Neil's Updated Digital Calendar April 17th 2020

The Last Supper (Club) An improvised Passion Play

Bishop Mary's Holy Week Gospel Based Discipleship Reflection

Holy Monday Video Message from our Bishop

A message To the Indigenous Churches and Disciples Across the Land

A message To the Indigenous Churches and Disciples Across the Land from The Most Rev. Mark MacDonald, National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop

Download the message from Bishop Mark MacDonald HERE

Prayers for Montreal During a Pandemic

Download Prayers for Montreal during a Pandemic HERE

Neil's Weekly Blog Post

This is a painting I love very much. In many ways it is a restrained depiction of the Crucifixion. Mary the mother of Jesus looks on sorrowfully on one side, John the beloved disciple stands on the other. Jesus is not the idealized Redeemer of so many depictions but is a pitiable creature as his life ebbs away. But look at the figure at the foot of the cross and you will find the emotional power of this scene. She is the Magdelene. A composite figure she is both the scandalous woman and the Disciple who loved much. Here she is, her hair is loose, her face is turned away but her hands, thrust into the air, communicate the depth of sorrow that must surely be expressed in the tears flowing down her face and the cry of anguish coming from deep within. But it is also an act of abandon to the One she loved so much.

It is that abandon that I find myself thinking about now, in this Holy Week when we cannot physically meet together. Yet the story we remember and the truth that we honour takes us to the foot of the cross to place there our hearts: broken, sorrowful, overflowing with love.

At moments of abandon I find truth in the words of Psalm 73: Whom have I in heaven but you? A truth that is both awe inspiring and powerfully comforting. For the truth is that we have no one else but God. Surely this crisis brings us to our knees in the recognition of something so much bigger, so very much out of our control that we simply have nowhere to turn but to the Living God. Yet how comforting that is, because in holding onto Christ we have God and He is awesome. When Jesus gave his life on the Cross we saw how far God was prepared to go to stand in solidarity with us, to redeem us and save us for himself. 

This Holy Week, let us then come before the Cross of Jesus and know that even in this time of peril we have somewhere to turn and someone to turn to. When all else falls away, we can throw up our hands in abandon and pray whom have I in heaven but you and find that God is enough.

Supper Club aka The Last Supper and final session of the 6 week Prayer Course

Who would have imagined when Jenna Smith asked me if I wanted to offer The 24-7 Prayer Course with her during Lent that we would have been in in a global pandemic and in a period of social isolation and that our need to come together and pray would be this great?

Edward Yankie, Kenneth Wallace, Neil Mancor and I are collaborating to offer an experimental, improvisational, creative and prayerful digital gathering on Monday April 6th from 6-7:30. This will afford us an opportunity for conversation, reflection and a chance to be together in community in the “upper room” of Supper Club.

Bring your own supper and a cup of wine or juice!

Let me know if you have questions or need help logging onto zoom. Click this link to join

Also join the Facebook event and Facebook group to stay connected

Love,

Lee-Ann

Updated List of Digital Services including Palm Sunday in the Diocese of Montreal

Download the newly updated list HERE

Updates from Dr. Eileen Scully and Jesse Zink's letter "Discerning the body: Eucharistic fasting and Covid-19"

Excerpted from the letter (Read the full letter)

“Many people have noted that while we may be fasting from the Eucharist, we can still feast on the word. I agree! In the college community, we have turned our weekly service into an extended Bible study. Other communities are doing the same thing. Christian communities that may not have previously had regular Bible study are learning how transforming this can be. There are ample resources online to support this work and more coming all the time. May God’s word be a light to our feet and a lamp to our path in this time (Psalm 119:105).

This pandemic is calling us to an extended fast, a sort of “super Lent.” (The word “quarantine” literally means “40 days.”) May this time, like Lent itself, be holy to us and a blessing to the church so that we may bless a world so deeply in need.”

Jesse Zink
Canon Theologian, Diocese of Montreal