Dear Cathedral member
This is good news week!
As reported in the Sept 24 letter, Marjorie Sharp, a long-time Cathedral parishioner, will be one of three recipients Thursday of the sixth annual Sheila and Victor Goldbloom Distinguished Community Service Awards. CTV did a nice interview calling Marjorie unstoppable. We all know that’s true! You can find the piece at http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.2062018 and you can see Marjorie in action this Sunday as she welcomes a crowd of hungry people to the last Sunday in the month lunch. The lunch is being donated this month by Selwyn House School.
The second piece of good news comes from the co-ordinators of the Journées de culture. The events of the three days were a great success. Please see the attached letter from Jonathan which includes the following statistics:
Visitors inside the cathedral
Friday 1, 044 people
Saturday 1, 250 people even though the Cathedral was closed for a wedding between 11:30 and 1:30. This included an excellent attendance at the concert of favourite sacred music.
Sunday apart from our regular attendance at the morning services about 100 people for Evensong and the reception afterwards
The receptions after the concert and after Evensong were held on the forecourt and were much enjoyed by the participants and a few peope who just happened to be passing. we drew the moral that we should make more use of our grounds as an outreach to the city – not that we want to serve tea and scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam after every Evensong!
Encouraged by this success a group of people is getting together on Friday to brainstorm possibilities for opening up the Cathedral for Nuit Blanch in February.
We will be sorry to say goodbye to Hugh and Elizabeth Rowlinson who are moving to the Leacock Retirement Lodge in Orillia on November 1. We wish them godspeed and better health in their retirement.
Here are some dates for your diary – lots of interesting events coming up
1. Saturday October 25, 4:30, L’Oasis Musicale concert will be presented by cellist Beth Silver and pianist Sanaz Sotoudeh. Entitled ‘Romantic Impressions’ it includes pieces by Debussy, Fauré, Martinu and Piazzolla https://www.facebook.com/OasisMusicale
2. Monday, Oct. 27th from 5:45 to 7:00 in the Chapter House: Public Theology Working Group -. After a successful first project (participating in the World March for the Climate and hosting “Climate Change and Christian Faith”, the Public Theology Working Group invites anyone who is interested to continue the discussion of how the Cathedral might “do theology publically”.
One interesting take on what public theology is can be found here: http://www.csu.edu.au/faculty/arts/theology/pact/documents/What_is_Public_Theology.pdf
3. Sunday 2nd November 12—1:30pm Fulford Hall Restorative Justice: A presentation & discussion with Peter Huish, Jean-Jacques Goulet & Michele Rattray. Come along and learn about the beginnings of Restorative Justice in Southern Ontario, how the work of the Montreal Southwest Community Ministries (MSCM) puts this into practice, and how you can get involved. Light lunch provided.
4. Tuesday November 4th Seniors’ Lunch at noon in the Hollis Lounge. Please confirm attendance with the Cathedral office by Nov. 3rd. Please bring a dish for the potluck lunch or pay $3.00.
5. Friday 7th November, 7:30pm: Cathedral Choir Fundraising Concert The Western Wynde and the Lamb Tickets which include a reception after the concert are: 35$ regular admission, 25$ seniors 15$ students available at coffee hour, after Oasis Musicale concerts, at The Word 469 Milton or through the office. and from Donna Jean-Louis and Emily Hush. Please come and support Patrick and the Cathedral Singers. We need to raise $12 000 to maintain the quality of our music programme which contributes so much spiritual joy to our worship. We are so lucky that we can worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, confident that the music will draw us up to heaven. If you can’t be there in person, donations are welcomed. Donation letters in French and English are attached to this letter. Please forward them to any of your friends who might like to help. You can also donate on line by going to the Cathedral web site, www.montrealcathedral.ca
- Saturday November 22, the annual parish supper. Volunteers are needed. Please speak to George Deare or Flo Tracy if you can help with set up, serving, or clean up.
7. Sunday, November 23 at 7 pm, the book group will meet to discuss Second Person Singular, by Sayed Kashua. The author is an Israeli Arab. The protagonist of the book is an Arab lawyer living in Jerusalem so the novel might be of particular interest to people who have visited Jerusalem or are interested in the tensions in this city. New members are always welcome. Please reply to this letter if you want more information. We meet in each other’s houses.
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Not an event, but a special part of our spiritual life, here is this week’s spiritual practice: For many Anglicans, intercession is a portion of public liturgy. Are we missing something? Have a look at these scripture passages describing intercessory prayer. (Study is a spiritual practice). If you have an idea to share for this series, please speak to a member of Episkopé.