Saturday, December 20, 2008

Amazing Grace Video

Watch the Amazing Grace Video online:
http://www2.anglican.ca/amazinggrace/video.htm

The long-awaited Amazing Grace compilation video has been released as a gift to the Anglican Church of Canada. Called Amazing Together, the 10-minute documentary includes video clips from hundreds of congregations that sang "Amazing Grace" on Nov. 23 and submitted their renditions to the national office before Dec. 1.

Over 500 videos were sent in out of 2,000 churches in Canada. Singers were asked to donate a toonie to the Council of the North, a group of dioceses involved in work and ministry in Canada's north, and to date over $30,000 has been raised.

Canadian Anglicans sang the hymn on beaches, in remote chapels, a cappella, in labyrinths, and with jazz ensembles.

"I think the program is absolutely beautiful," Lisa Barry, senior producer of Anglican Video wrote in an online reflection. "It's folksy and wobbly and full of Spirit and hope and I love it."

In a press release about the video's success, Archdeacon Michael Pollesel, general secretary of General Synod, said "Amazing Together stands as a strong example of what Canadian Anglicans can do when something captures their imagination. We often hear church unity described as a fragile thing. This demonstrates conclusively that in the hearts and minds of Anglicans from coast to coast to coast, the church is strong and it is united."

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Check out Lisa Barry's behind-the-scenes reflections on the video:
http://www2.anglican.ca/amazinggrace/video.htm#story

Friday, December 12, 2008

Christmas Message from National Leaders

Anglican Primate Fred Hiltz and National Lutheran Bishop Susan Johnson speak of the Prince of Peace and share Christmas memories in a special joint message now available online. The Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada have been in full communion since 2001.

The four-minute Christmas video message can be downloaded for use in parishes and elsewhere. http://www2.anglican.ca/primate/christmas/

A transcript is also available. http://www2.anglican.ca/primate/christmas/transcript.htm 

 

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Advent Musings.... by Bishop Gordon Light


Advent Musings 1: Stilling the Heart

The Rt. Rev. Gordon Light

Bishop of the Anglican Parishes of the Central Interior

 (This is the first of "Advent Musings," a series of meditations  published on anglican.ca each Monday in Advent.)

 

Lord it is night.

The night is for stillness.

Let us be still in the presence of God.

It is night after a long day.

What has been done has been done;

what has not been done has not been done.

Let it be.

The night is dark.

let our fears of the darkness of the world and of our own lives rest in you.

The night is quiet.

Let the quietness of your peace enfold us, all dear to us, and all who have no peace.

The night heralds the dawn.

Let us look expectantly

to a new day,

new joys,

new possibilities.

In your name we pray. Amen.

There is a story behind this prayer. As the writing team for the New Zealand Prayer Book was in the midst of its work in the 1980s, one member of the group wrote out these lines after a difficult day. But thinking it was just a collection of throwaway verses, he tossed it in a waste basket. Someone found and kept it, and it was included in the section for Night Prayers. It has also become part of the service of Night Prayers of many other churches, including our own. It is a wonderful prayer.

A year ago I was invited to lead an Advent quiet day in St. John's, Quesnel, B.C. We used this prayer as the focus of our time together. On that day, I asked the participants to think of using the word "Advent" in place of " the night." So our prayer that day was this:

"Lord it is Advent...Advent is for stillness...Advent is dark...Advent is quiet...Advent heralds the dawn..."

We explored something of the darkness of this season that calls for light; sought to open ourselves to the stillness and quiet our souls need in the crowded days of shopping, planning and preparing for Christmas that is a hallmark of our culture; and we considered the dawn that Advent announces-the birth of Jesus-heaven's promise to be with us no matter what. This is a good prayer to pray at any time, but I think especially in Advent. You might consider making it a daily prayer.

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a  c  c     w  e  b      n  e  w  s

The Anglican Church of Canada

http://www.anglican.ca/

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Thursday, November 20, 2008

Trinity Church Community


The Church Community at Trinity is a continuation of over one hundred years of Christian Ministry  in the Alberni Valley.  All Saints' Anglican  began as a mssion of the Anglican Church of Canada in Alberni. As Port Alberni grew, St. Alban's was established as a mission of All Saints' in Port Alberni. Following historic Anglican perspectives, St. Alban's and All Saints' Church valued three principles, 'Scripture, Reason, and Tradition' as guides for understanding and responding to God, and the needs of our community.
A mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada was also begun in the Alberni Valley. Christ the King Lutheran Church, following the teachings of the great reformer Martin Luther, emphasized belief in a God who reaches out graciously to all people, offering renewal and newness of life.
Both the Anglican Church of Canada and the ELCIC value a rich pattern worship and strong teaching.
A number of events came together as the new millenium was ushered in, and by 2004 these three diverse church communities had joined together to become Trinity Church.  The image 'Behold I Make all Things New' (from the 2004 Anglican General Synod) is a good reflection of what we seeking to be; a community of faith in the Alberni Valley: renewed in Christ; renewed to live and reach out with love and care in this corner of God's wonderful world.
We value the church communties from which we come, and also the continual opportunities we have to reflect with one an other on our understandings of faith. We value openness to following where God will lead us, and to meet members and inquirers wherever they may be along the journey of faith and life. We invite others to journey with us.

Thursday, November 13, 2008


We are an inclusive community.  Our roots are in Lutheran and Anglican expressions and understanding of spirituality.  In our faith journey, we seek to live our community and indivudual lives in ways which honour the 'breath' (Spirit) which gives life to all Creation.  We see in Jesus a unique and full expression of God's love and healing redemption.  We invite other seekers and inquirers to journey with us as we discover and live God's 'Amazing Grace'.  

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Harvest Thanksgiving 08

The world is a place of abundance....
It is sometimes easier to see abundance in the 'natural' world.
It is often harder for us to appreciate the abundance of gifts, talents, and experience that make up our lives.
So when we gathered for our annual thanksgiving service, we sang a song 'Called and Gifted'.
Each of us is called.
Each of us is gifted.
Thank God!

Homily~ November 9~ Culture of Peace

Peace Making

(by George Pell, with edited material from an article

by Dianne Strickland entitled ‘When the Warrior Drops His Weapons)

 

To day is a day of remembrance; today is a day to pray for peace.

 

If you look hard enough, you will usually find in scripture passages that say almost the opposite.  Take the following passages about pruning hooks and spears, which can be both symbols of peace and war.

 

Prepare war, stir up the warriors.

Let all the soldiers draw near, let them come up.

Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears;

let the weakling say, “I am a warrior.”  (Joel 3:9,10)

 

 {God} shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many

 peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

 neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:4)

 

Our lives are full of situations where the road is not always clear, and where we must search carefully to discover the will of God in that situation. We must make choices.

 

In a passage from Deuteronomy, we see Moses, having led God’s people from slavery through the wilderness, standing on a hill overlooking the Land of Promise.  He is giving his farewell challenge to the people brfore they cross the Jordan River.  Moses describes a time in people’s lives when they would need to make choices.  “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.”  Moses calls on the people to ‘choose life’. (Deut. 30:19). “Choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying God and holding fast to God.” The choice not  only affects those who choose, Moses declares that their choices will affect them and their descendants.

 

It was Joshua who succeeded Moses and led them into the ‘Promises Land’. In our first reading today, at the end of his leadership, Joshua challenges the people to renew their covenant with God.  He reminds them of how God has guided through them many ‘trials’.  Joshua says that each of them must choose whether to follow God’s path, but ‘as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord’”

 

As children, many of us were given a wonderful gift. It was a gift we received when everything seemed to have gone wrong.  Someone, often a parent, but sometimes a brother or sister or friend, came alongside us to say to us with conviction, "It will be all right.”

 

It is always a precious gift, as a child, to hear those words, and to believe them. These are also words {of Wisdom} we need to hear and believe as adults. Things still go wrong, our hearts still break and our spirits can feel defeated. It is a wonderful gift to hear a voice saying with sincerity and confidence, "It will be all right. Things may hard right now, but it will be all right."  Peace can be established even when we can not see it for ourselves.  And as Moses declared, our choices affects those who follow.

 

Sometimes our problems are solved simply and completely. But as life goes on, too often we begin to discover that "all right" often does not mean that life returns to how it was before things went wrong. "All right" turns out to be the place where we have learned to live with our loss, our disappointment, our fear or our hurt. It is the place from which we go on to risk living again, in spite of being wounded and scarred.

 

A lawyer once noted that winning a suit in court could never bring closure for victim or offender. That closure or ‘peace’ would only come if the person’s life could be returned to the way it was before the offense. That is impossible for any court to deliver. No amount of damages awarded can undo what has been done.

 

In the Bible, we read stories of God's holy yet very human people experiencing great losses, disappointment, and hurt. Time after time, in the midst of these experiences, faithful prophets and priests were raised up by God to proclaim in various ways…"It will be all right. It is hard right now, but it will be all right." (This reminds me of Hildegaard of Bingen, a hermit and mystic, who said “All will be well, and all shall be well, and all shall be exceeding well.” It was a message that her people needed to hear and it sustained them.)

 

God’s will is for people to live in peace; but peace is often hard-won.  And peace is not the absence of war; it is not a ‘truce’; peace, God’s peace which passes all understanding, is a positive relationship between people  At the beginning of this homily I used two passages that make reference to pruning hooks and spears as illustrations of how, even amongst God’s people, it is difficult to know the wise path at any given time.  There is a passage in Micah that shares Isaiah’s illustration calling for a time of peace, and adding the image of swords being beaten into ploughshares.  That image is the basis for the humanitarian efforts of ‘Project Ploughshares’.

 The passage from Micah goes on to describe a situation where…

“nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid.”

 

In Zephaniah, the last book of the Hebrew Scriptures (or ‘Old Testament’), there is a description of a ‘divine warrior’ who will bring about peace for God’s people.

This ‘divine warrior’ comes to their midst. This warrior  "will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival" (vv. 17-18a). That hardly echoes with our common understanding of a warrior! Where is the war report?  Where is the story of the fallen enemy? Where is the proud declaration of the victory? This divine warrior throws down his weapons of sword and arrow as soon as the victory is won. He leaves them where they lie and comes to the remnant people with music and a heart full of love.

 

The divine warrior who fights for the chosen people knows that peace is not established by the defeat of their enemies. It takes more than declaring winners and losers. Real peace coming ‘from the hands of the Lord’ means the healing of peoples, the exchange of bad sentiment for good feelings. "I will remove disaster from you so that you will not bear reproach for it. I will deal with your oppressors at that time. And I will save the lame, and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth" (vv. 18b-19). The battlefield for victory is not only "out there."  The Lord must restore the people themselves. 

 

Let’s fast forward to our day... to now.

 How do we deal with difficult circumstances, such as the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq that bombard our senses through radio, TV, internet and newspapers? In a hundred ways we may try to say "It will be all right, just as soon as…" (and we complete that sentence with different scenarios.)   But our lives and our sense of safety will never be the same….The world is too intimate. 

 

War, even half way around the world becomes a local reality.  We know that it won’t, it can’t be the same. The change is real.  But when we have said and done all that we can do, when we have offered all we can offer, we may still pray the promise of Zephaniah. It is still important as individuals, {as churches, legion members and communities},

to pray and to work for peace…

 

We pray that we remember the sacrifice of many who fought for peace.  But we honour tgheir memory best by working for peace…. There is a song which says “let there be peace on earth’  It continues “and let is begin with me.’  We as individuals, and we in OUR church must allow God to trandsform our lives so that peace, renewal reconciliation, and wholeness will be our fervent desire.  Mahatma Gandhi reminded us that we must become the ‘change we desire’.  If we want peace, we must live peace. It is prayer that all peoples and all individuals may learn to open their lives and hearts to God, the source of all love.  We know in our heart of hearts that ‘perfect love casts out fear’. God does want healing and wholeness for all peoples.

 

Each of us have our own ways of trying to make things ‘all right’.  Sometimes we avoid hearing the bad news.  In another situation we may avoid speaking with a person who has hurt us. But there is another sense of renewal, of making things bearable.  People on the front lines of human suffering everywhere know that all the best efforts of human effort cannot create the life of blessings envisioned by Moses and Joshua, and by the many prophets who pray and taught for restoration of God’s people. There is a dimension of divine promise that is only fulfilled when God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven.  That peaceis something, as individual and as a church we can pray for , and work for.

 

In the ministry that we offer to each other and our community,…let our faith be in God’s peace.  Just as it takes a whole village to raise a child, it takes a whole (and a holy) church to create Peace. It cannot just be our individual efforts; we cannot and do not need do it all ourselves. 

 

When we share the ‘Peace’ in our worship services, we are doing much more than greeting friends.  We are recognizing one another as family members, brothers and sisters united as a family by God. The way we often share the Peace, taking time individually to greet each person is good, and yet it looses sight of a greater truth.  When I share God’s peace with you, and you share God’s peace with your neighbour, I have shared God’s peace with your neighbour.  Perhaos this will be clearer if I use names. Let use names. If I Share with Tom, and Tom shares with June, then I have shared with June. 

I would like us to try over the next few weeks to practice this way of sharing peace.  It is a holy peace we share. And it is a peace we work together to share. We can work together as a community of faith to share God’s peace. We can trust one another in this great exercise of sharing God’s  peace.

 

We are God’s people gathered here today.  To rephrase Joshua’s encouragement, let us today (as a church) choose to live in a covenant of love with God.  Let us, to echo Moses’ challenge, ‘choose life’.  If we do this, we choose wholeness; we choose healing; we choose peace.