Hello,
Coming Soon:
Thursday, November 6, 4-5pm at the Trinity Centre, SSM: Prayer Study – continuing our exploration of contemplative prayer. Feeling the presence of God is an amazing, indescribable experience that I pray everyone will know. Come and learn with us…
Also Thursday, November 6 – a free webinar at 1pm. “Preparing for Matthew” – a preaching workshop led by Agnes Choi; sponsored by APLM (Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Mission). Please email me (susan.montague2@gmail.com for the Zoom link).
Saturday, November 8th, 9:00am at Holy Trinity, SSM: The Guild of St. Joseph breakfast, $10 (given to multiple charities at the end of the year). Women are welcome to join in this one.
Saturday, November 15th at St. Luke’s Cathedral and online: Part Two of the Pastoral Visitation Workshop. 9:30am – 4pm with lunch and breaks provided.
Sunday, November 16th at Holy Trinity, SSM: Grey Cup Watch Party! I’m making nachos 
6pm kick-off.
Wednesday, November 26th, 10am at Holy Trinity: The Annual ACW Corporate Eucharist followed by fellowship. Our church bakers will be making cinnamon buns so bring your toonies.
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: Marking Remembrance Day
With Remembrance Day approaching it is important to know what we should (and shouldn’t) do in our churches on the Sunday before (Nov.9).
Remembrance Day is a very important and solemn occasion that we should, indeed, mark with ceremony. You can check with your closest Legion Branch to find out the details of the ceremonies taking place on November 11 in your area (the one for the Soo is 11am at the GFL Memorial Gardens). You will notice, though, that “Remembrance Day” is not a Christian calendar observance. If you check our November calendar on p.32 of the BAS (p.xii of the BCP), it’s not there.
What about in our churches? Congregations could choose to have a Remembrance Day service on November 11 and then process (or drive) to a war memorial, cenotaph, or graveyard for prayers of remembrance. But what about on Sunday, Nov.9? It is appropriate to have a Holy Eucharist or Morning Prayer worship service that names, in the Prayers of the People, parishioners who have died over the past year and those who have died in wars. This worship service could also contain an Act of Remembrance. Immediately before the “Sending of the Church” would be the time to name the parishioners who have died in war and served in war. Prayers for the faithful departed can be said along with a prayer for the peace of God to come and end all wars and other violence. The propers for All Souls Day would be used for a “Remembrance Sunday” worship service.
Please note that this Sunday worship service is not a Remembrance Day service – it is not meant to replace the cenotaph service or Legion Branch service that takes place on November 11. The Sunday worship is the commemoration of the departed within the context of the usual Sunday Feast of our Lord. Something to live by: “If it’s not in the book [BAS or BCP] then it’s not in your liturgy.” (Another good thing to remember is “Common practice doesn’t mean correct practice.”) Here are a few Remembrance Sunday resources that you would be allowed to use, in the Diocese of Algoma, without first needing to get permission from Archbishop Anne:
For Your Devotions:
Monday, November 3rd (transferred from Sunday) is the memorial known as the Commemoration of All Faithful Departed. This is very different from All Saints’ Day and is not a Principal Feast and thus does not get celebrated on the Sunday. This is the day we pray for our dead loved ones. It was based on the idea that prayer could help dead loved ones more hastily pass through purgatory into heaven. This sparked controversy in the Church – for one thing, many scholars argue that the concept of purgatory is not supported by Scripture – and so this day was not liturgically celebrated until the Middle Ages. Here is what the website at the other end of the link says: “Whether or not one should pray for the dead is one of the great arguments which divide Christians. Appalled by the abuse of indulgences in the Church of his day, Martin Luther rejected the concept of purgatory. Yet prayer for a loved one is, for the believer, a way of erasing any distance, even death. In prayer we stand in God’s presence in the company of someone we love, even if that person has gone before us into death.” https://www.franciscanmedia.org/commemoration-of-all-the-faithful-departed/
Monday, November 3rd is the commemoration of Richard Hooker, Priest and Teacher of the Faith who died in 1600. Hooker was an English theologian and most definitely one of my main Anglican heroes. His writings played a massive role in shaping what we know as ‘Anglicanism.’ One of my favourite quotations of his addresses those who believe that, if Scripture doesn’t say it, it must be prohibited. Here is Hooker’s response: “It is no more disgrace for scripture to have left a number of…things free to be ordered at the discretion of the Church, than for nature to have left it unto the wit of [people] to devise [their] own attire.” Please read more about this formative figure here: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Hooker
Tuesday, November 4th is the memorial of The Saints of the Old Testament. Today we remember that our faith did not begin with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem but with Abraham and Sarah long before. The Roman Martyrology has a long list of those considered “saints” of the Old Testament which may sound odd in our ears because we never refer to them as saints…people like Moses, Elijah and King David. You may wonder at calling some of them saints – Moses killed a man, David took another man’s wife. Living a life according to the will of God is what they all have in common. If you would like to read a bit more, see page 334 here: https://www.anglican.ca/wp-content/uploads/ForAlltheSaints.pdf
Friday, November 7th is the commemoration of Willibrord, the Archbishop of Utrecht, Holland, and missionary who died in 738. We actually don’t know very much about Willibrord but, I find it amazing that way back then someone born in England could study in both France and Ireland when traveling must’ve been difficult, lengthy, and dangerous. Speaking of dangerous, Willibrord began his missionary work in Frisia in 690 and had to leave the region several times because of war. He died a natural death but other missionaries to the area weren’t so lucky (Boniface was martyred in 754). http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/279.html
In Christ,
Susan
Deanery of Algoma 