A friend from Montreal told me she wanted to make sure I was eating ok. Well, tonight was chili night. What do you think? :-)
Un de mes amis de Montréal voulait s'assurer que je mange bien. J'ai fait du chili ce soir, qu'en pensez-vous? :-) pic.twitter.com/LnsJ2QgHAK
When I lived in Montreal I would go for a good walk every morning (well, I'd try to). I know Sudbury has many trails but I hadn't tried any of them yet. Well, we had a gorgeous sunny morning today, so I set out to discover the one closest to my residence: the Rotary Park Trail. It was lovely! And I'll tell you, 12000 steps in the snow, with trees to cut the wind, means you barely feel the cold. Walking in the sunlight is important for me given my seasonal affective disorder, so who knows, maybe this will become part of my daily routine.
I was interviewed by a couple of journalists regarding the decree we issued yesterday closing the churches to the public celebration of the mass. The North Bay Nugget had this article:
Local diocese cancels in-person Sunday mass
It is very brief and basically contains information we provided in our press release. I'm glad it was useful to them.
Radio-Canada also came in did a video interview of me at the diocese, and published this article in French.
This pandemic sucks, but it doesn't mean we can't find ways to spend time with people we love. That is what I lived this evening.
Today I signed a document that I never thought I'd issue: a decree closing our churches to the public celebration of the Eucharist. You can read the full text of the decree here.
After visiting Precious Blood Cathedral (see previous post) I walked over to the synod office of the Anglican diocese of Algoma (based in Sault Ste. Marie). Archbishop Anne Germond had reached out to me as I was originally arriving in the diocese in December, and I wanted to say hello and express my thanks.
When this diocese was established back in 1904 Rome decided that the seat of the bishop would be in the city of Sault Ste. Marie, with Sacré Coeur as its cathedral. The first bishop, however, decided to remain in North Bay, where he established a pro-cathedral for the exercise of his ministry. It is that church, the Pro-Cathedral of the Assumption, where I was installed.
This is a bit of a combined post for the past couple of days. I mentioned in a post dated two days ago that I was headed to Wawa via the Soo. Well, I made it! The Wawa goose is proof of that!
I got to the rectory of Saint Monica parish in Wawa around lunchtime. It was a gorgeous drive up. Upon arriving, Fr. Michael treated me to a traditional meal from Ghana (his home country), and then took me on a tour of the town. We then had two masses that evening, and after I hit the hay.
"Quoi?" vous me demandez. "Première entrevue? Tu n'as pas déjà une entrevue avant cela?"
Oui, bien sûr, mon cher interlocuteur! Mais aujourd'hui, c'était ma première fois comme animateur! Je n'avais jamais animé une émission de télévision avant aujourd'hui. Un grand merci à Monsieur Marc Larochelle d'avoir accepé d'être mon cobaye. :-)
Je crois beaucoup à la mission de l'émission Église diocésaine, et j'ai hâte de vivre l'expérience une prochaine fois.
MISE-À-JOUR: voici l'entrevue!
My pastoral visit this weekend is to the northwesternmost part of our diocese (Wawa, White River and Dubreuilville). If I were to head straight to Wawa from Sudbury it would be a 6 hour drive, assuming good weather and no stops along the way. As I could only head out in the afternoon, and I didn't want to drive isolated stretches of road for the first time at night, I decided to stop over in Sault Ste. Marie. After all, I have a Cathedral there!
