Christ Church

Click here to download the full Rector’s Annual Report for 2021 (in pdf format).

The Rector’s Annual Reports for 2003 through 2020 can be accessed via this page.

Rector’s Annual Report for 2021
February 13th, 2022

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom”. It could be the motto for our Parish in these troubling times. It signals wonderfully what we have endeavoured to do together as a Parish in the face of covid (no longer always capitalised) and its fears and in terms of the restrictions that have curtailed worship in various ways. We have pressed on carefully but in a principled way with the protocols we have established and which have been welcomed by you. This has allowed us to continue with worship for the most of the year until the suspension of services by the Bishop, over and above the mandates of Public Health, which resulted in the cancellation of Christmas and most of Epiphany season. It is the first time, I think, in the history of the Parish that there have been no Christmas services. We have lately learned, too, that you can’t count on the weather, especially in this winter unlike any other, it seems. A “bleak, midwinter” indeed!

Yet in the face of the things that lie beyond our control, we have pressed on with the Christ Church Connections email message every week and with recordings of the 8am communion service or, when services were completely curtailed, with an audio file of the Services of Matins and Ante-Communion. Homilies and meditations, on my poor part, have attempted to provide some food for the soul in these times of spiritual famine and eucharistic fast. The upside of these things, perhaps, is that it has allowed for deeper reflection on the wisdom of the Scriptures and to the ways in which Scripture in its own voice speaks to our souls even in the midst of the storms and tempests of our disordered world. In other words, as a Parish we have not been simply in survival mode but are growing spiritually in maturity and understanding about who we are in the Body of Christ. Such things have also been an important part of our spiritual outreach to “the friends of Christ Church” further afield whose prayers and support have been most encouraging. We have also persevered with the Christ Church Book Club throughout the course of the year.

For all of these spiritual labours may God be praised. It has meant looking beyond the inconveniences and frustrations that so often beset us. It has been about keeping our minds on the things of God. We have learned to appreciate better the things which truly matter, and so, like Mary, “have chosen the good portion”, I hope, “which shall not be taken away”. It is about “let[ting] the word of Christ dwell” in our hearts and minds “richly in all wisdom”, words which we heard on the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany last week which happened to coincide with the first time that we were able to return to worship since the last Sunday in Advent, 2021.

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At every Chapel service we pray “that a spirit of respect and reconciliation may grow among all nations and peoples.” That is very much our prayer for the indigenous peoples of Canada and for all of us not just today but for the foreseeable future. Here is the Canadian folk singer Bruce Cockburn singing the first verse of Jesous Ahattonia, Canada’s first and oldest Christmas song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrd4Sw0peZg

The words which he is singing were originally written in the Huron/Wendat language by the French Jesuit missionary and martyr, Fr. Jean de Brébeuf, probably in 1642. He was a linguist who took the time and care to learn the language of the Wendat people and to appreciate their thought and culture in interaction with Christian ideas and themes.

We know and use this hymn at King’s-Edgehill in a later English translation (by J. Edgar Middleton, 1926). In singing it in the Wendat language, Cockburn builds upon the work of Brébeuf who, like many early and largely French missionaries, began the project of providing alphabets and thus a written form for the various first nations’ peoples, something which has continued even into more recent times with the Inuit. This shows a very different kind of relationship between cultures and languages than what took place in the nineteenth and into the twentieth centuries with the Indian Act (1876 – the present) which makes the native peoples “wards of the state,” and, particularly, with the notorious Residential Schools programme (1876-1996). Such things reveal a much more aggressive and destructive form of imperial colonialism derived from Britain and America in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Indian Act and the Residential Schools programme were intended to assimilate the native peoples into Canadian life but entirely and often brutally at the expense of the cultures and languages of the native peoples themselves. Assimilation was the buzz word of the times but in the view of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission it was “cultural genocide,” a policy undertaken “to kill the Indian in the child” (TRC Report, 2015).

The Residential Schools were “the most aggressive and destructive of all Indian Act policies” (Bob Joseph, 21 Things You May Not Know about the Indian Act, 2018, p. 52). It was a government programme managed by the churches – Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, subsequently the United Church, and Presbyterian – and a government wanting to be freed from financial responsibility towards the native peoples. It was a sad and shameful time in our Canadian history that reveals a betrayal of care by those who were entrusted with the care of over 150,000 children, more than 6,000 of whom either died or disappeared. There were as well incidents of sexual and physical abuse. The numbers of the missing children are imprecise because neither the government nor the churches kept records, hence the heart-rending spectacle of the discovery of unmarked graves this past spring and summer. It is as if they didn’t matter, didn’t exist.

The Indian Act programme of assimilation was part of the so-called “progressive” thinking of the late 19th century in America and in Canada along with eugenics, racial theories about immigration, and discriminatory practices with respect to social services.

The Schools were chronically underfunded. “The buildings were drafty and unsanitary and food for the children was insufficient and often rotten … the schools were also breeding grounds for diseases such as tuberculosis and influenza” (Bob Joseph, 21 Things, p. 58). Most of the children died from tuberculosis. The problem, though known, highlighted for instance by Dr. Peter Bryce who called it in 1922, “a national crime”, was largely overlooked and denied. All to our shame.

Chief Robert Joseph, an outstanding native leader, provides a moving portrayal of the sufferings endured by many indigenous students who were forcibly taken from their families and communities and placed in Residential Schools far away from their homes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_jUXiOSbp4

We can only confess our own sins, not the sins of others, but that does not mean ignoring the mistakes and wrongs of the past and their legacy in the present. It also means a commitment to the reconciliation and the recognition of the indigenous peoples of Canada as full and integral members of Canada. Reconciliation is not an indigenous problem; it is a Canadian problem which can no longer be ignored but requires commitment to the difficult but essential process of reconciliation. In some ways, it is about dignity and respect towards the native peoples of Canada.

Has anything been done? In 2005, a $1.9 billion compensation package was announced for former residential school students; in 2007, the largest class action settlement in Canada, the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, was implemented. All of this built upon a growing awareness of the appalling sufferings of the native peoples in the Schools that began to come to the fore in the 1990s and which led to the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2007. Apologies were made by the United Church in 1986, the Anglican Church in 1993, the Presbyterian Church in 1994. In 2009, Phil Fontaine, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations met with Pope Benedict XVI who expressed sorrow for the abuse and deplorable treatment of indigenous students, and on September 24th, 2021, the Conference of Canadian Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church also offered an “unequivocal apology” for the wrongs and abuses done to those in their charge, and committing as of yesterday, $30 million towards reconciliation. Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized on behalf of Canada in 2008; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2017 extended a further apology to indigenous peoples in Labrador and Newfoundland who had not been included in the previous federal apology.

More needs to be done, certainly. The task of reconciliation remains before us and is, I think, quite movingly stated, again by Chief Robert Joseph, in words which touch upon the ideals and life of our School. It is his words which we need to hear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJQgpuLq1LI

(Rev’d) David Curry
Chaplain, Head of English and ToK Teacher
September 29th, 2021
Michaelmas

Click here to download the full Rector’s Annual Report for 2020 (in pdf format).

The Rector’s Annual Reports for 2003 through 2019 can be accessed via this page.

Rector’s Annual Report for 2020
“But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having
heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.”
February 7th, 2021

Patience. In many ways, it has been a year that has required great patience and perseverance, a year of trials, in part, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I say ‘in part’ because struggles and trials, difficulties and tribulations are a constant feature of human experience. The question really is about how such things are faced. That has been the question for Christ Church as a Parish and for the wider Church and culture as well.

Timothy Findley’s novel, “The Wars”, written in 1977, offers an important insight into how difficult and catastrophic things are faced which complements, I think, the Sexagesima Gospel. The point is not to take refuge in tragedy but “to clarify who you are through your response to when you lived”. This is wisdom, it seems to me. It points to the activity of our souls, to what is alive in us. As a Parish, we have weathered the sturm und drang, the storm and stress of the current concerns with COVID-19 quite well. Thanks to the hard work and leadership of the Parish Council, we have taken the courage to do two things: first, to spell out some of the potential scenarios for the future of the Parish; and, secondly, to articulate a Parish protocol in accord with the requirements of the Department of Public Health that have allowed us to be able to continue with “in-person worship”, to use the phrase du jour, responsibly, creatively, and with reasonable flexibility.

In the early days of the pandemic, we were closed but maintained contact with the Parish and with many ‘Friends of Christ Church’ via the Christ Church Connections. That has continued and developed even after we were able to be open again starting on Trinity Sunday in June. We were one of the few churches in the Diocese and in the Province that found ways to be open safely, with a reasonable set of protocols in place, and with a minimum of fuss. I am most grateful for the response of the Parish as a whole to these protocols, and for the trust and confidence that you have shown in the face of these troubling and uncertain times. The point is about carrying on faithfully in what belongs to our mission and life as a Parish in worship and teaching, in care and compassion. The mantra has been “be not fearful but careful”. We have been fortunate that the situation in this part of Canada and the Province has allowed us to continue.

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He was one of the giants of the Evangelical and Anglican world, like the California Redwoods which he used as an image for the Puritan theologians and pastors who had greatly influenced and shaped his life and ministry. A prolific writer of many books which spoke the Word of God in season and out of season to the contemporary world in its confusion and ignorance in Canada and beyond, his A Quest For Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (1990) captures best perhaps the tenor of his soul and its quest. A work admired by the Revd Dr. Robert Crouse, it shows the maturity of vision and commitment to the qualities of the spiritual life to which Dr. Packer thought we are all called and which he saw in the wider traditions of spirituality reaching back to the Fathers and to Medieval writers such as Bernard of Clairvaux, but as grounded in the Scriptures; for him, the living oracles of God. He was one of a few Evangelical theologians, like Dr. Peter Toon, who understood and appreciated the doctrinal and spiritual qualities of the Common Prayer tradition and who remained committed to its promotion and use. He was an academic pastor of souls, a teacher and professor at Regent College for many decades, whose teaching has shaped the lives of many, many pastors and preachers. One of the Vice-Chairmen of the Prayer Book Society of Canada, his ministry reminds the Society of the richness and the depth of the reformed traditions that belong to the patterns of spirituality embedded in the classical Book(s) of Common Prayer.

The frontispiece to A Quest for Godliness from John Geree’s 1646 work on The Character of Old English Puritans is testament to Dr. Packer himself. “He was … [a man foursquare], immoveable in all times, so that they who in the midst of many opinions have lost the view of true religion, may return to him and there find it.” We give thanks to God for his life and ministry. May he rest in peace.

Humbly submitted,

Rev’d David Curry
Vice-Chairman, PBSC
July 20th, 2020

Other remembrances of Dr. Packer are posted at the websites of Regent College and The Anglican Planet.

Protocols for Liturgies at Christ Church
(Approved by Parish Council, June 2nd, 2020)

The following protocols are intended to provide a clear set of guidelines about how best to proceed with Church services under the present health concerns about Covid-19 once we are able to open and are more or less functional, subject to our overriding commitment to the directives of the provincial Department of Public Health. These protocols may be subject to review and refinement as we learn how best to function in the context of worship to the glory of God and to the good of his Church and people. Apart from the primacy of worship within the integrity of our Anglican understanding and practice, our main concern is to take reasonable and prudent precautionary measures in the face of people’s fears and worries. It all comes down to trust, transparency, and a reasonable and principled flexibility.

The specific protocols for each service will be laid out below but first a few general procedures and observations.

People will be expected to observe the policy of social distancing in coming and going to and within the Church and Chancel. Given the size of Christ Church, this should not be a problem and for the sake of planning, the Nave and the Chancel can be regarded as two separate and distinct spaces.

The front door and the ramp door of the Church as well as the exterior vestry door will be open. People will enter and exit through either but being mindful of the social distancing practices that are now ubiquitous and common in our communities. Prayer Books and Hymn Books will be in two separate boxes; one for the 8:00am service, one for the 10:30am service, and one for any other service, such as Evening Prayer should that happen. After each service, the books will be returned to the designated box. Hand sanitizers will be strategically placed at the back of the Church as well as in the bathroom (where additional directives will be noted about sanitizing).

Pews will be designated for sitting: three pews apart on either side. Families will be allowed to sit together but in order to avoid confusion everyone is asked to maintain social distancing when moving from place to place within the Church just as is the pattern in the stores of our communities.

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Fr. David Curry has collected his four Lenten Programme addresses (with footnotes) into a single pdf document. Click here to download “Lenten Meditations on the Lord’s Prayer”.

This is the fourth and final address in this series. The first is posted here, the second here, and the third here.

“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us”

Our Lenten study of the Lord’s Prayer brings us to the last three petitions, to the triad of forgiveness, temptation, and evil. They draw us into the deeper meaning of Christ’s Passion. To pray for forgiveness for ourselves and towards one another, to pray not to be led into temptation, and to pray to be delivered from evil is to pray the Passion of Christ.

We pray to our Father in all of the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. To pray “Our Father” achieves, Thomas Aquinas tells us, “five things.” First, the words “Our Father” serve to “instruct us in our faith”; second, they “raise our hopes”; third, “they serve to stimulate charity”; fourth, they lead us “to imitate God”; and fifth, they call us “to humility”.  In other words, the phrase “Our Father”, which is present throughout the Lord’s Prayer, gives us confidence in God. As Aquinas says, “Our Lord, in teaching us how to pray, sets out before us those things which engender confidence in us, such as the loving kindness of a father, implied in the words, Our Father.” Once again, we see how the Lord’s Prayer is an essential of the Christian Faith.

Augustine breaks off his commentary on the Lord’s Prayer in the sixth chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel to speak about the Creed. He is speaking during Holy Week in the context of preparing catechumens for baptism. Both the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed are to be learned by heart. “When you have learned [the Creed], that you may never forget it, say it every day when you rise; when you are preparing for sleep, rehearse your Creed, to the Lord rehearse it, remind yourselves of it, and be not weary of repeating it. … Call your faith to mind, look into yourself, let your Creed be as it were a mirror to you. Therein see yourself, whether you do believe all which you profess to believe, and so rejoice day by day in your faith. Let it be your wealth, let it be in a sort the daily clothing of your soul. Do you not always dress yourself when you rise? So by the daily repetition of your Creed dress your soul.” It is a powerful passage complemented by his teaching about the creedal nature of the Lord’s Prayer as being an essential form of our participation in the life of God in Christ.

From these remarks about the Creed, he turns to the “Our Father,” and highlights its essential and radical nature. In saying “Our Father,” he says, “you have begun to belong to a great family. Under this Father the lord and the slave are brethren; under this Father the general and the common soldier are brethren; under this Father the rich man and the poor are brethren. All Christian believers have various fathers in earth, some noble, some obscure; but they all call upon one Father which is in heaven.” Like the Creed, it is to be prayed every day.

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This is the third address in this series. The first is posted here and the second here.

“Give us this day our daily bread”

Who are we asking? Our Father. Not our Lord. It is perhaps important to remember that all of the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are addressed to God as “Our Father.” As with the first three petitions, so too with the last four petitions. What we ask for we ask “Our Father.”

Origen already remarked on this unique and special feature of the Lord’s Prayer. Nowhere in the Hebrew Scriptures do we find any prayer addressed to God as Father. Augustine several centuries later also calls attention to this as does Aquinas in the thirteenth century.

The opening words of the “Our Father” carry over into all of the petitions and serve to ground our prayers in a kind of praise and wonder about God himself that acts as a counter to the ways in which we invariably seek to make God subject to ourselves. That, of course, is how we lose ourselves because we lose sight of God. “For many things are said in praise of God,” Augustine notes, “which, being scattered variously and widely over all the Holy Scriptures, everyone will be able to consider when he reads them; yet nowhere is there found a precept for the people of Israel, that they should say ‘Our Father,’ or that they should pray to God as a Father; but as Lord He was made known to them.” It suggests something intimate and important about the “Our Father” as belonging to the essential understanding of the Christian faith.

The seventeenth century Anglican Divine, Lancelot Andrewes, in his Holy Devotions, notes that the Lord’s Prayer begins with “a Father, not a Lord/ One being a name of love./ The other of dignity … One being, a name of Goodness, Comfortable … the other of Power, Terrible … Who then durst be so bold as to call the Father, but that Christ did command it?” The Lord’s Prayer is grounded in the Son’s love of the Father; his Father is “Our Father” at his bidding and command. We are bold to say, “Our Father.”

Jesus provides instruction about prayer and about persevering in prayer in many places such as in Matthew 7.9. “What man of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?” Christ’s first temptation, too, was about the manipulation of the world, about turning stones into bread. The image of “Our Father” reminds us of the essential goodness of God and about what he seeks for us, namely, not stones but bread. Why? Out of the love of the Father for the Son and in the power of the Son’s love for the Father; out of the bond of their mutual and indwelling love, we learn the deep love of God for us. Thus this fourth petition, which marks the beginning of the second set of petitions, concerns what we seek from God in terms of our lives here and now but only as grounded in the deep love of God himself and that love as turned towards us; in short, God’s love for us.

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Archbishop Ron Cutler has, effective immediately, suspended all public liturgies in the Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island until April 3rd, at which time a decision will be made regarding Holy Week and Easter worship.

The Archbishop’s full statement is posted here.

We will continue to hold services in the Hall and later in the Church unless directed otherwise, but advise acting with care towards others in terms of hand-washing and perhaps exercising the concept of ‘self-distancing’ from each other. Both the Hall and the Church are commodious spaces that provide room to spread ourselves out, so to speak. These are simply precautionary strategies. At present, there is no reason to worry.

The Chalice will still be offered at Communion but if you do not wish to receive from the Chalice, that is fine. Just indicate by a nod. The sacrament is whole in each of its parts. Anglicans, theologically speaking, are utraquists – offering the sacrament as commanded by our Lord in both kinds – and so I am obliged to act accordingly. In terms of the various practices about receiving, may I request that you not ‘intinct’ (dipping the host yourself in the Chalice) since that only increases the risks of contagion (via hand). Let us pray and keep in our prayers, all who are the victims of plague and sickness  and those who live in nursing homes in our communities.

Be careful but be not fearful.

Fr. David Curry
March 15th, 2020

Update: Archbishop Ron Cutler has released a “Pastoral Letter with regards to Covid 19”. Click here to download (pdf).