If you are interested in attending the service of Consecration and Installation of Bishop-Elect Mary Irwin-Gibson as the 12th Bishop of Montreal on Tuesday, September 29, 2015, on the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels, at 7:00 pm you must act now! Reserve your ticket by emailing the ">bishop’s office.
We offer warm congratulations to four of our members:
Sacha Bailey and James Duckett are now the proud parents of a baby girl, Eleanor June, born on Monday at 1:40 am. She is healthy and beautiful, weighing in at 8 lbs 12 oz.
We also send our very best wishes to Natasha Henderson and Jeffrey Mackie who will be getting married in the Cathedral on Saturday. Jeffrey says “Natasha and Jeffrey are excited to celebrate their marriage in their home parish of Christ Church Cathedral. Natasha is especially happy to be getting married in the Cathedral where she was baptized just last year. Natasha and Jeffrey are also proud to be able to share their Cathedral home with friends and family who are coming from near and far.”
I mentioned last week that the 10 o’clock service this coming Sunday will be special because the Sunday School children will be playing an active part. Here is some information and an invitation from Jonathan:
Over the last 3 months, the Sunday School have been creating huge panels telling the ‘Story of the Bible’, guided by some of the cathedral’s wonderful artists: Natasha, Victoria and Donna. The panels represent: Creation; Wilderness; Monarchy; Jesus; The Early Church and New Creation. We invite you all to join us during coffee hour on the lawn on August 30th to make your artistic contribution to the final panel to make this a truly collaborative project. Donna will be your artistic guide.
I’m wondering if any of our readers have a certificate or any other document from Sunday School in the 1950s. If you do, please contact me at A search of the archives turned up the minutes of a Sunday School committee dated 1924 – handwritten in a hard cover notebook, but nothing from the fifties.
If you love story telling, please make a note of Wayward Stories, an activity being organised by Rhonda on Saturday, September 19 when storyteller and facilitator, the Rev’d Lynn Uzans, will give an entertaining and valuable workshop, 12-4pm in the Cathedral Undercroft. Free-will donation includes a light lunch.
If you love reading join the Cathedral’s Book Group on October 4 when we will discuss Us Conductors by Sean Michaels. I saw lots of copies in Indigo the other day.
There are several big events coming up in September in addition to the consecration highlighted at the top of the post.
Two events bookend September:
The John Cage all-night concert on Friday, September 4
For a description of the Cage concert here is an extract from part of the music blog mentioned last week, published with the author’s permission.
On September 4–5, Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Montréal will present an all-night concert in celebration of the life and legacy of American composer John Cage. The concert is titled Organ2/ASLSP, after the composer’s infamous 1987 work for organ, which is intended to be played literally “As SLow aS Possible.” The work will be performed by the Cathedral organists, Patrick Wedd, Adrian Foster, and Alex Ross, while other Cage compositions, are performed simultaneously in the church. The performers will use a stopwatch, and the timing of each note has been precisely calculated and written in the score. In a twelve-hour performance, the first note sounds exactly four minutes and thirty-three seconds after the start of the piece.
Cage’s work ORGAN2/ASLSP has gained considerable attention in recent years, in light of an ongoing performance, set to last 639 years, in Halberstadt, Germany. This 12-hour performance on Christ Church Cathedral’s majestic pipe organ marks the composer’s birthday and will be among the longest continuous performances of the work.
Les journées de la culture on September 25, 26 and 27.
Les journées de la culture will include an organ concert and workshop, but also a huge variety of events ranging from Gregorian chant and Armenian sacred music to an evening of Jazz and a concert of favourite songs from the movies. The overall theme this year is supposed to be the movies so we will also be showing some short NFB films. Other activities including sketching, hand-bell ringing and displays of vestments, archives and other Cathedral treasures. We will once again serve scones with cream and jam on the Cathedral forecourt after Sunday Evensong and refreshments (punch and popcorn) after the Saturday afternoon concert.
Here comes my first call for help – We need bakers (for the scones), tea hostesses for Sunday and people to help serve refreshments on Saturday. Please contact the Cathedral office, Jeffrey Mackie or Ann Elbourne.
Also in September, we will be welcoming John Cavacece as the cathedral’s head verger. Some of you will remember that John was an assistant verger here before he became the verger at St George’s. It’s nice to have you back John.
The Cathedral office has received an interesting email from St Mary’s Church, Snettisham in Norfok, reminding us that our building is a copy of theirs and telling us that they are currently fundraising £250 000 to undertake essential repairs and create a hospitality unit and community room so that the church family and village community may use the church more frequently. We are indeed twin churches as we too must contemplate finding the money for essential repairs! The letter concludes
“It would be good to have a communication between our churches as the world is so small and one day one of your congregation could well arrive on our doorsteps where they would be warmly welcomed.
All blessing from Norfolk. “
Take a look at their website. You will see a link to our website!
In fact there is a group planning to visit Snettisham – the people accompanying Paul on pilgrimage to England next year. Would you like to join the group? Pick up a leaflet at the back of the church and sign up for the Pilgrimage: Exploring Anglican Heritage: From Augustine to Aidan – the English saints. 20 April to 3 May 2016, led by Paul Kennington.
Tyson Rosberg was recently on a brief mission in Tanzania. He says the congregation of the cathedral in Masai were thrilled to receive our cathedral’s gift of vestments. He has kindly sent us the link to his photographs His 3 favourites are:
St. Mary and St. Bartholomew Cathedral, Masasi
The road up to the cathedral compound
The chapel at the Rondo Seminary, where the stained glass windows depict the story of Creation.
PWRDF is partnering with the Diocese of Masasi and the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) to fund food security work in the Nachingwea and Masasi districts of southeastern Tanzania. This is part of the Fred Says project, Veg Out.
Twenty farmers were given seeds to grow maize, twenty cassava and fifteen ground nuts. Under the oversight of the Tanzanian government, these farmers had their seeds certified as foundation seeds, which enables them to sell them to other farmers in the region. Certification as seed growers also allows the farmers to continue to grow and sell seeds in the community. Each farmer donates 20% of their crop back to the village seed bank, where they will be distributed to other farmers in the community for use the following year. They in turn will pass the seeds on.
This program is vital in the region as most households only have enough food for four to eight months each year. At the end of the five-year program, households will have enough to eat ten months everyyear.
To learn more about this food security initiative, please join the Montreal Unit of the PWRDF on Thursday, September 10th at noon in Fulford Hall, 1444 Union Ave, Montreal. Light refreshments will be served; you are also welcome to bring your lunch.
Pope Francis has called for a World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on September 1. You are invited to an ecumenical prayer service on Tuesday, September 1, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. in Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel, 400 St. Paul Street East, in Old Montreal. See the attached press release.
Sales of award-winning educational Aboriginal documentary films and videos for, by and about First Nations people are available at http://www.firstnationsfilms.com
Dates for your Diary
Sept 1: Dorie Cuming Tea Party, from 3-5 pm in Fulford Hall
Sept 9 at 7 pm, the Church of St. John The Evangelist, (the Red Roof Church on President Kennedy), will be celebrating the Queen’s record-breaking reign with an Evensong of Thanksgiving.
September 13: The topic of the Social Justice Action Group’s monthly meeting will be “Open Door” Restorative justice. Peter Huish and Michele Rattray will speak about Montreal-Southwest Community Ministries and the CoSA Project (Circles of Support and Accountability) in the side chapel after the 10am Eucharist.