I hope you are enjoying a blessed Lenten journey.

Usually at this time of year we are encouraged to take space and time to be still with God and to focus our thoughts and prayers upon God’s will for our lives and to bear witness to the great love God has for us as we take on increased depth in our Christian lives. This year, however, there is so much going on around us I think it may seem difficult to make space.

I urge you to continue to maintain your Lenten disciplines even in the middle of the concerns for the Anglican church of Canada. I urge you to remain still and rooted in prayer in our own parish and in the diocese.

We have been in an intentional time of discernment preparing for the election of the 10th Bishop of Edmonton. By the time you read this message the election will have happened and we will be upholding our new bishop in prayer as he/she prepares for their ministry among us. So, it is a time of change but in the middle of all this we can stay rooted in the unchanging nature of God’s love in Christ Jesus.

I hope that you have found our Lenten education offerings and prayer groups helpful to stay grounded. There are some extra windows for worship this Lent, we are offering a spoken Eucharist after work on Wednesday evenings at 6PM. Please join us, if you would like to stay on for soup and study you would be welcome but you can come just for worship if you wish.

Lent causes us to reexamine our hearts and our consciences, to check in in quite a formal way with God. We are called to disciplines of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, study and prayer. Not because they make things miserable but because they enrich our spiritual lives and give us great joy as we grow ever closer to God.

I hope each of you are having a beautiful Lent, a time when you and God are growing even closer. The good news is that even as we move towards God he comes closer and closer to us, He does not stand still or walk away. He comes through time and space to be with us, because reconciliation is the dearest wish of his heart.

We are about to spend a very special time together as we walk our last part of this journey through Holy Week. I hope that you will join me in that walk, and that having prayed and kept watch together we will be engulfed in the joy of the Resurrection.

May God be merciful to us and bless us,
show us the light of his countenance and come to us
(Psalm 67:1)

Jane+