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Early in January, a few members of the ACW, having grown restless because of restrictions caused by the pandemic, decided to do some housecleaning in the ACW room. In the process they opened an old trunk that used to be kept in St. Andrew’s ACW room. Among the precious memorabilia was a framed photograph of Mary Ann Kelly, “13 yrs. WA Pres. CEWA.” They had not heard of Mary Ann Kelly, but they immediately knew that this was a valuable piece of St. Peter’s church history. After discussing it among themselves, they decided to give it to the Archdeacon Buckle Memorial Archive where it would become part of the St. Peter’s Upper Gullies collection. 

I am writing about this because I know there are other “old trunks” that contain important historic documents and pictures that help tell the story of our church in Newfoundland and Labrador. There are old vestry minutes and church pictures in someone’s attic or a box of papers that belonged to a church warden or secretary from the past that belong in an archive. The Archdeacon Buckle Memorial Archive exists to safeguard important “moments in time” that help tell the story of who we are. If you have something like this in your home, please consider donating it to the archive where it will be preserved and made available to anyone interested in researching their church history. Just as Bible stories that began with real moments in time continue to inspire us, stories of our recent past reflect who we are and can become soup for our souls today.

Who was Mary Ann Kelly? I have talked with several people and no one was able to tell me anything about her. But with a little research, I learned that she was the daughter of the blacksmith Job Coates of Upper Gullies and his wife Eliza Gilbert of Harbour Buffet. She married George Kelly of Lance Cove (part of Upper Gullies today). Mary Ann and two of her three children (who died under the age of two) are buried in St. Peter’s Cemetery. Take a moment to reflect upon this photograph and give thanks for all that was beautiful and good in Mary Ann Kelly. Mary Ann was much more than president of the WA for thirteen years. What can you add to her story?

The post A Moment In Time appeared first on Anglican Life.

Climate change leads to extreme weather and worsens the impact of natural disasters such as drought, flooding, storms, and wildfires. Extreme heat dries out soil which is then easily blown away, essentially blowing away our ability to grow food; extreme heat also causes precious water to evaporate, diminishing the supply of clean drinking water; during hurricanes, high winds, and flooding destroy crops and trees and erodes soil…. You get the idea.

While climate change is a complex issue and requires a multifaceted approach to mitigate the damage it causes, not every solution is high tech. Tree planting, for example, in addition to preventing erosion, helps combat global warming by removing carbon dioxide from the air and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. Here are some of the Climate Action initiatives PWRDF and its partners are supporting: 

In the upper Andes of Columbia, half of the world’s moorlands are drying up due to global warming and extractive mining activities. PWRDF is working with a local partner ILSA and the World Association for Christian Communication to train farmers in environmental protection techniques, to establish native plant nurseries to reforest the land and provide seeds and livestock for family farms. 

In Bangladesh, PWRDF partnered with the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation and local partner UBINIG to work with 22,000 farmers in 10 villages to:

• Plant mangroves (a shrub which thrives in brackish water) along the shorelines to protect against erosion, flooding and high winds;
• Set up bamboo bindings to redirect water to prevent river erosion and flooding of valuable farm land;
• Collect and preserve seeds, and 
• Set up farmer field schools to ensure this knowledge and know how is shared.

In 2019 Cyclone Idai destroyed homes, crops and seeds in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi. Canadian Anglicans responded to a special appeal and donated $127,355, which was matched 4:1 by the Government of Canada. Seeds for replanting were distributed to 4,910 families with the help of local partner TSURO Trust in Zimbabwe.

These are just a few examples of how you, through your donations to PWRDF, are taking care of God’s creation. Thank you!

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My concentration focuses largely on the closure of the most tumultuous 10 months in all our lives. But despite the upheaval of a pandemic, time goes on and we quickly find ourselves turning the page to explore a new chapter.

Here at St. John the Evangelist, the congregation, not unlike neighbouring parishes, has adopted strict disciplinary measures in accommodating regular and necessary activities related to fundraising, outreach, fellowship, etc. All are acknowledged and active, but on a miniature scale due to social distancing.

However, the overall sacrifices have been an important tool in helping our province boast of maintaining a very low number of active coronavirus cases.

And while harbouring vivid thoughts of the year just past, we look forward with cautious optimism to a more positive 2021.

In March, our Bishop circulated a letter,
With a message to all did convey.
We have no choice but to close up the churches,
To help keep this new virus at bay.

So, at least for the next three or four months,
Rev. Jolene preached a sermon online.
She delivered a service each Sunday,
It filled a need at that most stressful time.

But we missed fellowship with our people,
Holy Eucharist with bread and the wine.
Kneeling down at the altar to receive it,
Thinking back on a happier time.
We are back at the church once again now,
With limitations for what we can do.
Everyone wears a mask for protection,
And we sit six feet apart in our pew.

We have high hopes for the day  things turn normal
All activities and functions to allow.
Praising God for our outreach and freedom,
With the virus deleted, somehow.

“Bear one another’s burdens
And so fulfil the law of Christ.”
Galatians: 6:2

The post Reflections on The Year 2020 appeared first on Anglican Life.

But there is a great opportunity for us in these strange days. Clergy work to provide Lenten programs that can easily pivot to an entirely online format, should the need for further shutdown arise. Parishioners have the opportunity to pick and choose from multiple churches’ offerings, since many of them don’t involve having to leave their homes! In all of this, particularly in Lent, we are being encouraged to explore the ways that our faith as Christians intersects between our life in the church building, in our homes, and in the wider community. 

The Mission of the Transfiguration’s ‘Lent in a Bag’ project is one way people have been able to do that this year. A project of four parishes in St. John’s and Mount Pearl (the Ascension, the Good Shepherd, St. Mary’s and St. Michael’s), Lent in a Bag provides families and individuals with a collection of crafts, activities, and devotions they can take part in at home. These resources are supplemented by online offerings from the clergy of the four parishes, but the expectation is that what we do as a community supports our individual life of faith, not the other way around. 

You don’t have to belong to one of the Transfiguration parishes or to take part in Lent in a Bag to experience this. All through the pandemic, people have been discovering that their faith is something that they can practice outside of Sunday services. In the times that we were most isolated, we have discovered this because we’ve had to live our faith outside of the Sunday morning gathering. Our children learn and grow in their faith when it is lived out at home, and not just on Sunday mornings.

When going to church is more difficult, we have to focus on being the Church. Being the Church in the safety of our own bubble is an important step towards being the Church in the wider world—a world that desperately needs the promises of peace, love, and reconciliation that are at the heart of the Gospel. The pandemic has given the Church in the Bubble more than just a crisis to adjust to, but an opportunity to rise to, and a chance to grow and thrive, even in the midst of challenges.

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This was also the first ordination performed by Bishop Sam Rose of the Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland & Labrador, and coincidentally took place in the community where Rose grew up. 

Rev’d Careen will continue to serve in the parish of Bell Island, where he has been for a few months now.

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In the first few months of 2021, the battle against COVID-19 turned a corner: there are now several vaccines being produced and distributed around the world. Sure, there have been some delays—pharmaceutical companies haven’t been able to produce at the rate that people and governments had hoped—but progress is being made and people are starting to get their jabs.   

But not everyone…there are lots of countries which haven’t yet received vaccines and won’t be vaccinating the majority of their population for quite some time.

According to ourworldindata.org, the top 10 countries in terms of COVID-19 vaccination per capita at the time of writing are Israel, United Arab Emirates, Seychelles, United Kingdom, Bahrain, United States, Serbia, Malta, Iceland, and Denmark. With a few exceptions, these are some of the most prosperous countries in the world—and even these exceptions still have decent GDPs (gross domestic product). In contrast, not a single dose has yet to make its way to Africa. And, although Israel is at the top of the list (per capita), hardly any doses have been made their way to Palestine.

This “vaccine inequality” is not a surprise. Every country around the world knew it was going to happen. The World Health Organization (WHO) even planned for it, by establishing (along with other partners) a program called COVAX to end the acute phase of the pandemic. COVAX will provide doses for at least 20% of each country’s population—as the WHO rightly says, “With a fast-moving pandemic, no one is safe, unless everyone is safe.”  

So, what about the other 80% that won’t get vaccines through COVAX? Many of the countries who need COVAX can’t afford to vaccinate even the tiniest fraction of that 80%. Is COVAX not going far enough?  Hard to say—the strategy needed to address the acute phase (supplying doses to vaccinate the first 20%) is probably different from the strategy needed to vaccinate the remaining 80%.

Regardless, even if COVAX provided doses for 50% of each country’s population, it still wouldn’t be enough. At some point, the world’s most prosperous countries need to step up and help.

According to the Government of Canada, it has secured up to 400 million doses have been secured—our multi-vaccine strategy has been very effective, to the point of significant excess. Assuming every person in Canada receives 2 doses, that leaves roughly 330 million doses that can be shared with the rest of the world. But, as we all know (and have been hearing), Canada likely won’t be sharing any of those surplus doses until all the Canadians that want a vaccine have received one—the rest of the world will need to wait for our leftovers.

So, what to do about it? Well, you could let your rage get the better of you: rip your copy of Anglican Life into shreds, then go do the same to your phone book. Or, as an alternative, you could send an email to your member of parliament to let them know your thoughts.

However, I think it equally important that we all recognize that COVID-19 vaccine inequality is merely a symptom, not the disease. The real problem is that we live in a largely unjust society—until we do a better job of treating others as we would like to be treated, acute instances of inequality will continue to arise. Now, that’s not to say that we should stop treating the symptoms of our unjust society—programs like COVAX will keep developing countries from being devastated by COVID-19 (much like supplemental oxygen might keep a COVID-19 patient from dying). But the world must also come together to find large-scale solutions to social injustice.

When faced with the challenge, the world united to develop COVID-19 vaccines in less than a year. We can achieve great things when we really put our minds to something.      

For more information and resources on social justice, check out:
www.kairoscanada.org 

The post We’re Treating the Symptom, Not The Disease appeared first on Anglican Life.

We study young people so intensely, trying to figure out how to make church something that will be important enough to them that they will want to save it. What is keeping them away and what will bring them back? Is it our music? Our language? How we dress? Our practices, our beliefs, or a mix of the two? 

When a young person walks through the church doors we want to make them feel so welcome—welcome enough that they will never ever want to leave ever, and will immediately fall in love with the place, and the people, and the cause. We are studying them so very intensely thinking that if we could find the unique part of their young essences that makes them different from the generation before them, then we could tweak it gently with a folk mass and a Facebook page, and suddenly make them not only want to come to church, but actually show up with a fire in their eyes, demanding to help fold the altar linens on a Tuesday morning at 10am, when they should be showing up to their full-time jobs. 

The reality many are refusing to accept is that life these days is hard. It is busy; it is tiring; it is complex. This economy is garbage. There is so much work to do just to get a young life up and running, and then to continue to get by, that there is just no time to give. Weekdays are for working; weekends are for resting. There are some that already love the church so very much, or indeed they *would* love the church so much that they would willingly sacrifice these free moments for the church—but not for an inauthentic version of said church. 

One generalization I will make about young people is that they (we) hate being marketed to. In fact, we hate being marketed to so much that we will literally pay extra for premium versions of subscriptions like YouTube or Spotify just so that we don’t have to look at ads. We cannot be won with marketing. We cannot be won with some contemporary liturgy on a Sunday morning, or with a few guitars. What we need is more time in our lives, more spaces where our whole families and friend circles are welcome to attend with us, so that maintaining a church, a family, and social life can become one small task. Above all, we need a more reasonable pace of life where we can make enough money to survive. The best thing the church can do to make themselves available for young people right now is to hold fast to the traditions for which we have always stood instead changing how we approach the rest of the world. 

Lately, a particular group of people have been fighting for a higher minimum wage. If the church wants to save itself with young people, maybe things like this should be our battle cry.

The post Chill Out And Listen appeared first on Anglican Life.

Ms Andreola, who works with Capacity Marketing for Charities, wrote recently that the exponential growth of disputes over wills, known as “contested probate,” is one trend that we can do without. She suggested that badly drawn wills is one of three factors driving the rise.

Ms Andreola reported that figures published in the UK show mounting cases of contested probate. Fifteen years ago, contested probate was rare. Now, some UK law firms have whole departments dedicated to the subject. “This is coming to Canada unless we are very careful.”

The increase of second relationships is a driver and rising property prices another. People in charities’ target audience for legacies (folks 55 and over) are more likely to have mixed families owing to re-marriage, with tangled assets and relationships…..House prices have rising by almost 50% in the last decade—pushing up contested rates because there’s more at stake.

Regarding the first factor—poorly drafted wills—Ms Andreola has this to say:

As more people write their wills themselves, more mistakes are being made. A self made will might work for a young person with few assets who wants to sort out a will before going travelling. But for more senior people, the variety of assets and complexity of relations matter much more.

Greg Noseworthy, a coordinator with the Public Legal Information Association of NL, suggested that, “while contesting wills is not an uncommon legal matter, it is not something that we have seen as a growing trend within the province. Wills are certainly contested from time to time, and for various reasons (whether capacity during signing was at issue; a dependent person was not given adequate provisions; or otherwise).”

Steve Marshall, of Roebothan, Mackay and Marshall, concurs that contesting wills is not all that common or a growing trend but, “given the aging population and the fact that a lot of people these days pass away with fairly sizeable estates, I can see that happening if some family member feels he/she was being treated unfairly in the will.” He went on to say that he personally feels, “if the person making the will did so of their own free and clear mind, then whatever they said in the will should be honoured.”

Both lawyers encourage you to arrange for a legal will and to do it through a lawyer. In that way, it is less likely that it will be contested.

The post Contesting A Will­—A Trend Or Not? appeared first on Anglican Life.

Rev’d Green had five parish representatives, representing the three churches in the Parish of Bonne Bay North, supervising her progress throughout the course.

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