Joint statement from The Archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster, Justin Welby and Vincent Nichols, concerning the ongoing violence in Syria

Since the very first days of the Syrian conflict in March 2011, we have prayed as we watched in horror and sorrow the escalating violence that has rent this country apart. We have grieved with all Syrians - with the families of each and every human life lost and with all communities whose neighbourhoods and livelihoods have suffered from escalating and pervasive violence.

And today, our prayers also go with the ancient communities of our Christian brothers and sisters in Syria. The kidnapping this week of two Metropolitan bishops of Aleppo, Mar Gregorios Ibrahim of the Syriac Orthodox Church and Paul Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, and the killing of their driver while they were carrying out a humanitarian mission, is another telling sign of the terrible circumstances that continue to engulf all Syrians..

We unreservedly support these Christian communities, rooted in and attached to the biblical lands, despite the many hardships. We respond to the call from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East, and the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East, urging churches worldwide to remain steadfast in the face of challenging realities and to bear witness to their faith in the power of love in this world.

We both continue to pray for a political solution to this tragic conflict that would stem the terrible violence and also empower all Syrians with their fundamental and inalienable freedoms. We also call for urgent humanitarian aid to reach all who are suffering. We pray that Syria can recapture its tradition of tolerance, rooted in faith and respect for faiths living side by side.

+ Justin Welby          + Vincent Nichols

Notes from Vestry April 16, 2013

• Rector's Comments:
• • I gave a power point on the plan for the next year. It was called A Year of Discernment and Building and reflected the plan for the rest of the year. There is a two pronged plan. The first part is intensive discernment on the part of the parish as to where God is calling us. I am using the analogy of a soup pot. We will do lots of things like perhaps NCD, a parish conference, educational bits, congregational meetings and prayer activities designed to increase conversation, prayer and reflection. All of the ideas will go into an Evernote notebook for the leadership to check in with. The idea is that as we discern, God will guide us in the next chapter of our life together. The second aspect is building the healthy church as I outlined at the AGM with the addition of intentionally building community between the services.
• Janitorial: 
• • This is still in process, and a final decision will be reached by the next vestry meeting.
• Administrative Assistant:
• • We have received over 50 applications. We will narrow this down to 10 or so in the next week and begin interviews hopefully the week after that.
• Identity of Soup'd Up Worship:
• • The corporation decided that it was too early to make any final decisions about Soup'd Up Worship, and so we would wait until October to start answering the specific questions about what the service's ultimate purpose is to be.
  • We will however try to identity stats, make contact with new people, and try to follow up.
  • The Vestry approved a motion of support for Soup'd Up Worship as an outreach experiment of the congregation.
• Alpha 2013:
• • Rather than running our own Alpha, we will be in contact with Heartland Alliance church to see how we can assist them.
• Tofield:
• • I am no longer the rector Tofield. I have stepped down as of April 1st. Colleen Lynch will be their rector.
• Website Redesign:
• • We showed the vestry the website redesign that Chris did. Everyone is invited to look at it. We particularly highlighted the administrative aspect. We have turned all of the policies and job descriptions into searchable PDF's. 
• Assistant:
• • Chris has been away for a couple of weeks on study leave. Before that he put quite a bit of time into the redesign of the website.
• Financial:
• • We have a surplus of just over $6000. However, when you take into account the surplus being rolled forward from 2012 on a monthly basis, we have a deficit of $173.00 for the first quarter.
• Stewardship:
• • Gordon Voth reported the numbers from the last stewardship. There followed a lively discussion on what stewardship looks like in terms of its different meaning for different generations, what it will look like here and so on. Alison talked about the workshop she went to where the Diocese gave us a helpful book and lots of ideas.
• Youth:
• • Devon talked about our group here and the sleep over that she arranged for those from the winter camp that had been cancelled. She also talked about a big weekend that  she has planned taking a coach with the Diocese of Calgary to Sorento.
• Engineering:
• • The installation of the alarm system will start the week of the 29th of April. It shouldn't take more than a week. The question of monitoring still has to be determined.
• Wardens:
• • Alison floated the idea of community funding and having pay pal on the website. We will look into this.

Holy Ground

One of the things I have always wondered about is the short little passage when Moses meets God at the burning bush, and God tells him to take off his shoes for he is standing on holy ground. My question has always been, why don't we take off our shoes in the presence of the holy? Why is it no longer important?

This thought came to me again this year on Maundy Thursday when I was standing with my bare feet on the cold floor of the cathedral waiting to have my feet washed by the bishop at our annual celebration. I was in line for awhile as there are a lot of clergy, and I thought of standing on holy ground in my bare feet. I don't think it was the cathedral floor especially so much as being a part of a community of clergy who were gathering in love of God and each other, and who would that night wash the feet of the various communities of which we are a part. I loved the image of us getting our feet washed and going to wash the feet of others and providing them a place to wash each others feet as a sign of service and love. That I thought must be the holy ground upon which I was standing.