PART 1 (2021) Rector’s report

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God has shown himself to be our strength

and helper in ways we could not have seen two years ago. Despite the difficulties of a second year in the pandemic, our numbers have now stabilized – though the number of those who regularly give to St. John’s has fallen off somewhat.

At the start of the pandemic we began praying that the Lord would make us ready for when we came out of it. But what has God been doing during this last 12 months? It has been a very full year. God has brought new members to St. John’s and the various ministries have continued to enable the gospel to move forward with grace and effectiveness. Please read this report to track some of this good news. The invisible work of our production crew has made such a great difference for all who were not able to meet in person. We have become adept at live streaming, and many smaller groups are using various platforms to see each other, pray and read God’s word together. The time is coming soon when we will need to encourage each other to come in person, and the work of production will continue to help us communicate the gospel more effectively. Our fall term was permeated by two key realities. The first is that we celebrated our 10th year of losing the Shaughnessy property with a discernment process regarding purchasing a new property. We felt the edge of this difficulty at Christmas by having to move our services to Kerrisdale. We were warmly welcomed by the Kerrisdale Presbyterian Church. The other key reality was the election of Dan Gifford as our new bishop. This is a very good thing for the Anglican Network in Canada, and we want to give Dan and his family a good send off on Sunday April 3rd. Less obvious was the addition of Chris and Melissa Ley to our team, as well as our first full time women’s ministry director Lorna Ashworth from the UK.

We have been swimming in the deep in our sermon and Bible study series during 2021. We have lamented the vanity of life with the preacher from Ecclesiastes. We have sat with Job in sackcloth and ashes. We have traced the bitterness and joy of Naomi, in the quiet steadfast love of God through the book of Ruth. And we have seen heaven and earth come together in the person of Jesus Christ, who tells us to “fear not” in Luke’s gospel because it is God the Father’s pleasure to give us the kingdom. We finished the year in the first chapter of John’s gospel: impossibly beautiful, captivating, simple and unfathomable, as we are invited to come and see the Word made flesh, full of grace and truth.

JOB. JOB. JOB. JOB. JOB.

THOUGH HE SLAY ME, I WILL HOPE IN HIM!

April 4, 2021 - June 13, 2021

WHAT WE PREACHED

RECTOR

CANON DAVID SHORT After several false starts, it seems that the public restrictions to control COVID-19 are being withdrawn. This is very important for us as a church. God has made us for face to face fellowship with himself and with one another. Gathering to worship him with each other is constitutional of what it means to be a church. The different staff teams have been looking ahead to creating simple pathways for drawing people into our fellowship, for building people up in discipleship, and equipping us to live for Christ in our city and beyond. The second part of our report gives a picture of what this will look like. As we regather, we need to give thanks to God for being the same Lord and God who made all things and is bringing us to himself through the death and resurrection of Christ. We need to thank him for his many mercies during the pandemic. It is important that we recommit ourselves to seeking and serving the lost. Some of those who were with us at the start of the pandemic will need special encouragement to return. And many of the ministries at St. John’s had to entirely close down due to the restrictions as we found alternative ways of doing things. As we come out of the pandemic, we need to consider how we serve Christ by serving one another. This will take time, care and the love of Christ. And we need to repent and seek the face of Christ together in prayer. Our cultural moment is more divided and polarized than it has ever been. After vestry we will study the book of Philippians – an injection of the joy of Christ and his gospel into our polarized and politicized society. It’s hard to imagine a better tonic for us as we come out from under COVID-19 restrictions, where we learn what it looks like to count others better than ourselves.