“We thought we would put it online and we might get 100, maybe 200 people downloading it,” she said.

A few churches couldn’t print the resource and asked Canon Paulsen if she could send some printed copies. “So we printed some, and they all went,” she recalls. “And then people were calling us saying they wanted something in a smaller format that they could put in their bible, so we printed 2,000 copies and they all went, too.”

The resource, which featured short, simple prayers written by Christians of different denominations over the centuries, became a sought-after item not only in churches but wherever Anglicans gathered, including the annual clergy conference, Synod and the season’s five big Lift Up Our Hearts services.

“People were not only taking one for themselves but two or three for family, friends and relatives,” says Canon Paulsen, who recently retired as the season’s coordinator. “That’s a really weird thing for Anglicans to do!”

The Season of Spiritual Renewal was held in the diocese from 2023 to Epiphany of this year. It was the first of 20 “calls” that emerged from the diocese’s visioning process, Cast the Net. Its purpose was to help Anglicans rekindle their faith after the Covid pandemic.

Looking back over the last two years, Canon Paulsen says the season provided plenty of surprises and insights. One was that Anglicans in the diocese are hungry for resources and teaching on prayer. Of the 40 workshops offered during the season, the top two best-attended, single-session workshops were about prayer and Christian meditation. A total of 314 people registered for workshops on prayer, averaging nearly 40 people per session.

Another learning was that Anglicans love to gather to worship God, even on a Saturday afternoon. Just over 1,600 people attended the five Lift Up Our Hearts services, which were held in different parts of the diocese. The services included preaching, music, lay anointing and lay witness talks. The offerings amounted to $7,045, which was given to support the ministry of the Council of the North.

Anglicans are also hungry to learn more about scripture, the creeds, church history and Christian disciplines. How to use resources for discipleship and how to develop small group and bible study ministries were among the most popular topics of discussion. The nine-session Christian Foundations course had the fourth-highest registration of all the workshops, and a course studying the Rule of St. Benedict had the sixth-highest registration.

The season found that while Anglicans tend to be shy about sharing their faith, they understand the importance of it and are eager to learn how to do it in winsome and respectful ways. Clergy are also keen to learn how to preach in a way that helps people take steps to become followers of Jesus Christ. The two-part workshop on Preaching Evangelistically was well attended, as was the Everyday Witness course and the workshop on A New and Ancient Evangelism.

One of the key learnings from the season is that spiritual renewal can happen using what is at hand, says Canon Paulsen. “We’ve seen that when we bring to God the best of what we have, to whatever capacity we can, God blesses it. We never expected that many people to show up for worship on a Saturday afternoon, and we didn’t know that we were going to run 40 workshops. Those ideas just kept showing up for us, based on people’s suggestions. We simply created space for lots of the gifts of the diocese to be highlighted. We didn’t look outside the diocese for experts to come in; we saw that we had a lot of great skills and experience right here.”

Another important learning was that worship can drive spiritual renewal. “Having the right resources is very helpful, but worship is the thing that feeds the soul,” she says. “Things happen in worship that we can’t explain. We never imagined people lining up for the ministry of prayer and anointing with oil at all five services, two of which were held in churches that had never offered them before. As people became more aware that God hadn’t left the building, they could pray for others in their lives who had spiritual longings, and could trust that God was already there, sewing the seeds and cultivating the ground.”

Some of those seeds are already starting to grow, she says. More churches are incorporating lay witness talks into their worship services. The talks, which featured lay people giving testimony about their spiritual lives, were one of the most inspiring parts of the five Lift Up Our Hearts services. More churches are also exploring the ministry of prayer and anointing with oil.

On an everyday level, Anglicans in the diocese seem to have drawn a little bit closer to God, she says. “We’re talking about God a little more freely, with the expectation that God is at work, in churches large and small.”

To keep the momentum going, Canon Paulsen and the season’s steering committee suggest some initiatives for the years ahead, including:

• every parish should be encouraged to continue to pray for renewal, and to include such prayers in all their parish meetings and worship services;
• at least one diocesan worship service be offered annually, with possible on-site workshops offered after the service;
• a discipleship conference to encourage discipleship in all churches across the diocese, and for the diocese to develop discipleship resources specific to the diocese’s context;
• book studies on how to share the faith;
• a Season of Spiritual Enrichment that focuses on leadership development.

Canon Paulsen’s biggest hope is that Anglicans in the diocese continue to talk about God more. “For me, that’s the thing I most hope for going forward – that we won’t lose our freedom to talk about the way God is at work in our lives. Because I think that’s going to be the most attractive thing with people who have spiritual longings. If it’s just about signing up for committee work, that’s not going to do it, because they can do that through the Rotary Club. It’s got to be a focus on God first, and our love and worship of God, and out of that will flow all these other good things – love of neighbour through word and deed.”

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Dr. Adderley, incumbent of St. George Memorial, Oshawa, preached at the service, which, like the four before it, was an opportunity for Anglicans to come together and renew their faith after the hard years of the pandemic.

In his sermon, Dr. Adderley said spiritual renewal is grounded in the power of the cross, “for it is at the cross where God’s words are awakened within us, it is at the cross where self gives way to transformation and renewal.”

He said spiritual renewal challenges Anglicans to repair or replace some attitudes, habits or actions. “If we are truly renewed, that means we are a new people, so the way we look at the Church ought to be new, the way we look at the diocese ought to be new, the way we look at our life ought to be new. The chaos and challenges we sometimes face – we ought to have a different approach.”

He said spiritual renewal often comes during life’s most difficult moments. “Sometimes in my darkest days, I ask the Lord, where are you? I cry to you by day and I hear no voice, I cry to you by night and there is still silence. But if I’m to be honest, it is in moments like these when I find strength. It is in moments like these when my faith is renewed and my hope in God is cemented. It is in these moments where some hymns we sing turn to praise. I’m reminded of that good old Lenten hymn, ‘Jesus, keep me near the cross.’ There a precious fountain, free to all, a healing stream flows from Calvary’s heart.”

He said if Anglicans are renewed, then the Church and the diocese will be renewed. “And what does this look like? It looks like a people that is on fire for God’s word – a people that is hungry for God’s love, a people that is more concerned about outreach than inreach.”

He urged Anglicans to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. “My family, my friends, for us to truly set this diocese on fire, it’s not about knowing the liturgy, it’s not about knowing what comes next – because we are good at being Anglican – it’s about knowing and having a personal relationship with Jesus the Christ. That and only that will set this diocese on fire. So I encourage you, wherever you came from in this diocese, go back and spread the word. Go back and live God’s holy spirit. Go back and show people that Anglicans can be Christians, that Anglicans do believe in God. As we will sing in a moment, we ask God’s holy spirit to revive us again, revive us so we can be a powerful diocese, revive so we can support the College of Bishops and the clergy, revive us again so we can be the people God has called us to be.”

In a lay witness talk, Ayesha Ramsay-Musgrave, a member of St. Paul, Bloor Street, spoke about her journey to confirmation and how it transformed her life.

Born into a Christian family, she was active in her local church until young adulthood, when the demands of school and work began to take over. “Attending Sunday services and other activities became few and far between,” she said. Then in 2023 she re-connected with a university colleague, now her partner, over a social media post.

They talked about their faith upbringings. He said he was a member of St. Paul, Bloor Street, and asked if she had ever thought about being confirmed. “Truthfully, I had thought about it, but often it was met with fear and some nervousness,” she recalled.

They started watching Sunday services on YouTube together, “and before I knew it, I was back in church on Sundays,” she said. “The nervousness I felt had disappeared, as if it never existed.”

She took part in some confirmation preparations, “and it was in that moment that it became apparent to me, I was right where I needed to be. I needed to be part of a growing church family, learning to love and follow Jesus Christ.

“This, my friends, was God at work, using the holy spirit through the members of this church to help guide me through the decision.” On Pentecost Sunday of this year, she was confirmed at St. Paul’s.

“I vividly recall the emotions of joy, happiness and unity in reaffirming my faith in Jesus Christ,” she said. “Upon reciting my baptismal covenant, receiving prayer and being welcomed into the larger Anglican community, I then knew what it felt like to be part of the family of God.”

She concluded, “If there’s anything you can take away from my story today, let it be this: It’s never too late to renew your faith. It is never too late to let God into your heart. He will be there, waiting for you. He promises to be the same God he was yesterday, today and forever.”

In his closing remarks, Bishop Andrew Asbil thanked all those who took part in the service and the reception afterwards, and those who coordinated the previous four Lift Up Our Hearts services. “What a gift you are for being here today, and to take what our preacher has issued us to do – go home, spread the word, be faithful in your baptismal covenant, and may God keep us forever,” he said.

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Part of the diocese’s Season of Spiritual Renewal, these worship services have brought together Anglicans from all parts of the diocese to share stories of faith, renew their baptismal vows and offer their collective prayers to God.

The congregation was treated to a variety of musical preludes as they arrived. Soloist Christina Bosco, the choir from All Saints, Collingwood, and singer-guitarist Jared Martens performed several diverse pieces before Jeff Campbell took over on the church’s pipe organ and the service began. A trumpeter, a cellist and a pianist rounded out the musical complement.

“It is our great delight and joy to welcome all of you here to this wonderful service,” said Bishop Andrew Asbil to the congregation gathered in the church and online. “Thank you, thank you, Diocese of Toronto, for showing up and being present in praise. Let’s have a really good time.”

After the congregation had heard the story of Jesus calming the Sea of Galilee from the Gospel of Mark, the Rev. Dr. Rob Hurkmans, incumbent of Trinity Church, Streetsville, preached. He explained that the story gives a perfect picture of spiritual renewal through its four parts.

“A crisis, a cry, a command, a confession. Four parts of the story, but also four parts of what spiritual renewal looks like,” he said.

Renewal begins in the middle of a crisis, he began. “Renewal and revival, they never happen when the waters are calm,” he said. “It’s like God uses crises as a wake-up call to get our attention and to remind us that we cannot fix ourselves.”

Then comes the cry to God. The disciples in the boat cry out to Jesus with a desperate prayer.

“We’ve gathered together today to do what? Certainly to be together, certainly to celebrate God, but we also got together today to cry out to God,” said Mr. Hurkmans. “To ask God to do those things that we cannot do for ourselves, in our lives or in our churches.”

The command follows. Jesus commands the wind and the waves to be still. Likewise, in the midst of crisis, a word comes to us from God. Every major renewal throughout history, said Mr. Hurkmans, has been marked by a renewed love for God’s word in the scriptures.

“Renewal depends on us being attentive and being ready to hear what God is saying. And every time we open the bible, God is ready to speak to us,” he said. “Renewal is hearing God’s voice in the middle of the chaos and allowing his word to calm our hearts.”

And finally, a confession of faith. The disciples wonder aloud who this man is, that the wind and sea obey him.

“The disciples haven’t got their Christology all worked out at this point, but one thing they do know: this Jesus is no ordinary rabbi,” said Mr. Hurkmans. “The real goal of renewal is not just about getting calmer waters; it’s about getting a clearer picture of who Jesus is.”

After a hymn, Makayla Clouter, a teen from St. Thomas, Brooklin, spoke about the way God has shaped her life and her faith. She told the congregation about Sloane, her childhood friend, who had Aicardi Syndrome. Ms. Clouter remembered eating lunch alone at school because of her allergies, until Sloane and her mother started sitting with her.

“That small act of kindness meant the world to me. It reminded me that God often shows up through people He places in our lives,” she said.

When Sloane died a few years later, Ms. Clouter found her faith tested, but she said she felt God’s presence at her friend’s funeral.

“I stopped seeing God only in happy times like at retreats or sunsets. I started noticing Him in the harder times too. I learned that His love is limitless. It doesn’t stop when life is hard. It doesn’t stop even at death,” she said.

“I learned that God doesn’t just comfort us. He transforms us. He gives us strength, compassion and faith we wouldn’t have otherwise,” she continued. “So when I think about God, I think about this: A God whose love breaks through our loneliness, our grief, our question, and even our loss.”

The congregation members joined together to renew their baptismal vows before the celebration of the Eucharist. During communion, lay anointers offered prayers and anointing with oil.

Near the end of the service, Bishop Riscylla Shaw, the celebrant, thanked everyone who attended, especially those who had offered their gifts.

“Deepest gratitude to everyone who spoke today, who shared in the service with music and joy, sharing your hearts and your faith as we gather together and worship and praise God and feel renewed. Thanks be to God for that,” she said.

The day ended with conversation, as Anglicans from different parishes met and re-met each other over refreshments.

The final Lift Up Our Hearts service took place on Oct. 25 at St. Paul, Bloor Street.

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Especially for Lectors with the Rev. Canon Judy Paulsen, Oct. 1

The goal of this workshop is to encourage and further develop all those who read the Scriptures as part of their church’s worship services. Together with Canon Paulsen, participants will explore a biblical basis for the public reading of Scripture, delve into the importance of this task, and provide tips on some of the ways lectors can be spiritually, intellectually and physically prepared for this key ministry.

Hospitality and the Spiritual Life of a Church with Canon Janet Marshall, Oct. 8

Canon Marshall, director of Congregational Development, and participants will consider the importance of hospitality in the life of church communities.

Preaching Evangelistically with Dr. John Bowen, Oct. 22 and 29

Dr. Bowen, leader of this two-part workshop, says, “Evangelism can be defined as explaining the heart of Christian faith and inviting a response. Many preachers are good at the first but nervous about the second or simply don’t know a respectful and low-key way to do it. This workshop will look at various ways to sharpen the evangelistic focus of our preaching – and suggest ways we can invite an appropriate response.”

A New and Ancient Evangelism with the Rev. Canon Judy Paulsen, Nov. 19

The sales-pitch model of evangelism, so pervasive throughout the past century, has unintentionally discouraged many Christians from sharing their faith with others. But what if the Bible teaches a different model of how God draws people? What if God uses ordinary people of prayer, offering a simple word of hope within their everyday spheres of influence, to draw people to himself? In this workshop, Canon Paulsen will explore two well-loved conversion stories from scripture to learn about a new (and ancient) model for sharing the faith.

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More personally, though, what has spiritual renewal looked like in your life? Can you think of a time when you experienced God in a particular way? Have you ever shared that experience?

One wonderful addition to the recent Lift Up Our Hearts services has been the stories of grace told by lay people from across our diocese. Each person has shared how God has guided, comforted or challenged them. We heard how a young woman was first led to come to church, how two sisters were given hope during their mother’s deadly illness, how a new Canadian felt God’s guiding hand over his early years in our country, and how a leader of a global non-profit was shaped by his relationship with Jesus.

For the last few years, my research and writing has delved into biblical stories of spiritual renewal. These stories have been a key catalyst in my own spiritual renewal. One story that I keep coming back to is the story of Cornelius, recorded in Acts 10. Since it is a story about Cornelius’s conversion, you could argue that it isn’t really a story of spiritual renewal as much as a story of an initial transformation. I’d love to present a case for seeing conversion as the primary form of spiritual renewal. But for now, let’s leave that question aside and focus on the spiritual renewal of the other key character in that story: Peter.

Peter had learned from Jesus over the entire course of his public ministry. He had witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. Peter had experienced both spiritual defeat and spiritual elation and had emerged as a key leader in the new movement that was Christianity. But God was not finished with Peter.

God used the conversion of a Roman Centurian to bring about spiritual renewal in Peter’s life too. Peter would have his view of how God’s Holy Spirit worked, and what the Church was to be, blown wide open. Peter witnessed Cornelius, a Gentile, being filled with the Holy Spirit, just as Peter and other Jewish Christians had experienced. The calling of Gentiles into the early Church would cause such controversy that it would result in the first Council of Jerusalem.

In the home of Cornelius, Peter experienced God moving in a new and shocking way. Both he and the other Jewish believers present were irrevocably changed that day. In truth, though, Peter’s experience of spiritual renewal had started a couple of days before, when he was given a strange vision through which God broadened Peter’s view of who was invited into God’s reign. The invitation was apparently open to both Jewish and Gentile believers alike! The vision from God showed Peter that he should not view anyone, Gentile or otherwise, as profane or unclean. The importance of Peter’s spiritual renewal for the trajectory of the early Church, and the early Church’s own spiritual renewal, cannot be overstated. It seems that even the first apostles needed ongoing renewal.

So, what about us? What does this story, written down almost 2,000 years ago, have to teach us today about spiritual renewal? I think there are at least three takeaways. The first is that God loves us too much to leave us where we are spiritually, even when we’re leaders in the Church.

Whether a new or longtime Christian, whether a lay or ordained leader, spiritual renewal is for everyone. It is an ongoing process in the Church across the ages. Charles Wesley (c.1707-1788) was instrumental in a global movement of spiritual renewal. Yet that movement began with his own spiritual renewal, beautifully expressed in one of his prayers included in our Prayers Through the Ages resource:

O thou who camest from above
The pure celestial fire to impart,
Kindle a flame of sacred love
On the mean altar of my heart.
There, let it for thy glory burn
With inextinguishable blaze,
And trembling to its source return
In humble prayer and fervent praise.

This brings us to a second takeaway from Peter’s spiritual renewal: prayer is foundational to all renewal. Prayers of confession. Prayers of repentance. Prayers of gratitude. Prayers of adoration and praise. Prayers of humble request. As Peter and Cornelius’s story shows us, both speaking and listening are key to prayer. In so many of the stories of spiritual renewal found in the Bible, the renewal begins with someone praying.

A final takeaway from this story: attending to what God is up to, often in silence and solitude, is also key to our spiritual renewal and that of the Church. What if Peter had written off his vision of “unclean animals” as a hunger-related delusion? What if he had refused to go to a Gentile house? What if he had ignored that the Holy Spirit had fallen on the Gentiles? God, in his love, would no doubt have used someone else to bring about the extension of the Gospel, but Peter would have missed out on his own spiritual renewal, and on one of the most pivotal and historic shifts within the early Church.

Whether we are new or seasoned Christians, God invites each of us to attend with expectation to what God wants to do in and through our lives. Don’t miss out on the renewal God offers you, and offers his Church, for the sake of the world He loves.

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The afternoon got off to an energetic start with music by the Dreamers, the youth band from Christ Memorial Church, Oshawa, as people greeted each other and found their seats. By the start of the service, the pews were full of Anglicans ready to join in worship.

“What a great joy it is to be here with all of you this afternoon,” said Bishop Kevin Robertson, the celebrant. “All of you could be in a thousand different places, and you chose to be here as we renew our faith as individuals and as the Church in our diocese and give thanks to God for the gift of the Holy Spirit that enlivens our Church and promises to lead us forward.”

After the congregation heard the story of Jesus’ ascension into heaven from the Book of Acts, Kennedy Marshall, ODT gave the first of the afternoon’s two lay witness talks.

Mr. Marshall recalled a time in his life when he and his wife, Esther, were searching for a church home after having drifted away from their faith in early adulthood.

“There was an emptiness, a restlessness, a lack of direction, an absence of Christ in our lives, and that’s why we thought we needed to reconnect,” he said.

Having recently moved to the Parkdale neighbourhood of Toronto, they decided to try the nearby parish of St. Mark, Parkdale.

“We were bowled over by the warm welcome, and we were further strengthened by the fact that the church, with its limited resources, was still able to be a signal presence in the Parkdale community. So we were hooked,” he said. He and Esther have been parishioners of St. Mark’s – now Epiphany and St. Mark – ever since.

The afternoon’s preacher was the Rev. Gerlyn Henry, who brought greetings from the diocese’s youngest parish, the Church of the Holy Wisdom. Reflecting on the reading from Acts, she considered the disciples gazing upward as Jesus ascends to heaven, a gap opening between them and Jesus. She asked the congregation to think about gaps that have opened at points in their own lives.

“Sometimes that gap feels like an ever-widening chasm that we just can’t imagine bridging or crossing. Sometimes that gap is about longing and desire for something new or something different or just something more. Other times that gap is about pain and loss and heartbreak,” she said.

How, she wondered, do we live into spiritual renewal in the midst of this “Ascension-shaped hole or gap” that we find ourselves in?

“The good thing about gaps is that they take us to the edge of what we know, to the horizon of what we can see, to the limits of our self-sufficiency,” she said.

Renewal, she continued, doesn’t come from keeping things as they are, but from holy disruption.

“We have a choice to make. We can keep looking up toward heaven, towards that which is unseen, or we can turn our eyes to our neighbours who are visible, reach our hands to the circumstances that are tangible, and step into that gap. The Holy Spirit will meet us there, interceding with sighs too deep for words, renewing us from within our souls,” she said.

After Rev. Henry’s sermon and a hymn, the congregation heard a second story of grace from sisters Colette and Andrea Francis, parishioners of Christ Church, Scarborough. They reflected on how the experience of their mother’s illness and eventual death in 2022, and the care they received from clergy, led them to renew their faith.

“We are now confirmed in the Anglican Church, and we are now diligent servants of Christ Church, Scarborough Village. Indeed, it has been an awesome spiritual renewal. We are now firmly rooted and grounded in the Lord,” said Andrea Francis.

As with the first two Lift Up Our Hearts services, the congregation members joined together to renew their baptismal vows before the celebration of the Eucharist. During communion, lay anointers offered prayers and anointing with oil to anyone who wanted them.

Before the service ended, Bishop Robertson thanked everyone for attending and for taking to heart God’s call to be spiritually renewed in Jesus Christ.

“My prayer for you is that you will be sent out with power as you, in your own life and ministry, are spiritually renewed, and that you go and tell those who have not yet heard the good news of God in Christ, and to be an instrument of God’s transforming love in the world,” he said.

After the service, laughter and warm conversation filled the parish hall, where people shared food and reflected on the moving afternoon together.

The next Lift Up Our Hearts service will take place on Sept. 27 at St. James, Orillia, with the Rev. Dr. Rob Hurkmans preaching. The final service is scheduled for Oct. 25 at St. Paul, Bloor Street, where the Rev. Dr. Alvardo Adderly will preach. Visit www.toronto.anglican.ca/spiritualrenewal for more details.

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Rev. Henry, incumbent of Holy Wisdom, Toronto, has 53,000 followers on TikTok, the social media platform for creating and sharing short videos. Each week, she posts a brief clip about her life as a priest and matters of faith.

“Engaging with people online about faith has been such a gift,” she says. “I’m hoping the Lift Up Our Hearts service in May will not only be a time of spiritual renewal for our diocese but that elements of it shared online will be powerful and impactful for people around the world.”

She plans to promote the service on her TikTok account leading up to the service but says the real engagement will probably happen afterwards, when people see and hear snippets of it and want to comment and discuss it with her. “I think people will respond really well to it,” she says.

The service, one of five that are being held around the diocese during the Season of Spiritual Renewal, will be in-person and livestreamed. It will begin at 2 p.m. All are invited to attend.

Rev. Henry, who has been the incumbent of Holy Wisdom for three years, says she was surprised to be asked to preach at the service. She had also planned to attend the Lift Up Our Hearts services in March at St. James Cathedral and Trinity, Streetsville.

“I’m a little nervous but I’m also excited,” she says. “I feel I’m still so new to the diocese, so this will be a cool opportunity to not only see my colleagues but also parishioners of the diocese in ways I haven’t had the opportunity to.”

She says going to different churches and attending different worship services is a way of renewing one’s spiritual life. “I think sometimes parishioners and priests feel siloed in their particular churches and traditions. But when we go out and experience different styles of preaching and music and hear the word of God from different interpreters, that can bring a renewal of spirit.”

And it’s an excellent time for the Lift Up Our Hearts services, she adds. “At this time of political and social unrest, we need to focus a little bit on how we’re going to survive and thrive while we care for our neighbours, so these services couldn’t have come at a better time.”

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People were slow to arrive, but by the time the service started the big church was full and people were ready to forget the weather and spend the next two hours experiencing God.

And they weren’t disappointed. By the time Trinity’s worship band completed the first two songs of the afternoon, God’s presence was palpable. Every part of the service was infused with a warm, hope-filled energy that left many people wanting more.

Before the service started, singer Hannah Whitehouse of Grace Church in Scarborough and Libby McGrath, the worship director at Trinity, performed “Amazing Grace,” setting the tone for all that followed.

The leadup to the service also included a live interview with the Rev. Canon Dr. Judy Paulsen, coordinator of the diocese’s Season of Spiritual Renewal. The interview, conducted in the narthex by Kylah Lohnes, Trinity’s online engagement director, was shown on the church’s large screens and online.

In his opening remarks, Bishop Andrew Asbil thanked Trinity, Streetsville and those in attendance. “Whether you’re present in the house or present online, your presence means so much to us,” he said.

The service’s uplifting music was matched by heartfelt prayers, readings, a sermon and a lay testimonial.

In her sermon, the Rev. Canon Stephanie Douglas, incumbent of St. Paul on the Hill, Pickering, spoke about God’s faithfulness and the ways that people can be faithful to God in return. “There is no controlling or manufacturing the work of the Spirit, but as Isaiah told us, we really can faithfully respond to God’s invitation to come by placing ourselves in a posture where we know God is most likely to show up,” she said. “Prayer, meditation on scripture, repentance, worship with other believers – these are like the train tracks down which God’s power comes. So friends, let’s be hopeful and expectant and faithful.”

She concluded, “Now in this time that remains for us together, lets follow the psalmist’s call to rejoice and proclaim God’s faithfulness from generation to generation. Let us praise God, who is our trustworthy friend. God is committed to us, God longs to renew weary hearts, God wants to strengthen tired hands for service. Let’s respond to God’s invitations with a joyful and thankful yes, for the sake of God’s glory and for the sake of our world. And who knows, we may find God moving in our lives and in our churches in ways that we could never have asked or imagined.”

Dave Toycen, ODT, a longtime member of Trinity and a former president of World Vision Canada, spoke about his upbringing in the Pentecostal tradition in the United States and how his desire to help others eventually led him to an Episcopal church that believed deeply in social justice and outreach.

Many of those who went up for Communion at the service also chose to be anointed with holy oil and receive a short prayer by a trained lay person. A prayer team was also stationed in the narthex for this purpose, and people watching online could text their prayer requests.

The service ended with a rousing version of the hymn “How Great Thou Art,” moving some in the congregation to tears. Afterwards, everyone went into the narthex and an adjoining room for food and refreshments.

The Lift Up Our Hearts service was one of five that are being held around the diocese this year as part of the Season of Spiritual Renewal, an effort to refresh the diocese as it emerges from the pandemic years. For more information visit www.toronto.anglican.ca/spiritualrenewal.

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March 22 marked the first of five “Lift Up Our Hearts” services being held around the diocese on Saturday afternoons in 2025 as part of the Season of Spiritual Renewal.

“There’s no reason why you can’t come to all five,” Bishop Andrew Asbil remarked in his welcome at the start of the service.

At least two parishes hired buses to carry their members downtown, while many others arrived by car, subway and streetcar from across the city of Toronto and beyond. People mingled in the aisles and waved across pews before the service, greeting friends from other parishes. The service was also live streamed on YouTube to allow for hybrid worship.

“This is an opportunity for us as a diocesan family to come together, to meet people we have not met before, to be reminded that we are all one family in faith; an opportunity for us to sow hope into the world; and an opportunity for us to be reminded that we are not just the Church of yesterday, not just the Church for today, but for tomorrow,” said Bishop Asbil.

A talented group of instrumentalists and vocalists from many different parishes led the congregation in music that ranged from the 18^th to the 21^st centuries. The diocese’s bishops led those who attended in renewing their baptismal covenant, and everyone had the opportunity to receive prayers and anointing with oil at Communion.

The readings from scripture all touched on the theme of spiritual renewal. The congregation heard the story of Ezekiel prophesying to the dry bones, as well as Jesus’ promise to send the Holy Spirit to his disciples.

In her sermon, the Rev. Molly Finlay, incumbent of St. John the Baptist, Norway, set the idea of spiritual renewal in the context of the world the present-day Church finds itself in.

“Our calling, our vocation, just got a whole lot more urgent, and it seems to have happened almost overnight. We are not playing here. There are forces of darkness at work in the world in a way that I have not witnessed in my lifetime. There are very public and vocal voices twisting the truth of the gospel into something that it is not,” she said.

The Church, she went on, is being called to be its churchiest.

“The darkness will never, ever overshadow the light, but it is going to take all of us little Christs to be fully reconstituted, spirit-filled bodies using our prophetic voices to speak out against tyranny, our bones fully joined, our souls and bodies alive and kicking,” she said. “Renewal is no longer an option. It’s now what we are going to beg for with every ounce of energy we may or may not have left, so we can be the freedom fighters for justice and peace, love and mercy, that God calls each and every one of us to be.”

After the sermon and a piece of reflective music, Jennafer Da Silva, a lay member of St. John the Baptist, Norway, spoke about her own story of faith that led her to join that community in 2022 after a time of upheaval in her life.

“The St. John’s community was truly an answer to my prayers. It felt like a miracle to be sitting next to my parents in church every Sunday,” she said. “Throughout my separation and divorce, I depended on God when I had no one else to turn to. I needed Him so desperately, and He was there for me.”

After the service, members of the congregation lingered over food and drink served in the side aisles, reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones as some groups took photos of their parish contingents visiting the cathedral.

The inaugural Lift Up Our Hearts service was followed by a second event on March 29 at Trinity, Streetsville with the Rev. Canon Stephanie Douglas preaching.

The remaining three services will take place on May 31 at All Saints, Whitby with the Rev. Gerlyn Henry preaching; on Sept. 27 at St. James, Orillia with the Rev. Dr. Rob Hurkmans preaching; and on Oct. 25 at St. Paul, Bloor Street with the Rev. Dr. Alvardo Adderly preaching. Visit www.toronto.anglican.ca/spiritualrenewal for more details.

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