An enormous thank you to all the people – clergy, choir, musicians, servers, stewards, readers and vergers – who created our joyous and beautiful Holy Week and Easter celebrations at the Cathedral. The large congregations felt truly blessed.
Do you now have post-Easter exhaustion and think you can relax and stop getting involved?
Let’s hope that Spring is giving us all fresh energy because there is a rich banquet of opportunities at the Cathedral starting this Sunday with three events:
* a meeting of the book group in the evening
* a meeting of the Social Service Society at 11:30 am
* a gathering hosted by SJAG (Social Justice Action Group) after the 10 am service which will celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Refugee Rights in Canada. Jan says “We’ll be writing letters to support refugee rights in cooperation with Amnesty International. We’ll also create posters – “My Door is Open for Refugees” and to that end, we ask that, if you are interested, you send a digital photograph of your door to Jan: revjjorgensen@yahoo.com or bring a print copy along with you on Sunday. We’ll have a photo session with our posters and hope you’ll be able to join us.”
If your physical or spiritual batteries need recharging please consider joining the Cathedral’s parish retreat Living the Life of Prayer, April 30 to May 3 which will be held in the beautiful L’Ermitage Ste Croix near Lake of Two Mountains. Participants may choose to arrive on Thursday or Friday afternoons and remain until after lunch on Sunday. Quiet Days are available also, on both Friday and Saturday. For everyone, meals and snacks will be available at fixed times and those, as well as the monastic offices, daily Eucharist, and talks on prayer, are entirely optional. Our guest speaker is Sally Harrington Philippo and Paul will be our chaplain The chapel, common room, and beautiful outdoor grounds on the Lake of Two Mountains are available to all, as are art supplies and opportunities for spiritual conversation individually and (in the evenings) for group members. Car pool and bursaries are available. Places are limited. We will be opening up registration to other parishes next week, so please register very soon. Contact retreatccc@gmail.com.
You can also find a space for quiet reflection in the Tuesday sessions of contemplative prayer at 5:45pm after Evensong. The 1st and 3rd Tuesdays offer guided meditation on Bible passages in the Ignatian style, 2nd and 4th Tuesdays an introduction and silent meditation.
Music too provides balm for the frazzled soul. L’Oasis musicale is now offering two free concerts a week. The new series is on Wednesdays at 6:15 and lasts approximately 45 minutes – a concert followed by supper in a local restaurant – what a great way to spend a summer evening! The concert next Wednesday, April 15, The Majestic Piano. features John Dupaal, piano, presenting music by Schubert, Scriabin, and Harline/Washington. In Saturday’s concert, April 11 ‘Chamber Music Without Borders presents ‘Classics to contemporaries’. Students in the bachelors, masters and other diploma programs at the Schulich School of Music perform both beloved classics and new discoveries from the classical music and jazz repertoire. For this concert, the violin and clarinet are showcased, both as soloists and in ensembles. https://www.facebook.com/events/379697652209570/
The following week, April 19 at 7:30, Patrick’s secular choir, Musica Orbium, will sing pieces by Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Schoenberg and Strauss under the title Romantiques Allemands. Please take a look at the attached poster and do forward it to your friends.
The next meeting of Cathedral Forum is coming up on Tuesday, April 21. All congregation members are invited. This is an excellent way to find out what’s going on and who’s doing what. We enjoy a time of fellowship over a glass of wine before the meeting starts at 6:30. At the meeting we inform ourselves, contribute ideas, make suggestions and often dissolve in laughter. In other words, attending Forum is enjoyable, not just a chore. Do come.
Among other topics we will be discussing whether the cathedral should sponsor refugees. This is something we have done in the past and the need is very great at the moment. However, it’s not a commitment to be taken lightly and will need the support of the congregation. A small group met with Paul Clarke director of Action Réfugiés Montreal (ARM) last Tuesday. It was a very useful meeting and clear that if we do sponsor refugees we will get a lot of practical support from ARM. Please read through the attachment which was handed out at the meeting. The first page suggests ways a church can be involved, the later pages describe the sponsorship partnership programme, one kind of involvement. However, it is possible we might prefer to go the route of full sponsorship so I suggest you also take a look at their web site, particularly the section on private sponsorship which would apply to us if that’s what we decide to do. http://www.actionr.org/sponsorship.htm
We have refugees of course because there are wars in many parts of the world, but most of us have conflicted feelings about current and historical wars and whether there is such a thing as a just war.
The Public Theology Group is offering us an opportunity to think through this subject in a series of colloquies asking “What Shall We Say to War?” The first meeting, on Wednesday, April 29 from 7 to 9 in Fulford Hall, will be addressed by Dr Marc Lalonde from the Department of religion at Concordia University on the topic “When Christians say Yes to War” For details of the four sessions please go to the Public Theology link on the web site www.montrealcathedral.ca
Final notes:
Please speak to Rob Wells or contact the Cathedral office if you would like to donate flowers in thanksgiving or in the memory of a loved one. Sponsors needed for April 19 and May Sundays.
If you are sick or shut-in and would like to receive Communion, contact the church office.
Janet King expresses thanks to Ann Douglas for refreshing her sister Otilie’s beautiful hanging in the Children’s Chapel – in spite Ann’s broken wrist and its recovery, she has done a wonderful job. Also thanks to Merrick Dowe for starting the refreshment of the figures for the Easter Garden and crèche.
Mark the date for the Bishop’s Bowling Bash, Sunday afternoon, June 14. Intrigued? More information on this fundraiser next week. Meanwhile, the diocesan office is looking for donations to the silent auction at this event.