The Living Church & St. Thomas’s
Dear People, Neighbours, and Friends of St. Thomas’s,
I write at the end of two weeks of travel, most recently to Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) for the annual meeting of The Living Church Foundation, on which I serve. Many of you will have noticed copies of its magazine, The Living Church (TLC), in the narthex, so I thought I’d tell you a little about it.
For nearly 150 years, The Living Church magazine has offered news, theology, and reflection on church life to the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican Communion, including here in Canada. Last week, The Living Church Foundation gathered more than fifty Canadian church leaders in Mississauga. (I’m not sure I should count Mississauga as travel, but I did stay for a few nights at the Queen of Apostles Renewal Centre, so I think it qualifies.) Last week’s letter in The Thurible, in fact, was inspired by one of the presentations at that conference, and you may recall seeing the Bishop of the Arctic and one of his three suffragan bishops at High Mass last Sunday!
The Foundation has been making a point of including more people whose ministry is in Canada, and this fall there was a bumper crop. Until now, the Foundation members living in Toronto were Bishop Jenny Andison, Fr. Ajit John, and me. We are now joined by the new principal of Wycliffe College, Dr. Kristen Deede Johnson; Wycliffe’s newest faculty member, the Rev. Dr. Wesley Hill; the Rev. Canon Dr. Patrick McManus of All Saints, Kingsway; and Bishop Stephen Andrews, Dr. Johnson’s predecessor, who now lives in the Maritimes but still comes back regularly to teach at Wycliffe. Bishop George Sumner, retired Bishop of Dallas and a former principal of Wycliffe College, also serves on the Foundation. That means the current principal of Wycliffe and two of her predecessors are all members! Add the Rev. Dr. George Westhaver, a Canadian who is Principal of Pusey House, Oxford, and Canada is now very well represented indeed, though heavily weighted towards Toronto and Wycliffe. I am the counter-balancing Anglo-Catholic member, I suppose.
The Living Church Foundation also has an online journal, Covenant, where some of the most thoughtful theological writing in our tradition appears today. I have a soft spot for Covenant. I was one of its founding contributors when it was a wee blog written by lay people and young clergy, before TLC took it in. Those early contributors included a young Fr. Matthew Olver, who served his curacy at the Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, where Fr. Micah later did a summer internship before ordination. Matthew is now TLC’s Executive Director and Publisher. The Church is a small world, and a well-connected one. While I was at VTS for the annual meeting, my path kept crossing with many people whom I have known for decades, including a professor there who is about to take up her post as the next Dean and President of Seminary of the Southwest; she and I were at Yale Divinity School together. I also spent time with the Dean of Chapel at VTS, for whom I served as spiritual director back when he was a lay person discerning a call to ordained ministry. So this past week was a bit of an old home week for me, and I could bore you with even more!
One of the reasons I was at the TLC meeting this year is that I had to miss last year’s. Last October I was in London, England, for the Compass Rose Society’s annual meeting. St. Thomas’s is a member of the Canadian Compass Rose Society, and I’ve been remiss in not publicizing its good work to the wider parish more. Look for a letter on their contributions to the Anglican Communion soon.
In addition to our membership in the CRS, St. Thomas’s is one of TLC’s partner parishes, and the September 13 issue included a spotlight on us: our ten Pentecost confirmands and the catechesis program that formed them, together with a photo of the whimsical flames-of-fire hats from our Children’s Church program, which has also grown in strength over the past several months thanks to the leadership of Alison Juurinen (pictured below with one of the children and Bishop Kevin Robertson).
So my ask this week is simple and costs nothing. Pick up a free copy of The Living Church magazine in the narthex and take it home while supplies last. Then try Covenant online at livingchurch.org/category/covenant. Our parish’s partnership is already our gift to this ministry. But it exists for the sake of its readership, and if I can help extend TLC’s reach into Canada, I’m happy to do my part.
Yours in Christ’s service,
Nathan J.A. Humphrey+
VIII Rector
P.S. If you want to see more of St. Thomas’s in the news, check out the cover story of the most recent Anglican Journal! Hard copies are also available in the narthex and the parish hall while supplies last.
