Tag Archives: church

Image Rehab

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We have two “Christian Book Stores” in Victoria. Or at least two that I am aware of. One is a small storefront downtown and largely serves the Catholic population and, to some extent, the Anglicans. The other is a large store out near the biggest mall in town and is one of those all-encompassing book, music, card, magazine, random Christian paraphernalia stores. One is used by just the Catholics and some Anglicans, the other is visited by nearly every other Christian in town.

Today, I was at the latter. In preparation for the previously mentioned very exciting upcoming conference, I’d ordered in a book that I’d like to do a study on at church. My reasoning is that it is a good idea for the congregation to have some exposure to an author/speaker before he does a conference we expect them to attend. I ended up (luck of the draw? or divine intervention?) being helped at the cash by the owner of the store. As he was ringing up my purchase I mentioned that Brian McLaren was coming to Victoria and would he be willing to put up a poster at the store for us when they are made and we begin promotions. The conversation that followed convinced me of one thing: Anglicans need to do some serious image-management.

“So, Brian McLaren’s going to be coming to town in the spring to do a conference. Once I’ve got a poster made up, would you be willing to put one up here at the store?” I asked.

He replied, “Brian McLaren’s coming? Who’s hosting it?”

“Christ Church Cathedral”

“Christ Chu… What?” Shock. Disbelief. Confusion. All were fairly evident in facial expression and tone of voice.

I tried to clarify, but how much clearer could I be? There is only one Christ Church Cathedral in town. “Christ Church Cathedral. Downtown. The Anglican Cathedral…”

“But, who’s hosting it? I mean, who’s putting the event on? Who’s bringing him in?” He still doesn’t understand.

“The adult education committee at the Cathedral is hosting and has invited him.” That’s right – still Christ Church Cathedral… I’m not changing my answer any time soon here.

“Is anyone coming with him?” Yes, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Would that make it easier to understand that Brian is coming to an Anglican church?

“Yes, Steve Bell will be doing the music for the conference and a concert at the Cathedral on the Saturday night.”

Now we’re on more familiar ground: “Oh, Steve Bell! He didn’t come this year – he normally comes every year. Good. Sure, you can hang a poster. Do you need a book table at the conference? Because we can provide that. And help with promotions.”

Phewf.

Why is it so hard to imagine an Anglican church bringing in an emergent church thinker/speaker/writer? Can we not be on the forefront of re-imagining how we do church? Is that sort of thing limited to a specific denomination or group of the Christian church? I don’t think so. It is unfortunate that certain parts of it have the reputation of being traditional or unchanging. Certainly aspects are. But aspects of all institutions are fairly unchanging – the Anglican church is not alone amongst churches in that regard. There are exciting things happening in the global Anglican church as well as locally in our diocese. I was at a meeting this evening discussing the starting of some of these things. Perhaps an inter-denominational, ecumenical conference hosted at the Cathedral will be a way of opening ourselves up to the wider community and shattering some of those images.

Coming Soon…

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Real post coming soon (I swear!). The last couple of weeks have been a flurry of activity with me trying to write 2 papers (10 pages and 20 pages), complete 2 assignments, and get all the reading done before the end of my course for Christmas (done today!).

I’ve also managed to get myself onto about half of the committees at church, well, just 2 but it seems like a lot! I also ended up being in the Sunday School Christmas pageant this past Sunday. It was great fun, not having been in a pageant since I was somewhere around the age of 12 (@ St Thomas’). Between all of that and Advent service prep, its been busy.

One of the committees I’ve managed to get on is the Adult Faith and Development Committee. That’s a long, fancy way of saying that they plan Bible/book studies for the church and plan a (biannual?) conference. This conference is the reason I’ve been asked to join the committee. It seems I’m one of the only ones who is very familiar with the work of our two guests and they thought I should be involved. Given the guests, I am very happy to be involved!

Who are these people, you ask? The sessions will be led and facilitated by Brian McLaren with music by Steve Bell. The conference will be the last weekend in May, 2010 (May 28-29), hosted at Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria. It isn’t meant to be a closed, cathedral-only conference though. Anyone who wants to come can attend.

For more info, you can check out our website – it will be updated with registration info and tickets info for the Steve Bell concert as it becomes available.

Alleluia, He is Risen!

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Every year that I have been in Victoria for Easter, I have made the trek down to Cadboro Bay for The Place’s sunrise service. Easter morning sunrise services were something we used to do growing up and it is fun to go whenever I get the opportunity. As my friend Eric notes, it was raining this morning, making it fairly difficult to get up and out of bed. But that didn’t stop the 100 or so people who turned out at 6am. There were bonfires on the beach, and three driftwood crosses stuck into the sand. As it slowly got lighter, we sang songs celebrating the risen Lord and reflected on some passages of scripture.


I took this picture as the service was ending, it reminded me of one of the readings that morning, John 21 when the resurrected Jesus appears to his disciples along the seashore and enables them to catch a boatload of fish. After they have cooked the fish up on a fire, Jesus “reinstates” Peter.

Then I rushed back home to get ready (shower and rid myself of the smell of campfire) before heading down to the Cathedral for the Easter service this morning. We had helium balloons and chocolate! There was a fun energy about the service this morning, perhaps because of the tambourines and trumpet, perhaps because we were all excited. He is Risen, Alleluia!


As I sit here and reflect on the photos I have included with this post, it strikes me that they are so different yet so the same. One is celebrating the resurrection in the beauty and simplicity of the outdoors, God’s natural creation. It is cold, dark, and raining but that doesn’t dampen the spirits of those there to celebrate. The other is inside of one of the grandest churches in town with lofty ceilings and beautiful stained glass. However, the result is the same, a group of people gathered together to celebrate the resurrection and praise the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Easter Vigil

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Easter began tonight.

The Easter Vigil Service I just came home from has possibly been my favourite service of Lent/Holy Week/Easter to date. It was a beautiful service. The first half was in darkness: all the lights were off inside of the Cathedral and the Pascal Candle was slowly brought into the nave. Everyone in the congregation had a candle and they were slowly lit from back to front as the cross moved forward. Our choir sang a beautiful song (in which the altos actually had a decent part!), “Holy Darkness” accompanied by the cello. I got chills in my spine.

Suddenly, half way through the service, the organ sounded the Gloria, the lights came on and bells were rung. I was given the drum to pound on (because apparently I am the resident percussionist?!?) and it was Easter!

The readings we read worked through the Old Testament story leading up to Jesus and were a really interesting selection. Then people were baptized and confirmed, we passed the peace and celebrated the Eucharist. I got a kick out of a look on one of the assisting priest’s face when Archbishop Hutchison switched to French halfway through the Eucharistic Prayer. Clearly what is normal in Montreal is somewhat out of the ordinary in Victoria!

Now the stage is set for the Sunrise service tomorrow morning. He is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!

Good Friday: Carrying the Cross

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This morning I walked around downtown for an hour with 30-40 other people from church. We drew looks from people as we went. Some were looks of shock, others surprise, confusion, and anger. A small number of people joined us more shouted mocking things from their car windows as they drove by. We were surrounded by the press at all times: at least two television stations and two newspapers were represented. I was interviewed.

So what were we doing to solicit all of these very mixed reactions? We were taking turns at carrying a 15 foot long wooden cross, stopping periodically to read passages from the gospels and Isaiah pertaining to the Passion of Jesus.

I read aloud a selection about how Jesus was mocked and beaten whilst standing on the corner of Government and Humboldt, kitty-corner to the tourist information centre. Despite using a megaphone, I was all but drowned out by the vehicles roaring by at 9:30am. Half past nine in the morning on Good Friday and downtown was already abuzz with traffic. No wonder we got so many confused looks. More frequently, we drew looks of anger from store keepers and we paused infront of their shop waiting for the light to turn. I wonder how many people actually knew the reason why they had a day off of work? As one of my fellow walkers said to me “Christians need to get out of the four walls of their buildings and be visible in the community more often.” Indeed.

I had an opportunity to carry the cross for a the last few blocks of our walk. I wasn’t going to but they needed someone to finish it up (sort of like Simon of Cyrene?) and the previously mentioned fellow-walker told me it was a moving experience. So I took the cross. I wasn’t anticipating it to feel as strange as it did. With a cross over one shoulder, I had limited mobility as it was difficult to turn around and see if the group was even still following me. I was all alone with a big hunk of wood on my shoulder. I felt more at the centre of things than I have in a long time: exposed. While I would not presume to compare my experience to that of Jesus’ in carrying his cross, I can understand a little more of how it felt. In those last two and a half blocks that I carried the cross I was isolated and alone. There was no one in my field of vision save the photographers that followed us relentlessly and all I could do was look ahead and focus on the destination.

This is the 23rd year that Christ Church has done this, but this year was one of the lowest turn outs yet. I wonder what this says about our priorities when there are more people shopping on Good Friday morning than there are at church.

God’s Concert

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Still alive and I have plans in place to make it through the week and get in all the studying time I need. As long as I don’t get called into work (extra shifts) between now and then.

Until a time when I have more than thirty seconds, here are some thought-provoking words by Christopher Page, rector at St. Philips, on the concerts I went to this weekend. The hall he mentions is Alix Goolden Hall, which used to be a Methodist Church (back in the day). The Saturday night concert especially (which is the one to which he refers) was spectacular. Pacific Baroque always plays wonderfully and the Victoria Children’s Choir was fantastic. It was just the brain studying break I needed this weekend.

Tonight was Evensong at the Cathedral with Pacific Baroque and our St. Christopher’s Singers. The place was packed – probably in the neighbourhood of 800+ people were there.

7 Things [2]

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7 Things from the week, or not. Maybe just 7 things in a randomly connected order that makes sense only to me and my methods of lateral thinking.
  1. I am excited about this weekend because we’re having a church workshop and I’m facilitating a table discussion. It is on how the church can/should be growing and changing to meet the needs of our world today, something I’m fairly passionate about. As a relative newcomer to the church, I’m glad I’m facilitating not taking a more formal part in the discussion because I don’t have much to say on the whole history side of thing. I can still interject ideas, so I will get my two cents in where I need to.
  2. I’m feeling a lot better about life and my own future this week. I’ve got some plans that I’m praying about and we shall see where they take me. I want to wait another week or so before I act on anything because I don’t want to make any rash decisions, but I’m feeling much happier about the path ahead now than I was a few weeks ago.
  3. I find myself randomly commenting on strange things I see while I’m walking to and from school. I am usually walking alone so I must look strange talking outloud to myself but something makes me think I’ll remember things better that way. I don’t know why because I never remember any of the strange happenings and they never get written about.
  4. Although one of the things I have seen involves signs that we have all over campus at the moment. You may or may not know that UVic is infested with bunnies. I have never seen so many rabbits in one place, it is like Watership Down or something. These signs on campus have deer on them and they are asking you not to chase after the bunnies because you wouldn’t chase after a deer. I’m not sure of the logic that went into that advertising campaign. If a drunk res student is going to chase a bunny, they would probably chase a deer as well. Goodness knows we have those on campus too.
  5. Speaking of Watership Down, I never did really get that book. It was supposed to be amazing and it was on required reading lists for most of Jr High and maybe even High School. I’m not sure if I ever finished it. I just didn’t like it at the time and now I can’t bring myself to ever try it again.
  6. Another book I feel the same way about is Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Never got into that one either. Which is strange, because I usually read just about anything as long as it is well written. I can probably count on one hand the number of books I have started and not finished.
  7. Since my train of thought has brought be to books, we may as well conclude there. My bookshelf is full. I need a new one, or else I need to downsize the number of books I have out. My list of books to read is increasing as is the amount of time it is taking me to get through a book. I’m reading a great one about Myanmar (Burma) now but through the lens of George Orwell. It is from the same era as other books I’ve been reading except it is South East Asia as opposed to South-Central Asia. It has been interesting to connect the dots and recognize names common to both. It is also to see where perhaps some of Orwell’s ideas for Animal Farm and 1984 came from.

(In response to Conversion Diary)