Excited to reunite with old friends and make new ones, twenty-two lay readers and lay leaders from the dioceses of Ontario, Huron, Toronto and Moosonee gathered in person and online for our annual Summer Fruit for Souls conference. We were warmly welcomed to a new venue for us: the residence, dining hall and conference facilities of St. Lawrence College in Kingston. Our first time together in person after COVID-19, we were happily joined by about a dozen others whose faces we could see online on the big screen in front of us.
Our first morning started appropriately with Rod and Lisa Brantfrancis, Anglican rectors of the parish of Tyendinega. After a Mohawk greeting, they had us pray traditional prayers facing the four points of the compass. This segued beautifully into our first plenary session with Bishop Riscylla Shaw who is of Métis background and the suffragen bishop of the Toronto area since 2017. Using the Medicine Wheel sacred to many Indigenous nations, Bishop Riscylla’s theme for the week was Four Directional Thinking on Our Christian Journey and Incarnational Experience. After she taught us the accepted indigenous classifications for each quadrant of the Medicine Wheel (colour, season, animal, medicinal herb, heavenly body and stage of human life), she continued for the rest of the week to show how each section of the wheel can pertain to our Christian lives. Using many Biblical portions, Bishop Riscylla interspersed these with the Iroquoian thousand-year-old Thanksgiving Address, the Seven Grandfather Teachings and quotes from many outstanding poets and religious thinkers.
Bishop Riscylla led us into several heart-felt discussions around our tables. And she ended each morning session with the reading of hilarious Coyote Tales, a children’s story book by Thomas King.
The folks at St. Lawrence College served us delicious meals and the residential facilities were comfortable with air conditioning and a bathroom in each room.
For the first three days, following lunch, we were treated to a workshop by Rev. Canon Dr. Barbara Robinson, entitled “Prose and Poetry of George Herbert” (1593-1633).
Rev. Barbara went to great lengths to paint for us the background of times and ideas that contributed to George Herbert’s voluminous output. Herbert was a strong proponent of Esthetical Theology, the organized study of spiritual teaching to help Christians attain holiness. Rev. Barbara showed us Herbert’s effect on and relation to the formation of the Book of Common Prayer, the culmination of Anglicanism. She opened our eyes to the designation of Common Prayer, not as ordinary or usual prayer, but as prayer said in common, in a regular, visual way, a reaction against the very individualistic type of spirituality being espoused on the Continent at the time.
Our second workshop each afternoon was led by Bishop Michael Oulton. Titling his sessions, “Our Vocation? Our calling? Hear the Spirit,” he based his talks on a six-week video series by John Ortberg called IF YOU WANT TO WALK ON WATER, YOU’VE GOT TO GET OUT OF THE BOAT.
Every night after supper we had a short time of worship. Our Evening Prayer services were led by Julie Case, Lynn Wilson (who had to attend online and was represented by Laurel Dempsey) and Jennifer Palmer.
Tuesday night we had a mime show, games and Compline led by Paul Hutt. Wednesday night we watched a very controversial CBC documentary concerning the stand-off between certain cottagers and their indigenous neighbours. After a heated discussion, we were led in a Compline service by Karen Brown. Thursday, Ted Guthrie and Lloyd Younger brought their guitars and equipment all the way from Brockville to lead us in a lively singalong, with old-time gospel hymns.
Our times of worship were very special to us. After breakfast each morning we had the service of Morning Prayer led by Bev Box, Doug Green and Pat Gillis on their respective days. We enjoyed singing hymns to the keyboard accompaniment of Bob Burkholder. Our last afternoon together Bishop Michael led us in a closing Eucharist, most likely our last with him at SFFS.
We are grateful for the leadership of Mary Raddon and our registrar, Alison Bentley, for making the myriad arrangements necessary for the smooth running of this conference. And we could not have functioned without the tireless efforts of Dave Bell dealing with all the technical necessities both on site and online. We also appreciate the ministry of Rev. Nancy Beale, our chaplain. Above all, we praise God for a beautifully successful Summer Fruit for Souls.
Stewardship Reflections with the Ven. Wayne Varley