Bishop's Pastoral Letter
St. Andrew's Church
An Anglican Church • Grimsby, Ontario, Canada
Easter Pastoral Letter from Bishop Spence
Easter 2005
Dear Friends in Niagara,
As I write this article, which has to be written a couple of weeks before the publication and delivery of the diocesan paper, I am still looking at piles of snow out my window and still feeling the chill and cold of winter. Yet Lent is coming to an end and by the time you read this Easter will have passed and I have every hope that we will begin to sense spring in the air and the new life of nature around us will become ever more evident. New life is the hope of spring.Our church has certainly felt and known the winter of our existence over the past number of years and perhaps even more intensively during the past months. The topics which this could raise would take columns of this paper which are not available to me. So I will not raise them – not only because there is no space, but because I believe that winter is over and spring is upon us. I have and will continue to have a great deal of hope with respect to the life of our international, national and local Anglican Church. With all of the difficulties and division that we have experienced, some might say that the Bishop’s Mitre is a bit too tight these days and that it’s causing me not to think too clearly. Well, let me tell you that it’s not - I’m thinking clearly and positively. I’m not in a dream world with my hope, but rather I am currently living - and challenging all of us to live - in a world of action.
On November 9th, 2001, in my charge to the 127th synod, I announced that our diocese was going into “evangelism” mode and that we would soon be appointing a director of evangelism to assist us in opening our doors to the world around us. The director has been appointed, and he has been working very diligently to give us the tools that we need to open some of those rusty doors to anyone who wishes to journey in faith with us. But tools are only good to those who are willing to us them. In that same charge, I said the following:
“Right now, we see about 1% of the general population in our churches on an average Sunday. Are we prepared to see that figure double? It’s an awesome challenge. It would mean a church where the majority of our members will have been raised outside the Anglican Church, where most of the people will have been baptized in the last five years…”
That was in 2001 and this is 2005. I cannot help but think that now is the time to begin to take up this challenge; to use the tools that we have and to open our hearts and our doors to the many people that could both benefit from our community and contribute to its life. So, I want to issue a very hopeful challenge. In a few weeks we will celebrate Pentecost Sunday, often seen as the day that gave birth to the Christian Church. What would it be like if we filled our churches on this day when we celebrate the aliveness of God’s Spirit in our midst. What a wonderful thought. Let’s not leave it as a thought. It’s not a difficult thing to do – it just means that each of us has a few weeks to invite someone to join us at our parish on Pentecost Sunday.
I am asking rectors and parish staffs to prepare for this day. Open our parish doors with marvelous celebrations and welcoming homilies. Make certain that our hospitality is the best that it has ever been. I am asking our parishioners to do the evangelizing. Invite your son, daughter, mother, aunt, neighbour, friend or even someone who is difficult to join us for this special celebration. A few will turn us down, but many will not. Welcome them with open hearts and show them the best of Anglicanism. What a day this could be in our local church!
This is a serious challenge. It’s based on my faith in a Risen Lord, in this church and my hope that life abounds and that God will not ever abandon us. It is based on the love that I have for you and this world around us, and the love that I know you have for your church and your neighbour. Rectors, staffs, and people of Niagara – let’s do it. Let’s take the evangelism challenge and begin to open our doors and hearts to those who need us and want to be one with us. What a glorious spring, what glorious Easter and what glorious Pentecost will have this year.
Bishop of Niagara
A Pastoral Letter from our Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Ralph Spence
