Christ Church Cathedral - Easter Sunday

Christ Church Cathedral is directly across the street from the Hyatt.  The North Shore Round Up didn’t used to overlap with Easter Weekend but the Hyatt offered the North Shore Round Up an incredible deal on the weekend so thereafter Christians like me had to juggle our Holy Week with Round up or choose one over the other.  The Gay AA round up occurs on this weekend too making it a very packed time for some.
If one attends Easter Sunday service at Christ Church you can get away just in time to hear the last Spiritual Speaker of the Round Up at Sunday noon.
My church today is St James Anglican.  I was a member of Christ Church Cathedral for about 12 years until  Gilbert at the age of 2 was suddenly accosted by one of the members of Christ Church Cathedral and told in the middle of the service that he could not be there.  He was as usual sitting quietly at our feet but we were asked to leave and it was embarrassing though not humiliating as I suspected was the intent.  Alternatively the overzealous young man might have thought he’d get in trouble with God or the deacon if he allowed an animal in the church.  Jesus, by contrast, loved animals, starting his life in a manger.   Zoroastrians considered dogs especially to be divine which occasioned Moslems to call them dirty until a particular dog saved the Brotherhood.
The irony indeed was that Gilbert specifically, a therapy dog, had been blessed by our Bishop.  Laura, Gilbert and I left church that Sunday  and drove  to nearby St. James Church where Father Mark greeted us. He even said that while Gilbert was truly welcomed he wasn’t yet sure about me.
I’m thankful each year for the North Shore Round Up to bring me back to Christ Church.  I’ve always loved this oldest Anglican church in Vancouver with all the ages of devotion seeping from the hundreds of thousands of Christians who’ve worshipped here through wars and peace. We stand on the shoulders of those who go before us.  I’ve loved to be able to travel to Jerusalem, Rome, Moscow and Istabul to pray and worship in the churches which began over fifteen hundred years ago.  I am heartened by the stewardship of Dean Elliot that this last decade has seen the restoration of the organ, the renovation of the basement and now the roof of Christ Church being restored.
Rupert Lang the conductor and choir leader has made sure that Christ Church has won countless awards for their incredible music.  Easter Sunday, with the horns and resurrection hymns is the best.  Laura and I arrived early and were joined by our friends George and Jane.  It was a lovely service.
Christ is risen. Christ is Risen Indeed. Hallelujah!
And yes, right after communion, we rushed to the Hyatt to catch the last of the North Shore Round Up Speakers.  A marvellously full and spiritual community weekend.
 

Saint Matthews Anglican Church Easter Service

Laura and I were supposed to be celebrating Easter Sunday in Kamloops.  The inaugural towing of the mobile home up the Coquihala met a glitch, an overheating engine.  A touch of hell in the heaven of British Columbia.
I returned to Chilliwack where Ford dealers are well represented. Cottonwood RV park was easily accessible.  My sailing pilot, engineer, Anglican Conservative friend Tom lives in Chilliwack. I phoned him up to tell him we were in town and planned to accompany him to church in the morning.  He was on his way to St. Matthew's Anglican in Abbotsford that night.  I told him what had happened with the Ford F350 diesel. He wanted to smell my transmission fluid before going on to evening church. He came by. The transmission fluid smelt sweet. We brainstormed the engine issues and concluded no damage and a quirk that were it to arise again might simply respond to manually changing gear.  Tom said he'd come by to pick us up in the morning.  We used to attend St. John's Anglican Church, Sardis but Tom's becoming more mystical, has shifted church to Saint Matthews.
"St. Matthew's is a very mystical church," he said.
Alot of the Trinity Western University teachers and students attend there. The Regent College University teachers and students attended at St. John's Anglican Church, Shaughnassey.  Both churches are in the news alot these days.  They've separated from the Anglican Church of Canada and the Diocese of Bishop Michael Ingham.  They are now under the oversight of the Anglican Network of Canada. I usually attend Christ Church Cathedral or St. James Anglican in Vancouver.  Both remain with Bishop Ingham.
While I was raised Baptist and taught Sunday School and attended the United Church of Canada as an adult, I was baptised into the Anglican Church by  Rev. Peter Elliott and Bishop Michael Ingham at Christ Church Cathedral. Tom stood up for me.  Father Fred at St. John's Sardis had been a great inspiration.   I liked the ecumenicalism of the Anglican Church, the inclusivity.  Yet , I' m a biblical student and there's a fine line between everything goes and what is spiritual.  I'd not try to argue the point with a hedonist sensualist though.  Certainly not in Canada where Christians are routinely verbally abused and persecuted.
I was a member of the United Church of Canada when it split and now I'm sitting in the midst of a divisive Anglican Church.
"At least 4 diocese have left the US Episcopalean church over it's radical departure from Biblical principles," Tom told me. I know that Jesus isn't very much spoken of in some mainstream Christian churches these days.  To hear some Christians talk the Bible is just a story book and there's really no difference between philosophy and theology.
My friend George and I were just enjoying Christ Church Cathedral the week before. George is a former Lutheran.    Elizabeth and Phil are so much apart of St. James.  Gilbert, my cockapoo, is welcome in both.  Christians are good people and I enjoy them all.  For years I attended St. John's Shaughnassey and loved the folk there.  So sad that they're all in dispute. I think of the times when the Roman Catholics and Orthodox Catholics were dividing. Then the Lutherans, Baptists, Anglicans, Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed, and all the sects of Christendom.  There's 3 divisions of Judaism we hear about and countless more including my favourite, Jews for Jesus.  Then there are the Sunni and Shiite Moslems, Sufis and countless other Moslem sects. The Buddhists are a hodge podge of different denominations and Hindus hardly get together without celebrating their individuality.  When I was drinking chai in the late night streets of Bombay and anger would rise with religious sentiment, an old man would hold up one  finger, and say  "One God."  We'd all settle down after that.  I noticed knives being sheathed at times.
So when Tom came to pick us up in his maroon jaguar sporting a jacket and tie, I quickly added a tie to my own dress. Laura was divine in her spring frock. Gilbert was left at home to guard the RV.
I'd not been to Saint Matthews in years.  I envisioned barbed wire fences, parapets and clergy in cammo. Ecclesiastical wars unfortunately are more of an "inside job' .  There's no place for Spielberg. Anything but.  Hand grenades couldn't break the peaceful smiles of the people congregating there.  The church was decked out for spring rejoicing  with white robed clergy and ladies sporting flowered bonnets
The church was soon full and all ages were represented.  Rector Mike Stewart greeted the congregation.  He was a thoroughly delightful man with a twinkle in his eye and a zest for life.  The children loved him.  We sang songs from the Anglican red Hymmnary  and songs thrown up on the wall by the overhead projector. It was such an up tempo church with so much song and even dancing I kept looking for Dr. Willi and Anita Gutowski my Pentecostal friends whose church services are regular work outs.
Easter is Resurrection,  The Easter egg is a symbol of rebirth.  I love the Third Day Rock Band whose music is featured on Mel Gibson's movie about the Passion of Christ.  This was the Third Day. Christ has Risen. Hallelujah!.  Christ has Risen.  The readings told of the empty tomb after the crucifixion and Christ meeting his disciples before ascension to sit at the right hand of God.  As we all recited the Nicene Creed it had special poignancy.  The fabric of the universe had altered with the death and resurrection of Jesus.  A monumental difference, like a world in black and white, becoming a world of colour and smells had occurred historically. The beginning of that first Easter continues today and every day. Christ is Risen. Hallelujah.  This is a spiritual universe and death has no hold on us.
Faces radiant, voices rising in song, it was an exhilerating service.  I nodded during the sermon.  I've nodded in the very best so it's probably a reflection on the highest quality of a sermon. I fell asleep so many times at the symphony with the greatest of composers I've not dared return without some medieval torture suit to keep me attentive.  Laura in recent years at church  has been kind enough to nudge me before I snore. Being of Catholic origins I trust her to avoid such mortification There were definitely good parts about Mary talking to Jesus.  Then we were thick into the eucharist, Rt. Rev. Dr. Trevor Walters presciding.
That's when I realized there was a second floor to the church. All these strangers started funnelling forward out of nowhere. I leaned over to Tom then and said, "You sat us at the back of the communion bus."
"Better for your humility."  he smugly answered.
"I hope they don't run out of bread, " said Laura. She's very fond of bread.
After a very long time we were finally funnelling towards the blood and body of Christ.
"Do you think anyone will notice my crotch?" I said to Laura.  I'd noticed I had a significant tear in my black cordoroys.  It was what I was thinking of as we waited in line.
"No one's looking at your crotch," she whispered over her shoulder.  I didn't quite know how to take that.
I kneeled beside Tom and Laura trying to keep my legs together.
Then we were back in the pew for more singing and prayers and general Christian carrying on.  Christ has Risen. Hallelujah!
After we made for the coffee and hot cross buns in the church hall.  Tom's nurse friend Sharon kept the Christian Hot Cross buns coming.  Jesus may have given out loaves but the church has grown stingy with it's bread at Eucharist. It's just a taster. The real meals always happen after the service.
Tom introduced me to a man who wrote about the appearances of Jesus since the initial ones reported in the Bible.  I talked to him about visions for a while. Next I  was talking to another parishioner about the irony that the overwhelming persecution of Christians by communists in Russia first and now China has proved that Christianity is not the hot house flower that poor communism has proven. It's resilience was evident today.
When we drove away in Tom's jag I thought how sad that Christians, like families the world over, have so much difficulty finding the love for one another they both so clearly hold. Saint Matthews Anglican was the mystical church Tom said it was. So much energy and enthusiasm.  Like the book of C.S. Lewis I was 'Surprised by Joy".
I am thankful that despite the divisions in the church we all are Christians.  It's embarrassing that the secular courts are being called on to settle matters eclesiastical. I'm ashamed of all the clergy and bishops and arch bishops for that reversion to Henry the VIIIth and the Borgias.  The Supreme Court of Canada outlawed the Bible, for God's sake.
But that's very unChristian of me.  Christ has Risen. Hallelujah. You will know we are Christians by our Love.   At Easter we are all Christians loving.   My mom used to say that we always hurt the ones we loved because they were closest.  Sometimes it's easier to love a two headed alien than an Anglican.

St. George’s Anglican Church, Vancouver, BC

Laura and I love this St. George's Anglican Church. It's so friendly and inviting. They even welcome our puppy Gilbert. I love that they love little ones. The elderly are at home there too. The Sunday service begins at a gentile 11.15 am.

Gilbert is 4 months old. Being raised as an Anglican puppy and having to attend mass is not as easy for him as perhaps a rousing revival Christian tent meeting would be. He expressed his enthusiasm for the congregations hymn singing by joining in with boisterous yelps and was promptly removed by me. In the outside yard, we had a discussion about barking in church. He would say it was a one sided discussion. After he looked appropriately contrite, I forgave him and we returned.

He did well till another Anglican pup suddenly appeared between our legs out of nowhere during the sermon. Gilbert thought this was his cue for entering into a religious debate with a fellow Anglican. Neither male showed any consideration for the peaceful interfaith message being preached from the pulpit.

Gilbert and I had another discussion in the outside yard before returning for prayers, eucharist and the closing hymm . Gilbert was a model Anglican during the prayers only appearing to be sleeping.

Rev. Paul Borthistle's sermon was uplifting and interesting as it explored the historical aspects of scripture and looked to their relevance today. So many would call themselves "spiritual" but fewer participate in communal spirituality. The message he made so clearly was that God was leading and that the community leaders were those who gathered together where so many were alone and alienated.

St. George's Anglican Church is 2950 Laurel Street, Vancouver BC V5Z3T3, just south from Vancouver General Hospital near 12th. Phone number: 604-8771788.

St. George’s Anglican Church 100th Anniversary

Today St. George's Anglican Church celebrated 100 years of serving the community. John Marsh is the Priest at St. George's but today Bishop Michael Ingham, on this special occasion, preached the sermon on St. George.

He began with his usual light hearted good humor saying, "when I was last here I was invited to plant a tree but I've since learned the tree died, so understand now why it's been so long since I've been invited back."

To paraphrase his sermon he began by making the observation that he liked that Anglicans and Catholics have named their churches after saints whereas other Protestant denominations were more likely to name their churches after the places where they existed in the world.

There are different types of saints, he said. These include those that exist and those that didn't….unfortunately for this occasion and church, St. George didn't…..it was the time of chivalry when the knights were intent on being seen as more useful, so St. George was said to be a great dragonslayer and to save damsels in distress. One might then wonder why the church kept him on as a saint, Bishop Michael Ingham continued. In the terms of the psychiatrist Dr. Carl Jung, the dragon represents that dark shadow of ourselves and our individual need to slay that archetypal dragon within. In Christian terms this is what Jesus Christ did for the world. So the symbol of the dragonslayer remains with us today.

At this time my little dragon, Gilbert the puppy, began to chew on my fingers and generally let me know that like a true Anglican he'd had enough sermon, even if it was the best sermon in the world. As he began to growl, like a little dragon to enhance the Bishops sermon, I thought we should best go outside where he promptly relieved himself. We were followed shortly after by another gentleman with his 1 year old child. Earlier I'd prided myself on Gilbert's behaving better as he child had wailed at one point during the hymns when I'd most feared my puppy might choose to join in. Outside we smiled sympathetically at each other in our, albeit, minor, modern chivalrous, St. George roles. Two manly men saving the congregations from our personal terrors, wailing puppies and screaming babies..

Later during the Peace, when everyone shake hands and hugs, we were back in the church and Gilbert was fondly greeted especially by the women, who said what a handsome fellow he was. He rather liked this warm and fuzzy church experience.

Later he had a private interview on the lawn with the Bishop who bent down and told him what a "cutie" he was. Thankfully Gilbert was on leash and didn't get a chance to lunge at the hanging bright cross the Bishop wore about his neck and certainly had his attention. Gilbert's parents were impressed that he had a meeting with the Bishop on his first day of church. Gilbert obviously liked him but he would have preferred to stay for the luncheon that was served after.

Vivian Seegers who is part of the clergy at St. George's brought Puka out of her car to join in the after church feast. As we were leaving Puka and Gilbert encountered each other in a sloppy dog fest. Gilbert thought St. George's was that much better a church with such another fine dog attending. Puka lifts his leg and Gilbert finds this 'styling' very impressive.
In the life of dogs this is truly 'high' Anglican.

Laura and I again loved the community spirit of St. George's, a truly beautiful church with real down home friendliness. It's always a joy to hear Bishop Ingham preach as he's world reknowned as most learned men in the Anglican world. His book Mansions of the Spirit is a fine Christian testimonial and a leading reference for the spiritually ecumenical.

http://www.canpages.ca/page/BC/vancouver/anglican-church-of-canada-st-georges-church/2408838.html

http://www.vancouver.anglican.ca/AboutOurDiocese/BishopMichaelIngham/tabid/54/Default.aspx

Monty, 90 years old

"I want you to meet Monty," she told me. "He's been my mentor for as long as I can remember. He's in town visiting from Quadra Island."

My friend is an Aboriginal minister with the Anglican church. She didn't know I knew Monty. I'd met him years before talking about planes. He was a radioman and gunner in WWII. 19 flights over Germany, I think he told me. I told him my Dad had been in the Lancaster and he said he'd flown in the Halifax.

He'd been coming to the Dug Out AA meeting long before I had. I'd been going nearly a decade. We shared the deaths of the kind hearts like Chris and Margaret. It's a quiet place where I've come to know Lyle and Al, Christy, Jan, Ed, Sally, Herb, Ron,Nancy, Archie and so many more. Monty was always a voice of inspiration and wise with laughter.

We shared our plans by text messaging. Arriving in from a week of sailing, I needed to go to church and told her I was going to Christ Church, then to the Dug Out and then to lunch. But today I was running late and decided to stop at St. James' Anglican Church. She'd told me she had to attend her vestry meeting at another church and we'd left it that. I'd meet her and Monty for lunch the following week.

Meanwhile my Roman Catholic friend, Laura, hadn't been to an Anglo-catholic High Mass service and getting to Christ Church across Vancouver during the Olympics might have made us even that much later.
So with attended St. James.

Father Mark Greenaway-Robbins shared in his sermon that "People look at me odd when I'm wearing my collar and when I mentioned this to my other priest associates they shared that they had the same experience. It wasn't that way in my previous parish where Christianity and priests were the norm. Here though Christians are in the minority and I think Christianity does best when it is…as a minority I have to reflect on what it is to be a Christian and consider seriously what Christ means to me….I even have to not take it for granted when I talk to other Christians that they will understand what I mean when I say the words sacrifice and grace.…When we're on top of the world it's easy not to think about Grace….but it's all Grace….all God's grace." And though I'm sure he said it better and my paraphrase is wholly unworthy of his much more profound message, that's what I came away with. And I liked it. Lent is that time of reflection.

And I was thinking about Grace after I left the service. How God, the unknown, the other, the mystery is the first principle and I am at best the second.

And there was Vivian, Monty and Vivian's dog Puta (I know that's not how it's spelt but he loves me regardless). They'd gone to Christ Church and heard Alistair's sermon. I explained how we were late and attended St. James. Since I've moved to North Vancouver St. James has by proximity become my default church too.

We entered the Dug Out together and were later joined by Al who when asked shared that it was his 29^th year of sobriety, 'today…this day…though I'm taking my cake on the Friday." Monty then shared that it was his 90^th birthday. He'd first got sober in the 1950's but didn't stay sober until a decade or so later. The 90 was his 'belly button' birthday. Otherwise he'd look even younger than he does.

Monty talked about Agape, that realization that there was something the same in you as in the other. This empathy he said was the realization of God in each other, the essence of spirituality. And he said, "that's what makes you care for each other." He shared that alcohol produced an artificial experience but that when you have the real experience you don't want to go back to the artificial. He told me later that Hell, theologically, "just means isolation".

I never knew Monty was an Anglican minister. "after the war and naziism all I thought about was God. When I met my wife I told her that and she said that was okay. We had 4 children and I'm very proud of them. We've loved each other a long time even if there's been times here and there when we haven't particularly liked each other. Loving some one doesn't mean I approve of their behavior. I certainly love my sons but there have been times when I haven't approved of their behavior."

Later we all had lunch together and Monty told me that he studied pastoral counseling and that the United Church minister, Taylor at UBC had been his mentor. "He taught me more about the Eucharist and Mass than the anglican's did. He'd been to India and come back to Canada and explained to me that we come to church to join in congregation and be filled with God so we can go out into the world and give it all away so we can come back again and get renourished. He told me too that when he was in India he'd been overwhelmed by how large the task was, so many hungry people then, and he realized that wasn't his job that was God's job. His job was just the small part of the whole that was facing him.... God's love is giving and as I've got older I've learned to see Jesus as my ideal man. I had lots of other ideal men when I was younger but now I really know Jesus as my ideal. It's all about sacrifice. That what love is." said Monty.

The blueberry pie was delicious. We were looking over the train yard at Coal Harbour. Canada had won the Olympic Men's Hockey Gold and there was shouting and horn honking in the streets.

He told me, "I know a lot of people down here because when I worked at the Central City Mission. It was pretty much just a shelter when I came there, but I set about turning it into a rehabilitation facility. It's what I believed in."

"And the way you don't get burnt out is that you look for the gift every individual you help brings you. Each person is individual and unique and each has something special that only they can share and they'll give that to you when you help them. That's God working in people."

Outside the honking and cheering were intense. Monty took out his hearing aids then, "You know there are advantages to getting older. " Now there was Grace.

All around us as we walked to the cars there was cheering. The cherry blossoms were in bloom. We hugged in parting. Four friends on a special day. Monty is 90 years old. "You know you're about the same age as my son," he said in parting. "My Dad is 91," I told him. "You're still pretty young."

"Hooray for Canada! Hooray!" a passer by called from his car, waving the red and white maple leaf flag.