TASTE & SEE: The Rector's Musings

We gather this Sunday to celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple.  We shall begin the service in the Gathering Space for the Blessing of Candles before the congregation processes into the sanctuary carrying lit tapers (or electric tealight for children).  For those unfamiliar with this feast day's rich layers of meanings, you may find my dear colleague Fr. Neil Fernyhough's introduction to Candlemas [click link] helpful and fascinating.  

In last week's blog, I introduced the 2025 parish theme of (RE) GATHERING and promised to unpack the theme in the coming weeks.  While it is Christ's purpose to (re)gather the whole creation to be ONE with the love of God and therefore the mission of the Church, Christ's body on earth to fulfil this mission in every age and time, the ministry of gathering is rooted a specific location in any given time.  

Theology of Place is the study of the relationship between physical location and Christian theology. It explores how place shapes human experience and society, and how it relates to the Christian faith.  So before we rush to the "HOW to (re)gather" question, "WHERE we are (re)gathering" is a very good place to start (thanks to Julie Andrew's Do-Re-Me).  Judeo-Christian beliefs were founded on the story of the Call of Abraham and Sarah to experience and discover God's promises to them and their offspring in a specific place, the Land of Canaan.  The land we live on, therefore, forms the specific context where the revelation of God takes place.  

In one of my conversations with Carol this week, she told me that she remembered at one time St. Dunstan's was part of a multi-point parish along with St. Alban's, Otter, St. George's, Fort Langley, St. Margaret, Brander, Mastqui, and St. Andrew's, Langley Prairie.  (Stop complaining, Clarence, you only have one congregation in your care!) Following Carol's lead, I took a deep dive into the history of the Anglican's presence in the Township and City of Langley and traced our history back to 1859 with the short-lived Parish of St. John the Divine, Derby (the church building was later put on a barge and relocate to Maple Ridge).  St. Alban's picked up where St. John's was left off in 1885, opened its first church in Milner in 1890 and became the mother church in the Township where other parishes (including St. Dunstan's) were planted.  As far as settlers' history goes, Anglicans have been witnessing the love of God in the Langley area in one form or another for 166 years, 13 more years than the Township of Langley itself!  Using the general yardstick of 20 - 30 years for one generation, the Anglican Church has spanned 6+ generations in Langley alone.  Over this period, Anglican parishes gathered and provided spiritual sustenance to early settlers, their descendants and subsequent immigrants to turn this land into thriving rural communities providing food security and other services to people in BC and beyond.  

But there is a problem here.  The story and the history of the revelation of God to the people of this land we now refer to as Aldergrove, Langley, or Abbotsford with pride began way before Christian settlers arrived in the 1800s with hopes for a better and freer new life.  As people of God, what do we know about the earlier divine revelations to the Indigenous peoples of this land?  In my early research, the Stó:lō people, “People of the River” and first inhabitants, have lived in what we now call the Fraser Valley for at least 10,000 years, and are the ancestral residents of Mission’s Xa:ytem Rock and Pit House, one of Canada’s oldest archaeological findings.  With a posture of curiosity, I wonder how the creation story(ies) of the Stó:lō people and the teaching of their elders shaped their understanding of their sense of purpose on the lands and waterways where they have lived.   I wonder how this place shapes human experience and society, and how it relates to the Christian faith for those of us who have found life drinking from the headwaters of the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

Have you ever wondered why we have been beginning our Sunday's Gathering of the Community acknowledging the place and the people who have been custodians of the first revelation from the Creator of this land where we live and practice our faith today?  By acknowledging our hosting nations and our place as settlers on a land marred by a shared history of colonial domination, we collectively press the RESET button and bring to our awareness that the Good News we are to proclaim on this land demands us to turn to a different relationship with the land as a sacred place of God's revelation.  There are other important reasons for land acknowledgement in worship and I will plan a future blog entry outlining some of them.

Last Thursday, I attended my first class of Xwelítem Siyáya: Allyship and Reconciliation Building program offered by the Peace and Reconciliation Centre of the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV).  UFV partners with Stó:lō knowledge keepers and organizations to offer this yearlong learning and unlearning experience through monthly in-person teach-in and cultural workshops.  The program seeks to help build people’s capacity for reconciliation-building by teaching the importance of authentic allyship and providing skills for building relationships between colonial settlers and Indigenous communities here in the Fraser Valley and beyond.  By the way, registration for the program has been extended to February 6.  I am looking for learning partners and if you are interested in joining me on this journey of discovery, check out details of the program through the link above and let me know.  

See you next week for more on (Re)gathering.