I dream that parishes may one day be the setting for theological education for all the baptized. I look forward to seeing parishes as lively centres of learning and debate, with clergy and lay people working together as partners in learning. I would like to see a church in which all people in a parish have the opportunity to develop a basic understanding of the Christian faith, of the variety and richness of its Anglican expression, and of the way that our faith is expressed in the cultural setting in which they live. I dream of a church where people come together to share their stories and to bring the events of their daily lives into dialogue with the story of the Christian faith. The church should be a place where each person’s story can be heard and valued by others.

I believe that people in the church are hungry for learning about the Christian faith, and I hope that the next decade will be one of renewed emphasis on teaching and learning. Seminaries should be places where clergy can develop skills in education and training to enable this to happen – to enable lay people to begin to think theologically about their everyday life and work. I dream of a church where each member shares in worship and learning, in outreach and service, each offering gifts to build up the Body of Christ and to spread the good news of God’s love for all.

Patricia Bays
Ottawa ON

Kid Active Church Daycare – Saturday 3-5pm

Rebuilding an active Anglican Church in Canada requires reaching out to young parents.  In today’s fast paced world, both parents are working.  Rising before dawn, fighting with children to get them fed and dressed (ever tried organizing 3 kids before dawn ??), dragging them out the door with their coats half on, barely awake, struggling with traffic and increasing workloads. Exhausted from the ordeal of daycare from the age of 6 months old, both parents are working to pay the mortgage, property taxes, taxes and more taxes. Older children wait in the cold and dark for school buses to pick them up often before 7 a.m.  What sane reasonable working parents would enforce Sunday Church, particularly at the brutal hour of 9:30 a.m. on their stressed out lives?  Imposing any lack of weekend rest could precipitate deadly health issues, such as H1N1, on both parents and children.

Ministers should ask themselves ‘How can we help you?’, instead of ‘How you must help God by attending Sunday Church’, because there are obvious directions forward.  Dropping off young children for Kid-Active Bible School on Saturday afternoon, so parents can get the shopping done and the house cleaned, would be a big helping hand, while children enjoy learning to bake cookies, and setting up the Church Hall for Sunday, sharing Christian fellowship.  A small donation would cover the wages of a young college graduate recently qualified to provide child care, as well as a nation wide appeal to support Kid-Active Church Daycare.

What’s in it for the Church ??  Each building block is important, especially community foundations.  If the Church reaches out to assist young stressed families, then they may be surprised to discover improved attendance at community events organized by the Church such as pancake breakfasts, Kid-Active Baseball BBQ’s, winterlude skating and snowman contests, bowling and other social activities popular with young families.  Slowly Church attendance will improve as these families mature with the helping arm of a patient caring Church, learning to play together and pray together.

Here is my dream:
+ that we quickly and effectively get out the news that there is a rich tradition of spiritual practice within Christianity, and then help people to discover and to practise it.  So many are seeking to grow spiritually but, as you know, do not turn to Christianity, only knowing of Buddhist practice.  We are losing people we might otherwise gain. Let’s tell people that we also meditate, do Centering Prayer, whatever, and let’s invite them to join us.  We are not only about sitting in pews and following liturgy in books!!

+ We have to get out of the old way which has led people (my grown up children for example!) to think that being a Christian or an Anglican is about coming to church on Sundays.  For many that church has to remain fixed as it “always” has been.  Good liturgy is terribly important but if most of what/ that /means is about worn out custom and past tradition, we cannot move forward.  We need people with living faith, who are then willing to move the font if it needs to be moved, use chairs if it means a labyrinth can be painted under it, whatever….

+ What I am saying means we have to ensure that the spiritual lives of our future leaders and clergy be nourished during their postulancy and that they be shown how to help others grow in theirs.

+ Look at really effective ways of being with children.  Why do we insist on programs that seem to be superficial and cute and ignore the ones that are really profound and deeply respectful of who and where children are, like the Good Shepherd Catechesis?

(Our Episcopal sisters and brothers seem to do better in this regard than we do!) I am willing to explain/promote Good Shepherd Catechesis to anyone out there who is interested!

That it be welcoming to *all.*   That neither colour, sexual preference or  any other issue be one that keeps us apart.  I understand Jesus to be One who did not let the barriers of his day get in the way.  If the first century A.D.had had the understanding of human behaviour and sexuality that we do, then possibly He would have said something about it.  We can only act faithfully as we believe Jesus would have us do — and He constantly broke down barriers.  Our religion is permeated with hospitality, the O.T. injunctions are a constant refrain.  Can we do less?

That we seek more imaginative worship spaces.   If the old model (medieval primarily) no longer works, then we must make  sensitive and well-informed change. Gothic churches like Wells Cathedral, Salisbury etc. are breath-taking but adaptations in the parish church no longer adequately express our worship.  Parishes need to look at their space and see if it meets their needs.  Many younger seekers I imagine find that worshipping in rows is not a helpful configuration.  Of course, it is hierarchical.  Perhaps that no longer fits how we think of ourselves?   Movable chairs might be more appropriate?  Possibly different kinds of worship need  a differently configured space: a morning Eucharist, a Taize type service, one involving movement like dance or a labyrinth walk etc.?

I think I have shared the heart of my dreams for the future.  Thank you for listening.

Thank you for this opportuntiy to think outside the box and plan for the future.

I would like to see “Hospitality to All” be a theme within the churches. At our church, St. Thomas Stittsville, we have several groups and small buisnesses renting our facilities during the week. As the saying goes – hospitality begins at home, I would like to send a welcoming message to the 300 plus families who enter our doors during the week. These people come once or twice a week bringing their children to either the preschool or the after school learning center which teaches children 3 to 17 years. There is also an AA group that meets once a week. My idea would be for the dioceses to prepare a list of organizations that could come to speak or teach or display information on various subjects targeting the interests of the people who are using our facility as well as the general public. The church could then host one such meeting per month targeting the groups that meet in their church. An invitation personally delivered to each family would show that we care about their needs too. Especially in the outskirts of Ottawa it is very difficult to find or attend such information nights as “Teens and drugs”. First Words”, “Aging parents”, ” Families in Crisis” etc.

I hope this is an idea whose time has come. Thank you again

Blessings

WHERE IS YOUR CHURCH NOW?

1.  The Anglican Church of Canada has been seriously weakened by the gay marriage dispute, losing both clergy, congregations and individual members.  I am sure that morally the right decision was made, but the costs will be very high and I, among others, am very ambivalent about it.

2.  In my parish and the part of my diocese that I am aware of, we have an aging membership which is not being replaced by younger members.

3. I feel that we do not project a clear image of our beliefs and what we stand for;  rather, we are “not this” or “not that”.

4. In an effort to please everyone, we have not developed a realistic plan to cut our losses and build on the strengths of more successful parishes.  Cutting losses means closing down sinking parishes, selling church sites and re-investing the money in fewer, stronger parishes and social services.  This is poor planning and poor business practice.

5.  On a positive note, there are successful, thriving parishes which, through hard clergy and parishoner work, are slowly growing and offering a wonderful level of support to their members.  These parishes should be identified and used as models.

WHERE DO YOU WANT THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA TO BE BY 2019?

We should be:

-  smaller but stronger
-  community-centred
-  ecumenical
-  youth-friendly
-  strong social advocates for our parish and community

We should return to the essentials of primitive Christianity, practicing the principles of
- love
- peace (actively anti-war)
- caring
- actively anti-poverty
- the light of the world
- the salt of the earth
- the leaven in the loaf

in short, de-institutionalize ourselves so that we can show Canada and the world why the practice of the Christian faith is beautiful, freeing and the only answer to the hate and violence of the contemporary world.

Sadly, we compromise Christian beliefs and principles every day so as to appear “patriotic”, “with the tour”, “not making waves”, “cool”.  We have become too respectable and it is killing us.  Our aim should be to be a leader and example in Canada of how a true Christian should live.  Christianity was never meant to be comfortable.  Maintaining our status quo is not a viable option,as it will lead us to total irrelevancy and slow death.

I say these things as a passionate, lifelong Anglican who still has great hopes and expectations of my church.

For National Aboriginal Day of Prayer our parish offered The Creation Hymn of Praise by Rohahes….it is our vision for the church. when all can sing together, when the drums and aboriginal spirituality are received and not silenced, when we make hospitality to all a reality….The Rev. Dr. Linda Privitera

My parish is healthy and busy as you’d expect in a mushrooming suburban community. I attend the traditional service held later on Sunday mornings because I find it more meditative.

I hope the Anglican Church will change radically in the next 10 years. It would be nice if this happened voluntarily but more probably will occur in response to the pressure of shrinking resources. I hope the church concentrates on developing and implementing initiatives that are radically ecumenical, inclusive, experimental and that encourage an evolving, relevant, modern Christianity. I hope the episcopal leadership reliquishes its administrative/governing role in favour of a nurturing/spiritual one. I hope we the church try very hard to make our institution responsive to the wide world of human experience God has created

In answer to the first question, I have to say I don’t know. People seem to think the sexuality issue is not to be mentioned for fear of upsetting people. I love my church. We are a small elderly congregation which will certainly be a problem in 2019!

The second question is easier to answer. I would hope the Anglican Church would be united, and that “reason” would be subservient to scripture, just as man is subservient to God. I don’t want to eliminate reason but I don’t want reason to replace faith.

Sincerely,
Margaret B.
Killaloe, ON

From a hard working , growing Traditional church. Now introducing contemporary worship: My name is Richard Roblin & I am from St. Mary Magdalene Anglican Church in Napanee Ontario.. I help lead in music worship at our Contemporary services on Saturday night at 7PM and occasionally at our 9:15 family service on Sunday morning.

Spirit Rising worship band, Napanee, Ont.

I am blessed along with my family to be part of this beautiful church and its family. A lot of work has been done in the church to open the doors to everyone and make them feel welcome with the many different style services available, there is something for everyone.  (more…)

Pondering my vision for the Anglican Church in the future, I remembered my time as a organist/choirdirector in Moose Factory,Ontario. My work helped me to connect to the local community, to overcome the feeling of isolation up North and to integrate those two difficult years into my life in a meaningful way. Since then I have become a political activist, and I no longer believe that religion makes sense without political awareness.

Since the Israeli war on Gaza I have been reading up on the BDS movement and believe that people worldwide need to show their solidarity with the struggle of Palestinians for human rights and a just peace. Western governments are quite unwilling to speak out forcefully against housdemolitions, illegal settlements or even the bombing of civilians in Gaza.

Where will Palestinians find a voice for justice and human rights?

Will the Anglican Church add its contribution to this struggle? Church funds should never support companies who profit from the occupation! Where do we stand?!

Yours sincerely

Martina Lauer
Chesterville, Ontario