Dear People, Neighbours, and Friends of St. Thomas’s,
At the end of last week’s letter, I promised to write “soon” about the Compass Rose Society. Just as clergy use the word “brief” rather loosely (as in “my sermon will be brief this morning”), so too with “soon.” But for once I’ve resolved to be a man of my word.
The Compass Rose Society takes its name from the emblem of the Anglican Communion: a compass rose with the cross of St. George at its centre, a mitre at its crown, and its points reaching out in every direction. Around it runs a verse from St. John’s Gospel in Greek: “the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). The image says, more economically than I ever could, that our Communion serves people at all points of the compass. The Compass Rose itself points to the vision we will hear in Sunday’s lesson for All Saints, of “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9), a gathering of which the Anglican Communion, on its better days, offers a modest foretaste.
Image via Anglican_rose.PNG: JaMikePA at en.wikipedia derivative work: Gregor Shapiro, Obendorf, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Society was founded in 1994, after Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey’s visit to Sudan, to support the ministry of the Archbishop and the work of the Anglican Communion Office in London, which help hold together a family of more than forty provinces and tens of millions of Anglicans around the world. Over its history the Society has raised more than $17 million USD, and its Canadian arm more than $1.5 million of our own dollars. Beyond keeping the lights on at the Communion’s headquarters (unglamorous, but just as essential as our own boiler room), its members have supported Green Anglicans, a creation-care movement that began in southern Africa; an eye clinic and a school in Ghana; and the Jerusalem Princess Basma Centre, which serves children with disabilities in the Holy Land. Since we are working so hard to make our own buildings accessible to all, that last one is especially close to my heart, and the Holy Land remains in our prayers as we long for a lasting peace between Palestinians, among them our fellow Anglicans, and Israelis. Christians, Jews, and Muslims share in the inheritance of Abraham, and I long for the days when the Psalmist’s cry of “how good and joyful a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1) is true across religious divides. “O pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6). I like to think that the Compass Rose Society is doing its part to answer these prayers as one instrument among many through which God is accomplishing the work of redemption.
We are blessed to join in that work as a member of the Canadian Compass Rose Society, alongside our own Diocese of Toronto, St. James Cathedral, St. Paul’s, Bloor Street, Grace Church on-the-Hill, and a local chapter in Scarborough, along with a goodly company of dioceses, parishes, and individuals across the country. We owe that membership to two former parishioners, Donald Crawshaw and Matthew Hoffman, who were convinced that St. Thomas’s had something to give to the wider Communion and something to receive from it. They also encouraged me, with a persistence I now recognise as a spiritual gift, to attend the Society’s annual meeting in London a year ago. Donald and Matthew, thank you. You were right, and I have been slow to say so publicly.
That trip to London last October was overshadowed by the death of our parishioner Nigel Wright, just days before I left. I had been looking forward to dinner with Nigel in London, and instead I travelled with grief. When I came home, there was a Requiem to plan, and then the Cornerstone Campaign rightly claimed much of my energy over the following year. The Compass Rose Society kept getting bumped to next week’s letter, and next week kept turning into next month. I regret that, and I’m grateful for the chance to set it right.
I’m also glad to be able to share some exciting news. Next October I plan to attend the Compass Rose Society’s annual meeting in London again. Last year, I combined the annual meeting with preaching at the dedication festival of the chapel of Exeter College, Oxford and a Sunday sermon at All Saints, Margaret Street, in addition to squeezing in dinner with the board of trustees of Pusey House, Oxford as a guest of its principal, Fr. George Westhaver, and attending the Civic Dinner of the Worshipful Company of Woolmen as a guest of parishioner and Woolman, Dr. Suan-Seh Foo. Next year, I will be combining my attendance at the meeting with a royal preachment: I have been invited by Canon Paul Wright, Sub-Dean of the Chapels Royal and senior chaplain to His Majesty the King, to preach at the Chapel Royal, St. James’s Palace, on Sunday, 24 October 2027. Last year I visited that chapel briefly as a guest of Canon Wright and enjoyed an informal lunch with him and his wife, Georgina in their kitchen; next year I’m looking forward to this more formal occasion in the palace pulpit. I’m planning my trip around that invitation, and around the Society’s gathering.
My connection to the Chapels Royal is thanks to John Fraser, former Master of Massey College, and his ongoing work with the Chapel Royal at Massey College. John was recently at the Chapel Royal of St. James’s Palace for the induction of Massey College Junior Fellow Evan Chan as a Yeoman of that chapel, accompanied by the Chief of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and another elder of that nation. Nathan Tidridge, who has been John’s right-hand man in his work promoting Crown-Indigenous treaty relationships through the Chapels Royal, preached. (Evan also occasionally attends Morning Prayer on Mondays at St. T’s; John is the usual officiant of that daily office here on Monday, and additional companions in prayer are always welcome, every day of the week.)
Pictured left to right: Elder Margo King, Chief Margaret Sault, Yeoman Evan Chan, preacher Nathan Tidridge, and Canon Paul Wright in the Chapel Royal at St. James’s Palace.
Photo: John Fraser
So here is my ask this week. First, learn a little more. Visit compassrosesociety.org, where you can read about the projects the Society supports and the Canadian chapter’s work. Second, pray for the Anglican Communion, for the Archbishop of Canterbury, and for the people the Society serves, especially in places where being an Anglican is costly. Third, consider taking part. Individuals can join the Society in their own right, and our parish membership is something we sustain together; if you would like to support it, or if you are interested in coming along to London next October as part of a St. Thomas’s contingent, please drop me a line. I would love not to be the only one from Huron Street in the room. Perhaps we could get a few people together to attend services at St. James’s Palace, as well? They are open to the public, and it would be reassuring to have a few familiar faces in the chapel. While it’s unlikely that the King will be in attendance, I’m informed that Princess Alexandra is a stalwart of the Chapel Royal!
This Sunday we keep the Feast of All Saints, when we remember that the communion of saints stretches across all of time, and on All Souls’ Day we will remember Nigel among the faithful departed. The Anglican Communion is a smaller, humbler version of the same truth stretched across space: a family at every point of the compass, bound together by Christ. St. Thomas’s has its own small place on that map, and I’m grateful to Donald and Matthew for their help in connecting us with other points through the work of the Compass Rose Society.
Yours in Christ’s service,
Nathan J.A. Humphrey+
VIII Rector
