Bishop Andrew Asbil is encouraging Anglicans to attend one – or more – of the five large worship gatherings planned around the diocese in 2025. “It’s an opportunity for our community to come together and pray and sing and rejoice as followers of Jesus Christ,” he says.
The gatherings will be held in each region of the diocese so that people can easily get to them. The services will be held on March 22 at 2 p.m. at St. James Cathedral, on March 29 at 2 p.m. at Trinity, Streetsville, on May 31 at 2 p.m. at All Saints, Whitby, on Sept. 27 at 2 p.m. at St. James, Orillia and on Oct. 25 at 2 p.m. at St. Paul, Bloor Street.
“The services are on Saturday afternoons, and the hope is that we’ll fill each place,” says Bishop Asbil. “We have the leadership of the bishops but also preachers who are homegrown members of the diocese, and the music will be local as well as diocesan and diverse.”
He says the services are a way for Anglicans to “create connective tissue again” after the Covid years. “We’re in a new season, and what we’ve been learning over the last number of years, especially in and coming out of Covid, is that we are much stronger together, that we’ve learned how to do some new things together. This is a chance for us to get to know one another in a more intimate setting, and also see that we are more than the sum of our parts.”
He’s looking forward to gathering and worshipping together. “Most of us leave large diocesan worship services feeling empowered, rejuvenated and joyful, and to have five of them over the course of 2025 is exciting. People can go to all of them if they want or choose one. Parishes can bring a busload or carload or folks can come individually. It’s a way to get to know people from other parishes, a chance to sing together again.”
The services are part of the Season of Spiritual Renewal, an initiative that seeks to renew the spiritual lives of Anglicans in the diocese. The season is one of Cast the Net’s 20 calls to the diocese, which were unanimously endorsed by Synod in 2023.
More information about the regional worship services in 2025 will be published in The Anglican and posted on the season’s web page, www.toronto.anglican.ca/spiritualrenewal, as it becomes available.
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