It's about relationships!

Today we began with some awesome and totally fun interactive community building, get-to-know-you games! Yep - totally my thing!! We did an activity where we had to pass the ball in the same sequence within the group, then another ball was added, and then another! Then we had to use a metal ring with strings coming off it to balance and move a tennis ball to another table and back to our home table... that was a fun challenge! Then it continued use the metal ring, strings, elastic bands, and marker and without touching the marker write a word or short phrase the shares what virtue you want to take into the General Synod proceedings over the next few days. So much fun!

The Bishop from Jerusalem and his wife gave a great presentation. She talked a lot about

women's involvement in the church, the programs that are being initiated, and how that is all going. I was completely fascinated by it all! She said, "we want to erect bridges not walls... there are people behind the walls who are like ourselves" so, let us build some bridges! They

are beginning to engage in conferences and programs and women are being activated to reach their goals! How wonderful!

The youth had a great lunch with the Primate today, we shared a lot about our experiences of General Synod so far, our hopes and dreams, our struggles, and how we are feeling. We asked questions and provided answers. It was really wonderful to have the Primate spend that time with us and commit to us the time and encouragement to respond and speak as we are called to. Oh - and the youth led Johnny Appleseed for the grace this evening...

We heard some more about the Vision 2019 after lunch... watched the movie again!

(Seriously - go watch it... it is amazing! See link in previous post... let me know what you think of it!) The report and project are great... the conversation was once again wonderful.

We tackled a few governance pieces of work... this is a big thing for the Anglican Church of Canada right now. And our discussions around some of the resolutions was pretty deep and engaging at times. We need to begin to chart out new course... and much conversation and some hard decisions will need to be made.

After dinner we heard a great presentation from the Primates World Relief and Development Fund, actually I was part of it. The presentation shared the work that the PWRDF has been doing over the last 50 years - yep - it is the 50th Anniversary of the PWRDF! We saw fifty images from the work that has been doing in Canada and around the world which were so beautiful. My part was nice and simple, just reading a few sentences... by the way, Anglicans across Canada have contributed over $94,420,194... that is almost 94.5 million dollars to the work of the PWRDF! Amazing - yes!

Then directly following that presentation Judy Steers, youth initiatives staff person, gave the youth initiatives presentation. It was absolutely wonderful and reminded me once again why I am doing youth ministry today and also that yes, I am called to youth ministry today, in this place, at this time! Bits of the presentation also brought tears of joy and filled with memories

from my experiences at Generation 2008 and Ask and Imagine 2009. I learned so much at those events and went home so equipped to engage further in ministry and look at the questions before me. I'll quote Judy, "youth ministry is not youth group, it is what you do when you invite a young person to come along side you and work with you." Youth ministry is relationally based - it is all about the relationships!! Thank you Judy for all that you do!!

After those two wonderful presentations we went back to a few pieces of resolutions, governance and philanthropy then into Jazz Vespers and then I called it a night! No social for me today... I decided it would be smart to spend some time along getting a few things done!

General Synod begins!

Well... this is going to be rather brief as I am exhausted! It is a good exhaustion though... today was our first full day of General Synod and what fun it is!

Last night we had our Opening Service at the Cathedral which was just amazing, I love beginning things with worship. It's grounding, it reminds us of who we are and what we are doing and why we are doing it! Worship brings us together as the community gathered and pray, sing, hear scripture, and are fed. And they had these really awesome and amazing sails that each Ecclesiastical Province processed in after... they were lovely (pictures below!) The whole thing was just wonderful.

Today we jumped right in to resolutions and eventually made it to the resolutions from the Governance Working Group - this gave me my first experience of really having no idea how to vote, and observing much debate and conversation taking place. It was interesting and will continue to be.

Oh, wait! We got to do some awesome and amazing icebreakers and get to know you activities... It was great, but of course I think that... I do these things all time time! Handshakes, routines, switching name tags, don't stop talking... and on it went! So much fun...

We also heard the first presentation from the Vision 2019 group... this is the first part of their report. (It's a great report and you can find it at anglican.ca... but it is long!) The group began with an amazing video which you can watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JacrWZxAhgE&feature=player_embedded The video introduces the 5 Marks of Mission which is a key component for us as we look forward into the next decade. Take a look at it, let me know what you think!

So yes, General Synod is happening and I'm enjoying it. It is tiring but so very interesting. Lots of laughter, lots of joy, and lots of memories! And the people I am meeting here are amazing... I'm enjoying conversation and meeting people from all over.

If you are interested in General Synod at all check out www.anglican.ca - you can even watch the proceedings live... check it out! (Hint: Look at the agenda and plan to watch the part that might be of great interest to you!!)

I am sure I could share more... but sleep is calling my name!

Sleepy Wednesday

So today, Wednesday, May 2nd, was a very sleepy and lazy day. I don't know if this is from the exhaustion from the last few days of touring Halifax or from the fact that people are beginning to arrive for General Synod and I know what is to come!

So, what does a lazy day look like for Melissa you wonder...? Well, I literally got up, went to breakfast, went back to my room to reply to some emails then went back to bed. Yes, I went back to bed! And I slept... in and out of consciousness, right through lunch! I know, crazy!! Finally at around 2pm I decided to physically get up and do something... a walk sounded great at this point!

I walked to the Atlantic School of Theology (AST) which is just down the street and enjoyed the silence, the birds, the sunshine, and the time outside by myself. AST seems to be quiet small butvery nice.

I investigated their library... but had to leave after thirty minutes as there were so many fascinating books and went into their chapel where I sat for a chunk of time and enjoyed the empty space and took advantage of the silence to pray and do some thinking.

It was great. The really cool thing about AST is that it is right on the ocean... just a small little piece of the ocean but it looks so peaceful

and lovely. Ah, I love nature - especially when it is quiet and I am alone!

After my time at AST I went back to St. Mary's to find that many, many people

had arrived... I found my registration package (that took at least thirty minutes because of the awesome conversations I got to have along the way!) and headed to dinner. The group from APCI had not arrived yet so there were very few familiar faces about and at this point I really just wanted to see a familiar face. Remember that I have been on my own for a few days at this point! Then I saw Bishop John from Diocese of Kootenay... so I had dinner with him and the Bishop of Saskatoon!

I spent the rest of the evening with a few of the youth that I had met before, found most of the APCI group - yahoo... I'm not alone anymore!!

Tomorrow starts my adventure with General Synod... I have nominating committee at 10:00am, orientation in the afternoon, and then at some point we have out opening servic

e! I don't know what else will be happening tomorrow... but I'm sure it will be a different pace then the last few days!

Please pray for us all as we meet together!

(Hey - doesn't that look like a BC train??)

Halifax History...

Yesterday was a very grey day... I started it off by going to visit St. Paul's Anglican Church... it is the oldest Protestant place of worship in Canada and opened in 1950. It was lovely, I'm so glad I got to visit it before the members of General Synod all go there for one of our services. The church is filled with tons of history, actually, Halifax seems to be filled with lots and lots of history!

St. Paul's is also the birthplace of Sunday School in Canada... imagine that! Underneath the floor of the church many early worshipers are buried, including Charles Inglis who was the first Anglican Bishop of Nova Scotia.

One of the windows is said to have the apparent profiled in it of Rev. Jean-Baptiste Moreau who was an assistant at the parish during the time of the Halifax Explosion on December 6, 1917. After the explosion their vestry was used as an emergency hospital.

There is a lot of detail in the church and lots of fascinating things to read and see. There is even a pew reserved for the Queen herself! I spent an hour in the church looking at it all and talking with the lovely Parish Administrator.

After my tour of the church I went to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and had a great three hours soaking up all the history. I was most interested in the information on the Halifax Explosion and the Titanic. I have always been interested in the two events but now more then ever I look to learn more. Both sections of the museum brought tears to my eyes as I read and listened to the stories of what people went through.

The pictures to the left is of a deck chair from the Titanic that was picked up by a rescue boat as they picked up dead bodies... the only one. The other Titanic story that caught my attention was that of the unknown body and how the sailors who picked up the child also paid for his burial and service... it was the only child recovered from the water and his burial was also in remembrance of all the children who were lost in that tragedy.

Everything about the Halifax Explosion amazed me... the stories, the pain, the sequence of events, the aftermath, the recovery. I want to know more... I just can't imagine being there. My great, great, great aunt two years ago told me about what it was like being in Halifax during the Explosion, I didn't make a major connection to how amazing it is that she survived. Needless to say, I'm hoping that she still can remember enough to share more stories with me. Has this been recored? I'm not sure... but I do hope to find out!

The other really cool piece of the Museum is their latest crew member... Merlin - a Rainbow Macaw!! He is so cute and colourful! Don't you just love him?

So yes, that was pretty much the events of my Tuesday... the rest of the day was very rainy - actually I don't think it stopped raining!! I even had to taxi back to St. Mary's... that is how rainy it was! But, it was a great day filled with lots of history!

Kilts... bagpipes... Halifax Citadel

Today's main adventure was to the Halifax Citadel. (You can see a picture that I took from google!) The Halifax Citadel was a "principal navel station in the British Empire and was very important to Canada's development and evolution from colony to nation." (Google it if you want more information!) It was a very windy day today up until dinner time but slightly freezing/blowing away was so worth it to spend a chunk of the day at the Citadel!

There was so much history to be explored, lots of men dressed up in the uniform of the day, the changing of the guard, and bagpipes were playing! There were also men engaging in their first day of drill training which was fun to watch!

The group learning the drill routines will actually be part of competitions (if that is the correct terminology!) and even though this is all an "act" or "play" the people working

there actually get ranked according to the training they go through. So when you are at the Citadel it is like really being there in the time (except that it is 2010!).

The guards actually stand on guard for an hour before they get a two hour "break". And for the most part they stand perfectly

still - even as people stand next to them to get their picture taken and whatnot. I got to watch the changing of the guard which was really cool. The picture to the right is of two guards changing positions. The guy in the background is the one shouting orders to them... it is all done very well and is very intriguing.

Are you wondering what they men think of wearing a kilt for their job? Well they actually like it! One guy told us that it is the perfect summer wear... so there you go! And actually even in history when the decision was made that they would start wearing pants a whole pile of the gu

ys at the time protested and left... they liked their kilts! Why did the forces eventually transfer over to wearing pants? Well - all because of the barbed wire fences they had to go over!

There was lots to see and much to do there, everything from a walk through army history, a visit to the old schoolhouse, to walking along the wall. We also saw/heard the canon go off... it still goes off every day at noon... every single day! We went in one of the walls behind the main

wall to discover that it was very dark and quite scary (yep, I didn't walk down it!!) but right by the doorway was a small window that the guards would look out of.. and a bird had taken of the space. No bird was there when I looked through the small window, but just a nest with a single egg... I do hope the mother and/or father come back... can you see the poor little egg there?

Once we were done at the Citadel Matt, Jenn, and I went for lunch (they are the last two here from Youth Council and leave tomorrow) and then we walked around and looked at some of the shops. I've been doing very well with figuring things out with my map... people are very nice in Halifax and the cars always stop for pedestrians... amazing I know!! The one things that messes me up from time to time is that there won't be streets names a

t certain places... I kind of expect them to be there when I reach a four way stop... that can get me turned around and briefly panicked - but it's all good!

One last picture... (why so many pictures? The kids like pictures the best!!) a huge ship coming into the harbour... yes, those seem to be like the boxes that our trains carry in British Columbia... but on a huge ship! (I know - they have many modes of transportation!) But I thought it was pretty cool!

Sunday - New Church Experience

I had full plans to write last night... but ended up taking a nap around 7pm which ended up with me getting up at midnight to put on pajamas then heading back to bed. Yes, I was tired!

So I woke up on Sunday to the view of fog... lots and lots of fog. By the time I got down to the dining room for breakfast the rain was coming down hard and fast. We then got ready for church (three other member of PWRDF Youth Council were still staying in the residence) and headed outside. The rain had slowed down but was still dripping down from the sky. You need to know at this point that I definitely did not pack my rain coat... why you ask? Well, no one told me to - I know, I'm going to a strange city for seventeen days and you think that I am expecting only nice weather... of course I am! Isn't it spring in Halifax? Oh - Spring means rain? Right, I forgot about that. And I should have made the connection between being on the coast and rain? Right, well that was the last think I was thinking about!

Anyway, we made it halfway to church then it started to poor again so we got in a cab!

(Thank goodness!) We ended up early to church, which was fine - we sat and listened to the choir then morning prayer started. The service itself began at 10:30am, it was a great service... my first BCP service so it was new and interesting. I don't think that I would ever decide to always attend a BCP service, but it was a great experience. There were definitely a few things that surprised me, a few times I had no idea what was going on. And the number of children and young families who were there absolutely amazed me! I don't think I have actually ever been to a parish with that many children present at the Eucharist service! The church is also round - I know, cool hey?

We headed back to residence to get changed then Beth and I went down to the water in hopes to go on the pirate tour... but we were informed that because of the rain the tour was not running but the Harbour Hopper still was going. So we took our chances and went on the Harbour Hopper... the exact thing we laughed at all day each time it went by us the day before! The Harbour Hopper is an amphibious vehicle that was built in the early 1960's for military purposes and has now been transformed into a tour bus/boat. Yep, you read that correctly! We got on the Harbour Hopper and it drove us through the downtown streets of Halifax and we got to learn a lot of really cool history then it drove into the ocean, turned into a boat, and we learned about the harbour! It was great... a bit crazy... but great!

After that we had lunch... I said goodbye to Beth who was heading back to Ottawa... and I toured around a bit more, and started on my way home. I wouldn't say I got lost, but I also wouldn't say I totally knew where I was headed. Eventually I looked up, saw the tall residence building I was staying in, and headed in that direction - and eventually recognized a few streets and landmarks (meditation house, odd shaped shrub-like thing!) and got back to St. Mary's!! Then I ended up laying down and sleeping, and sleeping some more!

Ocean!!

Today has felt like two days! We spent from 9am - 2pm in the final stretch of the PWRDF Youth Council Meetings. Once again, productive - but sad to say goodbye to everyone at the end of our closing Eucharist. Our closing Eucharist was at the Cathedral... I love seeing the churches in other places - it was big, nice, some lovely pictures, red chairs... yeah, no pews... and some great detail in some pieces of art.

Oh - and everyone who was in the accident yesterday evening are fine. Once case of whip lash and much soreness due to previous injuries, but otherwise everyone is doing great!

So, we said goodbye to the group and thankfully (for me) three others were not leaving yet, so it means I am not all alone for four days!. So we toured Halifax, and walked around, and around, and around. Literally - and because we had to do that to get to the next piece of our journey not because we were lost. Oh, I am so glad I am will people who have a pretty good sense of direction! It was good - I am so exhausted and I can't believe how much touring we did along with our meetings this morning! (Hence the feeling like two days!)

We saw a lot of the ocean as we walked along the boardwalk a few times - yes, I saw the ocean... even a bit of ocean without land directly across! Yep, I was excited - super excited. Many really cool buildings - a purple house... it was amazing... and a number of neat doors. We

went into a few breweries, ate some great food, saw some more neat sites, and walked and walk

ed and walked.

Really, we walked all about from about 3pm to 11:30pm... it was great. But I am tired, and my feet are even more tired - which is good I think. Plans for the next few days... well tomorrow starts with church at St. George's (a friend of mine goes there), the church is in a circular shape - so that should be neat! And there is much talk about a sailing tour of something to do with pirates - if it happens I shall report more later!