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From the Rector
St. John’s Burlington (Nelson) celebrates her 175th birthday in 2010. The 175th anniversary includes several events that will expose a 21st Christian community in general and St. John's in specific to the public.
St. John's parishioners are very passionate about these events and looking forward to celebrating them.
St. John’s Stewardship Committee has chosen a theme for the 175th anniversary: Revival. Why? Because, St. John’s has come to believe that Holy Spirit is leading her through/towards an awakening of interest in expanding the Kingdom of God on earth, in a life-changing love and care towards our families, relatives, and neighbors, and in a commitment to spread Jesus’ everlasting-liberating message to those who thirst for spirituality, justice, and joyfulness. We have nurtured the concepts of ‘abundance’ and ‘growth’ and have come to believe that we have to pass from theory, thinking, and speculation to practice, acting, building, celebrating, and festivities.
And we have also come to believe that the concept of ‘Us versus them’ has stayed behind us. Now, we strive to nurture the culture of ‘individual for community and community for individual’ instead.
175 years is a small number in comparison to 2010 years of the Kingdom’s existence. In the recent 175 years, constant changes and upheavals have been a main characteristic in human life and history. The Kingdom has not only survived in the middle of turmoil, upheaval, and change in the recent 175 years, but it has also grown inwardly and outwardly. The Kingdom of God’s citizens have become more conscious, more realistic, more passionate, more hopeful, and more practical about their mission, their identity, and their importance. St. John’s, as a part of the Kingdom’s existence, shows the same trend in her history.
St. John's Burlington (Nelson), the second oldest Anglican Church in Burlington, was founded in 1835 though worship has taken place in the present building since 1839. Though St. Luke's, Wellington Square was established in 1834, the people who had settled in the Nelson area found that traveling to the more southerly parish over the rough and muddy roads was inconvenient at best. Joseph Ireland, William Spence, and John Wettenhall successfully petitioned the Bishop of Quebec (who spent half of each year in Toronto) for a local church. In 1835 the first service was held in an old schoolhouse which was located near the present rectory building. A traveling missionary, The Rev. Frederick Mack, rode his horse from St. Luke's to the Guelph Line School. The Rev. Henry Hugh O'Neill and Rev. J. Gamble-Geddes, also traveling missionaries, continued to visit the Nelson area from 1836 to 1838. In 1838, Nelson had its first resident rector, Rev. Thomas Greene, who urged the congregation to build a church building of their own.
And this is how it started and there is no end to it; in the name of Nazarene Liberator, through the transforming work of Holy Spirit we pray. Amen |