St. Catherine's Church | Anglican Church in North Vancouver, BC

Beloved family of Christ,

This is a heavy time. I know that many of you have held the people of Gaza and Israel in your prayers for many, many months and are as torn as I am by feeling powerless in the face of dire starvation and the blockade of Palestinian people. Yesterday, our Primate, The Right Reverend Shane Parker, wrote a public letter to the Prime Minister, urging action to help end the ongoing devastation and “obscene violence” being inflicted on Gaza, and I commend it to you to read. He also calls on all Canadian Anglicans to communicate with our elected officials, asking them to work toward an immediate, comprehensive, two-way arms embargo. Only two weeks ago, we considered the question “who is my neighbour?” and “what does a lived-out gospel look like?” – my friends, it looks like prayer, seeing the dignity in all human lives, and speaking up to preserve them.

This Sunday, we’ll welcome a local lifesaver: Sandra Lee of North Shore Crisis Services Society. Sandra will share about NSCSS’ vital work to help women and children leaving abuse and intimate partner violence. I’ll limit myself to a brief “sermonette” to create more time for her to speak. (Given NSCSS’ work, it seems important to speak to the misogynistic language in Hosea in this week’s lectionary and consider more life-giving ways to interpret it. Thankfully, Sunday’s readings also include Jesus’ advice about how to pray in Luke 11:1-13 and powerful language about our identity in Christ in Colossians 2:6-15. May both the Luke and Colossians readings uplift you, where Hosea may confound you!)

In Christ and in community,

Rev. Sarah

A Prayer for Before Reading the News

My God, the soul you have place in me is pure and vulnerable. I am afraid that looking at today’s news will be painful. Encircle me in a robe of light so that I can witness the wounds of the world without being wounded myself. Let me learn what I need to know in order to be of my greatest use, without being overwhelmed by despair. I feel your protective light now as I open myself to the world’s suffering and the world’s joys. Amen. ~Rabbi Irwin Keller, 2016

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This Sunday July 27, 2025

we will share a Service of Holy Communion

Here is the link to the downloadable bulletin:
Sunday July 27, 2025

To access the livestream, click on the button below.
Previous livestreamed services and sermon notes can be found on the website here.

Image: Cara B. Hochhalter, From the Lord's Prayer

http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59064

Commentary by the artist: ""We hear the “Lord’s Prayer” a little differently in this version from Luke. I focused on feeding and forgiving, these two aspects of the prayer Jesus taught. Being hungry and being in debt make people poor in our country and world. Then, so often people become victims of their own poverty... Perhaps God’s kingdom... comes on earth as we focus on feeding and forgiving, on bread and friendship, and finding equitable solutions for those who are in debt..."