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Blog

October 6, 2022

A Thanksgiving Message from Rev. Victoria

It’s just about six weeks ago that I wrote to you and borrowed Bruce Epperly’s phrase “living a holy adventure”, expressing hope and excitement that our journeys had been linked and that we were embarking on a “holy adventure” together. 

Today, as we approach Thanksgiving weekend, I write to express gratitude for the unfolding of our “holy adventure” so far. I give thanks for the ways that you have all welcomed me with such openness and warmth. I give thanks for our worship together, and for the ways we have navigated the change in the pattern of our Sunday morning worship, moving from a morning of both Zoom and in-person worship, to one service at 10 a.m. I give thanks that we were able to respond to volunteer fatigue with this change, and I am grateful for the understanding of those for whom Zoom was meeting a need on a Sunday morning. Part of living a “holy adventure” is living with eyes, ears, hearts and minds open to opportunities to move with God already at work, and we will continue to do that with all things, including being open to opportunities to connect on Zoom. I give thanks for the ways we are getting to know one another in community, in meetings, and one-on-one as our 
“holy adventure” continues. 

Last Sunday, I preached about “and”, suggesting that it is one of the most important words we have as human beings. Life is full of “ands”: joy and sorrow, praise and lament, faith and doubt, celebration and conflict. “And” frees us from striving for either/or and helps us to move between these things. We are both ourselves and an interconnected collective. We live both inner and outer lives. We are each uniquely and wonderfully made, and we are inextricably linked in the great collective of creation. “And” helps us to be in the midst of difference and diversity. I give thanks for “and”!

It is “and” that makes community – all of you, and me – and community includes both “being”and “doing”. We’re going to stay after the 10 a.m. service next Sunday (October 16th) for a Volunteer Fair. We will celebrate the dedicated group of volunteers who are already “doing” on a Sunday morning: taking on the roles and responsibilities that combine to make our Sunday morning worship what it is. Heartfelt thanks to them! We also need to do some rebuilding and expanding of our volunteer groups. I invite you to do some discerning about what you are “doing” at Ascension. Please do plan to stay after church next week. There will be lots of space for questions, and for “demystifying” what you’ll be getting into if the Spirit moves you to take on more “doing” on a Sunday morning. 

This Thanksgiving, I give thanks that Ascension is a place where we can meet one another and feel all the “ands”, together. I give thanks that it is a place where we tend to both our inner and our outer lives, balancing being and doing. I give thanks that God is with us and we are with each other in the “ands”, on this “holy adventure”.  

Blessings to you and yours this Thanksgiving, and always, 

Victoria+

August 25, 2022

Warm greetings as I join you as Incumbent at Ascension!

I’m a fan of process theologian and author Bruce Epperly, and I particularly appreciate his invitation to “live a holy adventure”. We are all living a holy adventure, and I’m filled with gratitude, hope and excitement that our journeys are now linked, and that we are beginning to live our holy adventure together!

Jesus shows us that our holy adventure is now. The time of God’s action and activity is now, and it is overflowing. Jesus draws us into that brimming over. He draws us into the ever-flowing current of God’s love and action and activity. Jesus invites us on a holy adventure that has us seek to heal and restore brokenness in each other and in our world. It is a holy adventure that sees us strive for peace, justice, dignity, wholeness and love in our interactions, and in our relationships.

There is much blessing and holiness in the pattern of our Anglican tradition and worship, and in faith-filled community. Our gathering, our liturgy, and our shared prayer and song and sacrament holds us in the flow of God’s action and activity in the whole of our lives and it carries us on our holy adventure.

I feel tremendously blessed that we are now held together at Ascension, in the flow of God’s love and grace. Here’s to our holy adventure, in Jesus’ name!

Victoria+

March 10, 2022

a pastoral message in light of easing restrictions

Dear friends,

We are entering a new stage of the pandemic which presents particular challenges to us as a community.  With the relaxation of measures such as distancing, masking, and vaccine mandates, the burden of protection is falling primarily on people who are the most vulnerable to infection and those who care for them.  It is important to remember that what might be a source of relief and delight to one person may be scary and, potentially, exclusionary to another. How do we navigate this time with kindness, justice, and humility?

We consider the variety of needs in our community and do our best to balance risk and harm.

For example, allowing individual speakers, using microphones, to remove their masks substantially increases the quality of participation for people who have impaired hearing while minimally increasing risks of infections.  However, some people may feel unable to serve as readers or may choose to leave their masks on while reading because COVID infection is a more serious risk in their lives. 

We strive to be sensitive to the range of emotions experienced in the community.

Do not assume that everyone shares your perspective; both happiness and frustration are tempered by the knowledge that others in our community are experiencing the reverse. In particular, displays of joy or relief are unhelpful to those who are feeling heightened regret or worry.   

We move slowly and cautiously, possibly more slowly than required by public health/our diocese and possibly more slowly than some of us would like. 

For example, although technically permitted (as of March 10), we are not going to be lifting the capacity limits of our on-site services yet.  We will take time to talk to one another, to explore creative accommodations for differing needs, and to see what the infections rates in our city do.

We practice patience with one another and with ourselves.  

There are very few “right” decisions.  We seek to make the best decisions we can and to share the burden of the costs of those decisions as justly as possible, acknowledging that “as possible” will always be inadequate this side of God’s Beloved Community.

We pray. Pray for wisdom, for protection, for healing, for generosity of spirit, and for one another. 

I am deeply grateful for this community – there is none I would rather be navigating with during these difficult times. Thank you for your faithfulness and for your deep love for this church.

Yours in Christ,
Rhonda

March 1, 2022

Cultivating Grateful Hearts – Lent 2022

Lent is a season of turning our attention away from temptation and distraction and towards God and God’s will for our lives and the world. We make space to make our relationship with God a priority, taking stock of the ways in which we have failed to do that and the ways in which God nonetheless continues to be faithful to us.

This year, you are invited into a particular Lenten discipline of gratitude. Fast from complaining and grasping and focus instead on the good and growing things God has placed in your life. Find ways to see God at work even in the hard things. Let your gratefulness overflow in acts of love and generosity. 

Some specific practices to consider:

  • Keep a daily journal, in which you record not only the things for which you are grateful but the experience of discovering and naming them.
  • Say grace at every meal. (download a selection here)
  • Send a thank you note to at least one person each week.
  • Find ways to share those things for which you are thankful with people who may not have such easy access to them.
  • Use these weekly reflections and prayers, drawing on the Psalms appointed for use in Lent.
  • Join in an Evening Prayer service every Wednesday at 7:30 pm in Lent, March 9-April 13. Contact Karen McBride for the Zoom link.

February 11, 2022

Praying for our City


download a pdf of these prayers

Be pleased, O God, to deliver us.
Make haste, Holy One, to help us.                                                                                   

A reading from 1 John 3:19-20

Little children, let us love, not in word or speech but in truth and action. By this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before God whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and God knows everything.

silence

God of love,
Our hearts are heavy, filled with worry and sorrow for the people of our city.
We pray for all who are exhausted, worn down by the noise and chaos of occupation.
We pray for all who are fearful, made into targets because of their race, gender, sexuality or vulnerability.
We pray for all who are angry, whether with the protesters or the police or both.

take time to add your own prayers

Our hearts are heavy, filled with worry and sorrow for the health of our communities.
We pray for all whose bodily well-being has suffered during this pandemic.
We pray for all whose mental well-being has suffered during this pandemic.
We pray for all whose economic and social well-being has suffered during this pandemic.

take time to add your own prayers

Our hearts are heavy, filled with worry and sorrow for the state of our nation.
We ask for deliverance from racism and the sin of white supremacy.
We ask for deliverance from misinformation and political manipulation.
We ask for deliverance from dehumanization and hatefulness.

take time to add your own prayers

Our hearts are heavy, O God; we turn to you. 
Give us eyes to see your ways.
Give us ears to hear your word.
Give us lips to speak your truth.
Give us hands to do your work.
Give us hearts to trust your presence.
Amen.

As Jesus taught us, we gather our prayers together and say:

Our Mother, our Father in heaven
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours,
now and for ever. Amen.

We go forth in the name of Christ
Thanks be to God.

prayers composed by Rhonda Waters

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Church of the Ascension is a parish of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa
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and the Anglican Church of Canada.

We stand on the traditional and unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnabe nation.

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