The diocese has tithed $100,000 to Habitat for Humanity GTA to help build 15 affordable housing units on Brimley Road in Scarborough. It is the largest cash donation ever given by a faith group to the local non-profit housing organization.

Enloe Wilson, a spokesperson for Habitat for Humanity GTA, says the new house will be a “huge step up” for the family. “All of our families are vying with various degrees of unsustainability, unaffordability and overcrowding. The family has mentioned all of those, including living in a neighbourhood that is less than safe. They lack heat in the winter. These are the sort of things out of which the mother has tried to lift her family.”

The gift from the diocese will be used to build a two-storey, 1,300 square foot, semi-detached house with three bedrooms. All of the houses, which are similar in size, will have underground parking.

Construction at the site, located just north of Lawrence Avenue East, began in September 2014 and is expected to wrap up by the end of this year. During that time, the diocese will have four days in which to send teams to help build the house. On one of those occasions, they may be working alongside the family.

“I’d love to see members of the parishes out on the build site,” says Mr. Wilson.

When the house is finished, representatives from the diocese and the family will take part in a “key ceremony,” in which the diocese will present the key to the front door to the family. The diocese will also be able to present the family with a Bible.

In lieu of a cash down payment for the house, Habitat for Humanity GTA requires families to put in 500 hours of labour, called “sweat equity,” usually at the construction site or at the organization’s retail stores, head office or outreach events. The families must attend training courses in personal finance, mortgages, insurance, home maintenance and legal matters. They also need to have a good credit rating and not rely social assistance.

Once those obligations are fulfilled, the organization then arranges a 20-year, interest-free mortgage with the family. The monthly mortgage payments are never more than 30 per cent of the total family income.

Mr. Wilson says the formula not only provides affordable housing for families in need, it enables low-income families to build assets. “It’s key to breaking the cycle of poverty,” he says. “You allow these families to accrue equity on their home and build an asset that they can pass down.” Since the families also pay the property taxes, they are contributing to the wider community, he says.

The mother and children who will own the house built by the diocese have almost finished their 500 hours of labour. “They’re very excited,” he says, adding that the oldest two children have graduated from high school and plan to pursue postsecondary education.

Diocesan Council approved the tithe at its meeting in December. The diocese tithes 10 per cent of the funds that go into the Ministry Allocation Fund for projects that are not covered by the diocese’s operating budget. Past recipients include Home Grown Homes and the Seeds of Hope Foundation, which provide affordable housing in the diocese, the Council of the North for suicide prevention and the Diocese of the Arctic to rebuild its cathedral after it was destroyed by fire.

“Housing is one of the key priorities of our diocesan social justice advocacy,” says Archbishop Colin Johnson, explaining the decision to make the gift to Habitat for Humanity GTA. “Recent studies from St. Michael’s Hospital demonstrate that stable housing is one of the largest determinants of good health and a major factor in poverty reduction. The diocese has been involved for decades in social housing, but construction and maintenance are not our forte. Instead, it makes much more sense for us to partner with agencies, especially a Christian charity like Habitat for Humanity, whose primary mission is housing. It makes a difference in people’s lives.”

Ruth Schembri, chair of the diocese’s Housing Advocacy Subcommittee, echoes his comments. “Having worked for 30 years in housing for people with mental health issues, my feeling is that about 80 per cent of poverty is about housing,” she says. “If you can get into affordable housing, you can have a life where maybe you can go out for coffee twice a week; if you can’t, your whole cheque goes to a room somewhere.”

She adds, “I think it’s amazing that the diocese has priorities for advocacy and that we’re really trying to make some kind of a difference. That’s why I’m involved, because I have hope that something may actually happen.”

The diocese and its advocacy partners are asking the provincial government to build more affordable housing units. Ms. Schembri says efforts by the diocese and parish churches are important when talking to the government. “I don’t think people should always be looking to government for everything, but on the other hand government has the resources to actually fix things, so we need as much leverage as we can get.”

There are 156,000 families on the waiting list for affordable housing in Ontario, nearly half of those with children, and the waiting time can be up to 10 years, according to the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association. Most of those families live in the GTA.

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The Followers of the Way, as Christians were called, were centred solely within Jerusalem until they were forced to flee. Thus, the faith started to spread outside of the Holy City. These Followers of the Way continued to proclaim the risen Christ as they left Jerusalem, causing Saul to seek permission from the Temple authorities to arrest them. As he travelled to Damascus in search of them, he was struck down by a blinding light, and a voice from heaven called out to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4). After a brief dialogue, he discovered that this voice was none other than Jesus himself.

Saul was led into Damascus, having been blinded by the light, and for three days he remained in that state. Ananias, a Follower of the Way, was sent by God to Saul. Ananias laid hands on him and he was healed. Saul was baptised and received his orders. He would take the message of Jesus to the Gentiles, to kings and to the people of Israel (Acts 9:15).

Saul, who became Paul, preached the faith in Damascus. But soon he ran into trouble with the Jews in that city. After a few days, he escaped and made his way to Jerusalem. Here he was somewhat of an outcast. He could no longer associate with the Jews, and the Followers of the Way did not trust him. It was Barnabas who came to his rescue and brought him to the apostles. Paul’s preaching about Jesus caused him problems with the authorities, and he soon left the Holy City and retreated to his home in Tarsus.

Meanwhile, Barnabas was sent by the apostles to visit Antioch in Syria. Here the faith had been preached by the Followers of the Way, and it was starting to become established with enthusiasm. Barnabas decided that he needed help with this new group. He went to Tarsus and sought out Paul to come and work with him.

Antioch was a major city, the third largest in the Roman Empire at that time, after Rome and Alexandria. It was about 15 miles from the Mediterranean seaport of Seleucia, in the northeast corner of the Mediterranean. The Followers of the Way were first called Christians there.

I would be interested in reading about the history of the early church in Antioch; it would be a fascinating read. Paul made it his headquarters for his missionary exploits. It is probable that Matthew wrote his Gospel in that city. Ignatius, the early secondcentury Bishop of Antioch, quoted from Matthew’s Gospel as he wrote to his people on his way to Rome and martyrdom.

It was in Antioch that Paul and Barnabas received orders from the Holy Spirit to venture forth and share the Gospel with the Gentiles. It was the Christians in Antioch who prayed with them, laid hands on them and commissioned them for their missionary work.

The first missionary trip of Paul with Barnabas is usually dated about 46 CE. The faith was still centred with the Jews and it was considered a sect of Judaism. Paul’s usual approach when he arrived in a new centre was to attend the local synagogue. We must remember that Paul was a Jew and, for him, the Christian faith was a natural extension of Judaism. The Jewish faith claimed that a Messiah would come and lead his people back to God. For Paul, Jesus was that Messiah.

The synagogue in the first century was usually made up of believing Jews, proselytes (those who had converted to Judaism) and God-fearers (Gentiles who believed in one God but had not made the commitment to Judaism). Paul tried to convince the Jews to accept their Messiah, but it was the God-fearers who responded to his message. You will find this approach used regularly throughout Paul’s missionary work. In each centre, a small group of believers followed Paul; he would appoint one of their number as the local elder, then move on (usually because he was forced to do so). But he kept in touch with that local congregation by letters and by revisiting them on successive mission trips.

Next month, we will look at these missionary journeys and some of his letters as we continue our dialogue with this Apostle to the Gentiles.

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A sign tells us the distances to important Biblical places nearby: Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives (46 km), Bethlehem (50 km), Jericho (27 km) and the Sea of Galilee (105 km). This was the land Moses never reached, turning over leadership of the Hebrew people to Joshua.

It’s believed Moses is buried near this site on Mount Nebo. A church was built here in the fourth century, and its mosaic floors have been preserved.

Mount Nebo is only one of a number of Biblical sites in Jordan, a predominantly Muslim country with a small but influential Christian minority. Our group was able to visit not only the site where Jesus was baptized at the Jordan River, but the ruins of many early Christian churches and places that Jesus visited in what was then called the Decapolis.

In northern Jordan, close to the Syrian border, is Umm Qays, which overlooks the Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee. It is part of the story of the Gadarene swine, told in the Gospel of Matthew (8:28-34). The residents of what was then called Gadara asked Jesus to leave the area after he cast demons out of two men who were possessed. The demons entered a herd of swine, which went off a steep bank into the water. We saw at Gadara how Christians in the fourth century used Roman ruins to build a church where Jesus is said to have performed the miracle of the swine.

In Rihab, also in northern Jordan near the Syrian border, is thought to be one of the earliest Christian churches in the world, dating back to the first century. It has been found underneath the remains of St. George Church, which itself dates back to 230 CE. Abdul Qader al-Husan, head of Jordan’s Rihab Centre for Archeological Studies, believes the first-century church sheltered early Christians who fled Jerusalem after the Romans crushed the Jewish rebellion in 70 CE.

In Rihab are the remains of at least a dozen churches. Jesus and the Virgin Mary are believed to have passed through the area.

At Anjara, also in northern Jordan, we met Father Hugo, an Argentine Roman Catholic priest who served at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Mountain, a place where Jesus and Mary were said to have rested on their journey through the Decapolis. Fr. Hugo says there are 1,000 Christians in Anjara, a town of 20,000, and ministry is demanding. He visits prisons regularly and runs a school for 36 students, a third of them orphans.

There are biblical connections everywhere that we travel in Jordan. The Jordan Valley has small villages, agriculture, olive groves and wildflowers, along with ancient ruins.

Going south toward the Gulf of Aqaba, we got off the highway to view Mukawir, the stark hilltop fortress where John the Baptist was imprisoned during the reign of Herod Antipas. It was here that Salome did her famous dance for John’s head. The terrain here is barren, like much of Jordan outside the lush Jordan Valley. We saw shepherds with tents in the fields as they watched over flocks of sheep, as they have done for thousands of years.

No visit to Jordan would be complete without a trip to what is often referred to as the eighth wonder of the world – the ancient city of Petra. Nabataean Arabs ran a commercial empire, with Petra as its capital, from the sixth century BCE until 100 CE, when the Romans assumed control.

After many years of being uninhabited, Petra was rediscovered by a Swiss explorer in the 19th century. The city is a fascinating trip into the past. There is stunning architecture, such as the famous “treasury,” which was used in the filming of the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Visitors to Petra travel on foot or by horse down a gradual slope surrounded by high cliffs. The art and architecture are a blend of Roman, Greek, Mesopotamian and Egyptian styles, a reflection of Petra’s status as an advanced civilization at the height of its remarkable independent existence.

As with many ancient sites, there are remains of the early Christian church in Petra, a reminder that Jordan was the home of many of the first Christians who fled Judea and Palestine.

As well as being the first place of refuge for Christians in the first century, Jordan was also the first place for Muslim expansion beyond the Arabian Peninsula many centuries later. Muslim pilgrims look to Jordan as the place where some of the Prophet Mohammad’s followers died and were buried as martyrs for their faith.

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“From ancient times, this has been holy ground, sacred to the Mississaugas of New Credit First Nation,” said the Rev. Riscylla Walsh Shaw, incumbent of Christ Church, Bolton and an Ambassador of Reconciliation for the Diocese of Toronto, in her words of welcome. “The lands and streams which joined here before flowing into Lake Ontario marked a place of rest and refreshment for people on their journeys.”

The liturgy drew on practices of blessing the waters from both First Nations and Orthodox Christian traditions, in order to bear witness to “the Great Spirit at work in the world, healing and restoring this lovely, fragile blue planet.”

Throughout the ceremony, the Mii Qwan women’s hand drum group, from the Toronto Urban Native Ministry, filled the cavernous church with their powerful singing, reminding those gathered that we all have a role in protecting the waters of the Earth. Prayers of thanksgiving were offered for various elements of nature, from the waters and the fish to the birds and the stars. The Rev. Andrew Wesley, of the Toronto Urban Native Ministry, offered a prayer to the Four Directions.

In her reflection, Jennifer Henry, executive director of KAIROS, reminded those present that, through his incarnation, Jesus was “a child who, like other babies, was mostly water – 75 per cent water, so they say.” Like the rest of humanity, Jesus depended on water for his daily needs, she said.

Later in her address, Ms. Henry asked, “How can we tolerate boil water advisories in the communities of the First Peoples of this land, while city dwellers – settlers and newcomers – drink safely and abundantly from the taps in our kitchens? Access to water is a potent sign and symbol of the drastic inequalities that exist between us in Canada, indigenous and non-indigenous, the huge separation that exists in this country when we should be one.”

The vigil culminated in a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing of the water. Those gathered were then invited to come forward and to drink from the water of thanksgiving. The evening ended with a time of refreshment and fellowship, where water continued to be consumed.

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“It starts with listening, serving needs, building community and making disciples where there’s potential for them to become ‘church,’” said the Rev. Ryan Sim, the conference organizer.

The importance of forming authentic relationships emerged throughout the conference. For the Rev. Jasmine Chandra and the Rev. Terence Chandra, a married couple starting an inner-city ministry in Saint John, N.B., it has meant walking around their neighbourhood and meeting people “on their own turf.”

“We’ve tried to be in places where we will meet the poor and marginalized. When we walk down the street, we make it a point to say hi to everyone we meet,” said Ms. Chandra. “What’s happened through a lot of this connecting and getting to know people is that God has let us into people’s lives in some very deep ways.”

The conference culminated in Team Day on Saturday, which welcomed about 40 new participants, many of them from parishes looking to start new ministries in their neighbourhoods. More than a dozen parishes from the Diocese and beyond were represented.

William Spotton, a member of St. John, Bowmanville, said he was eager to learn how to reach people who are not currently part of the church. “How could we reach out in a non-intrusive way and invite people in?” he said.

Led by Jared Siebert, national director for church development for the Free Methodist Church in Canada, teams completed several exercises to help them learn how to identify and respond to the values of their parishes and their surrounding communities.

“You have a neighbourhood that has been placed in your care, and it is your responsibility to begin to understand your neighbourhood,” said Mr. Siebert.

Teams were also urged to think about mission as more than one program or committee within their parishes. “With missional churches, somehow part of their soul is expressed through carrying out Christ’s mission,” Mr. Seibert said.

These conversations are also happening at the diocesan level. As a speaker at the conference, Archbishop Colin Johnson said the Diocese has changed the way it looks at many of its ministries. “We’re discovering that social justice and advocacy work is missional. That the chaplaincy work we’re doing is missional. You just have to rethink how we’re doing it and re-imagine it,” he said.

While many speakers acknowledged the difficulty of setting a course or even measuring their success, the tone of the conference was ultimately hopeful.

“It’s encouraging to see so many people from such diverse ministries coming together, trying to figure out how we can better serve God,” said the Rev. Heather Liddell, a Divinity student at Wycliffe College. “It’s beautiful.”

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I didn’t have much luck. The books I chose were either too weighty or not weighty enough. I was required to either delve deeply into ancient history and philosophy or turn off my brain altogether. And most of the books were dull.

After several false starts and dead ends, I somehow stumbled upon the books of N.T. Wright and enjoyed them a lot. I was in the library one night, looking for his latest bestseller, when I pulled out a paperback that had a picture of an immense statue of Jesus on the cover. The statue was covered in scaffolding, as if Jesus was under construction. It was a forbidding image, heavy and dense. Even the author’s name – Marcus Borg – was intimidating.

I pushed the book back into its slot and went on searching. After a few minutes, the bell rang, announcing that the library would soon be closing. Unable to find the book I was looking for, I went back to the paperback and turned it over in my hands. Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary. Not a bad title. Never heard of the author. What the heck, I thought, if I didn’t like it, I could always take it back.

Within a page or two, I realized this was the book I had long been looking for. Mr. Borg was intelligent, funny, passionate, brave and obsessed. In a word, compelling. I found his thoughts about the “pre-Easter” and “post-Easter” Jesus electrifying. Why had no one ever told me about this before? For the first time (I was approaching 40 and had gone to church, off and on, for my entire life) the Christian story began to make sense to me.

After reading it, I gave it to a friend, a Catholic who had left the church long ago and had taken up Buddhism. He brought it back to me a few days later, the pages well thumbed. “This is very cool,” he said without a trace of sarcasm.

I went on to read all of Mr. Borg’s books, although none of them approached the power of Jesus, in my opinion. But they enriched my life and faith enormously. Last year, I went on a week-long retreat at the Society of St. John the Evangelist’s monastery in Boston. I took just one book, a volume of essays by Mr. Borg (a liberal) and N.T. Wright (a conservative) on the essentials of the Christian faith. The monastery was full of books but I barely gave them a glance, I was so absorbed in the one I was reading.

Mr. Borg had his detractors, of course. Even his fans found some of his opinions hard to take. But the fact is, he made Jesus accessible and attractive to millions of people. That was his great gift, and I for one am grateful for it. One of his books was titled Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, and, for many of us, that’s exactly how it felt.

Mr. Borg, an Episcopalian theologian who lived in the United States, died in January at the age of 72. When I heard about his death, I thought back to that night in the library and said a quiet word of thanks.

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I was born and raised in India until Grade 9 and was baptized into the Church of South India (CSI). Growing up, I remember my father having a daily habit of scripture reading and prayer. Our family prayed together almost every evening, led by my mother. My grandparents were devout Lutherans who lived out their faith through active service at their church. And my Sunday school teachers took great pains and care to teach us songs and stories about Jesus. Other than drinking copious amounts of juice and colouring pictures at Sunday school, I remember thinking, “Jesus really loves me, and he can do anything.” Family and Sunday school teachers played vital roles in shaping my faith.

The CSI, although Anglican, is also an ecumenical denomination where Anglicans, Lutherans and Methodists are in full communion under one bishop. This is because Christians in India are a minority and we realized we needed each other’s support. For example, when I visited my grandparents’ Lutheran church and asked them what church they were, they said, “we are all CSI, we are one church.” Not only was ecumenism a practiced value, so was holistic mission. The CSI had medical missions in slums, Christian education, orphanages, etc. They valued ecumenism and proclaimed the Gospel in word and deed.

I was 13 when my parents immigrated to Canada. Although I knew all about Christ’s life, retrospectively speaking, I realized my life did not centre around him. You could say that I had all the right answers, but my life centred around myself. The sad part was that I wasn’t even aware that I was oriented away from him, although I thought I was following him because I knew all the answers.

By the summer of 2001, when I was 16, I unintentionally had not attended church in a while. I stumbled upon some Christian programming on TV. The familiar hymns and their imagery moved me, especially one where I pictured myself sinking in a sea of my sin and brokenness, while Jesus stood on the waters lifting me out. I think it was the first time where the significance of my baptism became alive to me. It was a spiritually refreshing experience and caused me to remember how much Christ loved me, and to consider orienting my life around him.

Although this spiritually refreshing moment in high school happened, my university days were lonely. I missed Christian community and fellowship, and found myself increasingly thirsty for it. I also desired to do something more practical with my faith, like Bible study groups or a service project. I heard about Power to Change, an interdenominational campus ministry, through my cousins and became involved in my third year. One of my first mentors was pursuing his PhD in physics. Since we were both science students, we talked a lot about faith and science, suffering and evil and the existence of God, and faith in Christ. He was very helpful and discipled me in the faith. When I graduated from university, I decided to intern with Power to Change for a year. My ministry included mentoring younger students, leading Bible studies, and organizing student retreats, just to give back because of how much I benefited when I was involved.

Over time, I realized that the more I wanted people to discover and experience Christ, the more I was being drawn into ordained ministry. I wanted to help people discover and experience Christ through the sacraments of baptism and communion and the ministry of the Word. Part of it came out of God weaving a desire into me to pick up my cross and follow Christ more and more. Part of it came out of a desire to draw people closer to Christ as I had been drawn. While I was still serving with Power to Change, I took a few classes at Wycliffe and thoroughly enjoyed them. I also felt affirmed by older Anglican ministers and lay leaders who knew my faith journey and gently kept encouraging me to consider ordained ministry. Over a few months, after thinking about serving God in the wider communion and life of the church, I decided to become ordained.

Life with Christ has its ups and downs. There are times when I wrestle with making sense of the suffering and evil I see in the world. There are other times when I am convinced that Christ is doing something good in the world and me, even though I might not perceive everything fully. Orienting myself around him becomes more worthwhile when I understand how much he loves me. Through the ups and downs, I think Christ has become a more beautiful person to me, such that knowing him has a “constraining” effect, sort of like the Scottish hymn, “Oh Love that wilt not let me go.”

Five years from now, I hope to be serving as an Anglican priest ministering to people and drawing them closer to Christ. I enjoy inviting people to explore what he has done for us. Of recent, I have become interested in how faith can serve, love and benefit people outside of the church in meaningful and practical ways. I’ve been inspired reading about Anglican ministers in other eras who were very involved in the community to love and serve people for the sake of God’s justice and mercy. It’s something I would like to explore more, while I continue serving in the church.

Some of my favourite passages from scripture are John 3:30, where St. John the Baptist says that he must decrease and Christ must increase; the passage where Jesus washes his disciples’ feet (John 13:1-20); and Philippians 2:1-11, where St. Paul describes Christ’s humility and servanthood for our sake. These passages reorient my heart towards Christ’ humble sacrifice for me. But the passage that I try to reorient my life around the most is Philippians 3:7-16, especially the part where St. Paul speaks of the surpassing worth of being with Christ, compared to everything else as loss.

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Now you may think this is a logical step to take, but I suspect that despite our professed faith and worship, we often neglect it. We are so anxious to solve problems and get to the solutions that we dive straight into ideas and plans or arguments about the issues and neglect the very heart of our purpose. We fail to listen to God.

Those weekly gatherings for prayer for the Peterborough clergy were transformative. They deepened relationships within the clergy team and kept them focused on God’s call and purpose. They each will say that this was the most critical step in preparing them to enter a covenant together.

Prayer is the activity that helps reorient our perspective and attitude. Prayer invites us to see the world as God sees it, to offer ourselves to God and God’s purposes and to orient ourselves and the world to God’s ways. It is not a laundry list of things we want or want to happen, but rather an immersion of ourselves in the ways of God’s kingdom.

That takes time – time to listen to God in silence, time to listen to God through scripture, time to voice our heart’s desires, time to listen to one another. Jesus frequently took time to pray – to be with God, even and especially when there were so many other pressures and calls on him. Martin Luther said, “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has made prayer a priority commitment for his ministry. “If we want to see things changed, it starts with prayer. It starts with a new spirit of prayer, using all the traditions, ancient and modern. When it comes, it will be linked to what has gone before, but it will look different – because it is a new renewal for new times. God’s created community is perfectly designed for its time and place. It almost always comes from below. It comes from Christians seeking Christ.” He has invited the Chemin Neuf monastic community to live at Lambeth Palace as a sign of our need for daily prayer and is gathering a group of young adults to live at Lambeth Palace for a year beginning in September 2015, engaged in a life of prayer, study and service.

What role does prayer play in your own life? In the life of your parish? Often we slap on perfunctory prayers at the beginning and end of meetings as a polite reference to God. Do we stop in the middle of a meeting – in the middle of discussion – to listen for God’s voice, to separate our personal or corporate agendas so that we may hear God’s call? This is a discipline that requires practice. The Peterborough city clergy began that practice over two years ago and continue weekly.

We are unlikely to have three hours to set aside, as Martin Luther did, but a key component of our daily life as Christians is to include prayer. Our baptismal covenant asks us, “Will you continue in the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers?” The Book of Common Prayer invites us to form a Rule of Life that includes both regular participation in worship and Holy Communion and the “practice of private prayer, Bible-reading and self-discipline” (BCP pg. 555).

We are now entering the season of Lent, a time for renewing the disciplines of our faith that may have slipped into disuse or never fully been acquired. I know that the practice of prayer – private and corporate – will be essential to the discernment we need to build the church and God’s kingdom. Will you pray?

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The athletes’ village, where they will be housed, is being built near the Don River in Toronto’s waterfront district. It’s about a 15- minute walk from the church and is situated within the parish boundaries.

The number of visitors to the neighbourhood is expected to climb even higher while the games are on, as the athletes’ families and friends come to visit and tourists explore the local shops and restaurants.

In the midst of all of this, Little Trinity plans to be an oasis of hospitality, offering everything from worship services to big screen TV viewing for those who cannot make it to the events.

“There’s going to be a lot of congestion down here, so we’re making plans and asking, ‘How can we be the best possible hosts to our visitors and neighbours, and how can we bring Jesus into the midst of this?’” says the Rev. Beverley Williams, the associate priest at the church.

She says the games are an excellent opportunity for evangelism. “In order to meet our neighbours and provide opportunity for conversation, we need to move people from distrust to trust, and the only way to break down that is by building a relationship. So this is a grand opportunity to do exactly that – to break down those barriers and move into that place of trust.”

The church plans to hold a sports-themed Vacation Bible School in early July as the games get underway. The church will be open every day for prayer, including Morning Prayer for the athletes before they go to their competitions. It will be holding its Music in the Park series every Thursday night on the lawn, with music from different lands. For local residents to who can’t make it to the events, it plans to show the games on large screen TVs while providing hotdogs, hamburgers and cold drinks.

“It’s about caring for our neighbours, meeting someone else and sharing that love that is planted in our hearts through the Gospel,” says Ms. Williams.

The Vacation Bible School program is provided by More Than Gold, a Christian organization that helps churches get involved in their communities during sporting events. Bishop Philip Poole, the area bishop of York- Credit Valley, sits on its executive committee. The Vacation Bible School program and other resources can be found on its website, www.morethangold2015.ca.

Ms. Williams, who has assisted More Than Gold with community events, says there are lots of opportunities for Anglican churches to get involved in the games. The events will be held at 30 venues in southern Ontario, most of them in the diocese. (For a map of the venues, visit www.toronto2015.org/ venues.) As well, some the athletes will be housed outside of downtown Toronto, closer to their competitions.

“It’s an opportunity for churches throughout the diocese to be thinking, ‘What’s going on in our neighbourhood and what can we do? Can we offer chaplaincy? Can we get together and think about housing? Do the athletes’ families need a place to stay? Can we run the VBS for our neighbourhood?’ It can be something really simple like having a water station for thirsty visitors or opening up your church if it has air conditioning.”

She says churches can also advocate on behalf of the poor and homeless prior to the games by joining More Than Gold’s social justice committee. “They can ensure that our homeless people aren’t discarded to make Toronto look pretty. The committee’s other concern is human trafficking. We can make sure that the Pam Am Games planning committee hears that.”

After the games, the athletes’ village will become a mixed-use neighbourhood with affordable housing, new condominiums, a YMCA and a dormitory for George Brown College students, according to the games’ website.

A few blocks west of Little Trinity, St. James Cathedral is also planning for an influx of visitors during the games. “I think the church generally and Little Trinity and the cathedral specifically are being presented with a unique opportunity to reach out and share Christ’s love with these visitors and to really live out our faith in an exciting and fun time in the life of the city,” says the Rev. Simon Davis, assistant curate at the cathedral.

Like Little Trinity, the cathedral plans to hold some services in Spanish, the language spoken by many of the athletes. Mr. Davis is having conversations with other churches and faith groups about having a large event in the park next door to the cathedral. One possibility is showing some of the games, such as the opening ceremonies or the gold medal match in soccer, on large screen TVs.

He says an outdoor event, organized and run by faith groups, could be a special witness to the community. “That would be a really good, tangible demonstration of ecumenism, of working together and reaching out in love,” he says.

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