Bishop's Message / Anglican Montreal September 2021

Anglican Montreal article September 2021

Bishop Mary Irwin-Gibson

The experiences of the past year have changed us as a church and challenged us to reflect on who we really want to be. And on who God wants us to be! We can no longer pretend that we don’t know about racial injustice and the ravages of colonialism in our country and in our own neighbourhoods. We have felt shocked and ashamed to learn what residential schools were really like, and that so many indigenous communities still lack adequate access to drinking water, health care, and education. Our partners in the Territory of the People and, indeed, people throughout the world have suffered from the effects of climate change: heat waves, forest fires, drought, flooding, grasshoppers. We have had to grieve so much that is wrong in our world: wars, famine, human trafficking, environmental degradation, poverty, greed, and selfishness. If you feel unsettled and anxious about all that is going on, know that I do too. How do we go forward as the church? Questions like that can leave us feeling powerless and uncertain.

Uncertainty is disruptive and many of us have longed to go back to the permanence and comfort we once knew in the church – even if there were things about it that we had grown tired of or that we knew were not perfect. Is it possible that in our comfort we have been blind or negligent in our calling as Christians to be pilgrims? It is hard to be pilgrims and not permanent residents; hard to be on a journey, having to adapt to new conditions and concerns. And yet, I believe that the life of the Christian is just that: the life of a pilgrim, meeting, walking with, listening to and learning from Jesus on the way. 

Bishops across the world are wrestling with the same questions! The Lambeth Conference is a gathering of bishops from the Anglican Communion (the whole world!); small groups of bishops have begun meeting online and studying 1st Peter and getting to know one another before next summer in Canterbury. The conference theme will ask what it means to be “God’s Church for God’s World?”. I was recently interviewed by their media team and asked “What does it mean to proclaim good news (in our Diocese of Montreal), when it feels like there's so much bad news around us?” 

That’s a good question for us all and I wonder how you would answer? I think it means loving the people God puts in front of us (no matter how hard that might be!); having our eyes open for signs of opportunities and situations where our gifts and our commitment to Christ can be put to use. It means being people who have recently spent time with Jesus and with fellow pilgrims, and who have God’s grace and love and hope to share. What I do know is that all of us are called to service, sacrifice and loving witness in Christ’s name and through his power working in us.

Here is a hymn we sometimes sing, followed by a blessing, which I find encouraging. May you also be encouraged in your life as a pilgrim.

Every blessing, 

+Mary

Brother, sister, let me serve you;

let me be as Christ to you;

pray that I may have the grace to

let you be my servant too.

We are pilgrims on a journey,

and companions on the road;

we are here to help each other

walk the mile and bear the load.

I will hold the Christ-light for you 

in the nighttime of your fear;

I will hold my hand out to you,

speak the peace you long to hear.

I will weep when you are weeping;

when you laugh I'll laugh with you;

I will share your joy and sorrow,

till we've seen this journey through.

When we sing to God in heaven,

we shall find such harmony,

born of all we've known together 

of Christ's love and agony.

Brother, sister, let me serve you;

let me be as Christ to you;

pray that l may have the grace to 

let you be my servant too.

Richard Gillard (1953 - )

© 1977 Scripture in Song 

A Blessing of Change

What we choose changes us.
Who we love transforms us.
How we create remakes us.
Where we live reshapes us.
So in all our choosing, O God, make us wise;
In all our loving, O Christ, make us bold;
In all our creating, O Spirit, give us courage;
in all our living, may we become whole.
Jan Richardson