Journey with Us this Season

We start Advent on Sunday, December 2 with services at 8:00, 9:30 and 11:00am. The chancel is decorated in royal blue, the first of the Advent candles is lit, and we begin to set the stage for the arrival of the Jesus child. We also have a Evensong service that evening at 7:00pm.

Enter into the Advent season with a contemplative awareness of the great gift that God has given us. Try our Advent Oasis service on Wednesday, December 5 at 7:00pm.

Sunday, December 16 (11:00am) is our annual service of Advent Lessons & Carols. Enjoy readings and choral music to mark the midpoint of the Advent season. Hear the good news of Christmas.

On the day before the eve of Christmas, that is, Sunday,  December 23, we have only two services: the usual 8:00am service and a combined 10:30am service. You might think that this would be a “low Sunday” in terms of attendance, but it’s  a joyful time of worship and fellowship as we come together and recognize that something wonderful is about to happen.

Christmas Eve Services are the highlight of the year for many parishioners and visitors to All Saints.

On December 24, the interior of All Saints is sparkling with colour and light and joy; the outside is still and majestic and dark. Once again, we are invited to put aside the rush and frenzy of secular seasonal preparations and instead put our relationship with God at the centre of Christmas. Recognizing it’s sometimes tricky to fit it all in, we offer three services to make it work for you: the children’s service at 4:00pm and the traditional Eucharist services at 7:00pm and 10:00pm. (Note the new 10pm time for the late service.)

And finally, Christmas Day is the day that crowns the season. On  December 25, the Eucharist Service will be at 10:30am. Come to church and celebrate that the infant king is born.

Embrace the spiritual riches of the season at All Saints. Discover how much the good news means to you at Christmas and enter into a relationship with God (again or for the first time) that will carry you into the year ahead.

Blessings upon you as we travel through this Advent Season towards Christmas. We hope your plans include All Saints.

All Saints has a standing tradition of coffee and conversation on Sundays between services.
Many of us come early (9:30am) for about 40 minutes of music, worship, and prayer beforehand; some stick around afterward (11:00am) for an hour or so of classic Anglican liturgy, hymns, and prayer. Everyone is encouraged to meet in the middle.

Plus we have cake … on the 1st Sunday of every month.

On May 14, we welcome our new Assistant Curate, the Reverend Molly Finlay, to our ministry team!

What’s a curate, you ask? And who exactly does she assist? Here’s what our resident “Notes & Queries’ correspondent, Bertie Weatherbottom, told us in the March issue of the parish newsletter:

At our recent Vestry, our parish voted to take on a new member of the clergy—a curate. Those of us who are long of the Anglican tooth may be comfortable with the term, but you may ask, what does “curate” mean? In its most traditional sense, the term refers to a person who is invested with the care or cure (cura) of souls of a parish. In medieval times, a curate could be considered broadly to be what we now know as a parish priest. Fr. Stephen might have been called our parish curate, for example. Many curates in larger parishes also had assistant curates.

As new titles evolved for curates, such as Rector or Vicar and ultimately Incumbent, the term “curate” meaning parish priest disappeared, but the term “assistant curate” did not. Today, in the Anglican communion, “curate” is commonly used to describe clergy who are assistants to the parish priest and who, in their first posting after ordination, are completing their training (not unlike an apprenticeship). As a bit of historical fun, these newly ordained priests continue to be called “assistant curates” even though there is no longer a main “curate” for them to assist! By taking on a curacy, we will be assisting a newly ordained priest as he or she participates in this last step towards a solo parish. Though licensed by the Bishop, this person will be supervised by our own Fr. Stephen.

In our Diocese, assistant curates participate in Momentum, a 2-year program that provides professional development in the context of a supportive peer environment. Sessions are facilitated by experienced clergy. Coincidentally one of the current program facilitators is a former and well-loved All Saints’ assistant curate, the Rev. Canon Paul J. Walker.

~Bertie Weatherbottom