St. Barnabas Anglican Church

Are you interested in becoming our Parish Administrator? Read all the details here.

Please join us for one, or all of our Advent and Christmas celebtations this year.

 Emilie, as you set out on pilgrimage
    Go with our blessing and our prayers
 As you leave behind the clamour of everyday life
    May your soul find stillness in the travel.
       For the journey is holy ground.
 May you find kindness and welcome in new places
       and gentle whispers of home
       and may you be a blessing to all you meet.
 May you travel safely, return renewed
       and live your time away to its fullest,
       return home more enriched and free
       to balance the gift of days which call you
 And until we meet again, may God hold you
    In the palm of God’s hand. 
 
             Pam Martin
  
 "Live your time away to its fullest . . . to May God hold you . . ." is from John O'Donohue's "To Bless the Space Between Us" 
 and the last line is from a well-known Celtic Blessing. 

On Sunday, September 14, from 1-5 pm, we will be hosting a Free Animal Health Clinic with Paws For Hope. Please see information here on booking an appointment. Tell your friends!

In November thousands of people will again gather to tackle the growing crisis of climate change. This yearly meeting of the United Nations, known as the Committee of the Parties, or COP, will gather for its 30th meeting in Belém, Brazil, at the mouth of the Amazon River. In an ever more unpredictable world, there is more urgency than ever for these talks—and for real action for change. The voice of the global majority—those most affected by climate change: heat, drought, fire, or floods—will be present. In the strongest way possible the Indigenous, rural and Afro-descendant peoples of Abya Yala (also known as Latin America) will make their voices heard.

The global Oscar Romero Network (SICSAL-OAR in its Spanish acronym) will be there. SICSAL was founded in 1980, the year a right-wing mercenary assassinated Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador. SICSAL has been organizing for climate justice for years. We are committed to raising up the voice of our communities and the spirit of our saints and martyrs and bringing them to the table.

I am the Co-President of SICSAL, along with Raul Vera, retired Catholic Bishop of Coahuila in northern Mexico. SICSAL has member groups in most countries in Abya Yala. We have members in Belém, including Luiza Virginia, who works with the Sister Dorothy Stang Committee, named after the North American nun who was murdered while defending the people among whom she lived in the Amazon. We are also acquainted with Marinez Santos Basso, Primate of the Anglican Church of Mexico—whose headquarters is in Belém! Primate Marinez was the first to invite me to the meeting of COP30. An invitation I accepted.

So, SICSAL is sending me to the gathering. But not by plane! Instead, this will be a pilgrimage by bike, bus, train, burro, and boat—lots of boats. The route will take me from Vancouver on Coast Salish Territories and unfold down Turtle Island, to Abya Yala. My journey will begin August 17 in order to arrive in Belém in early November (the COP conference is November 10–21).

The SICSAL network has connections all along the route. Members and friends will join the pilgrimage, even just for a day or two, and will host pilgrims and create events and activities in their own communities.

A Poetic Journey. The other element of the ÉPICO (Spanish for “epic”) pilgrimage is to gather and share the voices of community leaders, & activists. 1. Our Facebook page is ÉPICO: Pilgrimage to Belém. 2. Write to us at madlovefortheworld@gmail.com. 3. The COP30 website is found at cop30.br/en The official website for the COP30 meeting in Belém, Brazil. 4. PHOTO United Nations Climate Change Conference children, and elders, along the way. We will co-create an epic poem lifting up the stories of love, concern, commitment, and struggle in honour of Our Beloved Mother Earth. These verses will be gathered and shared as the pilgrimage processes, posted online, and eventually printed. These will be in Portuguese, Spanish, English, and any other languages that are present on the route.

To join and support the pilgrimage look at our Facebook page, or write to us. More media will be up and running in the months to come before the pilgrimage.

And here is how to follow Emilie’s Pilgrimage on social media:

instagram: @emilie.t.smith

substack: emilieteresa.substack.com

tiktok: @maddestgrandma

We will be sharing our Holy Week services this year with the two other Anglican Churches in New Westminster, Holy Trinity Cathedral and St. Mary the Virgin. Please consider visiting one of our sister churches during Holy Week this year.

Join us for an ecumenical prayer service at St. Peter’s (330 Royal Avenue, New Westminster) on Tuesday, January 21, at 7:00 pm to mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The prayers and reflections have been prepared by the brothers and sisters of the monastic community of Bose in northern Italy. The year 2025 will mark the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council. This commemoration provides a unique opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the common faith of Christians as expressed in the Creed formulated at that Council. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2025 is an invitation to draw on this common heritage and to enter more deeply into the faith that unites all Christians.