Dear friends, as we continue our journey through Easter this Sunday the gospel reading will have the words "in my father's house are many dwelling places or perhaps many mansions." We love those words, and at the same time, we all live in communities where there are not nearly enough dwelling places for all God's people. And so later in May, May 21st to 23rd, please join us at Christ Church Cathedral for a three day conference on homelessness.
We will begin on the Thursday evening with a keynote lecture by Dr. Siobhan Garrigan, who is a theologian from Ireland; done some remarkable work on a theology of home in a time of homelessness, and she'll help frame the issue theologically and prepare us for the Friday, which will be a very full day where I'm so pleased that so many people who are working in the homeless sector in our community have agreed to come and tell us about what they experience in that sector, the barriers that folk have to accessing [housing], but also the signs of hope and the real signs of success we are seeing. We have folks coming from Our Place, from the Salvation Army, from Cool-Aid, from Thresholds, from the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, from the Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness. There's so many good folks who are giving up their time to come and share their work and their perspective with us, and I do hope you'll join us that Friday in the Cathedral to hear from them and dialogue with them.
And then if you're able, please come back on the Saturday. A priest by the name of Mary Helwig, from the Diocese of Toronto, who's done all sorts of remarkable work and written a book about encampments, will be with us in the morning. In the afternoon, there's a documentary which tells the story of Tina Dawson, who, herself, ended up living on the streets of Victoria, much to her surprise. Um, and then in the afternoon, God love them, we have some folks who have themselves experienced homelessness and are now housed, coming to tell us their stories and remind us that people who experience homelessness are beloved children of God with families and stories just like the rest of us.
This will be an important event. Our primate, Shane Parker, will be with us for the event, and I really hope that I do see you there.
The risen Christ comes to us in Easter and tells us to feed his sheep and tend his lambs. So we have work to do this Easter season and I will see you, I hope, at Christ Church Cathedral later in May for this conference.
Hallelujah. Christ has risen. Christ has risen indeed, and we have work to do.
