Incumbent’s Report, April 28, 2024
The Maundy Thursday dinner
The last six weeks at All Saints’ by the Lake have been extraordinarily rich and full. The second half of March was, of course, pretty much entirely devoted to preparations for Holy Week and then Holy Week itself. Palm Saturday, held amid heavy snow on the morning of March 23, was a great success (and considerably less chaotic than last year’s, thanks to advance planning!). We got through Holy Week without COVID outbreaks or power outages, which was a great relief, and the liturgies were deep and meaningful. On Maundy Thursday, in particular, we were astonished by the numbers who turned out for the dinner and service (and kept having to set up more chairs!). Good Friday and Easter Sunday were also significantly better attended than last year, and the Great Vigil of Easter was a high point as always.
Between the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday liturgies, All Saints’ hosted the (hopefully first annual) West Island Youth Retreat; 15 teenagers and young adults stayed overnight in the hall, baked hot cross buns, made liturgical art, and participated in the night watch in the chapel, before heading to Christ Church Beaurepaire for a delicious Good Friday breakfast.
And of course, we rejoiced with the Adeeko and Pelletier families as six of their members, ranging in age from 4 to 14, were baptized on Easter Sunday.
A huge Thank You!! to all the volunteers who pitched in to make Holy Week 2024 such a success!
I took most of the week after Easter off to recover, and am grateful to my mother, Gretchen Wolff Pritchard, for guest preaching on April 7 while visiting to see the total eclipse. The April Messy Church took place on the 12th of the month, and we once again had a much larger crowd than we’d been accustomed to. We’re realizing we need to put some new procedures in place in order for everyone to be able to learn and have a good experience – but what a great problem to have!
On April 13, the newly convened Finance Committee hosted a workshop to explain how parish finances work. The attendees brought lots of good questions and we had a great conversation! If you missed it and would like to see the slides or for it to be offered again, please let me, Ross or Adam know.
On April 16, the Archdeaconry of the St. Lawrence had its chapter meeting at St. Barnabas’, Pierrefonds. In addition to the usual pre-Synod business, we offered prayer and support to the representatives of the Parish of Vaudreuil in the aftermath of the devastating fire there the previous Sunday.
On April 17, I went to the Cathedral for a service, talk and dinner with the Dean of Coventry Cathedral, who gave a fascinating presentation about Coventry’s work of reconciliation through the Community of the Cross of Nails, which has been ongoing since the second World War.
The weekend of April 21, Yvonne and Terry capably handled worship while I was at the “You are Leaven” conference at Queen of the Apostles Retreat Centre in Mississauga with 60 lay and clergy people from across Canada. From Friday afternoon until Monday lunchtime, we shared creative worship and engaging workshops on spiritual formation for all ages, and the Montreal “team” (myself, Neil Mancor, Ben Stuchbery, Fresia Saborio, Joel Amis, and Sarah Wicks-Potter) met throughout the conference to discern how we would bring the “leaven” of spiritual formation back to this diocese! My share of the expenses for the conference – including travel – was a grand total of $25, thanks to a generous Council of General Synod grant that funded the whole event.
Meanwhile, the kitchen renovation is on the verge of launch, and thanks to the extraordinary generosity of the Fetherstonhaugh family as well as several other parish members, we will be able to do the sound booth and stained glass installation project at the same time. Bear with us for the next few months as our usually constrained physical space becomes temporarily even tighter!
As summer approaches, All Saints’ has much to celebrate. New members are arriving, programs are flourishing, ideas are sprouting. We are looking down the road toward further projects and a capital campaign.
If this rate of growth and activity continues, however, the Corporation will need to live more consistently into its role as a representative decision-making body. While we want to continue to hear input from everyone, a larger and more active church means a continual series of decisions that arise and matters that need to be dealt with. We will need to create structures and procedures that allow us to move forward at a rate than keeps up with the pace of change and development. If you have lots of ideas and opinions, maybe the place for you is on the Corporation, the committee that forms to lead the capital campaign, or in some other position of leadership!
And as always, of course, reach out to me directly if you want to talk.
In God’s peace,
Grace+
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