Thursday evening, April 23
Dear CLC members,
Well, the National Assembly has begun at Guelph! I want to share a few beginning reflections of this wonderful event happening here....
From about 9 am this morning the Organizing committee was here beginning the set up of the rooms - setting up chairs, tables for displays, etc. The General Council were all here by 10 am giving a hand as well. At 11 am we had Eucharist together to set us on our journey these next few days..... Peter and the apostles before the Senedrin proclaiming bolding the Risen Christ was our first reading, and the words of John the evangelist, telling us that those who believe in the Son have etermal life - were words of encouragement for our community of faith - CLC Canada - gathering here in Guelph.....
The hospitality committee provided us with a delicious lunch of soup, sandwiches, veggies, date cake, etc. to give us energy for the afternoon meetings.... At 1 pm the General Council met and we went through the flow of the weekend and fine-tuned some of the dynamics.......there was an excitement and sense of hope for these days. The Organizing committee met with our Process Guide(John Sumarah) and our Facilitator for the Constitutional amendments (Peter Chouinard) and a few of the General Council to continue to fine tune our process.
.... Meanwhile everyone seemed to have a task that they were busily doing.....and the delegates were arriving from mid afternoon on, and one could sense the joy and delight in meeting good friends and meeting new ones.
From 6:30 to 7:30 the rest of the participants arrived.... it was wonderful to see people from all the regions of Canada coming together - from PEI, from New Brunswick, from Nova Scotia, from Torontp form Guelph, Kitchener, WAterloo, Manitoulin Island, from Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Lethbridge, and Comax, BC...... and our 2 guests from CVX Montreal. Delighted to see so many.....
We actually got started right on time with a rousing ALLELUIA ALLELUIA SING PRAISE TO THE RISEN LORD. .... and then we learned the refrain AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM - For the greater glory of God - which we had sung so often at the World Assembly....Mary Balfe as host coordinator welcomed us; then after the housekeeping details, Ruth Chipman, our President, welcomed everyone. We had letters of welcome from Bishop Tonnos of Hamilton and from Archbishop Weisgerber as President of the Canadian Bishops.
Elaine Nightingale led us in a communal awareness prayer - how we are coming to this assembly . The first evening concluded with a celebration of Evening Prayer of the Church in the Chapel, co presided by Fr. Charles and Mary Balfe..... Judith Dewitt led us in our song...
It was a peaceful and prayerful ending of a long day for many people.... but a good beginning of our Assembly...
Continue to pray for us..... tomorrow we get into the Constitutional amendments and working sessions....
your brother in Christ...
Charles
