Christmas 2003

Dear Family and Friends,

Last year Bob wrote you. This year I have the pleasure. Some of you will know that we have moved. It has been a strange sensation to bid Leyns Road farewell after nearly 24 years and 4 lifetimes. So much happened in that home, leaving us with so many memories. Still it is exciting to find ourselves in the kind of home we have dreamed of owning since first we left Montreal and began our family life in Ottawa 35 years ago.

We have moved to the Rockland area of Victoria, near Government House, to the place that was home to Victoria’s renowned Butchart family for 30 years. The house, built in 1920, was converted to 3 strata suites in 1984. Ours is the top floor, and looks out over a lovely garden (the property covers ¾ acre) to the sea and the Olympic Mountains. I doubt I will ever tire of the view. The apartment is filled with light, and it is only 2 km from church and office. This afternoon I ran all my errands by bike.

Of course it was necessary to involve the St. John’s Choristers in the move, as Leyns Road hosted so many choir parties in years past. So it was that on the eve of Moving Day, after rehearsing for the Advent Procession, the choir motored up to Leyns Road, sang farewell to the house, packed up boxes of Vin Chateau Vantreight and St Margaret’s Bay, carted them down to St. Charles Street, and toasted the new domain. We had a great party in this fantastic empty space, whose living room ceilings stretch 25 feet into the sky - three choristers actually cart-wheeled across the room! The entire process of buying and selling has been trouble-free, as if to confirm our decision.

Our children are a little ambivalent about the move. Curiosity has, however, largely replaced sadness, and since they cannot imagine how Christmas will look in the new home, they are all heading home for the holidays, just to find out! How we look forward to having them with us, especially Sarah, who has not been home at Christmas time for a decade.

The January 4^th Epiphany Lessons and Carols service which concludes the festive season will also mark the final service at St. John’s for our music director Garth MacPhee, who is moving to Montreal for graduate studies. These past 2 1/2 years of music making have brought us immense joy, perhaps above all in the beautiful contemplative service of Compline we sing each Sunday at 9 pm. My heart constricts at the prospect of losing this inspiration. During the interim, as Warden, I’ll be part of the search process, and I’ll continue, at least for a while, singing in church choir, the 12-voice ensemble vox humana, and Hexaphone, with a monthly trot over to the Cathedral to sing Evensong with St. Christopher Singers. And the time will eventually come when I am able to fulfill the intention of my ‘retirement’ 2 1/2 years ago, and read not just the articles in the Globe but the books to which they refer!

Across the country, hard at work in Ottawa for 4 of the past 6 weeks, Bob has been delighted to reconnect with Matthew Larkin, and sing for him at the Cathedral while working there. But his big news is that he and Victoria illustrator Ken Faulks have recently published Pele’yah, a story for children and their parents. You can learn more about it at Pele’yah’s website http://www.peleyah.ca/.

This has been a time to reflect on transitions, and to know that this is yet another step on a continuing journey. With this in mind, along with our love and best wishes for the blessings of the season, I want to share with you a prayer of John Donne with which we often conclude Compline.

Bring us, O Lord God, at our last awakening, into the house and gate of heaven, to enter into that gate, and dwell in that house where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light; no noise nor silence, but one equal music; no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession; no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity; in the habitations of thy glory and dominion, world without end.

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