Dear Friends,
Late in the afternoon on Monday, Mary and I were running errands in the car. And as usual the radio dial was tuned to 99.1 to accompany us on the way. Popping in and out of stores means that you also drop in and out of conversations happening over the airwaves. In one of those moments, we returned to the car to hear a familiar voice tell of a moment of tragedy and of a moment of hope.
The Rev. Hannah Johnston was being interviewed about the news that was heard the day before at St. Anne’s, Gladstone. The congregation had been informed by Toronto Police Services and the Office of the Fire Marshal for Ontario that the loss of their beloved building, destroyed by fire on June 9, 2024, was being treated as an act of suspected arson. She described the sorrow and the pain felt by the congregation. And in our listening, we too re-lived the moment when we heard the news on that fateful Sunday morning. To lose a spiritual home is one thing, to know that it was deliberately destroyed is even more devastating.
Over the course of Monday, Bishop Kevin and Rev. Hannah and Canon Stuart Mann, our director of communications, provided interviews with media and offered pastoral support for community members.
As Bishop Kevin said in the official news release, we pray for the congregation of St. Anne’s. We pray for the person or persons who may have perpetrated this act, that they might seek forgiveness and healing. In a moment like this, the words of St. Paul to the Church in Corinth comes to mind: If one member suffers, all suffer together with it… (1 Corinthians 12.26)
The whole Diocese of Toronto grieves with St. Anne’s.
It’s tempting to stay in the moment, to stay put in the sorrow. Yet there is a resilience that summons us always to rise again and bear witness to Good News. The very nature of our faith is to gird ourselves in a hope that is unshakeable. The CBC interviewer asked, what do you say to the community as the holiday season is coming closer? To which Rev. Hannah replied, before Christmas we enter the season of Advent.
The season of Advent calls us to wait, to watch, to listen for the Good News that is coming. This season reminds us that the suffering and hurt that we endure today do not have the last word. In the darkness, light will come, new life will appear. A child will be born. Angels will sing. Shepherds will quake. In Advent we are being prepared to embody a love so deep, so strong, so soft, so kind as to take ashes and turn them into joy.
May hope abound in this coming new Church year.
Yours in Christ,
The Right Reverend Andrew Asbil
Bishop of Toronto
