In her last talk with us as part of our Leadership Collective, Rachael shared on how we integrate being present while seeing our moments as part of a pilgrimage with a path and destination in mind.
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Here is a link to an update on where things are six months into 2025. Whereas last year’s giving covered our expenses without too much prompting, this year we are slipping a bit behind. As always, we are so grateful for the financial support that enables the shared work of St. Croix Church. Please continue to give generously, and we hope that we can this around before year end!
If you have any questions about finances at SCC, please talk with Walter, Jess or Rosie anytime, and you can check here for some different options for giving.
Remember: the easiest ways to give is to e-transfer to givetoscc@gmail.com.
As Walter’s sabbatical winds down, he shares some reflections from this time. Spoilers: he missed community and rants about AI and dopamine manipulation.
Jonathan Schut shares what he’s been learning about how MCC tries to heed the words of Isaiah 58 in its mission of “envisioning communities in right relationship with God, one another, and creation.” He particularly focused on what he learned on a recent trip to Guatemala.
Here is a link to our SCC 2024 Financials, which includes our 2025 budget. This was all approved at the AGM in February, though the gathering recommended that we add some planned savings for a new furnace as well as increased expected cost for a dishwasher. So, the Leaders Collective may be updating this budget shortly while the bulk of it would remain unchanged.
This report compares our actual income and expenses up to our year end, December 31, 2024 and compares it with the previous year’s budget. This was one of our most encouraging years for giving in relation to our budget! Thanks so much for your generosity in supporting the work of our community!
If you have any questions about finances at SCC, please talk with Walter, Jess or Rosie anytime, and you can check here for some different options for giving.
Remember: the easiest ways to give is to e-transfer to givetoscc@gmail.com.
[Walter is on sabbatical for the first half of this year, and is working on a writing project called “A Compassionate Consent to Reality.” Most of it will come out in draft form on Substack, a free platform that you’re invited to follow here. Or you could hope that it comes out in orderly form as a book one day… Here’s an opening post that describes the project a bit]:
OK, this is it. Tomorrow, I start to share, via (free) Substack, the ideas that will be building blocks for my main writing project: an exploration of the phrase, “a compassionate consent to reality,” and how I think the phrase can describe a contemplative pathway for healing and maturing.
As I’ve been researching and planning and contemplating and mulling and second-guessing my way toward this project, I’ve realised that one thing that I want (need!) to do is to avoid a prosaic, left-brained approach that can come too naturally to me, boring many and sucking the life out of its main points. Students of mine who may be reading, please plug your ears – but this will not be a well-argued, well-cited, book-length essay. (At my age, I no longer have it in me to do that much work for that few people.) To avoid this danger, I hereby make these commitments this day:
1. Before I write each day, I will surround myself with music, poetry, walking and/or contemplative readings/practices to help ensure that my “whole brain” is awake and engaged.
2. I will contradict myself freely and guiltlessly, including writing on some days when I do none of the above.
3. I will write in a variety of styles rather than seeking a consistent “voice” or audience or approach. Probably among those styles will be the prosaic, left-brained approach that I’m trying to avoid but which may occasionally be useful for adding a certain kind of clarity. (Please feel free to ignore those styles that don’t work for you, or, even better, let me know which do or don’t work for you.)
4. My current structural plan for my overall project is to introduce briefly the main gist of my ideas (including some longer pieces on “healing,” “maturing,” and “everyday contemplation.”) I will also write a series of short chapters corresponding to each of the major words in my title phrase; i.e. little chapters on compassion, on consent, and on reality. These will serve as glimpses, snapshots, reflections, meditations, etc. aimed at opening up understanding and questions. I expect to share drafts or summarised drafts of the longer (multi-part?) introductions as well as the snapshot-chapters here on Substack. I should clarify: this description sounds like these will be posted in orderly fashion, but this is unlikely. They are more likely to emerge likes pieces of a mosaic that may eventually come into focus as a bigger picture.
5. I will assume that I am at least partly wrong about a lot (hence, some of those contradictions), but I will still write aiming for a humble confidence because no one likes to read someone who doesn’t sound convinced by what he’s saying (do they?). And, of course, I expect to make corrections en route.
6. Much more serious than being wrong, I must also confess that I am not nearly as good at “consenting to reality” as I would like, and there are large gaps in my practice of being compassionate. A huge part of my motivation in writing is to get better at the practice of it all myself. I am pointing toward a pathway that I see and have experienced but haven’t at all mastered.
7. I am very much hoping for feedback and conversation about the things that I am writing. That could come in the form of email (wthiessen@ssu.ca), comments on my posts, subscribing or unsubscribing, sharing, or, of course, “liking.” You could also recommend books or authors (or musicians or poets) to me, or even suggestions for other Substack writers to follow.
8. For the most part, in this space I will avoid being sucked into the polarised political emotions and rants of our day (while certainly passing no judgement on those who dive in). This means that you can follow along here as an alternative to doomscrolling.
9. I may suck at marketing, but I would prefer to have readers. Please do share this with anyone you think might be interested!
Here is my following introduction to “a compassionate consent to reality” and why I think it’s a helpful foundation for healing and maturing.
Our main liturgy has used a beloved version of St. Patrick’s Breastplate (from the Northumbria community) for many years now as a blessing prayer before the closing. It seemed hard to imagine that we could find something different for the Alternate Liturgy that had a similar depth and beauty. Then we were reminded of the Prayer of St. Brendan – the Celtic saint famous for setting off in a coracle for places unknown some 1500 years ago. The prayer below, attributed to him, is one of those that seems to get more relevant every time we pray it, in spite of (because of?) its ancient origins.
Now, as we are encouraged and united in your love,
Send us on our way with your peace.Help me to journey beyond the familiar
and into the unknown.
Give me the faith to leave old ways
and break fresh ground with You.
Christ of the mysteries, I trust You
to be stronger than each storm within me.
I will trust in the darkness and know
that my times, even now, are in Your hand.
Tune my spirit to the music of heaven,
and somehow, make my obedience count for You.
(Prayer of St. Brendan)
It’s followed by a blessing from Northumbria’s morning prayer (from Celtic Daily Prayer), though we recently adapted the pronouns, emphasizing that the Trinity has plurality (communality) as well as unity and freeing us from distractions of gender attributions to God.
May the peace of the Trinity go with you,
wherever They may send you.
May They guide you through the wilderness,
protect you through the storm.
May They bring you home rejoicing
at the wonders They have shown you.
May They bring you home rejoicing
once again into our doors.
And that wraps up this series exploring the Alternate Liturgy – I hope it has conveyed something of that weekly journey of connection and renewal that has made the Celtic Service such a life-giving time for me and many others.
(Exploring the Alternate Liturgy, Pt. 5)
The centrepiece of the Celtic Service is a weekly time of Communion (or Eucharist). In both our main and alternate liturgies, we’ve avoided the standard “words of institution” just as we’ve avoided hierarchical and formulaic means that may be supposed to determine any “validity” to what we are remembering and celebrating. We trust in the Presence of the Spirit of Christ in our midst as celebrated and welcomed by the hearts and intentions of those meeting together.
And so the words, as we approach and celebrate Communion together, are primarily words of welcome and invitation. The New Testament passage (1 Cor. 11) that is often misinterpreted as a reason to guard who participates is meant to convey the opposite – “unworthy” participation does not refer to those who aren’t sure what they believe but those who participate divisively based on class differences: feasting on a full meal while the poor are elsewhere with a meager Communion.
The heart of our Communion is a time of experiencing the taste of our Welcome – a time of participating together with gratitude in the love that draws us together. The self-giving Love of Jesus forgives, enables and empowers us communally and individually as we are symbolically nourished by the bread and wine.
The words in this section of the Alternate Liturgy are perhaps a quirky blend, and specific origins have not been well-traced. Some are traditional (Book of Common Prayer – perhaps to make up for our avoidance of formulae), some are borrowed and tweaked bits from liturgies of the Iona community, and some are original to us:
(Approaching the Table)
Welcome now to the unity of God’s table,
Friend and stranger, saint and sinner.Listen, all you who gather here:
Come with hope or hesitation,
Come with joy or yearning.
All you who hunger,
All you who thirst for the fullness of life:
Come.Generous God and gracious Saviour,
Touch us through your Spirit.Knowing that God delights to liberate and forgive,
We embrace our identity as God’s Beloved.
Let us lay down the burdens of sin and shame
that we no longer need to carry.God of love and justice,
Have mercy on us.Hear now the teaching of Jesus,
That as we confess our sins and weakness,We are set free
and invited into the life of the Spirit.(Holy Communion)
Liberated and reconciled,
[Leader lifts and breaks the bread.]
We participate in God’s welcome to the world.
Together in suffering,
Together in love.May we know your Presence
[Bread and wine are shared.]
In the sharing of this bread and cup,
So that we may know your same touch
In all of our lives.We celebrate the life that Jesus has shared
Among his community through the centuries,
And shares with us now.Made one with Christ
And one with each other,
We offer ourselves
As a holy and living sacrifice.
AmenThe Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts;
We lift them up to God.
Let us give thanks to God;
It is right to give both thanks and praise.Lead us now O God
As we acknowledge your gift of grace
And live our lives as forgiven people.Heaven and earth rejoice,
And the whole earth cries Glory through Christ our Lord.
Communion has been celebrated with our Celtic liturgy in many places including here under olive trees in Assisi.
(Exploring the Alternate Liturgy, Pt. 4)
For the prayer and intercession section of our Alternate Liturgy, we had a bit of a dilemma. We weren’t sure that we wanted to lose the traditional element of including “The Lord’s Prayer,” but we wanted something fresher and more inclusive. I found something in a 1989 New Zealand Prayer Book, written to integrate Maori prayers and a beautiful and inclusive paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer by Rev. James Cotter.
The more I’ve used the Alternate Liturgy, the more that I’ve appreciated the depth and beauty of this poetic re-shaping of the prayer. Sometimes I choose the Alternate Liturgy just to be reminded of it. And, as a coincidental(?) bonus, the styling of the second half reflects back to that of our Invocation.
Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God in whom is heaven.
May the hallowing of your name echo through the universe;
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world;
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings;
Your dream of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
Now and forever, Amen.*
*Paraphrase of The Lord’s Prayer, originally J. Cotter, prepared by the English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC), 1988, held in the public domain, and found in A New Zealand Prayer Book, 1989
We follow that with the same intercessory prayer that we use in the main liturgy, partly because the focus here is for nothing to distract giving our compassionate attention to those who are hurting:
We join with all who suffer and ask, “How long?”
(Slowly)With compassion,
we remember those who endure the pain
of violence,
poverty,
illness,
loneliness,
loss,
and despair.God, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
Linocut by Helen Soucoup – “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you”
The next section of the Alternate Liturgy serves as a unique form of invocation – an invitation for us to be aware of the Presence of God, to acknowledge the connection that we often forget is at the centre of our lives.
I believe that this section is all original to our community, but I wouldn’t be shocked if a phrase or two was recalled from elsewhere. An earlier version of this began the liturgy before we added the Thanksgiving Address to the beginning, and we’ve made a few improvements along the way as well.
A key priority in this section is for us to start with a mindful and honest acknowledgement of “how we are coming” to the service, particularly with an awareness of how often the conscious experience of Presence and connection drift away from our attention as we live our lives.
About two thirds of the way through, we turn our attention from our starting place, and “call out for help.” Here is the invocation proper, when we invite God to meet us in our need and help prepare us to face life well. Here is the “Joining” section:
From where we are,
We begin the journey
We sense that we are often disconnected
From our bodies, from ourselves
From each other – those near and those far away
From the dirt beneath our feet, the sky above us
From You, our God – ever present, often hidden
Manifest and silent
Now, we are here
We are here together
Now, we take a step
we reach out, we take a breath
Together, we wait
With our doubt and our faith
We look up, raise our voices, and call out for help
When we hurt and when we grieve
Walk with us
When we are stubborn and rebellious
Soften us
When we are mired in self-pity
Free us
When we hide in shame
Find us
When we are anxious and afraid
Encourage us
When we see only ourselves
Open our eyes