i s t i a n swe’re calledto rebel:against unjustsocial norms,against hate,against any-thing that pulls us awayfrom our relationship withGod.

Now, I’m not trying tostart my own crusade oranything. But if you look atJesus and his life and teach-ings you’ll see that he was arebel. He turned people’s

accepted social norms up-side down telling thewealthy they would neverget into heaven until theygave away everything they

had, andthat thepoor had aVIP back-stage passjust for be-ing poor. T h ethings hev a l u e dwere to-tally dif-ferent thanwhat peo-ple in histime (andours!) val-ued.

H ecalled hisfollowers,and hecalls us, to

be rebels too. It’s hard, it’sscary, but it’s right. and it’sexciting. It can be the great-est adventure. If we stand upagainst things that we knoware unjust, like hunger andpoverty, and share ourwealth to lessen the burdensof others, and love our

of the church today is that ourgoals are too low and we meetthem. If you want to achievegreat things for God, we musthave much bigger goals. If youmind says “I am sure we canmake this goal”, then it is per-haps not high enough. If ourgoals are higher we will needto think in a different way.Nothing is impossible for ourGod, but God allows us to playour part. But remember successis one person inviting one per-son, the response is God’s!

Michael Harvey is theFounder of Back to ChurchSunday in Canada and is on aSeminar Tour of Canada April27th through to May 7th.

ExpectationsContinued from page 10

neighbours and share thegospel and do it all inChrist’s name, we will berebels. In this secular soci-ety that prizes wealth andbeauty above love and hon-our we can stage a rebellion.

We will tell peopleabout God, about how heloves us and wants to be apart of our lives. And wewill pick up our crosses andfollow Jesus and do as hedid. It’s not so differentnow than it was back then,the poor are still poor, thehungry still hunger, andoutcasts slowly fade into thebackground. But we canchange it, we just have toembrace the rebel inside.

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15ANGLICANLife March 2011

The Rev. Michael Li

COLUMN

Fasting, anyone?

A WHOLE NEW REVIEW“The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See” by Richard Rohr

The Naked Now: Learningto See as the Mystics See

by Richard RohrISBN 978-0824554-34Crossroad Publishing

2009

Reviewed byThe Rev’d Everett Hobbs

Ash Wednesday fallson March 9 this year. Oncea year the celebrant ad-dresses the Ash Wednesdaycongregation, saying, “I in-vite you ... to observe a holyLent by self-examination,penitence, prayer, fasting,and almsgiving, and byreading and meditating onthe Word of God” (TheBook of Alternative Serv-ices, p. 282).

Should we fast duringLent? Because each Prov-ince in the Anglican Com-munion sets its own calen-dar, there is no universalrule for which days are fast

days. Generally Lent andFridays are set aside as fastdays. Individual Anglicansare free to determine forthemselves what particularmeasures offasting. Fastingin the Bible usu-ally means nofood and drinkfor a period. Afast was oftenfor one day fromsunrise to sun-set, and aftersundown foodwould be taken.

Fasting ismentioned firstat Mount Sinaiwhen Moses re-frained fromeating fortydays and nights. Moses returnedto the mountainto receive the tablets ofstone after the people hadsinned with the golden calf(Exodus 34:28). The Jewishlaw ordained fasting onlyon the annual Day of Atone-

ment - the tenth of the sev-enth month (Leviticus23:27-32). After the de-struction of Jerusalem in587 B.C. four fast-days were

laid down as days of re-membrance (Zechariah 7:3-5; 8:19). Also fasting ispractised in Israel as apreparation for conversewith God (Daniel 9:3).

In the course of time,fasting came to be regardedas a pious achievement. Some strict Pharisees, in Je-sus’ time, fasted every Mon-

day and Thursday(Luke 18:12). John the Baptisttaught his disci-ples to fast often(Mark 2:18). It isinteresting tonote that Jesus didnot stress fasting. He did not laydown any rulesconcerning itsobservance.

The earlychurch did notemphasize fast-ing but observedit when mission-aries (Acts 13:2-3) and elders(Acts 14:23) were

chosen. Fasting and prayerwere often linked together. From the second century on,only two intensive fast dayswere observed in prepara-tion for Easter. In the fourth

century, the two-day fastbecame a Lenten observanceof forty fast days.

Today, many of us be-lieve that Jesus did not com-mand us to fast. Fasting cansymbolize repentance forthose who fast. It is not avirtue in itself. It can in-crease our sense of humil-ity and dependence on God. Our hunger reminds us howwe need God. Fasting canallow us to give more atten-tion to prayer. It can be agood exercise in self-disci-pline. It can heighten asense of God’s presence aswe focus less on the mate-rial things of this world.

It is not wrongfor Christians to fast duringLent. We must not fast forthe wrong motives. Wemust not use fasting as ameans of getting thingsfrom God, or as a substitutefor genuine repentance. Wemust not use fasting to im-press each other or God. Letus continue to walk withGod.

Richard Rohr is aFranciscan and founder of theCenter for Action and Con-templation in the USA. He iswell known as a speaker andauthor.

This book is about how wesee the world spiritually.Broadly speaking, there aretwo ways of seeing, namely,the dualistic and the non-dual-istic. In this book, Rohr ispleading for the second, whichis largely neglected in the West.He presents the case for the“both/and” way of seeing as acomplement to the “either/or”way of seeing.

Dualism is our dominantway of thinking. It is a neces-

sary way of thinking but whenit is the only way we look atreality, it turns into a closedsystem, which limits and dis-torts how we see. Dualism initself demands certainty andsecurity, resulting in lives con-trolled by belief systems andrules. It often results in divi-sion and conflict – hatred, vio-lence, war, prejudice, damageto the earth and so on – and itsmarks are success, possession,power and status. Too oftenits outcome is right or wrong,true or false, them, for oragainst, and us win or lose.

The non-dualistic mind ismore comprehensive and inclu-sive. It can live with contradic-tion and paradox, ambiguityand uncertainty. It is non-judgemental., searches for truth

as well as answers, values ex-perience as well as ideas. It nur-tures interdependence over in-dividualism, freedom over con-trol, and humility over pride.

Rohr identifies the mysticsas those who can see non-du-alistic. He describes a mysticas one who has moved frommere belief or belonging sys-tems to actual inner experi-ences. Hugh of St Victor calledit the third eye. He realizesmost of will not become mys-tics but he claims we can learnhow to see how they see. Thebook is an attempt to teach ushow.

The example he uses is Je-sus himself. He claims that theteaching about the Kingdom ofGod is mainly non-dualistic,especially the Sermon on theMount. We tend to read theBible with dualistic minds,which can lead to division andconflict among Christians. Rohrcontends that reading scripturewith ‘the mind of Christ’ givesa non-dualistic understanding.It is about seeing through the‘eye of the heart’ and the ‘giftsof the Spirit’.

The ‘naked now’ refers tocontemplative prayer, a way ofseeing used by the mystics. In

contemplation we remain in thepresent moment and experi-ence the power of the now: wecome empty (naked) and opento what is there. We comewithout preconceptions or ex-pectations. Simply waiting fora future given by God andgrace.

The Naked Now is avail-able at the Diocesan BookRoom, 19 King’s Bridge Road,St. John’s.

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March 2011 ANGLICANLife16

YouthYouthYouthYouthYouthLifeyouth ministry in newfoundland & labradoryouth ministry in newfoundland & labradoryouth ministry in newfoundland & labradoryouth ministry in newfoundland & labradoryouth ministry in newfoundland & labrador

MMMMMaaaaarrrrryyyyy’’’’’s Hs Hs Hs Hs Haaaaarbrbrbrbrbooooour yur yur yur yur yooooouuuuuth eth eth eth eth evvvvvaaaaannnnngggggelizelizelizelizelizeeeee

The students and teachers of St. Mary the Virgin (Mary’s Harbour, Labrador) along with parent volunteers were busy discipling during the weekbefore Christmas. Every home in Mary’s Harbour and Lodge Bay received a Good News package delivered by the discipling team. This package wasa wonderful evangelistic tool which contained a New Testament, some devotional reading and a personal invitation to our church services on ChristmasEve. All services were very well attended and we have received some wonderful feedback! Sometimes in our busy lives coming out to church getsneglected often making it difficult to return. We wanted to send the message that all are welcome and encouraged to come regardless if you are aregular, an occasional or a non attendee. We are now confident that each home has a copy of God’s Word. These Good News packages werepurchased at the Diocese Resource Centre and I would certainly recommend them to others as we are still “reaping what we have sown”…..Galatians6:7. Submitted by Rev. Irene Sutton.

St Augustine’s, Stephenville Annual Sunday schoolChristmas Concert. The Sunday school children did theirpresentation of “Love Came Down at Christmas.” The littleones were all very excited as the older children did theirreadings. The children playing the various roles of littleangels, shepherds, wise men, Mary, Joseph and the mostimportant one of all baby Jesus, did a wonderful job. TheTeachers made banners which hung from the ceilinghanging above the Altar and at the appropriate time duringthe concert the older children released each banner to showthe four important elements of the Christmas Season beingPeace, Hope, Love and Joy. This is what God wants for usall. Submitted by Caren Noseworthy.

StephenvilleSunday School