Canon Wesley has been a quiet, powerful presence on the city’s downtown streets and in First Nations affairs for nearly 20 years, since he came to Toronto as the diocese’s first Aboriginal Priest, serving on the team at Toronto Urban Native Ministries (TUNM).

Even though he retired from that position several years ago, succeeded first by Bishop Chris Harper and then the Rev. Leigh Kern, who is the current Coordinator of Indigenous Ministries and Reconciliation Animator, Canon Wesley has continued to serve the community through his work with Council Fire. He is perhaps best known as the lead elder in the monthly “walkabouts,” in which teams of three elders and three police officers make their way through the streets, visiting the regular haunts of street-involved men and women, building relationships of trust and friendship.

The celebration on Dec. 11 began with an invitation to all present to make their way outside to a ceremonial fire, overseen by a young fire-keeper, to make offerings of tobacco. Back in the hall, the crowd was treated to song by a group of young people around a great drum. Then everyone stood for a thanksgiving prayer song, led by a group of women with hand drums.

A shy Elder Andrew, wearing his familiar, worn red jacket and faded blue jeans, was urged to go to the front of the room, where he received tributes and was presented with gifts by Council Fire, the police and the local Member of Parliament. He began by telling the crowd that as a boy he had wanted to be a police officer, but somehow ended up as an Anglican priest, so he was very happy to be spending this time with police officers on the walkabouts.

He graciously paid tribute to the board and his colleagues at TUNM, to Council Fire, to the drummers and singers, and to the walkabout elders and police officers. A final Honour Song was followed by a feast which included spaghetti and meatballs – Canon’s Wesley’s favourite – and of course, bannock.

In his speech, Canon Wesley solemnly told the gathering that his father had taught him “never to accept honours from people.” Then his face broke into a wide grin. Looking up, he said, “But he’s gone!” In a final remark to the crowd, he said he had thought of dressing up for the occasion but wanted to appear in the clothes he always wore on the streets. Then he pulled on his beat-up old baseball cap. The crowd’s long standing ovation left no doubt that everyone thought he very much deserved the tributes paid to him that day.

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Since 1996, FaithWorks has brought parishes and parishioners together to raise funds for some very needy people in our community and in the developing world: youth who call the street home; families deprived of housing security; the imprisoned, new immigrants and refugees; people with mental health challenges and addictions; and women looking for a way out of abuse and despair.  Thanks to the generosity of Anglicans across our diocese, more than $32 million has been raised in response to our annual appeal. Many are grateful for this outpouring of generosity.

Over the years, FaithWorks has faced a number of challenges: competing with appeals for refugee sponsorship; a major diocesan ministry campaign; and increased needs during the great recession. Just getting FaithWorks off the ground in the late ’90’s, when it seemed improbable that parishes would unite behind the idea of giving to a federated appeal – a sort of Anglican United Way – was a challenge in itself.

Our latest challenge might be the most difficult: indifference. Across our 196 parishes, about half commit to an intentional FaithWorks effort. Some might set a goal, while others have launch parties, special events or walk-a-thons. Some might invite an agency speaker to preach or dedicate a couple of Sundays to promoting the ministry of FaithWorks.

For some, FaithWorks is just another request for scarce funds – competition amid a mountain of requests each year. Typically, a pile of FaithWorks brochures and envelopes are left at the entrance of the church, lost amongst a pile of other paper for community projects and endeavours, in hopes that someone might take an interest and respond.

It might come as a surprise, but nearly 25 per cent of our parishes do nothing to support FaithWorks. They don’t put up our posters, they don’t hand out our literature. FaithWorks doesn’t even appear as a line item on the outreach budget. Anglicans in these parishes probably don’t event know that FaithWorks exists.

And yet, if we all pulled together and did our part, the annual goal would be a slam-dunk from parish giving alone. This year’s goal, for example, is $1.5 million – an increase of more than 10 per cent on last year’s. If every parish set a target equal to 5 per cent of its annual offertory, that goal would be surpassed with many thousands of dollars to spare. Some parishes do this already – setting targets closer to 10 per cent – and reaching them. We know it’s possible.

To help make this objective a reality, a committed friend of FaithWorks has offered us a $100,000 matching challenge grant in 2020. All new and increased gifts from individuals and parishes will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to $100,000. We want to extend a special invitation to those parishes for whom participation could use a kick-start. Help us exceed our target and get a six-figure bonus along the way!

I’m going to be talking a lot about FaithWorks in 2020. Not just because of the matching gift, but because I am hopeful that our goal can be achieved and thousands of people in need will feel the hand of Jesus through our actions. Teresa of Avila said, “Christ has no body now but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses the world.” That’s what FaithWorks is: the hands and feet of Christ.  That’s why what we do is so important.

We hope to encourage responsiveness in 2020. We hope to refocus our attention on what the late Archbishop Terry Finlay called the greatest unifying initiative in the diocese. We hope every Anglican in our diocese will have a chance to learn about our story and respond with enthusiasm.

2020 is going to be a foundational year for us. Parishes are going to be asked to recommit. Donors are going to be invited to learn more about our work. Together, we are going to achieve our potential so that our 25^th anniversary is something to really celebrate.

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In this familiar passage from the Letter to the Galatians, St. Paul speaks of the dissolving of our differences so that we may claim our primary identity in Christ. But that one-ness is understood by remembering that we come from different places and have distinct stories to tell. We are strengthened in our relationships as we pay attention to the different faces, languages and identities which are woven together into the rich tapestry of our life in Christ.

It has been said that Toronto is the most diverse city in the world, and if you look across our diocese, you will see and hear Anglicans from all corners of the Communion, worshipping and ministering in a variety of languages and styles. I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being the area bishop for many of these communities, as we have celebrated together in Tamil, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Tagalog and Indigenous languages. And over the past year alone, I have met newcomers to Canada who are now in our pews from many different places, including Nigeria, Ghana, Syria, India, Columbia and Melanesia. When Bishop Susan Bell served as our Canon Missioner, she often described the Diocese of Toronto as “the Anglican Communion in microcosm.” It certainly is!

At times, we have done a good job of recognizing and affirming the diversity among us. Later this month, on Sunday, Feb. 23, Anglicans will gather at St. Paul, Bloor Street for the annual Black History Service. For 25 years, this service has celebrated the Black heritage of our Church with liturgical innovation, creativity and joy. This year’s preacher is the Rev. Canon Stephen Fields. I hope you will plan to be there!

We have also dedicated considerable resources – money, time, prayer, clergy and lay leadership skills – to nurture diverse church communities across the diocese, and many Anglicans from around the globe have been able to find familiar, welcoming and accessible congregations here. We have also made a priority of celebrating the beautiful diversity within the LGBTQ2S+ community as many of us, wearing Anglican garb, march in the Pride Parade every June.

What we have not done very well is to really change the culture of our Church to eradicate all forms of discrimination that dishonour the rich diversity of the whole people of God. At the very core of the Gospel, embedded in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is the Divine pledge of love for the whole world. When certain people are treated as “other” due to their skin colour, culture, ethnicity, language, gender, sexuality or identity, we betray the Gospel of Christ, and fail to live up to the baptismal covenant in which we promise to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.

So how will we change? I have a few hopes:

1. I hope we will put resources in place to make anti-racism training a top priority over the coming year. It is long overdue in our Church.
2. I hope we will create an “Officer for Diversity” staff position within the diocese. The one who fills this role should be experienced in this work, and unambiguously committed to the equity and full inclusion of all people within the life of our Church, without exception.
3. I hope we will draw on the experience of the many folks in our pews who know what it’s like to be “othered.” We need to hear their pain, as well as their dreams for respect, dignity and inclusion. We have many people in our midst who are leading the way in the dismantling of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and other barriers that divide and injure the people of God. They have much to teach us.

Our identity in Christ has at its core the recognition and celebration of our amazing God-given diversity. May our Church move toward this goal with renewed passion in the coming year.

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Every four years or so, we add one day at the end of February so that our modern-day Gregorian calendar remains in alignment with the earth’s revolutions around the sun. It takes the earth about 365.242 days (365 days, five hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds to be exact) to orbit the sun once. This is technically called a solar year. A solar year is measured from either the spring or fall equinox to the following one, or from the summer or the winter solstice to the one that follows.

Five hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds doesn’t really seem like very much in the context of a whole year. However, if we didn’t add a leap day every four years, after only a century, our calendar would be out of synch by around 24 days. A missing six hours adds up over time.

Feb. 29 becomes a day of course correcting, of bringing things back into alignment, of synchronizing our earthly everyday lives with the heavens. In a similar way, Ash Wednesday summons us to stop, to correct our course, to take an accounting of our lives and find ways of immersing ourselves in the ancient means of recalibrating our souls. The branches of Palm Sunday, once waved in adulation and hope, are reduced on Wednesday to ash to remind us of the fragility of life, of our mortality, of our propensity to lose our footing and to wander away from God.

In the busyness of our lives, of making ends meet, of working and raising families, of volunteer work and getting stuck in traffic, or lost in the latest Netflix series, it is easy to assume that all that matters is what is in front of us. And before long we can miss the numinous moments that call us back to reality and life.

In the Ash Wednesday liturgy, the presider summons the community to prepare to enter the season of Lent by saying these words: I invite you therefore, in the name of the Lord, to observe a holy Lent by self-examination, penitence, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and by reading and meditating on the word of God…

Lent becomes the one season in our Christian year when all is righted. And we celebrate our redemption through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through this Christian Passover, we gain more than just a day. We gain life itself.

This Lent, I encourage you and your parish to join me in participating in the Signs of Life program devised by Virginia Theological Seminary and the Society of St. John the Evangelist. Details about the program can be found at www.signsoflife.org. The Lenten program invites us to contemplate the themes of light, water, food, shelter and community – elements of everyday life that sustain us, and symbols too that permeate our worship and faith life through which Jesus is present in our lives, with the power to transform us. I will be hosting a conversation on the symbols each Tuesday evening in the month of March. The location of these gatherings will shift week to week throughout the diocese. I hope that you will consider joining me at the location closest to you. Let’s take this Lenten leap together.

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Until recently, the committee had been focused primarily on educating and supporting lay anointers and their parishes. “There are more healing ministries within the Church, as we know,” says the Rev. Canon Joanne Davies, new chair of the committee and chaplain to St. John’s Rehabilitation Hospital. “We began a more intentional way of expanding the committee, to bring on other members who were representative of the healing ministries.”

In its new form, the committee oversees lay anointers, lay pastoral visitors, faith community nurses, healthcare chaplains and seniors’ ministry. “Almost everything that we do within Church we could say, ‘OK, that’s healing.’ But these are the things that Christ sent the disciples out to do. So we felt that we would like to incorporate all of them into the umbrella of the Bishop’s Committee on Healing Ministries, because there was a way of making connections for people,” says Canon Davies.

Lay anointing will continue to have its own subcommittee, but with more links between it and other healing ministries. “Many people who were lay anointers were also lay pastoral visitors, so a lot of their questions and the things they wanted to learn were all interconnected in that way,” she says.

Seniors’ ministry is a new addition to the diocese’s healing portfolio. With many parishes developing important ministries to youth and young families, Canon Davies says seniors can feel overlooked. “The one age group that we forget, because we just assume they’re going to be there, are seniors. But the truth of the matter is they often leave because there’s nothing there for them,” she says. The committee wants to encourage what seniors are already doing to participate and find ways of bringing others back to a church community.

Canon Davies sees the committee’s main purpose as creating links and connections across the diocese. “This is not a committee we want to keep quiet; we want everyone to know that we’re there. We can be a voice that would advise the bishop on things that we’re seeing and things that are wanting, but we are also there to be a resource for the Church, for the communities and people of the diocese,” she says.

Previously, parishes and clergy may not have known who to call for information about certain healing ministries. Now, the re-formed committee and its chair will be the clear first point of contact. “I am happy to say I am already getting questions, so that’s really good. And I can already see that there’s information needed,” says Canon Davies. “What I don’t know, I will find out, because I have this wonderful committee.”

In particular, she says she hopes to draw on the wisdom of the diocese’s healthcare chaplains. “I’m hoping to use them – me being one of them – as a resource, the wisdom that they have from the healing ministries that they’re involved in,” she says. She also wants to reaffirm their role in diocesan life, since working in a hospital can be an isolating experience. “This can really be a home for them, to link in to the diocese, and to encourage them, that they’re definitely part of who we all are.”

Beyond providing valuable help and resources, Canon Davies also wants to encourage parishes to let her know what’s happening in their communities. “I’d like them to call me with what they’re doing, their ideas, so that I can put groups and churches in touch with each other,” she says. “Sometimes the church down the street’s doing something really interesting and hopeful. I’d like to hear what they’re doing, is it working, what is not working, and what is wonderful about it.”

As part of its mandate to equip and support the diocese, the committee has started working on a new education program for lay pastoral visitors. “It’s my dream that we will have a train-the-trainer program, and that eventually there will be somebody at least in every area that can do that and then, if we get really good, most deaneries might have somebody that could train as well,” she says.

Lay anointers have held regular education events for some time, and Canon Davies says she’d like to build from their success. The annual lay anointers’ refresher day often covers topics about healing more broadly, which could be an opportunity to bring together participants of many healing ministries. “They already touch on a lot of things like bereavement and pastoral visiting during those days. I have a vision of having a retreat day or weekend focusing on the subject of healing,” she says.

Ultimately, whether through education, resources, retreat or prayer, Canon Davies says the Bishop’s Committee on Healing Ministries hopes to uphold the health and wellbeing of all those across the diocese who are engaged in ministries of healing. “It’s important that we equip people with the skills they need to look after themselves so that they can go and look after others,” she says. “It says that we’re all holding each other up. It’s true – we who are many are one body in Christ.”

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Since 2009, 37 people have gone through the Youth Ministry Apprenticeship Program, providing outstanding youth ministry in parishes across the diocese.

To build on that momentum, the diocese has doubled the program’s funding, providing training and mentorship for 12 aspiring youth leaders in 2020, up from the usual six.

The diocese has also hired two former graduates of the program, Cormac Culkeen and Alexandra McIntosh, to serve as coordinators. They succeed the program’s founder, the Rev. Christian Harvey, who stepped down in 2019 to become the executive director of Warming Room Community Ministries in Peterborough.

The expansion is necessary to keep up with the demand for trained youth leaders in the diocese, says Ms. McIntosh, who is also the youth ministry coordinator for York-Credit Valley and a divinity student at Trinity College. “Churches really want to hire youth ministers, but there just aren’t any,” she says. “They will have postings for months and months, but nobody will apply.”

A youth leader for the past eight years, she says youth ministry is one of the most effective ways for parishes to share the gospel and create disciples. “I came to faith through youth ministry and think it’s one of the most organic, natural ways to talk about Christ. It set me off to seminary.”

Parishes and clergy play a key role in the program. The apprenticeships are served in the parishes and graduates often stay on to work as youth leaders in those churches. Candidates for the program are often volunteers who are already involved in youth ministry or feel called to it; in many cases, they are recommended by their clergy.

The program provides two models of apprenticeship, both of which last for nine months. The first, called Job Shadowing, is for volunteers in a parish who feel called to youth ministry and want to work as a youth minister when their apprenticeship is finished. This is a 10-hour per week, paid position that runs from October to June. The apprentice will work with a mentor, who will observe and participate in their ministry. Apprentices will also meet with their peers, complete assigned readings and attend events and conferences. At the end of the year, the program coordinator will help the apprentice find a position in youth ministry in the diocese.

The other apprenticeship model, called Parish Partnership, is for parishes that are looking to start a youth ministry program or to increase the youth ministry that is already happening there. In this model, the parish hires, or works with the program to hire, a youth worker. Between October and June, the program will pay for half of the youth worker’s salary, up to 10 hours a week, with the parish paying the other half. This means that a parish can have a youth worker for 20 hours a week but, for the first nine months, will pay for 10 hours. In the time paid for by the program, the youth worker will be expected to meet with the apprenticeship coordinator, complete assigned readings and attend events and conferences. The expectation is that in June, if everything has gone well, the parish will take on the hours that the program has been paying so that the ministry, and the youth worker’s job, will continue uninterrupted.

Apprentices must be self-motivated and have an openness to learn and wrestle with a diversity of ideas. Preference will be given to those who are from an Anglican background, but people from other denominations are welcome as well. Upon completing the program, participants are expected to commit at least some of their time contributing to youth ministry in the diocese for at least one year.

To qualify, parishes must show a bold and creative vision for youth ministry, a willingness to continue funding youth ministry after the nine-month program is over, and to support and care for the youth minister as a member of the parish team.

Bishop Jenny Andison, the diocese’s link bishop for youth, encourages clergy to recommend the program to volunteers in their parishes who are called to youth ministry. “As we get increasingly serious in our diocese about forming living faith in the next generation, YMAP is proving transformative in training people as youth ministers. If you think someone in your congregation might have the gifts and passions to work with young people, YMAP is for you!”

For more information about the Youth Ministry Apprenticeship Program, contact Ali McIntosh at yvc.area.coordinator@gmail.com or Cormac Culkeen at culkeencormac@gmail.com. Information is also available on the diocese’s website, www.toronto.anglican.ca.

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Ms. Tennant is a member of St. George, Pickering Village in Ajax, a church that has struggled over the past few years with declining attendance and shrinking finances.

A little over a year ago, the church contacted Janet Marshall, the director of the diocese’s Congregational Development department. Ms. Marshall, who had recently started in the job, was launching a program called Mission Action Planning.

“She came to a meeting of our Advisory Board and presented it to us,” recalls Ms. Tennant. “We didn’t realize we were going to be the first ones using it, but once we heard about it, we thought it was a good idea.”

A year later, the church has clear goals for both spiritual and numerical growth, a greater understanding of its neighbourhood, a deeper prayer life and a renewed sense of purpose. “We’re more aware of where we are being called,” says Ms. Tennant.

Mission Action Planning (MAP) is a process that helps parishes set goals and work toward them within a defined time period. Working from their greatest strength, churches take a “missional stretch” that will connect them to their neighbourhood, making relationships with people for the sake of sharing the gospel.

Four parishes in the diocese have completed the process, with another 12 underway or slated to begin in 2020. Congregational Development has 26 trained volunteers to help facilitate the process in the parishes.

Ms. Marshall says Mission Action Planning has come at the right time for the diocese. “We’re in a situation right now where all of our churches know that that they need to be stretching themselves in mission,” she says. “We need to imagine creative new ways to share the gospel with our neighbours, to speak the truth of the gospel in ways that people hear and draw close.”

Anglicans in the diocese are yearning to do this, she says. “We’re living in a world that can often feel complicated, chaotic and even cruel, and everybody I meet when working with parishes wants deeply to be able to stretch out with the compassion, kindness, justice and care that Jesus offers.”

She says Mission Action Planning can help parishes do that. “No process is perfect, but if a congregation spends some time and energy in prayer and reflection on themselves and God’s call to them, then we can help them take the next steps.”

MAP can take three months to a year to complete, depending on how much planning and discernment the parish has already done. The process is guided by a trained facilitator from outside the parish, to achieve the best results. Each parish is asked to form a steering committee to assist with decisions and help coordinate activities.

The process comprises three phases. In the first, the church learns more about its surrounding community. “We want to deepen our understanding of who is living in the neighbourhood, not just for today but in five or ten years from now,” explains Ms. Marshall. This can happen in several ways, including prayer walks, conversations with neighbours and commissioning an Environics study.

Ms. Tennant says this part of the process was illuminating. “The demographics in our parish had changed quite a lot over the past few years and we weren’t really sure who was in our neighbourhood,” she says.

The Environics study revealed that the average of age of local residents was quite high, there weren’t a lot of children in the neighbourhood, and that many people lived in multi-generational households. A key finding was that a lot of residents were seeking a spiritual connection – something that would play an important part in St. George’s planning.

“We thought, there are some spiritual needs that we can fulfil and we have to start thinking more seriously about that,” recalls Ms. Tennant.

The second phase of MAP involves identifying the church’s ministries and then focussing them so they better connect with the surrounding community and the church’s mission. “Many churches have inherited a lot of activities and they’re all over the place,” explains Ms. Marshall. “This puts them into place.”

Ms. Tennant says this phase, which included input from many parishioners, helped St. George’s set clear goals. “We were able to see what was important to us.”

The third phase of MAP is the “missional stretch,” where the church is encouraged to go beyond what it is currently doing. “It’s about doing something audacious in their neighbourhood – stretching themselves from what they’re already feeling confident about,” says Ms. Marshall.

The missional stretch need not be scary because the church is working from its strength, she adds. “It’s about moving out from that which you already feel most confident about.”

The missional stretch can take many forms. One church had a group of women who made prayer shawls and caps for chemotherapy patients. Confident enough to reach out into the community, they rented a table at a local farmers market. In addition to making their creations, they taught young women how to crochet, forming friendships with them.

For some churches, the missional stretch involves working on their own discipleship. After looking at the Environics study and its own ministries, St. George’s realized it could connect with the surrounding community through its faith formation activities. But first it had to strengthen the spirituality of its own members.

“We needed a strong core first,” explains Ms. Tennant. “We needed to focus on our own spiritual development and connection with each other. We’ll be attractional to the wider community if we can truly be disciples.”

The church has set itself three main goals, which it hopes to achieve by December 2020:

• “Deepening and enriching our spirit.” Twenty more parishioners will attend at least one new activity.
• “Strengthening our Sunday morning congregation.” Twelve more parishioners will come regularly to worship God and nurture their souls.
• “Becoming disciples of Christ and talking about our faith.” Ten more parishioners will talk about their relationship with God.

The goals, which are displayed on a paper tree at the back of the church and printed on a bookmark, are already producing results, says Ms. Tennant. “We’ve seen new people come out for Bible study, for our weekly meditation and for coffee hour. We’re seeing more people at our Sunday morning worship service, and some have stood up to tell us how they’ve talked about our church with others.”

One thing that Ms. Tennant is seeing and hearing a lot more of is prayer. “Because we made prayer a focus, we now start every meeting with prayer. People are praying a lot and you can sense that support in the church.” The entire process at St. George’s was undergirded by prayer, as it was in the other participating churches.

Ms. Tennant says the process has given St. George’s parishioners a renewed focus and purpose. “I think sometimes you go to church, attend the service and then go home and that’s you done for the week. But this whole exercise has kept things top of mind for people. People are realizing that they can have an impact, that they can actually make something change.”

Ms. Marshall has heard similar comments from other churches. “There is something about how MAP is worked on that invites leadership and congregations to understand that this is a fullness of time moment for them. It’s time to truly to take up the opportunity and challenge of stretching themselves further than they have imagined, of asking more of themselves than they have before, of setting a bar and saying, ‘With God’s help, we can do this together.’

“We don’t enter a MAP process with any judgement as to where that bar needs to be,” she adds. “That’s entirely between the congregation and facilitator, to set goals the congregation knows it can achieve, because what we’re wanting to do here is rebuild confidence and hope in our discipleship in a practical way.”

For more information on Mission Action Planning, contact Janet Marshall at jmarshall@toronto.anglican.ca.   

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