non-indigenous peoples. huron church ewsit seems fitting, then, to pres-ent some highlights from...

Huron CHurCH newsANGLICAN DIOCESE OF HURON • Huron Church News is a section of the Anglican Journal • J U N E 2 0 1 6

Being attuned to the Creator’s will

YOUR FIRST MONTH FREEMaking refugee sponsorship work: initiatives and stories. Page 8

HELP SAVE ST. PAUL’S! “May it stand long uninjured by time and unscathed by casualties, to be a house of prayer...”Page 9

JUNE 21: A DAY OF OPPORTUNITY Building a new relationship between the indigenous and the non-indigenous peoples. 3

By Matthew KieswetterClergy and laity from across

the Diocese of Huron came to-gether in London from May 15 to 17. Bishop Bennett described the gathering of Synod as an op-portunity to “discern and be at-tuned to the Creator’s will for us both in our particular time and within our unique context.”

The opening Eucharist’s first reading, from the Book of the Prophet Micah, set the tone for the three days, espe-cially the well-known climactic verse in the book’s sixth chapter:

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Bishop Dance helped the gathering to dig into this im-portant passage, by facilitating a fun and enlightening Bible study on the Tuesday morning.

In his charge, Bishop Bennett pointed to the Baptismal Cov-enant (BAS 158-159) and the Marks of Mission of the An-

glican Communion as touch-stones of the Christian lifestyle. He characterized the Christian life as a response to the call to “right relationship with God and between human beings and creation.”

It seems fitting, then, to pres-ent some highlights from this year’s Synod through the lens of the Marks of Mission.

To Proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom

Archdeacon William Har-rison spoke to the cultural shift evident in recent decades, which has resulted in a shrink-ing of many congregations. We can no longer depend on peo-ple gravitating to churches on Sunday morning by instinct or societal expectation. What’s needed today is more intention-al evangelism. Evangelism (a word with much baggage) need not be left to slippery televan-gelists, he argued. Evangelism is simply the communication of God’s love for the world, as seen in Jesus Christ. Are we as a Church willing to work togeth-

er and perhaps re-evaluate our structures to most effectively ar-ticulate this reality? Moreover, are we able to remember, even in difficult times, that our phys-ical structures and resources are not ends in themselves, but instead, tools that exist to serve our proclamation and living out of the Good News?

The First Mark of Mission was reflected in several other presentations. Huron’s Angli-can Church Women spoke of their work and support of many important ministries, such as the Mission to Seafarers, Hen-ry Budd College, and Huron Church News.

Huron Church Camp — a place where many young peo-ple come to know Christ — shared the good news of a sur-plus from 2015 and the start of much-needed renovations.

Special guests from our com-panion diocese, The Rev’d Mar-cos Fernando Barros de Souza and Maria de Lourdes Bernardi-no de Souza, shared how the partnership between Huron and

Amazonia has helped them to recognize the divine energy that inspires them in their ministry in Brazil.

To Teach, Baptize and Nur-ture New Believers

Bishop Bennett helpfully sug-gested that we should remem-ber that we are called to nurture not just new believers, but all believers. Huron most certainly boasts many opportunities for Christian formation. Delegates received updates from Canter-bury College, Huron University College, and Renison University College. They are caring Angli-can presences in the context of large universities, offering a va-riety of learning opportunities.

Education for Ministry (EfM) was presented as an outstand-ing example of the Anglican ap-proach to Christian formation. Through four separate year-long courses students study scripture, Church history, and theology in an accessible manner and an en-couraging environment.

Cursillo is another way in which the people of Huron

might deepen their faith. Cursil-lo weekends are comprised of fifteen talks, with participants supported in the development of their own unique rule of life.

To Respond to Human Need by Loving Service

The College of Deacons col-lected blankets from Synod del-egates, and expressed enthusi-astic thanks for the tremendous response.

Camp Wendake is entering its twentieth year. It provides fun and support for those whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS. Parishes were encour-aged to support this ministry by considering the sponsorship of a camper.

The Rev’d Canon Greg Smith spoke to The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund’s new initiative that focusses on maternal, newborn, and child health. He hopes that each par-ish will consider holding one or two fundraising events to sup-port this cause.

Highlighting Synod 2016: The Popular Report

“This is where God has called me to be. And I am called to walk with the people, to love and be loved as God’s people and to witness to that. We may go off the cliff together, but it will be together.”

This is how Bishop Bob Ben-nett addressed 175th Synod at its very end, on Tuesday, May 17 in London, Ontario, remem-bering the difficulties he has ex-perienced in his four decades of ministry in the Diocese of Hu-ron.

“This is my last Synod, and the same principle applies. We have journeyed together for a while, we have loved. And I only hope that in the midst of the times we find ourselves in you will be able to say: This is where God calls me to be, with my community and together we will find out what God’s purpose is.”

“This is God’s world, not ours, and we need to remember that even in the midst of the mael-strom that is always the world that we live in we can do it be-

cause we have Holy Peace, we have Holy Spirit, we have each other”

In his Charge to Synod on Pentecost Sunday, which also represented “a personal rumi-nation of our time together”, Bishop Bennett spoke about challenges to reflect both per-sonally and corporately “what it means to be God’s ‘sent’ people in the seeming maelstrom of 2016.”

See Bishop’s Charge Page 4

What does the Lord require?

See Popular Report Page 3

Bishop Bennett’s final address to Synod

Photo by Evan AgnewBishop Bob retires after 42 years of service as a deacon, priest and bishop in the Diocese of Huron. He has been serving as the 12th bishop of Huron since 2008. Prior to his election as the diocesan bishop he served for six years as the suffragan bishop.

A season of transition in Huron Bishop Robert Bennett to retire on November 1st, 2016. Bishop Linda Nicholls to be enthroned on November 26th as the 13th Bishop of Huron.

Rt. Rev. Robert F. Bennett, the diocesan bishop of Huron will retire on November 1, 2016.

Bishop Bob Bennett will be succeeded on the throne of the Diocese of Huron by the cur-rent coadjutor bishop Rt. Rev. Linda Nicholls.

“We are blessed beyond measure to have Linda as our bishop coadjutor to lead us through both the joys and challenge of our future”, said Bishop Bob in his Charge at 175th Synod on May 15, asking the gathered to support her in this time of transition.

The enthronement of Bish-op Linda Nicholls as the 13th Bishop of Huron is planned for November 26, 2016 at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, Ontario.

See Page 6

J U N E 2 0 1 6 A N G L I C A N D I O C E S E O F H U R O N C H U R C H N E W S P A G E 3P A G E 2 A N G L I C A N D I O C E S E O F H U R O N C H U R C H N E W S J U N E 2 0 1 6

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Synod 2016: PoPular rePortSynod 2016: In FocuS

Synod attendees also received an update on the work of the Diocesan Refugee Committee and the work of many parishes and deaneries in the area of ref-ugee sponsorship. A highlight for many were the stories shared by Alaa Mokayed and Basel Yas-bek, who came to Canada as ref-ugees supported by St. Aidan’s in London.

To Seek to Transform Un-just Structures of Society, to Challenge Violence of Every

Kind and to Pursue Peace and Reconciliation

Synod heard from National Indigenous Bishop Mark Mac-Donald and representatives from Lenni Lenape Algonkian Iroquoian Council (LAIC) and the Bridge Builder ministry, which seeks to foster the resto-ration of relationships between settler and Indigenous peoples. Delegates were made aware of resources that have been creat-ed to facilitate engagement with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Truth and Rec-onciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.

Dorothy Russell-Patterson shared about Brightening the Spirit, Breaking the Silence, a suicide-awareness program. The Rev. Rosalyn Elm spoke

about the importance of open, honest dialogue and prayer in her experience with the Bridge Builder ministry. Bishop Mac-Donald similarly underscored the need for fostering relation-ships rather than grasping at paternalistic strategies that un-dermine Indigenous self-gov-ernance. A motion to continue the ongoing work of the Bridge Builders was carried.

Social Justice Huron and the Justice League of Huron, which encompass several Diocesan

ministries, promoted the Unit-ed Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development, with a related prayer resource made available by the Anglican Fel-lowship of Prayer. A motion was carried that asks parishes and deaneries to explore the Sustainable Development Goals and to consider focusing on one.

The Diocesan Youth ad-dressed the issues of the un-derfunding of English (and French) as a Second Language

programs, and the troubling liv-ing conditions of so many First Nations communities. They provided letters to be signed by Synod members, which were subsequently sent to govern-ment representatives in Ottawa.

A Lutheran-Anglican initia-tive, the National Worship Con-ference, was promoted. This year’s conference takes place in Waterloo from July 24 to 27. Its keynote speakers, workshops, and liturgies will explore the connection between worship and justice-making. Informa-tion and registration is available at www.nationalworshipconfer-ence.org.

To Strive to Safeguard the Integrity of Creation and

Sustain and Renew the Life of the Earth

Synod delegates were encour-aged to bring water bottles from home. The use of ceramic dish-ware at the barbecue reflected the Diocese’s commitment to environmental responsibility. The EnviroAction Committee revealed that the Synod barbe-cue resulted in only a half bag of garbage.

St. James, Stratford was pre-sented with both a light-green and a medium-green award for the congregation’s work in envi-ronmental stewardship.

Several of the UN Sustainable

Development Goals that were considered throughout Synod relate directly to the care of cre-ation.

Congratulations to the Rev. Karen Kovats and the Rev. Dr. Timothy Dobbin, newly ap-pointed to the Cathedral Chap-ter of Canons. Also, congrat-ulations to the recipient of the Order of Huron, Canon Paul Rathbone, who was recognized for his ministry in administra-tion and finance. Also, it is im-portant to note that Synod end-ed with a heartfelt expression of gratitude to Bishop Bennett for his years of devotion to the life of the Diocese.

In her address to Synod, Bish-op Nicholls warned against seeking quick fixes to the dif-ficulties faced by the Church. Instead, she called for atten-tiveness to “a spirit of wisdom and revelation.” She issued a challenge to those in attendance — one that applies equally to all the people of Huron: This year find one new way to deep-en your love and knowledge of Christ.

How will you respond?

Matthew Kieswetter is a graduate of the M. Div. program at Trinity College in Toronto, and is an Ordinand with the Diocese of Huron

From Page 1A Light in the Forest: Our Companion Diocese of Amazonia. The guests from Amazonia – Rev. Marcos Fernardo Barros and his wife Maria de Lourdes Bernardino de Souza – shared their experience of ministry in the Anglican Church in Brazil. The challenges are enormous but so is the faith of the people of Amazonia. The partnership between Huron and Amazonia is of mutual benefit in discovering the new ways of ministry and recognizing the presence of divine energy in both places. Our guests will stay in Huron till the end of June. Use this opportunity to hear their story. While Marcos joined the Huron clergy at the opening service on Pentecost Sunday at St. Paul’s, Maria was invited to read from the Epistles. The reading was in Portuguese but the language did not represent a barrier.

Photo by Evan Agnew

The Refugee Crisis Challenging the World. Ven. Stephen Haig spoke on behalf of the Diocesan Refugee Committee, remarking on an incredibly busy year, with 164 files submitted (representing approximately 400 people), and more coming in. He characterized the experience of sponsoring refugees as a “slow process punctuated by frenetic activity… but it is worth it.” Also, thanks to monies collected at Bishop Nicholls’ Service of Welcome, and other donations that have come in, the Diocesan Refugee Committee can now make available money for parishes to assist in the first month of refugee sponsorship. Numbers may indicate the unfolding tragedy of tremendous proportions that is taking place right in front of our eyes but the stories reveal its true intensity. Two speakers who came to Canada from Syria as refugees sponsored by St. Aidan’s in London told their story to Synod.

Photo by Huron Church News

‘Wake Up, There is a Call to Hope’. The relationship of the Church with Indigenous peoples is at its critical point following the Call for Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Response given by our Primate in March of this year. Dramatic presentation of this relationship was given at Synod by Lenni Lenape Algonkian Iroquoian Council (LAIC) and the Bridge-Builder Ministry. National Indigenous Bishop Mark MacDonald spoke to how the Doctrine of Discovery has been officially repudiated, though its effects can still tarnish relationships and attitudes. He warned against paternalistic approaches and laws that undermine Indigenous self-governance. He called instead for the deepening of relationship between settler and Indigenous communities. Bishop Mark (right) and Rev. Norman Casey are closely watching the events at Synod. Photo by Huron Church News

Photo by Huron Church NewsThe Diocesan Youth raised the question of the underfunding of English and French as a Second Language programs and the troubling living conditions in First Nations communities.


Cold weather did not prevent delegates enjoying BBQ in front of St. Paul’s on Sunday evening, nor did it spoil the party.

Enthusiastic entertainment was provided by Shelly Rastin and her band.


Canon Paul Rathbone is this year’s recepient of the Order of Huron.


The beauty of the service at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, Ontario at the opening of Synod, Pentecost 2016.

Photo by Evan Agnew.

Retirees and their spouses were honoured at Synod. Back row, left to right: Rev. Vickie Edgeworth Pitcher, Mr. Robert Pitcher, Mrs. Sheila Hewitt, Rev. David Hewitt, Mrs. Sjouk Lynch, Mr. Shane Lynch, Rev. Dr. Gary Nicolosi, Mrs. Heather Bruce Nicolosi, Miss Allison Nicolosi. Front row: Rev. Canon Marian Haggerty, Mr. Harry Harris, Mrs. Jane Townshend, Ven. Peter Townshend.

Photo by Evan Agnew


By Bishop Bob BennettGod’s people of Huron:“Grace to you and peace from

God the Father and the Lord Je-sus Christ.” (1Cor 1.3)

Welcome each and every one of you to this 175th gathering of the Synod of Huron. We have travelled from the four direc-tions to be together in Christ. Welcome Tobermory from the tip of the Bruce in the north. Welcome Pelee Island locat-ed in the midst of Erie in the south. Welcome Port Dover and Six Nations of the Grand River in the east where the sun ris-es. Welcome Amherstburg and Sandwich in the west where the sun sets. To all the communities of Huron embraced by the four directions; welcome. On this Feast of Pentecost we gather in our historic Cathedral as God’s-people-in-Christ and in the love of the Holy Spirit to praise the One who is the hope of our sal-vation. Our prime directive as Synod-gathered is to discern and be attuned to the Creator’s Will for us both in our particu-lar time and within our unique context. May God bless our time together.

This is my eighth and final Charge as your Diocesan Bish-op. As I suspect you well know, I have announced my intention to retire this fall after some for-ty-two years of ordained min-istry. Given that approaching reality, I find myself in a strange season of transition as I prepare to pass the mantle of episcopal responsibility to our thirteenth diocesan bishop, Linda Nichol-ls. What apt image might cap-ture this passing of the torch? Bishop Terry in his imitable way suggested that Elijah’s passing of the prophetic mantle to Eli-sha in 2 Kings might be useful. Remember the story: it’s both dramatic and impressive.

- Old Elijah takes his mantle, rolls it up and strikes the waters of the Jordan.

- The waters part and they pass through on dry land (remi-niscent of the Exodus)

- Elisha asks for a double share of Elijah’s spirit before he departs

- Elijah responds: “If you see me as I am taken from you, it will be granted.”(2:10.b)

- And then comes the dramat-ic exit:

Chariots of fire and horses of fire/Elijah ascending into heav-en in a whirlwind

- Elisha picks up Elijah’s man-tle, strikes the Jordan, the waters part and he passes through.

- Mantle passed – all is good.As dramatic as this prophetic

transition is, Linda and I are not Elisha and Elijah (nor would we want to be). A more appro-priate image in this year of the Rio Olympics might be the relay race. Here we have Bob pass-ing the baton on to Linda. As I

slowdown from full speed, she runs alongside, carefully takes the baton and accelerates to full speed. Mantle passed – all is good.

Bishop Linda will be with us tomorrow but is unable, because of prior commitments, to join us either tonight or Tuesday. She also finds herself in a sea-son of transition as she begins episcopal ministry in Huron, a place that is essentially new for her. I am confident that you will welcome, love, and support her in the same manner you did for Bishop Terry and me. I have said this often because I think it bears repeating. We are blessed beyond measure to have Linda as our bishop coadjutor to lead us through both the joys and challenge of our future.

The Bishops’ Charge is in two sections this year which reflect our ‘betwixt and between’ time. The first section is tonight as I offer my reflection as the out-going bishop. Tomorrow first thing, Bishop Linda will cast her initial vision of the way forward. In preparation for to-night’s address, I perused prior Charges in the hope of detect-ing ongoing themes that might reflect my passion as your bish-op. They weren’t difficult to find and might actually be obvious for all of us. I said this in 2013:

“It seems to me that the Christian lifestyle to which we are called can be summarized using the Baptismal Covenant on the one hand and the An-glican Communion’s Marks of Mission on the other. Rooted in the Triune experience of God, the Baptismal Covenant chal-lenges us to live missionally: to be God’s ‘sent’ people. Arch-bishop Desmond Tutu has his imitable clearheaded way of re-minding us what it really means to live faithfully when he wrote this: “We learn from the Bible that God is a God who takes sides. He is not neutral. God is a God who is always on the side of the poor, the oppressed, the little ones who are despised; and it is for this reason that we, his

Church, have got to be in soli-darity with the poor, the home-less, the hungry and the op-pressed.” The Marks of Mission also detail just what living as God’s ‘sent’ people might look like. The Marks are well known to us; in fact they have become a sort of missional mantra for contemporary Anglicans. (to proclaim God’s Good News/to teach, baptize, and nurture new (and all) believers/to respond to human need by loving service/to oppose injustice, violence of every kind, and pursue peace and reconciliation/to care for the creation)

The Lambeth Conference of 2008 was a defining moment of my episcopate and I suspect for most of the bishops who at-tended. The theme of our time together at Canterbury was: Equipping Bishops for Mission. Here is how we summarized our understanding of God’s Mis-sion (from 2009 Charge) “God’s Mission is holistic; its orienta-tion is toward the redemption of the whole of creation. For Anglicans, indeed the whole Church, the Gospel is not just

the proclamation of individual redemption and renewal, but the renewal of society under the reign of God: the ending of injustice and the restoration of right relationship with God and between human beings and cre-ation. The Gospel given to us by Jesus in the synagogue in Naza-reth demands our commitment to the poor, the marginalized, the exploited, the refugees, in-digenous peoples, the internally displaced, and victims of war, terror and natural disaster.”

Another recurring theme over the years is rooted in the first two Marks of Mission (to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom/to teach, baptize and nurture new and existing be-lievers). We can’t be faithful to the remaining three Marks if we are not grounded in the first two. You have to say ‘Amen’ to God’s call to be in Holy Rela-tionship.

I said this in 2009: “God’s love affair with humankind begins at creation. The ancient elders re-count that at the beginning of all things God acted. Over the face of the dark and formless void, a wind/Spirit from God swept over the face of the waters and God’s Spirit brought forth new life. (Genesis1.1-2) In response to the act of creation, God sang a most beautiful canticle of joy: “and God saw that it was good”. (Genesis 1.10b) The salvation narrative, from its murky begin-nings through to the glorious vision of the New Jerusalem, reveals an unshakable constant. God is utterly loving, faithful and unceasingly invites us into deep relationship. ‘I will be your God and you will be my people’. This clarion call of the Creator invites us to respond in kind.”

I returned to this theme of giving our ‘Amen’ to God’s invi-tation to be relationship in 2014 when I said this to Synod: “This

evening’s text from the Hebrew Scriptures is also about making choices. Nearing the end of his life, old Joshua gathers Israel to-gether at Shechem. His purpose is to recount the community’s tumultuous salvation history, to affirm God’s abiding faithfulness and to challenge the people to respond and make covenant. He then issues the challenge of all challenges: “…choose this day whom you will serve…(Joshua 24.15b) His response is clear: “...but as for me and my household (my community) we will serve the Lord (Joshua24.15b) The community that is Israel rises to his challenge: “Therefore we will also serve the Lord, for he is our God” (Joshua 24.18b).

Israel’s response at Shechem resonates for us these many years later. Each day we also are to make choices: serve the Lord or not. (I want to follow Jesus. We want to follow Jesus.) And when we make our choice and say yes, we are always driven into community; a community whose life and health is framed by another covenant – the baptismal Covenant. First we choose to embrace the triune God. (I believe in God: Creator/ I believe in Jesus: Redeemer/I believe in Holy Spirit: Sanctifi-er.) Then we covenant to choose a Christian lifestyle (continu-ing in the apostles teaching and fellowship, the breaking of the bread and prayers/when we wander away, we return to faith by the Grace of God/we strive to be gospel people by word and example/we strive to seek and serve Christ in all persons lov-ing neighbour as self/we strive to be justice and peacemakers/we strive to sustain and renew the life and health of this frag-ile earth, our island home). Strengthened and uplifted by the Holy Spirit, we are proud Gospel people “in our hearts

sanctifying Christ as Lord and always ready to make our de-fence to anyone who demands from us an account of the hope that it is in us.” (1 Peter 3.15 slightly re-worked)”

If you remember last year’s Synod, we focused on the last mark of mission (to strive to safeguard the integrity of cre-ation and sustain and renew the life of the earth). I attempted to set the stage with these words from the bishops gathered at Lambeth in 2008: “Indigenous peoples have traditional un-derstandings of the Earth as a gift of the Creator and of their relationship to it and its crea-tures being one of interconnect-edness and responsible caring. The indigenous people have re-minded us that we are not aliens in a wilderness to be conquered, but integral parts of the created order, as are plants and animals, which are to be cherished and nurtured.” I also quoted from the Communique issued by bishops gathered in South Af-rica. “In different ways each of our own dioceses are deeply im-pacted by climate injustice and environmental degradation. We accept the evidence of science concerning the contribution of human activity to the climate crisis and the disproportionate role played by fossil-fuel-based economies. We believe the problem is spiritual as well as economic, scientific and polit-ical. For this reason the church must urgently find its collective moral voice”.

The theme for this year’s Syn-od is congruent with those of our recent past. Grounded in the experience of Pentecost, we

are challenged to reflect person-ally and corporately about what it means to be God’s ‘sent’ peo-ple in the seeming maelstrom of 2016. Here’s how I framed this dynamic a few years ago. “Since first beginnings, the Christian Community has had a love/hate… on/off… come close/stay away relationship with the cul-ture. In fact our particular time presents us with a multitude of unique challenges. In the world of “selfies”, “me-ism”, relativism, nimby-ism, Facebook, texting, Twitter and the like. In such a world the challenge for Chris-tians is to embrace a healthy in-dividuated sense of community, one that is NOT synonymous with local, myopic, inward, self-ish, or silo-building. At our best I think Anglican Christians be-long to a “community of com-munities”. At every level and iteration, we gather “in Christ” to be sent out “in Christ”.

In tonight’s reading from John, Jesus offers gifts that en-able us to be equal to the task of being a missional (sent) people; gifts that only have to be re-ceived.

“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you ev-erything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” (John14) (Holy Spirit-Ho-ly Peace.)

The Acts reading describes that marvellous experience of birthing, when as at the begin-ning of all things, the Wind/Spirit of the Creator moved over the face of creation and a Com-munity (The Way) was born. Just as Jesus promised, Holy

Gifts were given and received. The much loved verse from Mi-cah, which frames our Synod experience this year, answers a most critical question: what does post-Pentecost living look like? Surely the community’s life must always be multi-faceted and multi-layered (think bap-tismal covenant, think Marks of Mission) and surely the com-munity’s life must resonate with the words of Micah reaching down through the ages to speak to us tonight:

“….and what does the Lord re-quire of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

To enable us to be equal to the task of living into Micah’s chal-lenge, we are going to focus on three issues that I suspect weigh on all our hearts at this time.

- The world-wide refugee cri-sis

- What does a faithful re-sponse to walk with First Na-tions people actually look like?

- Strengthening and deepen-ing our ongoing partnership with our sisters and brothers in Amazonia

To aid us in our quest, we wel-come to Synod

1) Archdeacon Stephen Haig and the Huron Refugee Com-mittee

2) Bishop Mark MacDonald (NAIB) and the Huron Bridge Builder’s Group

3) The Reverend Marcos and Lourdes Barros from Brazil (It is our hope that Bishop Saulo, Ruth and son Thomas will join us this summer)

So the life of our 175th Synod lies before us. As I mentioned

previously, this last Charge is more a personal rumination of our time together; a reflection of one who is in transition. To-morrow, our soon-to-be new diocesan bishop will pick up the baton and cast her vision of the future that might lie ahead. Mantle passed – all is good.

Each year at this particu-lar moment in the giving of the Charge, I always gaze out over the assembled community and what do I see: friends, col-leagues-in-ministry and above all fellow sojourners on the Way. Thank you for being you, for be-ing here, and being God’s faith-ful-in-Christ. The last words for this my last Charge comes from the Scriptures:

“I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus

and your love toward all the saints,

and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you

as I remember you in my prayers.

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all glo-ry

may give you a spirit of wis-dom and revelation as you come to know him,

So that with the eyes of hearts enlightened

you may know the hope to which he has called you,

what are the riches of his glo-rious inheritance among the saints.” (Ephesian 1:15-18)

AMEN

Synod 2016: BIShoP’S charge

Photo by Huron Church NewsNewly appointed to the Cathedral Chapter of Canons: Rev. Dr. Timothy Dobbin and Rev. Karen Kovats with Bishop Bob Bennett

By Bishop Linda Nicholls“I have heard of your faith in

the Lord Jesusand your love toward all the

saints,and for this reason I do not

cease to give thanks for youas I remember you in my

prayers.I pray that the God of our Lord

Jesus Christ, the Father of all glo-ry

may give you a spirit of wis-dom and revelation as you come to know him,

So that with the eyes of your hearts enlightened

you may know the hope to which he has called you,

what are the riches of his glo-rious inheritance among the saints.” (Ephesian 1:15-18)

I can think of no better place to begin than in continuity with Bishop Bob’s prayer for our di-ocese as he closed his charge yesterday evening. This prayer, found at the opening of the Let-ter to the Ephesians and tradi-tionally credited to St. Paul is a prayer of thankfulness, encour-agement and yearning for those who received it, to continue to grow into all that God calls them to do and be so that they might know the ‘riches of his glorious inheritance among the

saints.’ It is also my prayer for all of you and for us together as we begin our journey of shared ministry for the sake of Christ.

I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you... I first give thanks for you as you have so wonderfully welcomed me into this diocese, showing your love for this particular “saint”. From the day of my election I have been overwhelmed by the cards, e-mails, texts and notes of en-

couragement and thanksgiving along with the joyfulness of my welcome service on April 16th - all have touched me deeply. Your welcome of me speaks well for your welcome of others who come into our midst seeking to find the family of God.

I have heard of your faith as I have started to hear stories about the history of the diocese, stories of particular parishes and to weekly read in the dioce-san digest of the many activities and commitments in ministry. I have heard of your passionate

response to the needs of refu-gee families; shared part of the prayer conference in which 145 people gathered to learn more about Celtic prayer; seen notices of coming events that reach out to those in need or build the life of the community with fun and fundraising; and I have begun to share with parishes in wor-ship. Over the coming months I look forward to deepening my knowledge of your life and faith as I visit each deanery to meet with the clergy and laity, hear the stories of your communities, and discover where the deepest joys and challenges live for you.

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all glory may give you a spir-it of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him. As we face the future we will each need that spirit of wisdom and revelation. It is no surprise to anyone in this room that the church – here and everywhere – is facing challenges. Changes in demographics, social expec-tations, communications and worldviews have caught us un-prepared for the rapidity of the changes. In my episcopal minis-try I have frequently met bewil-dered congregations wondering – What happened? Why has

attendance declined so steep-ly? Why do people not want to come to church? Where are the children and youth? Just tell us what to do!!

There is no quick fix. We do need a spirit of wisdom and rev-elation. My prayer is that God will provide that wisdom “as we come to know him”… as we pay attention to our own spir-itual lives – as we pray, study scripture and meet Christ in worship and service. If we do not know God as shown to us in Jesus for ourselves – we have nothing to share and sharing is the mandate from Christ – “Go and make disciples of all na-tions!” (Matthew 28:16-20) A key commitment I therefore ask all of us is that we deepen our own discipleship so that we do know Christ and can, through the intimacy of our knowledge, share Christ with passionate joy. I ask each person in this room – lay, deacon, priest & bishop – to commit to one new way of deepening your knowledge of Christ in this year! - Join a bible study; find a spiritual director; participate in an Education for Ministry group; go on retreat; covenant with a friend to pray and read scripture together, become a biblical story-teller;

Photo by Evan Agnew Saying thank you to a bishop, to a shepherd, to a friend. The gift to the Bennetts was presented by Rev. Canon Kevin George.

Photo by Evan Agnew


Thank you for being you, God’s faithful in Christ

I have heard of your faith


“It is said that you know when it is time to retire, and for me, that time has arrived. It has been a joy to serve as a deacon, priest and bishop in this wonderful di-ocese for the past 42 years but now I want to be able to spend more time with Kathy, our girls and their families. It was a plea-sure to serve the people of this diocese all these years”, said Bishop Bennett in a statement issued on April 22, announcing his retirement on November 1, 2016.

Bishop Bob Bennett was or-dained a deacon on May 1, 1974, priested on May 8, 1975 and consecrated a bishop on September 14, 2002. He was elected the Bishop of Huron on October 25, 2008.

Bishop Bob has served the parishes of Trinity, Simcoe, St. John’s, Woodhouse and Port Ryerse Memorial Church; Holy Trinity, Chesley, Christ Church,

Tara and Church of the As-cension, Paisley; St. George’s, Kitchener; St. Mark’s, Brantford and All Saints’, Windsor. He has also been regional dean of Brant, a canon of the Cathedral

Church of St. Paul, archdeacon of Brant-Norfolk and Oxford and archdeacon of Essex.

Bishop Bennett indicated his intention to retire to Arch-bishop Colin Johnson, the

metropolitan of the Ecclesias-tical Province of Ontario. He announced his retirement one week after welcoming Bishop Linda Nicholls as the Coadjutor Bishop of Huron.

“She also finds herself in a sea-son of transition as she begins episcopal ministry in Huron; a place that is essentially new for her. I am confident that you will welcome, love, and support her in the same manner you did for Bishop Terry [Dance] and me. I have said this often because I think it bears repeating. We are blessed beyond measure to have Linda as our bishop coadjutor to lead us through both the joys and challenge of our future.”, said Bishop Bob in his Charge at 175th Synod on May 15.

Bishop Linda Nicholls was welcomed to the Anglican Di-ocese of Huron as its coadjutor bishop on Saturday, April 16 with a service at St. Paul’s Ca-thedral in London presided by the Bishop of Huron. Address-ing the gathered at St. Paul’s Ca-thedral, Bishop Linda expressed her thanks for the privilege to be called to serve in the Dioce-san of Huron.

Huron and Perth did it again! Deanery’s second Bishops’ Friends dinner was held on April 27 at Mitchell Golf & Country Club. The exceptional attendance of people willing to support the Empowered Leadership Fund and a relaxed atmosphere turned this event into an enjoyable evening.

By Lynda McGregor and Stephanie Donaldson

L ast year when we were tasked with organizing a

Bishops’ Friends event for our Huron & Perth Deanery we had no idea what it should look like. What we did know was that each of the Bishops’ Friends evenings around the diocese was as different as they could be.

The gamut ran from the suit & tie event at the London din-ner at Sunningdale Golf Club to a very casual pot luck up in the Saugeens. Each had its own per-sonality so our challenge was to discern what would work best for our Huron & Perth guests.

The first hurdle was location. We are a large deanery that straddles two counties and we

needed to find a venue that would be central and meet our as yet unrecognized needs. Lyn-da, being more familiar with the area, suggested Mitchell Golf & Country Club. First hurdle overcome.

Next what type of dinner and

a menu to go with it. We settled on a buffet with assigned seat-ing. Chicken would be on the main course; things were falling into place.

Next the entertainment. We looked no farther than Huron & Perth’s own Reverend Matt ‘Elvis’ Martin.

We were on a roll and the final piece was an auction. The wonderful people of our dean-ery filled the auction tables with

an array of items with some-thing to please everyone.

The night arrived and so did our guests. Over 100 people from around our deanery joined Bishop Bob and Kathy for a wonderful evening of fellowship, good food and amazing entertainment. Gail Trewhitt was our MC, an excel-lent choice. Archdeacon Allan

Livingstone introduced Bishop Bob and we were well on our way to a roaring success.

This brings us to H & P Bish-ops’ Friends, 2016. As we had raised the bar very high in our inaugural event we decided not to mess with success and repeat

what had been so successful the year before. The only real change was the entertainment. Singer-songwriter Ali Mat-thews provided easy listening and toe-tapping music for our guests. History was repeating itself.

Of course a party is nothing without its guests and once again the good people of Huron & Perth had faith in us and turned out in overwhelming numbers. Our thanks to Tim Ertel and his staff at the Coun-try Club and of course our guests, without whom we would not have had a party.

Now our thoughts turn to H & P Bishops’ Friends 2017. The date is tentatively booked for the same time in April 2017. Watch for details!

Care for the Empowered Leadership Fund: Bishop Bob Bennett.

Photo: Huron Church NewsBishops Linda Nicholls and Robert Bennett at the welcoming service for Bishop Linda, April 16th.

Interesting items at the silent auction: the gifts exceeded $1,000.00.

All tables were full: the turnout at Huron & Perth Deanery Bishops’ Friends dinner was once again exceptional.

Relaxed atmsosphere throughout the evening marked the second Bishops’ Friends dinner in Mitchell.

Photos by Davor Milicevic Huron Church News

The singer/songwriter Ali Matthews, accompanied by guitarist Andrew Horrocks, provided outstanding entertainment.

Bishops’ Friends in Mitchell were welcomed by Stephanie Donaldson and Lynda McGregor.

Gail Trewhitt was the Master of Ceremony and Bishop Bob Bennett was introduced by Ven. Allan Livingstone.

Opening and closing prayers were offered by Rev. Wayne Malott and Rev. Dan Bowyer.

From Page 1

engage in theological course... read the whole Bible!

One of my greatest joys is to sit down and have a conversa-tion about life and faith with someone who has questions. Parker Palmer, a teacher and mentor I deeply admire, de-scribes the task of teaching not as an expert pouring knowledge as if filling bottles but as a gath-ering together around a subject that you wish to explore. The teacher brings alongside the re-sources and information to as-sist that exploration and sets the boundaries needed to focus the discussion. Learning arises from the shared exploration and re-flections. I love to sit down and talk about our faith. As a teach-er I can bring resources of bib-lical & theological information – not all the answers. Learning happens when we, together, ex-plore what faith means for us now – here – in this time and place – listening to the wisdom of the past and present, sharing our own experience and dis-coveries and trusting the pres-ence of God’s Spirit to lead and guide us. I especially appreciate these opportunities with young people – they ask the best ques-tions. and they will not accept anything but authenticity and frank discussion! They keep me honest about my own questions.

We will do that in the coming months – talk about our faith in small groups in parishes; in deanery gatherings and in dioc-esan councils. And in doing that we will discover again and again deepening of our faith and abil-ity to articulate the faith that is within us for others.

So that with the eyes of your hearts enlightened you may know the hope to which he has called you, what are the rich-es of his glorious inheritance among the saints. We live in a time where people simultane-ously seek self-sufficiency and independence while longing for

community – strong individu-alism competes with our need for each other to have a place in community where we are accountable, loved, and cared for. The hope to which Christ has called us gives us both. We are loved for who we are in all our gifts, strengths and weak-nesses – AND called to be part of the body of Christ where we have a place – where we belong – where our participation in the body matters and our gifts can be honoured and contribute to the well-being of the whole community. This is true of us as individuals and as parishes.

As individuals we are part of the body of Christ in a par-ish in mutual commitment. As parishes you are part of the body of Christ known through the diocese – where each parish is a unique part of the whole – and each part needs the others! As a diocese we are part of the Ecclesiastical Province of On-tario and of the whole Anglican

Church of Canada – our place in these is part of a dynamic whole. Our Anglican Church of Cana-da – our “beloved church” – to quote our Primate – is a part of the Anglican Communion, that family of Anglican Churches committed to walking togeth-er in Christ, and as Anglicans we are part of God’s one, holy, catholic and apostolic church throughout the world. One of the privileges I deeply enjoy is the opportunity to engage with our wider family in the House of Bishops provincially and na-tionally, in ecumenical dialogue with Roman Catholics and in coming months with the new Task Group for the Anglican Communion. I look forward to opportunities to share our dio-cese with the wider church and to share them with you. I am so pleased that Huron already has a Companion Diocese relation-ship with Amazonia through which we can see that wider body of Christ and am delighted

that Rev. Marcos and Lourdes are with us today.

I look forward to togeth-er strengthening the ways in which we support one anoth-er – individually, as parishes and as a diocese. St. Paul also wrote: As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you. (1 Corinthians 12:20-21) I know there is a tendency in any organization or institution to dislike the “next level up” in authority! I trust that we will work together, remembering that each part of our diocese is there to serve the other parts. The bishops and diocesan staff; clergy; lay leaders; parishioners – are all team members seek-ing the ultimate good of God’s kingdom. We need each other and we must support and trust one another. I have already dis-covered the deep commitment of the staff to the life and work

of the clergy and parishes and have caught glimpses of the pas-sion and commitment of clergy and laity for their parishes. One constant surprise and delight for me in episcopal ministry is the creativity of laity, cler-gy working together with their bishop. Through the gifts each brings to the table I delight in the possibilities we discover to-gether, especially when we for-merly saw only difficulties and obstacle. The wind of the Spirit blows where it will and can and will surprise and delight us if we are waiting and ready.

This mutual support of one another is also particularly and especially true of our walking together with our indigenous brothers and sisters in Christ – as we work on ways to fulfil the calls to the church of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission – educating ourselves about the history of our involvement in the pain of the past; educating ourselves and clergy, in particu-lar, serving in indigenous com-munities, about Indigenous and spirituality and working closely with LAIC around ways to sup-port healing and reconciliation, language, and spiritual life. Our commitment as an Anglican Church of Canada to “walk to-gether” will call us all to build-ing trust in new ways.

So with Bishop Bob I pray for you and ask you to pray for the body of Christ – for sisters and brothers in your parish, dean-ery, diocese, indigenous part-ners and the world! As I begin my ministry among you with St. Paul’s prayer I ask your prayers for me – for strength and stami-na in the coming months, for a heart to listen deeply, and wis-dom in working with you to find the ways to strengthen our witness in and through the Dio-cese of Huron.

Come, Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of the faithful!

Photo by Evan Agnew “Strengthening the ways in which we support one another” - Bishop Linda with the representatives of the diocesan youth groups at Synod 2016.

“It was a pleasure to serve the people of this diocese”


By Kerry LongOn Sunday April 3, 2016

many parishioners gathered in the Upper Parish Hall at the Church of St. John the Evange-list, Kitchener to celebrate the conclusion of Simon Guthrie’s grueling 12 hour bicycle ride in aid of transit needs for the spon-sored Syrian refugee families in the Waterloo Anglican Deanery.

Simon, a parishioner at St. John’s, is a competitive triathlon athlete. He rode his specially stationary mounted triathlon bicycle.

This was not casual pedalling; Simon was being challenged by

videos of actual endurance bi-cycle races. Simon had to keep pace with the race leaders.

He started at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday and while we slept, he kept pedalling. The 12 hours was the equivalent of several laps of the Tour de France, but with no overnight rests. Appropriately called the Sufferfest Challenge, by completing this challenge Si-mon has now earned the right to be a Knight of Sufferlandia.

This was all done to raise funds for the transportation needs, primarily bus passes, for our Deanery sponsored refugee families for one year.

Local transportation is an es-sential but expensive need for the successful settlement of ref-ugees in our community. The goal is to raise $7,000, which will provide transit passes for four families. With over $3,500 raised so far, we are well on our way to our goal.

Donations can still be made by cheque made payable to The Church of St. John the Evange-list. Please note “Simon’s Ride” on the memo line of the cheque.

Congratulations to Simon for an outstanding effort in raising funds for our refugee families!

Simon’s ride for the Syrian refugees

Your first month free: making refugee sponsorship workBy Lawrene Denkers

“This is the worst humani-tarian crisis of our lifetime...”

–Amnesty International “Let’s talk about the scale of the

catastrophe: 200,000 dead, includ-ing 10,000 children. Four million

refugees spilling out of Syria.” –The Globe and Mail

“Amid what has been called the worst refugee crisis since the

Second World War… Canada has before, and can again, do more.”

–CBC NewsCanada’s response to the Syr-

ian refugee crisis included a 2015 Liberal campaign pledge to accept 25,000 Syrian refu-gees through government and private sponsorship by the end of February 2016 (revised from the initial ultimately-impossible goal of December 31, 2015).

That had the Diocesan Ref-ugee Committee leaping to action. Several Syrians have already arrived in the diocese – in London, Waterloo, Clarks-burg, Meaford, Owen Sound and Leamington – and more are expected elsewhere, including Lambton and Brantford.

And now a good-news fund-ing circumstance could put you in the story!

Your first month free!Some money has been donat-

ed to the Refugee fund as seed money for new sponsorships, and added to that has been the collection taken at the Service of Celebration and Welcoming for The Right Rev. Linda Nich-olls, coadjutor bishop of Huron, on Saturday, April 16.

That’s where you come in. Parishes that have not spon-sored a refugee in the last few years can apply to access that

fund for the first month of a new sponsorship, up to a max-imum of $2,000.

How it would work There are a few scenarios out

there, but let’s look at the Blend-ed Visa Office-Referred (BVOR) Program. Resettlement in Can-ada under the BVOR Program means refugees are matched by the United Nations High Com-missioner for Refugees (UN-HCR) with private sponsors in Canada. “The goal is to engage in a three-way partnership among the Government of Can-ada, the UNHCR, and private sponsors,” says the federal gov-ernment information bulletin.

The UNHCR identifies the refugees, and the federal gov-ernment provides up to six months of income support and a year of health coverage. The private sponsors provide anoth-er six months of income sup-port and up to a year of social and emotional support.

Under the new diocesan “one month free” initiative, Huron’s Refugee Committee seed fund would provide for the first month, the government would cover months two to seven, and the parish would have only five months of rent, etc., to fund.

That’s a few bake or yard sales, a little extra on the collection plate, and maybe a fundraiser concert or dinner. Parishes are creative, and communities are generous.

We talked to a few sponsors of recent and expected arrivals, and they are very encouraging.

Rev. Pat Harrison is in charge of documentation on the Lamb-ton Anglican Refugee Commit-tee (LARC) steering committee.

There are 16 Lambton Dean-

ery churches involved the LARC group. That is the entire dean-ery. It is also a new group, un-dertaking its first sponsorship, although a few of the churches do have sponsorship experience of their own.

How is it going? “We didn’t start fundraising

until the first of November,” says Harrison, “and at March 31 we had 176% of our funding.” The group has found housing for a family of six, and expects also a family of five. “We were

overwhelmed by the generosi-ty in the community. Everyone was so giving… Some of the churches are fundraising, some are bringing in household goods and furniture. We found a doc-tor and a dentist who speak Ar-abic. It has been amazing!”

Brian Walters is the chair of the Waterloo Deanery Syrian Refugee Committee.

“We have had overwhelming responses from our parishes,” Walters tells us. “We achieved our financial goals within the

first 30 to 45 days of the com-mittee being formed, enough to support three to four families. The first family arrived at the end of February and they have settled in very nicely. We have many different support teams assisting with everything from shopping to primary contacts to day-to-day issues, and a to-tal of 50 people on our com-mittee. What is really work-ing well is the level of support we’re getting, and it is not just financial. It is something our churches have stepped up to…

We are taking on more than we originally planned. We are now helping out some Government Assisted Refugees [GARs] that were stuck in a hotel in Kitch-ener, because we have all the family support mechanisms in place. I am really encouraged by the level of activity and the will-ingness of our group to be flex-ible to help not just the Syrian refugees that came through the BVOR program, but the GARs who are not as fortunate to have all the support that is offered to

the BVOR refugees. That is real-ly quite a new thing for us.

“Overall it has been a very positive experience and there are a number of really lovely stories coming out of this. The level of enthusiasm of our ref-ugees toward the support they are getting is just great. Lots of people in our parishes are stepping up, including children who have made toys for the ref-ugees because they wanted to do something. It is really bring-ing our Christian community closer together. It is helping to galvanize our deanery as well. Every time we reach out to get volunteers for anything, like transportation, we get people stepping up from the parishes.”

David Morgan is a member of the Beaver Valley Open Door refugee committee.

“We set out to raise $30,000 and at last count we had $58,000,” says Morgan. “It was just incredible. We didn’t have to push. People just came for-ward. It was quite daunting! We almost have enough to consider bringing in a second family.

“Apart from pulling peo-ple together in the sponsoring group, it also has an effect on the community. It enhances the community. It gets rid of old misunderstandings about new-comers. It has amazed me. Peo-ple who were initially reluctant to even think about it suddenly embrace the idea. They see that these people are just like them.”

If you would like to learn more about what is involved, give the diocesan Refugee Committee a call at 1-800-919-1115.

Lawrene Denkers is a member of the Diocesan Refugee Committee

Foreign accent – a sign of courageBy Rev. Lynn Mitchell

M ahmoud comes into the room flourishing

his Permanent Resident card, newly arrived in the mail. He throws an arm around me and says to the class, “Lynn. Me. Canadian. You. All Syrian.”

Shehade is excited to an-nounce that he passed the test for his G1 driver’s licence, one step further towards the freedom of being able to drive his family about town. Hakam comes into class exhausted after three days spent in the hospital with her seriously-ill 3-year-old daughter Maria.

Maria is now fine, and Hakam tells me that for three days she successfully commu-nicated to the medical staff in English, using newly-learned vocabulary. Three months ago she spoke almost no English. Ambiya, a mother of 4 learning to read and write for the first time, successfully adds her 5-word contribution to a funny situation in the class. Everyone understands her, and everyone laughs. It is a personal triumph.

I teach English as a Second Language in Stratford, a second career path begun almost two years ago. There are now 16 adults in my class, Literacy learners, who are learning English from scratch. The ma-jority are newly-arrived Syrian immigrants, but I also have

students from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Afghanistan, China, and Laos. All except two came to Canada as refugees, fleeing horrors that I learn about in bits and pieces.

Despite this, they come to class most days energized and hopeful, greeting me with a

cheery “salaam alecum” (peace be with you), to which I have learned to respond “walecum salaam”. Last week we com-pleted a health module about learning to read a prescription label, and making an appoint-ment with doctor. Of course we had to have a test (an “imti-haan” – my Arabic vocabulary is growing!), and they work

hard to master the new lan-guage skills and do well. We are struggling through short vowels at the moment, training their ears to hear the very small dis-tinctions between each vowel, which we English speakers hear just fine, but which they tell

me don’t really exist. “Lynn. All same! All same!” There is great rejoicing when they feel that they have finally figured out some point of English gram-mar, only to discover that there are, well, exceptions to the rule. I am met with groans, rolled eyes and sighs every time I say, “Good for you. You are exactly right. But in English...”

Although they have little in terms of material possessions at this point, they are enormously generous and hospitable. At lunchtime I am treated to a wide variety of incredibly deli-cious food, all from their own kitchens. As I share Canadian customs and traditions with them, they are delighted to ed-ucate me in the language, food and customs of their native countries. I’m now learning a lot about Ramadan, which begins the 6th of June.

I have had hilariously wicked conversations about the foibles of men with the Muslim wom-en, and have tried to manage their shock after the first warm weekend in April, when they discovered that, after dress-ing quite modestly all winter, Canadians shed their clothes with some abandon come the warmer weather!

But it is not all hopeful and energized and laughter. A week ago, for whatever reason, we had a very sad day. Bontu was crying about her father, who had been a successful farmer in Ethiopia, with 80 cows and crops. After soldiers’ raids and two years of famine the cows are dead and nothing grows.

Roia shows me news footage from the Kabul neighbourhood where her family still lives. A massive bomb has leveled a huge apartment complex, kill-ing 500 and injuring 300.

Warda, from Aleppo, can’t sleep, and is living on ciga-rettes and coffee, worried sick about her Syrian children and grandchildren left behind in Lebanon. They are coming to Canada in the next few months, but the money has run out, and there is no food. The English lessons come to an end, and the women and I cry, and hug one another, while the men look stoically into their cell phones.

A recent Facebook memo reads, “Do you know what a foreign accent is? It is a sign of courage.” These are amazing people; strong, determined, kind, creative, hard-working. They have been through hell, lost so much, and yet they are determined to make a good life for themselves and their families here in Canada. Given the chance, they will enrich this country immeasurably, contrib-uting in ways we can’t even yet imagine.

Most days, I feel as if I learn as much as I teach. Several days ago, the conversation at break turned to Islam and Christiani-ty. Warda, who still speaks little English and is not literate in Arabic, begins placing objects side by side in front of me, say-ing, “Aleppo. I live. Home Mus-lim. Home Christian. Home Muslim. Home Christian. All together. All good.”

Salaam alecum.

Stratford ESL classes celebrating International Women’s Day.

Photo provided by the Diocesan Refugee Committee


St. Paul’s Cathedral, one of London’s most prominent heritage buildings requires urgent repair to keep the roof overhead and protect irre-placeable historic items and works of art.

During investigations of ev-idence of water infiltration in the north wall of St. Paul’s Ca-thedral, it was discovered that the ends of some trusses, which provide the structural integrity for the roof, had rotted. Over time the trusses themselves have weakened and this is caus-ing outward force against the cathedral walls, which, also damaged by water, could result in their collapse. If the truss-es aren’t properly stabilised to correct these problems, and this very soon, the Cathedral could be closed, as it would be deemed unsafe for use.

Safeguarding London’s historySt. Paul’s is... our Cathedral.St. Paul’s is both a Cathedral

and a city-designated Heritage building. It is the oldest church in the City of London and has been at its present location at the corner of Richmond Street and Queens Avenue in the heart of downtown London since 1845,

and part of London’s history since 1834. By stepping through our doors, you’re in touch with the past; by helping to stabilize the Cathedral’s roof you will be-come part of the history of this remarkable place and will shape the future of the core of our city.

The Cathedral bells have rung over the city to mark import-ant civic events, both joyful and sorrowful, calling citizens’ at-tention and gathering them to-gether as a community on both civic and religious occasions. Records of significant tolls are scrawled on the walls within

the bell tower. The bells at St. Paul’s have pealed to mourn the deaths of British Royalty, to celebrate the end of both World Wars and other conflicts, and, more recently, to mourn and call for justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

St. Paul’s Cathedral is the Gar-rison Church of the 4th Battal-ion of The Royal Canadian Reg-iment (4RCR), where we hold special services for current and retired members. The Cathedral houses commemorative infor-mation of those who fell at vari-

ous battles; one such monument commemorates the men of His Majesty’s 23 Regiment who perished at the Battle of Alma in the Crimean War in 1854. A memorial book on permanent display tells the stories of pa-rishioners who fell in the First and Second World Wars. We are the caretakers of the military colours of several former Lon-don regiments — these are laid up in the church, where they are deeply honoured. Without the repairs to the roof we will not be able to continue to preserve our military history that is currently accessible to all.

Save our CathedralTo stabilize and strengthen

the Cathedral’s trusses, replace damaged bricks, roof mem-brane and slates, install new eaves troughs and downspouts, and repair and refurbish the in-terior of the church, St. Paul’s must raise $1M. Structural re-pairs must be completed before November of this year – that is, before snowfall. Refurbishment of the interior is less urgent. The timeline for raising the bulk of the funds is tight, due to the fact that the work must be paid for as it is completed.

How you can helpRaising funds to address this

structural emergency will be a challenge – but in life, as in faith, challenges are often bless-ings in disguise. It’s an opportu-nity to build community spirit as well as faith. The congrega-tion at St. Paul’s invites every-one to be a part of this good and worthy campaign, and asks that everyone whose life is touched by the Cathedral to prayerfully consider how they can help.

“All things work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

In 1846, when the oldest ex-isting part of St. Paul’s was offi-cially opened (the portion with the current damaged trusses), the London newspaper of the day, The Times, wrote:

“May it stand long uninjured by time and unscathed by casu-alties, to be a house of prayer, and a place of spiritual blessings to generations yet unborn.”

Your help and prayers are needed so that this blessing may continue into the future.Project Jericho Leadership Team

Help save St. Paul’s!“May it stand long uninjured by time and unscathed by casualties, to be a house of prayer, and a place of spiritual blessings to generations yet unborn.”

J U N E 2 0 1 6 A N G L I C A N D I O C E S E O F H U R O N C H U R C H N E W S P A G E 1 1P A G E 1 0 A N G L I C A N D I O C E S E O F H U R O N C H U R C H N E W S J U N E 2 0 1 6

anglIcan church Women

In Memory

Oxford DeanerySt. John’s, Tillsonburg

Grace Jacques

Huron Church Camp 2016It only takes a spark to get a fire going

And soon all those around Can warm up to its glowing;

That’s how it is with God’s love, Once you’ve experienced it,

You spread God’s love to everyone,You want to . . .

Come and join us for our 70th summer in Bayfield, ON,

as we kindle the spark of faith, tend the flame of love

and shine the light of Christ in this place . . . and beyond!

One-Week Theme CampsGrades 1-8, ages 6-14, $480 + $62.40 HSTWalk With Me - July 10 – 16 Hands Across the Table, Hands Across the Sea -

July 17 – 23 Small Things, Great Love - July 24 – 30(No camp July 31 - August 6)Plant Peace - Aug 7 – 13Mirror, Mirror - Aug 14 - 20What a Wonderful World - Aug 21 – 27

Senior CampGrade 8, $1010 + $131.10 HSTCompanions on a Journey 1 - July 10 - 23Companions on a Journey 2 - August 7 - 20

Leader in Training, Grade 9 & 10, $1540 + $200.20 HSTLIT1 (Grade 9) - July 10 - 30LIT2 (Grade 10) - July 10 - 30 (Full) LIT1 (Grade 9) - August 7 - 27 (Full)LIT2 (grade 10) - August 7 - 27 (Full)

Register online now atwww.huronchurchcamp.ca

519-434-6893 ext 217 until June [email protected]

PASS IT ON

PaStoral ProgreSSIonSAppointment

Bishop Bob Bennett is pleased to share the announcement by The Reverend Dr. Stephen McClatchie of the appointment of the Rever-end Christopher Kelly as Chaplain of Huron University College and Associate Rector of the Collegiate Chapel of St. John the Evangelist. Chris will begin his appointment on August 15, 2016.

Bishop Bob Bennett appointed Shaun Eaton as Deacon-in-Charge of the Parish of the Holy Spirit (St. Paul’s, Clinton and St. Thomas’, Seaforth) effective June 1, 2016. Shaun will be ordained a deacon at the May 31st Ordination service at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Resignation

Bishop Bob Bennett has accept-ed the wish of the Reverend Dr.

Margaret Myers to resign effective March 1, 2016. Rev’d Margaret was the associate priest (non stip) at the Parish of St. James, Wallaceburg and St. James, Port Lambton and now holds a General Permit.

Retirement

Bishop Bob Bennett has accept-ed the wish of the Rev’d Victoria Edgeworth-Pitcher to retire, effec-tive August 1, 2016 with her last Sunday in the parish being June 26th. Vickie was ordained a dea-con in the Diocese of Niagara on June 7, 1987 and priested on April 4, 1989. She came on the strength of the Diocese of Huron in 2006 as the Associate Pastor at St. Mark’s Brantford and Chaplain to Wilfred Laurier University, Brantford Cam-pus though the ministry of Grace Church, Brantford. In September 2010, Vickie became the Incum-

bent of St. Thomas’, Cambridge, the position from which she retires.

Rest in Peace

Mr. Lyle Johnson (the father of the Rev’d Brad Johnson) died on April 16th, 2016. The funeral Ser-vice was held in Burlington on Fri-day, April 22, 2016 at 11a.m. Cre-mation to follow.

Eva Louise Ikerd died peaceful-ly at home in the arms of her lov-ing parents, April 26, 2016 aged 7 months (niece of Catherinanne George and the Rev’d Canon Dr. Kevin George, St. Aidan’s, Lon-don). Eva was a beautiful child of God that everyone was so thankful for. The funeral service was held on April 10th in Troy, Michigan.

By Bonnie G. Rees“Leaders of Courage – Serv-

ing by Faith” was the theme for the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Anglican Church Women of the Diocese of Huron, held at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, Ontario on Saturday, April 30.

President Catherine Henry welcomed 129 delegates and members. Registration began at 9 a.m. with a Meet and Greet offering coffee, tea, juice and

homemade muffins in the As-sembly Room. Display tables in Cronyn Hall carried a wide va-riety of goods and information.

Rev. Michael Dekay wel-comed us to the cathedral. Morning Prayer was conduct-ed by Rev. Patsy Allison, ACW chaplain.

Deanery ACW banners were paraded and placed in the front of the cathedral.

Vice-President Brenda Cling-ersmith conducted the Roll Call, spoke to a donation being made by the ACW Council on behalf of all women in the Diocese to Project Jericho (cathedral res-toration), the new Kingfisher Lake location for forwarding bales (new and used clothing, bedding, baby layettes, etc.) and encouraged everyone to sign a banner to forward prayers and

encourage and inspire the res-idents of Attawapiskat as they struggle with the suicides in their community.

President Catherine, who is retiring after a two-year term, spoke about her experience as President, describing it as won-derful and encouraged all wom-en to listen to God’s call to lead-ership.

She expressed appreciation to the many people who have been

of assistance to the Council in the past year.

She introduced Angela Peller-in, President of the Catholic Women’s League for the Lon-don Diocese. Angela brought greetings on behalf of the 11,200 women of her diocese. She spoke of the good work be-ing done by women of faith, the Syrian refugees being helped and the palliative and hospice care programs supported by her members.

Sandra Stock, President of the United Church Women in Lon-don, was unable to attend but sent greetings.

The minutes of the last annu-al meeting as well as the trea-surer’s report and budget were approved. The nominations for the next Council were present-ed. We were thankful that sev-

eral women came forward to fill vacancies. Rev. Patsy said Grace before lunch which was catered by Nooners and thoroughly en-joyed by all.

The afternoon began with a Hymn Sing accompanied by Brenden Fraser. Our Guest Speaker was Tonya Verburg, Executive Director of Monica Place, Waterloo. She was ac-companied by Rev. Margaret Walker, chaplain to Monica Place.

This shelter for young, preg-nant women provides support, assistance and schooling for the women before and after the arrival of their babies. Tonya introduced two young women who spoke about their life ex-periences and expressed appre-ciation for Monica Place. One of them brought her 14 month

old son who delighted every-one as he explored the cathe-dral. Those in attendance had brought baby items for Monica Place as well as items for Huron Church Camp. Tonya was hap-py to stuff her vehicle with the many items received.

We were honoured to have Rt. Rev. Bishop Robert Bennett, Bishop of Huron conduct the Celebration of Eucharist. Thank and Fair Share Offerings were collected. Past ACW President Sandra Fraser presided over the installation of the ACW Dioce-san Council Officers for 2016-17. Bishop Bob congratulated Brenda Clingersmith, the new president, and all members of the Council.Bonnie G. Rees is Vice-President of ACW Diocesan Council

By Dave GabrielWhat a blessing it is for the

congregation of St. James’ Church in Paris, to have a loyal member worship with us who turned 100 years old on May 14, 2016.

Queenie MacCormack, who rarely misses a Sunday, is an in-spiration to us all with her posi-tive attitude.

In her honour we organized an open house on her 100th birthday, Saturday, May 14, at St. James’

Anglican Church on Burwell Street, Paris to wish her A HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

More about our Queenie: • Born in England;• Had one brother;• Pet name Queenie given to her by her father; • Married Canadian soldier Ber-nard MacCormack Aug 29, 1944 in England….War Bride; • Bernard died in 1993; • Left England on her birthday in 1946; • Became Canadian citizen when arrived in Canada; • Lived on Fulton Street in Brantford with her mother-in-law in a house built by her father-in-law, where she was introduced to the out-house and the out-side pump for water;

• Was a Guide Commissioner and served as Brown Owl for over 500 Brownies at St. James Anglican; Church in Brantford for over 50 years; • Retired when she 80 years old; • Now lives with her son Ian; • Attends church on a regular ba-sis; • Has an amazing memory; • Embarrassed by all the fuss we are making over her.

Every moment spent with our birthday girl is a real privilege.

Happy birthday Queenie!

Dave Gabriel is a parishioner of St. James’ Church, Paris and a member of the parish What’zup Team.

By Bonnie BensetteThe children and youth of

The Parish of St. David and St. Mark, Windsor donate their Sunday School yearly offerings to the Huron Hunger Fund and their cheque is taken to the Syn-od Service.

They have a “Loonie Tube”, a long thermometer-like tube into which they slide their of-fering each Sunday. When they hit certain markers on the ther-mometer they earn things like pizza parties and outings spon-sored by the congregation.

This year Colton Suzor, who is in Kindergarten, suggested that they raise some more money for the Huron Hunger Fund by sell-ing cookies. So on Mother’s Day the Sunday School held Colton’s

Cookie Sale of homemade “kid and parent” baked cookies, raising additional funds. Their donation will be designated for Fort McMurray relief.

Bonnie Bensette is Christian Education Leader at the Parish of St. David and St. Mark.

Left to right: Bonnie Bensette, Chris Thibert, Harry Bensette, Nick Thibert and Colton Suzor.

Our Queenie turns 100

Colton’s cookie sale for Fort McMurray

Let’s get camp ready for the summer!

A century of memories: Queenie MacCormick, closing on her 100th birthday, remembers her 50 years of service as Brown Owl at St. James Church in Brantford. The photo of Queenie with her Brownies is from early 50’s.

Join us on our annual clean-up day!

Saturday June 25, 2016 9 am – 4 pm

By Laura ManiasYouth conference 2016 was

held on the freezing May 13-15 weekend.

73 youth, parish youth group leaders, and support staff gath-ered at Huron church camp to study the coming of the Holy Spirit through presentations, activities, music, discussions with Bishop Bob, bible readings, and prayer.

We left with the goal to listen for God’s words in all parts of

our lives and share God’s love with others. Youth group lead-ers from parishes across the diocese also gathered for train-ing, focusing this year on active listening skills and relationship building. Despite the weather, it was a wonderful weekend with meeting old and new friends, good food, games and karaoke.

Thank you to all who attend-ed and helped to plan the event!

We look forward to the next youth conference in May 2017.

Other upcoming Diocese of Huron youth committee spon-sored events:

August 15-23, 2016 - pilgrim-age to CLAY (Canadian Luther-an Anglican Youth) gathering

November 2016 - youth lead-er retreat weekend

March 2017 - youth synod for elected youth delegates and ob-servers

Contact [email protected] for more infor-mation.

ACW Diocesan Council Annual Meeting & Conference

Youth in good spirit

For more information and to let us know you are coming please contact the Camp Office 519-434-6893 ext. 217 or

[email protected] and check the website www.huronchurchcamp.ca for updates!

Brenda Clingersmith, president (left) and Catherine Smith, past president of ACW

ANGLICAN CHURCH WOMEN - DIOCESE OF HURON Revised - Requirements for Bales

MAILING Send ALL boxes by FOURTH Class PARCEL Post. OR Postal mail bags

Maximum size: Length, width or depth - 1.10 metre Length plus girth - 3 metres . Weight NOT to exceed 30 kg. Cartons should be well taped & clearly addressed Return address should be marked inside & outside.

SHIP BALES TO: Rev’d Ruth Kitchekesik Indigenous Spiritual Ministry of Mishamikoweesh PO Box 65 KINGFISHER, Ontario P0V 1Z0

CONTENTS INFANTS & PRE SCHOOL - Some layettes, also 6-18 month sizes - Warm jeans, sweaters, T-shirts, underwear & socks

TEEN(S) Girls/Boys – Shirts/blouses/sweaters//hoodies/ pants/jeans/socks/underwear

WOMEN - Some large size (washable) dresses, slacks, sweaters, long-sleeved blouses, underwear,

MEN - Socks, pants, underwear, sweaters & warm shirts

ALL AGES - Mittens, scarves & toques

FOOTWEAR - use common sense - very good young children’s shoes (running shoes) All clothing must be NEW or NEARLY SO! These people have no dry cleaning facilities, so clothes have to be PRACTICAL & WASHABLE.HOUSEHOLD ITEMS - sheets, towels, face clothes, wool knitting, notions & needles, pattern books, quilts, quilt patches & batting, afghans, curtains, Jell-O powders, tang, cake mixes tea bags, coffee, material bedspreads. FOR CHRISTMAS BALES - toys, wrapped candy, books, colouring books, crayons, puzzles, a few magazines (Women’s Day, Family Circle & Teen Magazines).

Enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope for the recipient to use to acknowledge receipt of bale. When shipment is completed please send the following Record Information promptly to the contact person.

Ellie Eldridge Contact Person c/o Diocese of Huron, 190 Queens Ave. Email [email protected] London, Ontario N6A 6H7 519-434-6893 Ext 237

____________________________________________________________ Name & Address of Church Group____________________________________________________________ Deanery____________________________________________________________ Name & Address of Person Sending____________________________________________________________ Destination

____________ Date of Shipping ______Total Weight (in kg) _______Cost: /lee Revised May 2016


Indentures: Huron’s hidden history

June 21: a day of opportunity

By John Lutman

A mong the most overlooked primary

sources in church history research are property documents, which comprise a significant holding within the Diocese of Huron Archives.

Reading and comprehending property documents requires an understanding of property law; a familiarity with southern Ontario’s unique survey system; an acquaintance with Canada’s currency history; a knowledge of the history of the Diocese of Huron and its predecessors; and the added challenge of reading the often florid printing fonts and handwriting altogeth-er expressed in near incom-prehensible, dense antiquarian legalese.

The Archives property files hold a wide variety of docu-ments – Sentences of Conse-cration and De-consecration, indentures, memorials, bills of sale, abstracts of title, corre-spondence, and architectur-al specifications, plans and renderings (the latter two items stored for the most part in map cabinets).

In this month’s article, I will concentrate on indentures. An indenture in legal terms is defined as:

…a legal contract between two parties, particularly for indentured labour or a term of apprenticeship but also for certain land transactions. The term comes from the Medieval “indenture of retainer” – a legal contract written in duplicate on the same sheet, with the copies separated by cutting along a jagged (toothed thus the term “indenture”) one so that the teeth of the two parts could later be refitted to confirm authen-ticity… Each party to the deed would then retain a part. When the agreement was made before a court of law a tripartite inden-ture was made, with the third piece kept at the court.

The parties to the agreement as witnessed in the indenture invariably are the Diocese of Huron (from 1857, the date of the establishment of the Diocese, and pre-Diocese, the Diocese of Toronto between 1839 and 1857 or the Diocese of Quebec, pre-1839) and either the Crown, the Can-ada Company or individual property owners. Note that the first English settlements in Southwestern Ontario within the present Diocese dotted the shores of Lake Erie beginning in the 1790s. The oldest inden-ture held by the Archives is for the acquisition of the site occupied by Christ Church, Amherstburg, dated 1818.

The earliest documents often utilized the old English measurements of “perches” and “rods” to express linear distance. With the Weights of and Measurements Act of 1824,

however, the imperial system of units (inches, feet, yards, acres, etc.) became universal throughout the British Empire and by the mid-1840s, at least in the indenture documents in the Property fonds, the use of perches and rods disappears. With the phased in metrifica-tion of Canada in the 1970s and ‘80s, measurements of linear distance in indentures gradually became expressed in metres. Thus, a familiarity with imperial measurement is also a requirement for reading indenture documents.

Other peculiar terms found in indentures to express mea-surement are “chains” and the “links”. These terms reflect the system of rectangular surveying which “permitted orderly allo-cation of vacant land to swarms of land-hungry immigrants during the pre-Confederation era.”

A chain is a unit of length. A chain is 66 feet; each chain is subdivided into 100 links with a handle at each end. The surveyor and his assistants with a grip on the handles at either end stretched the chains their full or partial lengths to lay out the concessions and lots, and the concession roads between the concessions and side roads between the lots, exactly one chain or 66 feet in width. The chain distances worked out to a standard farm lot, which in Southern Ontario is100 acres (40 hectares) often subdivided into 50 acre (20 hectare) half lots stretching the full distance between the concessions roads. Compass readings were also included in the property de-scriptions.

For much of the 19th cen-tury, the indenture document was made of a material called “parchment”, a processed ani-mal skin usually from that of a calf, goat or sheep. Paper grad-ually replaced parchment but, even then, of a heavier stock and bleached very white. The indenture pages even to this day are both printed with stan-dard text and with space left for the agreement particulars (i.e., the parties to the agreement, the metes and bounds of the property, signatures, etc.). The particulars were handwritten in the diocesan indentures until the 1890s when the typewriter came into universal use. The antiquarian fonts and the florid handwriting are often very difficult to read. Today, the indenture document forms are stored on computers with the particulars entered in the place allocated.

Large, open spaces on the earlier documents were filled in with hand-applied, looped squiggles to ensure that no one

with mischievous intent could alter the terms and conditions of the indenture agreement with additional clauses.

Indentures were authenticat-ed by a “seal”, which made “an impression [in relief] in wax, clay paper or some other me-dium” and was located either in the bottom right corner or along a folded edge stitched in place. Indentures are still authorized today with a seal, usually in the form of a rubber stamp inked on a pad or a dry embossed version glued to the surface of the paper. Reflect-ing on the parties privy to the agreement, the relief might read “Incorporated Synod Diocese Huron”, “The Seal of the Attorney of the Can-ada Company”, “The Huron and Erie Loan & Savings Co. London, Ont.” etc. The wording invariably was placed within a circular border framing in the centre a coat of arms or other device.

Not infrequently, as part of or appended to, indentures included hand drawn, indeed hand coloured maps and even detailed surveys of church properties (see Illustrations 1 and 2).

Before 1858, currency transactions were expressed in British sterling (pounds, shillings, etc.). Thereafter, “decimal coinage, based upon a dollar of 100 cents became the lawful medium of coinage in the Province of Canada” (before Confederation in 1867, the future Provinces of On-tario and Quebec from 1842 were administratively one unit divided verbally into “Canada West” and “Canada East”). This change of currency is reflected in indenture texts from 1858 where the exchange of money is a factor.

Church lots were often purchased from the Canada Company or were purchased from or donated by a future parishioner or set aside by the Crown for the maintenance of education at a set price (schools were often associated with a church). Not uncommonly, a group of people in a town or rural location would petition the Bishop of the Diocese in the form of a handwritten note to establish a church in the location described, believing that there existed a population to justify a church congrega-tion and building. If a positive response was received, the land acquisition process was initi-ated by way of an indenture. In other instances, the Diocese itself would purchase a proper-ty for a church in the anticipa-tion that the settlement would eventually grow to justify a congregation and a church,

which was not always the case. The property was later sold.

The Canada Company as ref-erenced above was a large land development company char-tered by an act of the British Parliament of 1824 to aid in the settlement of Upper Canada (Ontario) particularly its unde-veloped Clergy Reserves (glebe lands) and Crown lands.

The first sample indenture text, dated February 1, 1844, is from the Canada Company to the Lord Bishop of Toronto [John Strachan], donating one acre and 83 perches of land for St. George’s Anglican Church, Goderich, erected on that site, and for a burial ground to be attached. (N.B. handwritten entries are in italics):

Now this Indenture witness-eth, that the said Canada Com-pany for the purposes afore-said, hath given, granted and conveyed, and by these presents doth give, grant and convey unto the said John Lord Bishop of Toronto…containing by admeasurement one acre and

eighty three perches of land be the same more or less, and being composed of a portion of land north of the crescent on a course at the distance of one chain for an allowance for a road from the limit between Lots Nine and Ten in front of the crescent on a course north eighty one degree west; thence on the same course aforesaid one chain sixty five links more or less to the summit of a hill where a post has been planted; thence south forth two degrees west along the summit five chains thirty six links more or less to where a post has been planted; thence south eighteen degrees east two chains twelve links more or less to an allow-ance for a road in front of the crescent aforesaid; thence along that road allowance curving outwardly or southerly with the versed line of one chain twenty links of the segment of a circle that the cord bears north thirty nine degrees east seven chains thirty two links more or less to the place of beginning; contain-

ing one acre and eighty three perches of land as aforesaid.

The second sample indenture text, dated August 31, 1865, for St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Innerkip. (N.B. handwritten entries are in italics):

This Indenture made the Thirty first day of August in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty Five between George A. Clement of the Town of Niagara Coun-ty of Lincoln and Province of Canada, Merchant of the First Part; and Hannah Clement the Wife of the said party of the First Part, of the Second Part; and Church Society of the Diocese of Huron of the Third Part; Witnesseth that the said party of the First Part, for and in consideration of the sum of five shillings of lawful money of Canada to be paid by the said party of the Third Part in hand well and truly paid at or before the sealing and delivery of these presents…hath given, granted, sold, aliened, released, enfeoffed, conveyed, and con-

firmed, and by these presents doth give, grant, bargain, sell alien, release, enfeoff, convey, and confirm unto the said party of the third part, and heirs and assigns, All and Singular that certain parcel or tract of land and premises, situate, lying, and being in the Township of East Zora in the County of Oxford and Province of Canada, con-taining by admeasurement one quarter of an acre by the same more or less, being…[the metes and bounds are described thereafter]

The historical information on the acquisition, sale and con-veyance of church properties gleaned from indentures and other property instruments is important not only in docu-menting the history of diocesan and pre-diocesan periods, but also for a full understanding of the history and development of Southwestern Ontario.John Lutman is archivist for the Diocese of Huron

Sources consulted:

Illustration 1: Coloured hand-drawn map of 100 acres for a Glebe lot on the Falls Reserve and Maitland River, Goderich Township, sold by the Canada Company to the Diocese of Huron, dated June 3, 1863

Illustration 2: Hand-drawn map of Fingal, Southwald Township, in Elgin County, dated January 24, 1844, the caption of which reads: Rough Sketch, subjoined to the Deed to shew the relative situation of the Church Grounds with the densely settled parts of the Village of Fingal.

Charlton, J.E., Standard Catalogue of Canadian Coins, Tokens and Paper Money Fully Illustrated 1670 to Date. 18th edition. Racine, Wisconsin: Western Publishing Company Inc., 1970.

Lower, Arthur R.M. Lower, Colony to Nation: A History of Canada. Fourth edition. Don Mills, Ont.: Longmans Canada Limited, 1964.

McIlwraith, Thomas F., Looking for Old Ontario: Two Centuries of Landscape Change. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press, 1997.

From the archIveS

June 21 or the Sunday closest, as we know from the announce-ment of our Primate, Fred Hiltz, at the Chapel of the Mohawks on March 19, is an opportu-nity for all of us in our local

churches to take some kind of meaningful action on build-ing a new relationship between the indigenous peoples and the non-indigenous peoples of our country. But questions can still be heard in less public venues: Is all of this really necessary? Why should this matter so much?

Such questions reveal a lin-gering lack of awareness of or, perhaps, apathy towards the leg-acy of history and social policy and of the impact of the Church’ ongoing role in patterns of co-lonialism and patriarchy on indigenous people around the world.

There are many reasons why it is time for all of us and every church community to become intentional and take action, in-cluding being directed to do so

both by our Primate’s words and by the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Com-mission.

One is very personal. This writer grew up in London, On-tario surrounded by large num-bers of indigenous people in the communities of Southwestern Ontario. Yet social conventions and cultural prejudices meant he never got to know or un-derstand any of his indigenous neighbours and came to adult life deprived of a rich envi-ronment for becoming a more rounded citizen of Canada and the world. “How good and pleas-ant it is when God’s people live together in unity! Ps 133:1”

Another is historical. Only the completely isolated cannot be shocked by the stories of re-lationships between indigenous and settler communities that have come into our awareness over the last few years. How lit-tle most of us have known about events in our own country and how they have shaped our con-temporary life. The truth of history is that what was once known by the people who had lived here for generations as “Turtle Island” has been trans-figured and, in many ways dis-figured, by the imposition of Eurocentric views of life and colonial/imperial assumptions

of superiority. “God has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

Another has to do with justice. There is much to be redressed. Recent events have revealed the human cost of the economic and social disparity imposed on indigenous communities in Canada by the legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, the Indi-an Act, broken or ignored trea-ties, and residential schools. The United Nations has pointed an accusing finger at Canada’s re-cord of apparent disregard for

the human rights of indigenous peoples. It is time in a prosper-ous, developed nation like Can-ada that justice be done for ev-ery man, woman and child who call this land “home”. “Whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, can-not love God, whom they have not seen.” 1 John 4:20

Finally, another has to do with opportunity. While each of the other reasons is certainly grounded in a faith perspective and what God calls from the hu-man family, this reason is a clear affirmation of our relationship with the Lord of Resurrection. This moment in Canadian his-

tory, which comes as a result of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, is an opportunity to move into “the new heaven and new earth” that is the vision of a people baptized into the Cross and Resurrection - beyond our sins, beyond anger and beyond guilt, into healing and wholeness. Paraphrasing a grandson of the Commanding Officer of Auschwitz Concen-tration Camp visiting the camp for the first time and speaking to gathered visitors puzzled and even angered by his presence: this moment is an opportunity for us to do what our ancestors were unable to do. On June 21 or the Sunday closest, we have the opportunity in every gath-ering of Anglican Christians in this diocese – home to the larg-est concentration of indigenous people in Canada – to demon-strate our solidarity and our will to step into a new day in grati-tude. Pray God we will have the courage and the faith to do so.Rev. Canon Greg Smith is diocesan representative to PWRDF and also a member of the Bridge Builders Task Force of Response to the Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery in the Diocese of Huron

rev. canon greg SmIth

Hand-drawn map of the Church Grounds in Fingal, Elgin County dated January 24, 1844

Hand-drawn map dated June 3, 1863: a 100 acres lot in Goderich Township sold by the Canada Company to the Diocese of Huron.

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By Rev. Chris Brouillard-Coyle

“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man

to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”

These words of wisdom are familiar to many. These stand as a reminder that the ideal approach to alleviating poverty is to promote self-sufficiency.

According to the website Quote Investigator, aspects of this ideal stretch back to the 12th century philosopher Mai-monides who wrote about eight degrees in the duty of charity. Over time, the eighth degree evolved into this well-known quote.

Despite centuries of reflec-tion and conversation about this ideal, however, estimates suggest that today more than one billion people live on less than $1.25/day. This is consid-ered extreme poverty. Individ-uals and communities living in extreme poverty are less likely to have access to the basic necessities – safe water, educa-tion, sanitation, health care and so on. These individuals and communities are in desperate need of transforming programs that will enable them to “fish” in ways that are culturally and locally appropriate and thus have the greatest potential for being self-sustaining.

The first of the UN’s Sustain-able Development Goals focus-es on the eradication of poverty in all its forms everywhere. This includes the elimination of extreme poverty everywhere by 2030. By supporting peo-ple-centred development that promotes self-reliance and addresses the root causes of poverty and injustice, PWRDF programs seek to transform

lives and lift people out of extreme poverty. For example, PWRDF supports programs among farmers that use tradi-tional and innovative methods to improve food security. A micro-loan program for wom-en in Mozambique has helped to transform the lives of many vulnerable women. Check out their website, PWRDF.org for materials to promote awareness

and action among individuals and faith communities.

Of course, poverty is not solely something that exists in other countries. Poverty exists in our neighbourhoods affect-ing the health and ability of individuals and families to fully live out their God-given poten-tial. Statistics Canada estimates that 1 in 7 people in Canada live in poverty. It may not look

the same as the pictures we see on television, but none-the-less we are surrounded by those in-dividuals who must continually make difficult choices about how to balance housing, food and basic necessities. Thus, the UN includes within this first goal the objective of reducing by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty according to national definitions. While supplying basic needs is cer-tainly important in and of itself, this objective is really about promoting self-sufficiency. It is about teaching people to fish as the saying goes.

In the Diocese of Huron there are faithful individuals who are connected to signif-icant programs that seek to achieve this goal: • Meal programs and the provi-sion of supplies for students in local schools around the Dio-cese help to improve the learn-ing potential of vulnerable chil-dren. • Support groups for young mothers help to empower these women to achieve their goals and increase the likelihood that they will become self-sufficient. • Advocates help the margin-alized navigate the system, empowering these individuals so that they learn to speak for themselves. • The “Bridges out of Poverty/Circles” program seeks to part-ner program participants who provide grassroots feedback re-garding the multiple systemic barriers affecting those who live in poverty with volunteer men-tors who build intentional and genuine friendships as they seek appropriate resources and path-ways toward self-sufficiency.

Participation in these pro-grams is often a product of prayerful conversation with the One who has so gener-ously gifted us with the tools to live as brothers and sisters. Those who have been blessed to develop relationships with vulnerable individuals often find themselves enriched in the process. Thus we encourage individuals and faith commu-nities to pray and reflect on the ways God may be inviting us to use our gifts to teach our neighbours how to fish.

To assist with this journey, Rev. Chris Brouillard-Coyle, co-chair of Social Justice Huron, will be leading a short course on “Poverty in the Neighbourhood: Exploring Issues and Actions for Individ-uals and Faith Communities” at Canterbury College in Wind-sor this fall. Those interested are encouraged to check out the College’s website for more information.Rev. Chris Brouillard-Coyle is co-chair of Social Justice Huron.

From poverty to self-sufficiency

Photo by Krayker, RGB Stock

SuStaInaBle develoPment goalS SocIal JuStIce huron

W hen I was nine years old, my Father, who

was a priest in the Episcopal Church in the United States, travelled to Toronto, to experience the Anglican Congress of 1963. Children of

that age may not remember every conference their parents attend, but that gathering of Anglicans from around the world placed an indelible mark on the ministry of my father and it was a moment that he referenced often during the rest of his ministry.

As I have moved into retire-ment, I have been fortunate enough to be invited to share in the liturgical life of differ-ent congregations. On one such occasion, I was given

the opportunity to preach at Trinity Church (Galt) in the City of Cambridge. As I looked around the church I noted a special window that depicted Jesus teaching children who represented the diversity of our global village. The window had been offered to the Glory of God as a visual reminder of the experience of the Anglican Congress of 1963.

A few years ago, the Arch-bishop of York was recognized by Huron University College with an Honorary Doctorate. His Grace spent some time answering questions from a diverse group of our Diocesan family.

As the dialogue concluded, I noted ( for the first time ), that a plaque had been placed in that space (years ago ), which acknowledged that in that setting, prior to the convening of the Anglican Congress, a gathering of individuals from across the globe had formulat-ed a guiding principle for the Congress of 1963 and for the world wide Anglican Commu-nion.

The concept which was given Spirit-filled power within the context of the Diocese of Hu-ron, more than half a century ago, was that Anglicans are called upon to be ”...mutually responsible and interdepen-dent members of the Body of Christ...”. At the time, it was known and promoted as, “MRI”, within the Anglican Communion.

It is a concept which seems so simple, yet at the same time, it is an all-encompassing ex-pression of every experience of ministry, in every corner of our global village.

Think about how that con-cept of ministry, that “MRI” principle, is a reality in the life and liturgy of your own Parish Family.

Remembering individuals in a Parish Prayer Cycle or, in times of need, within the context of the Prayers of the People, is a reflection of how our lives are intertwined with the lives of others who are drawn to a specific location and who name it, as we do, as our own spiritual home. How

do we express our concern for the wellbeing of others? It is through either a brief, hand-written note, (how very old fashioned!), or by a call, or by a visit that others experience how important they are to us as another member of the Body of Christ.

As Anglicans, we are mutu-ally responsible for each other in the context of our Diocesan family. We care for and about each other and the ministry we share through our prayerful and practical support of each other.

We pray for our Bishops during our Sunday liturgies or private prayers. We pray for congregations and clergy who we know, or who we do not know personally, when we use the Diocesan Prayer Cycle in our devotions.

In fact, when our congrega-tions participate in the sup-port of our shared ministry through the regular offering of the Parish Apportionment, on a monthly basis, the reality of that basic principle of Anglican identity is given a clear voice.

We are expressing what it means to be mutually responsi-ble and interdependent mem-bers of the Body of Christ.

Our mutual responsibilty for each other stretches beyond our Diocesan borders. The re-lationship of prayerful support is recognized when we offer our prayerful support for our Primate, our National Indige-nous Bishop, for Dioceses and parishes across Canada, for our colleagues in our Companion Diocese and, as we pray for the Archbishop of Canterbury, we encompass in our prayers, the greater world-wide Anglican Communion.

It is an awesome reality of our experience of the Christian Faith, that, as Anglicans, we do not live our lives in isolation.

As I sit in the back pew and look around at the people with whom I am sharing the expe-rience of worship, I recognize individuals whose stories may not be known to me, but whose journey of faith is linked with mine. For that…and for so much more…I give thanks.

ven. dr. BIll harrISon

Thinking team!

We do not live our lives in isolation

T he way we think about ministry is changing. A

transformation is taking place and it affects structures that have been in place for decades, sometimes even centuries.

We’re thinking team!Anglicans are accustomed to

a model of local organization

built around a parish (a chang-ing concept, subject of a future article), led by a parish priest.

In recent decades, Christian ministry has been seen as a highly professionalized job, so that we outsource the work to the priest. Consequently, we have come to insist upon a spe-cific degree qualification, the Master of Divinity (M.Div.), as preparation, though our parish walls are covered with pictures of clergy who were otherwise prepared and our ranks of ac-tive and active-retired include many non-M.Div. priests.

That world is gone, for theo-logical, ecumenical, and practi-cal reasons. We are returning to older patterns, with an admix-ture of new arrangements.

New WorldsTheologically, we are think-

ing of the Body of Christ in new ways. Instead of regard-ing it as a static body focused primarily toward God – with clergy acting as mediators between laypeople and God – we are recognizing that we are

all on a journey together. As a team, we discern the mission of the church in the world, finding ways to share the Good News of Jesus the Christ and partic-ipate in God’s work of trans-forming the world. Clergy help laypeople to identify, prepare for, and fulfil their callings. Laypeople perform much of the primary work of the church.

Baptismal Ministry, Your Ministry

We are rediscovering the ministry of all the baptized people of God.

As a church, we’ve lost our commitment to evangelism. We do not do nearly enough to tell the world that God is, in Christ, reconciling all things to Godself (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). We don’t remind people, in words along with actions, that God loves them and all the whole of Creation. We miss chances to point to the Kingdom of God, the moments where we see God’s reconciling work in action and the ultimate time when all will be reconciled

with God and each other.This is the work of laypeo-

ple – the primary task of the church.

The lay work of evangelism is the reason that most of Huron’s churches exist. They weren’t created by clergy. Instead, laypeople came to Canada and met together for worship, using the Book of Common Prayer and reading sermons from a Book of Homilies. Sometimes, they even had a building in place before a priest showed up. This frontier spirit is precisely what we need to recapture. Following this tradition, some laypeople are active as Licensed Lay Ministers (LLM), leading Morning and Evening Prayer and preaching.

Laypeople have always played a bigger role in the lives of parishes than is sometimes recognized. Individuals such as wardens and treasurers, com-bined with groups such as the Anglican Church Women, have performed many of the church’s greatest deeds in recent centu-

ries. However, we have tended to think of their role as simply practical, while the clergy look after spiritual matters. This is wrong.

Laypeople are the Christian teachers most people meet. Laypeople are an integral part of the church team. Rather than being the supporting cast, laypeople are the front line. If the church is to fulfil its mis-sion of participating in God’s transformation of the world, then the role of laypeople must be recognized and they must be prepared to fulfill it. Otherwise, we will have an organization without a purpose – something that is truly useless, no matter how strong it is.

Deacons (Really!)We are also recovering the

ministry of deacons. Deacons lead us in, and call us to, the ministry of outreach in the world – which must be a con-stant priority for the church. Jesus distinguished between the sheep (his followers) and the goats (not followers) by how they treated the poor, the needy, and the oppressed (Mat-thew 25:31-46).

Not long ago, the only dea-cons you’d meet in an Anglican context were people on the way to being priests. Every priest is first ordained a deacon and, then, after a period of parish experience, ordained a priest. These are called “transitional deacons.”

However, the work of a deacon is, itself, a vocation. Deacons were an important part of the earliest church, with a special call to caring for the sick, the poor, and the needy, while reminding the church of its bap-

tismal commitment to this work. In 1982, the World Council of Churches reminded all Chris-tians of the historic three-fold structure of Christian ordained ministries: bishops, priests, and deacons; now we are recovering the vocation of deacon.

The primary work of a deacon is to fulfil a social and pastoral mission outside the doors of the church. Deacons go out into the world, helping those in need. In keeping with our awareness of the social di-mensions of oppression, today’s deacons also call us to social justice. Social justice is a matter of setting things right in sys-tems and institutions, instead of merely caring for individuals while leaving destructive condi-tions unchanged.

By caring for the needy and proclaiming justice, deacons remind us that we are all called to this same work. In fact, with-in the liturgy, deacons read the Gospel and may preach – spe-cifically so as to remind us of the call to love our neighbour (defined as the one in need).

Come TogetherNext month’s article will dis-

cuss the work of priests today. You can see, however, that it is shifting. As laypeople and deacons take on their tradition-al tasks, we are developing min-istry teams, oriented toward fulfilling the mission that God gives the church: evangelism, discipleship, and outreach.Ven. Dr. Bill Harrison is the director of mission and ministry for the Diocese of Huron. [email protected], 519-434-6893 or 1-800-919-1115, ext. 248.

rev. canon chrIStoPher

B. J. Pratt

Sea Sunday in Sarnia, July 10By Ven. Dr. Gordon Simmons

The Mission to Seafarers (formerly Mission to Seamen) marks its 160 anniversary this year.

The Sarnia Mission was start-ed with funding from the Dio-cese of Huron in the early 1980’s under the leadership of the Rev. Stephen Gilbert. The headquar-ters in London England, togeth-er with the International Trans-portation Federation, helped to purchase a 27 foot Winnebago motor home as the first mobile club in the world.

This drew the attention of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the patron of the Mission, and Princess Anne the President of the Mission to Seamen to the local mission. This mobile club quickly became internationally famous, however it was costly to maintain.

Unfortunately in 1985 the Di-ocese had to cancel the funding. With no harbour commission, it fell to a group of local busi-nessmen, supported by local

Anglican and Roman Catholic churches, whose volunteers set about raising funds to continue the Mission’s work.

Over the years Sarnia’s Mis-sion became known for its ec-umenical endeavours and at-tention to the seafarers. When a ship was abandoned by its own-ers, the Mission looked after the

crew and through its interna-tional partners was able to see that the crew received their pay and were repatriated to their homes.

Another time, the Mission chaplain received a message from a chaplain in Gary, In-diana that a ship was going to come through and that the sec-ond officer’s wife needed a spe-cial ointment that was unavail-able in Eastern Europe and that it was no longer available in the USA but was still being made In Canada. After a conversation with the manufacturer, the next morning the courier arrived on the door step at 8 a.m. and that afternoon the Chaplain deliv-ered a box with about 8 tubes of the special ointment to a very happy second officer.

On two occasions sailors whose lawful rights had been violated, were assisted by the Mission’s partners in mission in New York, The Seamen’s Church Institute. There have been sev-eral occasions when this part-

ner has helped resolve issues that affected the legal rights of sailors.

The chaplain has christened seven ships and provided hos-pitality, transportation and spir-itual support to our mariner guests and on several occasions has advocated for sailors and its crew.

The Sarnia Mission continues to be a member of the North American Maritime Missions Association (NAMMA) and is self-supporting with the assis-tance of grants and gifts from the ACW, International Sailors’ Society and individual donors.

Join us Sunday July 10th for Sea Sunday, when churches all over the world come togeth-er to remember seafarers and pray for them, their families and those who support them. Apart from raising money to help those who work at sea, the day is celebrated with services, parades and ship blessings.

The Mission to Seafarers needs your prayers and sup-

port for all merchant crews and their families on Sea Sunday 2016, to continue our vital work for those in need. For more information http://www.mis-siontoseafarers.org/ or contact the Ven. Dr. Gord Simmons: 519-344-1983.

Prayer:Creator and God of all, we

pray for those who go down to the sea in ships and serve you upon the waters of the

world. Bless them and those who serve their needs, that they

may put their whole trust in you and find in you a strong anchor for their hopes, and so be filled with your peace,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

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Suite 1400London, ON

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Give the Gift of

IMAGINATIONThis year, make a gift to provide a faith community the unique opportunity to encourage their creative potential and build a strong future for Canadian Anglicans.

Photo by Lusi, RGB Stock

P A G E 1 6 A N G L I C A N D I O C E S E O F H U R O N C H U R C H N E W S J U N E 2 0 1 6

Figuring out your own storyP

arish life can be hectic. There are many events

to attend: garage sales, bible studies special worship services, and dinners to name but a few. Each of these events

is a chance to tell the story of your parish community and to celebrate the good work that is being done in the name of Jesus Christ.

These are the very real per-

sonal stories of communities in action that will attract new-comers and strengthen existing relationship between parish-ioners. These are the stories of faith, the minutia of day to day parish life. And these are the stories that can have the biggest impact on your outward com-munication strategies.

It is necessary then that these stories are captured to share and celebrate. To do this, a per-son in the community should be tasked with documenting each event. This seems obvious but is far too often overlooked. People will often take personal photos but these usually end up being communicated by that individual rather than as

part of the broader commu-nication strategy of the parish and shared on the parish’ social media channels.

The images, pictures and stories

can inspire new generations to come to church. They can

tell the story of your community.

Assigning this task needs to be considered when planning any event so the opportunity is not missed. Not only is the event captured for posterity,

but the recordings and photos can be used to communicate the vitality and essence of your community on your social me-dia and web channels.

In this way, visitors to your social media platforms will see the active and vibrant commu-nity that exists. Rather than a post from several months ago and pictures from a couple of years ago, they will be able to see recent engaging activities that communicate the life of the community.

We have much to share in the life of the church. Even after these events have passed and are over, their effect can live on. The images, pictures and stories can inspire new generations to

come to church. They can tell the story of your community. And most importantly, they can tell the story of Jesus Christ.

So be ready at your next event, dinner or special wor-ship service. Task an individual with snapping a few pictures and share those pictures on your parish’s social media chan-nels. Celebrate your events and celebrate your community. And in doing so you will help make Christ known to the broader world.Rev. Marty Levesque is the diocesan social media officer and rector of All Saints’ in [email protected]

No guaranteesI

t seems the only thing that people want to guarantee, is

that there is no guarantees in

life. And the desire to commit to anything, for any length of time, is less commonplace then I remember as a child.

This phenomenon plays itself out in every aspect of life from party politics to relationships; from the work place to the bedroom; from emotional and physical health concerns to a culture of self-protection and faithless disconnection.

Where can we go these days when, if we play by the rules, work hard, stay dedicated, and

remain healthy, we can count on the outcome?

Allegiances are less common-place. Loyalty is less a virtue then it once was. And this negatively impacts our ability to count on anything.

This is scary to an old(er) dog like me, and the many others who desire stability and some semblance of unwavering fidelity.

Change is an unceasing real-ity. The once solid ground, on top of which we have planted and made large investment, will most likely shift.

As a parish priest, I join my parishioners in riding this wave of ‘evolution’ every day. Waiting anxiously for the next piece of our history to get swallowed by ‘progress’… undercutting the solid permanency we worked to build.

And though we understand that times are changing, the emotional acceptance is slow

coming. We want so desperately to

create an impenetrable par-adise… an indestructible certitude in which we incor-rectly presume we have perfect control and all will be well.

My own Anglican/Episcopal tradition is currently struggling with those, who in the face of rational opposition, have stubbornly and fearfully fixated upon dogmatic moral princi-pals and traditional ‘ways of doing things’.

Too often, in a desperate clinging to the safety of what has been known, we turn a blind eye to common sense. It feels dangerously unpredictable to entertain the uncertainty of the unknown. And there is an undesirable grief when letting go of what was.

It is becoming undeniable that life offers but few (if any) guarantees. No matter how much we work to make it so

(or how awkwardly we cling to the false notions of days long gone).

Many of my parishioners and clients know this all to well. And the word ‘change’ is fast becoming tainted with bitterness… because too much triggers weariness and disillu-sionment.

It seems to me that the most called upon life skill is ‘resil-iency’. This being the ability to stand confidently unnerved in the winds of change, the ability to effectively rebound after loss, and the ability to rest assured upon a theology or philosophy that contends safe sailing even in the roughest waves (which is to remain hopeful).

And our community realizes this…. perhaps not consciously. But, as an example, our dislike of the term ‘religious’ as crossed referenced with our increasing interest in matters ‘spiritual’ (as sociologists suggest), says a lot

about the cause and the cure of the decreasing certainties in daily life.

The cause being an unreal-istic and irrational clinging to what was once a successful way of life. The cure being a need to understand our selves as connected to things outside our sensibilities… a more universal sense of self.

As I see it, this universal sense of self, connected to things beyond our sensibilities, is an outlook that ought to un-derly all our institutional goals (including the church): each in their unique manner and from their unique perspective. Per-haps then we can at least offer one guarantee… that we will care for each other to the best of our abilities.Rev. Jim Innes is the rector of St. John’s Church in St. Thomas. [email protected]

rev. JIm InneS

aS I See It

rev. marty leveSque

medIa ByteS

For your summer reflectionanglIcan FelloWShIP oF Prayer

By Rev. Val Kenyon

A s this issue of the Huron Church News is being read,

we will be entering the month of June, and many of us will be looking forward to less hectic days as the much longed for summer has a schedule all of its own.

With the summer hopefully comes a bit more leisure, and perhaps even a few more moments to reflect. With that in mind, I thought I would in-clude several of my favourite prayers for you to muse upon and a blessing.

Looking ahead, please plan on joining us for our annual Fall Gath-

ering: Different Strokes for Different Folks: Prayer and Personality, taking place on Saturday, October 1st at St Jude’s, London for an exploration of how different personalities have different prayer preferences and ex-periences. Please bring a bag lunch. Snacks will be provided and a free-will offering will be taken. Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Every blessing on your summer and summer reflections.

Rev. Val Kenyon is the diocesan representative for the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer (Huron)

May Today There be Peace WithinMay today there be peace within.

May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibili-ties that are born of faith.

May you use those gifts that you have received,

and pass on the love that has been given to you.

May you be content knowing you are a child of God.

Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul

the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of you.Therese of Lisieux

Let Nothing Disturb You

Let nothing disturb you, nothing dis-tress you

While all things fade awayGod is unchanging.

Be patient for with God in your heartNothing is lacking

God is enoughTeresa of Avila

Scots Gaelic BlessingPeace between neighbours,

Peace between kindred,Peace between lovers,

In love of the King of Life.Peace between person and person,Peace between wife and husband,

Peace between woman and children, The peace of Christ above all peace.

Bless, O Christ, my face, Let my face bless every thing;

Bless, O Christ, mine eye,Let mine eye bless all it sees.

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