Read the latest ideas on liturgy in Open

Amy McCreath has organized a “blessings of the backpacks” at the university where she works as chaplain. At the beginning of the school term, students present their tools of learning on the altar steps: their iBooks, their test tubes, and their backpacks full of books. “We gather around it,” she writes, “and each offer our ‘one great hope’ for the year ahead, all raise a hand in blessing and pray together that these tools may help us do work that is part of the work of God.”

New Filipina partner for a new committee

Rev. Florence Ayban is a bold young minister from the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, and the first-ever international partner for the newly merged Partners in Mission and Ecojustice (PMEJ) Committee, now overseeing the mission and justice work of the Anglican Church of Canada.

One of another in Christ

In this short video, the Primate reflects on his first few months in office and offers a vision of the church he is finding as he travels. He mentions several instruments of unity, and also commends a special prayer.

A go-getter comes to terms with mortality

Growing old and getting sick. We can fight back with yoga, vitamins, and lots of leafy greens, but how can we face these realities gracefully and with spiritual honesty? Sister Thelma-Anne McLeod, Sisters of Saint John the Divine, has some wisdom to share. This wise Anglican nun has written a book on the subject: In Age Reborn, By Grace Sustained: One Woman’s Journey Through Aging and Chronic Illness (ABC Publishing, October 2007).

Gladys Cook documentary wins U.S. award

A documentary by Anglican Video, Topahdewin: The Gladys Cook Story, has won a Redemptive Storyteller award at the Redemptive Film Festival, Virginia Beach, Va. The video follows the life of a 74-year-old Aboriginal woman, Gladys Cook, a survivor of the residential schools system. A public screening will be held tonight, Nov. 2, at the Regent University School of Communication and the Arts.

Noah kicks off United Way campaign

Two pirates, a clown, and Indira Gandhi were among those present at the United Way fundraising kick-off, held Oct. 31 at the Anglican Church of Canada’s national office. Costumed staff enjoyed cake and punch in the Halloween-decorated lobby, then watched in amazement as the Management Team arrived in Bible-times robes and headgear. They were Noah and family: Shem, Ham, Japheth and wives. Addressing the amused audience, Noah (Archbishop Fred Hiltz) spoke a few words on “building Noah’s ark,” the theme of this year’s fundraiser.

Celebrate Medicare Week coming soon

The Ecumenical Health Care Network of the Canadian Council of Churches invites every congregation and community across the country to join in a time of celebration and renewal of Canada’s commitment to ensuring the preservation and strengthening of its universal public health care system, better known as Medicare. To this end, we have named the week of November 18th “Celebrate Medicare Week.”

Light and life: A call to radical love

The following is the text of a sermon preached by Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, at a special service at the John Labatt Centre in London, Ont., on Oct. 28, 2007, commemorating the sesquicentennial of the diocese of Huron.

New Primate makes traditional visit to Lambeth

Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, paid a traditional call on Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on Oct. 16. It is a tradition for new Anglican leaders of provinces to visit the archbishop, the titular head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, at his home in Lambeth Palace.