News > 2009 Parish Life Notes > 09.06.28 Parish Life

Bishop Paul Barnett – Men’s Summer Breakfast

Bishop Paul Barnett, well loved, well known, and highly regarded, is coming to teach a course at Regent College in early July and will be preaching at St. John’s for 3 weeks.  He has agreed to do a men’s breakfast while he is here on Saturday, Jul 4 from 9:00 am to 11:00 am.  This is a rare opportunity for the men of our congregation to hear Bishop Paul and to interact with him. Bishop Paul’s topic will be, “Why I am still a Christian.”

Men, we have achieved our base figure for the caterers so we can still sign you up TODAY in the morning or evening coffee hours and give final numbers to the caterers tomorrow. Cost will be about $15/person at the door. This is for all men in our congregation whether you are 16 or 86.

Acts for All!

As we look forward to studying Acts together this Fall, we are planning a parish day of teaching, led by our own David Short, on September 12. This day is a wonderful way to help prepare us for the sermon series, Sunday school and for small groups. We will have Bible studies available if your group would like to study Acts along with the sermon series. Save the date now…mark your calendars!

Graduation Houseboat Trip

18 members of Ekklessia have travelled down to Lake Roosevelt, Washington for the annual high school graduation houseboat trip. Please keep this group of young people in your prayers.

Update on Legal Giving

We continue to see God at work in the generous giving to the legal fund. We would especially like to thank our legal firm, Fasken Maritineau. You will see that St. John’s share of the funding yet to be raised is $75,000.

Cheques for the legal fund should be made payable to ANiC - St. John’s Project and please indicate in the memo line of the cheque that it is to be directed to the legal fund. Also, please indicate on your giving envelope that it is to be directed to the legal fund.

Great is Our God - An Evening of Praise and Thanksgiving

On Tuesday, Jun 30 at 8:00 pm, as they celebrate their 12th anniversary as a parish, St. Matthias & St. Luke invites all ANiC churches in the Lower Mainland to an Evening of Praise and Thanksgiving to God for His countless blessings and loving guidance as they celebrate their 12th Anniversary. Their Praise Team and Choir will lead songs of praise, worship and thanksgiving. There will be a time of fellowship after the praise concert. Do come and give thanks to our wonderful God and enjoy the warm fellowship in Christ. Location: 680 West 49th Avenue.

Parish Family News

Dear Friends,

It is a great pleasure to welcome Bishop Paul and Anita Barnett to St. John’s today. Paul is teaching a course at Regent College on the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans and we are grateful that he is willing to be with us during his time, not just to preach but also for the men’s breakfast next Saturday.

This week a new Anglican province was launched in North America, uniting over 700 congregations in Canada and the USA. I had the privilege of being a delegate to the first assembly of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), where we ratified the constitution and canons of this new jurisdiction. The formation of this new province is a reaffirmation of the traditional Biblical teaching and values of the Anglican Communion and represents a number of Anglican bodies joining to together to form 28 dioceses with a Sunday attendance of some 100,000 people. Of course, formal recognition will take time.

Still, there was a kaleidoscope of support and ecumenical visitors. There were representatives from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Primates from West Africa, Kenya, the Southern Cone, greetings and support from Jerusalem and the middle East, from Uganda, South East Asia, the UK and other parts of the Communion. You can see the full list at (http://acnaassembly.org/index2.php). It is remarkable that both the Roman Catholic Church, and the Orthodox Church of America sent official delegates. The leader of the Orthodox Church, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, stated to the assembly, “I am seeking an ecumenical restoration by being here today. This is God’s call to us.” Just to give you some idea of the weight of these words, the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church broke with one another in 1054!

On Wednesday night Archbishop Robert Duncan was installed as first primate of ACNA in an extraordinarily vibrant service, attended by over 2,000 with 400 clergy processing. It is very clear that the priorities of the new province are to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ and to share his love with others. There was great joy and forward-looking vision.
Part of the joy for me was the announcement of 3 new bishops for our Canadian church, the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC): the Rev Stephen Leung, Rector, Church of the Good Shepherd (Vancouver, BC), the Venerable Charlie Masters, Executive Archdeacon and National Director of the Anglican Network in Canada (Burlington, ON), and the Venerable Trevor Walters, Territorial Archdeacon (BC) and Rector, St Matthews (Abbotsford, BC). They are well known to us at St. John’s, have stood faithfully for the gospel evidencing godly leadership, and I look forward to their consecration as bishops at our ANiC synod in November.

This is all vitally important for us at St. John’s. For 7 years we have been in a state of broken communion with our diocese, and while there has been great support and care from Anglican leaders around the world, the movement of both the Canadian and American churches has been away from the Biblical Gospel and from the rest of the Communion. When we joined ANiC in February 2008 the province of the Southern Cone graciously took us under their jurisdiction to reconnect us in full fellowship with the global Communion. This was a temporary pastoral provision because since 2005 the global primates had been calling for a replacement province in North America for those who wished to continue to worship Christ in the orthodox Anglican faith. As Anglicans we are deeply conscious that the Lordship of Jesus Christ extends right around the world, and that we are to make disciples of every nation. Our prayer is that the new province will be a springboard for mission, unity and Biblical faithfulness, all to the glory of God.

David