Let's Stay Connected - e-newsletter - 24 April 2020

Hello Friends,

In the church, these are the days of Christ's post-resurrection appearances - moments of realization and insight. Let's be a blessing to each other - as we reach out and connect, and as we continue to pray for each other. May we be blessed with many realizations that turn us more and more towards love in the weeks to come.

Welcome to this week's e-newsletter: an update about our upcoming worship, pictures and poems, news about those who have died, and ways to keep connected and learning.

Gary

WORSHIP WITH US THIS SUNDAY

Sunday, April 26: The Road to Emmaus with Bishop Jenny Andison

SUBMISSIONS

--> from Sharron Le Blanc: "The Mountain" a poem by Laura Ding-Edwards

If the mountain seems to big today

then climb a hill instead.

If the morning brings you sadness

it’s ok to stay in bed.

If the day ahead weighs heavy

and your plans feel like a curse,

there’s no shame in rearranging,

don’t make yourself feel worse.

If the shower stings like needles

and a bath feels like you’ll drown,

if you haven’t washed your hair for days,

don’t throw away your crown.

A day is not a lifetime

a rest is not defeat,

don’t think of it as failure,

just a quiet, kind retreat.

It’s ok to take a moment

from an anxious, fractured mind,

the world will not stop turning

while you get realigned.

The mountain will still be there

when you want to try again,

you can climb it in your own time,

just love yourself til then.

Listen to "The Mountain" set to music by Chris St. Germain

--> from The Anglican Diocese of Toronto, a reflection on the poetry and meditations of John Donne, Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, 1621 to 1631. In a series of 23 meditations following his recovery from a near-fatal illness, Donne "through the experience of being suddenly taken ill, being examined and treated with doubtful success by physicians, and recovering only to be seized by the fear of relapse." This is from Meditation XVII:

PERCHANCE he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill as that he knows not it tolls for him. And perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that. The church is catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does, belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that head which is my head too, and ingraffed into that body, whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me; all mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again, for that library where every book shall lie open to one another; as therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come; so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness... No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Read more about John Donne here.

--> from Randy Williams: Read some social analysis: Covid-19 intersects with Race and Poverty

• • "Pandemic-ing While White: Privilege, protest, and identity in lockdown America", by Tim Wise in Medium: "...Thinking Jesus is all you need to get through danger and difficulty is something only white people can generally swallow. Black folks know from lived experience that faith without works is dead... As a side note, these are the same people now screaming that we must let old people die rather than shoulder the expense of a largely shuttered economy."

  • Read the article here.

  • While you're at it, also have a look at this one: "What don't most liberals realize?" by Peter Kruger in Quora: "...There’s little to no difference between marketing and propaganda. I literally used commercials to teach propaganda to my high school students... People do switch sides if they have a good reason, so quit writing off my people as a lost cause..."

  • Read the article here.

LEARNING

--> Travel: Check out the Hagia Sophia - the building that inspired St. Anne's!

Walk through this great building on YouTube.

REST IN PEACE

-->Leona Sherriff