The final day of the spring COGS meeting began at 9:00 AM with a celebration of the Holy Eucharist on the feast of Pentecost. Members gathered in a Sacred Circle and the Primate presided and preached. The highlight of the service was a re-commissioning ceremony where the Primate laid hands on each member. He prayed that the Holy Spirit would continue the good work already started in each of them. Members spontaneously decided to pray the same for the Primate and they gathered around to lay hands on him.
Council members began the second full day of their spring 2012 meeting with a Gospel-Based Discipleship Bible study in a Sacred Circle. This style of study is often used in Indigenous Ministries meetings.
The Council of General Synod started their spring meeting a day earlier than usual, gathering at Queen of Apostles (Mississauga, Ont.), at 7:00 PM on Thursday, May 24. The Primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, led the group in a hymn and a prayer before beginning the business agenda.
In close-knit Indigenous communities, gatherings are often intergenerational—grandparents mix with new moms and dads while kids play underfoot. This sense of family is what Indigenous Ministries seeks to develop with new youth and elder councils, recently convened to guide the department. The two councils met in Vancouver, May 11 and 12, and their work will continue to be intertwined.
This Pentecost Sunday, May 27, Anglican and Lutheran leaders in the Holy Land will issue a joint pastoral letter informing their churches that they are fully committed to establishing closer relations, and in time, full communion.
The Rev. Canon Ogé Beauvoir, dean of the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Port-au-Prince, became the Diocese of Haiti‘s first bishop suffragan May 22 during a service in the diocese’s open-air cathedral.
Above the skyline of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a 39-metre Jesus statue spreads its arms over the slums and mansions of this sprawling city. The iconic statue, built in 1931 to represent peace, has now become a symbol for the work of thousands of Christians—Anglicans included—who are actively supporting the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, which meets in Rio June 13 to 22.
National leaders of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada will visit their counterparts in Jerusalem May 15 to 21 to discuss the development of full communion ministry in the Middle East.
When Pam Thomson went on vacation to Cuba last February, she wanted to find a local Anglican congregation. The beaches of Varadero were beautiful, sure, but it was Ash Wednesday and she wanted to worship in her tradition.
The problem was that the resort staff had no idea where the Anglican churches were. They sent her off in a taxi to a different church that ultimately was a disappointment.
God keeps calling the Rev. Canon Ginny Doctor to serve her people in different places. The Mohawk priest, 62, has helped raise Indigenous leaders in downtown Syracuse, N.Y., rural Alaska, and now Toronto, where she was hired as General Synod’s new Indigenous Ministries coordinator in February.
I was so sick on our Fiji stopover. There we were in the Nadi airport, on our way to the Solomon Islands, and I was throwing up in every available receptacle, excusing myself from my coworkers because, of course, this was a business trip. What could be more awkward?
Our spring meeting at Mount Carmel Spiritual Centre in Niagara Falls, Ont., was held April 16 to 20 in a context of worship and Bible study. We opened and closed with a Eucharist, the first celebrated by Archbishop Terry Finlay, our chaplain, and the second by Archbishop Fred Hiltz, our Primate.
Some Anglican priests are preaching dynamos. Others are wise historians or gracious pastors. But what basic competencies should be present across all their ministries?
A Canadian writing team preparing materials for the 2014 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is seeking original music compositions. If chosen, your song could be sung around the world for this important ecumenical event.
In this personal message, the Primate remembers the Easter images of his childhood church, Christ Church in Dartmouth, N.S. He also encourages Canadian Anglicans to “embrace afresh our calling as an Easter People.”
