St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Kanata is a bright, crisp and modern house of worship built in 2004 as the third church to be constructed on this site. The traditionally-designed cruciform church is a reminder of two prior Anglican houses of worship that stood here, the first built in 1874 and the second in 1937. I visited St. Paul’s at 20 Young Road on Sunday, February 1 for their 11:00 AM service. This is one of two Sunday services, both of which retain a recognizable liturgical structure. The earlier one at 9:00 AM features traditional hymns, while the later service is elevated by contemporary worship music. There were around 70 parishioners of all generations present at the 11:00 am liturgy, including a handful of youth who participated in a children’s ministry program.
An article published in the March 14, 2004 issue of The Ottawa Citizen noted the paradox of declining Church attendance in Canada and also what the piece referred to as a “mini-boom” in church construction in suburban Ottawa. “New churches are springing up in growing suburbs and, while many of the older downtown churches are sparsely attended, others are moving to new and bigger premises or undergoing multi-million dollar renovations,” wrote Bob Harvey. By 2004, the modest 110 seating capacity of the old St. Paul’s Church made Sunday services feel cramped. The new church was built to accommodate up to 400. The early noughties represented a time of growth for St. Paul’s. The incumbent at the time, Rev. John Bridges, told the Citizen that the congregation would see a new family join nearly every week. “There is a huge renewal interest in the parish,” Rev. Bridges said. The high-tech boom in Kanata, matched by the post-amalgamation construction fever, was a major driver behind the renewal that St. Paul’s experienced at the time. Driving to the church on a bright, but frigid Sunday morning took me through a maze of residential streets, with homes mostly built during that boom.
What I found at St. Paul’s was a multi-generational church community that takes pride in its beautifully maintained sacred space. Parishioners contribute flowers to decorate the sanctuary and they are thanked by name in the parish’s Sunday bulletin. The fresh bouquet by the altar reinforced the sense of pride and care.
During the liturgy, my eyes were drawn to the stone accent walls on either side of the sanctuary, rising to meet the vaulted ceiling. They matched the stone used in the construction of the altar. The triple-arched stained glass window included glass on the top half that revealed the rich evergreens on the church property, providing some welcome greenery and warmth in the blinding white of winter.
The music ministry at St. Paul’s Church is led by David Santry. This Sunday, the choir included five members — a pianist, guitarist and choristers. The choir displayed enthusiasm as they filled the church with upbeat, contemporary music, including songs like “Turn Your Eyes,” “Waiting Here for You,” “Take My Life,” and “Beautiful One.” The vitality of these songs, as well as the visible joy of those in music ministry, energized the congregation, while still maintaining both the liturgical structure of the service and an understated grace that is often a hallmark of the Anglican tradition.
The Reverend Canon Stephen Silverthorne serves as the rector of St. Paul’s Church. It’s safe to say that Fr. Stephen is among the most accomplished and capable homilists in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa. He spoke with fluency and ease, delivering in an engaging manner a substantive, fulsome sermon. He began by speaking about the Netflix series The Crown and Queen Elizabeth II’s coming to the throne — a position that she never thought she stood to inherit. She was, after all, a child of the second son of George V. When Edward VIII steps down from the throne amidst scandal, his brother Albert — Elizabeth’s father — becomes king in 1936, taking up the name George VI. Unexpectedly, Elizabeth is next in the line of succession. The firstborn bears the heavy responsibility of spending their life serving the nation with, as Fr. Stephen notes, “their whole mind, heart, soul and strength — and the weight of that can be tremendous.”
Fr. Stephen tied this into the Scripture readings for Candlemas, or the Presentation of the Lord, focusing on the role of the firstborn son. He noted that it’s more difficult for us to wrap our contemporary minds around the significance of being the firstborn, as we no longer see the firstborn child as bearing the same unique duties. Jesus is brought to the temple and is presented by Mary and Joseph as the firstborn of God, the Father. “Through Jesus’ ministry, we too become daughters and sons of the Most High,” Fr. Stephen said. In both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, God gives people the authority to reflect Him in the world, but in succession they tend to stumble and fail — Adam and Eve in the Garden, Israel and the Tribe of Levi were examples he brought up of the firstborn faltering in their mission to be an image of God in the world. After this string of failure to reflect the Creator, in Malachi 3, we hear God Himself: “I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; And suddenly there will come to the temple the LORD whom you seek, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire.” When Jesus is brought to the temple by Mary and Joseph, Simeon, a devout man in Jerusalem, immediately recognizes the child as the Lord’s firstborn son. “Jesus will do what every firstborn son has failed to do: to show accurately and fully who God is,” Fr. Stephen said.
In his homily, Fr. Stephen managed to condense vast swaths of salvation history, viewing it all through the lens of what it means to be the firstborn. Created in the image of God, we are called to be a reflection of God in how we conduct ourselves in the world. But perhaps most importantly, Fr. Stephen emphasized that “when we look at Jesus, we are looking at exactly who God really is.” It’s easy to develop a distorted image of God — perhaps through a skewed, private interpretation of Scripture, or from a sermon, or from parenting. One may see God as cruel or unforgiving or unrelenting; someone who will not understand our struggles. Yet when we see the mercy of Jesus, the one who embraces outcasts and the worst sinners, we find the ultimate font of forgiveness, and we see the true image of God.
Christopher Adam
It should be noted that this was the third service of the morning.