Welcoming Bertrand – Scaffolding on the spire – New piano on the wish list – Last Sunday lunch – Oasis concert – February events: Talk by Catherine Fagan, a lawyer specializing in Aboriginal issues; Pain, partage et prière; Pancake supper; Ash Wednesday; Lunch n’ Chat; Hungry Minds – Nuit blanche coming soon – Please pledge – Would you like to donate flowers?  Burns Night winter poem & winter prayer

Dear Friend of the Cathedral

As I write, Amy is sorting papers and organizing the dean’s office, ready for its new incumbent. Our clergy and lay ministry teams have been magnificent during the interregnum. This said, they, like the Cathedral congregation, are looking forward to Dean Bertrand Olivier’s arrival in just over two weeks.

The parish will first meet Bertrand on February 11 when the congregations for the two sung Eucharists will join together in a bilingual service at 10 am, followed by a reception in Fulford Hall which is being organized by Natasha Henderson. Natasha does not intend to rely on a loaves and fishes type miracle so she has planned a sandwich-making party on Saturday, February 10, at 2 pm in the Fulford Hall kitchen. Please come and help! She also needs a kind person with a car who is willing to transport lunch ingredients to the Cathedral. Please contact Natasha at if you are able to help.

The Dean’s office has a great view of the Cathedral building, one which will be changing rapidly very soon. Huge steel girders which will form the base for scaffolding around the spire are now poking out of the four windows just below the spire, stabbing the tower through its heart.  You can’t see them in the photo but there are workmen up there in the frigid cold. At Jean-Jacques’ urging, we are including the workers, engineers and architects in our daily intercessions.

The fundraising group is targeting not only repairs to the spire but other needs such as a Steinway concert-grade piano. Do take a look at the latest edition of ”Riding Up” [«Viser haut» en français, ici], the blog put out by the Capital Campaign, to discover why we want a new piano.

This Sunday (Jan. 28)  the end of the month lunch is being sponsored by an anonymous Cathedral member. Volunteers are needed to help serve – and to give out socks collected by parishioners. Adrian King-Edwards and Marjorie Sharp thank all the people who donated socks.

Saturday  (Jan. 27) the Oasis concert at 4:30 features sacred and secular songs by Bach and Dowland.  And next week (Feb 3) there’s a double bill, the second instalment of Patrick Wedd’s Bach extravaganza at 4:30, and a group of compositions for piano based on Serbian dances with their intricate rhythms, at 2 pm.  www.oasismusicale.ca

I listed several February events in the last newsletter. As a quick jog to your memory and to repeat the invitation to join in, here they are again:

1. Sunday, February 4, during coffee hour, Cathedral parishioner Catherine Fagan, a lawyer who specializes in working with Aboriginal clients, will talk about her work which includes interactions with Aboriginal communities, representing them in negotiations with various levels of government and in their dealings with business corporations. She is a frequent speaker on topics related  to Aboriginal rights and resources, including most recently at the Assembly of First Nations

2. Sunday, February 4 at 2 pm in the Hollis Lounge, Pain, partage et prière, the French Bible study and prayer group.

3. Tuesday, February 6, Lunch n’ Chat, potluck fellowship, noon till 2 pm in the Bishop Hollis Lounge.  Everyone is welcome.

4. Tuesday February 13 Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper at 6 pm in Fulford Hall. Cost $7 per person or $10 per family. Volunteers needed – see George Deare.

5. Wednesday February 14, Ash Wednesday services at 7:15 am, 12:15 and 7:30 pm

Hungry Minds, our Cathedral young adult group meets Wednesdays, 6 pm in the Undercroft for food, fellowship and bible study. Speak to Jean-Daniel Williams.

Starting next week, at the beginning of February, you will be reading and hearing a great deal about plans for Nuit blanche to be celebrated on Sat March 3. Cassidy Vanderschee and Catherine St Arnaud are joint chairs of the organizing committee. They have almost completed the details of the programme for the evening and will soon be looking for a large gang of volunteers to welcome the expected 5000 visitors to the cathedral that evening. If you want to help make or serve hot chocolate, please speak to Michèle Rattray.

Meanwhile two more appeals for support. Most urgently, our treasurer would love to receive more pledges for the coming year, enabling her to budget realistically. As of January 14, 41 pledges have been received totalling $77,840 (average donation of $37.42 per week). Many people put a generous donation in the plate or in their envelope, but forecasting income is much easier when people say how much they plan to give during the year. If you haven’t made a pledge for 2018, please consider doing so. Don’t forget that you are free to cancel or change your pledge at any time during the year. Here is a pledge form.

The second appeal comes from Rob Wells. Would you like to donate flowers for the church one Sunday, perhaps in memory of someone or in thanksgiving for something? Talk to Rob, or sign the sheet which is usually out during coffee hour, or email the office.

Did you know that today (Jan. 25) is Robbie Burns Day? If you are planning on serving or eating haggis at a Burns Supper tonight please take a photo and send it to me for the next newsletter! His poem about winter seems particularly appropriate this month.  You can read the whole poem (and find links to some others) here:

Here are the first two verses

When biting Boreas, fell and doure,
Sharp shivers thro’ the leafless bow’r;
When Phoebus gies a short-liv’d glow’r,
Far south the lift,
Dim-dark’ning thro’ the flaky show’r,
Or whirling drift:

Ae night the storm the steeples rocked,
Poor Labour sweet in sleep was locked,
While burns, wi’ snawy wreeths upchoked,
Wild-eddying swirl,
Or thro’ the mining outlet bocked,
Down headlong hurl.

Burns goes on to pity the animals and the birds. Let us think prayerfully and with compassion about all who have to work outside, all whose houses are inadequately heated and all who have no home.

Ann Elbourne

To receive this Newsletter earlier by email, and with it, additions like the Forum agenda, financial updates, minutes and reports, posters, photos, etc., simply send your coordinates to the Cathedral office…  the failsafe method is to email both Newsletter author and parish volunteer Ann Elbourne cath_communication@bellnet.ca and Parish Administrator Elizabeth Shama  cathoff@bellnet.ca.