Let's Stay Connected - Thursday, April 2, 2020

Post date: Apr 2, 2020 11:01:20 PM

Hello Friends,

With the growing realization that the present crisis will extend even further into the future, it's more important than ever that we continue to connect with God and with each other. Welcome back for announcements, photographs, music, poetry and prayers. Gary

Announcements

    • Stay home. If you must go out, take precautions to protect yourself and others.

    • We are reaching out to be in touch - please expect a call from me or the churchwardens to check in about how you are doing.

    • Thank you for your continued support for St. Anne's through your offering/donations.

    • Our website has been updated to reflect the many changes we are experiencing as a community, including new events. Please take a look: www.saintanne.ca

What does it mean to practise spiritual closeness? Connecting with God and each other. Connecting with Creation. Connecting with our deepest selves.

We are learning new ways:

    • Consider that flour is sold out because lots of people now want to bake bread. People are showing off their baked creations. What could be more basic than the sacrament of bread and wine?

    • Consider that people are reading and writing poetry. What could be more basic than the sacrament of words flowing around us and inside us?

Worship brings spiritual closeness as a gift that will see us through.

Worship

Out of necessity, we are worshiping in new ways. Churches everywhere are experimenting to find what works for their community. It's interesting to check them out and compare. We have our own Made-at-St. Anne's version of worship. Each service comes in two parts:

    1. A worship video on our channel on YouTube; this includes an opening prayer, reading with suggestions for discussion, a message from our wardens, and music.

    2. A conversation on Zoom; this includes the text of the reading, an approach for discussion and reflection, music, prayers and blessings.

This will also be the format for each of the days of Holy Week: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday.

This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday. The YouTube video will be available by 10:30 a.m. This Sunday's Zoom Conversation is at 2:00 p.m. We hope you will join us.

On Saturday, you will receive an email invitation to join our worship including: YouTube Video, Bulletin (attachment), and ID & password to join the Zoom service.

Submissions

From Merlin Homer: A poem by Kitty O'Meara

"And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listening more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently. And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal. And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.”

Listen to the Poem here.

From Peter Gorman: "Pandemic" - a poem by Lynn Ungar

What if you thought of it

as the Jews consider the Sabbath—

the most sacred of times?

Cease from travel.

Cease from buying and selling.

Give up, just for now,

on trying to make the world different than it is.

Sing. Pray. Touch only those to whom you commit your life.

Center down.

And when your body has become still,

reach out with your heart.

Know that we are connected

in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.

(You could hardly deny it now.)

Know that our lives are in one another’s hands.

(Surely, that has come clear.)

Do not reach out your hands.

Reach out your heart.

Reach out your words.

Reach out all the tendrils

of compassion that move, invisibly,

where we cannot touch.

Promise this world your love–

for better or for worse,

in sickness and in health,

so long as we all shall live.

Listen to the beautiful choral arrangement composed by Martin Sedek and performed by CONCORA here.

Photographs

This week's photographs are by Emily Lork. Emily co-leads the St. Anne's Archives. She's a member of the Altar Guild team. Emily has been taking pictures for St. Anne's for a few years - perhaps including pictures of you. Here are some highlights from Emily's recent photographs.

And for those of you, who don't know Emily, here she is - along with our Altar Guild: Sharon, Yvonne, Darren, Emily, Tim.

Thank you so much, Emily!

From Chris Schroer: From Embers by Richard Wagamese, recorded in chalk in front of St. Anne's.

Service to those in Need

Let's help make sure people have enough to eat by donating to our local food bank, OASIS Dufferin Food Bank. Their take-out dinner (Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m.) program and Wednesday food bank (9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) are both happening with outside pick up only. They are running out of food:

"Those of you who have been to Oasis know that the Fire Hall is a fair distance away. Most of the way to Dupont. And as most of you know, we are handing out food outside from the front door of the church. On Wednesday the lineup stretched out. It was long. From one end it was difficult to see the other end. Even for a tall person. Keeping people six feet apart made it safer, but longer. Once we got going the line moved quickly. But it did not shrink. For every person served, another joined the line. It took an hour and half to serve the entire line. But we stayed open for the late comers. Over 140 people served. It was not a record, which stands at 153, but it was close. The record will probably fall in the next week or two. I wonder how the fire trucks are going to get out." Blog from March 28, 2020

Here are their needs:

    1. Donations of money online through Canada Helps so that they can buy/order what they need with as little social contact with others as possible. Cheques can be mailed to Oasis Dufferin Community Centre, 1219 Dufferin Street, Toronto ON, M6H 4C2.

    2. Donations of food including:

      • sauce & pasta, in that order - they receive more pasta than sauce

      • rice

      • beans

      • canned fish, tomatoes, veggies

***Donations of food must be dropped off on Tuesdays between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. People are asked to call ahead if possible (416-536-4431) and to press the buzzer on Hallam Street when they arrive. (They are NOT accepting new volunteers at this point.)

Prayers

If you walk outside today, you can feel spring flowers ready to burst out. This Intercessory Prayer for the Easter Season is written and submitted by Carole Giangrande.

In this difficult time, let us pray in thanksgiving for the solace and beauty of nature as a reflection of God’s goodness. May sunlight and bountiful life speak to us of resurrection, and may the lengthening days inspire hope for the healing of our world.

Lord, hear our prayer.

As we pray for each other, let us also pray for all migrating birds as they return to nest, and for the habitat that nourishes them as they bring song and beauty to our lives.

Let us pray for all animals preparing to give birth. May they find the necessary food and shelter for their young, that they may thrive in their wondrous variety.

Let us pray for all plants as they begin to leaf and flower, and for the success of crops planted and tended by our farmers. Let us pray in thanksgiving for their labour and for the blessing of abundant food, that it may be available to all.

Let us also pray for the welfare of pollinating bees which God provides to assist the growth of food and flowers. May they be restored to health and may their numbers increase.

Let us pray for aquatic life, that it may flourish in lakes, seas and oceans cleansed of pollutants. Pray also that we may be moderate in our consumption of fish and sea mammals.

May the Paschal mystery at the heart of creation open our hearts to grace and abundant life. Let us pray with all of nature in never-ending praise of God.

Lord Jesus Christ,

you taught us to love our neighbour,

and to care for those in need

as if we were caring for you.

As we prepare for Holy Week in this time of anxiety,

give us strength and hope

to comfort the fearful, to tend the sick,

and to assure the isolated

of our love, and your love,

for your name’s sake.

Amen.