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 1149 Weston Road, Toronto Ontario, Canada, M6N 3S3 Contact us at (416) 766-1887 or click here to email us |
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1149 Weston Road, Toronto Ontario, Canada, M6N 3S3 Contact us at (416) 766-1887 or click here to email us |
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When I first
came to this parish, I was both surprised and delighted to discover
that the Prayer Book worship which I had known and loved as
a youngster growing up south of the border was alive and well
and living in Toronto at The Church of the Good Shepherd. Even
more remarkable, worship here was not a contentious issue. When
The Book of Alternative Services came out in 1985, it was first
used here, I am told, on an experimental basis, and then, as
a new pattern of worship evolved, it came to be used once a
month, as it still is today. Here at Good Shepherd the pattern
of worship has been set not by someone's idea about the direction
in which the church ought to be moving, but by the felt needs
and wishes of the worshipping community. This community loves
the Prayer Book and considers it to be an inalienable part of
our Anglican birthright. What I want to suggest today is that
our worship, which we take very much for granted, may provide
a partial solution to our most pressing problem: the increase
in our membership. Unless our numbers grow, and grow soon, our
days as an independent, self-sustaining parish are numbered.
We must improve our visibility in the neighborhood, and we must
gain access to the apartment buildings and condominiums to the
west of us. What is possible for purveyors of pizza and the
"Toronto Star" should not be impossible for us. But we must
also extend our gaze beyond Mount Dennis and adjacent areas,
and this is where our worship comes in. I appeal quite simply
to the law of supply and demand. The supply of Prayer Book services
continues to shrink. Some of our younger clergy, I am told,
have never even seen a copy of The Book of Common Prayer. And
yet, despite the energetic promotion of the new service book
over the past twelve years, there are still Anglicans, and not
just older Anglicans, who continue to love the Prayer Book and
to regret its disappearance. Some of these people have learned
to accept a situation which they feel they are powerless to
change and have found other reasons to maintain their connection
with their parishes. But many others have manifested their unhappiness
with their feet: they have simply opted out of church life altogether.
A lady explained to me why she no longer came to church in the
following terms: "I was raised in the United Church. When I
got married, I converted to my husband's Anglican faith. I just
don't want to have to convert a second time." These alienated,
unchurched Anglicans are potential recruits, I believe, for
The Church of the Good Shepherd, if only we can reach out to
them and let them know that a friendly parish is waiting to
welcome them. By doing this we would not only be practicing
an important and neglected form of evangelism; we would also
be building up our membership and demonstrating our ability
to celebrate our centennial in 2011 as an autonomous parish.
Here at Good Shepherd we do not have the attractions of a professional
choir or an elaborate ceremonial. As a group, we are neither
anglo-catholic nor evangelical, and we are certainly not "BAS-bashers."
But we do love and perpetuate a 450 year old tradition of Christian
worship which today, paradoxically, seems to be appreciated
more outside the Anglican Communion than in it. In carrying
out this project of evangelism through networking, the whole
parish needs to become involved. You will know of Anglicans
such as I have been describing, and you will know how to spread
the good news of what is on offer here at Good Shepherd to those
likely to welcome it. If each parishioner could introduce one
new person to our church, our situation would be dramatically
improved. But this much is certain: if we are to survive, we
must not remain the best kept secret in Toronto. 
