Let's Stay Connected - Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Post date: Apr 8, 2020 5:21:24 PM

Dear Friends,

Today is Wednesday in Holy Week, or Holy Wednesday - a day with its own traditions. In the Anglican Journal, Kate Crane's article tells us what to do: Spring cleaning: Holy Wednesday’s transformative tradition. Crane realizes this has been a Lent like no other, so we might not know where to begin. "Cleaning happens when I recognize that something new is emerging out of my previous circumstances, habits and familiar stimuli... It always seems that without a deep clean, or some similar rearrangement of worldly objects, new realities might not arrive." Read more...

Now that I am staying in, things I overlooked before are so obvious that I can't stand them! I am cleaning. Little by little, something is happening to me while I do it. I walk in the door and I am so grateful. It's as if clean space is space for new thoughts.

And so my thoughts turn to Jesus. We are in a new place, ready for new insights into his final days that speak especially to our situation and our times. Gary+

Holy Week Schedule

Maundy Thursday, April 9, VIDEO: 4:00 p.m. / ZOOM: 7:00 p.m.

Good Friday, April 10, VIDEO: 10:30 a.m. / ZOOM: 2:00 p.m.

Holy Saturday, April 11, VIDEO 4:00 p.m. / ZOOM: 7:00 p.m.

Easter Sunday, April 12, VIDEO: 10:30 a.m. / ZOOM: 2:00 p.m.

It's a story we know but not the way we have ever shared it before. I hope you will join us. Let's learn and live it together:

YouTube: You can watch all the videos here.

Zoom: For each day, you will receive an invitation email with the password. You can join either using your computer or your phone.

Props: These items will be helpful as we meet together online.

    • Thursday: Bread & Wine/Grape Juice. Jesus shared these with his disciples and we will share them while we are together.

    • Friday: A Cross. I hope you have one you can use. You can also make one by watching this wonderful demonstration video from our friends at St. Chad's Anglican Church (Dufferin & St. Clair)

    • Saturday: A Candle. Food and Drink. We start this service with all your lights out. We will light our candles together. We will turn on all our lights together. Once the lights are on, we share the Resurrection Party for the rest of the service.

    • Sunday: A Flower. And Chocolate (if you like chocolate?)

***Please invite your friends by forwarding the "Invitation to Online Worship" emails.

A Message from our Archbishop Anne Germond

Archbishop Germond encourages us in her video to change our church signs for Easter to express our "gratitude for workers in all essential services: Hospital workers, grocery clerks, garbage collectors... We are thankful for them all." She recommends that all churches ring their bells at 9:00 a.m. on Easter Sunday. We don't have bells, but we are going to have the organ playing and the doors open. And I will be on the steps and ringing my little bell!

*By way of background: Archbishop Germond is the Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario (which is made up of the Dioceses of Toronto, Ontario, Ottawa, Niagara, Huron, Algoma, Moosonee), of which she is also the Bishop of Algoma and Moosonee. The Archbishop is elected from among the bishops of these seven dioceses. Archbishop Germond was born and raised in South Africa and came to Canada in 1986. She visited St. Anne's in January 2019, shortly after being elected.

Service to those in Need

Thanks to everyone who dropped off food for the Oasis Dufferin Food Bank. They have had a great response but the need continues. Please continue to bring food directly to Oasis, 1219 Dufferin Street, on Tuesdays from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (Ring buzzer at the Hallam Street entrance). Please note that financial donations make more sense - less handling and cleaning of items - and you can do that directly here.

*If you are in need of food and live within the Oasis catchment area, you can get food Wednesdays - 9:30 to 12:30.

Hand-sewn Masks

Oasis Dufferin needs Face Masks! We need volunteers to make them. Here are two easy patterns for you to try.

Easter Egg Hunt

Our City Councilor for Davenport, Ana Bailao, has changed the annual Easter Egg Hunt due to COVID-19 restrictions - in a way for all to join in: "I have also launched the Davenport Easter Egg Hunt! event. Due to the challenges we are facing this year, we are trying something a little different and sharing our celebrations online through a #DavenportEggHunt social media community event! Let's come together as a community to draw, colour or create our very own eggs and then share them with our neighbours by placing them in our windows or porches. If you take a photo and tag me on social media @AnaBailaoTO using the hashtag #DavenportEggHunt, I will be sure to share it with the whole community!

*Colour some eggs!

Interfaith Learning Evening

This year Holy Week and Passover overlap. On the Tuesday after Easter Rabbi Elyse Goldstein will join us on Zoom for

"Explore, Compare & Discover Passover & Easter"

Here's a 3 minute video preview. (I made it - my first iMovie...Gary) Tuesday, April 14, 7:00 p.m.

Photographs

This week's photos were taken by Joy Yu, especially her most recent pictures from Christmas at St. Anne's.

And one more of Joy with her husband Jared Zhai. We await Joy's safe return from China.

Submissions

From Sharron Le Blanc:

A poem by Toronto's Poet Laureate, Al Moritz:

Thoughts in Time of Plague

When we set out, we knew

many would die on the way.

And yet, the journey was joyous.

When we made our home we knew

many would die there. And yet we loved

that house. All the views from its windows

we named “beauty”.

When we went down the road,

the light was different every mile.

What could be behind those mute windows

with sometimes a peering eye, what pleasure

in those almost empty gardens, what unknown work

in the factories, birds in the dense wood?

When dawn came in our bedroom

or we woke too late in the old

shattered kitchen amid food scraps, empty bottles,

didn’t our memory burn deeper? — the same

old scar, flaming anew, shifting, unmoved.

And when we were trembling by the sick

that we loved and feared — so many — was it different?

Whether on the road with nowhere

to lay them down, or in the room with nowhere

else to take them… When we had to watch

the threatened breathing or leave it

to go to work. When we had to hear they had died

without us — was it different? No. No different.

Except that we saw something we always knew

in the dark. Failure was not

and success had never been

the end. The end was care.

Listen to Al Moritz read "Thoughts in Time of Plague"

Rest in Peace

We give thanks for the life of

Joseph (Dan) Bancroft - November 28, 1928 - April 5, 2020.

Dan was born and raised in Barbados. He studied law and accounting in England before coming to Canada to join his sisters in Toronto. He joined St. Anne's in the 1960s and was an active parishioner as a reader and auditing the church financial reports. He worked for the City of Toronto and retired from his final role as Chief Auditor for City Hall in 1994. At this time, we pray for his family, especially remembering his sisters who are part of our St. Anne's family, Myrtle Bancroft, Doreen Bancroft and Wendy Graham - and also their families. There will be a graveside service on Saturday, April 13. Attendance is limited by COVID-19 restrictions.

Rest eternal grant to him, O God.

And let light perpetual shine upon him.

Prayers

We continue to pray for those in need. Please send any names you would like to add to our daily prayers. The following prayer is from the magazine Sojourners.

God, protect me from hopelessness, prepare me for courage, and push me to love. Amen.

A final word of thanks to Joy Yu for this lovely picture with my mother and sister Alicia.

May God's blessing be upon you and those you love - this Easter and always.

Gary+