Pax jun2014 final no spreads

trinity by andrej rublev; photo from wikipedia commons

Pax

st. john the baptist2014

photo by sean birch

walsingham abbey remains; photo by david p orman (wikipedia commons) photo: sean birch

The Lord and Giver of Life | Mark Greenaway-Robbins

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ho doesn’t have “hot button” issues? one another. We don’t have to like each other (what By this phrase I mean those topics a relief). We are called to love each other in Christ, that can make our blood boil. Often to be full of Christian charity. So through the Holy it is family and close friends who Spirit, who is the Lord and giver of life, we are interpush our hot button concerns, sometimes as a sport, dependent—there is no private religion. or on a whim. I’d be amazed if you don’t have such Have you noticed in Holy Scripture how often an buttons. If you want to get me going, here are two of angel may appear or Jesus appears, saying, “Don’t my many hot button issues. be afraid.” Think of Gabriel and Mary, or the disFirst: “Christianity is a private religion. It’s my ciples who are locked in a room full of fear after the business and not yours. It’s not for me to talk about Resurrection. Jesus appeared and said, “Peace be with and share with others.” And second: “Christianity you.” We don’t need to be afraid. As Christians we is just an emotional crutch. Christians are all a bit are called to be open to the Holy Spirit and to walk wounded, lame and pathetic. It is a way of limping towards our fears, because we are a people who seek through life. When you get enlightened with reason truth. The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth. If we live and science, and when you come to more maturity, that and believe that, then our fears are an opportunyou will let go of Christianity and move on.” ity for grace. What are things about which you are On the Feast of Pentecost, as the Sacrament of most afraid in your life at this time? Could you conBaptism is celebrated, we are reminded that in a new sider that, with God’s help, you can walk into those and special way the Holy Spirit is with us every step fears with the help of one another, and they can be of the way from our baptism onwards—for the rest opportunities for healing, wholeness, grace, and of our lives. In the Nicene Creed growth? As Christians, we are a we profess our faith in the Holy people who seek the truth. This We need each other. We are interSpirit who is “the Lord, the giver is why we never need to be afraid dependent through the Holy Spirit. of life.” When we live with the of confession—because we know Holy Spirit as our Lord and giver that through repentance we have of life, both of the “hot button” concerns I mentioned the assurance of forgiveness and absolution. are addressed.

The Holy Spirit is the Lord, the giver of life, who In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul describes various activleads us into all truth. Christianity isn’t an emotional ities and gifts in the Church. Each of us is gifted crutch; it’s not a pathetic way of limping through this with unique charisms, gifts, and ministries. To be a life. It’s a great joy to live abundantly because we are a Christian is to be interdependent. Christianity has truth-bearing and truth-seeking people. We share in never been and cannot be a private religion, because this great work together. we need each other and we rejoice with each other.

Come, Holy Spirit: fill the hearts of your faithful The Holy Spirit works with us and through us corporpeople and kindle in us the fire of your love. ately, as a community.

We need each other. We are interdependent through the Holy Spirit. Together we are called to transform the world, for the healing of the nations and

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Holy Spirit Special | Leah Postman Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?

Tortured Soul. Angry Young Woman. Whistleblower on Suburban Hypocrisy. I invested in a graduate A. That I am not my own, but belong with body and degree and an extended sojourn through the land of soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour therapy. All around me people bought condos and sold Jesus Christ. (Heidelberg Catechism) up to houses in good neighbourhoods. They paid down mortgages while I paid down my problems. I could met God on Tuesday. His name is Mike. He’s an not for the life of me figure out how everyone else older gentleman, Greek, and owns a number of appeared to make decisions so effortlessly about how heritage buildings in the city. I was looking for and where they would live. I rented one apartment, an apartment, for me and my family, and he and then another, and then another. I rented a house. showed me a suite in one of his buildings. The suite was Always other people’s places, shadows on the walls beautiful, fully restored to its over 100-year-old glory: where their pictures were hung, indents in the carpet gleaming refinished hardwood floors and charming where their furniture had been. A place to live, sure— built-in cabinetry. The windows were leaded glass, and but never home. House ownership had been bred into in the kitchen the original antique cupboards reached me as perhaps the single most important signifier of to the ceiling. He gave me a tour through the rest of self-worth and stewardship. And now, here I was, in the building, describing how he a lousy rented Vancouver Special “I knew when I heard your voice on oversees all maintenance himself. that, no matter my efforts, I just the phone that you were a beautiful There were workmen in the basecouldn’t seem to improve. It was person." ment and he knew them by name. like living inside a flashing neon We talked about family, and chilsign: Failure. Loser. Sucker. dren, and what is of true importance in life. He said, “I However, I ended up staying in this place for almost knew when I heard your voice on the phone that you 11 years, and my children have grown up here. My were a beautiful person.” neighbours will be lifelong friends. My husband and Home and housing has always been a complicated I went through some dark times here and survived. subject for me. Growing up first-generation in an I got sober here. Hard lessons. And now it is time immigrant family, a lot of emphasis was placed on to move again. I know now that home is not about material security. Not success, per se—my family’s owning something but belonging somewhere. It is not Calvinist faith frowned on over-reaching or ostentaabout where I live, but how, and with whom. Some tion—but God helping those who helped themselves. good things remain from my Calvinist upbringing, the And the best way of doing this, it seemed, was to invest first question and answer of the Heidelberg Catechism in real estate. being one of them. Through and in Christ’s love I am But not for me. I wanted to read literature and write always home. Life is the journey to this understandpoetry. I wanted to think about things deeply and feel ing, as I have come to believe. The Holy Spirit is forever things intensely. I did not want to be safe; I wanted and always polishing the floors of our hearts, repairing to be an artist. So I eschewed all things middle-class, the windows of our souls. He calls us by name and we exchanging one set of conventions for another: The know ourselves to be beautiful. photo by chris loh

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palm sunday procession through oppenheimer park photo by tracy russell

bishop melissa photo by tracy russell

procession music photo by tracy russell

welcoming cake photo by elaine jan

palm crosses photo by tracy russell

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In the Beginning | Christine Hatfull In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

but not under his name. Although expunged from the record, his language, skill and faith went on to live in the six versions of the English Bible leading up to the t was with this simple and powerfully clear phrase KJV. In 1611 the committees of scholars, authorized by that William Tyndale (c. 1494–1536) began the King James I to write a standardized English version Gospel of St. John in his groundbreaking transof the Bible, used up to 85% of Tyndale’s translation lation of the New Testament from the original of the New Testament and 75% of the Old Testament Greek, published in 1526 using the latest movable-type that he was able to translate before his imprisonment. printing press technology.

Remarkably, they retained the archaic endings of the His focus was not on the turn of phrase, but on its early 16th century that were already falling out of use.

In doing so they created an authoritative yet highly purpose and accessibility. He believed that scripture readable version that would travel around the world to should be known “… even by the boy that driveth the become a classic. From The Book of Common Prayer, plough.” Although he lived for the final twelve years of to the King James Bible, to the Wesleyan Hymnody his life in exile on the continent, hounded and reviled and on into the twentieth century, the sacred language by religious authorities (two kings and a Pope—and of Anglicanism has been essentially that of Tyndale. at a time in history when people were being burned His impact on Modern English is historic and it is alive for simply possessing a copy of the Lord’s Prayer upon Tyndale’s shoulders that Shakespeare, Donne, in English), he persisted in his dangerous and solitary Milton and all the rest, under the sun, stand. The work of translating scripture. In his own words, he lively and unadorned phraseology was—and has sought to “interpret the sense of the scripture and the become—an inseparable meaning of the spirit.”

From The Book of Common Prayer, to the King James part of everyday speech Tyndale was a gifted Bible, to the Wesleyan Hymnody and on into the twenand vocabulary wherever linguist with a genius for tieth century, the sacred language of Anglicanism has people speak the lantranslating, and became been essentially that of Tyndale. guage of the Book: I am fluent in French, German, the way, the truth, and the Italian, Spanish, Latin, life … Let not your hearts be troubled … A small still Greek, and Hebrew along with the under-valued voice … A labour of love … The writing is on the wall Middle English of his homeland. Influenced by the … See eye to eye … By the sweat of your brow … Eat, work of Luther and Erasmus, he translated the New drink, and be merry … The salt of the earth … Nothing Testament and the Pentateuch (first five Books of new under the sun … For everything there is a season … the Old Testament) from Greek and Hebrew into a and hundreds more. precise, rhythmic, and idiomatic written vernacular Although his ability to translate the spirit of the now recognized as early Modern English. F. F. Bruce Word is now legendary, his legacy is still not widely or writes that “Tyndale, working in the white heat of sufficiently known. However, it is unlikely that Tyndale potential martyrdom, rises at times to a poetic glow, would have worried about the outcome of his own transcending the style of the original Greek” (The Book reputation. It was in the person of this brave, modest and The Parchments). man that the Holy Spirit lived—and continues to live— Within months of his execution in 1536, his scripin the presence of his life’s work. tural translations were legally published in England

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This picture shows the tenor bell (two tons) just before it was raised to the tower in 1937. This bell, like the other seven, was cast at Taylor’s Foundry, Loughborough, UK. The treble bell carries the inscription: “God bless the music of these bells, and trebly bless the Harker,” thus concealing and revealing the name of the donor, the Reverend Fr. Robert Grange Harker, 5th Rector of St. James’ (1920-21).

photo by tracy russell

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The Holy Spirit in the Early Church

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ditor’s note: The selection of quotes below shows a sampling of the development of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit during the first few centuries of the Church. From the start the Holy Spirit was understood to be connected to the Church and to the sacraments in a particular way, but only over the course of ecumenical councils, theological disputes, and other writings did the Spirit’s relationship within the Trinity become formally defined. From Irenaeus to Augustine, the Holy Spirit was a clear focus of the Church’s teachings and worship throughout its early history.

“For thus do the faithful keep [the body stainless and the soul uncorrupted], having the Holy Spirit constantly dwelling in them, who was given from God at baptism and kept by the recipient living in truth and holiness and righteousness and patience; for it is also by this Spirit that the resurrection comes to believers, the body receiving back again the soul and, together with it, is raised by power of the Holy Spirit and is led into the Kingdom of God.” — Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130–200), On the Apostolic Preaching 42

“For [God] promised, that in the last times He would pour the Spirit upon His servants and handmaids, that they might prophesy … This Spirit, again, He did confer upon the Church, sending throughout all the world the Comforter from heaven, from whence also the Lord tells us that the devil, like lightning, was cast down. Wherefore we have need of the dew of God, that we be not consumed by fire, nor be rendered unfruitful, and that where we have an accuser there we may have also an Advocate.”

— Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130–200), Against Heresies III.17.1, 3 “Believe thou also in the Holy Ghost, and hold the same opinion concerning Him, which you have received to hold concerning the Father and the Son, and follow not those who teach blasphemous things of Him. But learn thou that this Holy Spirit is One, indivisible, of manifold power; having many operations, yet not Himself divided; Who knows the mysteries, Who searches all things, even the deep things of God; Who descended upon the Lord Jesus Christ in form of a dove; Who wrought in the Law and in the Prophets; Who now also at the season of Baptism seals your soul … For there is One God, the Father of Christ; and One

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Profile:

Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of the Only God; and One Holy Ghost, the sanctifier and deifier of all, Who spoke in the Law and in the Prophets, in the Old and in the New Testament.”

— Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 313–386), Catechetical Lectures 4.16–17 “What does the Spirit do? His works are ineffable in majesty, and innumerable in quantity. How can we even ponder what extends beyond the ages? What did He do before creation began? How great are the graces He showered on creation? What power will He wield in the age to come? He existed; He pre-existed; He coexisted with the Father and the Son before the ages.

Even if you can imagine anything beyond the ages, you will discover that the Spirit is even further before.”

— Basil of Caesarea (c. 329–379), On the Holy Spirit 49 “The Holy Ghost, then, always existed, and exists, and always will exist. He neither had a beginning, nor will He have an end; but He was everlastingly ranged with and numbered with the Father and the Son.” — Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329–389), On Pentecost 11 “But who can doubt that the Holy Spirit gives life to all things; since both He, as the Father and the Son, is the Creator of all things; and the Almighty Father is understood to have done nothing without the Holy Spirit; and since also in the beginning of the creation the Spirit moved upon the water.”

— Ambrose of Milan (c. 340–397), The Holy Spirit 2.5.32 “Concerning the Holy Spirit, of which those who have discussed the subject before ourselves have most fully availed themselves, that He too is God, and not a creature. But if not a creature, then not only God, but also very God; and therefore absolutely equal with the Father and the Son, and in the unity of the Trinity consubstantial and co-eternal.”

— Augustine of Hippo (354–430), The Trinity 1.6.13

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Lynn Wilson

n the summer of 2008 Lynn and her husband Ted were living in Oppenheimer Park. Fr. Matthew found them a tent, and three days later they were housed in the Marble Arch. In her words: “a blessing from God.” Lynn was raised in Kitimat village where she spent thirteen years with a foster family. Neglect and abuse were an almost-daily routine during this time. Out of the blue, an unexpected apology came from her foster father and she forgave him, even though successive proceedings found her taking him to court. Time in a group home followed.

In 1990 she met her husband-to-be, Ted, on the night of her high school graduation. They stuck together through drug use: “God blessed us with a strong bond.” They have five children. During this time she and her husband were not strangers to discrimination and injustice suffered at the hands of social assistance and other authorities.

Lynn and Ted had been planning a 25th anniversary renewal of their marriage vows when Ted died, only three years ago. She plans to have Ted’s ashes committed and placed in the St. James’ columbarium in 2015—the year that would have marked their 25th anniversary.

At St. James’ she was introduced to Joyce Locht.

Lynn was baptized and “felt God’s hand on me” when the water was poured over her. Joyce became Godmother to her. In the Parish, Lynn often leads Morning and Evening Prayer, acts as a server at Mass, and has just begun to assist Fr. Matthew in his street outreach work.

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Hear What the Spirit is Saying to the Church Ruth Greenaway-Robbins

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power to the wonders of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Nineteen different people participated by reading and it was incredibly compelling to hear each distinct voice. There were men and women, young and more mature, people well-acquainted with the Parish and those on the fringes—but all brought their unique voice and character, which gave the gospels life. At times it reminded me of the joy of being read to as a child, as we were able to allow our imagination to wander with Scripture.

photo: tracy russell

n the eve of Pentecost in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, around 40 people attended the Vigil of the Gospels—a continuous reading out loud of all four gospels. The Vigil lasted for approximately nine hours and finished in the early hours of the morning.

As you entered the candle-lit Blessed Sacrament Chapel that evening, you would have found a reader seated at a desk, poring over the gospel they were reading aloud. The blessed sacrament was exposed on

the altar, while the reader faced the altar (and thus the most physical presence of Christ that we have on this earth). The set-up allowed many of us to experience the gospels in a unique way.

Rarely do we get to hear more than a few verses from the gospels read aloud each Sunday, so this was an opportunity to hear them without interruption.

Some of us stayed for the whole Vigil, propped up on cushions, while some sat on the floor, with Bear and Dido curled up around people’s feet. Others came for a shorter time. There was no right or wrong way to do it; what was important was that we all heard the great narrative of Christ without interruption. We encountered his teaching and ministries on earth, recounted the miracles, laid ourselves open to the pain of his crucifixion and the joy of his resurrection, and were reminded of the words of his promise to come again.

Many of us only hear the Nativity at Christmas or the Passion on Good Friday; not often are we exposed to hearing miracle after miracle as they are recounted in each gospel—but hearing like this gave even more 8 | PAX: St. John the Baptist 2014

We began the reading on a long summer’s afternoon, and as the night drew in we sat in candlelight.

The location of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel shields the noise from the busy East Cordova Street—as ever, brimming with life—but for those nine hours those of us who kept vigil with the gospels were cocooned in a deep quietness, listening to the words of Christ and encountering an opportunity to grapple with our life in Jesus Christ.

Pentecost seemed an appropriate time to offer ourselves to this experience, as it is a time of laying ourselves open to the Spirit of God in our lives and in the life of the Church. As the last words of John’s Gospel were spoken, the chapel fell silent for the first time in nine hours. We paused for a moment before we invited the Holy Spirit’s presence with the words, “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful people and kindle in us the fire of your love.” And with those words the sacrament was removed, the gospels closed, candles extinguished, and we reentered the world.

Invitation to the Dance | Linda Adams In red and black and the shining of buttons, you dance.

In the might of killer whale and the depth of ocean mystery, you dance.

In the lightness of curiosity and the cleverness of trickster raven, you dance.

In the loneness of wolf and in wildness and solitude, you dance.

In the soaring of eagles bringing prayer to the Creator, you dance.

In red and black and the shining of buttons you dance to us, in our lonely estrangement from killer whale and raven and wolf and eagle.

And in our longing and awkward bodies, we come, and in red and black and yellow and white and a circle of shining buttons, together we laugh and dance our hearts home.

At every pow-wow there is an intertribal dance, when people of every Aboriginal nation and every race are invited to join the dancers on the floor, to remind us that we are all one.

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Music of Resurrection | Gerald Harder

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(similar to the language of our Book of Alternative Services), but demand for this Mass setting in traditional language was such that the composer later adapted the music to the language of the Book of Common Prayer. This is perhaps not surprising, as St. Thomas’ Church itself typically celebrates a Rite I (traditional) Eucharist. The BCP version is unpublished; we were fortunate to obtain a copy through the generosity of the music office of St. Thomas’ Church.

The Gloria of Missa resurrectionis is especially notable for its metre, largely 5/4, which, after the peaceful opening phrases, provides a constant, exciting forward momentum for this great hymn of praise.

As an organ soloist, Mr. Hancock performed in churches and concert halls worldwide. His talent for improvisation— in which a player elaborates a musical theme off-the-cuff in the appropriate key and metre, faithful to the composer’s style and intent—was considered the finest of any American concert organist.

A fundamental component of Baroque music, improvisation is routinely taught to organists in Europe but is less commonly taught in North America. Mr. Hancock was so proficient at it that his recitals were sometimes organized as tests of skill, with audience members giving him sealed envelopes containing suggestions of melodies for him to embellish.

The fine new anthem offered by our Choir was Gerald Near’s 1995 setting of Edmund Spenser’s magnificent sonnet Most glorious Lord of life. Like Hancock’s Mass setting, Near’s anthem alternates between very effective unison and mixed-choir passages, and uses a variety of metres to accommodate the text and provide rhythmic interest. Gerald Near (b. 1942) is considered one of the finest American composers of church music writing today. He has composed extensively for both the organ and choirs; his compositions have been commissioned and performed by many notable organizations and performers in North America and Britain.

The St. James’ Choir was joined by members of Oculus Chamber Choir for the Great Vigil and Easter Day, enabling us to hold our own against the formidable accompanying forces of organ and brass quartet. You will undoubtedly hear these brilliant resurrection works again at St. James’.

photo: sean birch

photo by tracy russell

n Holy Saturday at the Great Vigil, and again on Easter Day, the St. James’ Choir offered a brilliant new setting of the Mass Ordinary and a new anthem. Both are scored for choir, organ, and optional brass quartet, and both were composed relatively recently—within the last forty years.

For more than thirty years, beginning in 1971, Gerre Hancock (1934–2012) was Organist and Choirmaster at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church in Manhattan. About five years into his tenure, he wrote Missa resurrectionis, which he based on musical figures from the hymn tune ST. MAGNUS, attributed to Jeremiah Clarke (1673?– 1707), and typically the tune for the Easter hymn The Head That Once Was Crowned (Common Praise 491). Hancock set the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. Interestingly, Hancock used the ICET text

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sacred photo by sean birch

sassy photo by sean birch

sassy photo by sean birch

sacred photo by sean birch

sassy photo by sean birch

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Life in the Spirit | Paul Stanwood

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he Trinity, in the familiar expression “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” is the central dogma of the Christian faith. We say that there are three persons in the Trinity, but we must recognize that persons means something quite different in this, its older theological sense. “Persons” are not to be understood in the contemporary or secular sense, and so we really must not think of them as corporeal or fleshly embodiments. Moreover, the three so-called persons are singular, for they are in fact but three-fold in one.

The term Trinity was first used by Theophilus of Antioch in about AD 180. Obviously the term and the idea grew from the beginnings of the Christian faith.

There is a scriptural adumbration, as the patristic Fathers urged, in the appearance to Abraham of the three men (Genesis 18), presumably divine figures or angels, foreshadowing the three-fold nature of God. In the New Testament, there are two obvious instances that evidently refer to the Trinity. One is at the end of Matthew (28:19), and the other is the famous benediction in 2 Corinthians 13:13: “The grace of the Lord Jesus

Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all,” helpfully glossed in the Revised Standard Version: “The grace of Christ leads one toward the love of God, and the love of God when actualised through the Spirit produces fellowship with God and man.”

There has always been difficulty in describing the Trinity. In the early centuries, the so-called “persons” were often distinguished on the basis of their particular functions towards the created universe. This view, called the “economic Trinity,” urged by Tertullian and others, taught that the divine Word was part of God the Father’s mind, then became a Person (so-to-speak) with the creation of the world, and then the person of the Spirit occurred subsequently. These early views are called also “subordinationism” (because the Son and Spirit were considered subordinate to the Father); still different is the view that sees only one divine Person who acts in three different “modes” as creator, redeemer, and sanctifier—an unorthodox view called “Modalism.”

But the most important teaching on the Trinity is that

To God | Robert Herrick (1591-1674) God’s undivided, One in Persons Three; And Three in Inconfused Unity: Originall of Essence there is none ’Twixt God the Father, Holy Ghost, and Sonne: And though the Father be the first of Three, ’Tis but by Order, not by Entitie.

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of St. Augustine of Hippo (354–530) whose great work De Trinitate remains the most persistent of Trinitarian teachings of the Western church. Augustine elaborated a “psychological theory of the Trinity” by comparing the divine life to human self-knowledge and self-love, and the Holy Spirit may be accounted for on the basis of the mutual love of the Father and the Son. This psychological theory of the Trinity, however, whereby one considers the inner life of God, or the circumincession—the interpenetration of the three persons—has difficulties; for this theory of the Trinity, some say, neglects the experience of the Trinity in the economy of salvation. This is the view of Karl Rahner, and of other twentieth-century theologians. We may better understand the Trinity in terms of “immanence,” that is, “God communicates himself to his creation through grace and the Incarnation…. In both the collective and individual history of salvation there appears in immediacy to us not some numinous powers or other which represent God, but there appears and is truly present the one God himself” (Rahner, Foundations of Christian Faith, Seabury Press, 1978, originally Grundkurs des Glaubens, 1976, p. 136).

God, of course, is known to us in different ways, in various kinds of presence; but he is continuously one and the same God, Father, Son, and Spirit. The Trinity must indeed be regarded as Verbum, the Word before all worlds, but Incarnate, the Word ever present and speaking to us. While we are conversing with the Trinity, we are living in God, in Christ, in the Spirit.

We know the presence of one in the other. Certainly the Trinity is mysterious, defeating human understanding—the nature of Christian belief itself defies ordinary reason—but surely its invocation is an effective way of declaring our faith in God’s love for us, and our love for him.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui sancto, sicut erat in principio, et nunc et semper, et in secula seculorum.

Amen.

ASK !

BEAR

Dear Bear, What are the essential things to know about the Holy Spirit?

— Tracy Russell Dear Tracy, The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity, God at work in the world and in the Church even now.

Revealed in the Old Covenant as the giver of life, the Holy Spirit is the One who spoke through the prophets.

The Holy Spirit is revealed as the Lord who leads us into all truth and enables us to grow into the likeness of Christ.

The presence of the Holy Spirit we recognize when we confess Jesus Christ as Lord and are brought into love and harmony with God, with ourselves, with our neighbours and with all creation.

We recognize truths to be taught by the Holy Spirit when they are in accord with the Scriptures.

The Church is holy, because the Holy Spirit dwells in it, consecrates its members, and guides them to do God’s work.

See the Catechism (“An Outline of the Faith”) in The Book of Common Prayer according to the use of The Episcopal Church (New York: Seabury Press, 1979), 852–853.

— Bear

Bear is the first resident canine at St. James’ Rectory. As a member of the Greenaway-Robbins and Parish family he is privy to many and varied meetings, conversations and gatherings. Though usually silent, in this column he offers his perspective on Parish life.

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Update from the Young Wolves Lodge | Linda Adams

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xciting changes are happening at the Coming Home Society’s Young Wolves Lodge!

Over the past ten years, Young Wolves Lodge has provided a clinical addiction recovery program for homeless young Aboriginal women. The core funding has come from federal government money allocated to address homelessness in Canada.

On April 1st, the federal government introduced a nation-wide homelessness strategy titled “Housing First.” When people have their foremost need of housing met, they have a much better chance to stabilize and improve their lives.

The Coming Home Society and Urban Native Youth Association have been asked to transition Young Wolves Lodge from a clinical addiction recovery program into a “Supportive Housing Program.” We have begun this process, and by September 1st we will have fully developed the new program.

Instead of continuing to describe ourselves as an addiction recovery program, we will be emphasizing our provision of supportive housing that helps our young women address all the issues that contribute to their being homeless. Young Wolves Lodge will be there, not just for those who have “hit bottom” in their addictions, but for all young Aboriginal women who find themselves homeless.

The new Supportive Housing Program will continue to serve young Aboriginal women aged 17–24, particularly young mothers and those expecting a child. We will continue to offer counselling and support, and the same comprehensive series of holistic workshops. We will continue to introduce young women to the practices, the values, and the spirituality of their culture, as their healing lies in recovering the things that were lost to their families because of Canada’s Residential School system.

We are excited that the women who come to Young Wolves Lodge will have the option of staying for as long as a year. They will be able to remain at the Lodge while they pursue further training or education. By the time 14 | PAX: St. John the Baptist 2014

they are ready to move on, they will have experienced stable housing, and will have gained many skills that will lessen their chances of becoming homeless again in the future.

There is a palpable level of excitement in the serviceprovider community about this “new” resource. The need is clear, and Aboriginal women will be coming to us from many sources. They may come directly from the street, they may be youth who are “aging out” of foster care and losing many supports, or they may come from short-stay programs such as Safe Houses.

On the day we began our transition, which had followed a short closure for reorganization, we had two immediate enrolments. One young lady came to us homeless, with only the clothes on her back, and three months pregnant. The other was unsure about the program, but after one meeting at Young Wolves Lodge, she knew she was called to this place. And so our story continues. We invite you to be part of it!

Fresh Air | Jack Levison

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Book Review by Tim Firth he action of the Spirit spirit” (35–36). No simple gift—he of God is seen in a large quotes the Jewish philosopher Philo— variety of circumstances what God breathed into us was also throughout the Bible. It can “the potential for virtue … and with be recognized as operating within us that spirit the gift of how to live well” (internally) or it can be manifested in (45–46). some outward action. The Spirit may In the chapter on Daniel, Levison act on and through individuals or amplifies this message by seeking to larger groups of people. show that the Spirit within was for Jack Levison, Professor of New him (and can be for us) the “perennial Testament Studies at Seattle Pacific source of enlightenment, wisdom, and University, understands the Holy prescience” (55). We, like Daniel, need Spirit as “God’s mystical, practical, do nothing other than be faithful. expansive, unbridled presence in the And of course, listen. Patiently attend Fresh Air: The Holy world” (5). Crucial for the laying of to the nurturing of our relationship Spirit for an Inspired his groundwork and the direction he with God. In a natural, constant, and Life takes the reader, he also stresses that loving manner we hear from Isaiah: Jack Levison it is present in “every breath we take, “Morning by morning God wakens— Brewster, Mass.: Paraclete in social transformation, in communwakens my ear” (Isaiah 50:4–5). (76) Press, 2012 ity, in hostile situations, and in serious Much of this book is not only linked learning” (5). We are taught, we are to community in concept and reality, stretched, and we may be led in directions that are not but entices and pulls us naturally and necessarily only unexpected but also challenging—as we know outward, beyond all our comfortable and artificial from our own lives. borders. The elaboration of the vision of Joel is telling.

A variety of words are used in the Bible to describe The Spirit is not “poured in—into individuals; the the presence of this divine action: wind, breath, and spirit is outpoured—poured out—over societies” (105). spirit. (Levison discusses his reasons for using a lower And within society, from top to bottom, rich and poor, case versus capital “s” in spirit; apart from direct quomale and female, free and slaves. The Spirit envisions tations, a capital “S” will be used here.) Through the and creates a world “disordered by everything except characters and stories in both Testaments, Levison the splendid choreography of the spirit” (103). gives many examples of just what this presence is and To take up the analogy of the Spirit as wind: they how it has transformed God’s world. It is a book with both blow where they will. We cannot control or order a conversational tone, made easier to read and undereither of them. We can, however, open ourselves up to stand by use of often warm and picturesque personal the power of the Spirit. And when the Spirit speaks to anecdotes from his life and career. us, and we are attentive, that word can put “mission in Early on he quotes Job: “In God’s hand is the life motion” and the church can become “a conduit of the of every living thing and the breath of every human grace of God” (164). being” (Job 12:10). The breath within us “isn’t just air; it is nothing other than a moment-by-moment gift of the spirit breath of God.” It is what Levison calls “an amazing amalgamation of human breath and divine PAX: St. John the Baptist 2014 | 15

Did You Know? Parish Life at St. James’ IN MEMORIAM This spring we bade farewell to many who, in their lives, had an association with our Parish.

Funeral services were held for Ron Milton, a member of our neighbourhood, and for Peter Haworth, who attended St. James’ for a number of years. Requiems were also held for long-standing parishioners Robert (Bob) Harris, Dennis Loader, Robert Hugh (R.H.) Maxwell, and Jane Spence. We give thanks for their lives, and for all the ways they enriched our lives. May they and all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace and rise in glory.

CONGRATULATIONS On June 1st, parishioners Anna Scott and Andrew Bell were united in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. Congratulations and best wishes to them both!

Parishioner Sir John Daniel received the Order of Canada on May 7th, in a ceremony in Government House.

Our sincere congratulations to him on this remarkable achievement.

At High Mass on May 31st, Br. John Blyth was honoured on the celebration of his 50th anniversary of Ordination to the priesthood.

Br. John has had a long and varied ministry, which has encompassed everything from serving as a parish priest to the Nisga’a in Aiyansh, to being Dean of the Anglican Cathedral in Calgary, to his term as Chaplain at the Vancouver School of Theology, to service as a member of the Melanesian Brotherhood in the Solomon Islands. We honour him especially for his long association with, and service to, St. James’. Our heartfelt thanks and 16 | PAX: St. John the Baptist 2014

congratulations on this wonderful anniversary.

BAPTISMS ON THE FEAST OF PENTECOST Pentecost was especially joyous this year as we welcomed several new members into God’s family.

They were Kendra Beatrice and Izick William, who are the children of parishioners A.J. Bustin and Kevin Bustard; Mallory Ann, who is the latest arrival to the NyceTait family; and Eldon Kenwood, who was brought to baptism by parishioner Judy Paterson. Our support and prayers are with them in their new lives in Christ.

CONFIRMATION 2014 On June 22nd at Christ Church Cathedral the following candidates from St. James’ were confirmed

by Bishop Melissa Skelton: Margaret Gorrell, Jennifer Scott, Lendrea (Lynn) Wilson, Emma Windsor-Liscombe, and Yukiko Tanaka. Jason Dorey was received into the Anglican Communion.

Congratulations and best wishes to each of our candidates, who, after a period of study, affirmed the promises made at their baptisms.

VISITS FROM OUR NEW BISHOP, MELISSA SKELTON We were very fortunate to have Bishop Melissa with us as our preacher on Palm Sunday. She has also generously made herself available to be with the leadership of the Parish on a Retreat Day in July, to inform and assist us with Congregational Development.

SPRING FUN Parishioners were treated to two wonderful spring concerts. On May 23rd our High Mass Choir

presented Sacred & Sassy II, an event to benefit the Choir and also the Saint James Music Academy. A performance of sacred music was followed by a dessert party, silent auction, and entertainment in the Parish Hall.

On June 6th the Saint James Music Academy gave its year-end concert, to the admiration and delight of a full house. Congratulations to all the young people and teachers on their work throughout the year.

On June 15th, after High Mass, the St. James’ Mothers’ Union held their annual Edwardian Strawberry Tea. Sandwiches and cake (topped with fresh local strawberries) were eaten, accompanied by entertainment from Gerald Harder and Ruth Greenaway-Robbins. The event commemorated the 100th Anniversary of the start of World War I, and included a sing-along of songs made famous in that era.

YOUTHWORKS IS BACK! Youthworks has returned, and staff will again be guiding groups of young people who come for a week at a time to live at St. James’ and offer ministry and service to our church, to parishioners who need small jobs done, and to the neighbourhood. Welcome back!

SOLEMN EVENSONG AND BENEDICTION We would like to encourage everyone to come out to Solemn Evensong and Benediction on the last Sunday of each month. We are very fortunate to have it sung in partnership with the Oculus Choir, and it is an amazing feast of music, Scripture and prayer. Come and give it a try!

50th anniversary of the ordination of Br. John Blyth

baptisms at pentecost

photo by sean birch

photo by elaine jan

blessing of jenny scott as st. james’ new youth worker

wedding of andrew bell and anna scott

photo by sean birch

photo by sean birch

robyn boeré and neil stange’s going-away blessing photo by tracy russell

vigil of the gospels photo by ruth greenaway robbins

blessing of blankets photo by sean birch

303 East Cordova Street, Vancouver, BC, v6a 1l4 Telephone: 604 685 2532 Fax: 604 685 7605 Email: office@stjames.bc.ca

www.stjames.bc.ca our vision: Discovering the beauty of holiness in our lives and neighbourhood, by living a Christ-centred sacramental life rooted in the Anglo-Catholic tradition.

PAX no. 23 © 2014 St. James’ Anglican Church Editorial Panel: Paul Stanwood, Tracy Russell, Tim Firth, Joyce Locht Designer & Art Director: Sean Birch Writers: Fr. Mark Greenaway-Robbins, Paul Stanwood, Leah Postman, Bear, Tim Firth, Christine Hatfull, Linda Adams, Ruth Greenaway-Robbins, Gerald Harder Photography: Sean Birch, Elaine Jan, Tracy Russell, Ruth Greenaway-Robbins Distribution: Mary Brown PAX is free, but voluntary subscriptions of $10/year are welcome. PAX aims to be financially self-sustaining and therefore donations to support this ministry are greatly appreciated, and may be offered through your envelope (clearly marked PAX ), mailed to the church office, or submitted on the church website with a credit card. The material printed in PAX is produced by members and friends of St. James’ Church in Vancouver, Canada. A theme-based call for submissions is issued two to six weeks prior to each edition in the Sunday church bulletins. All submissions to PAX will receive acknowledgement of reception and be reviewed and edited by the editorial panel. Submissions are reviewed to the extent that they fit the mandate of PAX. All submissions may be edited for length, the maximum being 500 words unless otherwise specified.