“Where is your church now, and where do you want the Anglican Church of Canada to be by 2019?”

I find this process a real challenge since I prefer to discuss these questions with a small group of different minded people.

That said I don’t have the time right now to bring together people and submit the results to you, but maybe in time you might consider facilitate focus groups to obtain opinions using this method.

I believe the Anglican Church of Canada represents a wide variety of spiritualities and religious beliefs and this is good since I believe God’s grace is found in diversity.  However, at the grace roots I don’t experience the embracing of diversity, tolerance and inclusion.  An example is reflected in the prayers of the people when victims and not assailants are prayed for. What ever happened to the practice of reaching out to our so-called enemies?

In 2019 I want to the Anglican Church of Canada to be in partnership with other faiths, sharing outreach programs, spiritual development programs, worship, and buildings.  I want the church to be more than tolerant of others to the point of embracing, accepting and inclusive.  I want the Anglican Church to be truly representative of the cultural demographics of the locations where there are congregations.  I would like to see the fostering of hospitality, outreach, spiritual development and a sense of compassion for all people.  For too long the church, being the people, has practiced an attitude of take it or leave. In other words if you don’t like the worship and the program go somewhere else.  I believe this contradicts the Christian mission as I understand it.  I support a concept being put forward by W.Paul Jones in his book The Art of Spiritual Direction: Giving and  Receiving Spiritual Guidance, that placed spiritual direction at the centre of church and faith development.  The sepcific chapter is entitled, “Spiritual Direction and Church Renewal.” I like the idea that church renewal requires individual and corporate renewal using the sensitive attention to individual and group spiritual direction.  Worship as I understand it and experience it is group spiritual direction and needs to be planned and facilitated with this in mind.  Worship is not merely a predetermined diet that has no consideration for the unique needs of individuals and groups that make up the church at any given time.  Paul Jones is now a Roman Catholic priest who supports some of the practices and example of John Wesley, which appears to me to be in itself the embracing of diversity, and a willingness to learn from various traditions.

I welcome this opportunity to express these views to you. I wish you well in these endeavours.

Blessings

Peter+

Where my parish is now

Well, up front I should say that I am not a member of an Anglican congregation. I am part of a Lutheran congregation. I am part of Resurrection Lutheran Church in Orleans Ontario.

My congregation had a bit of a relationship with the closest Anglican Parish (St. Helen’s, Orleans) but that relationship has withered in the 7+ years I have been part of my congregation. We used to worship together every Ash Wednesday. But for our partners that service became their confirmation date which made mutual ministry unworkable. But this was not the basic problem with the relationship between the two parishes.

The main problem was that the relationship was between our called leaders, not the general membership. We didn’t own the relationship so when there was a pastoral change the relationship withered.

Where I want my parish to be in 2019

In 2019, I want to be part of a faith community which cares more about ministry in this context than worship in any particular tradition.

I imagine that my congregation, the local Anglican parish and the nearest United Church might merge into one faith community celebrating in three worship traditions. I imagine that we might sell our current buildings and build one new facility together. I imagine we would call 3 rostered leaders with complementary gifts. Ideally one from each tradition but typically one strong in counseling, one in family ministry and another in evangelism.

I imagine that we would have 3 worship services on a Sunday.

A 8 am “old-fashioned” chapel services (heavy on the word, short on music, with a focus on older hymns)

A 9 am “family” service which is kid friendly (fewer readings, modern text, shorter, faster songs)

A 11 am service which is the “full” deal (a mix of music and the choir, a full service and multiple readings)

I imagine that we would keep the type of service steady but change which faith family leader was responsible for each service time on a monthly rotation. So some members might chose to follow one pastoral leader or tradition by changing when they worship. Others might chose to be loyal to one service time and learn to appreciate all three faith traditions.

I imagine that we might re-purpose our current buildings. The Anglican building might be expanded to accommodate a short term stay hospice and day away program to support those caring for family members with long term care needs like Alzheimer’s. The Lutheran building might be expanded into a satellite rehabilitation centre so that outpatients do not have to travel back to the hospital for their exercise program and  mini-treatments. The United Church building could be renovated into a Active Seniors centre which promotes, enhance and support the well-being, independence and zest for living of both seniors and of adults with physical disabilities (see http://www.thegoodcompanions.ca for an existing program in downtown Ottawa).

I would like to see us located in the proposed future business park in the centre of this suburb. I imagine that we would give the city the long term right to use the church parking lot as overflow parking for the nearby transit hub station in return for a low cost for the land. We would also commit to maintain public green space around the building site. Here is the Google Map of the location:

I want the faith community site to become a hub of helping organizations in this community. So I want people to come to the site for a variety of reasons other than worship (at first) and then grow into a faith relationship with us.

So in 2019, I want to see an annual report that reads something like this:

Well, it has been a busy year here at Signs of Hope.

The Signs of Hope foundation has continued to develop the main building. The new computer lab is now up and running. It is appreciated by the ESL classes and youth employment bureau during the mornings / evenings and the homework club in the afternoons. The big project for the coming year is the scent garden running from the bus terminal to the overflow parking here at the church. This fully wheelchair accessible path with plantings in raised beds will be a delight to those walking through our property as well as those looking for a quiet sanctuary.

The Faith In Action team continues to try and get all members of the community to participate in at least one mission event each year. This year, there were a total of 17 different mini-events or activities.

The faith development team has reported to the 3 church councils on the results of our 5th anniversary membership survey.

Most members from each of the 3 founding congregations (Orleans United, Resurrection Lutheran and St. Helen’s Anglican) seem to have found a home in the new combined faith community. However, even after 5 years, some people are frustrated by the rotation of the services types through the service times. A few people have said that they have arrived at the building, discovered that they were there at the wrong time for their faith background so they went home. A few mentioned that they dislike the contemporary service even when it is in the style of “their” tradition.

Members who have joined the new combined community have less dissatisfaction with the rotating schedule because they typically chose a specific worship time and worship in each tradition in its turn. However, some members have mentioned that it is hard to get to know those members who wander in and out as they follow the service traditions. Several people mentioned that it is hard sometimes to know who is a member and who is a visitor.

A number of newer members mentioned that they don’t identify with any one of the founding faith communities. So they don’t quite know where they belong. Additionally our set-up means we expect people to belong to one (and only one) of the 3 churches to be consider eligible for voting at annual meetings.

The Worship team would like funding and pastoral time to run a mid-week service at 7 pm on Wednesday. This will be a contemporary service which will have a less formal structure. The primary “audience” for this service is young urban professionals who are not willing to commit to Sunday morning services.

Thanks for listening,

Miranda G.

My hope for the future of the church is that we can remain an open church, welcoming all people into our midst.  Bringing forth the joy of the gospel message.

As Jesus said in John chapter 12 “and when I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself.”

Let us move forward in hope,

Kay R.

I asked parishioners at St. Stephen’s, Ottawa, to comment on the 5 marks of mission in terms of where we the church are now and where they’d like it to be in 2019. I didn’t get many responses but the following is what was written:

Mark 1. To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom.

“I would like to see our Church Army have more prominence in our Anglican Church. Anglican Church do more with other churches. We do some now through World Council of Churches, Women’s Interchurch Council, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, West End Chaplaincy, i.e. choirs together to raise money, etc. We could do much more together. Maybe there are other joint activities that could be mentioned in the Lenten Calendar?? I’m glad Church Army is working with Billy Graham people.”

Mark 2. To teach, baptize, nurture new believers.

No comments.

Mark 3. To respond to human need by loving service.

“E.C. Ca Human Take This Bread”

“We need to reach out much more to people of different religions. There is only one God. We need to ‘go forth and be the church in the world’.”

“Poverty in Canada continues to increase. Christ’s example is SCREAMING at His followers to DO as He DID. When is the Anglican Church going to do so?”

Mark 4. To seek to transform unjust structures of society.

“The Anglican Church needs to revisit earlier efforts made to look at our ‘faith and cultural diversity’ in Canada. This includes our outstanding failure at honouring the humanity of our Aboriginal brothers and sisters.”

“Read Bishop Eric Bays book ‘Another Picture.’”

“We need to rethink our Justice System…More to prevent crime and more Restorative Justice.”

Mark 5. To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.

“We need to encourage more reuse, recycle and use less. We are a very wasteful society.”

I wish there had been more response but this didn’t seem to engage people.