May 16th, 2009

Dear Colleagues,

Last Wednesday, at our Annual General Meeting, at St. George’s Church, Place du Canada, I was struck by the spirit of gladness as we greeted one another. This past year we have come to know one another in new ways. We have enjoyed learning together at our Study Day, at Saturday workshops and during our retreat at the beginning of April.

We have experienced moments of profound and personal sharing and have received support from one another and from our Pastor Tim Smart.

When I attended the PWRDF Annual Meeting on Thursday, May 14th, I counted 11 Lay Readers there. We share a passion for Mission as part of our ministry. Lay Readers always seem to find the time to support Diocesan initiatives. We want to learn and we enjoy the fellowship we share every time we meet.

This is my first message to you as your new president. I am so grateful for the strength of our executive, and I know that many others of you are prepared to assist in so many ways, according to your skills and interests. We will certainly be calling on you, and the coordinators will invite you to be part of a team.

We have a number of new French Lay Readers. Some I have not even met. I hope that we can support them better in the year ahead. Yolande Ferron and Constance Middleton-Hope have offered to invite them to meet at the Cathedral from time to time, to get to know them, to share the news of our Association, and to offer support for their ministry.

I am hoping that a number of you will take the time to write brief anecdotes about your experiences as Lay Readers. We would love to include these stories in our Newsletters and on our website. Just email them to me at swinn2006@sympatico.ca

I hope you will all enjoy some time of rest over the summer months. The Fall will be a busy time of Diocesan celebrations, a Conference Synod, a Study Day on November 28th with the Right Reverend Dennis Drainville, Bishop of Quebec, and our own Bishop Barry, and a Spring Retreat, April 30th to May 2nd with Patricia Bays, well-known author of books for Anglicans in ministry. In addition we will enjoy monthly workshops and service to our churches. We have so much to look forward to.

In closing I share with you a prayer used in a Bible Study at the Anglican Consultative Council in Jamaica this month. I find it very compelling.

“God of passion and power,
Insistent and immediate,
Challenging, compelling us with your story’s breathless beginning,
Walk with us into the wilderness
To hear your voice where silence reigns.
Give us insight, the wisdom beyond all seeing.
So may we look upon heavens torn open
And know that the time of good news for all creation
Is always now.”