Clergy Notes — Third Sunday After Pentecost, Sunday, June 13, 2021

At this week’s Liturgy at Home we welcome amongst us a new deacon and a new priest in the Church of God, Deacon José Luis and Mother Amanda.  This is cause for rejoicing and thanksgiving:  for José Luis and Amanda themselves; for our parish of St James’ in our nurturing of these vocations; and for the whole Church!  Conversations continue with Bishop John about where each will serve, but it is a joy that they are both with us this Sunday.

In the passage chosen for Reflection this week, Fr Michael Sadgrove reflects on his ordination to the priesthood in 1976, and its coincidence with the outbreak of the Soweto Uprising in South Africa.  As our Bishop ordains three deacons and one priest, so we find ourselves beset by pandemic, by the grim discovery of the Indigenous children’s graves in Kamloops, BC, and by the horrific murder of the Muslim family in London, Ontario.  In the face of darkness, of these trials and tribulations, the Church continues its life of prayer, penitence, worship and service.  God continues to call people to serve him as ministers.  God continues to call the whole Church, often represented – though imperfectly – by these ministers, to reflect the light and love of Christ in the midst of the darkness; to make present, to make real now, the healing and reconciliation Christ achieved through his self-giving on the Cross.

Today then let us pray for Deacon José Luis and Mother Amanda, for all the newly-ordained, and for ourselves, that we all may indeed shine with the light and the love of Christ, and be agents of healing and reconciliation.  

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it!

Every blessing,

Fr. Kevin

Download the service booklet for Sunday, June 13 here: Liturgy at Home Pentecost 3 June 13_2021