FESTIVAL OF PRAYER
WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY: JANUARY 19 – 26, 2014
Has Christ been divided?
cf. 1 Corinthians 1:1-17

Join us as we pray together for unity and experience different traditions of Christian spirituality!
SERVICES ARE HELD AT TIMES INDICATED IN THE SCHEDULE BELOW
Refreshments and fellowship following most services

Sunday Jan. 19 CITY-WIDE ECUMENICAL WORSHIP SERVICE (with Church Leaders)
7:30 p.m. CRESCENT FORT ROUGE UNITED CHURCH
525 Wardlaw Avenue at Nassau Street N., 204-475-6011, http://www.crescentfortrouge.ca

Monday Jan. 20 SERVICE IN FRENCH à 14h00 (Catholique)
2:00 p.m. VILLA AULNEAU, 601, rue Aulneau (Saint-Boniface), http://www.villaaulneau.ca
For further info: Sr. Rita Hamel, 204-594-6406, ritzham@hotmail.com

Tuesday Jan. 21 ST. LUKE’S ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH
7:30 p.m. 2903 McPhillips Street (Rosser-Old Kildonan), 204-339-0412, http://www.stlukeszion.ca

Wednesday Jan. 22 ALL SAINTS’ ANGLICAN CHURCH (noon hour service-downtown)
12:10 p.m. 175 Colony Street (corner Broadway & Osborne), 204-786-4765, http://www.allsaints.mb.ca

Thursday Jan. 23 HOLY REDEEMER ROMAN CATHOLIC PARISH
7:30 p.m. 264 Donwood Drive (North Kildonan), 204-669-0501, http://www.holyredeemerrcparish.ca

Friday Jan. 24 ST. JOSEPH’S UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
7:30 p.m. and BISHOP VELYCHKOVSKY MARTYR’S SHRINE
250 Jefferson Avenue (West Kildonan), 204-339-4512, http://www.stjoeswinnipeg.com

Saturday Jan. 25 Vespers in the Coptic Orthodox Tradition
8:00 pm ST. MARK COPTIC ORTHODOX CHURCH
1111 Chevrier Boulevard (Fort Garry), 204-478-6743, http://www.stmark.manitobacopts.org

Sunday Jan. 26 ECUMENICAL YOUTH MINISTRY LEADERS (Travelling Ecumenical Worship-South St. Vital)
2:00 pm St. Timothy Catholic Parish, 135 John Forsyth Road
3:00 pm Faith Lutheran Church, 1311 Dakota Street
4:00 pm United Church in Meadowood, 1111 Dakota Street
5:00 pm Sterling Mennonite Fellowship, 1008 Dakota Street (Closing of the Week of Prayer)
For further info: Michelle Marchildon 204-594-0278, mmarchildon@archsaintboniface.ca

For more information you may contact one of the above churches/groups, or your own minister/pastor,
or The Archdiocese of Winnipeg: telephone 204-452-2227, http://www.archwinnipeg.ca

To the church of God that is in [Winnipeg, on Anderson Avenue], to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:  …in every way you have been enriched in [Christ], in speech and knowledge of every kind — just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you — so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ…  God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.   (From I Cor. Ch. 1)

We had a great Vestry meeting this week.  That’s not really unusual, at least here at the Cathedral, but I am very thankful for it.  There is real spirit of joy and thanksgiving in and for our community of faith, and trust in God for our future, true even when we were talking about finances and budget and the upcoming Annual General Meeting (23 February, 1 p.m.).  And why not?
We are not lacking in any spiritual gift, and God is faithful!

We have a great future, whatever may come; God is there in Christ Jesus, calling us to venture out of our comfort zone and into the discipleship zone.  We don’t need to be afraid; anything but.  In every way we have been enriched in Christ!  Wow!  Stop.  No, really.  Stop.  Think about that.

How can we not rejoice and give thanks?

We may not always feel like it; we may even be tempted to grumble and complain, to fuss and fret.  That’s normal, that’s human.  But it’s not where we are called to live as disciples of Jesus, not as a way of life.  We are called to joy, to peace beyond human understanding, and into a future with hope:  Hope for us as individuals, hope for this community of faith we call St. John’s, and hope for the earth itself and the whole community of creation.  God is faithful.

As we look together into this New Year, let’s breathe deeply of that joy, sink roots into that peace, and plan our life together, secure enough in that hope to reach beyond ourselves, and to trust fully in the One who is ever faithful.

MEN’S PRAYER BREAKFAST – NOTE WELL!

Please note that the Men’s Breakfast will begin on Saturday, 8 February, at 9 a.m. here at the Cathedral in the John West Hall. Thanks!

Our plan is to meet the Second Saturday of every month, February through June. Hope to see you here.

From the Dean’s Desk…                             On New Year’s Eve

Today is the Seventh Day of Christmas, the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord.  In the middle of our twelve day feast, comes the New Year celebration, laden with hopes beyond its ability to bear them.  We celebrate, of course, but we know that our true hope, our true joy, our truest peace, comes from the Word who has become flesh and set up camp among us, who lives among us, within us, Jesus our Immanuel.  Let his own words take us joyfully through the rest of the Feast of the Church, and with hope and peace into the New Year of Our Lord, 2014, whatever it may bring.  We do not know what the future holds, but, thanks be to God, we do know who holds the future!

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.      (Matthew 6:25-33)

Thanks be to God!

December 27, 2013 – National Bishop Susan Johnson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, share a New Year’s greeting with Lutherans and Anglicans across Canada.

This joint New Year’s greeting is a first for the churches, which are full communion partners.

In their joint message Johnson and Hiltz reflect on highlights from 2013, including Joint Assembly, the Anglican-Lutheran gathering in Ottawa this past July-particularly on the Joint Declaration on homelessness, affordable housing, and responsible resource extraction.

Johnson notes the importance of the public witness event, which took place on Parliament Hill in at the foot of the Peace Tower.

“We were excited that we were led by the youth of our two churches,” said Johnson. “It helped us focus on the important issue of access to clean water.”

Hiltz also recounts how blessed the churches were to have guests from the Anglican Communion, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Council of Churches, and their two American sister churches at Joint Assembly.

“They reminded us of the challenge that our relationship holds,” says Hiltz, “and the hope and potential for similar conversations in other churches around the world… in the interest of Christian unity.”

The video closes with a challenge to both churches-“individuals, congregations, parishes, dioceses, and synods”-to consider ways that Anglicans and Lutherans can work together to advance social justice and Christian unity “together, for the love of the world.”

Learn more about our full communion relationship.

Sunday, 5 JANUARY: Second Sunday of Christmas, Twelfth Day of the Feast
NO DEAN’S FORUM
10:30 a.m. Eucharist with Carols

“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.”
(Matthew 1:20-23)

GOD                                     WITH-US

Hebrew: Immanu-el.
Translation: With-us-God.
English: God with us.
Not remote or distant, untouchable.
Not horribly unknowable or terribly impossible.
God with us. In Jesus.
God with us. Within us.
Within Mary, his mother, first.
Now within us, each one.
Within all of us, together.
With us. All of us. Always.
Forever. And today too.
No matter what.
Forever. And today too.
With us. In Christ.
Within us. Each of us, all of us.
Forever. But tomorrow too…
Come what may.
God with us.
Immanu-el!

Thanks be to God!

The Anglican Church of Canada is a founding member of the World Council of Churches.
The Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit is personal friend, and I am privileged to know him.
Give a listen…

https://soundcloud.com/wccradio01/christmas-message-from-rev-dr

Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God… He will come and save you.”
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert…
(Isaiah 35:4-6)

What a contrast to the message of the machine, the false god of the all-mighty market, the idols of ideologies various and sundry which demand the sacrifice of the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable for the further enrichment of the few and the mighty! That message might read something like this:

Shackle the weak hands, and make crippled the feeble knees.
Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be afraid, be very afraid!
Here is your master… He will come and crush you.’
Then the eyes of the blind shall be pepper-sprayed, 

But, the message of the Scriptures, both the Prime Testament and the New Testament, is that God loves a surprise, and that God has a special place in God’s heart for those whom the world despises, along with a love for the whole creation and all creatures that will not be defeated, even by those who think, mistakenly, that their wealth and power make them all-mighty.
And for much of the world we would be lumped into that category…

The in-the-flesh, in-carnate, message of God’s steadfast love and unquenchable mercy, the living Word, Jesus Christ, makes God’s surprising love crystal clear. The Good News, the Gospel, revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was so brilliantly surprising that even John the Baptist was taken aback, and he saw only the very first glimmerings of it: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus wasn’t playing exactly to the script John thought he knew.

So Jesus’ first coming was a surprise, to many. The message was given first to whom? Shepherds? Those immoral scum! They don’t even go to synagogue! Surely you jest… Magi from Persia? Infidels? Illegal immigrants from the east? Wise men, you say… Probably here to take our jobs, either that or they’re terrorists. Confine them quickly, before they get away!

Jesus’ final coming in glory will be a surprise too, whether it’s tomorrow or a billion years from now. Whatever some may say, its shape and timing remains hidden in God’s heart and mind alone. Any other claim to know, or ‘prophesy’, is illusion at best, deception at worst. But cross and resurrection assure us that, however the mystery unfolds, the future belongs ultimately to God and we belong to God so, as the angels say, do not be afraid.

Jesus’ daily coming also remains surprising; he keeps showing up in the oddest places. He appears every day where we insist he cannot and must not; it’s just not proper, and those folks aren’t deserving. They’re, well, poor, and so they must be lazy too, and we all know that God helps those who help themselves. They’re aboriginal or black or fill-in-the-blank and we’re not racist but show some common sense, Jesus!

The one laid in that manger made of rough-hewn wood, or carved out of cold, hard stone, was also laid on a rough-hewn cross, and then, after his death, in a tomb carved from stone. But the story didn’t end there… Advent takes us to Christmas, all Twelve Days of the Feast, from Christmas Eve to the Epiphany of Our Lord (January 6th), and Christmas points us, eventually, to Lent and Easter, to the cross and the tomb and, finally, to the Resurrection of Our Lord, the greatest Feast of all, the greatest surprise of all.

Thanks be to God!