Good day,

Coming this weekend! 

Saturday, September 13, The Guild of St. Joseph breakfast, 9:30am in the Trinity Centre.

Also on Saturday, the Apple Festival at St. James in Goulais, 1pm-3pm. 

It’s that time of year…Our local churches have been once again asked to help raise money for the Alzheimer Society through participating in the “Social With a Purpose” campaign. I’ll be contacting incumbents with this request in my very next email. 🙂

Free APLM webinar!! on the Vocation of Preaching – Next Thursday, September 18, 4pm, with Gordon Laithrop. I’ve already registered. Please join in by registering here:  https://liturgyandmission.org/2025/07/09/webinar-with-rev-gordon-lathrop-on-the-vocation-of-preaching/#more-5770

Lay Presiders’ Workshop!! Saturday, September 20, 10am – 2pm at the Cathedral. This workshop will be well worth attending even if you don’t think you’ll ever preside at a liturgy. Come be inspired through learning about what we do and why we do it. Please let me know you’re planning to attend so that I buy enough food for lunch. (susan.montague2@gmail.com)

The Annual Lay Readers’ Conference is September 26 and 27. Registration info was sent in last week’s email. For anyone who wants to attend but can’t make it to North Bay, I’ll be attending via Zoom in the Trinity Centre during the specified hours of the conference. You’re welcome to join me.

Holy Trinity, SSM, is having a Blessing of the Animals worship service on Saturday, October 4, 11am followed by refreshments. 

On that note, that forms the basis of my “Liturgical Note” As fun and enticing as you may think a blessing of the animals may be, St. Francis of Assisi absolutely does not bump the usual Sunday feast celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Please note #2 on p.15 of our BAS). Please keep good ol’ Francis on the Saturday where he belongs. The way to attract people into the Body of Christ is to live the life of God’s kingdom. That’s why the early church grew despite the fact that they were actually trying to keep their worship meetings a secret for fear of being persecuted – or killed.  

A great book that explains this growth of the early church is The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, written by Alan Kreider.  The four pillars that formed the foundation of thriving early Christianity were – and still are: prayer, worship, scripture study, and works of justice. The important thing was that all four of these pillars were practiced together as well as individually. 

For Your Devotions:

Monday, September 8th is the memorial of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Although information like this is not in our Scriptures, there is a writing dating from about 150 AD which says that Mary’s mother, Anna, was barren until visited by an angel after which, Mary was conceived. You may have noticed that our calendar celebrations are marked on the day of the death of the person being acknowledged but Mary is one of just three people whose birthday is celebrated. To find out why, follow this link:  https://www.thoughtco.com/nativity-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary-542466

 Wednesday, September 10th is the memorial of Edmund James Peck, a priest and missionary to the Inuit who died in 1924. His life in England got off to a rough start…When he was just 10 years old, his mother died and so he left school to work in a printing plant. His father died three years later. Peck joined the navy and eventually became a missionary headed for the Canadian North. He stayed among the Inuit from 1876-1884 then again in 1885-1892. His three children were born during this second stay. Peck is remembered not only for his evangelism but also for the Gospel texts he distributed in the native language of the Inuit. He notably chose many shamans to become the first Inuit ministers. For more info:  http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/peck_edmund_james_15E.html

Saturday, September 13th is the memorial of Cyprian, the Bishop of Carthage, martyred in 258. Cyprian has a fascinating and complicated story but I’ll give you a few tidbits. He was born around 200 to wealthy pagan parents and practiced as a lawyer before his conversion to Christianity.  He faced several persecutions from Rome during his time as bishop – during the first one, Cyprian went into hiding and lost his authority and much of his credibility. However, he did redeem himself in the years that followed and in subsequent persecutions. Cyprian did much to establish our current views on the Church and he laid out a convincing position on the importance/authority of bishops within the Church. One of his most famous quotes is, “He no longer has God for his Father, who does not have the Church for his mother.” This is found in his treatise On the Unity of the Catholic Church which was actually used later by bishops of Rome to pull rank on other bishops even though Cyprian had not supported that position. To read more:  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Cyprian-Christian-bishop

In the joy of Christ,

Susan