Letter from the Rector and Wardens
Dear People, Neighbours, and Friends of St. Thomas’s,
In recent days we, your Rector and Wardens, have come to consensus on a few key questions, which may be summarized in three points:
The parish mask mandate will be lifted on Wednesday, April 27. After that date masks will be strongly recommended but optional, unless public health regulations dictate otherwise.
We will offer a reception with food and drink immediately following the Easter Vigil on Saturday, April 16, at which masks are strongly recommended except when eating and drinking. Thereafter, circumstances permitting, coffee hours may resume, provided we have volunteers to coordinate them! (See below for further details.)
The common cup at communion will be restored as of Maundy Thursday, April 14.
In addition to these three announcements themselves, we thought it would be helpful to provide some sense of what motivated these decisions.
Corporation began discussing our options when the Diocese of Toronto announced on March 23 that we will be moving to the “Green Stage” on Wednesday, April 27, with “the removal of all COVID-19 restrictions, except the vaccine policy for staff and volunteers.” The memo continues, “On that date, across the Diocese, the wearing of masks becomes optional, all parishes may resume the informal sharing of food and drinks (e.g., coffee hours) and may once again offer the Common Cup in the Eucharist.” This date aligns with the Provincial lifting of mandates in higher-risk settings.
Most significantly, in the announcement, the Diocese also makes the provision for an early move to the Green Stage on Holy Saturday, April 16, “for those parishes that are eager and ready to do so.” Because we know that some of us are indeed eager to see restrictions removed, the clergy and wardens engaged in prayer and discussion concerning this early option, considering in particular whether we want to make our Easter celebrations mask-optional. The conclusion we came to was that while we were indeed eager to do so, not everyone was ready for us to do this.
So many of us eagerly await the day when we can see each other’s full faces, when we can worship unhindered by our N- or KN-95s! But we decided not to pursue the option of making services mask-optional for Easter. Why wait if we are allowed to do so early? It came down to this simple fact: Easter is the pinnacle of the liturgical year. As such, we desire to make our Easter services as accessible as possible, keeping in mind those among us whose health might be vulnerable or who might feel unsafe attending if others are unmasked. Though this feels to some of us restrictive of our individual freedoms, and we would certainly act otherwise were the decision left to our own discretion, we must take great care as a community to protect our vulnerable and to provide the widest possible path to the Sacrament. This type of caring for one another is very much in line with St. Paul’s teaching in I Corinthians 11:33, “So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for each other.” This apostolic teaching reflects our emerging understanding of the value of accessibility in the life of our parish, so that as many people as possible may take part in our life of worship and service in faith, hope, and love.
At the same time, we recognize that we have a deep longing to celebrate Christ’s Resurrection with special festivity. To this end, thanks to Michelle Mayers-Van Herk, we will keep the feast with a joyful reception after the Easter Vigil in the Parish Hall! As there will be eating and drinking, masks will be strongly recommended, but not required. To make this reception a reality, however, we will need volunteers to help put it together. If you are interested in helping in this way, please email the Easter Vigil reception coordinator Michelle Mayers-Van Herk at michelle.mayers-vanherk@tdsb.on.ca. If you are interested in helping or coordinating future Sunday coffee hours, including on Easter Sunday itself, which as of this writing remains unclaimed, please make that fact known by emailing office@stthomas.on.ca.
As for the common cup, on April 14 we will celebrate Maundy Thursday and the institution of the Lord’s Supper. Although the Diocese has formally authorized early restoration of the common cup as of the Easter Vigil, it seemed more Biblically, theologically, and liturgically appropriate to us that we should begin offering the common cup a few days earlier than that, in accordance with the Lord’s instructions when he instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper. Should the Diocese express that anticipating the restoration of the one bread and one cup ought not to happen on the liturgical commemoration of its institution, we will of course comply with that judgement. As of this writing, however, we are taking full responsibility for this decision, as it aligns with our Anglo-Catholic tradition as well as the unified witness of the Anglican reformers who insisted that the cup ought not to be withheld from the people.
As has always been the case, communicants may choose to receive communion in one kind only. As per the Diocese, the prohibition of intinction, wherein the communion wafer is dipped into the chalice, remains in force. The only change is that all will now again have the option of making their communion in both kinds as of Maundy Thursday, as the Spirit moves each member of the Body of Christ, in accordance with their own conscientious discernment.
We always welcome your thoughts and reflections as we continue to strive with God’s help to live into the mind of Christ at St. Thomas’s, as our collective discernment shapes our common life. Your knowledge and wisdom continually helps us to nuance our policies and make important course corrections, and we need you to join us in ensuring that all things are done “decently and in order,” as the Apostle teaches us in I Corinthians 14:40. We thank you for your ongoing support of St. Thomas’s through the heartfelt generosity of your time, talent, and treasure, and we encourage your fullest possible participation, whether in person or via livestream, in the celebration of those mighty acts whereby God gives us life and immortality through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Yours in Christ’s service,
N.J.A. Humphrey+
VIII Rector
Lorne J. Swan, Rector’s Warden
Jessica J. Nee, People’s Warden
The “Ritual Reason why”: Holy Week
Palm Sunday
The Palm Sunday liturgy marks the beginning of Holy Week, the most important, significant, and powerful week of the Christian year. Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which in turn is the prelude to his arrest, trial, death, and resurrection.
The liturgy consists of two distinct and contrasting parts. The Liturgy of the Palms reflects the excitement and joy of the people celebrating the arrival of the King. So we participate in a joyful and exuberant procession from the “Mount of Olives,” so to speak, and the church building itself in a very real sense becomes our Jerusalem for the coming week. The second part of the liturgy is the Mass of the Passion. There is an intentional and stark contrast between the Palm Liturgy and the sombre Mass of the Passion. This Mass sets before us the events that we shall be commemorating in the week ahead. At the heart of the Mass is the solemn recitation of the Passion narrative.
It is important to realize that these liturgies of Holy Week are not merely commemorations, but—through their reenactment in our time and space—they make possible our participation and renewal in the saving events themselves. Palm Sunday inaugurates Holy Week. The heart of the celebration of the Paschal Mystery, that is, the death and resurrection of Jesus, is in fact one continuous liturgy on the evenings of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Saturday – Easter Eve (The Great Vigil). Together known as the Triduum Sacrum (“the Sacred Three Days”), from these liturgies all others flow. We urge your full participation in the Triduum, which becomes the very vehicle of our own deeper conversion to the mystery of our redemption in Jesus.
Maundy Thursday
The liturgy of Maundy Thursday has several points of focus. First, it commemorates the institution of the Holy Eucharist by Our Lord and the Last Supper as the primary means of his being with us and of our ongoing participation in the Paschal Mystery, his own death and resurrection, by which we are saved. Second, it commemorates the sign of the “new commandment” (in Latin, Mandatum, from which the word “Maundy” is derived), “that ye love one another, as I have loved you,” acted out in the Lord’s washing of the disciples’ feet. Third, it initiates the commemoration of the Lord’s trial and passion, which will culminate in the liturgy of Good Friday and which is dramatically brought home to us in this liturgy in the stripping of the altars at the end of this liturgy. Fourth, it initiates the watch with the Lord present in the Blessed Sacrament at the Altar of Repose, which is transformed into the Garden of Gethsemane.
Maundy Thursday begins on a note of celebration and gradually descends to the desolate emptiness of the stripping of the altars. This liturgy is but the first part of the Triduum, a unified threefold liturgy that continues through Good Friday and Holy Saturday and that culminates in the Great Vigil and First Mass of Easter. Our participation in these three days, comprising one great liturgy, is not merely a commemoration; it is, in fact, the very means of our participation in the saving events themselves. When we participate with open minds and hearts, we find ourselves renewed by grace in these eternal realities of our redemption.
Good Friday
The liturgy of Good Friday is exceptional in many ways. The solemn prostration of the Sacred Ministers before the bare altar at the opening of the liturgy is unique in the Christian year and immediately draws to mind the solemnity and austerity of the day. At the heart of the first part of the liturgy is the solemn chanting to ancient tones of the Passion narrative of Saint John’s Gospel.
The Solemn Collects recall the very earliest forms of the prayers of the people when the Deacon bids the Congregation to pray for the needs of the Church and the world in a moment of silence. Thus the Church brings such needs to the very foot of the cross at the liturgical hour of the Lord’s death. The Veneration of the Cross dramatically reminds us that the Lord’s sacrifice of himself on the cross this day is an eternal yet present reality. We are invited quite literally to place ourselves, our needs, and our own sins at the foot of the cross as we physically express our gratitude for Christ’s sacrifice.
This day and Holy Saturday before sundown are the only days when the Eucharist may not be celebrated. Communion is administered instead from the Reserved Sacrament. Communion, as we know so powerfully from the Maundy Thursday liturgy, is the principal means of our own “com-union,” union with God in Christ; so we are one with him at his death in this most powerful way.
This liturgy ends bluntly and sadly, and we wait for what we know, with hindsight, will be the Miracle of Miracles, which we will celebrate with great solemnity and joy at the Great Vigil of Easter.
Easter Vigil
The Easter Vigil is the most significant liturgy of the entire Christian year. This is the Christian Passover. The sights and sounds with which we are surrounded are as ancient as the Church herself. The liturgy has four distinct but interrelated parts:
1. The lighting of the new fire from which the Paschal Candle is lit and which, gradually dispelling the darkness of the church, becomes the sign of the new light and life of Christ’s resurrection. The Exsultet, sung in celebration of the Light of Christ, is the most ancient hymn of the Church, and it has always been regarded as a great honour to be chosen to sing this hymn of praise, sung but once a year.
2. The recitation of key passages in salvation history from the Old Testament, which tells the story of God’s saving deeds for us and points towards his full, perfect, and sufficient saving work in Jesus Christ.
3. These lessons lead in turn to the rites of Christian Initiation, or in years when there are no candidates for Baptism, always includes the renewal of our own Baptismal promises, by which we all reaffirm the faith and reality of our own baptisms. Baptism is the means given by God to share in the death and resurrection of Jesus, by whom we are saved; the death and resurrection of Jesus is the climax of God’s saving work. Here, at the very heart of the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (the “Paschal Mystery”), the newly baptized throughout the Church are brought into that very saving event themselves. If you have not yet been baptized, we invite you to inquire of a member of the clergy to explore whether God is calling you to baptism into the family of the Church.
4. The celebration of the first Mass of Easter begins with a dramatic opening and in startling contrast as darkness gives way to light, death to life, despair to joy—all communicated in the powerful and joyous words, sounds, smells, and actions of the Mass.
(Images: AdobeStock licences)
The Common Cup: How Safe Is It?
The Diocese recently provided this helpful information in an email to clergy:
Those who prefer to make their communion in one kind may continue to do so. Those who are comfortable and eager to return to making their communion in both kinds can be reassured by the science referenced in this article, written by the Rev. Michael Garner, an epidemiologist and priest of the Diocese of Ottawa. Additionally, the Bishop’s Committee on Healing Ministries has updated its brochure on safe liturgical practices, which includes sharing the common cup. As previously stated, however, we anticipate that many people will choose to make their communion in one kind for some time to come, and that is perfectly understandable and acceptable.