Sundays at 10:00am
Submitted by Jane Greenhouse
On Sunday, May 12th, the Church of St. Edmunds changes its worship time back to 10 am. Have you ever wondered why, in the winter, The Church of St Edmund shifts to an afternoon service?
LAAMB, (Lutheran And Anglican Ministries (of) the Bruce) has 5 churches under its umbrella with only one minister. What a very busy and energetic person is needed to lead, guide, and manage these five congregations on the peninsula plus the Anglican church in Lion’s Head!
Pastor Janaki Bandara is this person! She is the Rector of all the Lutheran and Anglican churches on the Peninsula which includes the four Anglican churches located in Howdenvale, Cape Chin, Lion’s Head and Tobermory plus the Lutheran church in Wiarton. That makes FIVE churches and SIX congregations expecting her attention!
In the winter only the Anglican churches in Tobermory, Lion’s Head and the Lutheran church in Wiarton (where the Anglican and Lutheran congregations worship together) are open; the other three are summer churches. This leaves three congregations for Pastor Janaki to minister to during the winter months. She starts her Sunday in Wiarton with a 9:30am service, then to Lion’s Head for 11:30am on most Sundays, and finally arrives in Tobermory to lead our 3:00pm service. She has her homily well polished by the time she is in Tobermory!
Obviously, in the summer months, Pastor Janaki cannot be present at all six churches each Sunday! Therefore, St Edmund’s invites clergy to visit for a week and stay at the cottage attached to the church. This is how we can come back to a more traditional morning worship time. The summer clergy arrive on Monday and can enjoy a relaxing week in beautiful Tobermory. They can choose to join in various church activities during the week, such as the bible study and Summer in the Spirit (Thursday evening this summer), and then will lead the 10 am service on Sunday. This visiting pastor will often participate in the 7 pm evening service at St Margarets Chapel in Cape Chin which centres around hymn-singing and storytelling.
It is always interesting each summer Sunday to see who is preaching and where they are from. We have had visiting ministers from far and wide, including the USA, England, and Wales. Our first three morning services this year are May 12th, 19th and 26th. For these Sundays we will have Rev Monika Wiesner serving on Mothers Day, and Rev MaryAnn Somerville serving on May 19 and 26th.
We hope you will come out to join us.
