Hello,
I’m sending this later than usual since I’m still getting used to needing to remember to send on Thursday now instead of Monday…
Coming Soon:
Saturday, October 18th, 9:30am at Holy Trinity, SSM: The Guild of St. Joseph breakfast. This one is for the men only. Ladies will be welcome next month.
Also on Saturday, October 18th, 10:30am at St. George’s in Echo Bay: The Algoma Deanery Council Meeting. This is for all incumbents/priests-in-charge, wardens, treasurers, deanery warden of lay readers, and lay delegates to synod. Please send me a quick note if you plan to attend so that I can pass along the number of people needing food (susan.montague2@gmail.com).
Saturday, October 25th, at 9:30am (until 4:30pm) at St. Luke’s Cathedral: Part One of the Pastoral Visitation Workshop. For those of you with bad hips, knees, and/or backs, there will be plenty of opportunity for stretches and moving about. Again, please let me know if you plan to attend so that I can feed you. If it’s possible (and beneficial), we’ll find some way of live streaming and/or recording so that people who can’t get to St. Luke’s can attend remotely. Stay tuned…
Turkey Pot Pies for Sale by Holy Trinity, SSM: Individual size (or for two people, depending on how much you eat) for $7. Pies will be available for pick-up between 2:30-5pm on Wednesday, October 15.
Heads Up for November:
Saturday, November 1st, 4pm at Holy Trinity, SSM: All Saints’ Day Evening Prayer followed by fellowship.
Free Webinar – offered by APLM (Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Mission): Preparing for Matthew led by Agnes Choi. This should be a great resource for preachers. I’ll give you more detail when the event is closer.
Saturday, November 15th at St. Luke’s Cathedral: Part Two of the Pastoral Visitation Workshop. I’ll provide more detail when it’s closer to the time.
Saturday, November 29, 11am-3pm at Holy Trinity, SSM: Snowflake Tea & Seasonal Market, just $12 and, yes, we’ll have those fancy sandwiches (among other food items).
A Liturgical Note For You:
Since we’re reading today about one of the early church bishops who fought against a common heresy of his time, let’s talk about that because, as you’ll see, this topic can lead to something we all hold very dear – God’s blessings:
Slipping Into Heresy
Unfortunately, it’s easier than you may think to slide away from solid theology into heresy because, despite some people insisting to the contrary, what we encounter in the Bible can at times be difficult to understand and be interpreted in more than one way. Sometimes this is a very good thing – there are multiple layers of meaning to the scriptures we read and study. Also, as I’ve mentioned before, there are things in the Bible that are there in order to show us the struggles and missteps of God’s people as they got to know this God who was so very different from the “gods” they’d known before. These stories can be more of a “what not to do or think” rather than an example for us to follow.
If we have inaccurate thinking about God and God’s ways in our minds as we worship, then what we experience in our liturgies will be filtered through this thinking and end up reinforcing it. Why do I bring up liturgy when I’m talking about what we think? You’d probably say that the opposite of a heretical teaching would be an orthodox teaching, right? That’s sort of true. But did you know that “orthodox” does not mean right belief or right teaching? It means “right worship”. We are formed in our beliefs by our worship but we can be malformed if we are going into worship with some not-so-great theology in our heads. Anyway…
One of the most popular heresies of our modern time is known as the “prosperity gospel”. If you are following God’s ways then God will bless you with physical health and financial wealth. If you’re rich, God must love you very much. If you’re poor and/or diseased, then God must be angry with you about something. There are many, many Gospel stories in which Jesus teaches his disciples, and the crowd, that this is not the way God operates. The story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) that we heard not too long ago, is a prime example of Jesus trying to counter this thinking (among other important takeaways as well, of course).
You may believe that you don’t think this way but have you ever said – or thought to yourself – “There but for the grace of God go I”? That implies that you think God is favouring you but not the person in dire circumstances. You probably don’t actually think that is true so it is good to be aware of the implication of some common sayings that roll off our tongue. There are people around us who do believe the suffering experienced by others is the result of God punishing them for something.
We constantly thank God for our many blessings, don’t we? We should, indeed, be thankful to God. All that we are and all that we have are from God and belong to God. As we celebrate our Harvest Thanksgiving or the Canadian Thanksgiving Day, we do so with very thankful hearts acknowledging God is the source of all our abundance. But if we, or someone else, suddenly struggles financially and ends up homeless, does this mean we are no longer blessed by God? As we give our thanks, there is something important you need to know about God’s blessings. What is it? This is getting long so I’ll let you know next week. 
For Your Devotions:
Monday, October 13th is the commemoration of Edward the Confessor, King of England, who died in 1066. Edward was king from 1042 until his death. His reign was peaceful and prosperous – which is saying a lot for that time in history! Edward spent a lot of time in church, confessing his sins, which is why he earned the name of Confessor. For more information: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/edward_confessor.shtml. For an interesting legend about Edward meeting St. John the Evangelist, check this out: http://www.mercedesrochelle.com/wordpress/?p=383
Wednesday, October 15th is the commemoration of Teresa of Avila, a Spiritual Teacher and Reformer who died in 1582. At the tender age of seven, Teresa convinced her brother to join her in martyrdom but their uncle got wind of the idea and caught up to them as they were headed into the nearby city to ask the Moors to decapitate them! Teresa spent a few years in a Carmelite Convent in 1535 but it wasn’t until 1555, when she experienced a spiritual awakening, that she realized she was called to reform this order which had become quite lax. She founded convents which strictly adhered to the vow of poverty and which were 100% dependent on public donations despite the fact that she faced a lot of hostility because of this. Teresa worked tirelessly for reform regardless of this backlash and her own frail health. By the way, she is also the patron saint of headache sufferers. Hmmm. To read more: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Teresa-of-Avila
Wednesday, October 15th is also the commemoration of John of the Cross, mystic and spiritual teacher who died in 1591. (Teresa and John are acknowledged together because of their connection). Born in Spain, John experienced self-sacrificing love in the example of his father who had been disowned by his wealthy family after marrying a poor weaver. John became a Carmelite and, at the request of St. Teresa of Avila, began helping her with reform of the order. Feeling threatened by reforms (aimed at returning the order to a life of prayer), monks of the order kidnapped John, hid him in a small 6 x 10 foot cell and beat him three times weekly. It was in this cell that John wrote his spiritual poetry that has nourished Christians ever since. A life of poverty, hardship, and service to those with incurable disease and mental illness could have produced a bitter man but, instead, John experienced the joy of communion in God’s love. By the way, John managed to escape his cell after nine months. For more information check out p.306 here: https://www.anglican.ca/wp-content/uploads/ForAlltheSaints.pdf
Friday, October 17th is the memorial of Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop, martyred around 115 AD. Many experts place his death at least five years before that. Ignatius was born about 35 AD – just a few years after the crucifixion of Jesus and so he lived at the same time that many of the apostles were still alive! Being a church history geek, I find that really exciting. On the way to his death, Ignatius continued to write to fellow believers and it is in these letters that we find extremely early records of our three-fold church structure (i.e. bishops, presbyters, and deacons) already in place. In these letters we also find his arguments against the Docetists who claimed that Jesus’ human form was only an illusion and therefore his sufferings weren’t actually real. Some people say calling Ignatius a martyr is not accurate because he actually wanted to die in order to be with God and to become a word of the Lord instead of just another human voice. To read more: https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/martyrs/ignatius-of-antioch.html
Saturday, October 18th is the Holy Day of St. Luke the Evangelist. The link I’ve provided has a great video that provides many fascinating facts about this man who is believed to be the Luke – the beloved physician – mentioned in Paul’s writings and who was the only one who remained with Paul to the end. Because of our modern concept of ‘physicians’ we think that Luke must have been independent and well-off but, it was actually common at that time to train household slaves in medicine so that the family would have access to their own private doctor. It’s a good reminder that we mustn’t make presumptions about Scripture based on our modern thinking (but we do that all the time, don’t we?) For more info: https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=76
In the joy of Christ,
Susan
Deanery of Algoma 