From Rev. Dana’s Desk

April 2, 2026

As I’m sitting down to write my monthly newsletter reflection we are in the midst of Holy Week and will soon be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus on the first Sunday of Easter. One of the things that I love about the Easter season is that it is a season, it is not just one day. The Easter season is in fact 50 days, seven full weeks, from the 1st Sunday of Easter through to Pentecost Sunday. We celebrate it for 50 days in part because so much happens, especially that first day and in fact the first week after Jesus’ resurrection, that is helpful to slow down time and enter more fully into those events. The first three Sundays of Easter the gospel reading is always about encounters with the risen Jesus, most of which take place the same day. The fourth Sunday is always a transition moment with one of the pieces of the “Good Shepherd” from John 10. The remaining Sundays take us back to the evening before Jesus was arrested and Jesus’ final conversation in John’s gospel (John 13-17) as Jesus’ words take on a different perspective on the other side of the cross and resurrection. For me the gospel readings particularly, but all the readings, are reminders to us of why Jesus’ death and resurrection are at the centre of our faith, capped off by his ascension, which we celebrate on the 40th day after Easter.

Another reason that our Easter Season is 50 days is that it closely matches the Jewish rhythm of these days as well. Remembering that Jesus and the earliest disciples were all Jewish and that Jesus was not trying to start a new religion but was fulfilling the promises and prophecies about God’s redemption of humanity. Our Easter celebrations are directly tied to the Jewish holy days. First, Passover or the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is the setting for Jesus’ last week and his death and resurrection. Second, Pentecost or Feast of Weeks (7 weeks since Passover) when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. As our Discipleship group talked about a couple of weeks ago, the central place of remembering in the Passover Feast, becomes the framework for our celebration of Communion, in which Jesus called us to this (bread and wine) in remembrance of him. But not just of him, but of what God does for us through Jesus’ body and blood, just as the Jews remembered at Passover what God had done through the lamb’s blood marking their doorposts. In both cases God offers life in the place of death. Pentecost had begun as a thanksgiving for the harvest and had become a celebration, a remembrance of God giving the people the law at Mount Sinai, which was the foundation of their covenant relationship with God. Our celebration of Pentecost is a celebration of God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, to dwell with each of us, which becomes a sign of God’s new covenant relationship with God. In this way, as our 50 days of Easter match the 50 days between Passover and Pentecost, we are invited to rejoice in God’s gift of new life in and through Jesus. And in fact, every Sunday is intended to be a “little Easter” when we give thanks to God for God’s amazing love and for the gift of life in relationship with God. 

As we prepare to enter into the Season of Easter, may we do so with rejoicing and gladness. May we slow down and enter the greatest story of all time, the resurrection of Jesus and the promise of life through him. May we also remember our Jewish roots, the festivals that provide the backdrop for our own celebrations, which were intended to remind the people of their relationship with God. May we too rejoice in that relationship grounded in God’s love for us and God’s Spirit that dwells with us and in us.

March 5, 2026

This Lenten Season I am choosing to focus my reflections on the 5 Marks of Mission of the Anglican Communion. I started with a general introduction to how they came about in my weekly email on February 26 and over the course of the four weeks in March I am going to reflect on the Marks themselves.  In case you missed them in last week’s email, the 5 Marks of Mission are: 

  • To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
  • To teach, baptize and nurture (new) believers
  • To respond to human need by loving service
  • To transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and pursue peace and reconciliation
  • To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth

While developed by the Anglican Communion, they are not specific to the Anglican Church but are applicable to all Christians in how we are called to live out our faith and relationship with God and those around us. 

As I note in my introduction, the first two Marks of Mission are the ones that are the most overtly Christian or faith-based, while others could be practiced by good people without a particular faith connection. In Jesus’ final conversation with the disciples before ascending to God, Jesus gives the Great Commission “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20). Jesus very clearly tells his followers that we are to share our faith and to nurture or support other believers. Some have suggested this Great Commission is only for the 11 disciples who were gathered on the mountain with him or only for specific called leaders. It is true that we cannot share something we have not internalized as our own, but that is another reason that we need to “read, mark and inwardly digest” the word of God as it says in one of our collects or prayers for the week. 

When we look at the early church, we see that various people were sharing the story of Jesus in ways that caused others to pay attention and to want to become followers. There are dramatic stories like Peter at the Pentecost when his first sermon leads to thousands of new believers, or Paul and his various missionary journeys. Those stories are both encouraging and intimidating. I suspect that for most of us the idea of standing up and proclaiming our faith is scary. We feel inadequate, like who are we to be telling others what to believe. I think more often our calling is more like the one-on-one conversation of Philip and the Ethiopian official (Acts 8:26-38). 

The first Mark of Mission encourages us to share the good news, which put another way is the reason why Jesus is important to us. It does not necessarily require special knowledge but simply sharing our own experience. This is something we commit to in our baptismal promises when we are asked “will you proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ?” Proclaiming the news is about how our lives point to God as being important in our lives.

The second Mark of Mission dovetails with the first one. As we have shared our faith, the good news of Christ that in part of our story we know that hearing the good news is just the beginning for us and for others. That baptism is the beginning of our Christian journey not the destination. The Church as a whole is responsible for teaching and nurturing all believers. Each of us has a part to play in that as well. We do that for children through Sunday School, Vacation Bible Camp, by the example we set for children and by supporting parents and others who have a direct connection to children. We do this for each other through conversations and small groups in which we build one another up in faith. As I have said about our discipleship study group, I believe that we learn from one another, from our unique perspectives. I may have some additional knowledge I can add, but by far most of our learning comes from one another. 

As we look at these first two Marks of Mission, our calling as followers of Jesus, they can seem daunting and intimidating, but they do need to be. We all have good news to share, whatever it is that has drawn us to Jesus, how we have experienced God’s love, mercy and grace in our lives. That is what we share with others. We share from our own lives, building one another up as we journey together as God’s people. 

February 26, 2026

We are now in the first full week of Lent. This year for Lent I am planning to do a series of reflections on the 5 Marks of Mission of the Anglican Communion. The Five Marks of Mission have evolved over several years. To better understand their evolution, it is helpful to understand a little bit about the complex Anglican network around the world. There are three main points of official connection between Anglicans around the world. First, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is the first among equals of national church bishops or Primates as we call them. While they have no official authority in any other jurisdiction, they are considered the head of the Anglican Church around the world. Second, every 10 years (or so) all the active bishops from around the world gather at Lambeth Palace, the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury for the “Lambeth Conference,” which acts as a consultative body, not a legislative one, addressing theological, social, and international issues. Third is the Anglican Consultative Council, a group of appointed bishops, priests and lay people from around the world who facilitate the co-operative work of the churches of the Anglican Communion, exchange information between the provinces and churches, and help to co-ordinate common action. Meetings are held about every three years. While each National Church is autonomous, it kind of functions like the UN, to work together for the common good, and sometimes to try to hold one another accountable. This a simplistic description but it may be helpful to understand how we as Anglicans came to agree on these Marks of Mission.

The first four marks were developed at the 6th Anglican Consultative Council meeting in 1984 in Nigeria.  The fifth mark was added at the 8th meeting in 1990 in Cardiff, Wales. Culminating in the Five Marks being included and affirmed in the official report of the 1998 Lambeth Conference. So they were developed by representatives from the world before being affirmed by the bishops. Each Province or jurisdiction, like the Anglican Church of Canada was then encouraged to share and shape them in ways that fit their context. At General Synod 2010 (our triennial governance meeting), the Anglican Church of Canada adopted a strategic plan (Vision 2019) which used the Marks of Mission as a framework for the ministry of the Canadian Church. The Five Marks of Mission is a framework to describe and encourage ministry throughout the Anglican Communion. They could also be seen as a framework for Christians in general in how we live out our faith, which is why they are also closely linked to our baptismal promises. 

The Five Marks of Mission are: 

  • –       To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
  • –       To teach, baptize, and nurture [new] believers.
  • –       To respond to human need by loving service.
  • –       To seek to transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and to pursue peace and reconciliation.
  • –       To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.

There is a poster on the bulletin board above the coffee with the Marks of Mission. 

One of the things I noticed about them recently is that the first two marks are explicitly Christian, while the other three could describe a “good person, ” a humanitarian, not necessarily someone of Christian faith. As Christians they reflect how we are called to live in relationship with each other and the world because of our relationship with God. 

Over the course of the next four weeks, leading up to Easter and our renewal of baptism, I will offer some reflections on these Marks, beginning with the News from the Pews next week. 

February 12, 2026

“The world is a hot mess right now.” I’ve heard this many times recently. It feels like there is not much good news these days. Then the news came Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, of a mass shooting at a school in Tumbler Ridge, a small town in Northern B.C. It was centred on a school for grades 7-12, with only 160 students, in a town of only 2700 people. As of mid-afternoon Wednesday, the death toll was 9 (not the previously reported 10) and 27 injured, many of them children, only 11 and 12. This hit with a heaviness that is much greater than other world events. As many news outlets echoed Wednesday morning, this is not supposed to happen in Canada. We are used to shootings happening elsewhere, but not here, because it is the worst mass shooting in over 35 years in Canada, since the Polytechnique in December 1989. 

So how do we respond? How do we make sense of a tragedy like this? My first instinct on Wednesday morning was to quickly switch our usual Wednesday Morning Prayer to one that was more of a vigil, with readings and prayers from the funeral service (you can find the service on our Facebook page or through the link on our webpage for virtual worship). As I said in my reflection, lamentation is an appropriate form of prayer in times like these. Lamentation is a form of prayer in which we express our grief and sorrow, often in a vocal manner like wailing, sobbing or simply crying out to God. There are examples of lamentation in scripture, particularly the book of Lamentations and in the Psalms, as people cried out or expressed their complaints to God. Sometimes it takes the simplest form of simply asking “why?” As we hear in the Psalms particularly, it can be complaining to God. Not that we are complaining about God, but the injustice and unfathomable nature of events and where is God amid what is happening. One example is, Psalm 44:23-26, “Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression? We are brought down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground. Rise up and help us; rescue us because of your unfailing love.” In this we hear a crying out to God with both questions and a plea for help. 

I still remember attending a North American Chaplaincy conference that was hosted in Toronto while I was doing chaplaincy training, so we were invited to attend. One of the workshops I attended was writing lamentations. The instructor began by acknowledging why the topic was important in the chaplaincy setting. She reminded us one of the things that many people have been taught or at least have come to believe is that it is wrong to question or be angry at God. That it is a sign of doubting God, a form of unfaithfulness or distrust for God. In settings like hospitals where bad things happen every day, some of which seems so unfair, we as chaplains were being encouraged to give voice to the frustration, bewilderment and grief being expressed, and by doing so to give others permission to do that same. Lamentation is a healthy way of responding to what seems unimageable. Lamentation is not doubting God but calling on God who promises to be with us even in our times when we are angry and scared whether world events or personal struggle. 

There are still many unanswered questions, some of which we may never know the answers to. It is important to express that and to know that God cannot only handle our grief and anger, but God joins us in it, as these are symptoms of the broken world that we inhabit, where horrible things happen because of the brokenness. Let us join in expressing our lament, let us pray for those most directly impacted by this tragedy. Let us give thanks that it does hit us hard because that is a sign that we do not see these types of events as normal. If we were not upset by them and they became normal to us, then it would be a sign that we had lost sight of the preciousness of life as God intended it to have. May the God of peace and love hold you in this time, and we hold one another and honour all who have died, as beloved children of God, precious in God’s sight. 

If you want some additional prayer resources, they are available from the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer (Canada). 

January 29, 2026

The season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, February 18th. It has been a few years since I wrote about Lent in our Newsletter, so this may be familiar for some and new for others. Even if you are familiar with Lent and its practices, a refresher is always helpful I find. Lent is the season which leads up to Easter, and much like Advent prepares us for Christmas, Lent is intended to help us prepare ourselves for Easter. In the early church, within a few centuries Easter and particularly the Easter Vigil had become one of the most important celebrations of the Christian Church. Probably more so than Christmas. The Easter Vigil had become a traditional time for baptism and so early on, Lent became associated with preparation for baptism. Preparation was much more involved than it is today. It could be as long as 2 years, during which the candidates were instructed in every aspect of the faith and what it meant to become Jesus’ disciple. As the final days leading up to Easter, Lent became that final push. Later, in a similar vein, just as the newly baptized were welcomed into the Church, those who had for various reasons been ex-communicated or cut off from the Church would also be received back often as a sign of their turning back to God and God’s will, so it was also a season of preparation for them. Gradually over time this focus on the Christian life and the need for repentance, in the sense of turning back to God, was extended to the whole church and they would affirm their baptismal promises alongside those being baptized and those received back into fellowship. 

So, what does this season of preparation involve? I think it is highlighted very well in the Ash Wednesday liturgy, which includes an invitation to observe a Holy Lent with these words, “I invite you therefore, in the name of the Lord, to observe a holy Lent by self-examination, penitence, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and by reading and meditating on the word of God.” This list can seem daunting, but it gives us some guidelines about ways we can reorient our lives toward God or deepen our commitment to following Jesus. 

It begins with self-examination, an honest look at our spiritual lives. Some people have also called this taking a spiritual inventory. A good first step is to ask God to reveal to us what we are doing well and where we might need to pay more attention to our spiritual lives. One way is to use the other elements listed as a basis of our self-examination, how are we doing in each of these areas. Similarly, we could use the baptismal promises as our basis. For me the basic elements I like to consider as part of my self-examination are: Prayer, Reading and Reflecting on Scripture, worship, serving others, and being part of community. Self-examination might be helpful before we begin Lent as it can help to direct our observance of Lent by focusing on one or two areas that we have identified as needing attention. Research has shown that we can only grow, spiritually in this case, within the limitation of the lowest or least developed aspect of our lives. 

Having highlighted the importance of self-examination, let me share a few thoughts on some of the ways we can observe a Holy Lent. First, study which is probably one of the disciplines we are most familiar with, whether that is reading and studying scripture, book studies or other faith-related study. We can engage in study on our own or with a group. It is often helpful to engage with others as we learn from each other. Regarding reading and studying scripture, Lent might be a good time to read and reflect on biblical books we are less familiar with or have not read through from beginning to end. It can be helpful to have a study bible or find a study that not only breaks down the book into manageable units but also offers some questions for reflection. 

This leads nicely into prayer, which is probably the other most familiar discipline, whether that is praying with others or personal prayer. We are called as followers of Jesus to follow his example of daily prayer, but for many of us daily prayer can be challenging. A good place to start is setting aside 10 minutes at the beginning or end of the day using the recommended list from the Book of Alternative Services: Church, those in authority, world issues, local community, those in need and for ourselves. There are also numerous prayer apps available for cell phones or tablets.

The call to a holy Lent includes almsgiving, which is a fancy word for something most of us already do, giving to those in need. Its basis is nearly as old as the bible itself. Certainly, from the time when God gave the Israelites the law in the wilderness and one of the most basic elements was how they cared for the most vulnerable among them. God commanded them to provide for widows, orphans and outsiders, those who often had no one to take care of them. By Jesus’ time customs had developed that those in need would gather at the entrance of the temple to receive “alms,” food or money from those who were leaving the temple. For us, it might be setting aside money, even a small amount each day, whether from something we usually spend it on that we might give up or cut back on during Lent, and then giving what we set aside to an organization that serves the vulnerable in our society. 

This links to the last thing in the call to a Holy Lent, which is fasting, in that our alms may come from what we give up during Lent. Fasting is a Christian discipline that may be less familiar to many of us. Traditionally it was fasting from food, or certain food, like meat or sugar in Lent. Fasting can be one meal, or an entire day. Fasting has more recently been expanded to include fasting from other things in life, like TV or social media. In these latter examples the fasting is from things that might draw us away from God or from other spiritual practices. As one friend said a few years ago, fasting helps to disrupt our usual routines, and pay more attention to the spiritual aspect of our lives. 

As we prepare to mark Lent this year, we join with the generations that have come before us in keeping a holy Lent. We join them in the challenges and benefits of drawing closer to God.  We join with those who have come before us in preparing to celebrate Easter, renewed in our faith, and strengthened in the Christian practices that draw us closer to God. I am happy to offer any advice or guidance you may need about Lenten practices.