The Evangelist for parishioners and friends of The Church of Saint John the Evangelist Lent 2015 : Vol. XIV, No. 1 Montreal, Quebec EDITORIAL

Most people have no idea of what a Sabbatical Year means! It is of course Biblical. The Sabbatical Year is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah for the Land of Israel: the land is let to lie fallow. But for Humans that fallow year is one of regeneration: when I went away from McGill Chemistry Department, I was worn out physically, depressed mentally and emotionally drained. It was to adventure into new activities in new places with new friends and colleagues, to be mentally challenged, emotionally regenerated, and physically rested. I returned to McGill a New Man, fired up for the next seven years! Father Keith has made more prog- ress in six months than we could have hoped. Christ guides us in our Sabbatical Years if we trust in him. Although His way of doing it may be not what we expect!

Tony Whitehead

cover design by Brian Morgan

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Regular Services at St John’s: SUNDAYS Low Mass: 8:30 a.m. Matins: 9:45 a.m. High Mass: 10:30 a.m.

WEEKDAYS Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 5:45 p.m. / Wednesdays: 7:30 & 9:30 a.m. / Saturdays: noon

2 My Sabbatical siastical design company founded by the architects Bodley, Garner and Scott. For many, Oxford conjures up images of Ancient Gothic Architecture, Gardens and Academic Being in Oxford in Term Time was a unique ex- Gowns, “that sweet city with her dreaming spires” perience. Pusey House was founded as a memorial and while all these are there, Oxford also is a to Dr Edward Bouverie Pusey, one of the leading vital city of 200,000 people. Last October I went members of the Tractarian or Oxford Movement to Pusey House (below), founded as “a House along with John Keble, John Henry Newman, and John Mason Neale. The present Colle- giate buildings were built just before WWI by Temple Moore and the Chapel of the Res- urrection was decorated in part by Ninian Comper (above). Pusey House is known not only for its Lit- urgy with full Catholic Ceremonial, but also for its active social life, with a strong student community, of Piety and Learning” which is associated with which complements the Religious life of the house but not, part of the , for in typical Oxford fashion. Oxford is also the place the Michaelmas term. Fr George Westhaver, a where William Laud, Canadian, is the 11th Principal. The 10th Principal, during the reign of Charles I, lies buried under Jonathan Baker, is the present Bishop of Fulham in the chapel of his old college of St John, across the the Diocese of London. street from Pusey House. Oxford and Cambridge have three, eight-week One of the great advantages of being in Oxford terms, Michaelmas; Hilary and Trinity. Part of during term time was attending Evensong in the Pusey House now comprises St Cross, a graduate College chapels. To hear a full Choir sing Even- college established in 1965 and its current head is song in a 13th or 14th Century Chapel in candle Sir Mark Jones, previ- light is truly memorable. One of the students at ously Director of the Pusey House was the assistant chaplain at New Victoria and Albert Mu- College (1379), so I often attended Evensong there seum. One of the first which was sung six evenings a week during term. events I attended on my Merton College was celebrating its 750th anni- sabbatical was a study versary last year and as part of that Celebration day at the V & A called installed a new Dobson Organ (Iowa). One of my the Giants of the Gothic cherished Oxford memories was attending High Revival from Pugin to Mass on All Souls’ Eve at Merton accompanied by Comper sponsored by Mozart’s Requiem with orchestra. While there Watts & Co., the Eccle Edward Bouverie Pusey (continued page 4) 3 My Sabbatical- cont’d from p. 3 stopped there on his way to see Henry II in Oxford. St Thomas is in what was the brewing district of is in Oxford the full range of Oxford which has all but disappeared (not I may churchmanship and piety, there is no shortage of add for any decline in student drinking) and its con- “smells and bells” as it were. Not far from Pusey gregation, because of redevelopment, has dwindled House is Keble College, a William Butterfield away to the point where they are now looked after masterpiece built with his famous polychromatic by St Barnabas with a Saturday evening mass of brickwork and dedicated to John Keble, Edward Pusey’s fellow Tractarian. Down St. Giles Street is the Church of St Mary Magdalene made famous by Colin Stephen’s book, “Merrily on High”, where I heard former Archbishop Rowan Williams preach and confirm at High Mass. He is now Principal of Mag- dalene College, Oxford. anticipation and only Matins on Sunday morning. Church of St Mary Magdalene About ten It is a reminder that past glory can quickly fade, minutes to the west of Pusey House in Jericho on for St Thomas is a beautiful church filled with all the canal, is the Church of St Barnabas, which the necessities of Anglo-catholic worship, except a makes an appearance in some of P. D. James’ congregation. novels. It was built in an Italianate style on the I attended a number of lectures while in Oxford. exterior and byzantine on the interior about the Prof William Whyte, a fellow of St John’s College same time as St John’s. It has a style of worship gave the Hensley Henson Lectures on Experiencing very similar to ours. About seven minutes in the the Victorian Church: Faith, Time and Architecture. other direction nearer Oxford Castle, is the Church I also sat in on Prof Diarmaid MacCulloch lectures of St Thomas Beckett, dating back to the 12th on Themes and Personalities in the Reformation. century and Some of Prof MacCulloch best known publica- the first place tions are Reformation: Europe’s House Divided to re-introduce 1490–1700 ; Thomas Cranmer: A Life and A vestments in History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand the Anglican Years, which won McGill University’s Cundill Church. It is Prize; at the end of each of his lectures the class surrounded applauded. I had assumed he had no idea, who this by an ancient older student was at the back of the room, until on graveyard and the last day of term I went to pick up some notes Thomas Beck- from a class I had missed and he said “Well I hope ett himself is Father you have had a good sabbatical” - Oxford is thought to have St Barnabas a small place. In contrast to these lectures which 4 the Examination School, I also attended a lecture of materials on Anglo-catholicism in the world. series on Western Christianity and Modern Culture During the eight weeks I was there, there were at given by the Theology and Religion Faculty which least six visiting Bishops, so it was a wonderful at present is without a permanent home and has opportunity to get a glimpse of current life in the temporary facilities near the Radcliffe Observatory Church of England. in a building with neither collegiate or English Even after Worshipping in Oxford and at many charm and which one can only describe as univer- Shrines in London, such as All Saints Margaret sity brutalism in decay. Street, St Mary’s Bourne Street and St Alban’s The Pusey House “Chapter” consisted of the Holborn I cannot say that I found any place that Principal, an Assistant Priest whose previous train- would put us to shame. Indeed my Sabbatical ing had included life as a magician, and the five reaffirmed that St John’s does extraordinarily well students who live at Pusey. Monday to Friday the on the resources that we have. Our Worship and schedule was Matins 7:40; Mass 8:00 a.m. fol- Music is comparable to many more richly endowed lowed by breakfast; Evensong 5:00 p.m.; Tuesday Parishes. The biggest difference between there and evening Compline 9:30 p.m.; Benediction Friday here is simply that while here we work in relative at 4:30 p.m.; Saturday Matins 9:40 and Mass 10:00 isolation, while there the Church of England is of p.m. The Sunday High Mass was at 11:00, since as course the majority faith and there is a structure I was told Oxford students rather like their Satur- to match it. The Principal and Chapter of Pusey day evening revelries. House could not have been more welcoming. All in all I found my sabbatical extremely rewarding personally and confirming of our efforts here at St John’s. ❖

The house where I lived in a basement Every second week after Sunday Mass there bedsit was a Buffet Meal cooked by one of the Students to encourage the social life of the House, as well as drinks provided every Sunday in a book-lined room dominated by an almost life size portrait of Charles Wood, 2nd Viscount Halifax (1839-1934), a personal friend of Pusey and head of the English Church Union, a Society dedicated to the promo- tion of Catholic Principles and Practices within the Church of England. Under the leadership of its new Principal, Fr Westhaver, Pusey House has begun a number of lectures on various religious subjects and hired a professional librarian to sort out the library which began with Pusey’s personal collection and has become the largest collection 5 Ensemble Scholastica it familiar to us from the repertoire of the liturgi- cal year. Among the selections were the introit In the second week of Advent – after returning “Rorate caeli”, a setting of the Magnificat with from celebrating the Immaculate Conception in To- fauxbourdons, and the plainsong hymns “Conditor ronto – I had the opportunity to hear a unique pre- alme” and “A solis ortus”. Apart from the first, sentation of Advent and Christmas music featuring each of these was interspersed in the French tra- our resident Ensemble Scholastica. “La Nativité dition with organ compositions between selected en Nouvelle-France” was performed in the former verses. These were drawn from two books brought Erskine Presbyterian (latterly Erskine and Ameri- over from France in the 18th C. by Jean Girard, can United) Church, which is now maintained by a Sulpician who served as organist at the parish the Musée des Beaux-Arts as a concert hall, Salle of Notre-Dame-de-Montréal from 1724. The Bourgie. The programme was a well-rounded of- plainsong and choral music was drawn primarily fering of Gregorian chant, from manuscripts of the polyphony, carols, organ Odanak Abenaki mission and other instrumental near Nicolet, preserved music, primarily in Latin, by the Archdiocese of French, and Abenaki. Québec. Singers from Ensem- The French missions ble Scholastica joined to First Nations in this musicians from Les region are an incredi- idées heureuses for this ble source of liturgical historically informed per- music. In The Roman formance, but there was Rite in the Algonquian none of the artifice that and Iroquoian Missions, is sometimes associated Claudio Salvucci records with the expression. In- how Catholics in places struments from the Bourgie collection attested to in like Kahnawake developed a tradition of singing ancien régime New France were played. Among vernacular propers at High Mass, centuries before these were two organs, an instrument which was such permissions were extended across the West- rare in the region during the period under consid- ern Church in the 1960s. This privilege is assumed eration. In fact, the larger of the two we heard on to derive from some immemorial papal or curial this occasion, a modestly sized instrument, was indult, which however has never been found. In a larger than the grandest organ in Ville-Marie at few cases, it produced corpi of full or nearly-full the time. The smaller organ, about the size of our sets of liturgical propers to be sung in the local lan- nave organ, was the most that the majority of town guage by the Schola while the priest prayed them churches could aspire to. Lacking pedals and with secretly (quietly?) in Latin. only a single keyboard tier, it instead achieves a The programme was rounded out by popular difference in timbre through a split in the middle of and para-liturgical Christmas music, both carols the keyboard. Both were constructed by Hellmuth and instrumental motets. Prominently featured as Wolff, like our own principal organ. A harpsi- representatives of the French Baroque repertoire chord, constructed after the Ruckers School of known in New France were the organ composi- Flanders, completed the keyboard trio, accompa- tions of Nicolas-Antoine Lebègue and the poetry nied by recorders and viola da gamba. of Simon-Joseph Pellegrin. The carols included Most of the vocal music was plainsong, much of Ensemble Scholastica - cont’d p. 7 6 in Abenaki, an Algonquian language, by Élise In keeping with the exhaustive musicological Boucher-deGonzague, an Abenaki whose mother research behind the programme, the Latin verses tongue is French. At the conclusion of the concert, were sung with French pronunciation (i.e. Rorate holding a feather and a percussive hand rattle, say-lee, sanctum nomen eh-zhooss), though the she sang Iesous Ahatonnia, the celebrated “Huron antiphon “O Sapientia” was sung once only before Carol” of St Jean de Brébeuf. The only piece of the Magnificat and not repeated. Despite some the morning not in Latin, French, or Abenaki, was occasionally distracting staging, the effect was well sung with verses in Ouendat (Huron) and French, appreciated and earned a standing ovation from as well as the first verse of J.E. Middleton’s En- many in the audience. ❖ glish paraphrase, which takes considerable liberties Geoffrey McLarney for a white audience. After hearing a medley of versions of the tune to which the carol was set, we were invited to join in for a “congregational” fina- le, singing Pellegrin’s reverently irreverent carol Allons tous à la crèche. Despite its pious subject His Saviour’s Words, Going to the Cross matter, the lyrics are somewhat tongue-in-cheek and earned Pellegrin the censure of the Archbishop Have, have ye no regard, all ye of Paris: Who pass this way, to pity me Lors, un nommé Goton Who am a man of misery? Faisait du bon brouet, A man both bruis’d, and broke, and one Et la soupe à l’oignon Who suffers not here for mine own Cependant qu’on dansait; But for my friends’ trangression? Des lapin et perdreaux, Ah! Sion’s Daughters, do not fear Alouettes rôties, The Cross, the Cords, the Nails, the Spear, Canards et cormorans très grands. The Myrrh, the Gall, theVinegar, Gilles Bardot porta, la la À Joseph et Marie. For Christ, your loving Saviour, hath Drunk up the wine of God’s fierce wrath; Only, there’s left a little froth,

Less for to taste, than for to shew What bitter cups had been your due, Had He not drank them up for you.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

7 My Fifty-four Year He brought me to the kitchen, told me to make a pot of tea for ourselves while he went to clean up Pilgrimage and change his clothing. by Ezra Pickup When he returned he apologized for the unusual welcome and hoped I wasn’t offended. I told him When approached to write about my fifty-four that I had a farm background. Finishing tea he then years in the Priesthood, I readily agreed, until I sat showed me to my room, which appeared to me like a monastic cell. (He told me that a previous down to write about it. Bishop Hall, was a Cowley Father, and there were The journey started here indeed monastic cells, in one of which I was stay- at Saint John the Evangelist ing.) with the spiritual guidance and direction of Fr Hertzler. When He took me on a brief tour of the house, the I tentatively approached him Bishop’s Chapel, and his Office and Study. In the and asked him for his advice study we entered into serious discussion of voca- about ordination, he suggested tion. We also discussed facets of biblical studies, that I, an American, might theology, current affairs and what it meant to be a want to talk to the Bishop of , priest and bishop. He emphasized that the Vermont, Vedder Van Dyck. So diaconal ministry and service, always underlay the I wrote Bishop Van Dyck and other orders. set up an appointment to meet His wife being away, visiting her mother I think, him during the interim before he and his helper John, had to cook, and asked me the finals began and my own to forgive them if it’s not very good. It was a kind particular exams started. of false modesty; the meal was marvelous and Finding my way to Rock Point (below), I saw finished off with flaming Alaska. All the ingredi- what looked to be the Bishop’s House, I ap- ents animal and vegetable had been raised on Rock proached an old man standing in a manure spreader Point. forking compost on the flower beds. I asked him if We retired to the living room after supper for a that was the Bishop’s House. He said, “Yes. I’m the long discussion about everything imaginable. Bishop. You must be Ezra Pickup.” He said he’d be with me as soon as he finished what he was doing. The next morning after Matins, Mass and break- fast, he gave me some old work clothes to wear and we walked over to Rock Point School, went to the Chapel, climbed the scaffolding and proceeded to paint the ceiling (sky blue). It was then that he told me how his father had died sixty years ago on that date. To pay his way through Columbia he had to spend his vacations laying tile in the New York Subways. The following day he asked me to visit a Psychi- atrist in Burlington, as was required by Law. John drove me down and brought me back. I took it I had passed muster, so to speak. Because, he sug- gested, in view of my life experiences that I would be happiest at Berkeley Divinity School in 8

New Haven, affiliated with Yale. Vedder VanDyck, Bishop of Vermont, ordained As a result of my experience with Bishop Van- me at the Easter Vigil, on 17 April 1960, as part Dyck, I made a decision, before my ordination to of the whole Paschal Vigil Rite, ending at 8:30 am the Diaconate on Easter Day on 17 April 1960, with the conclusion of the Vigil Mass. that I dedicate myself to do whatever ministry the I returned to Seminary to finish the last couple of Bishop would ask me to perform. months and graduate. But until the very day of my ordination into the I returned to Vermont in June. Priesthood, I really did not comprehend just what What for many are professional career paths, that entailed. It was not that I was unprepared. for me turned out to be a pilgrimage toward the After all, I had graduated from McGill and from heavenly Jerusalem, trekking the path laid out for Berkeley Divinity School (below) affiliated with me by the Bishops under whom I have served. I Yale (and now a constituent part of YDS). realized all along that that I was to perform minis- tries which the Bishops tend to regard as not worth wasting the best priests and resources. It is hard to find priests and their families to do it. I have seen it in a different light: that which Je- sus brought to hamlets and villages and small cities of Galilee and to all the Galilees of the world. Serving the mostly poor and marginalized rural, small town and inner city parishes is not note- I completed Clinical Pastoral Training, and had worthy. But I was not in the Priesthood to have a done “parish work”, although my assigned ‘parish’ noteworthy career. was the New Haven County Jail. I was the sponsor and teacher of several prisoners who chose to be I began my “working Diaconate” when the Bish- baptized, and Assistant Pastor to all of the prison- op assigned me to assist the director Fr Leonard ers. Steele at the diocesan boys home in Chelsea. The work was daunting. However the daily Mass gave Although I was a middle-of-the-pack student — us all, boys and staff, a fresh start with the Lord not really a scholar— I was, and continue to be, an each day. ardent student. On Sundays the Bishop assigned me to taking I cannot say that I had a planned career, that is to services (Deacon ‘Masses’, i.e. administering Com- say, I have never sought preferment of my person- munion from the reserved sacrament) each week al goals, other than to serve Christ in his Church in half of a series of parishes in the Champlain wherever I was needed. I have sometimes won- Islands and Northwestern Vermont, alternating dered if my approach to life is related to my name, halves every other week with him. And I was to be Ezra : a Hebrew word meaning “he helps”, as well Chaplain at the State Hospital for the mentally ill at as its biblical associations. Waterbury on the way back. Before being ordained Deacon I had to pass the [A member of one of the parishes took me aside Vermont Diocesan Canonical Examinations for following my first service and told me very politely the Priesthood. They were held in February of my that the coefficient of absorption between my text senior year, and were exhaustive and exhausting, and me was so great that he got no message; but he much more demanding than anything in seminary. I then asked me to lunch with him, his wife and wasn’t even sure I would pass them. I was hum- bled. Yet pass them I did. Pilgrimage - cont’d p. 10 9 cont’d from p. 9 I was ordained daughter. I had been trying to use the latest Priest on the first hermeneutics we learned at Seminary. His com- Saturday in Lent, ment confirmed my own suspicion of their com- 18 February, in plexity and inability to reach human hearts. My Christ Church humiliation taught me and its lesson has stayed Montpelier with me.] (right). Fr Hertz- ler preached. The This arrangement continued until late summer, Bishop assigned when the Bishop died. It was then that I learned me a at that he had been paying me out of his own pocket Christ Church my $25 weekly stipend. I had no income, and no under the Rector, way to continue doing what I had been doing. Fr Al Anderson, The planned ordination to the Priesthood in who gave me many October had to be put off until a new bishop was responsibilities, elected and consecrated. The Diocesan Council and guided me in decided to relocate me to Rock Point School for performing them. [Among them was returning to serve the State Hospital. At the hospital the treatment regime was primarily logo therapy, taken from Viktor Frankl and his experi- ences in various Nazi Concentration Camps. It resonated with me.] Another was to start a mission in the Waits- field-Mad River Glen ski resort area, which is now the Parish of St Dunstan. At first we used space at different ski resorts to worship; finally we were Girls (above). There I was to teach seven cours- able to rent the unused North Fayston School. It es in Math and one in Latin, and to be Chaplain was Mad River, behind the school, that I first bap- and Proctor at evening Study Hall, and Phys-Ed tized; thirteen members of one family. teacher. It was at Christ Church that I first heard confes- On weekends I was to be Curate at St Luke’s, St sions. Up until I had heard the first, I was fearful Albans and at St Barnabas, East Fairfield. Church that I would inadvertently reveal something I had was full every Sunday; Fr Beale, the Rector, heard. I trusted God to give me the grace “forget preached excellent sermons. [However, all my the sins”. I tried to help penitents realize that Con- duties had to be completed by 9:00 pm, when I fession should be more focused on reconciliation was expected to join him and his family to watch than groping in the misery of guilt. Lawrence Welk, TV Wrestling at 10:00 pm and News at 11:00 p.m. to be followed by ovaltine I also taught the class, and did par- before bedtime. As a 25 year old it was difficult ish visitations, and hospital chaplaincy. to take. Another lesson in humility.] The Rector Nothing unusual happened until the Rector, Fr Al was called to another parish in mid-Fall, but I Anderson and his family, left on vacation to climb continued on, this time working with the Bishop in the Rockies. elect, Harvey Butterfield who was consecrated on Candlemas 1961. Pilgrimage - cont’d p. 11 10 It was then that there occurred three deaths with for Priests who did not value them except for the funerals so unusual and weird, that I still wonder advancement of their own careers. how I made it through each of them. If the Bishop had not intervened to move me That was followed by the masonry inspectors’ again in 1966, I believe that I would have stayed tests that showed the stone steeple was in immi- there until retirement. nent danger of collapse. I informed the Wardens When the Bishop informed me at dinner the and Vestry. The Senior Warden called a Parish night before his visitation and , that Meeting, which voted to take down the steeple. he planned to move me back to Brookhaven, I had So the Rector, on his return, came back to a a sense of dread. He gave me fifteen minutes to steeple-less church. make up my mind. I told him that I probably could In November, the Bishop asked me to become not get through to God due to the static in my soul. the Vicar of St Peter’s Mission, Lyndonville, My hope was he had conversed with God. Because and Rector of Christ Church, Island Pond, in the of my vow to God, I realized that I must go where northeast corner of Vermont known as the North- the Bishop sent me. It was only too clear that he east Kingdom. I knew the parishes because my could not get any Priest or his spouse or family to two best friends had just left there for St Paul’s, undertake that ministry. So I said, ‘yes’. Vergennes. The dread I had was being crushed with respon- I started on Advent Sunday 1961. Soon it be- sibility for the boys’ spiritual well being, but also came apparent that I would have dealings, at least for every other aspect of their being. Also the hills some of the time with all the churches in that area, were so high on the eastern and western side of of which, two East Hereford, Quebec and Cole- the Home, that the sun was only seen in the winter brook, New Hampshire wer tied in with Canaan, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and in the summer Vermont. Few priests could take the cold and from 7:00 to 5:00 respectively. And then the fact remoteness. The Bishop himself had told me that that I would have one room to myself, and would it would take twenty priests, twenty years each, to have to store everything else for however long I make those parishes amenable to be “pastored.” was there. Except that two churches, the most remote, who were docile to the Holy Spirit’s healing. The next morning at Island Pond, he told the congregation that he would be moving me to My first concern was St Peter’s, Lyndonville. It Brookhaven, the congregation burst out into tears; I felt as if I were celebrating Mass in a graveyard for burst out into tears - and so did the Bishop. the benefit of the tombstones. I tried everything we had learned in seminary to fire up my people. On the way to the next Mass he told me that he Nothing worked. It seemed that all I had was wet felt like a heel. I was able to comfort him with matches. But the Lord did get through to me that assurance that I knew deep down that he had little I was the one who needed to be humbled. One choice, and that I had made a vow, so I would go, day after Mattins I spent most of the day weeping willingly. before the Altar, finally asking God to pick me up I asked to take a vacation before going. I took and show me what he wanted me to do. the “Canadian” to Vancouver to visit friends and Humbling myself under His yoke, was what it my Godchildren, to sail with them, and do some took to turn tombstones into living, loving persons. climbing. All the parishes and missions in the Northeast When I arrived back to begin working in the Kingdom felt the same. Soon the people opened Lord’s vineyard at Brookhaven, I had no idea that I up to speak their minds. They told me they had felt that they were only treated as stepping stones Pilgrimage - cont’d p. 12 11 Pilgrimage - cont’d from p. 11 My predecessor had taught me to thank God for something specific relating to each kid and staff would be starting on a venture that would last over member every night. He also told me to notice, in sixteen years. Strangely enough, the dread I had person, everyone at the home each day : don’t let felt before lifted, and when I saw the eagerness in anyone melt into the woodwork unnoticed, as it their young faces, I realized that all my possessions were. were not essential to my well being. You may ask, what role did Christ play in the It was good for me to share the transition period therapy? Christ was the essential healer, I fervent- with Fr Steele and his wife who had reached the ly believe. In offering up the holy sacrifice each mandatory retirement of 72. They had been faith- morning we offered all of ourselves, our egos, our ful servants of the Lord. I valued their counsel. needs and frustrations, into the crucible of the new Although we had vastly different personalities creation offered by God in Christ, and we were and approaches, we all shared the same goals: to renewed, re-formed, into the new humanity. We reunite kids with their families as quickly as feasi- celebrated Missa Cantata, including a brief homily, ble, realizing that for a few it would be over a very each morning at 6:15. Attendance was optional, long haul. but a majority usually showed up. On Holy Days we offered Solemn Mass at 5:00 p.m. My staff and I were more of the same age as the boys’ parents than my predecessors, but could Brookhaven was known for admitting kids who respect the more tightly structured way they ran had been kicked out of other child care homes things. Indeed when I did institute some changes, and institutions, and foster families. Most of them the kids would retort, “That’s not the way Fr Steele ended up with us. Because of God’s grace and did it.” That went on until with newer kids, when our dedication, there was such a turn around, that changes were adopted it became, “That’s not the when the state inspectors would come around, they way Fr Pickup did it.” would ask why we never enrolled any kids with And so the work car- problems. ried on. It was a pilgrim- age for each kid and each We found that most of staff member. Most were the boys, who found it successful in accomplish- congenial had switched ing their goals; a few from “I” to “we” a few were not. But in planning days after arriving, a admissions, the kid and subtle clue to their affil- his family would create a fallback plan, to give him iation. another chance to succeed. Through our membership in the National Asso- I set for the staff there two cardinal rules. (1) all ciation of Child Care Agencies, we became aware children must be shown respect : each is made in of the Chapel Hill Workshops at the University of the image of God; He is Judge, not we. and (2) North Carolina each summer, which my staff and never use sarcasm with kids (or anyone, for that I attended. From these we saw the essential role matter); it is degrading. Children, and adults, can the family may play in any meaningful healing. handle anger but not sarcasm. After all, the kids all had families who, despite the circumstances —even abusive ones— loved their For myself I assured the kids that nothing they children and the children their parents. Soon I did would earn my disfavour. cont’d p.13 12 Pilgrimage - cont’d from p. 12 I called the Bishop and told him. He asked me to stay on until the beginning of the next school year, brought up staff from Chapel Hill to Vermont, which I did. and invited staff from all child care facilities in Vermont, as well as Social Workers and Cor- The atmosphere was quite fractious and took rections Officers, to the Vermont version of the God’s grace to control it. New staff were vulgar Workshops for a week, meeting at the Holiday Inn and degrading. in Waterbury. I am sure my staff would join me in The Diocese itself seemed different. I talked to saying how fortunate we were to have shared part my predecessors at Lyndonville and Island Pond, of the pilgrimage of life toward the New Jerusalem who were now located in the Diocese of Albany, with those youngsters who graced our lives. And and they suggested I talk to the Bishop there. It thanks to God who pretended he needed us. turned out that there would be a vacancy in Cham- In 1981 after four years without a vacation, I plain, 12 miles from the house I had purchased in asked the Board of Directors for a Sabbatical, Alburgh, Vermont, the day before leaving on Sab- which I took at a cottage of friends in Vancouver, batical, for a retirement home. I was interviewed, in Sudden Valley for nearly five months. There I and was accepted and appointed Rector. However, read the works of C.S. Lewis, Eric Mascall, Lionel when I finally moved, the Bishop, who somehow Thornton and Austin Farrer, principally. I read 94 had forgotten that he appointed me, appointed an- books in all. Since going to Brookhaven, I had not other priest, who needed to move in a hurry, and to been able to read a single book: too many interrup- start on the same day as I was to start. So I found tions. I had kept up with journals, but no books. myself with a home but not a parish. What a refreshing pleasure. While I read I did bird By God’s grace it turned out that several parishes watching and was joined on my sun deck by all in the Eastern Townships had vacancies, which I sorts of birds and animals, some of them normally filled on an interim basis. inimical to the creature on either side. In the spring two ministries opened up which I I made many friends in Bellingham and sur- was called to do. Fortunately, I was able to respond roundings and even was able to help a prominent to both. One was as a consultant to a Charismatic family to deal with their 14 year old son who had Parish in Troy, New York, from Tuesday to Thurs- done a quarter of a million dollars damage to one day or Friday. The other was to help Fr Slattery at of their Mercedes and in his joy ride, to several St John’s on Saturday, Sunday and part of Monday. other expensive cars. Their first instinct was to At Holy Cross, I was leading the Wednesday buy him off. I persuaded them instead to visit him Teaching, and Eucharist, doing pastoral visiting, in the juvenile center in Bellingham, and begin to and worked with the groups of Men, Women and look for the appropriate group setting. The closest Families to make a suitable rule of life for their one was in Rockford, Illinois. It turned out to be Communities. The Rector was concerned because fortuitous, for the father was in Chicago each week the groups were becoming unruly. I helped them in conjunction with his chain of grocery stores in see the need, and we explored different tradition- Washington state. Six months later, I received a al ones, but adapted to the fact that the members note telling me that had sent a monster to the group worked in the world. In effect they were Oratori- care, and had received back a son. ans. I returned in early November. My maintenance I worked with Chinese doctoral and post doctoral man met me at Montréal and drove me home. Not students at RPI. They had no idea that there is a until I walked through the door did I realize that God. Eventually most decided to be baptized, but the Lord was calling me back to parochial ministry. Pilgrimage - cont’d p. 14) 13 Pilgrimage - cont’d from p. 13 approach” to extracting pledges from parishioners. they were sent to remote areas of China to do hard manual labour. I learned enough Chinese (tones, Instead of beating them over the head by fixating too) to Baptize them. on shortcomings, I saw the only way forward was to let the Spirit’s gracious balm heal their hearts During the Tienamin Square episode, 25 of them stayed at my home. They had intended to visit I suggested the Vestry start by deciding to act Montréal, but could not tear themselves away. in unanimity in the Holy Spirit. We’d have to put personal agendas aside, and wait for the Spirit to In Montréal I stayed in the apartment which is guide us to unity. now the Church Office. I took daily Masses in the Crypt Chapel or Church and also celebrated when At first they were not too sure. But as they be- scheduled at St Margaret’s Home. Often I dealt gan to see what was happening when they trusted with indigent people who needed some help, or Him, they began to realize the truth, “Behold, how needed a birth certificate. I was on the interfaith good it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” committee planning for the Layton Ford Crusade. Since stewardship time was just around the cor- At St John’s I tried to do what was needed. ner, we started with pledging. I suggested having faith pledges. That involved a testimony of several Stuart Iverson and I wrote a number of Pam- people about their spiritual experience in tithing or phlets on various aspects of the faith and practice. giving generously, and I would talk about it from a Shortly after the new Organ was installed and biblical stance. On pledge day each person pledg- dedicated, I left St John’s to become the pastor of ing would do so keeping in mind what God meant St David’s Church in their life bringing and bring it up unsigned and in East Greenbush, place it in the offering basin on the altar. Doubts New York, on the vanished. Pledges were 60% more than ever. Fur- east side of the ther surprise: they gave more than pledged. Hudson River, six The Vestry before had already prayed and voted miles from Albany for a budget they believed God wanted them to do. and just south of Troy. Until a short The people grew in the Spirit. My job became time before I came, guiding them and discerning their spiritual gifts. it had been a parish When I attended the 50th Anniversary of St Fr Pickup with Lloyd Scott, ministered to by David’s in 2012, their membership had been aug- long time Organist at St David’s the Order of the mented by 150 Burmese refugees, interned their Holy Cross. entire lives in concentration camps until coming to I was there for thirteen years, until I retired. the United States. It was a small congregation, in part, I believe, In September 1997 I retired and returned to live because the diocese built it in 1962 close to no in Alburgh. That brouhgt me back full circle to St community. In that area the population density is John the Evangelist ever since. During these years low, and just a few blocks away one can see kids I have been involved in a deep study of hmnody, in who were in different school districts. writing and in spiritual mentoring. The pilgrimage continues toward the Holy City… ❖ When I arrived, the parish had not paid on its mortgage in several years; it needed repairs; they had sold the rectory. They used “the battering ram

14 � RECTOR’S CORNER Easter during these days, by prayer and by self-de- nial, what motivates us and what fills the horizon any of us are probably well fed up with this is not self-denial as an end in itself but trying to winter, and indeed it is one of the coldest we M sweep and clean the room of our own minds and have experienced in many years. We all have that hearts so that the new life really may have room to yearning and hope for Spring. There are times in come in and take over and transform us at Easter. our spiritual Life too that it feels as if frost has set in and we grow cold or go into hibernation. Lent We are called on to clear our Thoughts, Minds is an opportunity for us to shake off the winter dol- and perhaps even our offices and homes of those drums and to prepare for the Joy of the rising of the things that weigh us down. Those past insults Son. The days grow longer, the hours of daylight and hurts we can sometimes say are forgotten but increase and hours of darkness decrease. Unfortu- not forgiven. But it is those very things we are nately, as the daylight grows, sometimes we look called upon at Lent to give up and overcome. In around and see that the dust, dirt and cobwebs the ancient church it was the practice of the Newly of the winter are revealed in the Spring light. It Baptized to be dressed in White Garments after will soon be time to make a clean sweep, Rowan their to symbolize that they were Born Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury has Again in New Life. Each Lent we are given the written of this: opportunity to shed our old clothes and put on the New Garments of God’s love and Faithfulness. Let ... It’s important to remember that the word ‘Lent’ us use these 40 days of Fasting, Prayer, and Self itself comes from the old English word for ‘spring’. Reflection to put on our New Garments in Christ. It’s not about feeling gloomy for forty days; it’s not about making you miserable for forty days; it’s not Yours in Christ, even about giving things up for forty days. Lent For a Holy Lent and Joyous Easter, is springtime. It’s preparing for that great climax of springtime which is Easter – new life bursting through death. And as we prepare ourselves for Fr Keith

15 d CALENDAR d

Passion Sunday, March 22, Easter Day, April 5 8:30 a.m. Low Mass 10:30 a.m. High Mass 9:45 Matins 10:30 a.m. High Mass Easter I, April 12 10:30 a.m. High Mass Wednesday, March 25 - The Annunciation 7:30 & 9:30 a.m. Mass Easter II, April 19 6:00 p.m. Stations of the Cross 1030 a.m. High Mass Soup supper follows, Lenten Discussion Easter III, April 26 Palm Sunday, March 29 10:30 a.m. High Mass 10:30 a.m. Procession and High Mass Easter IV, May 3 Holy Wednesday, April 1 10:30 a.m. High Mass 7:30 & 9:30 Mass 6:00 p.m. Stations of the Cross Easter V (Rogation), May 10 Soup supper follows, Lenten Discussion 10:30 a.m. High Mass

Maundy Thursday, April 2 Ascension Day, Thursday, May 14 5:45 p.m. High Mass and overnight Vigil 5:45 p.m. High Mass

Good Friday, April 3 Sunday after Ascension, May 17 12 noon Matins 10:30 a.m. High Mass 1:00 p.m. Stations of the Cross 1:45 Veneration of theCross and Liturgy Pentecost (Whitsunday), Sunday, May 24 of the Presanctified 10:30 a.m. High Mass 7:00 p.m. Tenebrae Trinity Sunday, May 31 Holy Saturday, April 4 10:30 a.m. High Mass 8:00 p.m. Great Vigil of Easter

Church of St John the Evangelist : 137 President Kennedy, Montreal, Quebec. H2X 3P6 Rector : The Rev’d Keith Schmidt Director of the Music : Federico Andreoni Church Office : 514 288-4428 e-mail : [email protected] website : www.redroof.ca The Editorial Board listed below welcomes your comments and suggestions, as well as your contributions: Tony Whitehead, editor : Roland Hui : Kieran Wilson : Keith Schmidt, ex-officio