The Little White Church on Main Street, Canmore, Alberta
NOTE: due to COVID-19 protocols, Evensong has transformed into an online event on Zoom. Contact office@ralphconnor.ca for login.
From mid-March to mid-June, 2020, Evensong members contributed a weekly meditation/reflection to our online Sunday worship service. To watch these separately, please click on the date to download the mp4:
June 21 – Alan MacFadyen, “Oneness with Creation”
June 14 – Eric McAvity, “The Goodness of Creation”
June 7 – Marni Virtue, “Pentecost Season: One Searing Word”
May 24 – Jan Tissandier, “Ascension Poetry Collage”
May 17 – Val Goodrow, “Prayers of Intercession”
May 3 – Barbara Parker, “A Spring Prayer”
April 26 – Alan MacFadyen, “Meditation on Loving Kindness”
April 19 – Marni Virtue, Lectio Divina – “Such Singing in the Wild Branches”
April 12 – Jan Tissandier, “An Easter Like No Other”
April 5 – Judy Archer, “Gratitude”
March 29 – Judith Maxwell, “Lectio Divina – Be Still, and Know that I am God”
March 22 – Jan Tissandier, “Encircled in Light”
Initiated in 2001, Evensong’s contemplative style of worship is a wonderful Wednesday evening service (7:15-8:00 PM) at Ralph Connor. Interspersing music, silence, poetry, prose, meditation, prayer, the gifts of the Spirit are very present in this place.
Grief, Loss, and HOPE As we approach the one year mark of the Covid-19 pandemic, let us reflect on loss and isolation. “The loss of a routine, the loss of freedom to go out and do what we please, the loss of being able to hug our loved ones—those are all major losses, and they have to do with the relationship between ourselves and the changing world. These losses are not the ones with sympathy cards. What we need …
Reach out your heart. Reach out your words. Reach out all the tendrils of compassion that move, invisibly, where we cannot touch. – Rev. Lynn Unger When you listen, you become aware. That’s for your head. When you hear, you awaken. That’s for your heart. When you feel, it becomes a part of you. That’s for your spirit. – Richard Wagamase
Wherever I am, the world comes after me. It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it. Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist. Mary Oliver “The Old Poets of China” I am my silence. I am not the busyness of my or the daily rhythm of my actions. I am not the stuff that constitutes my …
This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. For the imposition of ashes, you are invited to bring and have ready, a small bowl with ashes (mixed with oil), or essential oil, or water. You are also invited to bring and have ready a candle. We will journey through Lent, at Evensong, with fewer words and more silence. Ash Wednesday This is the day we freely say we are scorched. We begin this wilderness journey of …
Epiphany VI Maybe at Eighty? They say wisdom comes as you age— Now I’m in a real jam— at sixty I should be a sage— look what a fool I am! ~ S. Minanel [There is] a humor that has the universal appeal of holding up the mirror for us to unthreateningly see ourselves and the human condition in wonderful clarity. Thank God for the grace of humor, without which we would be less than human and less aware of …
Evensong ~ Epiphany ~ February 3, 2021 ~ 7:15 on Zoom As we journey again and again through each season, our path is never precisely the same. The seasons change us. With each one, we move ever further into the circle that encompasses us and into the grace we find there. Circle becomes spiral, bearing us deeper and deeper into the heart of the Divine. This journey is not about the miles. It is not about how far you can walk …
The Lord’s Prayer Loving Creator we honour you, and we honour all that you have made. Renew the whole world in the image of your love. Give us what we need for today, and a hunger to see the whole world fed. Strengthen us for what lies ahead; heal us from the hurts of the past; give us courage to follow your call in this moment, for your love is the only power, the only home, the only honour we need, …
Evensong January 20, 2021 7:15 pm Please bring a collection of candles or tea lights. The epiphany A stable’s a good place for revelations. Some of the most profound discoveries are made in back rooms, half by accident, by people half-exhausted, looking for something else. Just as we felt like giving up, when the whole thing had become ridiculous and had gone on much too long, and we were blaming everybody else for our mistakes, we came upon the …
Epiphany… The magi follow a star to bring gifts to the Christ child A new understanding, a revealing The Light shines in the darkness I’m preparing to go out, getting ready for a journey, because it is January, and each of us is going on a journey into the New Year. The guiding star, if I remember to look up, will be there even in the fearful places. This year, I hope to travel light and to travel in the …
Poem for Advent Amidst ten thousand losses and swirling joys, at this very instant on the sacred Earth I wait. Come to us Beauty, Wisdom, Goodness, Peace, Solace, Grace, Counsel, Love. See the open archway this cold night Air, rich as gold, flows. Fine snow glistens on our faces. Each flake, every exquisite crystal blossom is a covenant of your love told a thousand thousand times. ~ Patricia Van Ness In her book, “The Stillness of Winter: Sacred Blessings …