Draw Date: June 15, 2023 at Noon
3 tickets for $20

Tickets available to purchase through your parish or by contacting Deacon Cheryl in the Synod Office (204-727-2380 or admin@brandon.anglican.ca).
Payment can be made by etransfer to finance@brandon.anglican.ca. Use the password raffle.

1st Prize: 3 Night stay at Geiler Corner, Wasagaming,any time between October 2023 and May 2024 (a $1550 value)
2nd Prize: Giant Talon 1 Mountain Bike (from Stream & Wood, a $1199 value)
3rd Prize: Meat Package (donated by Robert Jasper, a $500 value)

Bonus prize draw with each camp registration in by June 15: Camping package or Beach package!

2023 Camping Season: Camp Dates! 

Family Camp: July 2 – 5
Teen (Grades 7 & Up): July 7 – 13
Intermediate (ages 10-12): July 16 – 22
Junior (Ages 8-10): July 23 – 29

2023 Camping Season: Registration Deadlines

Early Bird Date: May 31, 2023 (fees: $300)
Cut-off Date: June 15, 2023 (fees: $350)
Family Camp Fees: $60/adult/day; $40/child/day;
5 and under – free

2023 Camping Season: We’re Hiring!

We are looking for enthusiastic and inspiring people for the following:

Paid Positions: Maintenance Person

All positions are full-time and have a good wage with board and room provided. Secondary students encouraged.

Volunteer Positions: Camp leaders, chaplains, health officers, counsellors

To find registration forms & further information (like our social media), visit our website at anglicanmemorialcamp.com.

The post Anglican Memorial Camp News – May 2023 appeared first on The Mustard Seed.

Draw Date: June 15, 2023 at Noon
3 tickets for $20

Tickets available to purchase through your parish or by contacting Deacon Cheryl in the Synod Office (204-727-2380 or admin@brandon.anglican.ca).
Payment can be made by etransfer to finance@brandon.anglican.ca. Use the password raffle.

1st Prize: 3 Night stay at Geiler Corner, Wasagaming,any time between October 2023 and May 2024 (a $1550 value)
2nd Prize: Giant Talon 1 Mountain Bike (from Stream & Wood, a $1199 value)
3rd Prize: Meat Package (donated by Robert Jasper, a $500 value)

Bonus prize draw with each camp registration in by June 15: Camping package or Beach package!

2023 Camping Season: Camp Dates! 

Family Camp: July 2 – 5
Teen (Grades 7 & Up): July 7 – 13
Intermediate (ages 10-12): July 16 – 22
Junior (Ages 8-10): July 23 – 29

2023 Camping Season: Registration Deadlines

Early Bird Date: May 31, 2023 (fees: $300)
Cut-off Date: June 15, 2023 (fees: $350)
Family Camp Fees: $60/adult/day; $40/child/day;
5 and under – free

2023 Camping Season: We’re Hiring!

We are looking for enthusiastic and inspiring people for the following:

Paid Positions: Maintenance Person

All positions are full-time and have a good wage with board and room provided. Secondary students encouraged.

Volunteer Positions: Camp leaders, chaplains, health officers, counsellors

To find registration forms & further information (like our social media), visit our website at anglicanmemorialcamp.com.

The post Anglican Memorial Camp News – April 2023 appeared first on The Mustard Seed.

As The Mustard Seed drops in your mailbox (or on your computer screen), we’re about to head into what is known to many Christians as “the Paschal Triduum” – or in plain English, “the Great Three Days” (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.) During these three days, we commemorate Jesus Christ’s betrayal, trial, crucifixion and death.

In these days, we commemorate some pretty emotional events, and for some, hearing the events of this week have drawn tears to their eyes wondering: “O who, am I, that for my sake, my Lord should take frail flesh and die?” (to quote the hymn My Song Is Love Unknown.)

To hear that the Son of God, who was present at the creation of the earth, born into human form, who is part of the Holy and Undivided Trinity was crucified like a common criminal is hard for us to hear – how could the crowds have turned so quickly on Jesus Christ – the one who preached of the Kingdom of God? How did this go wrong so quickly? Why call Good Friday good – the Son of God was crucified, after all?

These are all good and normal questions, if we look at the whole story from a human point of view (which makes sense, since we’re humans). However, in all of this, God used the events of the Paschal Triduum to work out our relationship with Him.

To use the words of the old hymn There Is A Green Hill Far Away: “He died that we might be forgiven, he died to make us good; that we might go at last to heaven, saved by his precious blood.” The events of Good Friday are not good in that we watched Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the World, hung on the cross like a common criminal. I highly doubt that those who gathered around the cross (and in that room following these events) thought any of this was “good”. The man who they believed was going to change the world was not only dead, but had died a humiliating death. In their eyes, it was all over – the good times had come to an end, and now all that was left to do was to mourn their friend, their master, their Lord.

However, as has been done more times than we mere mortals can count, the Father used these events and turned them on their face. St. Paul describes God’s wisdom this way: “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” (1 Corinthians 1:25). The Father turned these events on their head, and made them good for humanity – the humanity that He loved so much that he sent his only begotten Son into the world, not to condemn it, but that in order that the world might be brought into a right relationship with Him.

These events are good in that we are now, through Jesus’ work on the cross, reconciled to a God who loves us more than we can ask or imagine. So, my friends, as you prepare to hear once more the stories of Holy Week and the Paschal Triduum, I invite you to enter once more into these events, to hear the stories, “and trust in his redeeming blood, and try his works to do.” These events are hard for us to recount, but it is the story of our salvation. In Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, “beneath thee hell defeated lies; thy captive people are set free, and endless life stored in thee.” (The Lamb’s High Banquet Called to Share, Common Praise [1998], #214)

May you and yours have a blessed Triduum, and a joyful Eastertide celebration. He is risen, indeed, alleluia!

The post The Great Three Days appeared first on The Mustard Seed.

Christ Church, Russell: submitted by Virginia Beelaert

Christ Church Russell held its annual Shrove Tuesday pancake and sausage supper February 21 in the parish hall. The supper is a fundraiser for PWRDF and this year $590 will be given to assist its humanitarian aid in Turkey and Syria. PWRDF representative Geordie Daneliuk of Christ Church is one of the organizers of this event.

St. James’, Rivers: text by Kathy Roberts, photo by Jean Ryall

After two years, St. James was able to once again host their annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper. The men did an excellent job in the kitchen flipping pancakes! Those attending enjoyed sausages and pancakes with a variety of toppings. The supper was well attended and both food and fellowship were enjoyed .

The annual meeting was held on Sunday, February 26th after the morning service.  It was followed by lunch and fellowship.

The World Day of Prayer is an international event that started over 100 years. This year World Day of Prayer was held March 3rd at St. James’s and all Rivers’ churches were invited. Focus was on Taiwan with the theme, prepared by the woman of Taiwan, “I have heard about your faith,” based on a passage from the Book of Ephesians in the Bible. The church had displays of Taiwan dresses, flowers and fruits.

St. Peter & St. James’, Flin Flon: as submitted by Shelley Andres

This year’s World Day of Prayer service was put together by the women of Taiwan. We held our program on March 3. For the first time in all the years we have participated in the WDP, we did an afternoon (2:00 PM) service.

Attending were persons from the areas of Flin Flon, Manitoba, Creighton and Denare Beach, Saskatchewan representing nine churches in Flin Flon: Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Baptist, Anglican, United,  Cornerstone, Faith Life, Salvation Army, and Alliance.

Our table was decorated in clothes of blue, green, yellow and white.  The Bible held center place open to the reading from Ephesians 1:15-19.

The post News From The Pews appeared first on The Mustard Seed.

The Reverend Doctor Paul Shore, Honorary Assistant at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Brandon died on February 27, 2023 after a short illness. Ordained as Deacon on June 24, 2017 and as Priest on October 16, 2021, Fr. Paul was beloved by not only members of St. Matthew’s Cathedral, but also throughout the diocese, and further afield. He was well known for his vast knowledge of Scripture and languages, and was a prolific author. He taught courses at the post-secondary level, including courses in the Licentiate in Theology program at Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario. His courses “The World of the New Testament” (offered in 2021), and “Words of Faith: Scriptural Concepts in the Old and New Testaments” (offered in 2022) were well received by students both in the Diocese of Brandon, as well as from throughout the Anglican Church of Canada. His funeral took place on Tuesday, March 7th, and he was laid to rest in the columbarium at St. Matthew’s Cathedral.

Rest eternal grant unto Paul, O Lord,

and let light perpetual shine upon him.

May his soul, along with all the souls of the faithful departed,

through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

The post In Memoriam: The Reverend Paul Shore PhD (1956-2023) appeared first on The Mustard Seed.

“The first two episodes have dropped,” explains the Rev’d Jann Brooks, Rector at Christ Church, The Pas, and founder of YVN. “And we are thrilled to finally be able to let these young voices be heard far and wide!”

The former pediatric palliative care nurse, who was ordained in 2017 in the Diocese of Niagara, and into the priesthood in the Diocese of Brandon in 2020 to minister at Christ Church, The Pas, Brooks has developed a thriving outreach to young people that benefits from her unique skills which include compassionate listening.

In 2021, amid the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brooks launched a Brews & Tunes monthly drop-in for youth ages 12 to 19. “Brews & Tunes was named by the youth for the combination of coffee, tea, hot chocolate and live music.” Says Brooks. The informal gatherings quickly gave youth a safe and creative space where they could connect through music and conversation. “In spring 2021 we had the opportunity to apply to the Anglican Foundation of Canada for a Say Yes! to Kids grant. When I asked the young people what they wanted to do, they came back to me and said, ‘A podcast!’”

With the help of people from the congregation to serve as “den mothers” for the group and others to source podcasting equipment, the intergenerational team has braved the learning curve of podcasting together. “The youth choose the topics,” says Brooks, who wants as much as possible for the program to be fully youth-led. In its first episode the YVN team invited two of their peers who identify as “IndigiQueer” to talk about the challenges of growing up in the north as two-spirited. In another episode, the young people share their struggles with the impact of living in the north on education and career opportunities.

While YVN is based out of Christ Church in The Pas, the goal of the podcast is to engage both Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth across Northern Manitoba by travelling to more remote communities in the area. It is hoped that next stops will include Flin Flon, Pukatawagan, and Churchill.

People can listen and subscribe to @youngvoicesofthenorth on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Audible and SoundCloud. Full episodes of will soon be available on the Christ Church website.

The post Young Voices of the North Podcast appeared first on The Mustard Seed.

I think too often we think of our own situation as resurrected in Christ, but not quite ready to step into that new life yet. I know I have been redeemed. I know that I am loved by God, but in some ways I think of that empty tomb as a safe place to hide: I know what God has done for me, but I am frightened of what that might mean.

In that case I imagine Jesus calls us out of the dark and cool peace of the tomb; into a riot of colour and the sound of birds and wind and the blinding light of the rising sun. You are no longer dead. You have been resurrected and that means that you must now find what it is that God has resurrected you for.

I was raised in the church that was obsessed with whether or not one was “saved”. It was a natural part of our language and I had understood clearly that I was saved from sin and death, so long as I kept to the straight and narrow road that I was always being warned about. However in all the years that I attended church, it was never made clear what I “saved” for! This question was a revelation.

The risen Jesus confronts me with a new life and this means that I have to look beyond the way I had always thought of myself, and what I had always thought about the world and my responsibility in proclaiming that new life. So….I’m risen with Jesus, and I have been given a new life. I have overcome sin and death and the grave because I have been buried with him in his death and I stand with him in the garden because I am raised with him to new life. Now what?

This is the question that faces us every Easter season. We celebrate on the day of the resurrection, but what about a few weeks later when the lilies have drooped and the brass is tarnishing again and the attendance at church as normalized after the Easter rush?

Then the good news has to grab us in a new way. The choice to leave the garden tomb is the choice to explore the new life we have been given and the new world which love has made for us. It requires risk. The risk to love, to be loved, and even to be rejected, but it also means that we face whatever cross that follows firm in the knowledge that death is a temporary inconvenience in the kingdom. It only holds us for a bit, and then we are back to living and This is why we can’t praising and preaching and caring and loving like we were before.

The drama and solemnity of Holy Week have led us to the glory of the empty tomb and can lead us to a new life with a new purpose. This is why at Easter we make our song : Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! We even learn to sing that song at our own graves because they will be emptied too.

Easter is about Christ rising from the dead, but even more so, it is about us being raised for a purpose: to live to his glory.

The post A Word from the Bishop appeared first on The Mustard Seed.