NOTE FROM THE RECTOR 2020
By any measure 2020 was a remarkable year. The first global pandemic in our lifetime, with the current death toll of 2.5 million (vastly underreported): and with the new language of coronaspeak of bubbles, distancing, zoombombing, doomscrolling, caremongering, quaranteams, elbow bumps, to say nothing of daily updates from the Provincial Health Officer and PHOs, PPEs, ISO’s, N95s and WFH. All of this has come with financial, economic, social and relational cost. The largest impact for us as a Christian community was the loss of being able to meet together in person. It is almost exactly a year since we stopped meeting together weekly to worship God, sing his praise, build each other up in our most holy faith at the building at OAC. As soon as we stopped gathering in person our financial giving fell away by 70% in the first month. Eli Sullivan had just taken over as our new treasurer. It was a rough start to say the least. But by God’s grace and your generosity we quickly caught up and have finished the year in a remarkable financial shape. We immediately had to begin hosting services online. The first two weeks we pre-recorded everything using my small digital camera, on a broken tripod, held in place with two rubber bands! Professional it was not. Yet through the hard work and creativity of our new communications specialist Aria Horvath and others – it worked. In the third week, Merial and Isaac
Bull offered to volunteer their help. They began our production ministry, which started with one office, and quickly grew to a number of offices for live streaming, then the move to the church building at OAC with permanent installation. They have grown a team of volunteers who ensure that we are able to gather virtually online Sunday by Sunday, as well as enabling us to produce seasonal services (Advent, Christmas, Lent, and now Easter). Each week there are a number of pre-recorded pieces in our gatherings—music recorded at home by the choir, bible play videos for children, and testimonies. These testimonies have become a rich source of encouragement week by week. As we look back on 2020, instead of it being a lost year, again and again we have been surprised by the goodness and grace of God. THE WORD OF GOD
The Apostle Paul writes in his second letter to Timothy: Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. (2 Tim. 2:8-10). These verses explain something of our experience in COVID over this last year. Paul is in prison in Rome— not a happy circumstance. The Roman prison was unimaginably nasty. And he was shackled in chains. Innocent of all charges, and a Roman citizen, his imprisonment was unjust and discriminatory. But there is something counterintuitive going on here. At the center of these verses is the simple truth: the word of God is not bound! The word of God is like a river which flows from God with life and blessing, carrying us toward him. Yet 3
there are barriers to the flowing river, rocks, trees, mud. When the river hits the barrier it just flows around it. The idea of trying to chain up God’s word to stop it spreading only achieves the opposite. In an earlier imprisonment in Rome Paul writes that it was his imprisonment that led to the spread of the word of God. The whole imperial guard heard God’s word as they took shifts to guard Paul, and Paul’s fellow believers became more bold to speak about Christ. Just so in COVID19. For the most part, we have not been able to meet in person all year, we have had to rely on computers, cameras, the internet and various apps. It has strained and isolated all of us. But the word of God continues to be heard and flows on, even through these “thinning” technologies. In fact, the word of God is being heard more often, by more people in our congregation, taught by more people than in the last 12 months. And the Lord has added to our number those who he is saving. The reason that the word of God is unchained, is because the risen Jesus is unchained. That is why the Apostle starts these verses with this command: Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead! Jesus is the gospel. He has died for our sins, and was raised from the dead, and now sits enthroned at the right hand of God— unchained, unassailable, unconquerable, victorious. His purpose is that all who belong to him will obtain the salvation that is in him with eternal glory. This gives purpose to the Apostle’s suffering and to ours. It is why endurance is so important. We are not just enduring for ourselves, but in some way our enduring encourages and helps others who belong to Christ. It was for this reason we introduced online zoom Morning Prayer and Compline services almost as soon as we were not able to meet in person. We had developed a Common Prayer booklet the year before (by God’s providence and good work of Joel Strecker) for use at home which proved ideal as a resource for hav-
