St. Matthias Anglican Church | Anglican church in Victoria, BC

Beloved congregation and friends,

What a joy it has been to serve with you at St Matthias! These years have seen so much flourishing even amidst the struggle of pandemic. When we look back over these years we are so grateful for all God has birthed in and through you!

We were here late last night holding vigil for a dear member of St Matthias and as we sat in the holy darkness of this sacred space (and shed a few tears for our upcoming departure), we gave thanks for each of you and for the gift of having walked with you over these years.

From gathering around the Communion table to the coffee table, from Chapel Gallery openings to Jesus Christ Superstar; Zoom poetry to Chat and Chew lunches, God's presence has been made known. From tables overflowing with food at the Rogers Court Christmas dinner, pancake suppers and salmon bbq to evensong potlucks, parish council dinners and coffee & conversations, the spirit of welcome, hospitality and joy has been so tangible.

It has been an incredible privilege to walk with you through the transitions in your lives, to baptize and marry, to lay beloved ones to rest and accompany you to the hospital or pray for and with you in the day to day struggles and joys of your lives. We will never forget the way you have shared your faith with us, whether that was around the Thursday communion table or in our book/video studies or in conversations throughout the week.

Thank you to each and every one of you who has worked with us over these years. We have been blessed with amazing wardens, treasurers, admin, music and children's staff as well as incredible, faithful and tireless lay leaders. Thank you for your beautiful ministry of service through finances and PC, through reading, singing, greeting, praying, healing, carrying the cross and bearing the chalice, taking care of the linens, supporting our rental community, hosting in the chapel gallery, preparing and caretaking the church and making our grounds beautiful!

We have seen the face of Christ shine so brightly in each of you and will carry that light with us as we go.

Some of you were asking where we are going next?

In many ways, we carry forward the beautiful witness you have shown us of welcome and hospitality but will do that from a neighbourhood instead of a church. We will take on partnership in a little store called "The Local General Store" at the corner of Haultain and Belmont and continue to build community (and sell yummy things)!

We hope to see you there one day!

St Matthias has been a place we have called home, a place we have witnessed God's faithfulness and your commitment to practice God's presence in this place and for this world. No matter what the future holds, never forget that you are beloved of God and though you may be small, you are one of the strongest and most resilient communities we know! Step out in the power of the Spirit to continue to deepen your faith and work for God's kingdom of peace, justice and love here in this place!

Wishing you every blessing as you step over this next threshold. Know that God walks with you every step of the way.

With love and gratitude!

In the risen Christ,

Meagan and Matt

"Within the grip of winter, it is almost impossible to imagine the spring. The grey perished landscape is shorn of color. Only bleakness meets the eye; everything seems severe and edged. Winter is the oldest season; it has some quality of the absolute. Yet beneath the surface of winter, the miracle of spring is already in preparation; the cold is relenting; seeds are wakening up. Colours are beginning to imagine how they will return. Then, imperceptibly, somewhere one bud opens and the symphony of renewal is no longer reversible. From the black heart of winter a miraculous, breathing plenitude of color emerges.

The beauty of nature insists on taking its time. Everything is prepared. Nothing is rushed. The rhythm of emergence is a gradual slow beat always inching its way forward; change remains faithful to itself until the new unfolds in the full confidence of true arrival. Because nothing is abrupt, the beginning of spring nearly always catches us unawares. It is there before we see it; and then we can look nowhere without seeing it.

Change arrives in nature when time has ripened...

Like spring secretly at work within the heart of winter, below the surface of our lives huge changes are in fermentation. We never suspect a thing. Then when the grip of some long-enduring winter mentality begins to loosen, we find ourselves vulnerable to a flourish of possibility and we are suddenly negotiating the challenge of a threshold.

At any time you can ask yourself: At which threshold am I now standing? At this time in my life, what am I leaving? Where am I about to enter? What is preventing me from crossing my next threshold? What gift would enable me to do it? A threshold is not a simple boundary; it is a frontier that divides two different territories, rhythms and atmospheres. Indeed, it is a lovely testimony to the fullness and integrity of an experience or a stage of life that it intensifies toward the end into a real frontier that cannot be crossed without the heart being passionately engaged and woken up. At this threshold a great complexity of emotions comes alive: confusion, fear, excitement, sadness, hope. This is one of the reasons such vital crossing were always clothed in ritual. It is wise in your own life to be able to recognize and acknowledge the key thresholds; to take your time; to feel all the varieties of presence that accrue there; to listen inward with complete attention until you hear the inner voice calling you forward. The time has come to cross.

To acknowledge and cross a new threshold is always a challenge. It demands courage and also a sense of trust in whatever is emerging. This becomes essential when a threshold opens suddenly in front of you, one for which you had no preparation. This could be illness, suffering or loss. Because we are so engaged with the world, we usually forget how fragile life can be and how vulnerable we always are. It takes only a couple of seconds for a life to change irreversibly. Suddenly you stand on completely strange ground and a new course of life has to be embraced. Especially at such times we desperately need blessing and protection. You look back at the life you have lived up to a few hours before, and it suddenly seems so far away. Think for a moment how, across the world, someone’s life has just changed – irrevocably, permanently, and not necessarily for the better – and everything that was once so steady, so reliable, must now find a new way of unfolding...Whatever comes, the great sacrament of life will remain faithful to us, blessing us always with visible signs of invisible grace. We merely need to trust.

— From To Bless the Space Between Us, by John O’Donohue

Photo by Suzanne D. Williams on Unsplash