As Fall begins, old activities are reborn, new activities begin, new faces appear, help needed to keep building beautiful and welcoming and make services run smoothly—volunteer opportunities—special open houses this weekend and at the end of September—Fall courses at Dio—Ride for Refuge
Dear Friend of the Cathedral
The fall season – the season of creation in our September liturgies – is soon to be in full swing as we welcome parishioners back from cottages and holidays.
Children’s church will resume this Sunday. Meet Jean-Daniel Williams and the other teachers beside the eagle lectern at the beginning of the service.
The full robed choir will be leading our services again. Much of the music this Sunday will be by Herbert Howells. Nick Capozzoli, who with Rob Hamilton is serving as interim Director of Music, suggests you might like to listen to the Worcester Cathedral choir perform “Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks”. It will be sung by our choir as the motet after communion during the 10 am service. All the music at Evensong will be by Howells.
We have a new organ scholar, Sarah Sabol (photo upper R) an incoming Master’s student at McGill. She comes to us from Houston, TX where she received a Bachelor of Music from Rice University.
Please also welcome a new assistant verger Jennifer Stewart (photo lower R), joining the team of John Cavacece, Rod Roberts and Greg Telfer. Jen is also a part-time verger at St Matthias.
LGBTQ+ group will kick off their year with a casual coffee get together at La graine brûlée @ 921 Rue Sainte-Catherine E. on September 15, 4-6 p.m. Speak to Jean-Jacques Goulet.
Hungry Minds welcomes young adults to its supper and bible study meetings now held every Monday at 6 pm in Fulford Hall, entrance at 1444 Union Avenue. To learn more talk to Jean-Daniel Williams or contact him by email jeandaniel.williams@montrealcathedral.ca
Pain, partage et prière, le groupe de prière, étude biblique et rencontre, se réunira dimanche à 14h00 au salon Hollis.
Parish Picnic: This Sunday, we will celebrate creation and the start of a new season with a joyful community picnic to be held in Wallenberg Square behind the cathedral after the 10 am service. Please bring a picnic with perhaps some food to share and see if you can meet the challenge not to use any plastic! Cutlery, plates and glasses will be provided. You might want to bring a lawn chair if you have one.
There are two special services coming up :
Sunday September 16, at 6 pm Jean-Daniel Williams will preside and preach at the monthly informal bi-lingual Eucharist and Zach Ingles will lead the musicians. La cathédral le soir is steadily growing in popularity. If you check out this service you will find it quite different from our regular Cathedral liturgies.
A much more formal service will be the ordination on September 30 at 4 pm when Bishop Mary Irwin-Gibson will ordain Tania Lesack and Joel Amis to the transitional diaconate and Jhon Steeker St-Claire to the vocational diaconate.
Our services run so smoothly that many people are not aware of the infrastructure supporting the liturgy. There is of course the choir which rehearses on Thursdays, but also the readers, intercessors and stewards, the hospitality team who serve coffee hour refreshments, and the chancel gild who look after the brass, the flowers and the linens. All these groups welcome new volunteers, so perhaps you might consider whether God is calling you to be one of these people who quietly make the church look beautiful or who contribute to the liturgies. I’ll just mention 3 particular invitations:
- Sam Keuchguerian is looking for 4 stewards to be on duty during the ordination at 4 pm on September 30.
- Vera Burt, who has taken over charge of the flower roster, is asking people to please consider sponsoring flowers to beautify the Cathedral in thanksgiving, in memory of a loved one, or for the joy of offering flowers to the glory of God. Suggested donation: $60-$80 or more; 2 or more sponsors may share the same date and flower cost. The sign-up sheet can be found in the baptistery during coffee hour. Alternatively email Elizabeth cathedral.administrator@montrealcathedral.ca
- There will be a meeting for intercessors and readers in the side chapel on Sunday, October 14 at 11:45. Tips about using the microphone, answers to your questions. New readers and intercessors welcome.
Being a downtown church we have an important ministry of welcome to visitors of all kinds. This weekend (Friday to Sunday) we are participating in Églises ouvertes, when 29 churches will throw open their doors and guide people around the building. We have a small team of greeters in place, but more are welcome. Just come down to the cathedral between 10 and 5. Later in the month we will be inviting you to help out at les Journées de la culture – more information and details of our programme in the next newsletter, but make a note of the dates, particularly Sept 29.
Part of our welcome is offered in music. The free Oasis Musicale concert this Saturday will feature the work of poets such as Verlaine, Mörike, and Daumer brought to life in the vocal music of Mendelssohn, Debussy, Barber, Strauss, Wolf, and Brahms, sung by Elisabeth Boudreault and Laura Fishman, sopranos, with Christopher Gaudreault and Christopher Knopp, piano. For programme details and all the September concerts check out https://www.oasismusicale.ca/calendrier
There will be some study courses at the Cathedral (to be announced soon) but you might also like education opportunities offered by the Montreal Diocesan Theological College for fall 2018 and winter 2019. There are online courses such as Reading Luke, Finding Jesus, October 23 – November 20 and Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, September 13 – December 6. Also included for the fall is a four day intensive course on Christian Mission, September 10-13 and a one day preaching workshop, November 3 entitled Turning the Text: Midrashic Biblical Imagination for Preachers and Congregations . Follow this link to see full descriptions of these courses, or register for them, and to discover the winter 2019 online course and two four-day intensives.
Is anyone interested in joining the September 29th Ride for Refuge which will raise funds for Action Réfugiés Montreal (ARM)? This is a family-friendly bike ride / walk fundraiser held in the West Island. It will start at 9 am on Saturday September 29 at Westview Bible Church in Pierrefonds. Follow this link for further information.
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 cathedral.administrator@montrealcathedral.ca.
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