Spring Romance
March 20, 2013
By Rev. Ed Hird
April showers bring May flowers. Spring is a time when many romances begin, including my romance with my wife Janice. I am so grateful to have been married to Janice for almost thirty-six years. She is the love of my life and the joy of my heart.
When I was a teenager, I held the unoriginal view that marriage was just a piece of paper, a merely human sociological invention. Since coming to faith in 1972, I have been fascinated by the meaning of marriage. Reading Matthew 19: 6 (What God has joined together…), I was shocked to discover that God invented marriage. I remember sharing with my future wife on our first date in 1975 about my fascination with the theology of marriage. She found me somewhat overwhelming, and told me that she wasn’t ready to commit as she had just broken up with her fiancée.
While completing my Masters, I wrote an essay on the meaning of marriage, with a strong emphasis on the ‘one flesh’ covenant. I concluded the essay by writing our own marriage ceremony and inviting my professor Bill Adams to our wedding. Fortunately he liked the wedding and gave me a good mark. Thirty-six years later, Janice and I are co-leading Strengthening Marriage workshops and Strengthening Relationship groups. God-willing, I will be graduating on May 26th this year with a Doctor of Ministry, focusing on ‘Strengthening Marriages.’
Part of my North Shore ministry involves visiting extended care facilities where often one spouse has Alzheimer‘s disease and the other doesn’t. I have been so impressed by the love of one North Shore wife for her Alzheimer-afflicted husband who was a former university professor. Her covenantal love and honour for her husband is deeply rooted in his unshakable humanity, being made in God’s image.
A wedding is a celebration of a couple coming to the point where they are truly willing to become one flesh in body, mind and spirit. Marriage is far more than just a contract or a prenuptial agreement. Marriage is a covenant of faith and trust between a man and woman, a covenant grounded for Christians in their shared commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord. At the heart of the concept of covenant is unconditional commitment. The hyper-individualism of our consumer culture is the acid rain of covenant love. The busyness and stress of our culture tends to swallow our best intentions even in marriage.
James Olthius, author of I Pledge You My Troth, teaches that marriage is troth, as in ‘I pledge you my troth’. This term, troth, as in betrothal, is an Old English term for truth, faithfulness, loyalty and honesty. At the heart of marriage troth is our pledge ‘to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer , for poorer, in sickness and health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part…”
At the heart of spring romance for me is that assurance that my wife will stand with me through thick and thin, through good times and bad. Janice has my back and I have hers. My prayer for marriages in the Seymour/Deep Cove area is that God may give us back our first love for each other. May our covenant commitment be like precious gold.
Rev. Ed Hird, Rector
St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Mission in the Americas (Canada)
http://stsimonchurch.ca
-an article for the April 2013 Deep Cove Crier
award-winning author of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’
http://www.battleforthesoulofcanada.blogspot.com
p.s. In order to obtain a copy of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’, please send a $18.50 cheque to ‘Ed Hird’, #1008-555 West 28th Street, North Vancouver, BC V7N 2J7. For mailing the book to the USA, please send $20.00 USD. This can also be done by PAYPAL using the e-mail ed_hird@telus.net . Be sure to list your mailing address. The Battle for the Soul of Canada e-book can be obtained for $9.99 CDN/USD.
-Click to download a complimentary PDF copy of the Battle for the Soul study guide : Seeking God’s Solution for a Spirit-Filled Canada
You can also download the complimentary Leader’s Guide PDF: Battle for the Soul Leaders Guide
Naome Uwamahoro’s visit to St. Simon’s NV from Rwanda
October 10, 2011
Thanks to the generosity of the Rev Ken Bell and St Timothy’s North Vancouver, we had a visit from Naome Uwamahoro the Rural Development Officer for the Anglican Diocese of Kigeme.
Naome was able to initially join us for our inaugural Saturday morning 9am Prayer Meeting on Oct 8th with our Bishop Silas Ng
Naome with our People’s Warden Candace Gillespie
Hilary King our Rector’s Warden with Naome. Translation services were provided by Naome to the Embrace Rwanda team that Hilary led this summer.
For more information about the remarkable Embrace Rwanda team, just click on this link .
Glen Houghton, a member of St. Simon’s NV, attended our inaugural St. Simon’s NV Prayer Meeting. He loves to pray and leads the Prayer Canada meeting at the District of North Vancouver City Hall.
Fifteen people were present for our inaugural St. Simon’s NV Prayer Meeting at our Modular Building at Kenneth Gordon Maplewood School. You are welcome to join us every Saturday at 9am to 10am for our St. Simon’s Prayer Meeting.
Our hi-tech Bishop Silas Ng led us in a devotional from his Daily Discipler 123 Blog . This blog can be accessed daily in written form, or as an English podcast or Cantonese podcast.
Our Bishop Silas Ng is passionate that people become disciples of Jesus Christ who disciple others in daily intimacy with Jesus Christ, and pass this on to others. He has almost finished his Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary on this subject of Leadershp Development and Discipleship.
Why not dial in right now and join our Bishop Silas Ng? He is passionate that we bring a breakthrough in daily discipleship and intimacy with Jesus. Only 10% of Christians have a regular daily time of intimacy with Jesus.
Naome gave a wonderful testimony at St Simon’s NV about her recovery from the trauma of her pastor father’s death during the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. Click to view this story.
Naome also shared a Rwandan song with us which you can watch by clicking.
The St. Simon’s NV family listening attentively to Naome sharing about Rwanda.
Janice Hird our St. Simon’s NV Music Director led our joint Choir in a Harvest Thanksgiving anthem.
Naome having lunch afterwards with other St. Simon’s NV leadership, including Jill Cardwell our Youth & Young Adult Pastor. Jill is leading our 30th Alpha Course for young adults. Click to learn more.
By clicking on the following link, you can watch the film ‘Mothers of Kigeme’
In Christ,
Ed Hird+
The AM–Canada/Anglican Province of Rwanda
http://stsimonschurch.ca
-award-winning author of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’
http://battleforthesoulofcanada.blogspot.com
-In order to obtain a copy of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’, please send a $18.50 cheque to ‘Ed Hird’, #1008-555 West 28th Street, North Vancouver, BC V7N 2J7. For mailing the book to the USA, please send $20.00 USD. This can also be done by PAYPAL using the e-mail ed_hird@telus.net . Be sure to list your mailing address. The Battle for the Soul of Canada e-book can be obtained for $9.99CDN/USD.
-Click to download a complimentary PDF copy of the Battle for the Soul study guide : Seeking God’s Solution for a Spirit-Filled Canada
-You can also download the complimentary Leader’s Guide PDF: Battle for the Soul Leaders Guide
Welcome Home…
September 2, 2011
Dear friends in Christ, 
You are invited to check out the Fall 2011 ‘Welcome Home’ newsletter.
Blessings, Ed Hird+
http://stsimonschurch.ca
Anglican Mission in the Americas (Canada)
StS News Fall 2011 (click to open up the newsletter)
The Final Two Days in Kigeme
August 20, 2011
By Rev Ed Hird
It was such a privilege to spend this extended time in Kigeme. In the last two days, we had a personal visit with Bishop Augustin, had another two music workshops, connected again with the Healthy Mums Project, and met with Pastor Assiel from All Saints Kikongoro.
It was a privilege to spend time with Bishop Augustin Mvunabandi, hearing about all the good things that God is doing in the Kigeme diocese.
Click to hear a greeting to Canada from Bishop Augustin.
We met again with the Healthy Mums Projects leaders who displayed the gifts from Canada which had been carried with our six suitcases. Click to hear and view about the Healthy Mums Project.
A Rwandan mom with two new twins.
From Canada to Rwanda, blessing the Rwanda mums in practical gifts.
Esther with the new twins. Click to view Esther share about the Healthy Mums Project.
Janice with the healthy mums twins.
Meeting with the people involved with the Kigeme Cathedral guesthouse.
Meeting with Pastor Assiel of Kikongoro at the Kigeme Cathedral area. Click to view a Greeting to Canada and sharing about Kikongoro from Pastor Assiel.
One of Janice’s final music workshops at the Kigeme Cathedral
The Rwandans were very eager to learn, especially in learning English language music.
Janice with a young Rwandan child.
Older and younger sister at the music practice.
The Joy of the Lord is my strength.
The participants in Janice’s music workshop. Click to see a video of the Music workshop.
We told people about the Christian Ashram movement in BC, North America and around the world.
This young man still kept a photo of our 1st Rwandan Mission trip from six years ago.
It was amazing to see this intact six-year old picture from the very first ACiC Mission Trip to Kigeme. Hilary King our St Simon’s NV Rector’s Warden and leader of Embrace Rwanda/Healthy Mum’s Project is standing on the front second from the left. Alayne and Roger Adams, Rev Barclay and Mary Mayo, Rev Paul Carter and his daughter Naomi, Rev Carolyn Spence, Joan Trussell and others are also in the picture.
The final Music Workshop with Janice at the Kigeme Cathedral, using the new guitar. Click to view a video of this workshop.
Meeting with a Bible Study Group at the Cathedral, and teaching on Titus Chapter 2.
The Kigeme Cathedral Guesthouse where we stayed.
The Kigeme Cathedral Guesthouse with the traditional mosquito net.
We were well taken care of daily, with healthy meals.
Esther with Healthy Mums Project, Pastor Paul, and Janice.
Rev Ed Hird, Rector
St Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Mission in the Americas (Canada)
http://stsimonschurch.ca
Visiting Kigeme, Rwanda
August 13, 2011
By Rev. Ed Hird
Having spent the first day at Rwanda’s capital of Kigali, we took a sardine-packed bus to the southwestern town of Kigeme. 
Before leaving Kigali, we met Bishop Mpango, a retired Tanzanian bishop staying at the Kigeme Cathedral guest house. He is very interested in helping launch people in businesses that can sow back into God’s Kingdom work.
Meeting with Kigeme diocesan staff.
Janice Hird, my wife, led four music workshops during the week at the Kigeme Cathedral.
Upon arriving at Kigeme, we stumbled in on a music practice in the Cathedral. Their passion and giftedness was most enjoyable.
This is a view of the choir from the back of the Kigeme Cathedral.
Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say ‘rejoice’.
Janice enjoying being in Kigeme.
Esther sharing about the Healthy Mums Project in which Hilary King has been giving leadership.
Bishop Augustin of the Kigeme Diocese at the All Africa’s Bishops Conference
Anglican Educational Leaders in the Kigeme diocese
Esther has been a key leader in the Healthy Mums Project, which has greatly reduced the infant mortality rate.
Janice Hird with Jeanne D’Arc, Leader of the Anglican Schools
Education, health, and church planting were core values of the original Anglican missionary who came to Kigeme in 1932.
Preaching the good news throughout the Kigeme area.
Meeting the Anglican High School students.
Muraho means ‘hello’ in Kirywandan.
Key diocesan leaders in the Kigeme area. Rev Jean Chrysostom organized our overall schedule for the week and kept in touch by e-mail during our preparations in Canada.
Rwanda is truly the land of a thousand hills.
Logging is often done by hand.
The Kigeme Anglican Hospital was birthed from the original 1932 vision for medical care and healing through prayer.
We had an opportunity to meet the Director of the Kigeme Anglican Hospital. The love of Jesus has been rooted into the DNA of this hospital. The staff starts every day with a half hour of worship.
Ananias is the director of Human Relations at the Hospital. He is also a senior Catechist leading an Anglican Chapel.
A mission team from the Anglican congregation in Maidenhead, UK, came to do many tasks, including rewiring the Kigeme Anglican Hospital.
Thank God for people with electrical skills who can use them for the Kingdom.
Janice Hird being given a tour of the Anglican Kigeme Hospital.
We were also given a tour of the Maternity Ward.
Pastor Samuel is the Chaplain for the Kigeme Anglican Hospital. I found him to be very godly and Spirit-filled.
Pastor Paul Karangwa and Janice Hird in front of a hospital ambulance.
The Anglican investment in health has made a significant difference for local Rwandans in the Kigeme area.
A calendar on the wall showing the Rwandan bishops in both Africa and North America.
It was great to see our previous Bishops for Canada being listed, Bishop TJ Johnston and Bishop Sandy Greene. Bishop Silas Ng is our first Canadian bishop covering Canada.
This poster summed up what the Anglican diocese of Kigeme is seeking to accomplish. Their goal is that everyone plays their part in extending God’s Kingdom and rebuilding their nation.
The Rev. Ed Hird, Rector
St Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada/TheAM
http://acicanada.ca/
-award-winning author of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’
http://battleforthesoulofcanada.blogspot.com
-In order to obtain a copy of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’, please send a $18.50 cheque to ‘Ed Hird’, #1008-555 West 28th Street, North Vancouver, BC V7N 2J7. For mailing the book to the USA, please send $20.00 USD. This can also be done by PAYPAL using the e-mail ed_hird@telus.net . Be sure to list your mailing address. The Battle for the Soul of Canada e-book can be obtained for $9.99CDN/USD.
-Click to download a complimentary PDF copy of the Battle for the Soul study guide : Seeking God’s Solution for a Spirit-Filled Canada
-You can also download the complimentary Leader’s Guide PDF: Battle for the Soul Leaders Guide
30 years later….
May 31, 2011
Our lives are in God’s hands. God has been faithful in the last 30 years of serving him as an Anglican priest/presbyter. There have been many surprises along the road. He has worked all things for the good in ways that I would not always have imagined. (Romans 8:28 & Genesis 50:20)
Nana Allen, my maternal grandmother, was an amazing lady. She was a devout Anglican Christian who loved the Book of Common Prayer, and knew that something was being tampered with in the DNA of Anglicanism. Nana knew that I would become an Anglican priest, and told me this years before I even came to personal faith. She was very close to God and heard his still small voice. Nana’s desire was to live until I became a deacon (which she did) and then to live until I became a priest (which she did). She died shortly before my throat operation on May 25th 1982 when God restored my voice. I wrote her funeral eulogy, but had to rely on Rev Harold McSherry to deliver it.
My earlier ordination as a deacon May 18th 1980
In the Anglican Church, they ordain you twice just to make sure that it sticks. 
My first ordination was on May 18th 1980 where I was ordained as a deacon by Archbishop David Somerville. I was wearing a new suit that I had been given as an ordination present. For my ordination as a priest on May 31st 1981, Archbishop Douglas Hambidge ordained me at St Philip’s Church Dunbar. It was a challenging time because I was having speech therapy but my voice had not returned. My medical specialists assured Archbishop Hambidge that my voice would return in another month or so. When this did not happen, my medical specialists encouraged me to leave St. Philips on Oct 1st 1981 to take up full-time speech therapy. They were concerned that otherwise my voice might never come back. This was a very painful but needed transition. I was off work doing speech therapy for exactly one year on Oct 1st 1982 when I moved to St Matthew’s Abbotsford as the assistant priest with Archdeacon Jack Major. Being at St Matthew’s was life-transforming for me in untold ways.
Absolutely foundational in our Christian walk and growth was our time at St Matthias Oakridge with the Rev Ernie Eldridge. Ernie+ encouraged us to use all of our gifts, especially the gift of music. Janice my wife is a professional musician who graduated from the UBC School of Music. We loved to sing together, especially with our singing group Morning Star. One of the unfortunate side-effects of my Botox treatments every three months is that while it helps my speaking, it limits my singing voice. My guitar playing has greatly improved after eight years of guitar lessons with Tony Chotem. So even though my singing is limited, I am still able to serve in the area of music ministry. When I get to heaven, I look forward to the complete restoration of both my speaking and singing voice. In the meantime, I am grateful that I am still able to preach and serve as a priest, after being told by my GP in 1981 that I would never preach again. Without the throat operation, the ongoing prayer, and the Botox treatments, this would have been my fate.
Central Ontario Christian Ashram retreat on July 22nd-24th
April 29, 2011
Janice and Ed Hird had a wonderful time as they spoke at the Central Ontario Christian Ashram at Jackson Point on July 22nd to 24th 2011 .
Click to view the brochure: Central Ontario Christian Ashram 2011 brochure
Correction: For the Registrar’s address it is #302, not #602.
Twenty-four North Shore Valentines
February 7, 2011
By Reverend Ed Hird
Valentine’s Day rolls around every year without fail. Husbands forget Feb 14th at their peril. Somehow our wives interpret our forgetting Valentine’s Day as a sign that we don’t care, that we may be putting other priorities like work and sports above them. So, husbands, be warned. Flowers are much cheaper than lawyers.
My wife and I moved to the North Shore twenty-four years ago as of Feb 1st 2011. Before that we celebrated four Valentines in Abbotsford, and six in Vancouver. As of May 21st 2011, we are celebrating our thirtieth-fourth wedding anniversary. I can tell you without any hesitation that I love my wife more now than I have ever loved her. To celebrate our 30th Anniversary, we flew to England to visit with our youngest son, serving then as a youth missionary in Newcastle. It is an amazing gift to be married to someone whom you really like to be with. My wife has been that gift to me. She has been so loyal in supporting our ministry at St. Simon’s North Vancouver in the past two+ decades. That is why I dedicated my book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’ “with gratitude to my dear wife who has been married to me for almost thirty years, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part.” You can imagine that it is not easy to be married to a clergyman, especially with the challenges that orthodox Anglicans have been facing in North America.
My wife serves as our St. Simon’s NV Music Director, co-ordinating several different choirs and contemporary worship bands. Archbishop David Somerville, who first ordained me, once said that if the devil ever gets into the church, he will come in through the choir. Because music is so closely connected to worship, it makes sense why music can easily be contentious. Sometimes people have worship wars over contemporary songs vs. traditional hymns. At St. Simon’s NV, we decided fifteen years ago to honour both expressions by offering both a traditional 9am BCP service and a contemporary 10:30am service. Because my dear wife is musically bilingual, she is able to encourage both expressions with integrity. Unlike many church choir directors who are always quitting and creating havoc, my dear wife has been a source of musical stability for the past two decades. Dynamic music is a key to a vibrant, healthy Church.
My wife and I went to Winston Churchill High School in Vancouver, both graduating thirty-nine years ago in 1972. But we only really noticed each other from a distance. We became friends while taking the bus home from the University of British Columbia. She was in Music naturally, and I was in Social Work, dreaming about becoming an Anglican priest. For around a year, we were only good friends. But eventually the penny dropped and I saw the light. My wife really impressed me with her great listening skills, her good sense of humour, and her hard work.
Finally one day in 1975, I invited her to go bike-riding to Little Mountain in Vancouver. The rest is history. Coming back from our second bike ride, I said to her, “Don’t take me too seriously, but relative to two days, I would like to spend the rest of my life with you.” For some reason, this shocked her. But she got over it, and we quickly moved to become engaged. When I introduced her to my mother, my mom said something that she had never said before: “The woman who marries Ed will need to have quarters for the bus”. What she meant is that while I have strong leadership giftings, I work best when I am complimented by someone with strong administrative giftings, who pays attention to the details.
In my first Valentine’s Day article for the Deep Cove Crier twenty-three years ago, I wrote: “Why do I still enjoy Valentines Day? It’s because all of us have a need to feel loved, even when you’re married. So often romantic love can fade imperceptibly from a marriage. In the busyness of children, work, school and sports, our marriage can easily get lost in the shuffle. Marriage Counselors tell us that romantic love is one of the greatest lacks in modern marriages. The bible reminds each husband to love his wife as his own body, to love his wife as he loves himself, to love his wife just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (Ephesians 5).
edhird
