Newsletter no 19 Summer 2013

FRIENDS OF THE LITTLE SISTERS OF JOY

The HARVEST OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IS SOWN IN PEACE BY THOSE WHO MAKE PEACE.'
Letter of St James 3:18

My dear Friends

What an incredible start to the summer! I left London Gatwick on Air Transaat at 9.45 am. The plane was full of very diverse human beings and the Captain had a job to get everyone to sit down before taking off-everyone was very laid back and listening to Spanish music on the intercom!

I had a pleasant journey with good company and we arrived on time at 12.55 Canadian time.

If you recall, I had a profound mystical experience in June 1988 in a Shrine on the St Lawrence river near Quebec, and ( I checked with the Captain) I can always tell when we are flying over that magical river-I feel it in my bones just before we go past Quebec, onto Ontario and fly like a  bird to our destination at Pearson airport.

At Pearson I decided to catch a cab in style and my Moroccan driver took me past the beautiful sights on the road from the airport to downtown Toronto. Everything felt spacious and free and I was ready to have some new experiences.

Gary, my host and an old and treasured friend, greeted me warmly at his four-storey brownstone building in the heart of the Annexe-where artists, poets and musicians abound. This neighbourhood has been deemed the most vibrant neighbourhood in the whole of North America.

One place I was really happy to rediscover was the JCC, the Jewish Cultural Centre. This is a fascinating place for Jews and non-Jews alike, where you can swim and take fitness classes, catch up on your Hebrew lessons and go to concerts or simply grab a coffee in the lovely 2nd Cup cafe, which is a regular  meeting place for friends and acquaintances. Sometimes I would place myself there at one of the small tables for breakfast and just see who turned up. Now and again it would be Jewish or Christian ladies with I had something particularly in common.

Just down the street is my favourite bookshop-Ten Editions, run by my friend Susan. You can get just about anything in there in the way of second-hand books and browsing is a delight. Susan and I would have long talks and the store was also frequented by David Brydges, a fellow traveller lodging at Gary's place. He is a poet, amongst many other things, and is trying to arrange a trip by train across Canada for fellow poets and artists, getting them to air their works along the way. What a lovely and novel idea!

An important part of my journey and time in Toronto were my visits to the Native Canadian Centre, right  at the bottom of Bloor and Spadina. This thriving meeting place is the centre and hub for the Native Canadians in Toronto and further afield. There is coffee on tap and a warm welcome every day. Once a week there are special evenings where they meet and play drums and have food.

The Native Canadians are part of a rich tapestry of First Nations peoples  extending all over Canada, the U.S. ,Mexico and beyond. They go by many names, such as Algonquin and Cherokee and each group is totally unique.

I was introduced to them in a very personal way in the street on the first Sunday I arrived. I met Rose, a Christian who was very warm and friendly. Soon I felt right at home, going to the Centre and sharing food, chatting and occasionally buying gifts from the beautiful Cedar Basket Gift Shop, run by Doris.

This is a shop which draws strands of all different Native Canadian arts and crafts together. There are simple cards and bookmarks with Canadian birds in flight, rugs and shawls, carved animals (my favourite is the Bear) and a selection of T-shirts. Doris and the young trainee shared a little about their upbringing and it turns out that Rose's family comes from Manitoulin Island,  a beautiful natural place, shared by Native Canadians and others alike in peace and harmony, and a place of such natural beauty that I long to explore it with Rose one day.

Which seems like a good place to end this newsletter for now.

Shalom
Peace and Friendship
Gila

More sunny days

My dear Friends

Thereisi so much to tell about Toronto that I don't know where to continue. My one of my favourite days was with Helena, someone who has lived in the city for a long time and knows it well. We have much in common and spent a joyful day together. We got a special taxi to the lovely swimming pool at a place called the Y.

Helena chose to go into the smaller pool for exercise movements in the water, and I felt free enough to go to the other pool and just swim. It wqas a lovely feeling and i felt like a bird- I am not a stron swimmer but I managed and felt pleased with myself.

Afterwards I went in the jaccuzzi while Helena relaxed and when we came out we spent time in the lovely cafe and just talked.

Unfortuantely when we got to the waterfront, the restaurant we wanted was closed, but Helena insisted that we go to another restaurant in the city, and we ated and drank together, chattting all the while. Food was delicious and of the Asainn variety.

A perfect end to a perfect day, in the company of a good Friend.

More a little later
Love and shalom
Gila
Shabbat shalom too.

Happy Feast

My dear Friends

I am looking forward to updating you with the rest of the news of Toronto. Just to briefly say that today is the Feast of Our lady of Mount Carmel, which is the spiritual heart of The Little Sisters of Joy. When you view Mount Carmel from the mediterranean it is breathtaking. The Devotion to Our lady of Mount Carmel began a very long time ago, when a group of hermits gathered round the mount to pray. With the coming of St Theresa of Avila in the 16th Century, the Church re-established   an Order and these are the Carmelites of the present day.

Carmel has to be one of the most peaceful places in Israel/Palestine today.Today is also the anniversary of a very close friend of mine, Peggy, who passed away peacefully a few years ago. Today is also the day when our new Bishop of East Anglia, Allan Hopes will be installed as the fourth Bishop of East Anglia, which is my Diocese. He succeeds Michael Evans, Peter Smith and the first Bishop Alan Clark.

A convert from the Anglican Church, he promises to develp new fields of ecumenism and dialogue with other faiths, amongs other things.I hope he will be someone I can talk to and receive a blessing on my Project.

Which of course includes all of you-looking forward to getting back to you about Toronto in the next entry.

With love and shalom
Gila



 

More news from Toronto

My dear Friends

I have been missing Toronto ever since I got back, And looking forward to the next trip. One of my favourite places in the Robarts library in St George Street, where I spent some happy hours reading and resting. Unlike the library here in Cambridge, you don't need a card to enter and you can visit the beautiful reading rooms, and especially the reference library, which has beautiful views over the city.

There are many green and wide open spaces, with lovely places to sit. Many of the days I met wonderful people and had great conversations, including a young woman from India, who has just settled there. One one occasion I went to the Church, which was about to celebrate its hundredth anniversary.

On several occasions I met my friend Helena, who took me swimming and looked after me for a whole day. On the Friday our priest took us for a lovey meal in a Middle Eastern restaurant.

One of my happiest experiences was going to see Bishop Lacey, and elderly Bishop of 96 who had befriended me in previous years. We talked and shared communion together, which was a wonderful experience. He is now in the Retirement home in Scarborough, to the east of the city, and a lady who was at the bus stop guided me there.

This is all for now
Much love from Cambridge
Gila

TORONTO

My dear Friends

Just a short entry to begin with, as it is not yet 48 hours since I flew back over the Pond. Every minute of the two weeks there was amazing, joyful and pretty much action-packed, with a few rest periods in between. The weather suited me perfectly-copious and all encompassing rain, shot through with days of very hot sun in between.

My perameters were very much within the city, with a trip to the East in between. From my window in the Annexe (deemed the most vibrant neighbourhood in North America) I could see the CN Tower, now bright and shiny in the mornings, glistened with flashing lights in the evenings.It became a sort of beacon for me, so much so that i felt uncomfortable if I went so far that I could no longer see it on the horizon.

Must rest now, catch you in a day or two.

Shalom from Gila

Winding down to Toronto

My dear Friends

By this time next week I will be high in the sky and almost in Toronto! I feel calm and excited at the same time. I am blessed with a great place to stay amongst some real good friends who run an international guest house right in the middle of everything in the Annexe, a neighbourhood of artists, poets and musicians which has been described as 'the most vibrant in the whole of North America.'

On the first day I will chill out and maybe take a slow walk down Bloor Street, to just get myself re-oriented. Then have a bite to eat and watch the world go by-I am assuming that the weather will be warm! On the Sunday I hope to go to the Eaton Centre to buy myself a pair of trainers-the Catholic Cathedral is just nearby. It will be the Feast of Corpus Christi and Pope Francis has suggested that we all might like to gather in our respective places and countries and pray in adoration.

The rest that I know I am going to keep a secret and will let you know on my return. My programme will include relatives and friends and - oh - an ice cream every day!

Catch up with you about the 21st of June(if not before)-be well until then.

Shalom and more shalom
Your Friend Gila xx

Free as a bird

My dear Friends

Now that I have got past the stressful stuff, i am feeling quite calm in the run up to Canada. I celebrated the Feast of the Ascension, 6 weeks after Easter, on the usual day last Thursday with my Protestant friends, who welcomed me at their little service in town, where I sat beside and prayed with a Northern Irish Protestant lady. It was very moving. They allowed me to do the reading, Acts 1-11 where we celebrated the Ascension of Jesus into heaven at Bethany and anticipated the coming of the Holy Spirit at the end of this week.

The Catholic church in England and Wales transferred the Feast to Sunday, this morning, so I got a double dose of grace and two wonderful sermons-one from the Protestant minister last Thursday and today from our local Dominican priest.

Speaking of Bethany-after Sister Jane's funeral a few weeks ago, (see a couple of entries ago) I needed some fortification so I went to a large Cambridge hotel to have a brandy-my mother used to carry a small flask around with her for 'medicinal purposes.' A young man was serving behind the bar. He was charming, a Palestinian and - he had been born in Bethany! It is an interesting story, because his uncle and the whole family decided to move to Jericho, where it's extremely hot. I told the young man of my experience way back in 1965 in the summer, my first visit to Israel  We went on a tour bus to the Dead Sea and Jericho-the air conditioning broke down and it was 110 Fahrenheit in the shade!

We started discussing the situation in Israel-Palestine, where Jericho is apparently now part of Palestinian territory, near Gaza. This young man said it was nothing to do with building on the West Bank. The main issue was how to educate the children on both sides not to hate. I told him how my cousin married an Israeli whom she met on a farming programme in Essex, they went out to live in Israel and her husband worked with the Arabs. After the 6 day war, when her children were growing up, her daughter took a very negative view of the Arabs and was horrified when I said (this was on my second visit) that i had a visa to go to Egypt. My poor cousin assured me that she had never brought up her children to hate.

Today we get an overview of the whole of creation and the Trinity ruling over the world. Whatever happens on this earthly plane, we must never give up hope and must always remember, as my mother used to tell me when things went wrong that: 'God rules the world.'

Shalom and more shalom
Gila