Sorrento Centre Video

My third summer at Sorrento Centre is quickly coming to an end. This year saying goodbye is particularly hard, I've had an amazing staff team - some really super awesome people to work with and get to know. I've once again been challenged, supported, encouraged, and given many opportunities to share and explore my gifts and passions.

We've made friendships that will probably last for our lifetime, and we've laughed tons and shed a few tears together. We say goodbye knowing that our paths will cross again... maybe even in a few weeks when the provincial youth conference happens again.

It's been great - and I hope those of you who have not been to Sorrento Centre before will consider taking the opportunity to. It is one pretty awesome and amazing thin space. Below is a link for a video that shares some of what happens in this place.... filmed in 2008... take a peak!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3zaF4MlxAQ

Catching Up - Monday

Monday morning saw a great presentation on Fresh Expressions, which is a response to the changing times that allows parishes to ask themselves “how do we respond to change?” Everything is changing… changing times, changing relationships, and changing cultures… And how do we invite, bring, and make new people feel welcome? With more and more generations knowing less and less about faith how do we share with those who are just starting off the exploration of their spiritual journey? During the presentation I began to feel so excited about church! Just the possibilities, the conversations that can be had, and looking at the experience and “education” we can provide to people in the world just made me feel so excited and hopeful!

We also began our sexuality dialogue in small groups. We each had a chance to respond to the question, “What at this time would you like General Synod to affirm, request, and/or hope for the Anglican Church of Canada on the Blessing of Same Sex Unions?” (The question may not be exactly worded as was presented to us – but that is the just of it!)

The group I was in had an amazing facilitator who kept us to our three minute limit on sharing and helped all to feel comfortable and safe – these are very key components to the conversation at hand. There was also the general sense that we don’t have to agree… at this time especially we just really need to be engaging in the conversation and be open to the Holy Spirit to work through and within us.

I don’t want to go into too much discussion on this, but if you have questions just send me a message! I will share with you that I was super surprised to find out that the church has been in 34 years of conversation on this topic – 34 years! It causes me great pain to know that we are still talking about this, still have not acted either way, and still are keeping individuals and couples not knowing what the church is going to do. Thirty-four years… that is thirteen years more then I have been alive… thirty-four years… wow! We need to continue to commit to walk together and engage in discussion, and I really, really hope that this body gathered can come to some level of a resolution.

After our dialogues I went to my second Port of Call and chose to attend the one on Faith, Worship, Ministry on Theological Education. It was great to hear what is happening in terms of education for ordained ministry, what conversations are being engaged in, what changes might be being made, so on and so forth. There was a lot of talk about equipping our leaders to be ordained and put into a parish because the reality is that we can’t afford curacies any more… the post-graduate life does not end, there is a huge role of spiritual direction and mentorship which is very important.

The church is looking closely at a set of national standards for all persons being ordained – this I feel is very important. Someone made the comment that we are forming individuals to go into a church and we have no idea how the church is going to look… I think this is also reality. It was a great Port of Call - very informative.

The evening consisted of many, many resolutions. We looked at a resolution that had been defeated earlier in the week and was being presented again with some revisions. The conversation and debate that took place blew my mind… I have never experienced this side of the church before. It was fascinating but oh so crazy!

We ended the evening with a lovely service of light, which was the perfect way to end the long day. Relaxing, filled with lovely and soft music, and just relaxed me. It was great and reminded me of Evening Prayer during the summer at Sorrento Centre.

Catching Up - Sunday

Sunday, June 6 started with some direction on how we would be engaging in the sexuality discussions. The format seems like it has a possibility to be quite effective – which is an awesome feeling! We had our first round of “Port of Call” which is where we get to select where to go and learn more about - so I went to learn a bit more about Vision 2019 – have you watched the video yet?

After all this we grabbed our bagged lunches, and I headed over the check in with the Nominating Committee which followed with boarding the busses to go to Exhibition Park to celebrate with the diocese of Nova Scotia and PEI 300 years of continuous Anglican worship. Image that – 300 years, amazing. The Anglican Parishes of the Central Interior (APCI) has been here for ten years, we are just a baby – okay yes, the Diocese of Cariboo did exist for 87 years prior to its closing in 2001.

The 300-year anniversary service with the diocese of Nova Scotia and PEI was huge – it was massive. There were hundreds of people there - it was absolutely amazing! The service was three hours long and I must tell you that the liturgical dancing was top notch and done with much grace. It was wonderful to be alongside the diocese to celebrate in worship with them. Another really cool piece was that one of my friends, who I went to Ask and Imagine with, who is currently the youngest priest in the diocese did the closing blessing – it was great to see him again.

After this wonderful celebration we had the evening off. So, APCI and the diocese of Montreal who we are diocesan partners with, went to Salty’s for dinner. And what a wonderful evening we had together! It was great to get to know the delegation and have conversation with them. We laughed lots, enjoyed great food and wonderful company. And I may have very much enjoyed watching the three people around me eat their lobster - I don’t think I could do it!

I walked home with the youth delegate from Montreal and as I was commenting on how lovely the light rain was because it was actually fog and not “real rain” the clouds opened up and it poured – and I mean like poured!! Not sure what I did to deserve that… it only lasted a minute or so and was lovely!

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!