by Jonn Lavinnder
Corrections to November Edition
In Diosesan Council Highlights, the amount of money donated to the Cathedral Project was $900,000 and not $9,000,000—would it be so!
Also in the New service launches church growth Sunday over 200 people attended the new contemporary service and 100 attended the 11 a.m. Eucharist.
As Bob Dylan so aptly sang, "the times they are a changin'"; and looking for ways to continue God's work is even more challenging. It seems as though the thing that most Anglicans value, "tradition," has been put to the test. Peter Davison writes in his column this month about the Pope's offer to welcome dissatisfied Anglicans back into Rome's fold. It seems we have come full circle over the last 500 years. However, the Anglican Church in Canada has been in existence a much shorter amount of time, and shorter still the Diocese of Kootenay.
A Missionary District was set apart in British Columbia on August 29, 1892 and was defined by the executive committee of the Diocese of New Westminster. It included the area commencing at Nakusp, following South through the Slocan District, the Kootenay River to Nelson, the West Arm, and both sides of the Kootenay Lake as far as the International Border with the United States. This area until the end of this month was known as the Kokanee Region. As was reported in the September edition of The HighWay, the Kokanee and Boundary Regions will join together, as of January 1, 2010. The last regional meetings of Boundary and Kokanee were both held last month at St. Saviour’s Pro-Cathedral, Nelson.
Nevertheless, the history of this region will continue to be remembered in The HighWay with a new column starting this month by Canon Jim Hearne entitled "Vicar of Kokanee remembers." If you have ever heard Jim preach you will know that his humour is very droll and sometimes mistaken for "rambling," but Jim, in his own way, is on track with his erudite and eclectic knowledge.
Canon Jim's writing style is breezy and fun to read. I have published several remembrances of the Vicar of Kokanee in the Kokanee Region's newsletter, "Networks." And I'm looking forward to reading more about his historic 10-point charge in and around Kootenay Lake in the months to come.
