Assembly

Yes, I know that this blog entry is coming up on the same day as the last one, I just never found a spare moment to write about the last conference last week. But at least I am getting to this past weekend today! (I won't go into a huge explanation of everything, but if something catches your interest let me know and I can share more with you!)

I just got back from Assembly a few hours ago. Assembly is a meeting with representation from each parish in the Anglican Parishes of the Central Interior (APCI - the "region" I am a part of) which meets every two years. It's a time to gather and be together, to hear from the different councils and ministry groups, go through resolutions, nominate people to the councils, and share in celebration. This years Assembly was no exception, it was wonderful! I came home physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted - but it was good! I have no idea how you become physically exhausted when you are sitting in a chair for hours at a time, but it happened!

We had Rt. Rev. Barry Clarke from the Diocese of Montreal join us. We are beginning a companion relationship with them. Our relationship together will include a lot of prayer for one another, twinning of parishes, creating opportunities for exchange (clergy exchanges, youth, lay, ect..), programs between one another, and lots more!

I belong to the Task Force on the Future of APCI, over the last few years we have met a number of times to look at what the future of APCI might be. Part of our mandate was to bring some suggestions and direction to this Assembly.  And so we did, we are sending delegates and their parishes into a journey for a year, a journey of collecting stories as we all discern what it is we are called to be and do in this place at this time. So up came "Discerning the Way Forward." I gave a five minute presentation on the "Youth Perspective" and this was just the beginning of me talking at this meeting... In a years time we will gather together and and share our stories, and look at the future tasks and possibilities again. I am excited for us to gather and share together!

We went over the information for our Nominating Assembly which will take place on March 7, 2008. We are going to be nominating a new Bishop as Bishop Gordon is retiring at the end of December. I am also a part of the Nominating Search Committee. 

We also heard from some of our First Nations brothers and sisters, along with from the elders. They shared with us the Healing Journey. It was a great and moving presentation. Long in length but powerful in content. 

For nominations I allowed my name to stand for Coordinating Council once again, and also for General Synod - both youth positions. I was elected for both positions, Coordinating Council meets twice a year and General Synod is taking place June 3-11th, 2010 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I am excited to be a part of both groups. 

I, along with another youth delegate, gave a report on Generation 2008 - the conference which my first blog entries were about. That went well. And then there were the resolutions... yes resolutions. With someone who motions it, someone who seconds it, they speak to the motion, we "debate" it, call for the question, and vote. Some are quick, and others not so quick. 

I seconded the motion asking for permission from our "Suffragan Bishop to allow clergy whose conscience permits, to bless same-sex couples following their duly solemnized and registered civil marriage, where at least one party is baptized, and to authorize an appropriate rite of blessing and guidelines for its use." I don't know if any of you have heard about this issue in the Anglican Church of Canada, but it is a major one, with two distinct sides, and even to the point of parishes leaving the Anglican Church of Canada. Even though I knew that I supported the motion fully, it took me a few days to say I would second it, just because I knew of the distinct sides and different feelings of the people. I didn't expect to change anyones opinion but to allow mine to be heard. I believe that it is time for the church to accept everyone, to really live out the commandment to love one another. I believe by not offering the blessing to those in same-sex unions we are not inviting everyone to be a part of our church. Everyone deserves to be blessed, and no one likes to feel not included. I was anxious to see where the conversation would go and what would happen. After one person spoke to the motion another person tried to table it, at vote it was only supported by five people or so. So discussion continued into Sunday. After everyone who wanted to speak spoke, which might I add it was emotional listening to the feelings and opinions of both sides, we took it to a vote! And 72% voted in favor of the motion, 20% against, and 8% abstained from vote. So by quite a percentage the resolution was carried, the Bishop concurs with the decision from the people but clergy can't go out and act upon the motion. The Bishop has some discussions to have with other Bishops, and also has some guidelines to authorize and make. And yet, it's great; it's great that the people of APCI have talked about it, and came to a conclusion, were respectful to one another, and our voices have been heard!!

Yeah, I'll leave it at that, I could ramble on a bit more - but I leave you with that extensive amount! It was a great Assembly, great to see so many people, great to be a part of the work of the church, and fabulous to work together with so many inspirational and knowledgeable people. 

Next weekend I am at Sorrento Centre for Crusillo (A short Course on Christian Living), I don't know much about it, but I'm excited, and will find more out soon! Then I am home for a weekend doing youth group stuff, then off to Toronto for a meeting, back home for the next weekend, then down to Kelowna for another meeting. Am I excited? Thrilled!

I would love to hear your thoughts and what you are doing in your life. I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the beauty of the fall leaves. 

This blog entry and any other before it express the opinions of myself, and not of anyone else. Including within the Anglican Church of Canada. 

British Columbia and Yukon Anglican Youth Movement Fall Conference!

Ah, youth conferences. It's a time of a tremendous amount of fun, a time of learning, adventures, meeting new people, and seeing old. This was the annual British Columbia and Yukon Anglican Youth Movement (BCYAYM) Fall Conference, held October 10-13, 2008. It has happened for I think around eighty years; youth across British Columbia and Yukon join together on Thanksgiving weekend. This year it was held at St. Paul's Cathedral in Kamloops, but the conference moves around year to year - next year we are down around Vancouver. This weekend we had Primate Fred Hiltz (the "head" of the Anglican Church of Canada) and Bishop Gordon (my bishop) join us as guest speakers and musicians. 

Both ++Fred and +Gordon are wonderful. (I am standing next to +Gordon, on the right side of the picture) I enjoy talking with them, they support youth ministry, have fabulous things to say, and are really just wonderful people. ++Fred danced with us all at our dance, and played a wide game with us. It was fabulous! 

The people at BCYAYM Fall Conference are great. This year we had thirteen youth from Savona attend; and I got to see four of my staff from Sorrento Centre, one person from the Generation 2008 gathering, and lots of people I hadn't seen for a long time. Visiting with the people I don't get to see often makes me very happy, it's so nice to keep in touch with everyone over the years. And there were a few opportunities to talk about youth ministry with people!

Rev. Dan Hines (Ministry Developer in Savona) was our theme speaker for the weekend. Our talks were based around the movie, "Lars and the Real Girl" and each section had scripture brought in. We all enjoyed the topics of discussion. 

So, we sang, spent time in worship together, played wide games and icebreakers, met new people, had some free time, had a dance, went to the Wildlife Park, took a night hike - in the rain - and lots more! We all had a blast!

It was also time for us to nominate five more people to be on the BCYAYM Council. After being asked many times, after having been requested to allow my name to stand, and possibly even threatened (okay, maybe not:o) I finally allowed my name to be put forward. And without a surprise to me, I was elected for one of the positions. Our first meeting is in November, and I really am excited for this work, they are a great organization and do great ministry.

On our last evening together (Sunday night) we had a healing service. This is a service where emotions come out as we pray and if we choose, go and talk to one of the clergy. It's a time of healing, of acknowledging the hurt and pain in our lives. From confusion about where life is taking us, what we are called to do, family situations, relationships, school, friends, and the list goes on. It's time spent in silence with soft music in the background. It's a time to be with one another, to support and show love to one another. It's a time of a great number of tears. It's an incredibly hard service, but extremely amazing and powerful. It's a service where you can't keep your feelings hidden, a service where everyone realizes each one of us has pain somewhere. 

The whole weekend is fabulous. I look forward to the work I will now be doing with the council, and also for next years event. If you want to see some pictures I've put them up on the Savona Youth Group picture site: www.savonayouthgroup.piczo.com. Take a look, they show what we actually did! (The site is in the middle of being updated, but go under "recent pictures!")

Pictures!

So, I've learned how to put pictures on the blog, now that can be a good thing but might also mean that I spend way to much time doing something like this, and have way to much fun!! Oh yeah... and that studying I should get to! Anyway, here are some pictures from the summer/fall!

Generation 2008, a lot of my first blogs are from this amazing conference, and there is 

the group pictures. I had a ton of fun and am still reflecting on the experience. The skills I learned, conversations I had, and people I met have made a huge difference in both my life and ministry. 

That beautiful building is the one I lived in for four months at Sorrento Centre. Other than not having air conditioning for the first two heat waves it was all good. And I loved the building. The downstairs had a "living room" and offices, and upstairs was the girls living quarters... with one bathroom! The other picture is of all the staff, red hair and all. They were great to work with, couldn't have asked for a better group! The earlier blogs are filled with camp memories!

Youth Group!! Yep, youth group has started once again this year. (This picture is of the Juniors!) I am doing Junior Youth Group for grades 5-7 and Senior Youth Group for grades 8-12, both groups meet weekly on Friday nights. We have a ton of fun, I love it! It's a time of learning and leading for me. Part of this years plans include "equipping leaders for the future" I have three older youth who are helping out with Junior youth group, it makes a big difference with them there and I really couldn't do it without them! We do everything in youth group, games, activities, fundraising, events, prayer, worship, and overall just have a ton of fun. This year also includes a number of retreats and conferences, events in Kamloops with other youth, and a few sleepovers!

This coming weekend we have the British Columbia and Yukon Anglican Youth Movement Fall Conference. It should be a ton of fun once again, and this year we have the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada with us!! It is also a chance for me to visit with people I only get to see once or twice a year, and see some of my staff from the summer again! Yep - I'm excited! 

The weekend after that I am in Williams Lake at Assembly (a big church meeting), and then the following weekend at Sorrento Centre for Crusillo. But I'll update you on all of that when it happens. 

I have somehow made it so that you can now leave comments, I guess I didn't have that option available before, oops! I hope everyone is doing well!

Buenos dias! (Good Morning)

Well, school has started once again -- whether I was ready for it or not. I went from Sorrento Center right into residence and then spent my first week housesitting and "teen-sitting". And that sums up the life of Melissa Green, "just keeps going!" But I like it, I would probably go crazy if I had nothing to do!

My classes are going well so far: Spanish is going to be a challenge, anyone who learns new languages easily I applaud you, hopefully I at least can remember enough to do something with this language! English - Intermediate Composition 1, I love it the professor is great and the content interesting! English - Survey of Canadian Literature Beginning - 1950, well seen's how I'm not a fan of history it will be interesting to see what I make of this course, every Tuesday from 6:30pm - 9:20pm... ouch! Geography, Lands and Waters... the professor needs to talk slower, this class has been cancelled this week - which means no school tomorrow!! Sociology, Women in Global Perspective: this course looks like it's going to be great, very interesting. Although I am not looking forward to the professor switch after the midterm or the 50minute group presentation. 

Overall school is going well. Second year has a lot more reading it seems, or maybe it's just my selected courses. I have yet to venture home, my schedule has just not allowed it. So tomorrow will mark the first time in over two months that I get to go home, and I'm starting youth group and Sunday school this week, so excited!! I also signed up for a first aid course next weekend, which I went to pick up the course book I was given this massive 27 chapter book that has to be read prior to the course - why I ever thought this was a good idea I have no idea. 

Now that school has started I am looking forward to a number of different church activities and meeting. October will be over full, but I'm so excited!! Now to just get those reports read.... I miss Sorrento Centre dearly, and its rather odd not living with eleven other girls, and having to once again do my own cooking and washing dishes, by the time I get used to it I will leave again! 

I'm excited, the book I ordered came in, "The Gospel According to the Simpsons Leaders Guide" it was suggested to me by a number of people for the Senior Youth Group, so I'll take a read through it and figure something out! I also ordered two books through the Anglican Book Centre, can't wait for those to show up!

And now I am rambling... I guess that means I should go read over my Spanish one more time before class. I hope that fall has been a good start for everyone, I would love to hear from you. 

Take care!

Rain, rain, and visitors

Rain, I love the rain. The sound  of it, the beauty of it, and the overall joy it gives to our world - I love it all. We have been getting a lot of rain here over the last few, accompanied by a fair amount of wind and also some thunder and lightening. To the extent that we had to shut down the office computers this morning as the storm was directly above us. I find it exciting in a very odd way, I guess its just different from the hot weather we have been having all summer, which I must admit can get boring and well very hot. 

Well, when my family decides to come and visit me they all come at once! On Sunday my mom and Sara, Wesley, Taylor, Rhys, and Aaron came to visit for the afternoon. It was so nice to see them again, we spent the afternoon at the beach and then had dinner. They have grown and matured so much, it's really neat. Yesterday my Aunty Jamie and Drew stopped in to say hi and stayed for dinner, it was a really good surprise to see them. The office had called up to where I live and told me that my aunt from Calgary was here, I was extremely confused as to who it could possibly be. This evening Kevin, Daryl, and Dale came by on their way from Calgary for a short visit, it was so nice to see them. I love visiting with my family, and I can't wait to be around them all again. 

Our days left here at Sorrento Centre are becoming quite few, and some of my staff have already started going home, it saddens me to see them go. We have build a community here, really a family here. And after two months of living with them all, and four months of living here with Heather its going to be hard to leave. (Heather has pretty much become my older sister for those who don't know... and we take care of each other, like our moms would!) And yet it signifies the end of the summer and the beginning of the next adventure in life. For four of my staff this adventure is going off to university for the first time. 

Bluegrass week has been going good, the music is nice and not too continuous and the people for the most part are great. This Saturday is the festival, we expect close to 1200 people here on site. It is going to be crazy, an experience that will not be forgotten!

School starts up again, I'm not sure if I am totally ready to go back to lectures and assignments yet but that will be what happens. I am staying in residence once again, and so is Stewart - he is going into the culinary arts program. It's going to be cool getting to bug Stewart and be around him whenever I can find him... it will be like we were little! 

Next Monday I am heading into Kamloops for a meeting for a group I am part of. Task Force on the Future of APCI, its a group that is looking at where APCI (Anglican Parishes of the Central Interior) is going in our future. Will we stay as we are? Go back to what we were? Become something new? Or join an already functioning diocese. I believe we have a facilitator joining us at this meeting who will assist us in this discernment and figuring out a plan of action. I'm excited to see the members of the group once again. 

Tomorrow I am not working, so I get to sleep in and then attend worship and the staff meeting. Then Heather and I are going to her place to visit with her family and such for the afternoon. With that being said.... I'm going to bed! Enjoy the last week of summer!!

Music... EVERYWHERE!!

That's right... there is music everywhere, literally! We are now well into the Swing week and every building I enter or corner I turn outside finds a new groups wonderful sounds. It is beautiful and amazing, the only time I wish it was not there is at 11pm curfew when I want to go to bed, and my staff want to sleep! I'm amazed that the talent here though, the next two weeks will be Bluegrass, with even more music, more people, and more craziness. This means its just over two weeks before summer is over, I'm done at Sorrento Centre, and school starts. It makes me sad in a way, I've lived with my staff for two months, and we've gotten to know each other. And I've lived with Heather for four months, we are practically sisters - so it'll be weird leaving the family, support, and atmosphere which are present here. 

One of the lady's who has been here for the summer, Jody, is leaving on Saturday. This saddens me deeply, as she became my second mom while I've been here... at least that is what we all say here. And she is not just leaving, but leaving to the other side of the country. We've exchanged lots of laughter, words, conversations, frustrations, thoughts, and ideas. I'll be sad to see her leave but I know she is going into a future of opportunities. 

The office is going well but oh so busy. I've put through so many payments, talked to so many people, made mistakes - fixed them, memorized codes, learned how to use programs, and got things done. The funny part is by the time the summer is over I will have it all learned... and then I will leave... but I've been assured by some of the office staff that I can come back.... I guess that means I'm doing a good job!

My mom and some of the kids are probably stopping by on Sunday, I am so excited to see them. It's been almost two whole months since I've seen them. And once school starts my new busy schedules starts also!

Now I must go and respond to a whole bunch of emails before I do curfew check and go to bed to read my book! I hope your summer is very enjoyable!

Anglican Programming, is over...

Well, the end of Anglican Programming officially ended on Friday. It means that we survived the five weeks of programming but it is also sad. All the work we went through to make a program and oversee it being run has ended. Last week was full of "lasts". The last campfire, variety night, closing eucharist, and dance. So now I will be working in the office, starting tomorrow. I will also be spending a fair amount of my time next week writing the final summer report for the children and youth programming. 

The Saturday before week five started we took the staff on an outing into Kamloops. We gave them some time at the mall, went and watched Batman, and went for dinner. I slept through parts of Batman, this is what happens when Melissa finally gets to sit down and stop for awhile. Three board members of Sorrento Centre drove us all in, which was very nice of them. And the staff had a great time off site!

Week four was good, a very long time ago now so I don't remember much of it! The music leadership for week four was amazing, just a great group of musicians! Week five, our last week, was amazing but sad. Jay, our summer liturgist/chaplain, left early on Thursday morning which was extremely sad. We had a going away party for Jay on Wednesday night, we were all disappointed about Jay leaving. Jay has provided me with so many opportunities and encouragement over the summer. I've written prayers of the people, presided at a number of services, and had many conversations about life and the church. I oversaw the running of both the Eucharist service on Thursday, and the closing service on Friday. It was really cool because Bishop Jim Cruickshank (former Bishop of Cariboo - what was my diocese) was there and presided. It was interesting because he started asking me what we were doing and when. To organize the service, and serve communion, among other things, along side with Bishop Jim was just a great experience. Bishop Jim remembers me when he was still Bishop, I was the youngest Sunday school teacher at the time, and my parish wanted the world to know! :0) He is thrilled with my work in the church in the present time, and was so happy to see me working at Sorrento Centre. +Jim was the first director of the Centre... many years ago. Okay... one more thing about +Jim, he loves to dance and is a great dancer. He had me spinning, and dancing more than I normally do at the dance on Friday night. And when I was talking with Mark (the music director for the week, +Jim's dear friend... I met him last year) he came over and said that if he wasn't going to dance with me then he was taking me back. 

Last Monday night while I was coming back from getting my laundry at 11:30pm someone started ringing the bell which is only suppose to be rung during emergencies. As I looked into the distance I saw bright orange flames. A tent on site caught on fire because a lamp fell over, a tent with three children in it at the time. The mother got the children out, she had smoke inhalation, otherwise everyone was fine. But we had to go into full emergency protocol, and I didn't get into bed until 2:20am - after everything was sorted out and all was fine. When I laid in bed I began to realize how much worse the whole situation could have been, I'm pretty sure I went into minor shock as I was freezing and shaking quite well. It was a miracle that was witnessed at Sorrento Centre, we couldn't have asked for a better turn out for the situation. It was scary, but I've learned that you just do what needs to be done. Since coming here I have mastered the ability to just do what needs to be done, and do it quickly and efficiently. For the rest of the week I had people coming up to me and telling me how great of a job I did when I was able to announce to the guests that they could return to their accommodation if they were in the buildings. That I stayed calm, organized, and said words of comfort. These comments mean a lot, although I sometimes wish I could see myself doing these things that people think are so wonderful. I suppose this is where trusting what others are saying comes into play. 

So now we have a week of Pentecostal Pastors, then Swing, and then two weeks of Bluegrass. It's going to be busy but very fun (I hope!). Summer is almost over, I am done here on the 31st of August and start school on September 2nd. Then youth group and Sunday school will start and I will begin attended meetings and councils, and try and do school work at the same time. I'm hoping to go home in the next few weeks, it's been a very long time since I've seen my family. I'm hoping to start planning youth group and Sunday school activities/events/lessons during August, between work and everything else. 

Let me know how your summer is going... I hope you are all enjoying it. 

Take Care! 

Love and prayers,

Melissa