“This church acknowledges being on the traditional territories of …”

At the opening of our Sunday worship on June 18,  Cecile Wagar, Senator of the Oshawa and Durham Region Metis Council, led the congregation in a ceremony to dedicate a stone and plaque that acknowledges the Mississaugas of Scugog Island, the Iroquoian-speaking Wendat, and the 1923 Williams Treaties First Nations as the traditional owners of the land on which the church now stands and has done for 151 years. The indigenous lands marker is a symbol of All Saints’ ongoing commitment to pursuing truth, justice, reconciliation and healing for the children of God.

The All Our Relations Metis Drum Circle provided drumming and spiritual music of First Nations and Metis heritage, and the congregation processed to the front lawn and formed a circle around the stone marker for a smudging and blessing ceremony. The smudging feather and bowl were returned to the chancel steps for the service, filling the sanctuary with the scent of cedar, sage and tobacco as the Canon Vail delivered a moving homily on the Gospel call to pursue justice and the wholeness of the human family, so that we all might live in right relationships with each other and with the Creator.

Creator God,
from you every family in heaven and earth takes its name.
You have rooted and grounded us
in your covenant love,
and empowered us by your Spirit
to speak the truth in love,
and to walk in your way towards justice and wholeness.
Mercifully grant that your people,
journeying together in partnership,
may be strengthened and guided
to help one another to grow into the full stature  of Christ,
who is our light and our life. Amen

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