St. Marys' Metchosin | Anglican Church in Victoria, BC

St Mary's Metchosin invites your family to participate in our Messy Church. Join us the second Friday of each month for a shared meal, a creative biblical reflection, music, and family time.

Families of all shapes and sizes are welcome; grandparents bring your grandchildren; children bring your parents. Activities will be friendly and enjoyable for all ages.

Your Messy Church team decided that with February's Messy Church falling on the Friday evening of the loooong weekend and March's Messy Church falling on the first Friday of Spring Break we would split the difference and host Messy Church on Friday February 28 - which is THIS FRIDAY.

Join us at 5:30pm at St Mary's Metchosin, for dinner, singing, activities and connection.

Our theme this month is love.
Practice communicating in a loving way, write a letter to someone you love, eat a delicious meal of tacos and connect with us.

We start around 5:30 and finish around 7:30 and hope you can join us.

Please RSVP so I can make an educated guess for food and supplies! nicolehergert@gmail.com

St George’s College, in the Diocese of Jerusalem is delighted to be able to offer a new three-part video series, The Pilgrim Journey - Arrival, Sojourn, and Return. Each film has two parts, a thirty minute presentation by our course director, Rodney Aist, followed by a short, onsite reflection by the Dean, Richard Sewell. The lectures are full of interesting content which will help people to understand the spiritual and psychological dimensions of pilgrimage and how to be well prepared for a Holy Land Pilgrimage. Dean Richard's reflections root these three elements of pilgrimage in a specific holy site. We hope the films will whet your appetite to return to Israel/Palestine on pilgrimage when the time is right. We pray that the ceasefire will hold and that pilgrim groups will be able to return soon.

Pilgrim Journey: Arrival (View Here)

From home to the Holy Land, arriving in Jerusalem involves a series of passageways, doorways, and thresholds. In the first of the three-part series, The Pilgrim Journey, Course Director Rodney Aist discusses two theories incorporating the language of thresholds that chart the transformative nature of the pilgrim journey--the theory of liminality and the hero's journey. In the second part of the video, Dean Richard Sewell reflects upon the importance of Jerusalem for Christian pilgrims outside Damascus Gate, which, like St George's College, serves as a Gateway for arriving pilgrims.

Pilgrim Journey: Sojourn (View Here)

Upon arrival in Jerusalem, pilgrims set about learning the 'rules of the special world' -- to use the language of the hero's journey -- as they begin their sojourn in the Land of the Holy One. In the second of the three-part series, The Pilgrim Journey, Course Director Rodney Aist discusses some tools for engaging the Living Stones of the Holy Land, including the theory of cultural humility, how to listen to the stories of others (avoiding narrative takeover and narrative tapout), and recognizing the nature of the narrative fallacy. Focusing on moments of sojourn in our lives, Dean Richard Sewell reflects upon Luke's account of Mary's sojourn at the house of Elizabeth outside the Church of the Visitation in Ein Kerem.

Pilgrim Journey: Return (View Here)

The ultimate purpose of Holy Land pilgrimage is to return home -- challenged, transformed and renewed -- where the Christian journey continues. The process of returning home to the ordinary world (reaggregation) involves closure and departure from the people and places of the Holy Land as well as intentional reflection on the experience. In the third of the three-part series, The Pilgrim Journey, Course Director Rodney Aist discusses debriefing Holy Land travel, the importance of language, common emotions, and the tensional, unfinished nature of Christian pilgrimage. Dean Richard Sewell concludes the series with a reflection on the Emmaus story, the resurrection encounter with Jesus that culminates a study pilgrimage at St George's College.

St. Mary’s Metchosin Challenge
Sharleen Thompson 18 Feb. 2025

St Mary’s Metchosin has, for the 9^th year, put together a Lenten Challenge. It is called the Metchosin Challenge. It is a challenge from St Mary’s church to all the community to live better by being more aware of the issues facing our world, so we can be empowered to act to make our world a better place. This Challenge is in the form of a speaker series designed for a general audience on a wide range of topics. We have had speakers such as Elizabeth May, Andy Mackinnon, Wally Eamer, and Herbert O’ Driscol. Each year we have had a theme. The first year it was Big Issues Facing the World. In the following years we tackled such topics as Climate Change, Native Relations, Species Diversity, Human Rights Issues, Empower People for Action, Little Things That You Can Do to Make a Difference, Hope in a Changing World, Embracing Change, What Are Children Worrying About, and in 2024, Issues in Our Own Health. This year, for the first time, we are having a non-secular topic, exploring modern religion. We are still reaching out to the whole community, not just Anglicans. We are trying to look at the religions around us from different perspectives. What are some of the issues, different forms of worship and big issues facing us.

The challenge is running Tuesday nights during Lent from March 11^th to April 15^th at 7 pm at St Mary’s Metchosin Church at 4125 Metchosin Rd across from the Golf Course. All but one of the presenters will be there in person but we offer a Zoom option as well so those not in Victoria can attend. Here is the zoom link. https://vst.zoom.us/j/89279807957?pwd=ITcX9fLKiSCEhVJj7mAJHoC8bMLitz.1

Schedule:

March 11^th: The Venerable Dr. Lon Towstego will look at religion as community and in the community.

March 18^th: Margaret O’Donnell will present on the Taizé way of being together by many types of Christians.

March 25^th: The Rev Dr. Ross Lockhart will speak on how the very secular Pacific Northwest is different from the rest of the continent and the challenges that it brings. He is from St Andrew’s Hall and Vancouver School of Theology in Vancouver, so will be presenting on Zoom.

April 1^st: The Rev Dr. Travis O’Brian will speak on Mystery in the Church; the draw and the role of it in modern faith.

April 8^th: Patricia Lane, a lawyer who challenges the churches to be the leaders in the climate and environmental struggles. Patricia will present on how the Canadian Churches can or should respond to President Trump.

April 15^th: Our own Dean Jonathan Thomas will talk about what is spirituality. So many people say that they aren’t religious, but they are spiritual. They usually try to end the conversation this way, but what are they saying? What is spirit anyway?

St Mary’s is hoping that other congregations will join us in-person or by Zoom and listen to the ideas and participate in the conversations around them. There are some of the other presentations from other years on our web site, if you are interested in listening to these. We are hoping all of this deepens our thoughts and enlivens our conversations and maybe even propel action in some people.

Save the Date:

Follow us on Facebook