A few years ago, I took part in a community choir led by a man I’ll call Ben. He invited us to a concert by a gospel quartet that he’d co-founded, involving traditional gospel songs, the kind that fell out of favour with Anglicans and other mainline denominations decades ago. The group’s focus was on singing, definitely not faith.

Ben joked about the songs, then, gazing out at our 60-strong choir, remarked, “Of course, none of you believe this Christian stuff, do you?”

“I do,” I piped up, raising my hand. Ben, who was raised Christian, chuckled. “Oh yeah, Murray… of course.”

I glanced around. No one else was ready to say they were Christian. Maybe they weren’t.

I felt uncomfortable, singled out. I glanced around the room and spotted “Travis,” another member of my parish. He’d remained silent. Why? I didn’t know everyone in our large choir but knew a United Church member was also present. She too had said nothing when Ben mocked her faith.

A minor episode, perhaps, but one that I keep thinking about because it reflects an increasingly common perspective. In a post-Christian society, how do we Christians affirm to others who we are in a respectful way? Are there new ways in which we can share with unchurched people what the Good News means in our lives, ways that won’t cause them to shut down and stop listening?  

The choir episode challenged me to think about how I usually respond when meeting someone for the first time. When asked what I do in my retirement, I tend to recite various activities important to me. Rarely do I mention church-related activities, unless I know the person with whom I’m speaking is also Christian.

Perhaps my reticence, and that of my Christian choir members, is connected to factors such as our declining numbers in Canadian society, and to major news developments such as the tragic discovery of unmarked graves of residential school children — factors that illustrate how Christian faith can become warped, something that can strengthen anti-Christian attitudes.

Evangelism is a word with which many of us are uncomfortable, and that discomfort can extend into how we speak about our faith — or if we do so at all outside of church circles. Many of us — including myself — are fearful of offending others, of encountering a hostile response or of simply being told, “I’m not interested.”

Yet other Christians are not shy about their faith. I’ve travelled to the southern United States many times in the past 15 years, and the term “Bible Belt” is definitely accurate.  People there are quite comfortable talking about their faith. Once my wife and I were hiking in a remote park. No one was around. Around a corner we came across a family group. Within minutes we were chatting about our church affiliations. Another time we walked into an unassuming restaurant where the owner greeted us warmly, talked about why she opened the restaurant and pointed out an alcove complete with bibles and Christian literature. She told us customers often go there to read and pray. It’s true that this comfort with talking about faith reflects a more strongly evangelical Christianity in the U.S. south, but I think it also reflects a perspective that all of life flows from one’s faith. That leads to a greater willingness to share one’s faith.

In Colossians, Paul invites us to be gracious when relating to others. That could involve careful listening when asking another person what they believe and what they feel is important in life. It might involve outlining the inspiration behind our work to alleviate injustices such as hunger and poverty in our community and around the world, and how our faith helps keep us going in these efforts when progress often seems difficult.

Conveying a sense that our Christian journey is a lifelong enterprise is essential. A minister friend named Aaron was standing in line at a local Starbucks when the person in front of him wheeled around and asked, “Are you a Christian?” Aaron gave a response that likely gave his questioner much to think about: “I’m trying to be one.”

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The new premises will enable North House to provide laundry and shower facilities as well as food and a place to meet for those who are homeless or precariously housed. It also hopes to provide a warming place in winter and a cooling one in summer.

“It is wonderful to partner with and support the work of North House as they reach out to the homeless and precariously housed in Uxbridge,” says the Rev. Canon Mark Kinghan, incumbent. “This is very much part of our vision of ministry at St. Paul’s as we seek ways to engage with our wider community.”

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1) 10 days of employer-paid sick leave per year for all workers, without requiring workers to submit doctor’s notes, with an additional 14 days’ sick leave during public health emergencies.

2) Require employers to give workers a minimum number of hours per week (based on the job) and to give reasonable advance notice of work schedules.

3) Require employers to provide equal pay and benefits to all workers doing the same work, whether they are part-time, temporary, or contract workers, and regardless of immigration status.

Parishes were provided with a backgrounder and links for further reading, as well as a video featuring members of the Social Justice and Advocacy and Poverty Reduction committees responding to questions that had been gathered from Anglicans around the diocese. Parishes were also given the flexibility to amend the motion as they saw fit.

By early May, 65 parishes had communicated to the Social Justice and Advocacy consultant, Elin Goulden, that they had passed the motion in some form. The vast majority of these, 53 out of 65, either passed the motion substantially as written or amended it only to strengthen it.  Several of these parishes took the opportunity to review their own employment policies regarding parish staff to ensure they were in line with what the vestry motion was asking. Other parishes modified the motion somewhat, several suggesting that smaller businesses be partially or wholly exempted from or compensated for offering paid sick leave.  

The motion generated lively debate in many parishes. Several parishes reported that members of their congregation with personal experience of workplace precarity spoke about how lack of these workplace protections had affected them. A parishioner at Church of the Atonement, Alderwood spoke of the lack of consistent work scheduling as having prevented her from taking on the role of churchwarden when invited to do so. At St. Theodore of Canterbury, a parishioner who is a human resources professional spoke in favour of the motion, noting that taking care of one’s employees was simply good business practice.

There were also parishes who wrote in to say that they were deferring the motion to a special vestry so they could give adequate time to consider the motion. Several of those have yet to report back. And one parish, while opting not to put the motion before its vestry, nevertheless commended the motion to parishioners, inviting them to write to their local representative about the issue and to make it an important issue in conversations with parties or candidates in the provincial election, and committed to looking at how they as a parish could move toward more equitable treatment of their own employees.

A review of the diocese’s incumbent’s returns in early May indicated that as many as 120 parishes, or over 60 per cent of the parishes in the diocese, had passed this year’s motion.  While the incumbent’s return does not indicate whether a parish has amended the motion, this figure points to a broad base of support across the diocese for improved conditions for all workers in Ontario.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fault lines in precarious work, the cracks through which the most vulnerable frontline workers — who are overwhelmingly women, members of racialized communities or newcomers — end up falling through,” says Ms. Goulden. “Bringing about changes to provincial employment legislation to protect these most vulnerable workers would help strengthen our workforce and our communities.”

As Ontarians go to the polls on June 2 to choose their next provincial government, Anglicans are encouraged to read the provincial election resource, “Opening the Door to a Just Conversation,” available on the Social Justice and Advocacy page of the diocese’s website, www.toronto.anglican.ca, and to ask questions of their local candidates around their parties’ plans for justice for workers, among other issues.

“Let Jesus’ command for us to love our neighbours as ourselves inform these conversations and help us discern wisely for the welfare of all,” adds Ms. Goulden.

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Archbishop Linda Nicholls, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, celebrates the Eucharist at St. George on Yonge’s 100th anniversary service, held on April 23. The day included tours of the church. 

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St. Barnabas, Chester and other churches on Danforth Avenue in Toronto celebrated Good Friday differently this year. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, each of the six participating congregations worshipped separately for the first nine Stations of the Cross, then walked to nearby Withrow Park with a piece of wood, where they completed the remaining Stations of the Cross together. About 200 people from the United, Presbyterian, Anglican, Latvian Lutheran, Roman Catholic and Community Church took part. After each station, a piece of wood was added and soon a wooden cross was lifted. The hymn “Were you there when they crucified my Lord” was sung several times during the service. 

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Archbishop Tutu, who died last December, was a dear friend of the Anglican Church of Canada and Trinity College. In February 2000, he received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of Toronto and an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Trinity College. On that occasion, he delivered the Romney Moseley memorial lecture.

In his address to the University of Toronto at the special convocation, nearly six years after Nelson Mandela became the first democratically elected president of South Africa, Archbishop Tutu thanked Canada for its opposition to White-minority rule. He said, “What a great privilege it is to be able to return to the people from whom we had asked for help, to return to say you gave it and look at the result, to return to say on behalf of millions of my compatriots: `Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Our victory is in every real sense your victory!'”

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The walk was scheduled to take place at the end of May and beginning of June. It will begin in Hoyt and end at Christ Church Cathedral in Fredericton.

Archbishop Edwards began his pilgrimages in the Diocese of Fredericton in 2015, walking in the archdeaconry of St. Andrews for two weeks, aided by his route planner and friend, Trevor Fotheringham. Each year, he’s walked an archdeaconry, though in 2019 he combined Saint John and Kingston & the Kennebecasis.

Parishes and parishioners have been instrumental in making the pilgrimages a success. From providing meals and places to shower and do laundry, to joining the walk for an hour, a day or more, the pilgrimages have relied heavily on them, for which both men are very thankful.

During the walks, the archbishop wrote a blog each evening of the day’s events and musings.

New Brunswick Anglican

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The church was closed due to COVID-19 from Dec. 21 until early February, according to David Skidmore, the chair of the church’s property committee. During that time, a pipe froze and broke, leaking water into the basement. The good news is the sump pump in the church basement kept the water from rising and the two furnaces in the 135-year-old church were not damaged. But the constant flow of water was not detected right away and, according to the meter readings taken by the municipality, the building went through a lot of water. Now the church’s small congregation is trying to have the bill dismissed or at the very least reduced.

“When we discovered the problem, we had a plumber come in and fix it right away,” said churchwarden Mark Rutherford. “It was about two weeks after that when we got the bill, and it was $3,000 for water and $2,400 for sewer, for a $5,400 bill. And we’re, like, where are we going to come up with that?”

The Municipality of Annapolis told the church there isn’t much it can do about the bill other than to offer the option to make monthly payments, at 18 per cent interest. The municipality advised the church executive to go to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board.

Mr. Rutherford wrote a complaint letter to the review board.

“For a church where we have approximately 20 people who attend regularly and they certainly aren’t wealthy, we would like to have some relief for the bill,” said Mr. Skidmore.

If they have to pay a bill of that magnitude, it could have dire consequences for the church. “This could force the closure of the church because that’s almost $300 a person that attends our church,” said Mr. Rutherford. “Most of us here are retired and we are stuck on standard pensions.”

The utility and review board directed the municipality to file a response to the church’s complaint on or before May 6. The board would then review the information and provide a decision.

The church does have insurance, but with no major damage done to the structure the policy can’t help with the bill issue.

CBC News

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