Start praying

This column first appeared in the Feb. 2013 issue of Anglican Journal.

---

This summer in Ottawa, the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada and the National Convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada are meeting in Joint Assembly under the theme, “Together for the Love of the World.”

Many are excited about the opportunity Joint Assembly holds for building on 12 years of life and witness in full communion. It truly is a historic moment in Canadian church history, and I believe many people around the world will be following our deliberations with great interest.

This Joint Assembly is about the mission of God and how we can be effective partners in God’s work in the world, specifically poverty and climate change. We call our own people to address these issues through the witness of their parishes, and we believe we must call on our governments to demonstrate straight and strong political will in developing comprehensive strategies to reduce poverty and slow the rate of environmental change.

If the church’s diakonia-its servant ministry-is to be expressed, then it will
be both pastoral and political. We will act with compassion, we will demand justice and call everyone to walk more humbly with God (Micah 6:8).

Please begin now to remember the Joint Assembly in the Prayers of the People. Pray with ELCIC Bishop Susan Johnson and me for those moments when the Spirit will circle high above us and then hover very near, for those moments when we know her as wind rushing through our house, and as breath speaking words of a future to which God is calling our churches.

Archbishop Fred Hiltz is the primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.

---