The conference will include many opportunities for learning, connecting, celebrating and singing. Anyone who believes in the importance of congregational song is welcome to register for the full conference. Advance registration rates are available through June 15. For more information or to register, visit www.thehymnsociety.org.

Founded in 1922, The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada is an ecumenical organization of people who are passionate about hymns and congregational song. The Hymn Society community, open to all, is made up of scholars, church musicians, poets, composers, choir directors, choir members, clergy, worship planners, song leaders, music publishers, music educators, and people who love to sing. The society believes that the act of singing together shapes faith, heals brokenness, transforms lives, and renews peace. Its mission is to encourage, promote, and enliven congregational song.

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Teams will begin at Holy Trinity, Guildwood, 85 Livingston Rd., and travel to 10 churches before reaching St. Timothy, Agincourt, 4125 Sheppard Ave. E., for a reception and awards ceremony. Bishop Andrew Asbil will present awards to the winners and congratulate all participants. There will be giveaways and swag for all participants, with the top three teams winning special prizes. A video of the event will be posted online.

At each stop on the steeplechase, at least one team member will complete an activity, such as a water relay or building tour. Contestants will need to navigate their way through an undisclosed course with only clues they win at the stops to guide them.

“Rather than battening down the hatches, this scavenger hunt is a way for our churches to open their doors, introduce themselves, show how we like to have fun and celebrate,” explains Denise Byard, one of the event’s coordinators. “Beyond having fun, our goal is to increase the Scarborough community’s awareness of churches across the area and what they offer.”

Anyone, including minors accompanied by a guardian, is invited to register by June 1 with a $25 donation to PWRDF (Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund).

The steeplechase is managed by leaders from St. Timothy’s and Holy Trinity, and the following churches are participating: St. Andrew, Scarborough; Christ Church, Scarborough; St. Dunstan of Canterbury; St. Jude, Wexford; St. Margaret in the Pines, West Hill; St. Michael the Archangel; Church of the Nativity, Malvern; St. Paul, L’Amoreaux; and the Church of the Holy Wisdom.

To register or learn more about the Scarborough Steeplechase, visit www.scarboroughsteeplechase.homesteadcloud.com or contact either Denise Byard at denise@trinityguildwood.org or Elaine Vanderwerf at associate@sttims.ca.

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In March 2019, a student named Louise walked into the AURA office in Toronto, asking if we could help sponsor her 19-year-old brother, Moses. Moses was living in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya. Originally from Sudan, Louise and Moses had grown up in Kakuma, a camp of more than 200,000 people that has been over capacity since 2014. We took her information but told her that since AURA receives thousands of requests each year, it was unlikely we would be able to find her a sponsor group. Private sponsorship of refugees is an amazing program, but it is difficult to access. At AURA, we wish we could help everyone who comes to us, but we take great care not to create false hope.

A few days after Louise’s visit, Marin Lehmann-Bender, AURA’s sponsorship director, had an idea.  The refugee sponsor group at Trinity College had recently finished another sponsorship and had some remaining funds. With Louise studying at the University of Toronto, it could be a good partnership. AURA approached the Rev. Canon Andrea Budgey, the Trinity College chaplain and sponsor group lead, who said yes almost immediately. With this enthusiasm, Marin started the process of developing Moses’ case. Many meetings, phones calls, interviews and documents gathered led to a strong final application. With the commitment of a great team from Trinity College and the invaluable help of St. Stephen in-the-Fields, AURA submitted Moses’ application for resettlement to Canada in July 2019.

Two weeks later, AURA’s sponsor group from St. Bartholomew, Regent Park welcomed a Sudanese family who, like Moses and Louise, had spent many years in Kakuma. This family had been separated from their two-year-old son, who remained in Kenya when they travelled to Canada. His name was also Moses. Marin worked with the sponsors and the family, trying different routes to reunite little Moses and his mother Sarah, finally submitting an application in December 2019 through a special exception to Canada’s moratorium on sponsoring unaccompanied minors.

Little Moses’ application was progressing unusually quickly. But when the pandemic hit and everything slowed down, entry restrictions caused refugee arrivals to cease almost entirely. While he would have been allowed to enter Canada, Little Moses was too young to travel alone. The International Organization for Migration usually arranges escorts for unaccompanied minors but couldn’t in this case because of Canada’s entry restrictions. It is impossible to describe what it means for a mother to face one delay after another when she’s waiting to reunite with her child.

Then Marin had another idea: What if Big Moses (as we affectionately came to call him) could bring Little Moses to Canada? Would he be willing? Would Little Moses’ mother consent? Could the Canadian embassy finalize Big Moses’ application quickly enough for this to work? Would the government of Canada even allow it?

After conversations with both families and sponsor groups, AURA pitched this idea to a resettlement officer at the Canadian embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. He agreed that this was the best solution and was exceedingly helpful in moving Big Moses’ application forward as quickly as possible. As a final step before travel was arranged, we suggested the two Moseses meet one another in Kenya. But by that time, they had both moved out of Kakuma Refugee Camp. To our delight and surprise, they were both in the same town in Kenya—approximately a 10-hour drive from Kakuma! They met, and Big Moses formally agreed to assume the responsibility of accompanying Little Moses, now four years old, on a two-hour flight to Ethiopia followed by a 15-hour flight to Toronto. The Moseses arrived safe and sound in August 2021. Big Moses went straight to the hotel for a then-mandatory quarantine, and Little Moses went straight into his mother’s arms.

After countless hours of working on applications, consent forms, declarations and quarantine plans, after hundreds of emails and phone calls with family members, lawyers, sponsors, the government of Canada and resettlement partners, AURA’s plan worked. The Moseses now call Toronto home, and two more refugees found freedom, family and safety in Canada.

Many hands moved the Moseses forward on their unusual journey to Canada. Dozens of individuals were directly involved in making this incredible resettlement a reality. We have no doubt that the Moseses will, in turn, impact dozens of lives, and the ripple effects of their being here will go on for decades to come.

Your parish can sponsor refugees. This requires forming a group, raising money and committing to helping a refugee or family settle into your community. Parishes often partner with other faith groups, community groups or local relatives of refugees to work together for sponsorship. To learn more, visit www.auraforrefugees.org.

Resource materials for Refugee Sunday, including fact sheets, FAQs, prayers and worship resources, will be available on both the diocesan and AURA’s websites.

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A record is information created and maintained by a congregation, regardless of media, used to control, support or document the activities of the congregation. Records include documents, photographs, video and film recordings, sound recordings, maps and drawings. An archival record is a record of enduring cultural, historical or evidentiary value and should be kept permanently.

How to store records

The first step in caring for parish records is to manage the records in the parish, making sure records that don’t need to be kept permanently are routinely destroyed when they’re no longer needed.

For records that are archival and need to be kept permanently, it’s important to make sure they’re being properly cared for. Records should ideally be stored in a location that maintains a relatively consistent temperature and humidity all year round, with temperature around 20 degrees Celsius and relative humidity of 45 per cent. Where such ideal conditions aren’t possible, the parish should aim to keep the records in an area that doesn’t experience significant fluctuations in temperature or humidity during the year. Records stored in areas with high temperature, high relative humidity and low air circulation are at risk of developing mould. If your parish has any records that show signs of mould, contact the Archives to get advice on how best to deal with them.

Records not stored in a file cabinet should be stored in boxes raised off the floor on metal shelving. This keeps them safe from water damage in the event of flooding and helps to protect against pests that make their home in wood. It’s a good idea to place sticky traps in areas where you’re storing records, preferably in darker corners where pests may hide. Check the traps on a routine basis to make sure you’re not experiencing a pest problem. Several insects, including silverfish and book lice, will cause damage to records. If you notice insect activity, contact the Archives to discuss ways to remediate this issue.

Newspaper

Records within a parish archival collection may also need special care and consideration. If you are keeping newspaper clippings of articles about your congregation, make sure to note the name of the newspaper, the date of publication, and the page number where the article appeared.

Newspaper is very acidic and should be stored in a separate file folder from other material, or in an archives-safe enclosure if stored with other items. Items that are stored with newspaper, without any sort of buffer, will discolour and deteriorate more quickly.

Photographs

Photographs can be a wonderful way of documenting an event in the life of your congregation, but only photographs that have some historical value, providing evidence of people or events significant to the parish, should be kept permanently. Ideally, the subject of the photograph should be clear and identifiable. If there are multiple photographs showing the same image from the same event, keep only the best one.

It’s important to provide some written context for the photo, such as the date it was taken, the name of individuals photographed, and the event or location where it was taken. This ensures that when future generations view the photograph, they can understand the context and historical significance. To make sure the photograph isn’t damaged when adding this information, you can use an index card stored behind the photo in a photo album or storage box. Alternatively, writing on the back of the photograph with a pencil is an acceptable choice. Write lightly around the edges to avoid damaging the focus of the photograph at the centre.

To ensure the long-term preservation of archival photographs, they can be stored in a box or in albums. If stored in a box, the box should be archives-safe quality that is acid-free and lignin-free, as photographs stored in an acidic environment will become discoloured over time. If stored in a photo album, they should be kept in acid-free sleeves made of polyester, polypropylene or polyethylene; avoid plastic sleeves made of polyvinyl chloride (also called PVC or vinyl). Photographs should not be adhered to the pages in any way, as glue and tape can cause discolouration and lead to deterioration of the photograph.

Photographs should be handled with care and only touched while wearing white cotton or nitrile gloves to avoid oils from fingers being left on the surface of the photograph, leading to deterioration over time. If the photograph is in fragile condition, arrangements should be made to transfer it to the Archives so we can make sure it’s stored in the best conditions possible.

Audio-visual materials

Audio-visual material may be recorded on various media formats, including acetate-based film strips, magnetic tape like VHS, and CD/DVDs. Unfortunately, many of the formats can’t be viewed or listened to as the necessary hardware becomes obsolete. This is an issue particularly with formats that require a specific viewing machine that is no longer manufactured. VCRs can be difficult to find these days, and many computers no longer have a CD/DVD drive. This can also mean that if audio-visual materials have not been labelled properly, they become meaningless, as the contents cannot be verified. Take time to properly label these types of records, including title, date of recording and length of recording.

Audio-visual materials are more prone to deterioration, due to environmental conditions, than paper and should be handled carefully. They should be stored in a relatively cool location with relative humidity around 40 per cent.

Repair & conservation

If your parish has records showing signs of deterioration or damage and you feel they should be repaired, this work should be conducted by a professional conservator. Trying to repair records without the necessary knowledge or expertise may cause more damage in the long-term. In particular, regular transparent tape should never be used to mend tears in documents or photographs.

Transferring records

For records that are considered archival, we encourage you to transfer them to the Archives when they can no longer be properly cared for in the parish, perhaps due to age, condition or space issues. The Archives has storage with the ideal environmental conditions to slow deterioration of fragile records, and will allow us to schedule conservation treatments if needed.

We strongly encourage parishes to send in their parish registers of baptism, confirmations, marriages and burials as soon as the registers are no longer in use. These records are accepted as proof of birth and marriage, and in some instances where there have been errors or omissions in provincial registration of these events, they can be used to confirm the correct information. Due to the irreplaceable nature of these records, it’s important to make sure they’re sent to the Archives for storage in our vault, which has a fire suppression system. Several congregations have had devastating fires over the years, and in some cases records have been destroyed. For registers still in use or kept at the parish, we recommend they be stored in a fire-resistant safe or file cabinet.

If your parish has determined you may have records that should be transferred to the Archives, there are several steps you need to take to move that process forward. Before arranging to transfer records, the records must be boxed in clean boxes. You’ll also need to fill out a record transfer form that provides a file-level listing of the records to be transferred. This form is available on our website, www.toronto.anglican.ca/archives, or you can contact the Archives and we will send you a form. Once you complete the record transfer form, scan it and send it to us so we can review what you’re planning to send.

The Archives doesn’t accept bibles, prayer books, banners, or liturgical vessels and linens. If these are no longer needed by your parish and have associated memorials, you can take a photo of the item and the inscription to keep permanently. These items can then be offered to other churches through a notice in the diocesan Bulletin Board; send an email to editor@toronto.anglican.ca. You can also reach out to the bishops’ administrative assistants in case they’re aware of churches looking for these items. Otherwise, they can be reverently destroyed.

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My mother was born in Shanghai to a Chinese mother and English father. She was raised in what was known there as the Church of England faith, although we also have Confucian and Buddhist ancestors. My father was born in Italy and raised as a Roman Catholic. After joining the Italian navy, he was assigned as an admiral’s aide and eventually served as chief of staff of the Italian embassy in Shanghai. They emigrated to Toronto from Shanghai after the Communist takeover, and I was conceived enroute. Growing up as a young child in North York, I would walk to our nearest church in the neighbourhood, which happened to be Presbyterian.  That is where I learned my basic Bible teachings, creed and Christian values. We had a close family friend who was a cantor at an inner-city Anglican church (the name of the church escapes me) and our family would attend Christmas Eve services there frequently. Since my brothers and I were enrolled in the public school system, it was not until I became a teenager that I finally went to study my Catholic catechism, receive my first communion, and was confirmed.

Later, as an older teenager growing up during the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, etc., I chose to reject authority, including organized religion, in favour of what I believed was a sound personal ethical and moral compass. It was another decade before I realized this was not working for me and chose to re-visit my Catholic faith. By then, Vatican II had transformed the catechesis and liturgy in ways that were much more in alignment with my own interests. At about the same time, I met my wife Kimberly, who had been raised in the United Church and who seemed to be on a similar faith journey. Together, we began attending St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto, and eventually she chose to be confirmed in the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil in 1987. The following year, we were married at the cathedral.

After helping to serve a Christmas meal at an inner-city drop-in centre for ex-psychiatric patients, I began volunteering there on a regular basis and met a client who suggested my wife and I continue our theological studies at St. Michael’s College, TST (Toronto School of Theology). We signed up in 1989 and began taking one evening course per term. One of our professors inspired us to begin attending the Basilian-staffed St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel at the Newman Centre on campus, where he would preach occasionally. There we found ourselves part of a diverse and loving community. The liturgies were beautiful and often pushed traditional boundaries in ways that we found empowering and life-giving. In 1998, I finally graduated with my master of theological studies degree. By then, my wife Kimberly had transferred to OISE (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education), where she completed a master’s degree of education in psychology, counselling, after which she established a psychotherapy practice specializing in grief, depression, and anxiety.

Unfortunately, at some point, a new pastor was brought into the Newman Centre whose approach caused a great exodus of longstanding parishioners. Some of us ended up at an alternative Christian faith group called “Ruah.” Eventually, Kimberly and I migrated back to our Catholic roots and joined Our Lady of Lourdes parish, staffed by the Jesuits. We were volunteering at Casey House AIDS hospice at the time, and the Jesuits had a ministry to Catholic residents of the hospice and offered a monthly healing mass at the church, which we often attended.

Since 2006, we have been registered parishioners at St. Gabriel’s parish in Toronto, staffed by the Passionists. It is beyond our own parish boundaries but attracts me as the only church structure that has been designed to embody the eco-theological principles of Passionist priest and cultural historian, the Rev. Thomas Berry, C.P., author of seminal works such as The Dream of the Earth and The Great Work. As the architect of the church, I also have a more intimate connection and deeply rooted love for the place. It was during my graduate studies in theology and ecology at St. Michael’s College that I was introduced to Berry’s teachings by Fr. Stephen Dunn, C.P., who was both founder and director of the Elliott Allen Institute for Theology and Ecology at St. Mike’s. Both Steve and Tom served as mentors for me over the years.

St. Gabriel’s represents my unofficial graduate thesis, a way to give tangible, meaningful expression to what Steve and Tom taught me about how to be in right relationship to the earth. The design and orientation of the building towards the south garden reminds us that when we gather to worship, we do so within the greater context of creation. At the time it was consecrated in 2006, it was Canada’s first church to achieve LEED Gold Certification and the first LEED Gold building in Toronto, garnering the city’s coveted Green Design Award in 2007. From the beginning, every design decision was considered through the lens of eco-theology and as such, the completed building represents a form of catechesis, in and of itself, inviting us to contemplation and transformation. Our firm, Larkin Architect Limited, also recently completed a new church for the parish of St. Benedict’s in Milton, Ont., designed to be the first net-zero carbon emissions church in Canada. It combines geothermal heating/cooling with a super-insulated building envelope and a 95 Kw array of solar photo voltaic panels mounted on carports in the parking lot.

I currently serve on my parish’s Building Management Committee, in charge of the planning and ongoing management of the church building and its property. One of our roles was to re-envision St. Gabriel’s one-acre garden, which initially had been planted to reflect the area’s pre-settlement ecosystem. Over the years, it had become home to many invasive species that were choking out the original plant material. Subsequently, it soon became known as the “Garden of Weeden.” Subsequently, it has been re-constructed using Hugelkultur, an all-natural method, to grow food for local pollinator species and the Good Shepherd homeless shelter. We have a separate garden ministry of dedicated volunteers who tend to this wonderful, thriving resource.

I also conduct several tours and lectures at or about the church throughout the year, providing insights on how the design responds to eco-theology. St. Gabriel’s has also been featured in Toronto Doors Open more than once. I am also currently serving as a facilitator for a parish-wide synodal discernment process that has established a three-fold vision for how the parish engages the world around us, which includes care for creation.

Another profound influence in my life was the decision for us to partner with our friends Kevin Shortt and Jack Bond to purchase a property in Northumberland County and build a straw bale, off-the grid house together. Living there and caring for the land together as an intentional community helps to keep me grounded, centred and oriented for the work I do.

I am currently serving as a founding member of the Diocese of Toronto’s Bishop’s Committee on Creation Care and its liturgy and education subcommittees which, over the past two years, have provided many resources for parishes in the diocese such as Lenten, Advent and Season of Creation reflections, suggestions for how to gather out of doors for worship during COVID-19, and other initiatives that reflect our mandate. In 2020, I was appointed by the diocese to the Board of Management for Epiphany and St. Mark, Parkdale, with the added assignment of exploring ways to redevelop its property to provide much needed affordable housing for the surrounding community while partnering with other local parishes and social service organizations to expand its ministries and outreach capabilities.

I am also an advisor to a nationwide Anglican initiative founded by Mark Gibson called Net Zero Churches that seeks to assist parishes across Canada to achieve Net-Zero carbon emissions as a faith-based response to the climate crisis. I am also willing to assist local parishes in the Diocese of Toronto who are seeking ways to achieve this goal and find other ways to reduce their ecological footprint. I believe that the climate crisis is the most threatening existential issue facing humanity today and is therefore deserving of all the attention and efforts we can muster. Ultimately, we cannot not have a healthy, thriving human and more than human community on a planet that is unhealthy.

My hope is that we will all become re-enchanted with the beauty of creation. Beauty stops us in our tracks, we fall in love with what we find beautiful, and we want to care for what we love.  Five years from now, I pray that we have met our Paris Protocol commitments and prevented a rise in global temperatures beyond the threshold of 1.5 degrees.

I am not a biblical scholar, preferring instead to focus on the scripture that is creation, which for me represents the primary expression of the divine presence.

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“The Dead Sea in the Middle East receives fresh water, but it has no outlet, so it doesn’t pass the water out. It receives beautiful water from the rivers, and the water goes dank. I mean, it just goes bad. And that’s why it is the Dead Sea. It receives and does not give. In the end, generosity is the best way of becoming more, more, and more joyful.”

This passage reminds me of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. He had condemned himself to a path of misery, loneliness and death. His fist was clenched tight, holding onto everything he had received and believed to be his exclusively. His life became a desolate place like the Dead Sea.

We can easily fall into this trap. Archbishop Tutu offers us a way out. He offers us a way to avoid this trap in the first place. He offers us generosity as a path to joy. He would have us understand and experience that opening our hearts to others, opening our clenched fists to share with others, taking the risk to reach out to help others brings us joy. It is like finding an outlet for the Dead Sea, or the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge. Yes, we are transformed by generosity! We build new relationships. We have a positive impact on the world. We better see true value and meaning beyond material possessions.

We are called to share in God’s joy. “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.” Jesus says (John 15:11). We are called to be joyful. “Rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy.” Peter exhorts us (1 Peter 1:8). “We rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God.” Paul teaches us (Romans 5:2). I rejoice that through your generosity to FaithWorks, you have experienced the transformative and divine joy of generosity.

Thank you to all our donors, large or small, new or ongoing, individual, parish, corporate or foundation. Thank you to our dedicated volunteers in parishes and at the Diocese. Thank you to our ministry partners who are on the frontline of the struggle to bring well-being and security to so many. I pray the joy of generosity be yours. I pray your generosity leads you to a fuller experience of God’s love. I pray that you will continue to help the most vulnerable among us.

2022 results

In 2022, the impact of your donation to FaithWorks was felt across the diocese and throughout the world. There was a 35% increase in the need for services provided by FaithWorks’ ministry partners.

Thank you to our Ministry Partners

Our FaithWorks Ministry Partners struggle on the front-line each and every day to share the transforming power of Christ’s love with thousands of people in need. We thank our Ministry Partners for being powerful witnesses to the love that is changing lives and changing the world.

• A Place Called Home, Lindsay
• All Saints Church Community Centre, Toronto
• Anglican United Refugee Alliance (AURA)
• Couchiching Jubilee House, Orillia
• Flemingdon Park Ministry, Toronto
• Inn from the Cold, Newmarket
• Migrant Workers Ministry, Durham
• North House, Durham
• One City Peterborough
• One Roof Community Centre, Peterborough
• Orillia Christian Centre “The Lighthouse”
• Philip Aziz Centre for Hospice Care, Toronto
• Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF)
• Samaritan House, Barrie
• The Dam, Mississauga
• Toronto Urban Native Ministry, Toronto

Thank you to our corporate and foundation donors

Thank you to our Corporate and Foundation Donors who contributed $234,900 to FaithWorks in 2022. Your generosity makes it possible to improve the lives of thousands of individuals and families.

$50,000 – $99,999

• Anglican Diocese of Toronto Foundation
• BMO Financial Group
• Fast Foundation

$20,000 – $49,999

• Fleck Family Foundation
• New England Company

$15,000 – $19,999

• Anglican Foundation – Apostolic Catholic Trust
• Letko, Brosseau & Associates

$5,000 – $14,999

• Bicknell Foundation
• Fiera Capital Corporation
• Rogers Gardham, ODT
• Smith-Boake Designwerke
• VPC Group
• Worker Sisters of the Holy Spirit

$1,000 – $4,999

• Caldwell Securities
• Foster Hewitt Foundation
• Margaret Sisley Foundation
• Nursing & Homemakers Inc.
• Oriole Foundation
• Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt LLP
• Uplands Foundation

Thank you to our parishes

You are at the heart of the annual FaithWorks campaign as communities of compassion and hope. 93% of parishes participated in the 2022 campaign. Contributions from our parishes were $871,700. Parishes retained $82,368 for local outreach ministries. Area grants totaled $43,145. Thank you for being communities of love and hope.

Visit www.faithworks.ca for more information or to donate

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I have never been a particularly athletic person, nor would I describe myself as particularly “outdoorsy.” But sometime a number of years after the death of my husband, I discovered that walking in nature became a good way to work through stress and grief. It became part of my prayer practice to hike, though I wasn’t always praying every time I hiked.

The desire then became to do something with my walking that was more intentional and for a longer period of time. The only pilgrimage route I’d ever heard of was the Camino in Spain, so I started by googling the Camino. Around the same time, a cousin walked the Camino and posted pictures on Facebook.

Thanks to the algorithms used by Facebook, things about pilgrimage started popping up in my feed. That’s how I discovered that there are also pilgrimage routes in Ireland. That interested me because part of my heritage is Irish. I followed the Pilgrim Path page that is dedicated to these Irish pilgrimage routes. I visited Ireland with some friends in 2017, and my intention had been to walk at least one of the pilgrim paths, but the friends I was with weren’t up for it, so I let the idea drop, intending to get back there someday. And then I changed jobs, and then the pandemic hit with all its travel restrictions, and I put the dream on hold. But it was still there in the background, and still popping up from time to time in my Facebook feed.

In 2021, something about the Camino Nova Scotia popped up in my feed. This was intriguing. Something closer to home than Europe! The timing wasn’t right yet, though. Then in 2022, our College of Bishops announced the mini-sabbatical program for clergy, and they didn’t put any restrictions on how that time was used. The time was right. I knew that a pilgrimage in Nova Scotia was exactly what I needed for a sabbatical time.

Pilgrimage has been described as “praying with your feet,” and is a very intentional and physical way of using one’s body in prayer. There were practical things I needed to do to prepare for the journey: buy plane tickets, book accommodations for both sides of the pilgrimage (during the pilgrimage we slept at churches or church camps along the route), acquire items and pack as lightly as possible. Physical preparation was needed, too. The pilgrimage was in early October, so I started walking every day of my summer vacation in August, gradually increasing the length of the walks. The longest I’d ever walked in one day prior to this preparation was 10km. We had been sent the itinerary, and the longest day would be a 30km walk! My goal was to do that prior to the pilgrimage. I didn’t make it, but I got fairly close. Returning to my regular schedule after vacation, and with lessening hours of daylight, I wasn’t able to walk as far, but I still made it my goal to walk at least a couple kilometres every day in preparation.

The other part of the preparation was a spiritual one. The information we were sent about expectations clearly stated: “Walking pilgrimage is more than just a hike! Pilgrimage is travel for transformation. It’s an opportunity to mindfully experience yourself in relation – to other pilgrims, to the land, to history and to the transcendent. Camino Nova Scotia is designed to provide times for personal growth and spiritual nurture, all while undertaking a physical challenge, with an eye to appreciating Nova Scotia for its place, its peoples, and its past.”

We were asked to think about why we were making the pilgrimage, and why now. Of course, what I thought I was seeking ahead of time and what God chose to reveal to me by the end of it were two different things!

A pilgrimage is not just an external, physical journey: it is an internal, spiritual one as well. The two journeys are inextricably linked, however. What is happening while one walks informs one’s inner reflections, and one’s inner reflections inform how one sees what is happening around them as they walk. One of the pilgrimage leaders remarked that “when you walk, the land becomes a part of you.” By which she meant the act of walking helps you understand the land, and the land has a deep impact on you, in a way that riding or driving over it does not. As I walked, the landscape and the weather became part of my prayerful reflections about community, belonging and discernment. I had been seeking absolute certainty about what lay ahead, and what was revealed by the end was that even if things were “foggy” I just needed to trust the path and the directions I’d been given, and trust that eventually the fog would clear; but in the midst of the fog, to appreciate the beauty of that which was right in front of me. It felt really important to just be in the moment, and not let the lack of clarity about the future disturb my state of mind, heart and soul. In a profound way, I could hear God asking me to relax and to trust.

By the end, I had gone roughly 110km from Grand Pré to Annapolis Royal. And while the physical journey sounds impressive to some (and I am proud of myself for finishing it!), I think what impressed me more was the spiritual journey that was tied to that physical journey; the connection to land and community, and the learning that developed and came together over five short days.

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We need more priests. We need pastors and teachers who will gather the people of God, preside at the sacraments of the new covenant, preach the word, and embody the love of Christ to a broken and hurting world. Our current clergy shortage means that we cannot consistently and reliably provide priestly ministry to every parish across our diocese. It also makes it challenging to create a list of candidates when parishes are in a selection process.

The shortage of priests has been particularly apparent during the pandemic, and I think there are several reasons for the dearth. First, I think the Church is not exempt from the overall labour shortage that is endemic across our country. As in secular society, we are experiencing the retirements of many baby boomers, and the “Great Resignation” of the early pandemic continues. Second, I believe concerns about the long-term viability of the institutional Church cause younger people in particular to think twice about their options as they test a call to the sacrificial life of a priest. With a decreasing number of full-time ministry positions, how can a young person contemplate a priestly vocation while also desiring to raise a family, especially with housing costs in the Greater Toronto Area? Thirdly – and perhaps most importantly – I’m not sure we always do a good job of looking and listening for those whom God may be calling. How often do we talk about vocation or ask people whether God might be calling them?

Back in the 1980s, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto launched a public advertising campaign seeking to raise up new priests. The roadside posters had a simple slogan: “Dare to be a Priest Like Me!” with the telephone number of the archdiocese under the slogan. The poster showed the crucified Jesus in the foreground against the backdrop of the City of Toronto. Several priests – including the current Roman Catholic Bishop of Ottawa – credit this campaign for having stirred something within them to consider this call.

Can we also find creative ways to help stir that longing within others? Can we be more intentional about planting the seeds that will yield a harvest of new clergy for our Church? I will never forget the day I returned home for the Christmas break from my first year of undergraduate studies. Waiting for me at my parents’ home was a letter addressed to me from Bishop Taylor Pryce, former suffragan bishop of our diocese. I had been confirmed by him a few years before at my home parish of Holy Trinity, Thornhill and I had met him just a handful of times. The letter included an invitation to come and have dinner with him and others at the end of the Christmas break. When I arrived at the dinner, there were about a dozen other 20-somethings around the table, all there to hear more about ordained ministry and to share their own tentative sense of perhaps being called to the priesthood. At least three of the young people around that table went on to ordination in our diocese.

There are other opportunities, too. In some churches, the Fourth Sunday of Easter (“Good Shepherd Sunday”) is a day to focus on vocations. The readings for that day provide wonderful opportunities to speak about calling. I would love to see Easter 4 revived as a “Vocations Sunday” for our Church each year.

On May 10, I celebrate the 25th anniversary of my ordination as a priest. And what a ride it has been! There have been some very difficult moments along the way, but many more filled with the sheer joy and privilege of serving the Church of Christ. If I had to do it all over again, I most certainly would. There really is no life like it.

This Easter season, as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and the new life we have in him, I invite you to look around and see who God may be calling to be a priest. Perhaps God is calling you. If so, please do not delay in speaking with your parish priest or contacting Canon Mary Conliffe, who oversees our postulancy process. If you believe God may be calling you into this wonderful ministry, dare to say yes. Dare to be a priest!

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