|
_i_Kvillestan_p%C3%A5_Hisingen_i_G%C3%B6teborg,_den_6_sept_2006,_bild_16.jpg)
|
Services this week13 April 2025 - Palm Sunday 8am Holy Communion 9am Community prayers downstairs in the youth room 9.30am Eucharist, in-person and live streamed via Facebook Live [LINK]
Please join us downstairs in the hall for coffee and fellowship after the 9.30 service. |
|
From Allen's Desk: Beyond the Bunny and Back!I've been thinking about the observance of religious festivals in a fraught world. Many of us who have grown up in the West post-WWII have done so in relative peace. Of course, relative is the important word in that sentence for there has been war and destruction enough, but still, for those of us privileged to inhabit this space and these decades, there has been a sense of "peace." Christmas and Easter are associated, for many of us, with "a peaceful and celebratory feeling." But what about now? Perhaps another question follows, "what good is it to celebrate events when inevitably the world slides into chaos?" More pointedly, "Of what use are these events to human progress if the transformation they point to never seems to arrive?" There will be time to comment on Christmas later, but Easter is indeed upon us. Enter the bunny! As Christianity spread into various locations and impinged upon many different cultures sometimes old religious beliefs were "re-purposed for use" by this new faith. The English word "Easter" comes from the Germanic goddess Eostre, associated with spring and fertility, whose symbol was the hare or rabbit. This association was a happy one for the event at the heart of Easter, the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, is one in which the idea of fertility is redefined and reapplied. Just as Spring issues forth in a riot of life and just as the rabbit never seems to stop reproducing so the Cross/Resurrection never seems to stop issuing new possibilities, new ideas, new movements of social justice and, ultimately, new hope. And if we remember that for most of the past 2000 years this fecund, fertile understanding of has been celebrated not just when things "feel safe," "peaceful" or particularly "celebratory," but, mostly, in the midst of turmoil, war and dislocation. The Cross, that is death, somehow keeps sowing the seeds of new life, the Resurrection. This because God is marvelously and mysteriously involved in it all. So if you feel the world is in turmoil, if you feel yourself caught up in anxiety and fear, or just confused, here's an invite: Live the rhythms of Holy Week (click here for schedule). It is in the unspooling of the events that lead to this great revivification project that we learn to live its rhythms personally. I am confident that doing so will fill you with wonder, awe, and new hope at the same time. I speak only for myself, of course, but it has so for me; and now on the cusp of another Holy Week, I can say I'm really looking forward to immersing myself in a reality far more persuasive than anything I'll discover by scrolling the headlines! So of course, the deeper meaning of Easter goes far beyond the Bunny, but then, strangely, it circles back to the symbol of new and seemingly endless new births.
Photo by Ana Achim on Unsplash (bunny & eggs) Photo by Mark Vihtelic on Unsplash (chicks) |
|
Holy Week and Easter - schedule of services13 April Palm Sunday: 8am and 9.30 Eucharist, procession with palms 15 April, Tuesday of Holy Week 10.30am Contemplative Prayer 17 April Maundy Thursday:
18 April Good Friday: 10am family and youth friendly service of meditations and music with Stations of the Cross 20 April Easter Sunday:
Christ Church Cathedral's Holy Week and Easter schedule includes a Tenebrae (Shadows) service on Wednesday evening and the Easter Vigil on Saturday night: CLICK HERE |
|
Garden Work PartyAn invitation to join in some weed pulling at the church - this Saturday, 12 April, 9-11am. Bring your favourite trowel or snippers. Or if you don’t like to garden, come and supervise. Rain or shine (there’s no bad weather, just bad clothing!) Coffee, tea and coffee cake on offer. - Sharon Richmond
Photo by Jörg Hofmeier on Unsplash |
|
Asking for a Frond...Everyone is invited to bring something long and leafy from their gardens for Palm Sunday!If you're able, please bring an extra frond for someone without access to suitable greenery. Image: surut wattanamaetee from Pixabay (palm) and Agata from Pixabay (forsythia & pussywillow, rosemary) |
|
Easter flowersA member of the Altar Guild will be in the narthex following the 8am and 9.30 services to collect monetary contributions for flowers to decorate the church for Easter. It is so joyful walking into a celebration of flowers and colour! For those who would like to drop off greenery and flowers from their gardens for decorating next Saturday, there will be buckets of water by the narthex "back door" (on the ramp) before the Good Friday service. - Karen Fenimore Photo by Sheelah Brennan on Unsplash |
|
Contemplative PrayerPlease join us on Tuesday mornings, 10:30 - 11:30, meeting in the choir area of the nave (at the front of the church), for a 20 minute contemplative sit with a time of prayer following.
Photo by Dawid Zawiła on Unsplash |
|
Thursday Eucharist scheduleThe book study following Thursday Eucharist will resume in May with Fr. Allen leading a "deep dive" into the Ignatian practice of Daily Examen Prayer. Thursday services coming up:
Photo by James Coleman on Unsplash |
|
Mar Elias Update April 9, 2025Some big changes at our sister church, Mar Elias Maronite Church in Rablah, Syria: Very sad news, Father Bassam has become extremely ill and has stepped down as priest after eight years of love and care to his community. He has returned to his hometown for treatment. Please pray for him! The new priest is Father Joseph, who arrived in Rablah with his family in late March. Please pray for them as they settle into their new lives in a new city. Also please pray for the Mar Elias congregation as they adjust to new leadership. In particular, please pray for Habbous’ family. With the new provisional government still working to stabilize the country after the coup in December, 2024, life is uncertain in Rablah. Things are currently quiet but there is uncertainty and concern about the economy and the tolerance of the ethnic Christian peoples in the region. On April 3, we transferred the balance of funds that St Philip raised in Nov 2024. We were able to send $2000 CND in time for Easter. The money has now been safely received by the church. Tony, who some of us met during the FaceTime call in December, will continue to oversee the Mar Elias missions. We look forward to his report on how the money was used to help the sick and the poor in the community. In September this year we’ll hold a fund raiser for Mar Elias so that we can send them additional support at Christmastime. Please join us for a light dinner to help us raise money – though do note that as Mar Elias is not a Canadian charity, we cannot issue tax receipts for donations. More information on the fund raiser will be announced closer to the date. Thank you everyone for your support - The St Philip Missions Committee Screenshot from https://tinyurl.com/397zrdrs |
|
Staying Grounded in Times of ChaosIn this week's video, Rebecca Yeo (Spiritual Care Provider/Chaplain at the University of Victoria) talks about Compline, or night prayer, as a daily practice of "saying goodnight to God." Rebecca's favourite resources for praying Compline are Mission St. Clare, Night Prayer from the Church of England, and the Supplementary to the BAS. |
Useful links
The Welcome pew leaflet, weekly parish news, current Anglican Journal, & Faith Tides, recent Parish Council minutes and more are all available in print in the narthex. Please let Anna know if more print copies are needed, on Sundays or for sharing with those who don't use email. News items for the bulletin are always welcome - deadline Thursday noon. More parish, diocesan and community notices on the News and Events sections of the parish website.
*****************
Rector: Rev. Allen Doerksen
email incumbent@stphilipvictoria.ca, cell 236-508-2928 Rector's day off: Friday
Wardens: Larry Anthony lanthony@stphilipvictoria.ca and Judith Armstrong jarmstrong@stphilipvictoria.ca
Office Hours: Mon 1-4.30, Wed & Thurs 9-4.30
250-592-6823
admin@stphilipvictoria.ca Thank you for avoiding scented products at church.
|
