Prayer for the Year Ahead

To the People of the Diocese of Kootenay

May Grace and Peace be with you this Christmas season. 

I write to you on the Feast of Stephen. On this day (in addition to curling up with a new book, eating leftovers, or perhaps going for a walk in the snow, “deep and crisp and even”), we remember the story of Stephen, deacon and martyr (see Acts chapters 6-7). 

Once a small movement with a handful of disciples, the good news of Jesus’ liberating victory over separation from God reached many people, especially those on the margins of society. As such, a need arose in the community to care for people who did not have access to the basic necessities of life. In response to this need, seven were appointed by prayer and the laying-on of hands to care for those members of the community who were poor and destitute. Amongst these we find Stephen. 

This was a key moment in which the early Jesus movement was required to shift their priorities. They no longer needed only people to lead in prayer and proclamation. Through prayerful discernment and in response to the needs presented in their community, they came to understand that an embodied gospel required responsive care amongst those in need. At the heart of all ministry is prayerful, embodied response to God and to neighbour. This is something to which God calls each of us, whether lay people, deacons, priests, or bishops. 

On this day, thinking of Stephen, his attentive listening for the guidance of Holy Spirit, and his embodied commitment to the way of Jesus, I am writing to invite you–the people of God in the Anglican Diocese of Kootenay–to join me as we commit ourselves to prayer for the year ahead. As we pray with deep longing for God to fill our hearts with peace, may we pray also for inspiration as we participate in God’s mission in our neighbourhoods, amongst our neighbours. 

As individuals in local congregations, we are called to embody and work towards God’s coming kingdom together. Like the early church, our ministry has multiple (and shifting!) dimensions to which God calls us to adapt and in which we are still called to minister. The answer to this evolution is not to do more, faster. Rather, it is to slow down, to listen, to wait, and to minister in response to the God who shows up as our neighbour. 

The Book Study I'm leading throughout Epiphany reminds us of these core practices of our shared faith.

That is why I am inviting each and every person in this diocese to join me throughout the season of Epiphany to read the book “When Church Stops Working” by Drs. Blair Bertrand and Andrew Root. 

I’m inviting you to read it on your own. I’m inviting you to discuss it in your parish. The conversation this book invites us into is so important that I’ve sent a copy of this book to each parish in the Diocese to be read and shared. While it doesn’t contain all of the answers, it does help us to focus our attention on God in a moment when prayerful discernment is crucial. For five weeks in the season of Epiphany, Andrew Stephens-Rennie and I are hosting an online study of this book (one group meets on Monday evenings, the other on Wednesday mornings).

I would love it if each parish in the diocese would send a team of people to participate. 

A team is always good, because we get to explore our questions and learnings together, considering how what we’re learning might apply in our own parish context. Together, teams can wrestle through the questions the study brings up, develop common language, and bring new insights back to the parish. When we form new teams, we also have the opportunity to invite the participation of those who are new to the parish, inviting them to contribute valuable insights and perspectives to a parish’s ongoing discernment.

I truly believe that these kinds of conversations are vital to missional renewal in our diocese. At the heart of renewal is attentive, expectant prayer bolstered by searching conversations that attempt to make sense of what God is revealing to us, in this moment, as we are.

As we journey through the Christmas season and into Epiphany, God gives us the opportunity again and again to wonder with Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds at the God who comes to us in backward ways…in less-than-ideal circumstances. We have the chance to travel with the Magi in awe and wonder, eyes on the horizon for something we don’t yet understand. 

Of course you will journey these roads in your local parish community. 

And, this year, I invite you to join your Bishop in prayer and in study that we might find ways to journey together, to support one another, to ask bold questions, and to listen deeply for the voice of the God who still speaks, who still acts, who still calls us to respond with faith, in faithfulness.

Like Stephen and all the saints who have traveled the way before us, may we do so with daring, in response to the One who comes to liberate us and all of Creation–to the glory of God. 

In Christ, 
+Lynne

You can register for the book study by emailing admin@kootenay.info. Please indicate the names of people in your group, which parish you are coming from, and the email addresses where you will receive further details of the study.