One of my children, then aged seven, questioned me as to why everyone refused to talk to her about two young men we knew who were in love with each other. “Mom, as Jesus loved everyone without exception, why would it be different for His loving them?”

You will agree that this was an issue I never expected to be having with my daughter at her young age. But, as she was asking a puzzling question, I felt I needed to help her through the answer. I knew she felt comfortable with our two young friends. She felt loved and accepted by them. They showed patience, kindness and self control while with her. She could sense the love and joy in their lives, and felt their acceptance, and that their appreciation of her was reciprocated. They respected that she was a child with intelligence and did not dismiss her thoughts on any subject.

My daughter is now 46, and, to my surprise, remembered our conversation when she was seven. She has children of her own, and told me that her seven-year old son was just as curious and concerned about the state of the world. She thanked me for being honest with her years ago, and for continuing to be open and honest about difficult situations. While I did not always agree with, or condone, certain behaviours, she knew without a doubt that I loved her. That, is what she is instilling in her three children.

When I was seven we lived in South Africa and race relations were the controversial situations discussed in our home. My father, Arthur Keppel-Jones, was vehement that the colour of one’s skin was not the important thing. He welcomed everyone to our home, which sometimes brought on problems. He despised the reigning government’s belief that only white persons counted. In this apartheid state he spoke out, and wrote articles and books, against their beliefs regularly. He also taught his students at Natal University to value people who did not accept the government’s ruling. We belonged to an Anglican parish where my father was a devout Christian. That meant that his voice counted when he opened his mouth. Eventually his opinions opposing segregation led to his being told to cease or desist. House arrest would have been his only lifestyle. But by then, Queen’s University had offered him employment in the History Department. So we emigrated from South Africa to Canada in 1959. Even then, my father continued to write and speak out against that divisive system until his death in 1996.  

So that is how I learned at an early age to be open and honest about difficult subjects. Eventually I shared that knowledge with my children, and it has obviously been passed along in their lives. I am grateful that it counted. A United Methodist minister, the Reverend Beth A Richardson, wrote the following meaningful prayer: “God of transformation, may your light shine into the shadows of our world, illuminating the way to justice, mercy and love.  Amen.”

Thanks be to God!

The post Making life count appeared first on Dialogue.

In principle, finding locations where heat loss occurs during the heating season is simple: such places are warmed up by conduction of heat through the structure or by air leakage from the inside to the outside. While using a thermometer is not possible or practical, thermography provides the means to take images of temperature distribution across the objects or surfaces of interest. Because of the warm interior, less insulated places will be warmer outside and cooler inside, and this will become visible on the thermal images. While thermography used to be rather expensive, it is now possible to attach an affordable thermal camera to a smartphone to obtain images such as shown in the example. With the Diocese leadership agreement, the Green Group purchased the equipment and several members learned how to operate it.

During the coming heating season, Green Group members are willing to visit churches that invite us to obtain heat loss images of your premises. The images can be obtained from the outside or indoors, and they can be examined for heat loses (overall or unexpected) due to insulation in walls, glazing, draft or air leakage around doors and windows, water leakages, and indoor temperature distribution with reference to comfort of those present indoors. The technique is only effective if there is a significant temperature difference between the indoors and the outdoors (the larger the better but at least 10^oC). In addition, the outside walls should not be wet or warmed up by the sun. Therefore, the suitable times for imaging during the heating season are limited. 

On 25 February 2022 the Green Group sent a note to the wardens and treasurers of the Diocese asking if their churches would like to take advantage of the above tool if it were available. We have already received sufficient response to justify the purchase. Through this article, we are inviting other interested churches, and we intend to respond to requests on a first come-first serve basis. The timing of the visits will have to be flexible due to the dependence on the weather. The imaging may take place on various days of the week and for the day chosen, the premises would have to be heated prior to imaging. Subject to availability and scheduling, we are also prepared to offer the same opportunity for the homes of the churches’ parishioners. Expressions of interest should be sent to greengroup@ontario.anglican.ca

How Infrared Cameras Work:

All objects emit infrared energy, known as a heat signature. An infrared camera (also known as a thermal imager) detects and measures the infrared energy of objects. The camera converts that infrared data into an electronic image that shows the apparent surface temperature of the object being measured.

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That’s how I discovered Luke’s Place Kingston, centred since its founding in 2018 at historic St. Luke’s Parish, Kingston. That’s when I originally met Greg Westlake, a very active former RCAF pilot and lay leader in the Diocese of Ontario. He is the treasurer now of this newly incorporated not-for-profit registered charity, with its own CRA number.

Luke’s Place Kingston has a dream: An ecumenical group focused on providing affordable places to call home for people with intellectual challenges. The directors, now a board of 17 members, have done their homework well, including research and partnership with consultation with community groups and specialists in the field. This includes, among others, leadership with a community/housing facilitator with Community Living Kingston and District (see website).

The dream, now almost a reality, is to construct and support a building in the Kingston area that will be designed specifically for the overwhelming housing needs of local residents. Initial fund-raising goals of $ 50,000, now well on its way, will cover upfront costs and help to obtain mortgaging for a small apartment building based on a well-designed model: 1/3 tenant pay market rent; 1/3 tenants pay 80 % of market rent; and 1/3 tenants served by Community Living Kingston and District (rents geared to income).

The challenge: People who have an intellectual disability are often discriminated against, suffer from loneliness, and cannot find housing that they can afford. Individuals now on provincial Ontario Disability Support Program only $ 522 per month as their housing allowance. The average Kingston-area monthly one-bedroom rental cost is currently  $1,300-$1,400.

I submit this project should be a priority in the ministry and programme of our diocesan life and deserves our support.

For further information, contact Irene Watt, chair, iwatt@kos.net or lukesplacekingston@gmail.com or call (613) 546-5791 and leave a message. Financial support, including monthly contributions, can be arranged with treasurer, Greg Westlake, telephone (613) 536-8811.

Why donate to Luke’s Place Kingston?

People who have an intellectual disability are often discriminated against, suffer from loneliness and cannot find housing that they can afford.

With supports, they have wonderful gifts to share with the community.

The post Luke’s Place Kingston appeared first on Dialogue.

– The Book of Common Prayer (1979), The Episcopal Church, page 445, at the conclusion of the “Thanksgiving for a Child” Service

Oh, how I wish this thoughtful, pastoral rubric were part of our Canadian liturgical resources—The  Book of Common Prayer of 1962, The Book of Alternative Services (1985), and excellent additional alternatives and options for trial use, available both in print and online. Just imagine if this American sound teaching were part and parcel of parish and diocesan life in Canada—and taken seriously by every leader committed to a way of life of year-round creative and visionary stewardship. Imagine if the leaders of our various foundations, ecumenical community groups, and not-for-profit organized programmes made this teaching a prime focus for secure, future funding.

This teaching is not by any means new.  In the Book of Common Prayer of 1549, yes, 1549, as part of the “Visitation of the Sick” rite (leaving it a bit late, mind you), we have these poignant words:

”And if he have not afore disposed his goods, let him then make his will. (But men must be often admonished that they set an order for their temporal goods and lands, when they be in health.) And also to declare his debts, what he oweth, and what is owing to him, for discharging of his conscience, and quietness of his executors.”

Gift-planning, planned giving, legacy gifts are all part of a growing emphasis on sound financial support for churches, hospitals, universities, and thousands of non-for-profit charitable organizations in Canada. Annual giving, special one-time gifts for particular projects or emergencies, are still important for the well-being of on-going life of our society. But legacy gifts, or the gifts of accumulated assets to be precise, are vitally important as the work of non-governmental groups becomes increasingly significant and essential.

I write now as a specialist in the ministry of gift planning, having served for many years as senior national gift planning officer of the Anglican Church of Canada. I learned as a parish priest, first, that an understanding of full-time stewardship is the basis of everything else….the sharing of our gifts of time, energy, abilities, and financial resources, as a response to God’s gifts and blessings to us. Good and faithful stewards strive to make a difference in people’s lives, responding especially to Our Lord’s command, “love God and our neighbours.” For baptised Anglicans, this means in some detail, living out our Baptismal Covenant (cf Anglican Church of Canada–The Ministry of All the Baptized).

In parish life, our Sunday offerings help to meet the expenses of looking after a church building and property, the costs of providing effective ministry and service and to paying a share in the life and programme of the diocese and General Synod, The Primate’s Fund, and so forth. Increasingly parishes are asked to help local community groups and vulnerable people, especially during times of crisis. But as these expenses rise, other sources of funding will depend on legacy gifts, including bequests (hence the importance of having a valid will, reviewed regularly with professional assistance), consideration of the tax benefits of gifts of listed securities, gifts of life insurance (either new for the church specifically or ones already in place), charitable gift annuities (especially for seniors), and other forms of gift planning.

The Anglican Diocese of Ontario Foundation has on its website some material which outline various ways of taking seriously the wide ways of sharing financial resources, with further information prepared by a lawyer who specialises in this aspect of legal counsel to be included in 2023.

Here is a good summary of what this aspect of Christian stewardship really means: “Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received—only what you have given: a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage.” 

– St. Francis of Assisi.

The post Gift planning 101 appeared first on Dialogue.

While we primarily put our ‘faith in action’ through the local parish, our church also has a dynamic life which spans the globe. The Anglican Communion, of which we are a part, is found in over 165 countries throughout the world. It is comprised of a beautiful tapestry of cultures, languages, traditions and civil societies. We are churches in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Anglican Consultative Council assists us to live the same Great Commandment and Great Commission of Jesus Christ on a global level

Sometimes, our greatest challenge of living in Communion on a global scale is to experience the gift of diversity and rejoice in that gift as opposed to focussing upon the challenges that same diversity sometimes brings. We are the third largest Christian denomination in the world, meaning that we have a strong voice on the international stage. The Marks of Mission created in 1984 by the Anglican Consultative Council have become more and more grafted into the local mission and ministry of our Churches, serving as guideposts for our Churches’ mission from the Village Parish to the voice of our Communion at the United Nations

The recent Lambeth Conference of Bishops inaugurated the Anglican Communion Forest Project in response to the Fifth Mark of Mission. You will recall that the fifth mark of mission calls upon us to “safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.” The Forest Project achieves two significant goals in my view. First, it visually and tangibly raises awareness surrounding our need to be faithful stewards of creation in the midst of the climate crisis. Secondly, this initiative is yet another vehicle through which our Church can work in concert with others to raise awareness both locally and globally of our call to be good stewards of the earth.

I am pleased that the Diocesan Green Group has accepted my invitation to help us begin to find our place within the Anglican Communion Forest Project. I am also thrilled that a number of parishes have begun to consider ways in which the Forest Project can be taken up within our communities. Will the Anglican Communion Forest Project solve the climate crisis? No, it won’t by itself, but as we continue to take steps in faith, together with our partners around the world, we will move toward the goal of climate health that we all desire. Remember the parable of the mustard seed in Matthew’s Gospel? It reminds us that from the tiniest of seeds comes the mightiest of trees and in itself is an image of the Kingdom of God. The tiniest first step in faith can yield the mightiest of results.

I would like to encourage you to read more about the Anglican Communion Forest Project at www.communionforest.org. The opening statements on that page “To plant is to hope, to restore is to heal and to protect is to love” resonate so deeply with the simplicity and depth of the Great Commandment to Love God, neighbour and self in equal measure. I look forward to seeing how we will seize the opportunities afforded us through participation in this project, taking our place in the global conversation around climate stewardship. The life of the world and the legacy we leave will depend on it.

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Launched in early August at Lambeth this year, the Anglican Communion Forest project is a shared vision for the Anglican Communion to restore and renew forests across the Communion by committing to a wide range of creation care activities. One of these activities is to plant new trees. Bishop Michael, in a letter to our diocese at the end of August following Lambeth, invited each parish to commit to planting 160 trees—marking the Diocese of Ontario’s 160^th anniversary). 

Philip Bury, a warden at St. Paul’s, considered the bishop’s invitation and thought it would be a great initiative for their 150^th celebration. “We only distributed 50, I’m afraid, because we knew that our tiny congregation couldn’t absorb 160, but it was definitely in response to the bishop’s request” says Philip.  

Purchased from Ferguson Forest Nursey in Kemptville, the Parish paid $1.60 for each seedling, a fast growing Norway Spruce. “Lots of happy children and serious grown ups took them away” says Philip. 

Conifers like the Norway Spruce are best planted in Spring just as the ground thaws, when soil moisture is high and the cooler conditions help keep seedlings from drying out. Until then they can be planted in a container and transplanted in the Spring. 

Hailing from Europe, the Norway Spruce did not actually originate in Norway. The tree grew in the Black Forest and other parts of the continent long before making its way to Norway around 500 B.C. 

Philip will plant his on his property. “It isn’t easy for everyone to absorb a tree, I am lucky to live in a home that has a good sized yard” he says. For the seedlings that were not taken home that Sunday, Philip hopes to encourage his local municipality to find space for the remaining trees.

Bishop Michael took his own seedling from St. John’s that Sunday, planting it in his backyard. Through next Spring and Summer he hopes that all the parishes of the Diocese of Ontario will take up this challenge and inspire their parishioners to pick up a shovel and plant a tree. The bishop, in reflecting on the tree that the Archbishop of Canterbury planted at Lambeth this Summer to begin the project: “May the seeds planted at Lambeth find good soil here at home, taking root as we continue our ministry together in the name of Christ.” 

The congregation at St. Paul’s, Cardinal, has no doubt that like the trees they plant, Christian ministry will continue to grow in their community for another 150 years.

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