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Note: If you're signed up on my NotifyList and haven't switched over to BraveNet, this is the last time I'll be sending to both lists. NotifyList was just too unreliable. I'd send a notice that I'd updated and it wouldn't be delivered for three days...if ever. Not all that useful, really. If you're not on either notification lists...what're you waiting for? You can sign up over on the right. I promise not to send anything other than update notifications. One of the readings from Morning Prayer today was Ananias going to Saul/Paul, to minister to him in his blindness (Acts (9:10-19). It's a powerful passage for me...when I first returned to church and was knocked off my horse (not that my conversion was anywhere near so dramatic as Paul's) the people of All Saints' were like Ananias to me. As I stumbled about in my new faith they were there to help me see. They welcomed me and fed me (sometimes literally, most times figuratively) and helped me find my way. The paradigm shift that accompanies conversion can be disorienting - a run-in with the divine can't help but shake a person - and it's the faith community that can help normalize the experience. Once I'd found my feet and become comfortable in this new world - as Paul regained his strength - the parish supported me as I explored the possibility of striking out on my own journey. I didn't exactly walk and sail around the Mediterranean, and I've not founded any new churches in Corinth (or even Etobicoke), but I have left my home and gone to a strange new place in service of the gospel. Granted, Toronto isn't Rome, but it's strange enough for me and I couldn't have gotten here without All Saints'. So God bless Ananias, and all who follow in his footsteps. God bless anyone who recognizes a dazed newcomer to any situation, be it a new convert or new immigrant or even a lonely kid on the first day of school, and helps that person find his or her feet. |
