Christian Education & formation

Catechesis
Led by Lay Catechist Gideon Strauss & Fr. Micah Latimer-Dennis

The series of potluck lunches with discussions of different aspects of the faith and liturgy continues in March. On March 1 the group will meet to learn about vestments, incense, and processions. The session on March 8 will reflect on the church building, including its architecture and stained glass, and on March 22 the group will explore the Palm Sunday and Holy Week liturgies. Newcomers and long-time parishioners alike are welcome. Write to Fr. Micah to learn more or sign up.

Lenten Book Study Led by Fr. Micah & John Stuart
The Love That Is God
Wednesdays after Morning Prayer, starting February 25
Father Freeland Room

Explore the radical claim at the heart of Christian faith—that God is love. Join John Stuart, head of the parish’s Christian Education program, and Fr. Micah Latimer-Dennis in a four-week study of The Love That Is God by Frederick Bauerschmidt. (The book is available through Indigo and Amazon.) The group will meet on Wednesdays after 8:30 Morning Prayer—at 9 a.m. in the Father Freeland Room—beginning February 25. Write to education@stthomas.on.ca to register or speak with Fr. Micah after a service. The homily on which the book is based can be read here. 

Exploration of Poetry & Prayer with Margo Swiss
The Way of the Heart—Our Inner Journey Towards God
Via Zoom over four Monday evenings beginning March 2
7:00–8:30 p.m.
Register here

This Lenten study will consider how poetry can illuminate the experiences of desolation and consolation in prayer. The selection of poems examined will provide us with varied approaches and forms of solitary prayer, to be discussed as we proceed. Participants will receive copies of the poems before the study begins. Register here.

Margo Swiss, a long-time parishioner, and herself a poet, will facilitate the sessions. Margo taught Humanities, English, and Creative Writing at York University, Toronto, until her retirement in 2018. She has written articles on Milton and Donne, and has co-edited with her husband, David Kent, two collections of essays on Milton. She edited an anthology of 14 Canadian Christian poets and has published four books of poetry: Crossword: A Woman’s Narrative (1996); Here Now (2012); The Hatching of the Heart (2015); and Second Gaze (2020). She and David are well known to many at St. Thomas’s for their splendid work in creating and maintaining the St. Thomas Poetry Series. If you have questions about the Lenten study and discussion series, please email John Stuart at education@stthomas.on.ca.

Christian Meditation Group Lenten Study
Five Zoom sessions on Wednesdays from Noon to 1:30 p.m.
Beginning February 25

All members and friends of St. Thomas’s are invited to join a Lenten study of “Good Measure, Pressed Down and Overflowing,” a series of reflections, lectures, and meditation sessions by Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury. The history of the Church in the past century includes several figures who combine a profound contemplative practice with active involvement in the service of the vulnerable. We will discuss the example and teaching of some of them, including Dorothy Day and Madeleine Delbrel, asking how our own practice affects daily choices and our approach to a chaotic world.

This series of five sessions will be held on Wednesdays from noon to 1:30 via Zoom, beginning on February 25. Knowledge of meditation is not necessary, nor is knowledge of theology, doctrine, dogma, or church history. – Fr. Brian Bartley

For more information and to register, email Fr. Bartley here.   

Diocese of Toronto Online Lenten Book Study
Starting Wednesday, February 25 at 7:00 p.m 

The Diocese of Toronto facilitates an online study of Encampment: Resistance, Grace, and an Unhoused Community, written by the Rev. Canon Maggie Helwig, incumbent of St. Stephen-in-the-Fields and chair of the Diocesan Social Justice & Advocacy Committee. In the book (which was awarded the City of Toronto Book Award in October 2025), Canon Helwig tells the story of her parish’s support of the homeless encampment around the church.

This study series aims to deepen participants’ understanding of the complex issue of homelessness, and inspire them, in the light of the Gospel, to seek justice for and solidarity with those who are unhoused. 

The series will be presented online on the following Wednesdays, 7:00-8:30 p.m.: February 25, March 4, 11, 18, 25. Register at this link.