Ernest preaches on the story of Lazarus coming out from the grave asking the question: How do we participate in the re-newal of ourselves and the world? How can we come and see (John 1), touch, taste, feel, sense this good news that is galloping toward us liturgically in the final stretch before Easter?...

Meagan presides at Jesus' table of welcome... 

Reba brings a poem...

Lucy is with the youth and Abi and Amaya are with the younger children...

The band, including guest leader Anna Bigland-Prichard leads us in joyful song...

There will be bread and wine.  Come...

The order of service leaflet is available here.

Join us in house for 4:00pm or livestream online at this link.

Image: Early 12th Century icon painted in Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai (Egypt). Public domain.

Holy Week is just a week away! 

Join us, as you are able, as we enter the sacred mysteries of Jesus' last week, culminating with Easter.

Next Sunday April 13th: 4pm : Palm Sunday

Join us as the Anglican Bishop Anna Greenwood-Lee preaches.

Wednesday April 16th: 7pm : Holy Tenebrae

Worship in the way of Taize, a service of candles in Holy Darkness; with Fairfield United Church.

Thursday April 17th: 6pm : Maundy Thursday 

Supper Church / Potluck with Communion and optional hand/food washing. Bring a dish to contribute if you can - or there's always lots for all!

Friday April 18th: 10am : Good Friday 

Worship with Fairfield United and The Place Community Church.

Sunday April 20th: 5:45am : Easter Sunrise!

Worship the Risen Lord; meet at Willows Beach at 5:45am.  Breakfast potluck to follow.

Sunday April 20th: 4:00pm : Easter Worship 

Worship with the AbbeyChurch at our usual 4:00 time on Easter Sunday with Rob preaching and lots of Resurrection celebration! 

We're excited to bring Martyn Joseph to town for a sixth time in 2025 - it's just a few weeks away.  Tickets are going fast - get yours after church this Sunday.

AbbeyChurch / The United Commons (Formerly the space of First Met UC)

It's been amazing to have the opportunity to partner with Qom Qem and the North Park Neighbourhood Association to support their street family outreach. A good number of AbbeyChurch folk have been part of the hands-on prep as well as food donations.

The current funding cycle has come to an end and we're taking a (hopefully short) pause on this.  We're planning a Seafood Feast celebration in the month or two to come for volunteers and others who helped out. 

If you have goods that you've purchased please do bring them in the coming week or two and we'll be sure it gets to them - as they are still doing outreach other days.

More on our ongoing partnership with QomQem soon.

Click here to watch it in your own time.

Click here to read, sing or pray along with the video in the leaflet.

Collective Care in a Time of Rising Fascism
How do we take care of ourselves & one another in these dangerous times?

In this series of six workshops, we learn embodied practices that sustain spiritual grounding and provide individual and community resources for the long haul. We explore skills that help us build relationships and support a practice community for collective liberation. The program draws from politicized somatics, active mindfulness, art, ritual, and group sharing.

Facilitators

Denise Nadeau (she/her) is a movement therapist, somatic educator, practical theologian, and activist whose work for the past twenty-five years combines expressive art therapies and spiritual practices in the repair of racist, sexist and colonial violence (denisenadeau.org). She is of Western European ancestry from Quebec and currently resides as an uninvited visitor in lək̓ʷəŋən territories.

Karen Fraser Gitlitz (she/her) is an art therapist at creativeupwelling.com and a community minister with the Unitarian Universalists. Her experience includes community art making and ritual as well as building bridges between spiritual and secular justice communities. A cis-gendered person of European descent, Karen is an uninvited guest on the lands of the W̱SÁNEĆ people.

When: six Thursdays April 10 to May 15, 4 pm – 6pm

Where: 932 Balmoral, Victoria, BC - The United Commons (formally First Met)

Accessibility: all genders washroom, walker accessible (no automated doors)

Cost: Sliding scale $20-$90 includes snacks and art supplies

While Rob was on Sabbatical, he curated a "joyfully melancholic" Spotify playlist of 'apocalyptic' tunes to accompany the times we find ourselves in. 

Check it out for a 12 hour mix of hip hop, folk, 60s-80s rock, alternative, punk and, yes, even a small dose of slightly tongue-in-cheek 60s-70s end-of-days Christian rock.    

This will be the last week of the study. Thanks to all who have joined us!

For those able, we will look at chapters 15, 16, and 17 on Wed. April 9th.  

6:45 pm - tea

7:00 pm - discussion

8:00 pm - short evening prayer to wrap up! 

It is available locally at Bolen Books, Chapters, by special order, or online.

Email admin@emmauscommunity.ca if you are interested in attending!  

We are grateful for folk who are willing to add their voices to our common worship and life together! 

If you haven't signed up to read or bring snacks in a while, we invite you to do so (online at the link OR in person at the back of the Church). 

Lent: Living towards Liberation  

Lent is a time for honesty.  Sometimes it feels like the world is split between those who have it all together and those who are struggling to make sense of it all. 

To you who are struggling - welcome.  This is a time for you.

To those who have it together - welcome.  May you know ever deeper solidarity with those who are struggling, (and give yourself grace when you discover you don’t have it quite so together).

This Lent we are drawn to the story of Jesus and Lazarus.  

Lazarus is dead and buried, yet his friend Jesus comes and speaks a life-giving word, has the stone rolled away, calls him out, and invites his community to unbind him from his graveclothes. 

Lent is a time for us of introspection, a time of preparation and reflection, a time of shining a light into the tombs of our lives and waiting for God’s voice to speak. 

Lent is where we get honest about all the tombs we find ourselves inside.  All the ways cannot make sense of our lives, of our calling, of the mystery of God.  

Lent is a time of fasting from all the things that we compulsively fill ourselves with, distract ourselves with, or use to drown out the depths of our souls deep longing.

What might it mean for you to hear the stone rolling away and the voice of God bidding you to new life?  What grave clothes might we collectively strip away for one another?   What sort of practices orients us back to the central work of liberation and living the risen life?  

What creative ways might God invite us to share in this work together?   

As we gather each week, we hear the words of the song “Loosen” by Aly Halpert - we invite you to hear this song as an invocation, sung to you and over you from your Divine loving parent + 

Loosen, loosen, baby

You don't have to carry

The weight of the world in your muscles and bones

Let go, let go, let go…

Holy breath, and holy name

Will you ease, will you ease this pain…

(and check out their music here)

After our time with Carl, many have asked how they can voice their concern for Goldstream. 

Our friends at James Bay United have hosted a letter writing campaign, now available at their website.

Use their sample letter and make it your own and send!

Folks are welcome to join Carl's book club by writing David at janedavidramsay@gmail.com.  It meets every second Sunday on zoom. Attendance optional.

Finally, you can join the vigil at Goldstream which gathers every Tuesday 10 - 12 am at the parking lot closest to the highway.

+ Mondays at 9am - Morning Prayer with Centering Prayer @ AbbeyChurch office (off the Balmoral parking lot, metal stairs up) - in-person only.  There is not usually AM prayer on holiday Mondays.

+ Tuesdays at 9am -  Morning Prayer @ AbbeyChurch office (off the Balmoral parking lot, metal stairs up) - in-person and zoom.  

+ Thursdays at 8:15am - Morning Prayer - @ AbbeyChurch office (off the Balmoral parking lot, metal stairs up) / hybrid zoom.

+ Fridays at 8:15am - morning prayer - on-line zoom only

Our weekday common prayer is liturgical in nature and based on ancient monastic practices. 

It's open to all who wish to join in-person or online.

We sometimes chant the psalms, listen to a reading or readings assigned for the day, have a short period of silence, sharing and intercessory prayer.

The liturgies and psalter for weekday prayer are posted here.  

Please do email for a zoom link if you are joining online.

We're grateful for your contributions to our common life as both Emmaus and the AbbeyChurch.

We are  our own registered CRA charity and have our own bank account!

We  accept e-transfers to treasurer@emmauscommunity.ca for charitable donations.  If you'd like a charitable receipt, please email your contact information to that same address or fill out this form so we can send you a receipt at tax time.

In addition to the many ways to participate, there are a number of ways you can give finanically - including PAR (monthly withdrawl), CanadaHelps (one-time giving) and by cash or debit (via Square) on Sundays at AbbeyChurch. 

You can read more about the options and a bit about our finances here. 

The Emmaus Community, which is a neo-monastic intentional community of ordinary people who commit ourselves to following Jesus in ways akin to the monastic life. The AbbeyChurch is a Sunday worship expression of the Emmaus Community.  Not all AbbeyChurch folks are part of Emmaus - you're welcome to be a part of AbbeyChurch regardless of connection to Emmaus!

As a witness to unity and diversity, we are an ecumenical shared ministry of The United Church of Canada and The Anglican Church of Canada. We intentionally draw on the 'jewels' of these traditions, as well as the wider church.

The Emmaus Community and the AbbeyChurch acknowledge that we worship, take action and pray on the stolen territory of the Songhees and Xwsepsum (Esquimalt) Nations, the Lək̓ʷəŋən  peoples'.

Several of our youth, clergy (Rob and Michelle, forsure) and lay delegates will be attending the United Church Pacific Mountain Region's 2025 Annual Meeting.  Talk to Rob or Michelle if you're interesting in going.  

The amazing Rev. Canon Dr. Stephanie Spellers is the keynote.

Stephanie is one of the Episcopal Church’s leading thinkers around 21st-century ministry and mission.

The author of "The Church Cracked Open" and "Radical Welcome," she recently wrapped up nearly a decade as canon to the Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop Michael Curry. She currently assists at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in New York and is at work on a new book exploring what nonreligious young Americans (the “Nones” and “Dones”) can teach us about the future of faith. Read more about Stephanie's book here. 

We have copies of both of Stephanie's books in our community library if you want to check them out.

Join the Jubilee Movement: Turn Debt into Hope 

Jubilee 2025 is a global ecumenical initiative that builds on the transformative success of Jubilee 2000, which canceled $100 billion of debt for 36 low-income countries. 

Why Jubilee Matters Today 

The Global South faces a devastating debt crisis, with many countries spending more on debt repayments than on healthcare, education or climate action.  

Debt cancelation is not just an economic solution; it’s a moral imperative rooted in the theological principle of justice for all. By addressing the root causes of debt and advocating for systemic reform, we can create a more equitable world where the welfare of people and the planet are prioritized. 

Be Part of the Change 

In Canada, KAIROS Canada is leading the campaign in collaboration with Citizens for Public Justice, Development and Peace – Caritas Canada, and the Office of Religious Congregations for Integral Ecology. Together, we are mobilizing communities of faith and conscience to demand: 

• Debt cancellation for unjust and unsustainable debts. 

• Global financial reform to prevent future crises. 

• A debt resolution framework within the United Nations that is transparent, binding and fair. 

Join us in signing the Jubilee 2025 Petition! Our goal is to collect 100 thousand signatures in Canada and 10 million worldwide by the end of 2025. Every signature strengthens the call for transformative change! 

Your can sign the petition here.