To Love and Serve

Dear People of the Diocese of Kootenay, Greetings on this November Day! Grace and Peace to you in the name of Christ.

The gray coldness of November with shortening days always seems to match the mood of Remembrance Day. This year our prayers for just and lasting Peace seem even more urgent yet farther away than ever. As we pray for peace and as we remember those who have died in war, I invite you again, as a concrete sign of your prayers and as you are able, to give to the Gaza Hospitals Emergency appeal through PWRDF

The War in Gaza: Joint Anglican and Lutheran statements from our Primate and the National Lutheran Bishop of the ELCIC (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada) can be found here.

Recommended reading for all Anglican Disciples

I have been happily preparing for a course I am teaching through Emmanuel/St. Chad in January and February. Don’t stop reading after this next sentence: this course will fulfill requirements for Anglican Studies for Licensed Lay Ministers, Locally Trained Priests and Deacons for Kootenay.

Life-long learning is, I think, an expectation for all Anglicans, not only those preparing for a particular ministry but all of us in our baptismal ministry. One of the things we value about being Anglicans is healthy intellectual inquiry. I would encourage you to read a new book (and get a copy for your parish library) To Love and Serve: Anglican Beliefs and Practices.

Be sure you get the version with Canadian editors: Jessica Schaap, Rhonda Waters, Grace Pritchard Burson and Deborah Noonan. It is highly readable. I have enjoyed it as someone who has taught Anglican studies for years; it brings fresh insights for “life-long” Anglicans but is also a great book to give to new Anglicans or those curious about the Christian faith or Anglicanism.

One of my favourite prayers is what we pray for each of the newly baptized, still a prayer for each of us, (you might pray it for yourself!). It begins by thanking God for our new life of grace:

“Sustain us, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give us an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works. Amen.” (BAS 160)

May God bless you in your baptismal journey. May God bless the world with Peace. Yours in Christ, +Lynne