Thanks to a small area council grant, St. John the Baptist, Norway is leasing a volume of The Saint John’s Bible Heritage Edition. The book includes the four gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, told through vibrant illuminations and exquisite calligraphy. It is at the church until the end of April – or possibly longer – and available for public viewing.

The Heritage Edition, as it is commonly known, is the fine art version of The Saint John’s Bible, commissioned by Saint John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minnesota in the 1990s. The Saint John’s Bible is the first illuminated, handwritten bible of monumental size to be commissioned by a Benedictine monastery in more than 500 years.

Made with traditional materials such as calfskin and ancient inks, and written with quill pens fashioned from goose, turkey and swan feathers, the bible contains all 73 books from the Old and New Testaments using the New Revised Standard Version, presented in seven volumes of about 1,150 pages. It is housed at Saint John’s University in Minnesota.

The Heritage Edition was created so that people around the world can see this great and rare work of art. Limited to 299 seven-volume sets, the Heritage Edition is true to the scale, beauty and artistic intent of the original manuscript. It can be purchased in its entirety or, as in the case of St. John the Baptist, Norway, one of the volumes can be rented by the season.

“The mission statement of the Heritage Edition is ‘igniting the spiritual imagination of believers around the world,’ so I thought maybe this is how we could ignite the spiritual imagination of our parish and also our neighbours and be a gift to my clergy colleagues and their parishes,” says the Rev. Molly Finlay, incumbent of St. John the Baptist, Norway.

Ms. Finlay has been captivated by the Heritage Edition ever since she got a close-up look at it at a conference in Florida last March. “The illuminations are breathtaking and the handwritten script is consistent throughout,” she says. “When I look at it, I feel like I’m almost stepping back into time. I feel very close to the people who wrote those first gospel accounts.”

In addition to displaying it in the chancel, the church uses the bible in its worship services. Weighing 22 pounds, it is carried up the aisle by two people and placed on its stand on the altar. It is processed into the congregation for the proclamation of the gospel and is used at the church’s Tuesday night bible study group. When not in use, it is placed on a table near the lectern, where it often draws a crowd after a service.

The bible has led the church to reach out to its surrounding community. It recently held an ecumenical Taize evening prayer service with the priest and some parishioners from a nearby Roman Catholic church. It planned to hold an open house in March and a calligraphy workshop in May. A workshop was also held for the Toronto East deanery clericus.

Ms. Finlay says the bible is empowering the gifts of the laity in the parish. Four lay leaders have been trained as docents to walk people through the bible, turning its pages and helping people explore it. She is hoping the bible will also spark creative endeavours. “We have artistic people in our parish and I’d love to see how their gifts in the arts can be used to bolster the spiritual life of our community.”

Although the volume is due to go back to Minnesota at the end of April, she is hoping to negotiate a month’s extension. Ideally, she’d love to see a church in the Diocese of Toronto buy a full Heritage Edition, where it could be displayed here permanently and shared with other churches.

She says it would be well worth the expense. “I see it as a tool for offering radical hospitality. This is an opportunity to swing our doors wide open and invite people to come in and look at an incredible piece of art. It’s not just come in and join our church – it’s come in and discover something for yourself.”

The post Visiting bible makes an impact appeared first on The Toronto Anglican.

The screening was organized by the diocese and St. John the Baptist, Norway. The Rev. Molly Finlay, incumbent of St. John’s, says she first encountered the film at last year’s Episcopal Parishes Network conference in Jacksonville, Florida, where the producers held a Q&A and showed the trailer.

“While I was watching (the trailer), I found myself getting goosebumps,” she says. “I thought, you know, even though it’s not Canadian, it still speaks to the issues that women faced when pursuing ordination in the Anglican Church of Canada.”

Six months later, she got an email from the production company’s website, which listed multiple screenings of The Philadelphia Eleven throughout the U.S. She immediately thought of parishioners at St. John’s and around the diocese who would be interested in having a screening here. She contacted Bishop Kevin Robertson about hosting it at the cathedral’s larger event space and asked him to give an introduction. She also invited Archbishop Linda Nicholls, the first woman to serve as Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, to give a Q&A afterward, to which she enthusiastically agreed.

The documentary, directed and produced by Margo Guensey and co-produced by Nikki Bramley, tells the story of the daring women who stood for ordination a whole two years before TEC’s General Convention would formally approve it. While there was never any canonical reason why women couldn’t be ordained, it was simply something that bishops and dioceses refused to do – that is, until 1974 and again in Washington, D.C. in 1975, and finally with the canonical cover of a resolution passed at General Convention in September 1976.

The film centres on the women themselves, notably the Rev. Merrill Bittner, the Rev. Alison Cheek and the Rev. Dr. Carter Heyward, through present-day interviews and archival footage. This is effective, drawing the audience into the personal dimension of the ordinands’ journeys to the priesthood and their subsequent joys and struggles. The story is supplemented by the responses of the male clergy who supported or opposed them, their underlying attitudes towards women in leadership and the theological challenge and opportunities posed by women’s ordination. General Convention’s proceedings serve merely as structural scaffolding: the 1976 resolution comes anti-climactically.

The film argues that change in the Church usually occurs from the ground up, emerging from the convictions of those on the margins who courageously follow God’s call despite the uphill battle. Structures, canons and norms mainly respond to changes already underway; they can foster those changes, or stifle them, but they can rarely instigate them. The documentary underlines this point by showing how the push for women’s ordination in TEC was intimately connected to both Black liberation and LGBTQ+ equality in American Christianity. All three of these movements have similar yet distinct journeys of controversy, struggle and acceptance.

Archbishop Nicholls, who was ordained a priest in 1985, reflected in an interview a few days before the screening that “the story of the Philadelphia Eleven and their courage in persisting through difficult circumstances” enabled a normalization of women as priests and bishops in much of the Anglican Communion. She fondly recalls the recent benchmark of 100 women participating at the 2022 Lambeth Conference as bishops alongside their male counterparts.

Ms. Finlay, who was ordained in 2017, is inspired by the Philadelphia Eleven and the subsequent normalization of women priests. “It makes me incredibly grateful to be standing on the shoulders of those who have gone before me,” she says. “It renews my own sense of gratitude for the hard work that was done, so that I could step into this vocation without the obstacles that my siblings in the faith experienced in earlier decades.”

She’s committed to a more diverse priesthood and hopes that the Philadelphia Eleven documentary “sparks a discussion of other forms of exclusion.” She asserts that “this film is not just for women. It’s about all the other people who are left out of the Church who feel they don’t have a voice in the life of the Church, and it’s really our job now to raise up those voices from the margins.”

She says that to do this job, leaders need to intentionally accompany people in marginalized groups as they discern vocations. She cites the Peter Stream in the Church of England’s Diocese of London, which helps those who “maybe aren’t the usual suspects, maybe street involved, maybe lower income demographics” to hear a potential call to ministry. Structures and processes do have an important role in fostering change.

Archbishop Nicholls points to both progress and ongoing work to ensure that the priestly discernment process is open to LGBTQ+ folks.

Bishop Robertson, in his introductory comments at the screening, identified with the struggle of the Philadelphia Eleven. Many of them, like him, identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community.

“I give thanks for those women who have continued to expand our understanding of diversity and inclusion for those of us who are marginalized, perhaps in different ways,” he said. “We are all part of a similar struggle. And I want to honour that today too, within our beloved Church.”

The Primate raised another area of struggle: “We still desperately need to deal with the question of racism in our Church, and why the leadership of our Church does not look like the diversity that’s in our pews.”

For Ms. Finlay, the Philadelphia Eleven documentary, and its focus on the women’s own lives, brings us back to the beginning: discerners need to listen to God’s voice within themselves, and then courageously follow that voice, she says. “I hope that (the film) is inspiring to people who might be considering a call to be brave, and to step forward.”

Female clergy enrich Church, says Primate

The screening of a moving documentary about the first women ordained priests in The Episcopal Church provided an occasion for Archbishop Linda Nicholls to tell the Canadian story, too. General Synod passed second reading of the canon change in June 1975, and on Nov. 30, 1976, the first six women were ordained at four different services in Ontario and British Columbia.

The early experience of those first women was not smooth sailing.

They “were heckled when they preached, they were refused a handshake at the door, they were harassed,” Archbishop Nicholls says. Even though much of the more overt forms of mistreatment had subsided by the time she was ordained in 1986, “there were still vestiges, (such as) an undercurrent of inappropriate jokes in clericus meetings.”

Alongside these microaggressions, ordained women faced organizational hurdles. For example, the Church struggled to navigate the newfound situation of clergy balancing their leadership roles with the responsibilities of motherhood. “Our canons did not appropriately address what it would take to have maternity leave,” she says.

She recalls the deeper questions and opportunities that the Church was now opened to as well. “What would (priests as mothers) mean for a parish? How is that both a gift and a promise?”

She emphasizes this gift and promise, and the progress made because of it.

One such gift: a renewed understanding of clergy wellness, boundaries and family life. According to Archbishop Nicholls, that newfound tension between ministry and motherhood prompts a wider and ongoing conversation – which includes male clergy, unmarried and childless clergy, and the whole Church – about the need for priests to have healthy, responsible and fully developed private and spiritual lives if they are to succeed in ministry.

She affirms that “there are some differences (between women and men in leadership) that come from our socialization, from the way in which we have a place in society and in the family. I think women tend – not exclusively – but tend to work collaboratively and seek mutual support and community.” She says this collaborative culture marks the leadership of female clergy, and that male clergy and the whole Church are learning to follow suit.

She sees these changes as clear signs of God’s hand at work. “Right from the beginning there has been the question of, is this a movement of the Holy Spirit? Or is it a bowing to the zeitgeist, to the social atmosphere around women in the workplace?” she recalls. “My position has always been that if this is of God, that this has been an enriching time and experience for the Church.”

She also knows that this enriching time and experience will continue as female clergy lead by example. She recalls how the discernment of her own vocation got a boost from seeing a newly ordained Victoria Matthews, who would go on to be the first woman in Canada to serve as a suffragan and then diocesan bishop, serve as the curate at a neighbouring parish.

She now witnesses the nationwide impact of her primatial election in 2019. “I have heard from many people how proud they are that our Church has a woman as the Primate,” she says. “They’re really glad to point their daughters to me in the role as Primate and say, ‘Look, this is possible.’”

The post Inspiring film screened in Toronto appeared first on The Toronto Anglican.

The post New ministry appeared first on The Toronto Anglican.

The post Teamwork appeared first on The Toronto Anglican.

The post Good times appeared first on The Toronto Anglican.

This statement is not only an historic truth, but also describes our current situation.

One of the great privileges of my role is to be the first point of contact – or “intake interviewer” – when an aspirant for priestly ordination approaches the Diocese of Toronto to make application for postulancy. I have been doing this long enough to remember when I would meet with, on average, one candidate a week throughout the fall and winter seasons, leading up to the annual application deadline of March 1. It was always a difficult exercise for the Postulancy Committee to whittle down the 16-24 applicants per year to select 8-12 individuals to be postulants. For the past several years, the number of applications has dropped to single digits, and consequently the number of postulants, and therefore ordinations, has also declined.

The good news – and it is truly good news – is that our candidates for ordination continue to be faithful, bright, gifted and passionate for ministry. We are excited about the new clergy being raised up and the work that they are doing across our diocese. God is very good!

At the same time, bishops have started to speak publicly of a clergy shortage. Congregations struggle to find priestly coverage for their incumbents’ vacations or when ill. We can see in the bi-weekly Clergy in Motion e-bulletin that the listing of vacant parishes is stubbornly long, and parish selection committees express dismay that their “list” of applicant priests sometimes consists of only one or two names. The situation in Toronto is actually much better than in other parts of Canada, where many dioceses have perhaps only a few priests in total, each offering sacramental ministry to several parishes over a vast area.

This recognition of a need for more priests has led our Metropolitan, Archbishop Anne Germond, and the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario to prioritize vocations in 2024. Not only will it be the focus of the Provincial Synod gathering in Sault Ste Marie this fall, but we are also resurrecting the tradition of dedicating the Fourth Sunday of Easter, or Good Shepherd Sunday, April 21, as a Vocations Sunday, an intentional day of prayer for priestly vocations.

In anticipation of this, each diocese in the Province did a focused consultation: a meeting of priests from what we are calling “incubator parishes” – those places that are particularly good at identifying, encouraging and nurturing new vocations, or where the clergy themselves model the priesthood in a way that raises up aspirants. I was pleased to host such a conversation last fall, inviting priests from such disparate parishes as Church of the Redeemer, Bloor St. and St. Paul, L’Amoreaux, from Little Trinity to St. Thomas, Huron Street, and others further afield too – all places that seem to produce a high number of priestly vocations. What, I asked, are they doing right? And can it be emulated elsewhere?

The conversation was robust and resulted in some interesting common opinions and practices. I share their reflections here, and invite you to consider what you might do in your own parish to encourage those who might be feeling the call of God to a ministry of word and sacrament.

Strong lay leadership. While it might seem a dichotomy, it appears that those parishes with the strongest lay ministry tend to raise up the greatest number of priestly vocations. An awareness of everyone’s first call to baptismal ministry, coupled with opportunities to exercise giftedness, can lead to identifying prospective candidates for ordained ministry. It is often a layperson with such awareness who will first ask a fellow parishioner, “Have you ever considered becoming a priest?”

Youth ministry. Similarly, those parishes with robust youth engagement raise up future priests. This does not necessarily mean that there is a large and active youth group – although that helps! – but rather that the youth who are present, no matter how many or how few, are valued and active in the congregation. They are not just used as “labour” but are given visible roles of responsibility and care alongside adults, as servers, readers, greeters, committee members and decision-makers.

Inspiring role models. Almost every priest can name a cleric who inspired them to pursue ordination. Despite the many challenges of ordained ministry, those clergy who can earnestly and authentically speak of the joys of ordination and priestly ministry, who obviously enjoy their vocation and say so, will endorse the priesthood for those who might feel called to it. To all the clergy reading this piece, don’t be shy about sharing that you love your job!

Authentic faith. One priest described this as “being unembarrassed about Christ.” When a parish has a clear sense of Christian identity and belief, “where the gospel is core,” the call to the priesthood becomes clear. Some parish priests spoke of the Daily Office as an important part of illustrating this “whole life authenticity,” others spoke of the centrality of the Eucharist. Still others spoke of “inspiring truth-telling” in preaching and “limitless hope in Jesus Christ.” All spoke of the transformational power of the gospel and the need for parishes to be bold in proclaiming and living that truth. Where they do, people seemingly hear the call of God on their lives – loud and clear!

This April, as you continue to celebrate Easter with your church family, I wonder if you could look around at your fellow parishioners and pray that God will help you to identify possible future priests for our Church, and specifically our diocese. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in approaching and encouraging that person, in supporting them in their Christian journey and perhaps in engaging them in a conversation, when you might want to say, “I have seen some marvelous gifts in you, and I think you would make an excellent priest. Have you ever considered it?”

Even if you’re not comfortable doing this yourself, please do pray for the Church and with the Church this April as we pray to God for new vocations. You may want to use this prayer that was circulated by Archbishop Anne:

A Prayer for Vocations

God our hope, your risen Christ commissioned leaders to make disciples of all nations and baptize them to serve as a living testimony to his presence. Raise up in this Province vocations to holy orders, individuals who will love you with their whole hearts and gladly spend their lives making you known; Quicken wisdom in those charged with ministries of discernment or mentorship; and equip theological schools and faith communities in which vocations are encouraged and incubated, so your Church, devoting itself to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers, may live as a faithful sign and instrument of your Reign, drawing the world to the One who is Lamb, Gate, and Shepherd, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.

The post Is there a future priest in your parish? appeared first on The Toronto Anglican.

While it’s never a bad idea to invest in year-round stewardship education, sometimes a parish needs a quick fix that will arrest offertory decline and get things back on track. Here are five proven giving techniques that can be implemented right now to help restore health to your parish’s financial picture.

The 13^th month. This is often introduced as a stop gap at the end of the year to make sure a parish doesn’t live beyond its means. In days gone by, a generous benefactor might provide a “bridge” gift to ensure security. But why wait until December? With many congregants receiving a tax refund in April, now is the perfect time to ask for an extra month’s giving. Equaling about 8.5 per cent of one’s annual gift, a 13^th month will help alleviate much of the inflationary shock parishes have experienced over the last couple of years.

An hour’s pay. With the average household giving to church ministry somewhere around 1.5 per cent of net household income, it wouldn’t take much to achieve fiscal security – so long as everyone followed suit. While a biblical injunction of 10 per cent carries weight for many Christians, the truth is that a consistent level of giving equal to about 2.5 per cent from salary or retirement income would ensure vibrant programming in almost every parish. Begin promoting an hour’s pay, and perhaps church members will make it a normalized pattern of giving.

Aim of 50 per cent PAR participation. Prior to the pandemic, only three parishes in the diocese had at least 50 per cent of their givers using Pre-Authorized Remittance for the offertory giving. As of 2023, nearly 65 parishes have achieved that milestone. In addition, 10 parishes have at least 70 per cent PAR usage. PAR givers demonstrate their commitment to first fruits theology by ensuring that their gift is consistent, regular and reliable. Make a commitment today to enroll in PAR. If you already use PAR, please prayerfully consider giving a 13^th month.

Invite newcomers to give. It’s not enough to simply leave boxes of envelopes or PAR enrollment forms at the church entrance. Newcomers (and non-givers) need to be invited to give. In fundraising theory, it is frequently noted that a would-be donor needs to be asked seven times before they commit. There is an expectation that churchgoers intuitively know they should give, but that’s just not the case. People need to be asked – and sometimes it needs to be personal. If you host regular gatherings for newcomers, don’t neglect to invite their offering. Remember, all the seats in the church are free, though the ministry needs of the parish are provided by all who attend.

Get a quick response (QR) code. Increasing numbers of parishes are acquiring a QR code from CanadaHelps.ca. Though there is a service charge associated with this giving vehicle, it is rapidly becoming a popular choice for Gen Z, Millennials or anyone who eschews carrying cash. The QR code is a unique matrix barcode that connects your phone to a donations page and makes giving quite easy. The code can be easily inserted into your service bulletin, on your webpage or on a screen during online worship. Like tap or text to give, a QR code is new giving technology. Like PAR 20 years ago, it represents the next generation of giving and will soon be a normative choice in the charitable sector.

Any of these suggestions can be incorporated into annual or year-end giving patterns. But why wait? It’s April, and we’re a third of the way into the new year. With thoughts of summer just around the corner, invite members of your congregations to make a commitment to increase their gift today so that 2024 becomes the year your parish is able to overcome the post-pandemic drag.

The post Five financial stewardship quick fixes appeared first on The Toronto Anglican.

The post Cold night, warm hearts appeared first on The Toronto Anglican.

Thomas A Kempis, c. 1389-1471

(2)
My dearest Lord,
be a bright flame before me,
be my guiding star above me,
be the smooth path beneath me,
be a kindly shepherd behind me,
today and evermore.

St. Columba, c.521-597

(3)
Lord, we offer you all we are,
All we have,
All we do,
And all whom we shall meet this day
That you will be given glory.
We offer you our homes and work,
our schools and leisure,
and everyone in our community today;
may all be done as unto you.
We offer you the broken and hungry . . .
May the wealth and work of the world be available to all and for the exploitation of none,
May your presence be known to all.

Morning Prayer, the community of St. Aidan and St. Hilda, Lindisfarne, UK

(4)
O thou who camest from above,
The pure celestial fire to impart,
Kindle a flame of sacred love
On the mean altar of my heart.
There let it for thy glory burn
With inextinguishable blaze,
And trembling to its source return
In humble prayer and fervent praise.

Charles Wesley, c. 1707-1788

(5)
Give me grace, O my Father, to be utterly ashamed of my own reluctance.
Rouse me from sloth and coldness, and make me desire you with my whole heart.
Teach me to love meditation, sacred reading, and prayer.
Teach me to love that which must engage my mind for all eternity.

John Henry Newman, 1801-1890

(6)
Today, Lord, I come to you
Like that sick woman who touched the hem of your garment.
I draw near to you
Knowing that you draw near to me with your precious gift of healing and forgiveness.
Fill me with the energy and power of your Spirit.
Make me whole
That I may serve you to the end,
My Master and my Friend.

Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York, UK

(7)
Christ, you have gone before me
to prepare a place for me,
that where you are
there I may be also.
Teach me to wait with patience,
to watch with alertness,
to trust that you are with me
in the unknown future
and to know your presence.

Jane Williams, professor, St. Mellitus College, UK

These and other prayers for spiritual renewal can be found on the Season of Spiritual Renewal web page, www.toronto.anglican.ca/spiritualrenewal.

The post Daily prayers for spiritual renewal appeared first on The Toronto Anglican.

The boy became one of the great prophets of Israel. The woman at the well became an evangelist to her entire village. The fisherman became a preacher to thousands. The scholar and the businesswoman became church planters. In short, these people experienced a spiritual renewal so profound that it changed their sense of identity and vocation.

Across the pages of history, God has touched the lives of ordinary people in this same way. But could this sort of renewal be something that God wants to bring about in each of us today? And if so, what might lead to such a thing?

It’s an interesting question, because we know that spiritual renewal is something God alone can do. As human beings, we love to predict and manage things, don’t we? However, when we look through the pages of scripture, we see that the Spirit is unpredictable and will not be managed. Instead, the Spirit blows where it chooses, often stirring up new possibilities that human beings never dreamed of, and growing our vision of how God works.

God grew Abraham’s vision by promising that he would make him a blessing to all nations. God grew Peter’s vision by pouring out his Spirit on Gentile believers. The first apostles would have been astonished that 2,000 years later there would be over 3 billion followers of Jesus Christ spread around the globe. God is clearly a god of surprises!

God wants to bring renewal

Although we humans can’t make spiritual renewal happen, here is why I’m hopeful for such renewal in our own time: God has told us in the scriptures that he wants to breathe new life into his people, for the sake of the world he loves. Stretching right back to the period of the exile, God has promised to renew his people. One such promise is found in Jeremiah’s message to the exiles, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:11-13) Across the ages, God has continued to breathe new life into his people, and in the wake of such renewal we’ve learned about some of the tools God has used.

Tools of renewal

Data on church renewal tells us that there are at least four disciplines associated with renewal. These include widespread prayer, a deeper engagement with Holy Scripture, a commitment to worship, and the practice of sharing the faith through word and deed. Again, these four disciplines are not themselves what makes renewal happen. Think of them, instead, as what we offer up to God with the hope that he will use them to help us know and love him more deeply.

On the ground

So, what will this Season of Spiritual Renewal look like across our diocese, and who will guide it? At Bishop Asbil’s invitation, in January I began to serve as the coordinator for this season. In February, an administrative assistant was hired, and Bishop Asbil invited a representative group of people to serve on the steering committee. This faithful, generous and creative group of people will be working together with Bishop Asbil and I to pray, dream and equip all our churches more deeply through prayer, scripture, worship, and sharing the faith.

Churches will receive resources and training in each of these four areas of Christian life, with the hope that we will all come to know and love God more deeply.

Prayer

Our plan is to send churches prayers related to spiritual renewal that they can incorporate into their weekly liturgies and use at a wide variety of meetings in their parishes. We’d love to see every single meeting taking place across our diocese during the next two years include prayers for spiritual renewal. We’d also love to see churches writing their own simple prayers for spiritual renewal, some of which we’ll share across the diocese. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to engage our children and youth in writing some of these prayers!

Scripture

We hope to point churches to a variety of resources that they can choose from to help their members all engage more deeply with the scriptures. Whether in the form of online or in-person study groups, individual reading plans, or video introductions to the various books of the Bible, we will also be offering some leadership training so that churches can establish their own reading, study, and discussion groups.

Worship

We plan to provide churches with resources and training related to such things as including children in worship, including stories of God’s grace in the life of your church, enhancing the music of small churches, enriching the spiritual focus of choirs and worship bands, and how to introduce a ministry of anointing for healing. Our plan also includes holding several wonderful large worship gatherings across our diocese. Our goal is that these large events will allow all of us to experience the rich diversity of worship that exists within our diocese.

Sharing the Faith

This area focuses on equipping churches to use a variety of discipleship tools, including online and on-site courses, film series and print materials, that will help introduce people to the Christian faith and refresh our own knowledge of the basics. Our goal will be to help all Anglicans across our diocese share their faith in a natural and welcoming manner. We plan to also include resources and training in some creative ways to engage with people in our neighbourhoods, towns and cities, drawing on and sharing ideas that some parishes are already implementing.

So, where will this Season of Spiritual Renewal take us? Ultimately, we don’t know exactly how God will use it, and so much will depend on all our churches engaging together in this endeavour. But based on who God is, we’re very hopeful that we will grow in our love and service to him, so that we can join in the Holy Spirit’s work of reconciling the world through and in Christ Jesus.

The post Is spiritual renewal for everyone? appeared first on The Toronto Anglican.