Caledonia Times September 2012

Caledonia Times The Diocesan Section of the Anglican Journal • September 2012

Above: The Kitkatla “Amigos” share in song and in prayer during their time in the talent night on Saturday night. They asked everyone to hold them in prayer as they work to build up the minstry of their parish.

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Above: National ACW President Terri Parrill addresses the ladies while below Diocesan President Chris Broad partakes of the “100 year old” anniversary cake.

Diocesan ACW celebrates their 100th!

he annual conference of the Anglican Church Women gathered from May 25th to 27th, 2012 to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the Diocesan Women’s Auxiliary

by Mrs Stella Du Vernet in 1912. The gathering took place in the Parish of Christ the King, Port Edward with more than 70 people present. The theme for the Conference was “Choose this day whom you will serve” taken from Joshua 24:15, “Choose this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

The weekend began with the registration of members and the annual business meeting. Reports from the various groups across the diocese where given, and members from each parish were afforded the opportunity to speak the reports. Other business included deciding on where to send the United Thank Offering and financial matters.

Saturday began with a celebration of Holy Communion from the Book of Common Prayer officiated by one of the recently ordained priests of the Rev. Anthony Adams parish while the Rev. Canon John Martinson preached. In his sermon, Canon Martinson reminded his listeners of two important things: first, we could attempt to flee, in the face of the oncoming hoard of neighbouring countries who wish to destroy us or we can be like King Jehoshaphat who, being godly, turned and looked to God for help. Because the king did this, God saved the kingdom. Second, the conference was reminded of the message send back from Normandy to England when more than 300,000 soldiers were trapped on the French Coast.

What was the message? It was simply this, “But if not”. It meant that the soldiers wanted to be rescued, but if that was not possible, then they were not going to give in and surrender to Hitler and to the Nazis. It was echoes of three men who would not bow to the

Mrs. Denise and Archbishop Douglas Hambidge came and shared the weekend with the ACW.

Bishop William shares from the Scriptures chosen for the weekend; talks about sincerity and truth

tyranny of a king even when threaten with death in a fiery furnace.

The rest of the morning was filled out with Bible Study led by Bishop Anderson on the text from Joshua. Bishop Anderson spoke of two things: sincerity and truth. In the days of Joshua there was a call to serve God in both sincerity and truth. People were asked to consider some simple things: are you going to swim upstream with the best or are you going to float downstream with the rest? What idols are in our lives that keep us from serving God?

Whom are we going to serve? Will it be the gods of the land that we are being led into (Canaan) ? Will it be the gods of the country from which we have been drawn (Egypt)? Or will we serve the Lord? The challenge, as Bishop Anderson showed it, will be to mold our lives to what we believe. Failing to do this we show ourselves to be false and hypocritical in our faith.

Saturday afternoon saw two more excellent speakers in the persons of the retired Archbishop, the Most Rev. Douglas Hambidge from New Westminster and National ACW President Terri Parrill who came all the way from Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador for the weekend. Their messages both called on the ACW to renew their spiritual roots and exert themselves to lifting up the faith of the women of the parish. Both talks were filled with good humour and with encouragement for the ongoing ministry of the ACW in Caledonia.

The Parish did a tremendous job of hosting the ACW conference held by the Rev. Katherine Lewis, primary branch president. The renovations to the Hall had just been completed on the morning that the conference began. There was a mountain of food provided to feed the hungry people. The parish also held a loonie auction for a number of great baskets and donated items to help raise money for the parish’s Sunday School room and its renovations After the banquet, complete with an anniversary cake, there was time for some praise and worship led by the Rev. Gwen Andrews,. This was followed by a time for fun with skits and songs.

The weekend was completed on Sunday morning with the Eucharist led by the Rev. Yvonne Hill a final meal and blessing of the Hall by Bishop Anderson.

Everyone is looking forward to being together again in Kincolith in 2013.

Bishop’s Notes Of a costly, true discipleship and real church growth

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his September we will gather for our Diocesan Synod. As in all synods this will provide an opportunity for people from across Northern BC to come together in worship and discussion. As with all synods there will be some talk of budgets and how they are impacting our programs. This year, as we prepare for General Synod 2013, we must also take a hard look at how the changes in our national and international relations are affecting our work in Caledonia. As we do this I can think of no more important question than this: Why are we doing this? If we are simply a service club that provides some limited supports in the community, why don’t we sell our buildings and donate the money to any one of the many service clubs that already exist in our communities. After all, they provide services to youth, to seniors, etc.

If we simply want to maintain our buildings for sentimental reasons, as some sort of living museum, then why don’t we turn them over to local museum societies and let that be our focus? Now it may seem that I am asking foolish questions. But these are actually ideas that seem to lie at the heart of what I sometimes hear or see us actually doing in our parishes. Too often we seem to want to cut back on daily ministry in order to preserve buildings we only use once a week. And too often we want our public expression of faith to be nothing more than a shallow kind of feel good experience as we shy away from addressing many of the popular evils in our society.

Why do we continue to struggle to keep our doors open? Why don’ we simply pack it in? Well, while there may be as many reasons for this as there

are Anglicans in our churches, there is, I believe, only one reason to do any of it. To have accepted Jesus into one’s heart means to have accepted that His work is our work. What is His work? To use His words, it is to ...go into the world making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. (Matthew 28; 19-20) Now we can spend a great deal of time in budget meetings, and we can spend a great deal of time in meetings to develop ‘mission statements’. To a degree such activities can be helpful. But only to a degree. When they become a substitute for actually doing the work Christ called us to do, they no longer serve God’s purpose and become a means of serving our purpose - which is too often to avoid doing the harder work of evangelism.

One of the emerging trends in our church is to downplay the need and importance of Baptism because it scares people away. Once again there are those who think they know better the Jesus how to build His church, and so they replace God’s teaching with human wisdom. But to the degree that this trend is both shallow and foolish, baptism is really about. The evidence of our failure is seen in the pews that lack so many of the young people that we baptized over the past thirty years.

The Episcopal Schedule this Fall Diocesan Synod, Cathedral. Prince Rupert

September 14th - 16th, 2012

Provincial Synod, North Vancouver September 28th -30th

Council of the North, Calgary September 30th to October 3rd

National House of Bishops, Toronto, October/November Diocesan Executive Committee, Terrace, Late November

Christmas at the Cathedral, Prince Rupert December 24&25

It is also a condemnation of the fact that we, as a church, have done a poor job of teaching what baptism means.

So here is the question each of should be asking this month. What have I done to carry out Jesus’ great work? And in our parishes, let us ask, “What have we done to carry out the Great Work?” And in our synods, let us ask the same question.And when we ask the questions, let us be honest. Let us stay away from excuses and platitudes. Where we have fallen short of the Gospel standard, let us acknowledge this to God, and resolve to do better.

Let us stop running away from the costs of discipleship and instead celebrate the opportunities God gives us to do His work in the world.

+William: Caledonia

Responses to the Readership Survey about the “Cal Times”

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t the recent Anglican Editors Conference in Kamloops, the Diocesan Editors from across the country received the results of the readership survey that was done just before Easter for the Anglican Journal. There was a great response to the survey. A one percent response of the readership is considered a good response in the secular world. The Caledonia Times received a 2.28% response which is considered excellent by industry standards.

What did we learn from the survey? A number of good things were related to the editors. Speaking strictly about the Caledonia Times, there are currently 757 subscribers on the list as of June 2012. It was noted during the Conference that this Diocese (by percentage) has both the largest and fastest growing online presence of any of the diocesan newspapers in the country! How you can get an electronic version of the Caledonia Times will be listed at the end of this article. The editors also learned that their average reader is a 65 year old caucasian woman who is heavily involved in her church and wants to know the news of the church. The editors were told that there needs to be more local and Canadian content in the papers while the journal needs more international stories combined with the national news.

Content was rated good to very good and the “Times” does a reasonable job of covering events in the Diocese. Those who responded to the surPage 2

vey did say that they want more local content so that we can get to see and to understand the life of the Diocese better.

Many readers wished that there was more to the paper, more articles and more pages to the paper. The vast majority of the readers told the survey that the entire paper is read and read immediately, spending upwards of 30 minutes reading the paper. A final question that was asked about the papers is, would you pay a subscription for the paper. 54% of the respondents said a qualified yes – by noting that the paper would need to be a high quality paper with lots of content. Readership also wants the paper to be published all year around.

Readership encouraged to send in their pictures and stories, letters to the editor on issues affecting the life of the parishes, the diocese and the wider church. Longer, well written letters will be considered for occasional optional editorial. So everything that the parish can get into the editor will be used in some manner, given time and space.

To have an electronic version of the paper, you can see it online through Facebook by joining the Diocesan Facebook Page or by going to www.issuu.com/the_caledonia_times We would like to say a huge thank you to all of you who took the time to do the survey. Your input will help us to put out a better paper in the months to come.

Caledonia Times

Publication of the Anglican Diocese of Caledonia Editor: The Dean of Caledonia Published monthly, except July and August by: Diocese of Caledonia, 200 – 4th Avenue West Prince Rupert, BC V8J 1P3 (250) 627-1143 or (250) 600-7143 Address correspondence and copy to the address above.

Or to caledoniatimes@gmail.com Submissions must be received by the 10th month for the following month’s issue.

Send subscription orders, address changes Diocese of Caledonia c/o Anglican Journal 80 Hayden St. Toronto, Ontario M4Y 3G2 Printed and mailed by: Webnews Printing Inc. North York, Ontario

Caledonia Times — September 2012

Skypilot Moments:

A thought or two from the Editor

Of faith and hope like our ancestors had

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eptember’s Synod will be nearly upon us as you receive this in your mail box or read it on the computer. As I write, the gathering of the members of the Diocese for Synod is still some time away but the preparations for it are already under way. The theme of the coming Synod speaks of two things that are central to the Christian life: faith and hope. The verse chosen for us to consider as we conduct our business could prove pivotal as I believe this will be a defining moment in the life of our Diocese.

As I read the piece of Scripture chosen guide us through the meeting of Synod there are things which I would reflect for you and for me to consider as we meet. For example, the previous chapter of Hebrews talks about Jesus and how he offered himself as a sacrifice for all and there is a clarion call to persevere in the faith because of what Christ suffered. It will be worth it in the end. More importantly thought, we are reminded that thought it seems to the rest of the world that we have fallen into destruction and have died, this is not the end.

We can have faith because that faith is put in God. We can trust and participate in a life with a God who believes in resurrection and rebirth out of destruction and death. Scripture encourages us to look

to God for what is needed to be faithful and vigorous in our life in Christ so that he can in turn enable further our faith, our trust in him.

Perhaps I can relate what I am trying to say this

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.”

(Heb. 11.1-2 NIV)

way: when I was training to be a Church Army Captain in Toronto in the late 1980s, I had the opportunity to sit down and visit with an elderly rabbi at the synagogue next door to the church where I was serving. We spoke of faith and what God was doing in the life of our faith communities. I was amazed at how well he knew and understood the New Testament. So I (somewhat naively) asked him one day

Surfin’ for the Lord Preparing services for your church?

Look no further than www.textweek.com. This site has two major features: First, a listing of the Sunday readings from the revised common lectionary(RCL) showing also variants for individual denominations.

From each Sunday there is a link to resources including sometimes clipart for your leaflet. Secondly, an index by books of the Bible to the RCL. Here again you have links to that long list of background materials for every text. Not a fancy site but one you may find yourself going back to. I know I will.

Happy surfing!

—Ruby

From www.textweek.com

Caledonia Times — September 2012

about how he knew so much about Christianity.

In reply, the rabbi said something I still carry with me, “In my faith and religion, there is always hope.

There is always hope that God is going to come and rescue his people. Why is there hope? Because there is still so much that I don’t know. What I see in your faith and religion is that there are things that you can believe in; things that you can be certain of.

God has reached out to you in the person of Jesus Christ. And for the things you cannot see, the things you do not know, there is still hope.”

We have some important issues that we are going to need to talk about and decide upon at Synod. We will need to decide how we are going to steward our diocese through the next few years. In that we are called up by our Saviour to persevere in our faith and be patient within the struggles we face, knowing that we can be certain of God’s presence, power and providence. For what we know of God in Christ, we can trust and participate and for what we cannot see we can still hope because God is already there in it.

I look forward to greeting you at Synod. God’s speed to you in your work and in your travels.

The Very Rev. Jason Haggstrom Editor, Caledonia Times.

Books on the Go with Ruby McBeth

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s a young adult I was in the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton overnight following elective surgery. There was a young woman in a nearby ward who, I was told, was dying. I remember asking a nurse how she would talk to her. She said that she would just visit with her the way she would with anyone else. That made sense to me, but I needed to be reminded that despite poor health the patient was a person.

Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley are two women with a great deal of experience as hospice nurses. They have written a book called Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying. These two women have many insights for us about how to visit with dying individuals and their families. Through over 50 case studies they show the reader how to be respectful of the dying person. (Names are, of course, changed for reasons of privacy.)

Final Gifts is three volumes. Part I :”Nearing Death Awareness: Introduction and Background” explains that emotional and spiritual health are neglected in working with the dying person. The authors include a short history of the hospice movement which pays special attention to those needs.

Finally it explains Dr. Kubler Ross’s stages of dying. the end of the book has the following sections: About Death, Information for Children, Information for Adolescents, About Dying Children, About Grief, About Hospice, and Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Death. Unfortunately the latest date on the books is 1989.

Part II “Nearing Death Awareness: What I Am

Experiencing” includes case histories of people who become aware of deceased loved ones who appear to be waiting for them to join them on the other side. Others see a lovely place. They are not able to describe it but say that it gives them peace.

Part III: “Nearing Death Awareness: What I Need for a Peaceful Final Gifts: Understanding the Death” includes exSpecial Awareness, amples of people who Needs, and Communicaare needing reconciliations of the Dying. tion before they can die Authors: Maggie Callapeacefully and others nan and Patricia Kelley. who choose a “right” New York: Bantam, time to die. We are 1007. taught that by listening carefully to the patient, the caregiver can learn how to ease the transition towards death. The authors suggest that people often think the dying person is confused when in reality the visitor just needs to learn to listen more effectively. As the authors put it: “In reading Final Gifts you will discover how to listen to a dying person, how to weigh gesture and meaning so as to avoid responses that alienate and frustrate. The Recommended Reading list at Recommended generally for adults.

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Changes for efficiency and mission could be coming to Eastern Canada

Fulfilling the Need to Give The Diocese of Caledonia is committed to being a faithful steward of the gifts entrusted to us. To help accomplish this, we urge every Anglican in each parish to: Take stewardship seriously! Every parish should have a program for teaching people about stewardship.

Do...

1. … begin every stewardship meeting with Bible Study and prayer. It is a must foundation for this work.

2. … remember that stewardship is year round and, most importantly, a way of life.

3. … begin year round education and talk of money, time, talent, and resources.

4. … name what you are doing and what you are dreaming about. Make a case for thankfulness and abundance in the life of your parish.

5. … dream big! Dream dreams people will find unbelievable, dreams most people can’t imagine.

6. … preach, teach, live abundance mentality.

Abundance is seeing, believing, and saying that we have all we need to do everything God is calling us to do. Our faith calls us to rebuke scarcity at every turn.

7. … use a consultant from outside you congregation whenever possible and use them early. Consultants can be objective and can give you insight that can help your congregation move beyond what has always been.

8. … talk about giving as a response to the gifts we have been given as thanksgiving rather than guilt. Challenge people to really calculate what percentage of their income they give to the Church. Many people have never done this. It might be too scary!!

9. … advocate that the firstness of a gift. We give the first, the very best, of what we have been given, not what is left over.

10. … talk about your story regarding money, the struggle with stewardship, proportional giving. And get other people to tell their stories. We are afraid to talk about money.

And yet, an American Express study revealed that 66% of Americans spend more time thinking about money than they do about sex, health, or relationships. In fact, we spend roughly 80% of our time earning, spending, and thinking about money.

How could something so prevalent not have an impact on our spirituality.

It does!

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Delegates to this fall’s Provincial Synod of the most Easterly and oldest Ecclesiastical Province in the country will be asked to explore the possibility of reducing the number of dioceses in eastern Canada. It’s one of several motions being proposed by the Provincial Governance Task Force, aimed at reforming governance and administration so they can help the Anglican Church in this part of the country become more focussed on mission.

The proposal to reduce the number of dioceses “recognizes the changing demographic of the Anglican Church within the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada in terms of both decreasing numbers and the increased cost of providing ecclesiastical services within our seven existing dioceses,” according to a background note accompanying the notice of motion.

The background note goes on to envision what such a new map of the ecclesiastical province might look like. It suggests merging the dioceses of Montreal and Quebec. The Diocese of Fredericton and the Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward

Island could also be united. Newfoundland and Labrador, which was divided into three dioceses in 1976, would be reintegrated back into one single diocese.

“We should start from a presumption that greater cooperation among the dioceses is desirable,” said Archbishop Claude Miller, Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada. “Then we need to determine which structures may best achieve this outcome.”

“We are also trying to determine whether a revised diocesan arrangement may create a stronger Anglican community in terms of mutual support and encouragement in eastern Canada,” added Charles Ferris, the ecclesiastical province’s chancellor, and head of the Provincial Governance Task Force.

If the motion passes this fall, the province will undertake to “explore possible realignment of dioceses,” and then report back to the next Provincial Synod in 2015.

—from the Press release for the Province of Canada

New bishops elected in Arctic, Calgary On May 29, the synod of the Diocese of the Arctic elected two new bishops --a co-adjutor and a suffragan—from a slate of four candidates. The candidates for the two elections chosen by a selection committee included: the Rev. Darren McCartney; the Rev. Capt. David Parsons, the Rev. Iola Metuq; and the Rev. Haydn Schofield. The sixth ballots saw the election of the Rev. Capt. David Parsons elected as the Bishop Coadjutor. Parsons is the regional dean of the Arctic diocese’s Mackenzie Delta deanery and incumbent of the Church of the Ascension in Inuvik and St. David’s, in Tulita. Both are in the Northwest Territories. Ordained as a priest in 2004, Parsons has worked as an evangelist for the Church Army in Canada, chaplain for seafarers, diocesan refugee coordinator and hospital hostel administrator. On the next ballot, the Rev. Darren McCartney was elected as the Bishop Suffragan to assist Bishop Atagotaaluk and then Bishop elect Parsons when he becomes the new diocesan Bishop in 2013.

For more than three years, McCartney served as rector of St. Luke’s Anglican Church, in Pangnirtung,

Nunavut, before returning to his native Ireland in 2006. McCartney was ordained in the diocese of the Arctic in 2004 and learned to speak the South Baffin dialect while in Pangnirtung. He is currently rector of St. Matthias Church, Knocknamuckley, diocese of Down and Dromore in the Church of Ireland. McCartney has worked as chaplain for the Royal Army chaplain’s department and priest for St. Nicholas’ church Carrickrergus, diocese of Connor, Ireland.

These new bishops will succeed Bishop Benjamin Arreak, who retired in 2010, and Bishop Andrew Atagotaaluk who retires at the end of 2012.

Also Bishop Gregory Kerr-Wilson of the Diocese of Qu’Appelle has been elected the new bishop for the diocese of Calgary. He follows Bishop Derek Hoskin, who has retired. The election took place at the Diocesan Synod held June 16th at St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Calgary. In all, five candidates vied for the position. Bishop Kerr-Wilson will be installed as the Bishop of Calgary on September 29th at the Cathedral of the Redeemer in Calgary.

—with files from the Anglican Journal and Tim Christenson

What does it mean to be a ‘Missional’ Church?

“Missional” is a helpful term used to describe what happens when you and I replace the “come to us” invitations with a “go to them” life. A life where “the way of Jesus” informs and radically transforms our existence to one wholly focused on sacrificially living for him and others and where we adopt a missionary stance in relation to our culture. It speaks of the very nature of the Jesus follower.”

“Jesus told us to go into all the world and be his ambassadors, but many churches today have inadvertently changed the “go and be” command to a “come and see” appeal. We have grown attached to buildings, programs, staff and a wide variety of goods and services designed to attract and entertain people.

In an article titled, “The ‘Missional Church’: A Model for Canadian Churches?” David Horrox writes, “The church should stop mimicking the surrounding culture and become an alternative the values of our secular society?”

Dan Kimball in “The Emerging Church”

(Zondervan, 2003) describes the missional church “as a body of people sent on a mission who gather in community for worship, encouragement, and teaching from the Word that supplements what they are feeding themselves throughout the week.”

Both Horrox and Kimball capture much of the essence and heart of what it means to be missional, but can we probe deeper and articulate a more definitive understanding? I think we can and what follows is an imperfect attempt to explore and develop our appreciation of what it means to be missional.

For more information and study about the “Missional” Church you can read up on it through the Blind Beggar website or by emailing your thoughts, notes and inquiries to: rick@blindbeggar.org.

—Rick Meigs Ed note: The inforamtion for this article came from the Blind Beggar website. If you wish to know more please make contact with any of the good and kind folks at Blind Beggar website.

Caledonia Times — September 2012