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'Pray for abducted schoolgirls'

By Anglican Journal staff on May, 07 2014

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Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, has asked Canadian Anglicans to pray for the safe return of more than 220 Nigerian schoolgirls who were abducted nearly three weeks ago by the radical Islamic group, Boko Haram.
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“Pray for these innocent girls and young women terrorized and trafficked at gunpoint under the cover of darkness into a future that is grim,” said Hiltz in a statement issued May 7. “Pray for their families who are desperate for information as to their whereabouts…Pray for those who seek a forum for negotiating their release. Pray for a change of heart on the part of these armed extremists.”
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Hiltz suggested that prayers be made in a public way, including community prayer vigils. He urged Anglicans to wear a white ribbon, the same symbol worn between December 6, the National Day of Action to End Violence against Women, and December 10, International Human Rights Day. “Let’s hang white ribbons on our church doors, and encourage other keepers of public buildings to hang ribbons as well,” added Hiltz. 
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Members of the Anglican Communion’s International Anglican Women’s Network (IAWN) have also asked Anglicans around the world to remember the girls in their prayers and to sign an online petition expressing support for efforts to ensure their safe return and to make sure schools are protected from similar attacks. IAWN steering group convener Ann Skamp urged Anglicans to ask their respective governments to apply pressure on the Nigerian government to address the situation.
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"Please request that your parish, diocese and province include prayers for the girls and their families at worship this Sunday [May 11], which also is celebrated as Mother’s Day in many of our communities,” Skamp added.
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Boko Haram’s statement that the girls, who were abducted in the town of Chibok,  were going to be sold “in the market” as brides is “appalling,” said Hiltz. “It is an abomination against internationally held human rights, and an absolute affront to the efforts of many nations to honour the Millennium Development Goals to empower women and young girls through education.”
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Hiltz commended for use the following prayer, written by Elizabeth Smith, of the diocese of Perth, Anglican Church of Australia:
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Prayer for the kidnapped Nigerian girls, May 2014
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O God, we cry out to you
for the lives and the freedom
of the 276 kidnapped girls in Nigeria.
In their time of danger and fear,
pour out your strong Spirit for them.
Make a way home for them in safety.
Make a way back for them
to the education that will lift them up.
Hold them in the knowledge
that they are not captive slaves,
they are not purchased brides,
but they are your beloved daughters,
and precious in your sight.
Change the hearts and minds of their kidnappers
and of all who choose violence against women and girls.
Cast down the mighty from their seat,
and lift up the humble and meek,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
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ADIEU PAUL ZAMODITS!

 

Where's Aldo?

By Marites N. Sison on February, 05 2014

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Aldo, the doe-eyed liturgical donkey of the Anglican diocese of Quebec—a local celebrity in his own right—is featured on the cover and inside the diocesan 2014 calendar, the sales of which will benefit the diocese’s green ministries.
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The calendar also features “Aldo’s friends,” including Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada. The month of May has Hiltz performing  “dung duty” with the Rev. Cynthia Patterson, co-ordinator of the national church’s suicide prevention program and the wife of Dennis Drainville, bishop of Quebec.
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Drainville himself is the calendar subject for November, along with Aldo and his goat companion, Alli.
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“The calendar is bilingual and promotes a theology of environmental awareness and action through quotations and ‘living well’ tips,” said Patterson. It includes verses, eco-tips, recipes and images “intended to incorporate earth stewardship” in daily life.
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The calendar, which sells for $12, plus $3 shipping, is now in its second year Calendar sales fund the diocese’s outreach mission with Maison Charlotte, which provides lodging and meals for women in need; outreach with members of the L’Arche community, which includes people with developmental disabilities; the construction, installation and planting of raised beds for community gardens; purchase of bike racks and the installation of benches and picnic tables.
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The green ministries initiative, which began as a pilot project, received a grant from the TD Friends of the Environment Fund in 2013.
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“In 2014, we aim to offer the good news of this model to encourage other parishes within and beyond our diocese to ‘green ministries,’” said Patterson. “As the project goes in 2014, we will shared the increased yields with the local food bank, and work to deepen links with low-income individuals and families, inviting them to garden here.”
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Proceeds of calendar sales also fund the presence of Aldo and Alli in the Bishop’s Garden of the Cathedral Close for 10 months of the year. The animals join outdoor services and special liturgies and “engage daily in ministry and mission with dozens of people who visit them.”
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Archbishop Fred Hiltz and the Rev. Cynthia Patterson on "dung duty" are featured in the month of May. 
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Aldo and Alli have “changed neighbourhood life for the better on rue des Jardins,” according to the green ministries website. They moved beside the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in late autumn 2011, and they have brought people together in unimaginable ways, the website states. “Where else but at ‘Aldo’s Wall’ would a senior servant talk with a homeless person; a parking attendant discuss with a waitress the role of a donkey in the Christmas story; a nun share treats of carrots and celery with a cleaning woman from the Clarendon?”
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Aldo’s and Alli’s closest friends now include students from the Ursuline convent, street musicians and artists, and civil servants from various provincial offices, said Patterson. “Their most loyal friends include elderly people living on their own and homeless.” It is, adds Patterson, “the miracle of reconnecting with nature in the heart of the city.”
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The story of how the unlikely pair became, as CBC called them —“the delight of Old Quebec”—has received a lot of press over the years.
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Sarah Blair, a member of the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, recounted to the Chronicle Telegraph the serendipitous way in which Aldo came into her family’s life.
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Years ago, they had gone on pilgrimage to El Camino de Santiago de Compostela and had rented two donkeys for the journey. “The donkeys delighted other pilgrims, and we became known as the ‘donkey family.’ ” Upon returning to Canada, Blair said she wanted to have donkeys because she knew they would have the same therapeutic effect on people here.
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Aldo came to Blair and her family’s life when a friend sent him to offer cheer to one of Blair’s children during an illness. Alli would have gone to the slaughterhouse had she not been rescued to provide companionship to Aldo. The two had been kept on a farm during the summer, but there was nowhere to shelter them for the winter.
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Blair had thought of boarding the animals at the Cathedral but decided to conduct some research beforehand to see what role donkeys have played in the city’s history.
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“Donkeys were important here, long before horses. They go all the way back to 1632. Donkeys have been living in the old city since it was built,” she said. “In fact, the first donkey lived right where ours is now. Aldo is living history.”
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In the calendar, Blair adds: “The Recollect Fathers and neighbouring Ursuline convent used to maintain gardens connected by a footpath in the heart of the city. Now known as rue des Jardins, little evidence remains here of this productive history.” Aldo and Alli—cared for by Blair, who comes twice a day to feed them— have brought the cathedral family closer and its neighbours together in a wonderful way, she said. “When I think about all the secrets of this city, like the bees and chickens at the Chateau Frontenac, it just fits.”
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For more information on how to order a calendar, click here . Cheques can also be made to: Anglican Diocese of Quebec “Green Ministries” and mailed to: 31 rue des Jardins, Quebec, QC G1R 4L6.
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Cathedral prepares to receive King's body

 

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The burial of a king is usually a significant event: full of pomp and pageantry, ritual and ceremony. And the same will be true when England buries its king in Leicester Cathedral in the coming months – despite the fact that the king in question, Richard III, died more than 500 years ago and that his first burial in what was then the church of the Greyfriars' monastery was anything-but ceremonial.
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History records Richard III as a child-killing despot; but his reputation as the killer of the "Princes in the Tower" has more to do with rumour, gossip and Shakespeare than any accurate historical account.
His two-year reign came during a turbulent period in English history. When Edward IV died in 1483, his 12-year-old son should have inherited the throne as Edward V. In view of the young king's age, Richard was named Lord Protector. He moved the young king to the Tower of London, which was a royal palace as well as a prison, along with Edward V's younger brother, also called Richard.
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The coronation of Edward V was to have taken place in Westminster Abbey on 22 June 1483; but Edward IV's marriage had by then been ruled invalid. This made the young princes illegitimate and their succession unlawful. Richard, as the brother of Edward IV, became King. The young princes were never seen again, leading to speculation that Richard had them killed.
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But the tribulations within this branch of the royal family were nothing compared to the wider battles in the Plantagenet dynasty. The House of York, with its white rose symbol, of which Edward IV and Richard III were a part, fought a series of battles with the rival House of Lancaster, known for its red rose symbol.
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The Wars of the Roses, as they became known, culminated in the Battle of Bosworth Field near Leicester, on 22 August 1485. It was here that Richard III was killed and the leader of the Lancastrians, Henry Tudor, took the throne of England, becoming King Henry VII, at the start of what became the House of Tudor.
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Richard III was buried without pomp and ceremony in the Greyfriars' monastery. Archaeologists have been able to ascertain that he was buried in a badly prepared grave, in an "odd position" with "minimal reverence". His torso had been crammed in and his hands had been bound. To make matters worse for Richard III, Greyfriars was one of the monasteries dissolved by Henry VII's son, Henry VIII, and by the time archaeologists had rediscovered his grave, in September last year, it was underneath a municipal car park.
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The Greyfriars Monastery stood opposite Saint Martin's parish church. This remains to this day and, in 1927, was designated the Cathedral of the new diocese of Leicester. The Home Office licence that authorised the exhumation of any human remains discovered during the archaeological dig stipulated that they should be reinterred within the Cathedral.
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The discovery of the remains, and the confirmation through skeletal analysis and comparisons of mitochondrial DNA, that the skeleton was that of Richard III, caused great excitement in England and throughout the world; but the decision to reinter his remains in Leicester Cathedral has not proved uncontroversial.
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Some have argued that Richard III died a Roman Catholic – the Reformation hadn't taken place at the time of his death – and that he should be buried in accordance with Roman Catholic funeral rites of the time.
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The Catholic journalist William Oddie wrote: "Whatever he was, he was England's anointed king: and he was of course a Catholic. He was, in fact, austerely religious, a public benefactor and protector of the Church, a founder of charities, who throughout his life upheld a strict code of sexual morality, in marked contrast to many of his fellow courtiers. Had he not been toppled by the wretched Henry Tudor, there would have been no Henry VIII and no consequent apostasy of the Ecclesia Anglicana, we might still be a Catholic country, with a Catholic monarchy."
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But the Roman Catholic Church takes a different approach. Fr Andrew Cole, private secretary to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Nottingham, the Rt Revd Malcolm McMahon OP, said: "The Bishop is pleased that the body of King Richard III has been found under the site of Greyfriars Church in Leicester, in which it was buried following the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, and that it will be reinterred with dignity in the city where he has lain for over five hundred years.
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"Richard III was one of the last Catholic monarchs of England and his death was a decisive moment in British history, but the ultimate decision as to what form the interment takes lies with the Government and the Church of England, since he will be buried in Leicester Cathedral. In accordance with long-established ecumenical practice, Bishop Malcolm will be happy to take part in any form of ceremony which takes place to mark his final burial."
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Another controversy surrounds the decision to bury him in Leicester at all. Some descendants of Richard III's distant family (he has no direct descendants) have called for his remains to be returned "home" to York Minster. They have begun a legal challenge to the Home Office licence on Human Rights grounds; but the English courts have previously ruled that Human Rights legislation does not protect the dead; and that challenges to burial disputes can only be made by close family relatives. A decision isn't expected until the autumn. The Cathedral has asked the High Court to expedite its decision so that the plans and work necessary for the reburial aren't disrupted.
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Canon Peter Hobson said: "The Cathedral note that the Judicial Review may consider the process involved in the issuing of the licence but cannot make determinations about other matters, in particular about the final outcome of that decision. Therefore Leicester continues to plan to ensure that the King is buried with dignity following the requirements of… Law and in compliance with the best archaeological and ecclesiastical practice."
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The Cathedral at Leicester had already been developing plans for a re-ordering scheme before work started to discover the remains of Richard III. These have now been amended to make space for the new royal tomb. The grounds outside the Cathedral will be re-modelled and will include a new statue of Richard III. The burial will be within a raised tomb inside the Cathedral, in the space between the altar and the choir.
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The cost of the alterations, preparations and ceremony will cost £1 million (one million British pounds). This includes a new floor, special lighting and new stained glass windows. The plans are being refined before an application for permission is made to the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England.

The Dean of Leicester, the Very Revd David Monteith, said "We are committed to reinter King Richard with honour and we have listened carefully to the different views that were expressed. We want to create a really wonderful space in the cathedral for him and the many thousands of people we know will want to come to visit and pay their respects."
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The Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Tim Stevens, hopes the plans will please everyone involved: "This is an immensely complex project and we are determined to get it right. Inevitably that means considerable expense but we are confident that with the support of the Church and the public, we can honour Richard and his story".
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The reinterment of King Richard III will be the climax to a week of events in the city celebrating Leicester's history. The Mayor of Leicester, Cllr Peter Soulsby, said: "This amazing chapter in the story of Richard III's life, death and rediscovery has been a partnership between the City Council, the Cathedral and the University of Leicester. The reinterment itself will be another historic moment which we want to share with the nation, which we hope will join us in celebrating this unique occasion."
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The cost of the burial is expected to come from contributions from the Cathedral's partners and from public donations. The Cathedral does not charge a fee for admission and says it won't start a public appeal for funds. Neither will the scheme detract from the purpose of the Cathedral for worship.
A spokesman for the Cathedral said: "It is vital that neither the Christian message nor the unique role of the Cathedral are submerged under commercial, heritage or civic pressures. Recent research on the mission of cathedrals has shown that visitors cannot be neatly divided between tourists and pilgrims, but can be touched on many levels when they encounter sacred space.
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"Locating the remains of Richard III in the Cathedral provides an opportunity for Christian witness and service to all our visitors, so the agreed scheme will be designed to reinforce this… Experience from other cathedrals, such as those in Manchester and Southwark, shows that it is possible to retain an atmosphere of worship while welcoming many visitors in the heart of a busy city. One of the reasons people visit cathedrals is to experience the spiritual atmosphere and we want to preserve that special sense of peace and prayer for all our visitors."
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WELCOME THE LITTLE PRINCE. Soon after the news broke of the birth of a baby boy to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, offered their congratulations.
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