Summer Fruit for Souls 2022

From far and wide, lay people gathered again via zoom to worship, pray, learn and chat at Summer Fruit for Souls 2022. As much as we missed the real life personal contact and warm hugs, we were able to keep safe even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues

The zoom platform enabled us to welcome participants from the dioceses of Huron, Toronto, Moosonee as well as Ontario

Despite fewer numbers of participants, conversations and learning were rich and well worth enduring the discomfort of zoom, and having to prepare our own meals!

Our speaker this year was the Rev. Dr. Willard Metzger, the executive director of Citizens for Public Justice. Dr. Metzger’s topic was ‘Displaying Life as God Intended.’ He suggested that an individualistic way of viewing the gospel, “Jesus and me” is a narrower approach than Jesus intended. Rather, Jesus and his early followers saw his ministry as societal and redemption as communal, even global. He suggested that an overemphasis on personal and individual salvation can lead to spiritual egoism. He stressed that God’s passion is to restore the whole world, indeed, the cosmos.

Our day started with an opportunity for informal conversation, followed by deeply meaningful Morning Prayer, lead by very competent and experienced lay readers. Then we went into breakout rooms where we were asked to recall times in our lives when we experienced or witnessed various forms of discrimination or altruism. Rich conversations ensued.

Following the small group discussions, we had our minds sharpened with a lecture about attitudes and conditions in first century Palestine. After a break, our imaginations were sparked by a story from the gospels by Dr Metzger who is a master story teller. Through his gift of creative storytelling, Dr. Metzger was able to take us to first century Palestine and illustrate for us the societal and cultural setting in which Jesus addressed injustices. Again, discussions about the story content were deep and meaningful. The mornings ended with prayers and some music.

The chat function on zoom enabled us to share resources that will be valuable to us in our service as lay readers.

We came away refreshed, renewed and broadened in our faith, reflecting on the learning we received, and recharged for our service to Christ and the church. And we did not have to drive home!

We look forward to meeting in person next year. Providence Spirituality Centre, which has hosted us for many years is no longer available, so we are looking for a new venue.