Reflections on the heritage, life & work of faith communities in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario
Jesus Christ is the light of the world, Reverend Geoffrey Chapman said as he opened the candle-lit Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at St. Matthew’s Church in the Glebe. A light no darkness can extinguish, the congregation responded. The Anglican church, filled to capacity, was illuminated by row upon row of the faithful standing…
I arrived at the candle-lit Church of St. Bartholomew on the evening of December 7 to experience the richness of Advent, the liturgical season sometimes forgotten or unceremoniously truncated in the hurry to celebrate Christmas. This Anglican community in New Edinburgh — founded in 1867 and with the church dating back to 1868 — has…
Anglicanism encompasses a rich diversity of liturgical expression. My visit to Trinity Anglican Church in Old Ottawa South on All Saints Sunday served as a good example of this. On November 2, I attended Trinity’s 4:00 pm service — a contemporary liturgy featuring praise and worship music, as well as opportunities to connect with others…
The lyricism and aesthetic qualities of the Anglo-Catholic tradition, as seen in song and prayer alike, were on glorious display at the Church of St. Barnabas during Evensong on Sunday, October 19. Evensong — and the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament that followed — was an immersive experience at this downtown Ottawa church. The sense…
Language isn’t merely utilitarian — it has the capacity to be as beautiful as the most architecturally stunning building. The Dean of Christ Church Anglican Cathedral in downtown Ottawa, the Very Reverend Beth Bretzlaff, shared a Thanksgiving letter with friends of the Cathedral that captures, with lyrical language, the depth of the season and a…
Epiphany Anglican Church at 1290 Ogilvie Road is a truly twenty-first century church. The community celebrates its 25th anniversary this fall and the warm, welcoming building incorporates the colours of nature all around it, thanks to the floor-to-ceiling windows of its round sanctuary. I visited their 9:30 am liturgy on October 5th, the Feast of…
On Sunday, October 5th — as a rich, amber sun was beginning to set on an unseasonably warm fall afternoon — I had the chance to attend an Evensong service at St. Matthew’s Anglican Church at 217 First Avenue, in the Glebe. St. Matthew’s takes a high church approach to liturgy, which made Evensong —…
Built in 1887, St. Margaret’s Anglican Church was once a village chapel serving the rural community of Janesville. In its early years, it was a mission church of the much more affluent St. Bartholomew’s Church in nearby New Edinburgh. This “chapel of ease” located along the road that connected Ottawa to Montreal served poorer English…
On my way to the Glengarry Pioneer Museum’s Fall Harvest Fair on a crisp morning, I stopped by St. Michael and All Angels Anglican Church in Maxville, Ontario, and attended their 9:00 am Sunday service. Built in 1860 as a Presbyterian church and later to serve as the spiritual home of a Baptist community, the…