Greetings in the Name of the One who loves and calls us.
For all who embark upon the journey and work of an Annual General Meeting this year, you have done so with generosity, adaptability, and resilience. On behalf of your neighbouring parishes and deaneries, and national Church, I pour out thanksgiving to God for you.
We experience our call to mission and ministry anew each day, and perhaps the extraordinary events of the past year have made us yearn to hear God’s voice and direction more than we have yearned in past. The discipline of engaging an AGM is not simply to fulfill civil and canon law, which they do, it is also a significant moment to be the Body of Christ huddled in an upper room listening to the resurrected master prepare us for a life of mission and ministry.
The last year, albeit difficult, has been for us a time of illumination and discovery; we have discovered fissures in Canadian socio-economic structures, the like of which the most vulnerable have been trying to communicate to us for years. We have rediscovered how privilege, both in the world around and in our Church has hidden these same fissures. Many, if not all of us, have come to a better place of understanding our real need to live interdependently with one another and creation. Yes, a difficult journey, yet one with which gratitude is our first response.
2021 and 2022 will bring significant challenges, both financially and socially, as we navigate from our lament toward more fully engaging the work God has given. Our collective ministries of The Diocese of Rupert’s Land are essential for the health of every parish, and ministry in Canada generally, and I am speaking particularly of the work of the Urban Indigenous Ministry Developer, the Diocesan Ministry Developer, our contribution through General Synod for Council of the North, and the overall structures of the Anglican Church of Canada that generously resource parish and clergy development. Your generosity in ministry through Common Ministry and Mission when fully realized means that Rupert’s Land Discipleship shall not lack for anything. As one Body in Christ we are indeed gifted with all that is necessary to meet the needs of ministry and mission.
Disciples, let us be one in the daily recitation of Luke 4.18-19, and in prayer for our Diocesan Church family:
May the blessing of the holy and undivided Trinity rest upon you, and all whom you love. In the Peace of Christ,
The Rt. Rev. Geoffrey JJ Woodcroft
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