At that initial meeting, I learned that the goal of the National Youth Project (an initiative of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada) was to raise $20,000 for “Right to Water.” This provides potable drinking water and sanitation facilities to one home in Pikangikum, Ont.

To my surprise, I also learned that this was going be the first team from the Diocese of Toronto going to CLAY. I saw this opportunity as a great honour and a great responsibility.

And so, the planning began to get the first team from the diocese to CLAY in Kamloops, B.C. on Aug. 14. Throughout the whole process, I clearly felt that God was with us, and that he had already worked out a plan to make sure we got there. I saw God’s presence in the support I received from my home parish, from the leadership provided by Dawn, and from the generous donations from Archbishop Colin Johnson, the participating area councils, parishes and deaneries, and from other generous donors, all of whom made this adventure possible.

I knew that God was with us, but I must confess that I was a bit nervous about going across the country with the youth who had been entrusted to my care. Nonetheless, my fears were put aside immediately because I knew that I was going on this journey with an amazing group of talented and experienced youth leaders.

During CLAY, I continually felt God’s presence as I participated in the large group gathering (a time for spiritual reflection), the ministry project of liturgical dance, and the various road trips. Most importantly, I got to spend time with truly amazing Christian youth from across Canada, in particular the youth from our diocese. Being in close contact with more than 700 Christian youth and listening to their experiences, questions and doubts, allowed me to further understand that my role as a youth leader is to be a companion to our youth as they discover their own worthiness.

As I reflect upon the theme of the gathering – “Worth It” – I wonder how I can remember, when faced with challenges and feelings of not being good enough or not measuring up, that I am worthy. I wonder how I can better relate to others and treat them in a way that allows them to rediscover or remember that they are worthy; that we are all worthy, and that our worthiness comes from God. I am excited to begin to share what I learned.

I am truly grateful for CLAY 2014 and the staff at Thompson River University, for all the work they did to organize this amazing conference. I want to thank everyone in the Diocese of Toronto who supported us. Thanks to St. Peter, Erindale, for hosting the diocese’s team the night before our departure and making sure we got to Pearson airport on time. I also want to thank the youths’ parents for helping with fundraising, and the team leaders – Brianna Locke, Andrea Morrison, Jon Dykeman, Rosemary MacAdam, and the Rev. Dawn Leger, our fearless spiritual leader. Last but not least, I want to thank the youth from the diocese – Erik Patterson, Lydia Keesmat-Walsh, Ireneh Omere, Aliya Whyte, Tiffany McKay and Alycia DeFrias – for being such great troopers and for their willingness to serve one another. My desire is that as we get back to the hustle and bustle of our modern life, we remember that we are worth it!

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The Book of Job is one of the biblical books that attempts to tackle this question. The story presents Job as a man who did no evil. He was sinless in the eyes of God, and then he lost everything. This story is probably one of the most difficult books in the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) to understand. Let us look at it in some detail.

God and his angels were discussing humans, and God pointed out the goodness of his servant Job. One of the angels, called the Satan, challenged God, maintaining that Job was only good because he had been so richly blessed. So God allowed the Satan to strip Job of all of his wealth and family. This he did, and still Job remained faithful. Next, the Satan was allowed to cause Job to be covered with sores, but Job remained steadfast in his faith. Then, three friends arrived on the scene, to comfort Job in his afflictions. This all happened in the prologue to the story, which is written in Hebrew prose (Job 1:1-3:2).

Before we continue with this story, it should be pointed out that the Satan is not the Devil in a red suit and a pitch-fork, which we picture in our Christian theology. That Devil does not exist in the Hebrew Bible. That was a Christian attempt to explain the presence of evil in the world. The Satan in Job was an agent of God, acting with God’s permission.

When we look at Job’s three friends, or comforters, my only comment is, “With friends like these, who needs enemies!” The dialogue he has with his friends and later with God is written in Hebrew poetry. The story progresses with each friend accusing Job of sinning and thus deserving his punishment. He suffers because of his moral behaviour. Each time, Job assures his friends that he does not deserve the punishment.

Then a fourth friend, Elihu, appears and he takes the argument one step further. He talks about the power of God and how God only punishes evil behaviour; God does not afflict the righteous. There is no other explanation for Job’s suffering: he must have been sinful. This theology was in keeping with much of the Hebrew Bible. The prophets warned the people that their sinful nature was going to lead to God’s punishment. Indeed, the explanation for the defeat of Jerusalem and the Exile, as written by the Deuteronomistic Historians, was because the people had sinned against God and this was their punishment. God even used their enemies as his agents of this punishment! So Job’s comforters were in good company. But they were wrong!

Job demands a chance to appeal to God, and finally God appears. God’s reply comes in chapters 38 to 41. He asks Job a series of rhetorical questions that contrast the power and wisdom of God with that of Job. God argues that since Job was not present at the creation of the world and does not understand the workings of the universe, he has no right to demand an explanation. God does not give Job a straight answer except to say that we cannot know the ways of God. Bad things do happen to good people. That is the way of the world. We cannot insist that God must act in a certain way. That would be to limit God, and God cannot be limited. God maintains that Job’s friends are wrong in their understanding of evil.

Job is vindicated in the epilogue (42:7-17). Here, the author reverts to Hebrew prose, and Job has all of his wealth, health and family restored. The unknown author of the Book of Job maintains that we cannot know the will of God.

We cannot identify the author or the dating of this important book. It may have been written around the sixth century BCE or even later. The story was probably based on ancient folklore that was prevalent in the ancient Near East.

This book is a fascinating read, addressing the problem of evil in the world. It may be one of the most important books in the Tanakh. I invite you to read through it, contemplating your thoughts about the problem of evil in a world created by a good God, a God who is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving. Enjoy the dialogue.

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Established in the mid-70s as an effort to give a boost to choral singing among girls and young women ages 8 to 18, the school – affectionately known as “choir camp” – has brought fun and lots of singing opportunities to generations of young choristers.

Director Tony Browning, music director for 39 years, says the school’s success lies in the balance between musical training and singing services at churches in the Diocese, and lots of activities.

During the reunion at the Trafalgar Castle School in Whitby, where the camp is held, alumni joined current campers in a typical day, compressed into an afternoon. It included choir practice, games, a scavenger hunt, chapel, supper, a sing-along and a slideshow from past years. One of the former students drove from New York to attend the reunion.

Every year, the choir camp concludes with a recital and Evensong at St. James Cathedral in Toronto, an annual service that attracts a congregation of hundreds, including many proud parents. This year’s service included a new musical composition by Andrew Agar, specially commissioned for the choir to perform. When welcoming the choristers, Dean Douglas Stoute said his daughters had attended the choir camp many years ago, and it has been an experience which has impacted many lives.

Mr. Browning says the choir school has proved to be the foundation of not only a loyal volunteer staff, most of whom have been serving for decades, but many participants who come back year after year. Some who maintain ties with the camp will form the nucleus for maintaining the choir school in the future, he said.

The choir school has benefited from financial bequests to the Diocese and other foundation grants to provide some bursaries for campers. That has allowed the registration fees to remain at $900 for two weeks.

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Grace Church, Markham, is a growing multicultural and multi-generational parish in the city of Markham, northeast of Toronto. Over the past 10 years, we have been in the process of re-imagining how we celebrate God’s amazing love, and what that looks like on a week-to-week basis. As we have grown, we have been inspired by the resources of the Alban Institute and the church growth conferences at St. Bartholomew’s in New York City. We have learned about radical welcome and we strive to greet each guest as Christ himself.

Over this time, worship has transitioned from being book-focused, with worshippers looking down into their books, to PowerPoint worship, with the words and images projected up on screens. The congregation now looks up, and there is much greater participation.

Children are an integral part of our parish life. As such, the nursery school area was renovated two years ago. At the same time, our music shifted from a fairly exclusive repertoire of hymns to a broader tradition, offering not only hymns but praise music and music from the different backgrounds of our parishioners. The parish has added a third Sunday worship opportunity known as Eucharist in the Round in the parish hall.

There has been a concerted effort to upgrade Grace Church’s buildings for the 21st century. We have a new kitchen and new washrooms, and we have repainted the interior. Hardwood flooring has been added to the sanctuary to improve acoustics. Our lighting is almost completely upgraded to LED lighting, making our building not only brighter but more cost effective. A multi-year plan, which calls for a new sound system and further improvements to the heating system, has been developed to propel Grace Church into the future.

The Our Faith-Our Hope: Re-Imagine Church campaign came at an opportune time in the life of our church, as we required new roofing over the church and parish hall. These were major expenses that the parish was not in a position to fund, even with increased attendance and activity. During the campaign, parish pledges totalled 110 per cent of our goal. This enabled us to proceed with a new state-of-the-art insulated roofing for the church and parish hall.

With our rebate from the campaign, we also added air conditioning to the worship area and parish hall. With our increasingly hot summers, people find air conditioning is as essential today as plumbing was in the last century.

Grace Church is grateful for the Our Faith-Our Hope: Re-Imagine Church campaign and to our parishioners who responded so generously to it.

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As an Ambassador of Reconciliation for the Diocese of Toronto, it has been my calling to enter more deeply into the spaces between the words of our nation’s Truth & Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on Indian Residential Schools. I listen and am present to the moment – to the truth being shared and to the time being invested in this journey of learning our way into relationships of reconciliation.

The TRC has a five-year mandate, comprised of community hearings and national events across Canada. It provides opportunities to share personal stories, to hope for change and reconciliation, to learn about the residential schools, to learn from those who attended the schools, and to celebrate Aboriginal culture.

The work of Archbishop Desmond Tutu on South Africa’s TRC greatly inspired me to get involved in our own TRC here in Canada, as did my commitment to the future of our Anglican Church. In the words of Archbishop Terence Finlay at the event in Inuvik, “We have failed the church, and we need to find a new way ahead.” He was referring to the inhumanity that we, the church, harnessed in our complicity with the government in imposing the residential schools upon our First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. I am part of that church, and plan to be a part of the new way ahead. I am part of the historical failure, and part of the future solution.

With a foot in both camps, I have Métis heritage on my maternal grandfather’s side, and settler heritage on my maternal grandmother’s side. My maternal grandfather, Oliver Chick, was born near Pilot Mound, Manitoba. In his early years, he attended a residential school, and later went on to become a teacher. He was a World War II veteran, and proudly retired after 40 years of teaching, “without missing a day.” He was not proud, however, of his heritage. He didn’t talk about it and didn’t share the details of his residential school experience. His sister Edna, a stoic yet lively woman well into her 90s, uncharacteristically broke down one day before he died, and revealed that they had attended residential school for several years as young children. While there, they were forbidden to speak their language, Michif, and as punishment were beaten and had their hair cut off. How could this have ever been a necessary way to treat children? Let us not make this terrible mistake again.

It has been an honour and my pilgrimage to attend all seven of the national events of the TRC, in Winnipeg, Invuik, Halifax, Saskatoon, Montreal, Vancouver and Edmonton, themed with the Seven Grandfather Teachings: respect, courage, love, truth, humility, honesty and wisdom. I also went to the Toronto 2012 regional gathering, which I had the great privilege of attending with my mother.

Being an intentional witness, I observed that at the first TRC in Winnipeg, there was tangible pain, palpable fear, and a culture of shock and anxiety that accompanied the revelations of experiences, abuse and suffering in the residential schools. As the national events continued, however, with many community gatherings held in between, there emerged many revelations of resilience and profound courage in the peoples and in the atmosphere of the venues. Artists shared their interpretations of experiences, musicians expressed their deep emotions and steadfast hopes, and craftspeople created beautiful and challenging pieces that contributed to the enlightenment of the witness.

When truths were told in public testimonies, permission was given to pass along what was heard. We witnesses were encouraged to re-tell, and in the end, the truths demanded to be shared, broadcast, re-told and remembered from shore to shore to shore: no more shall we ignore the realities of our country’s history of colonization and racism. No more shall shame envelop and obscure the First Peoples of our land. We are being called into right relationship with ourselves and each other, with our land and all its inhabitants, with our Creator.

Each TRC event was new, with people from all over the province and country. There was an author from the north who chronicled her days at the residential schools and her sad homecoming: her mother didn’t even recognize her. There was an elder and healer from out east who shared his wisdom gleaned from surviving. I talked to a university-educated elder who was never allowed to raise his hand in class at residential school. I heard from a young woman whose parents didn’t know how to parent her, as they had been taken from their homes at such a young age. I witnessed a family, spanning several generations, taking the microphone with great courage and humility to share the pain and suffering that had isolated them for years.

Meeting the people kept me coming back as a witness, and those meetings broke my heart. The community of listeners and sharers’ tears were gathered with care in tissues and placed in the sacred fire as offerings to our Creator God, bringing healing, peace and, sometimes, blessed emptiness to the aquifers of our souls.

When it arises in conversation in our diocese, there are so many different ways the subject is received: I encounter reflexive defensiveness and denial, with ongoing racism and, even worse, indifference or dismissal. But there are also the people who are interested and engaged in it, and many who are deeply concerned with reconciliation beyond the TRC. For example, our National Indigenous Bishop Mark MacDonald’s Living Water Working Group, Pimatiziwin Nipi, is an ecumenical grassroots network that operates on the pillars of advocacy, education, spiritual practice and strategic giving. The Primate’s Commission on Discovery, Reconciliation and Justice is working to find ways ahead for the church. Ecumenical grassroots networks in the churches and in many communities are working for change and awareness, transformation and education, renewal and reconciliation.

I have learned to listen in new ways, with my heart and my mind, as well as my ears. A sacred trust is entered into by sharing these intimate and deeply personal truths. It is vital to speak out, recognizing and using for good our places of privilege (religion, ability, citizenship). I am grateful to be part of a diocese that has resources, and a parish family that has encouraged and facilitated my journey. Reconciliation takes much time, even generations, in a family and in a community, working toward right relationship. The key is to start the work, even though it might take more time than we have.

My favourite passage from scripture is from Psalm 51: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” I can never put my heart back together the way it was before I began this journey. All my relations. Shalom. Miigwetch.

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If you were to attend a church on a Sunday as a visitor, what would you be prepared to put on the collection plate from your wallet? What might you need to hold back as cash for that day or the next? Would you need to keep money in your wallet for lunch? Subway tickets? The kids’ pizza day at school?

I thought about this when our parish treasurer received a bill for $500 to reprint our pew envelopes. As the churchwarden, I had to sign the cheque. I calculated that it will take 25 donations of $20 just to recover the cost. We will then have to issue (on paper) a thank you card and a printed receipt. They will be put inside an envelope, with a $1 stamp on it. So let’s make that about 27 donations of $20, at least. That doesn’t include the time of our volunteer counters.

In other words, we are using a system designed for another century. So maybe it’s time to reframe the conversation: How do people pay for things now, including making on-site donations?

I’ll use myself as an example. All my banking is done online. I pay for utilities, groceries, residential fees and taxes, car payments and monthly contributions to the parish via direct debit from my current account – and make two transfers a month to pay my credit card balances in full. Nearly all other purchases are paid for with credit cards – some as monthly deductions, such as my contribution to Our Faith-Our Hope, and others when I buy online. (The points I earn on one card add up to a free flight a year; on the other, it brings me occasional cash deductions). I still have a small business account that receives the odd bit of income from an online order site. I have a line of credit to cover emergencies and a savings account to hold occasional surpluses. I make withdrawals of cash – usually to buy subway tokens – of $60, always in twenty dollar bills. Sometimes the cash sits in my wallet for most of the month. I visited another church recently and didn’t really want to donate $20, but it was all I had in bills and I wasn’t keen to drop a bunch of change. So I gave it.

I donate to my college and TVO via their websites. I contribute to another churchwarden’s charity walk online, too, and get the tax receipts right away. I read my bank statements on my laptop, tablet or phone.

I’m a senior. Am I typical of my own demographic? How about a younger demographic? My guess is that the laptop is the least used device for the 20 to 50-year-old crowd. I look at the passengers on the subway, and it’s all about smartphones.

So here is the challenge:  How are we going to encourage visitors to make one-time donations when they visit a church on a Sunday in a way that works for them, not us? The method has to maintain confidentiality, be secure, and allow us to obtain their basic information in order to issue a tax receipt and have enough information to thank the donor appropriately.

I think it’s time that churches begin this conversation. How about you?

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A deeper reading of the scriptures, however, reveals to us that each and every person, being a member of the body of Christ, has a purpose in his kingdom. God leaves no one out who is willing to follow him. We all need to remind ourselves of this fact, to help the kingdom of God come to fruition on earth – a hope we pray for each time we recite the Lord’s Prayer.

Early in July, I was privileged to attend, as a Canadian visitor, the annual convention of the American Council of the Blind in Las Vegas. This organization, more than 50 years old, has among its members lawyers, teachers, government employees and many other blind people who are successfully working in a number of professions.

The organization has changed what it means to be blind for thousands of America’s blind citizens. Along with another group, the National Federation of the Blind, it has extended the rights and status of the blind far beyond what exists in Canada.

In Canada, unfortunately, the situation is just not as positive for the blind.  While there are certainly very significant issues facing the blind in the U.S., blind people there have been able to organize, confront and overcome many of these concerns. Chief among these, and absolutely pivotal, is the constructive self-image that blind people need to have in order to succeed. (Indeed, in one of his most thought provoking speeches at the conference, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, the former president of the National Federation of the Blind, urged blind people to see their blindness as just a characteristic or, at worst, an inconvenience that should not prevent them from having successful and fulfilled lives.)

There has been little leadership among blind people themselves in Canada to establish a truly effective self-expression and public advocacy. Instead of fostering a public recognition that blind people need productive employment, for the very same reasons that everybody else does, and that those who are not able to obtain work should at least be provided with a sufficient pension to live with dignity, there is a culture of simply giving them limited rehabilitation services based on charity through such organizations as the CNIB.

This dilemma is succinctly described in a groundbreaking analysis by Graeme McCreath, in his brilliant book, The Politics of Blindness: from Charity to Parity. Mr. McCreath, who is fortunate among the blind to actually have a successful career, dispels the many myths about blindness – and the significant damage that Canadian society has forced the blind to undergo by preferring to view them as objects of pity and charity, rather than capable, worthy of respect and simply wishing to live a full and normal life.

Last summer, when Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne publicly called for an enquiry into the issue of missing aboriginal women, I wrote to her, asking if she might look into the chronic 80 per cent unemployment rate among the blind and the consequent egregious poverty in which the vast majority of them are thus forced to languish. She has never answered my letter. In today’s Ontario, it seems, the blind are quite invisible – especially to their own Premier.

Just like everyone else, blind people are individuals. One reflection of this is the existence of a Blind Pride group within the American Council of the Blind for LGBT blind people.  I also met a man, born in China, who represented that country at the World Blind Union meeting in 1996, which I also attended, and who now teaches English in San Francisco.

The kingdom of God is within each of us; it grows there day by day. Let us continue to work and pray together for its realization over all the earth, till righteousness reigns everywhere.

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Some examples of extreme behaviours are seen in events currently taking place in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Egypt, to name a few. These are very disturbing, as perpetrators carry out violent and barbaric acts against other humans in the name of religion – Islam. We must really question whether Islamic values would support such behaviours. Islam, Judaism and Christianity all have Abraham as their great forefather, and they believe in and worship one God. They share values that include respect for the dignity of each person.

Although we live in an era of great advancement in terms of scientific and technological achievements, some behaviours and ways of thinking seem to contradict such progress. There is disquiet and skepticism among many persons who are unhappy about what is taking place in their communities. They do not have much confidence in authority figures, whether social, political or religious. Some of these persons are extremists in their thinking and actions. When these actions become violent, they must always to be abhorred and condemned, irrespective of who carries them out. There is no place in our communities, nations or world for violence in any form.

There are individuals, as well as some groups, who are extreme in their behaviours, which betray the bodies to which they claim affiliation. Consequently, there is increasing negativity leveled against the Islamic religion, because extremist members of that religion carry out acts of horrendous violence in the name of Islam.

In many parts of the world, including here in Canada, there are very healthy and positive relationships among members of these three religions. There are inter-faith groups who seek to promote harmonious relationships. We must not be misguided or misled by extremists’ inhumane acts, and we should also be careful about how we accept views that are portrayed in the media.

Many readers of this paper are familiar with the core values of Judaism and Christianity. It is important to know that Islam shares many of those core values as well. Adherents to Judaism, Christianity and Islam believe in the sacredness of life.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who is the chairman of Cordoba Initiative, a multi-national, multi-faith organization dedicated to improving Muslim-West relations in the United States, writes: “Muslim values, as explicitly described in the Quran and in the teachings of the Prophet, guarantee the right to life, the right to family, the right to property, the right to pursue our beliefs the way we want. This is why early Muslim societies were successful and were welcomed by people of other faith traditions, because the earliest Muslim rulers ensured freedom of religion under their rule. Only in the last century has a different interpretation of Islam become oppressive to other faith traditions.”

The Imam goes on to point out: “That’s why it is so important not to let a bunch of terrorist thugs be given the mantle of an ‘Islamic State.’ We may be decades away from achieving a true Islamic state in Iraq and Syria. The region must heal from more than a century of colonial domination, Cold War conflict, despotic regimes, and economic stagnation that has left so much of the population grasping for anything to assert their power and address political grievances. But in the end, Muslims will want to create governing systems that allow them to embrace Islam while engaging in the modern world.”

I have raised this matter because so often, by our silence on erroneous teachings or characterization of other religions or Christian denominations, we contribute to myths and stories about others that are untrue, degrading and uncharitable.

I believe that most people are good-natured and well-intentioned. Love for God, others, as well as self are fundamentally important to all three faiths. There is virtue in being tolerant and respectful of others, particularly those who are different from us, whether because of race, colour, religion, sexual orientation or political persuasion. I encourage us to continue to work harder at building healthy relationships in our communities among those who are different from us. Our communities are very multicultural and require that we make every effort to learn about each other in order to develop better relationships. We as church have a vital role in influencing others in the practice of good neighbourliness. When our relationships are healthy, then our communities and nations will be healthy.

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As a parish priest, I presided over a lot of weddings; many fewer after I became the executive assistant to the Bishop and now the Bishop. I used to joke that I preferred funerals to weddings – an in-joke for clergy and organists who know the complexities of negotiating expectations of brides (and occasionally grooms), parents and wedding planners. Often people in grief tend to be more open to the Gospel message than those who are ready to party and have spent a great deal of time planning every detail of it!

I was particularly happy with this wedding. The marriage rite in the Anglican tradition, whether BCP or BAS, is full of realistic hope and generous expectation, not only of the couple but also of the community that witnesses the vows. The unconditional commitment that is pledged in the declaration of consent, the exchange of the vows and the giving of the rings is amazing when you think about it.  “For better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish for the rest of our lives.” It is an aspiration of hope made in the context of the realities that mark our experience of life, not just the romantic glow of attraction and bliss but the hard slogging moments of darkness and difficulty. Like the 23rd Psalm, the presence of God in the midst of life comes not only in times of bucolic green pastures and still waters but equally in the shadows of death and the presence of enemies.

Marriage is a practical laboratory where two people with unique gifts, histories, passions and foibles come together in partnership, with God’s grace, to live out an experiment to demonstrate that “unity can overcome estrangement, forgiveness heal guilt, joy overcome despair”. It can become an effective sign, even in its imperfections, of the continuing power of Jesus’ love to reconcile a broken world, and so a sign of hope, not just for two individuals but for the community.

Unlike living together, marriage is a public celebration where the community takes its role in supporting, encouraging, protecting, counselling and assisting the couple in fulfilling the hopes so clearly stated in their vows. Without the community’s support, or in the face of its undermining, such a relationship is almost impossible to sustain. So it begs the question of how we actually act to support those whose marriages we celebrate. As couples (and their children) move from close proximity to extended family, and even as society increases in complexity, more and more emphasis is focused on the binary couple. How do they find community to help bear the burdens and celebrate the joys of family life? It is part of the responsibility we share as church.

Over the generations, aspects of our understanding of marriage have changed. More than fifty years ago, the Canadian Prayer Book recognized a greater mutuality of husband and wife and stated that “matrimony was ordained for the hallowing of the union betwixt man and woman, for the procreation of children to be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord; and for the mutual society, help and comfort, that the one ought to have of the other, in both prosperity and adversity.” This reordered the purposes of marriage in earlier Prayer Books, placing procreation second rather than first. The 1959/62 Prayer Book revision also removed two other statements: marriage was not to be entered into “to satisfy men’s carnal lusts and appetites, like brute beasts that have no understanding” and “It (matrimony) was ordained for a remedy against sin, and to avoid fornication; that such persons as have not the gift of continency might marry, and keep themselves undefiled members of Christ’s body.” This was a liturgical recognition of a major theological and ethical change: until the late 1940s, Anglican bishops officially taught exactly what the Roman Catholic Church continues to teach, that artificial birth control was prohibited, and sexual acts not open to the potential for procreation were immoral. Some 30 years ago, the celebrant at the blessing of a marriage using the BAS began to say that “the union man and woman is intended for their mutual comfort and help, that they may know each other with delight and tenderness in acts of love”. Procreation was put in brackets, recognizing that by age, inability or choice, there might be no children in a faithful Christian marriage.

Today there is debate about whether the Marriage Canon of the Anglican Church can be adapted to include same-sex couples in the definition of Christian marriage, as it has been for a number of years in the state’s legal definition. For some, this is an appropriate development of the Gospel; for others, it is a fundamental departure from Scripture and tradition. A commission reporting to the Council of General Synod is currently considering this. Changes in the canon, if any, will require a considerable time to implement after wide consultation.

However this develops over the next years, the prayer offered in a nuptial blessing expresses an abiding hope of all of us coming to a wedding, asking God’s blessing on the couple “that they may so love, honour, and cherish each other in faithfulness and patience, in wisdom and true godliness, that their home may be a haven of blessing and peace.”

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The shipping industry has changed dramatically since 2008, and the Anglican mission to those who work on the ocean “salties” and Great Lakes “lakers” has to change with the times. As a result, it is revitalizing its port ministries and adopting a more missional approach.

Ms. Alltree was appointed interim director of the Mission to Seafarers in Toronto in April 2013, pending its amalgamation with the mission in Hamilton. A year later, she was appointed executive director of the newly amalgamated mission, which serves not only Hamilton and Toronto, but also Oshawa.

In the past, seafarers would come to the mission station once the ship had docked. Now they often do not have the chance to leave the ship, so the mission comes to them. “Sixty to seventy per cent of what we do is ‘going out,’” she says.

This new approach needs people, and Ms. Alltree is anxious to find volunteers who can be trained as ship visitors. Crews come to the Ontario ports from around the world, and it would be an advantage if the volunteers could speak a language in addition to English.

Above all, they need to be good listeners. Seafarers are away from home for months at a time and often, as was the case with a Ukrainian crew this summer, they leave behind a precarious situation at home.

“We are dealing with a multi-faith, multi-denominational, no-faith world,” says Ms. Alltree, adding that the universal need of seafarers is to have someone to listen to them.

Volunteers should also be ready to work irregular hours with as little as a day’s notice. Ships arrive late and leave early, and the mission wants ship visitors to be there as soon as they arrive.

Ms. Alltree also hopes to attract people with social media and graphic arts skills who will, among other things, produce an electronic newsletter. The most important challenge facing the mission is to develop more connections with local Anglican communities in Toronto and Oshawa, and also with ecumenical and interfaith ministries.

One of the high points this summer came when a German ship was abandoned in Oshawa, with the Romanian crew left aboard, unpaid. The mission found a Romanian Orthodox church in the port area and contacted the pastor and his wife, who rallied their church community to welcome the crew into their homes, take them to church and give them moral support.

“Now we have a connection in the port with another Christian denomination, and they want to become involved in the mission,” says Ms. Alltree.

She is also determined to connect seafarers to local communities, especially the thousands of people who are coming to live in the newly developed Distillery and Canary districts. She points out that 90 per cent of everything we use comes to us on a ship, but the people who bring these goods here have become invisible to us.

“Connecting the seafarers with the local communities where their products are first brought makes a difference in their lives,” she says. “They feel somebody cares about the work that they do, that they don’t disappear into the ether after the cargo gets discharged. That’s really important to us at the mission.”

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