Let's Stay Connected - Thursday, March 26, 2020
Post date: Mar 27, 2020 9:08:47 PM
Dear Friends,
How are you doing with all these changes?
St. Anne's is adapting to our new social distance reality to help you stay connected. Thank you for calling each other. As you will see here, St. Anne's is also going hi-tech with worship and meetings. This weekly e-newsletter is new. Thanks for your submissions, some of them are included below.
The wardens will be joining with me in reaching out to call you as well - we are looking forward to catching up with you. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.
Gary
Worship
This past Sunday, we had our first St. Anne's Online Worship - presented in two parts:
Worship Part 1. We prepared a 15 minute video that includes prayer, scripture reading, music and singing, and a message from the wardens. This was uploaded to our YouTube Channel by Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m.
Much sweat and tears but we did it! Special thanks to:
Marc and Dave, our churchwardens, for their leadership in these new times;
Joe, for sound technician troubleshooting;
Lauren, for a wonderful version of Amazing Grace - easy to sing along;
Patrick, for everything from filming to the final edit, with extensive family back up!
Worship Part 2. Our worship continued at 2:00 p.m. on Zoom, an online video conference call. Using a simplified bulletin, we did opening prayers, discussion of the reading presented on the video, prayers of the people. We also sang Amazing Grace together, and shared blessings. The first time felt a bit new and strange, but the whole experience was warm and supportive.
See last Sunday's Online Worship materials on our website here.
Please join us this coming Sunday for Online Worship. You will receive an email invitation that will include a link to the uploaded video and the password to join the Zoom conversation.
For Reflection
From Peter: Check out the insightful writing of Kansas poet, Anne Boyer:
The way social distancing works requires faith: we must begin to see the negative space as clearly as the positive, to know what we don't do is also brilliant and full of love. We face such a strange task, here, to come together in spirit and keep a distance in body at the same time. We can do it. I am writing this because I want the good in us to break through the layers of hateful nonsense we've been drowning in. I think we can be good, but we also must prepare for an amplification of evil’s evil. The time when the invisible becomes visible is at hand. ...read Anne Boyer here.
From Marcia:
"The Broadway Coronavirus Medley" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1OCZRann8w&feature=youtu.be
From Kate: Consider these thoughts from Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky:
Language is a powerful shaper of thinking. And the very last thing we need right now, is a mindset of mutual distancing. We actually need to be thinking in the exact opposite way: Every hand that we don’t shake must become a phone call that we place. Every embrace that we avoid must become a verbal expression of warmth and concern. Every inch and every foot that we physically place between ourselves and another, must become a thought as to how we might be of help to that other, should the need arise. ...read Rabbi Kanefsky here.
From our Gilbert & Sullivan friends:
"I am the very model of effective social distancing" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shaVy41ZCbc
Photographs
Here are some scenes from St. Anne's on the First Sunday in Lent, March 1, 2020.
Rest in Peace
We give thanks for the life of Loretta Burren, June 8, 1929 - March 14, 2020.
There will be a memorial service at a future date when we are able to assemble. Rest eternal grant to her, O God.
Prayer and Fasting
The Bishop of Toronto, Andrew Asbil, along with the College of Bishops, invite all Anglicans to spend today, Thursday March 26, as a day of prayer and fasting. You will find resources for today as a retreat day here.
Fasting from the Eucharist:
We have been advised by our bishops as follows:
...the bishops of our province have agreed together that our virtual worship through Holy Week and the season of Easter, or until such time that we can gather in community together, will not include the liturgy of the Eucharist. Sacramental celebrations are the work of the whole People of God and require a gathering of people who can be physically present to one another. That is impossible for most of us at this time. The Great Three Days of Easter, and through the fifty days of the season, we will be fasting from the Eucharist but feasting on the Word. We believe that the Risen One, the Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit, is present and active with us as we hear and receive him in the word of the scriptures, in that word interpreted and proclaimed in preaching, and in the word inwardly digested, by faith, in each person.
Keep praying! Keep calling each other! Our building is closed - but our church is open and alive! We are the Church.
Gary
PS Please send in your suggestions for next week's newsletter.
--
The Rev. Canon Gary van der Meer
Incumbent - St. Anne's Anglican Church
Interfaith Officer - Anglican Diocese of Toronto
Thanks for the Photographs
Thanks to Theresa Slater, one of our Sunday Photographers. Theresa has been taking pictures at St. Anne's since November.