banner photo by Janet Best
Supper Club meets weekly throughout the Covid-19 crisis
/We are continuing to meet weekly to provide prayer, pastoral care and friendship. These meetings will be unpolished and less curated but will focus instead on active listening and a ministry of presence during these uncertain times
Join HERE at 6 pm on Monday evenings
Please note that we will be meeting on Easter Monday April 13th
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
Prayers for Montreal During a Pandemic
/Download Prayers for Montreal during a Pandemic HERE
Neil's Weekly Blog Post
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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.
