The EagleThe Eagle Pentecost 2012

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Dear Friends, Associates and Oblates,

A hymn written by one of our Canadian Bishops, Gordon Light, invites us to “draw the circle wide, draw it wider still”, and this is something that the Sisterhood is doing as we expand the ways people can be affiliated with the Community. We are still being inspired by the Holy Spirit to make the good news available to all the world especially during this season of Pentecost.

At SSJD’s founding, it was the men and women who called this Community into being who became our first Associates. Associates are men and women, lay or ordained, who desire to have a spiritual relationship with SSJD and follow a Rule of Life. At one time, all Associates were Anglican, but now, drawing the circle wider, we have Associates from many other Christian traditions.

Nancy Broschell and the Ven. Gordon Finney being admitted as Associates.

If you are interested in becoming an Associate you can find more information on our website, www.ssjd.ca, under the Community heading or write to the Associate Director at the Convent or at St. John’s House in Victoria, BC.

Several years ago the Sisterhood felt the Holy Spirit moving us to begin the Oblate program. Oblates are women who have made an offering of themselves to God in partnership with the Sisterhood to a life of prayer and service. Each Oblate spends at least two weeks of residential time at the Convent or at B.C. House helping the Community in many different ways according to the abilities of each one.

This past year we began a program to include Alongsiders.

An Alongsider is a woman who lives “at the edge” of the Sisterhood, moving between the monastery and the world outside. She lives in our Guest House and participates as often as possible in the worship of the Community, joins the Sisters at recreation, and shares in the work of the household according to her gifts. An Alongsider is committed to a daily practice of personal prayer, spiritual reading and reflection on sacred Scripture. Being an Alongsider for a set period of time gives a woman the opportunity to seek a deeper relationship with God, to learn about the monastic life in general, to explore and better understand living in community, to take some of the core values of monastic life back out “into the world”, and to help the Sisters deepen their understanding of the culture we live in and its critical issues. Susan Murphy, an Alongsider since September 2011, has been blogging her experience at http://alongsider.wordpress.com. She also prepares and sends out the “Monthly News from the SSJD Guest House”. Currently we are actively seeking women to join us as Alongsiders to explore living “at the edge”.

We particularly enjoy welcoming women who have a desire to join us as Sisters in our Community. Women who have a special call to pray and live in intentional community may well have a call or vocation to the monastic life. They have an inner hunger for something more—a deeper relationship with God— and a desire to use their gifts for others.

SSJD also welcomes women from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) with whom the Anglican Church of Canada is in full communion. Sr. Debra is a Lutheran Pastor on a special call from the Eastern Synod of the ELCIC. Recently the Sisterhood had an evening with Bishop Michael Pryse of the Eastern Synod. He presided at our Eucharist and then joined the Sisters for dinner and recreation, a time of conversation so that we may learn more about our Lutheran brothers and sisters and support them in prayer.

Of course sometimes in order to draw the circle wider, the Sisters need to go out to let people know that there are Anglican Religious in the Church. This past Lent was especially busy for us as Sisters were invited to many places including the Gaspé Peninsula, Montréal, Thunder Bay, Timmins, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Ottawa and Virginia as well as to several parishes in Toronto. The Sisters in Victoria were also busy attending St. Barnabas, St. Michael and All Angels, Christ Church Victoria, St. Paul’s West Vancouver, and attending the Truth and Reconciliation

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hearings on Vancouver Island. During Holy Week, Srs. Beryl and Jean with the Rev. Canon Susan Sheen led a retreat, a mini-pilgrimage to the Holy Land, for those who came to join us for the holy days leading up to Easter.

We give thanks for and celebrate with our Sisters the special anniversaries in their lives. Sr. Constance celebrated her 108th birthday on February 2nd, a remarkable woman who has lived this life of prayer and service to the full.

Sr. Joyce celebrated her 90th birthday April 19th. Sr. Wilma celebrated 55 years in Life Profession on May 1st. Congratulations to all these Sisters.

At the end of January this year we said goodbye to Sian Phillibert who had been received as a postulant of SSJD in October. We still see Sian each week as she continues her Education for Ministry studies at the Convent. Sr. Rhonda, a Novice in SSJD, is taking a year’s leave of absence while she attends to some family issues which have arisen in her life. She also comes for EFM studies.

Sr. Elizabeth and I recently attended a week-long gathering of the Conference of Anglican Religious Orders in the Americas at the Community of the Transfiguration in Cincinnati, OH. It is wonderful to network with our colleagues and to realize that the monastic life in the Anglican church is wider than our own small part.

Sr. Elizabeth Ann, ssjd; Br. Jude Hill, ssf, Br. David Bryan, ohc, the Rev. Don Anderson, Executive of CAROA.

May you too be moved to draw your own circles wider as the Holy Spirit moves you to find ways to include others in your communities.

Sr. Elizabeth Ann, SSJD

What is it like to be an “Alongsider” with SSJD?

I have been an Alongsider for eight months, living, working and playing alongside the Sisters of St. John the Divine. I came into this experience as a workaholic, “night-hawk” introvert from the Baptist tradition, unfamiliar with Anglican liturgy, worship style and theology … talk about a “fish out of water” with a steep learning curve!

My formation as an Alongsider is still a work in progress, but there are a few key things I have learned about Anglican community life and about myself. The Sisters of SSJD juggle many different books and papers in their chapel services! It took time not to be distracted by this but to value a discipline of arriving early for a worship service in order to prepare (both my papers and my heart) for worship. Saying the Daily Office need not be seen as “interruptions” to my daily work schedule. Although I still value focusing on a project for an extended period of time, there is a deep blessing in intentionally quieting one’s heart and mind every few hours to re-focus on God. Monastic life is hard work! For any who think it is an introvert’s heaven, think again. Living, working and playing in close quarters with 24 or so other women for decades on end is not for the faint of heart. It takes (or more accurately, “develops”) an honest humility and authenticity that most of us will never attain in our lifetimes. One sister has put it best: “At the best of times, it is like living with 25 spouses … at the worst of times, the same is also true.”

Anglican Sisters live on “the edge”. One of the greatest surprises to me is the liberal (in the best sense of the word) and forward-thinking theology that exists within monastic communities. A lifestyle of simplicity and deep prayer allows such communities to face issues head-on that other organizations cannot or dare not address. I believe that monastic women and men in many ways live the true life of Jesus most authentically and so are the counter-cultural role models we must continually seek out and learn from.

I derive deep rest and peacefulness from the haunting beauty of the spoken and sung liturgies of monastic services. However, paradoxically this peace has also allowed me to discover a deeper appreciation and hunger for my own church’s tradition of worship and music. When attending my own church’s Sunday services, I now recognize and express my deep joy in worship through rhythmic movement, clapping (and even dance!)

Humility comes out of obedience, not the other way around. I had previously thought that one could “obey” only once one had found humility in one’s heart. Historically I have seen my struggle with structure, rules and regulations as a reflection of my stubbornly un-humble heart, and so have worked on finding a humility which could tame my resistance to submission and obedience. However, I am learning that it is through the practice of obedience that one develops humility. As I have said, I am still a work in progress. . .

Susan Murphy, Alongsider

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If someone had said to me a year ago, “Tell us what it is like to be a Lutheran Pastor in an Anglican convent”, I believe I would have found it easier to answer then than I do today. The primary reason being that a year ago I was in fact a Lutheran Pastor in an Anglican convent. While I am still a Lutheran Pastor and this is still an Anglican convent, an important shift has occurred in our relationship. During the past 15 months I have come to view the Convent as my home and the Sisters as my family. Titles lose their importance in family relationships. In the Convent among my Sisters, I am just Debra. As Debra, a member of the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine, I have learned that each of us who makes up the SSJD family brings particular gifts, beliefs, characteristics and traditions to this relationship. One of the gifts I bring is the fact that I am a Lutheran Pastor called by God through the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) to special service with SSJD. As a Lutheran Pastor I am ordained to the office of Word and Sacrament.

At my ordination service on July 7, 2000, I declared that the church in which I was ordained confesses that the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God and are the norm of our life and faith. I agreed to accept, teach and confess the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed. I acknowledged the Lutheran Confessions as true witnesses and faithful expositions of the Holy Scriptures and so preach and teach in accordance with the Holy Scriptures and these creeds and confessions. As a pastor under special Call by the Eastern Synod of the ELCIC to the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine, I continue to fulfill these responsibilities. As Debra, a member of the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine I have learned that, while a significant part of my identity is being a Lutheran Pastor, there is much more to me than this. Actually, there is much more to all of us than the identities we are given or claim for ourselves. One of the gifts I have received during the past year is coming to understand this. I am, like all of us, first and always a child of God.

I live out my understanding and experience of being a child of God through my life of prayer, my study of the Holy Scriptures, and my use of the means of grace. I try by the help of God and with the support of my Sisters to give faithful witness in the world that God’s love may be known in all that I do. While this is vital to my ordination vows, it is also a predominant focus of the Rule of Life set down by the Sisterhood. In truth this is to be the predominant focus for all who would claim to be a follower of Christ.

Instead of asking, “Tell us what it is like to be a Lutheran Pastor in an Anglican convent”, I prefer this question: “During the past 15 months what new things have you learned, through living the religious life, about your relationship with God and the church that has influenced

your calling to be a Lutheran Pastor in the context in which you now serve?”

In response to this latter question, I believe that I have learned the importance of taking time for silence in prayer, both individually and corporately. I have learned the importance of practising different forms of prayer, including praying with the scriptures. In addition to this I have come to see days of silent retreat not as merely a nice option for ministry but essential to being focused in ministry.

I recognize how easy it is to get caught up in the “noise” of this world. I spent many years being caught in the business of committee meetings, teaching schedules and visitation. I have learned that when we fail to take time to develop with intention our own relationship with God through worship and prayer, we simply fail.

If I had a wish for all the bishops, clergy and diaconal workers in the ELCIC and the Anglican Church of Canada, it would be to spend a year or two in a convent or monastery—preferably two years. It is only after 15 months that I am beginning to understand how vital one’s devotional life is not only to one’s calling, whatever that calling might be—bishop, teacher, maintenance person or stay-at-home parent—but also to the health and happiness of life in general. We cannot talk with integrity to people about the importance of having a relationship with God if we ourselves do not spend time with God.

The ministries that we participate in are not our ministries; they are God’s ministries carried out through us, God’s people. Living in the Convent has taught me this truth and in this context I have been reminded that no job is better or less than another. If the work we do is done in the context of prayer it will be blessed a hundred-fold.

In this call I have received a glimpse of the truth behind the quotation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “When Christ calls a person, Christ bids them come and die.” Essential to living the monastic life is recognizing how deeply we tend to focus on ourselves and our own needs and wants when we are invited to see and respond to the needs of the people around us. Living the monastic life is a process of recognizing the characteristics we have that separate us from God and our neighbour and consciously choosing to let go of those characteristics. It is only when we begin to let go of these ways of being that separate us from God and neighbour that we are able to live differently. As we begin to ‘let go’ we begin to understand that “letting go” is a life-long process that we will never be perfect at. Finally, having said this, it is important that we remember that at the end of the day God does not call us to perfection, God calls us to faithfulness and wholeness.

Talk given by Sr. Debra, N/SSJD to the clericus on March 21, 2012

What is it like to be a Lutheran Pastor in an Anglican Convent?

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Our Lives ofSister Amy was born in Moose Factory, the hospital nearest to her parents’ home in Moosonee, where they had come as teachers. She has an older adopted sister. After nine years the family moved to Foxboro to a converted school house that could provide a barrier-free home for her Dad who has MS. Completing public school in a small town setting, Amy attended Quinte Christian High School, the only Anglican amidst Christian Reformed students; then went to Lambton College in Sarnia and Niagara College in Niagara Falls for their Culinary Management course. She lived and worked for a time in Kitchener, after which she identified her own vocational crisis. She returned home and worked in technical support “realizing that I had a draw to that field, but I really needed to figure out what I wanted to do”. Amy came to “Women at a Crossroads” in July 2002, and entered SSJD in January 2003 at age 25. “God calls us at times when we can come in and handle what needs to be handled. . . . My pull was to community. . . . The services are the focus for me.” Highlights for Sr. Amy included the Novitiate trip: “I always knew I’d come to SSJD, so I hadn’t visited Orders in the USA. . . . It’s a challenge but we have the best of both contemplative and active worlds”. The “move” was

another highlight: “my first Community meeting was the decision to move the Convent. I became ‘the last of things at Botham Road’. Her years in Victoria and her prayerful pursuits of knitting and spinning also stand out. “I’ve grown into the person I’m supposed to be. . . . I didn’t realize there’d be so many ‘goodbyes’—deaths, Sisters and Novices leaving—but it’s given me the ability to journey with people. Now back at the Hospital, I even journeyed with a patient for Baptism, from preparation to being a sponsor in the service.”

Asked why she became an Alongsider, Susan Murphy’s response was “God decided it”. The idea had been presented to long-term residents in the Guest House by Sr. Constance Joanna in March 2011. Susan had been seeking part-time employment to fit with her studies at Tyndale College, so financial and academic adjustments had to be reviewed and reworked. As no job interviews materialized, she wondered, “God may be saying, I want you to do this Alongsider thing”. She liked the idea of living close to the Sisters. “It’s not an easy thing, but it was partly curiosity to experience it.” Logistics and practicalities dictated paring down aspects of her lifestyle, like giving up her car, reducing school to one day a week. Having had to do her own fundraising for school last year, she acknowledges the incredible generosity of family and friends “which has been very humbling–learning the grace of accepting help and letting go to let God provide. I’m definitely working on my sense of pride, thinking I can do everything by myself.” Susan learned of the Convent in the mid ’90s. She refers to God as “the ultimate storyteller writing themes into our lives, hints about what is to come”. Driving past one day she had “felt nudged to turn back and go in”. She obeyed “and booked a room for a week”. Another urge: “I quit my job, went to school full-time and lived at the Convent”. When asked how her Alongsider experience might

affect her plans for the future, Susan replied, “It’s a very interesting psychological and spiritual study: identifying the ingredients I can take into the secular world; how priorities compete in my head; recognizing my absolute need for God. . . .This place has a huge potential for changing lives. They’re role-modelling a lot of stuff for me. They are just so real, and it’s OK to be real!”

As a teenager, (Oblate) Frances Drolet-Smith witnessed her mother’s commitment as an Associate “to follow a Rule of Life, taking daily time for prayer and reading, making an annual retreat and participating in quiet days”. She recalls “the churches where we went for these days were cool and dark in a comfortable way; it was a kind of ‘time out’”. When she became a mother, Frances better understood why her mother looked forward, at least in part, to those quiet days! She remembers hearing Sr. Anitra saying of the Christian life, “Perfection is not the point; wholeness is”. It intrigued Frances “and the search was on!” Several years later her mother, “who’d been my companion in the faith”, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. “One of her last gifts to me was a question: Are you sure you’re really doing what God has called you to do? She had spoken of her own unfulfilled dreams and the things she’d hoped to accomplish but now recognized she never would.” That question eventually led Frances back to the same Sisters who had fostered in her mother a life of commitment to prayer and service. In 1998 she attended the “Women at a Crossroads” programme and “came to recognize in myself a longing for community, a desire to be intentional about this inner work I felt God was calling me

to”. After further discernment on her own and with others, “I made promises to the Sisterhood to live by a Rule and in 2006 made my Life Promises”. What makes Frances’ commitment an oblation or an offering “is that, as a parish priest, wife, mother, friend, I’ve undertaken, alongside the Sisters, to encourage others in their spiritual lives, in discerning vocations to live lives, not of perfection, but of wholeness. The journey still intrigues me and the search has led me to a life lived in community. Thanks, indeed, be to God!”

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Love and ServiceSr. Debra was born in Collingwood, the hospital closest to her parents’ farm near Stayner. She has a twin sister, another set of twin sisters and an older sister and brother. After high school in Stayner, Debra went to Wilfred Laurier University and Waterloo Lutheran Seminary for degrees in sociology and theology. She entered the Lutheran Deaconess Community in 1987. Her first call was to Bridgewater, N.S.; and then to St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in Kitchener where she specialized in youth ministry, including working with youths in crisis. “My co-workers said I knew more lawyers than clergy from my advocating for young offenders and drug users.” Working with refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala was “one of my early encounters with the tangible effects of war and poverty”. Debra continued taking courses and further studies in pastoral leadership and preaching so, in September 1999 she was accepted into the ordination stream and ordained in July 2000. Since then she has served as associate pastor at St. Stephen’s, and then as pastor in Fort Erie, Pembroke and Fergus. “It was a big loss for me that on ordination I couldn’t be part of the Deaconess Community.” When asked by her Bishop if she had ever considered the monastic life, Debra replied “Yes, but I didn’t want to leave the Lutheran Church. . . . The Bishop knew of this Community, so I came for a day”. Exploratory meetings followed. “I came for a week and then attended Crossroads in 2010.” Approval was granted “that I could be here ‘on special call’ while still retaining my call as a Lutheran pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and learning to be an Anglican Sister. . . . It’s not easy but it’s been very good.

Niagara Falls was the birthplace of Sr. Susanne to Acadian, French-speaking parents from New Brunswick. The elder of two daughters, she attended French schools in Niagara Falls and Welland. Married at 18, she went to Ryerson to become a library technician. Although two daughters arrived, “I was always a working Mother, living first in Toronto then in Hamilton”. As library jobs were not available there, “I fell into a bankruptcy administrator position within an accounting firm, and did it for 18 years”. Her marriage ended in 1998. “I had felt marriage was my vocation, so it was very challenging afterwards.” Susanne had always been a practising Roman Catholic, but “it became untenable for me to belong to a Church that didn’t allow women priests and allowed the cover-up of abusive priests”. Attending classes to become an Anglican, “there was a session on religious orders and I pricked up my ears! The priest of the church was an Associate of SSJD, so I kept peppering him with questions. Meeting with the Associate Director, it became clear that the discernment year would be for becoming a Sister”. Susanne visited the Convent often, attended the Crossroads programme in November 2005 and entered in October 2006 at age 49. She left in August 2007, “as I felt I was not ready to make a full commitment”. Training as a medical office assistant, she worked for three years. “I attended the Kathleen Norris event in May 2011, and realized that I had learned much about myself in the desert years so, in July 2011 I made the decision to re-enter. I want to live more closely with Jesus who has never abandoned me and to share in the ministries of the Sisterhood.” Highlights for Sr. Susanne this past year were the birth of her first grandchild, and “looking forward to the journey in continued appreciation of the love and support of the Sisters”.

Associate Eileen Beatty writes: “The catalyst for my desire to pursue and deepen an intimate relationship with the Beloved began quite unexpectedly in the late eighties through a U.K. friend’s introduction to two authors: Joyce Huggett, a Church of England Vicar’s wife, and Sue Monk Kidd, a U.S. Southern Baptist. Their stories shared the paradigm shift they had each experienced in their own faith journeys, culminating in their desire to fully embrace the contemplative dimensions of the Gospel. To nurture this new and life-giving spirituality, they sought out the quiet space of a monastery or convent. I too desired to be in this space and their stories motivated me to book a retreat at St. John’s Convent, where I was blessed to embrace a new phase of my own spiritual journey. After visiting and volunteering at the Convent for several years, I was admitted as an Associate in 1996. During the past 25 years it has been a great privilege to deepen the friendship offered by many of the Sisters. It is a pleasure to offer retreats and quiet days and, with co-leader, The Rev. Diana McHardy, to present a spring and fall ‘Come and See’ series for the past 12 years. The love of my life is books and included frequent visits to the Convent Bookroom. In 2000 the Sisters, invited me, as an Associate volunteer, to manage the Bookroom. This ministry continues to be a joy. During my years as an Associate, some of the ministries to which I’ve felt drawn include undergoing training by the Jesuits at Loyola House; St. Beuno’s, North Wales; and Regis College, TST. I graduated from Regis College in 1996, and continue to offer the ministry of Spiritual Direction, about which I am passionate. Many of the things I value and hope to emulate in the Sisterhood are their loving inclusivity, their ability to ‘welcome the Christ in everyone, and their openness to the mystery of new cosmic spirituality. I have found that the Convent is truly a home for the heart.”

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June 21st — National Aboriginal Day of Prayer

It is a profound honour for me to be here this morning as we celebrate the National Aboriginal Day of Prayer. A word about this head dress. It is an Inuit head dress given to me by my Father on my 10th birthday. I wear it on my birthday, my father’s birthday and at ceremonies and rituals where it seems appropriate. So I wear it today to honour my father, and all Aboriginal and First Nation peoples everywhere, especially here in Canada as we celebrate this day of prayer.

I am not a Canadian Aboriginal; my father was born in Greenland as were all of his fathers from the beginning. So I do not have the Canadian experience. My experience was one of a side-liner. After being displaced from his native Greenland, my father never really found a place to call home. Canada was the new home of choice for my family but sadly, Greenlander or not, my Father experienced the same racial abuse other First Nations and Inuit did in the late 50’s and early 60’s. The struggle became even more difficult after my mother—a refined Church of England woman—died. I remember my father changing his name, our name. I remember disappointment on top of disappointment as he—and by extension I—never fit, neither in Canada, his adopted home, nor in any other country we tried on for size. Although I am not a Canadian Aboriginal, I do live out of my own Aboriginal roots. And there are shared understandings binding almost all Aboriginal peoples that I would like to share with you.

It does not matter what country you hail from; virtually all Aboriginal cultures have an almost symbiotic relationship with the earth. It doesn’t matter whether your aboriginal heritage finds you in the Australian desert, or on the frozen tundra of Nunavut. There is a relationship with the earth that is non-negotiable, and although part of the relationship is that it provides food and materials for shelter, it is also one of care, compassion and connectedness.

Have you ever been away for a trip, travelling—a short or long trip, it doesn’t matter—or had an incredibly long or trying day? Have you ever uttered the words or thought to yourself: “I just want to go home,” and once you get there, there is a feeling of calm, a feeling that you are grounded and everything is going to be okay. That is how it is with Aboriginal people’s relationship with the earth.

Try this sometime: take off your shoes and socks and stand on the ground barefoot, on the dirt—not the patio or sidewalk but on the dirt in your backyard, at the park or wherever you can find a patch of dirt. Close your eyes and listen with your feet. It may take you a few attempts but I am confident if you try enough, you will hear and feel the heartbeat of the planet. You will find yourself connected to something so wondrous that words fail to describe it. All Aboriginal people have an understanding that everything is interconnected. I first learned this when I was about 8 or 9 years old. My father and I were standing on a train platform

in Paris. I was clutching a bag of my favorite candy – Turkish Delight. A boy I knew came up to me and asked me for a piece. I clutched the candy closer and told him to get his own. My father bent down on one knee in front of me and said, “Child, you have just torn a hole in the fabric of the universe.” Well! My 8-year-old brain didn’t really grasp what my father was saying. All these years later, I have realized that I am solely responsible for the hole in the ozone layer over Greenland.

So not to care for the earth and its creatures, human and other, is to not respect the Creator, to not care for the earth. It is to not respect your elders and all who have come before. To not care for the earth is to not respect yourself. And this applies as well to sharing candy.

I love the Beatitudes .They are for me a code—a hierarchy of compassion. They remind me that we have been called out of chaos into love! The gospel passage this morning (Mt 5:1-11) reminds us that we are all equal in the eyes of God. I have no doubt God sees us that way, and certainly Jesus made no differentiation between peoples, or if he did, Jesus leaned towards the poor, the outcast and the disenfranchised. We, however—that is, all of humanity— have built societies where the lines of separation are clear between genders, between ethnicities, between the privileged and the unprivileged.

Our European and Western societies have conditioned us to always strive to be more—to be better tomorrow than we are today—with a high priority on individualism. In contrast Aboriginal culture is to live from sacred moment to sacred moment and to just be.

There is an understanding that we are part of a bigger picture, that we are interconnected in ways we can never comprehend and guided by the seven sacred teachings of Respect, Love, Honesty, Courage, Humility, Wisdom, and Truth. These teachings are designed to enable us to live in harmony with ourselves, with our neighbours, and all the created earth.

As I said, my father traveled a lot, so that meant as a child I traveled a lot. Without fail the very first thing we did on the first night in a new country or city was a kind of sacred re-centering. My father would take me by the hand, find a clearing or a hill and we would lie on the ground and look up at the night sky. On more than one occasion I fell asleep, which let me tell you did not impress my father! However, the exercise was meant to reconnect us to the vastness of all creation. It was to remind us that in the big picture of eternity we are small and rather insignificant. It was an act of just being, soaking in all that the glory of creation has to offer and recognizing our place in it. If you have ever looked up at the night sky or searched the clouds to see pictures in them, you will know what I mean.

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News from the Fundraising Office

It has been three years since we witnessed what I consider one of Canada’s most profound and sacred moments. Set in the middle of the floor of the House of Commons were 11 chairs, positioned in a circle. Seated on those chairs were 11 Canadian Aboriginal Elders who, for the very first time in their lives, and for the very first time since the Indian Act was legislated in 1876, had a voice of their own, on their own terms, from their sacred circle. When Chief Phil Fontain rose to his feet to address Parliament, he was greeted by the thunderous applause of a standing ovation. When after almost 2 minutes the applause had died down he spoke these words: “For our parents, our grandparents, our great grandparents, indeed for all the generations which have preceded us, this day represents nothing less than the achievement of the impossible.”

That is what the Beatitudes call us to—the achievement of the impossible. The scene brought to mind for me another scripture, and at that moment I glimpsed the new heaven and the new earth that John tells us about in the Revelation to John. I witnessed the birth of a new hope and a new way of being in relationship. What the world witnessed on June 11th, 2008 in our House of Commons was a sacred moment, a moment when I think our Canadian human family was at its best—not perfect but honest—struggling desperately to understand each other, struggling desperately to reach out to each other, to heal. I saw the beginnings of the deconstruction of prejudice that I pray blankets not only Aboriginal peoples but all people who adopt Canada as home.

Some of you have asked about how you might support the Community. In May you will have received our Narrative Budget which outlines in word and picture our various areas of ministry and need. I hope that it is helpful in giving you a picture of our life today. Though we do not earn salaries, our life and ministries require funding. For most of our work we receive little or no remuneration. You, our Associates, Oblates and friends of the Community, are essential partners through your prayerful support and generous ongoing financial donations. We live by the generosity of our friends, Associates and Oblates and by careful and prudent management of those funds.

Some of you have asked what our particular needs are at the moment. The narrative budget gives you a general overview. Some of our current projects which require a financial commitment on our part: our hope to participate in the solar energy project of the Ontario government; our Women at a Crossroads program; our recent renovations to accommodate a growing number of groups and guests in our guesthouse; our long range plans for computer upgrades for the Convent; ongoing maintenance and upkeep of the Convent and guest house; renewal of equipment in the refectory and kitchen to name some of

I saw the seven sacred teachings alive and embodied in people of power and the people of struggle. I saw the Word—born before the beginning of time—embodied in that moment. I saw the poor in spirit catch a glimpse of the realm of God. I saw those who had mourned and still mourn being comforted. I saw, for one shining moment, Canadian Aboriginal peoples inheriting the earth. I saw the beginnings of those who hunger, who struggled and continue to struggle for justice and righteousness. I saw them being filled. But the moment was fleeting—and I am afraid that in the three years since the apology we have made little progress towards equality of our Aboriginal brothers and sisters. And I think that is what the Beatitudes are calling us to—the equality of the human person: A living together that sees everyone respected and loved; A living together where honesty, courage and humility are outward signs of an inward reframing; A living together that honours wisdom as well as education, and values truth in word and action.

May these sacred teachings be as Aboriginal peoples embody them and as our Saviour embodied them in word and example. May they be the building blocks on which we intentionally encounter each other. And now, may the peace of the Creator who calls us from chaos to love, rest on and inspire us all. Amen.

a homily preached by the Rev. Samantha Caravan in St. John’s Chapel, June 21st, 2011

the things that have been part of this year or are on the horizon. We hope this information is helpful to you and answers most of your questions.

Sr. Dorothy in the new meeting room in the Guest House.

Thank you for your generous prayerful, volunteer and financial support. If you wish further information or clarification about our life and our needs, please feel free to contact Sister Doreen (doreen@sssjd.ca) or the Fundraising office 416-226-2201 ext. 340 or ext. 303. Sr. Doreen, SSJD

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Are you between jobs, retired, or wanting to take a year away from your studies?

Consider becoming an Alongsider of the

Sisters of St. John the Divine for a year or two,

“Living on the Edge” of the monastic life to explore

living in Community and deepening your relationship with God.

Any woman who is interested in this program should phone or email the Guest House for a brochure on this

new program and/or an application form.

Priority will be given to applicants who can commit to at least 25 hours of

work per week in the convent.

See articles on p. 1 & 2 of this Eagle for more information.

ALTAR LINENS

Altar linens may be purchased from Sr. Jocelyn, SSJD, at the Convent. All linens are hand-sewn from Irish Linen.

Items which may be purchased include Fair Linens, Credence Cloths, Purificators, Lavabo Towels, Baptismal Towels, Fair Veils, Palls on Plexi Glass, Corporals and

Sick Communion Sets.

For details, please contact Sr. Jocelyn: jocelyn@ssjd.ca Telephone: 416-226-2201 Fax: 416-222-4442

The Houses of the Sisterhoodwww.ssjd.ca

St. John’s Convent 233 Cummer Avenue, Toronto, ON M2M 2E8

416-226-2201; Fax: 416-226-2131 email: convent@ssjd.ca

St. John’s House, B.C.3937 St. Peters Road, Victoria, BC V8P 2J9

250-920-7787; Fax: 250-920-7709email: bchouse@ssjd.ca

The Eagle is published several times a year by the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine, St. John’s Convent, Toronto, ON M2M 2E8.An annual donation of $10 to help cover the cost would be greatly appreciated. Please let us know promptly of any changes of address.

The Sisterhood of St. John the Divine is a registered charity. Our charitable donation number is BN 11925 4266 RR0001.

The Rev. Brian Dench leading a workshop on Celtic Knots

Srs. Wilma, Jocelyn, Susanne, Amy, Rhonda and Elizabeth Ann enjoying crafts at Recreation.

Srs. Louise, Sarah Jean, Brenda, and Oblate Doreen Davidson living at the BC House in Victoria.