Re: Stop signs on the road to spiritual growth [Letters, June 2012, p. 2].
You are quite right, sir, nobody wants to worship in a church stuck in the past.
Perhaps you would care to visit St. Barnabas Church? We can offer a Sunday service full of young families, the middle-aged and oldies, and many small children, both seen and heard, for whom there is a fine Sunday school.
For people who prefer a quiet, more intimate communion service, there is one held every day using the different forms in the Book of Alternative Services. Why not try the Friday service and meet some beloved parishioners from the downtown core?
Our teenage girls breakfast together regularly before church to discuss their faith; the teenage boys prepare the congregation’s lunch once a month. Between times, others prepare the lunch and with our expanding congregation, that’s quite a job. Come and give us a hand!
One young parishioner gives us an occasional solo on the violin, as does an 11-year-old trumpeter, while at Pentecost, young ballerinas dance like flames in the aisles. At Christmastime, children from the local community have a splendid craft-making day-which I call Holy Bedlam-in the parish hall. Prayer groups meet regularly in the homes of parishioners and Theology on Tap meets in a local pub.
We are privileged to have parishioners from Holland, Germany, Korea, Japan and Eritrea. And one very faithful member of the congregation is woolly and has four paws.
We reach out in practical ways to the wider community-locally, downtown and overseas-with food, finance and friendship.
For 120 years, the parish has built on the past and it lives in the present looking to the future. You would surely find something to nourish your soul, were you to join us.
And oh yes, compline is held once a month.
Elizabeth Chatfield
Victoria, B.C.
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