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Back to Church Sunday

“Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house."

My wife and I lived on Emmett Avenue for 11 years before I became a member of the Church of the Good Shepherd.  As I rode past the church almost every day on the bus, I often wondered what went on inside.  So after I had joined the congregation in 1996, I thought that perhaps my friends and neighbors would also like to have a look inside.  “Back to Church Sunday” provides that opportunity. 

Situated here, at the intersection of Eglinton Avenue and Weston Road, the Church of the Good Shepherd is an unmistakable landmark in the Mount Dennis community, and next year, 2011, we will be inaugurating our 2nd century as the Anglican parish church in this place. 

The gospel story abour Jesus and Zacchaeus doesn’t quite fit our situation here today.  We have invited you to visit our church and to stay for lunch, if you so desire.  Jesus invited himself to be Zacchaeus’s house guest.  But Jesus’ invitation had a positive outcome, and our hope is that this observance of “Back to Church Sunday” will also be positive, even if not quite so dramatic.  No one is expected to give half their goods to the poor as a result of this visit. 

Of course, regular church attendance has become counter-cultural nowadays.  It seems so 20th century!  Actually, it was around the middle of the last century, after the religious fervor associated with the Allied victory in World War I has subsided, that mainline churches began to observe that they were hemorrhaging members. 

The Anglican response was to produce a new service book.  Unfortunately, this has not solved the problem.  During the 50 year period, from 1951 to 2001, that the new book, called the Book of Alternative Services, was being prepared, produced, and distributed, the Anglican Church of Canada lost 53% of its membership. 

Since 1985 Canadian Anglicans have been praying in two tongues, the 16th century language of Thomas Cranmer’s Prayer Book and the 20th century language of the BAS.  We use the latter at baptisms, but we prefer Cranmer’s Prayer Book, not for doctrinal or liturgical reasons, but simply because of the beauty of its language, which touches the heart. 

But after years of extolling the power of traditional worship, I have come to realize that I have been preaching to the choir, so from now on, it’s “Don’t talk about it; just do it!”  So if anything we do here today strikes a chord, recalling, perhaps, something lost but not quite forgotten, then do come back.  If, however, your visit today is a “one off,” then thanks for coming, and perhaps I will see you again at our centennial celebration on January 23. 

Finally, to our regular congregation, who come to church Sunday after Sunday, I say: Thanks of your fidelity, which has kept us going all these many years. 

September 26, 2010

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