Praise him with singing…
June 1, 2011
As Living Stone Concert Productions, we brought in the late Tom Howard
As Living Stone Concert Productions, we brought in the late Tom Howard
Local Bob Rich Band from Granville Chapel
Bob Rich is now the Abbotsford Police Chief
It is amazing what students can accomplish when they don’t know better.
The Sound of Light Worship Band inspired us to form our own Morning Star Band.
Our Morning Star band started in September 1975 and wrapped up in 1979/80 as we completed our Morning Star Album over an 18-month period. We went across the border for many sessions at the Gossett recording studio.
God has been faithful in the past 30+ years….
June 1, 2011
Christmas 1979
Looking at this photo from thirty years ago, I fondly remember my beloved maternal Grandmother Nana Allen (on the 2nd right). She was an amazing inspiration in my life. I would likely not be an Anglican priest today without her inspiration and prayers. My mother Lorna is on Nana’s right. Mom also knew that I would become an Anglican priest. She is an amazing listener, putting up with my lostness and self-pity throughout those painful teenage years. To the left of Nana is dear Vera, my mother-in-law who passed away eleven years ago from cancer. What a prayer warrior she was. How we still miss her. She chose me as a future son-in-law well before my wife Janice clued in. 
On the far left is my dear father Ted whom I love more every year. He will be turning 87 this year, and is more vital than many people thirty years his age. He is always learning and growing. His Christian faith is always deepening. I want to be like my dad when I grow up.
On my Dad’s right is my twin brother Edward Allen Hird As we were all part of a Christian Rock Band ‘Morning Star’, we had the customary longer hair, though I was sure that mine was short compared to others. Don Robinson my brother-in-law is on my right, just behind my beautiful wife Janice. Don was the mastermind behind our Christian Concert Production agency ‘Living Stone Productions’ which put on an amazing number of outreach concerts. We were only university students then. Looking back, I am amazed at all that was accomplished. But during the Jesus Movement, we didn’t know any better. So we just went ahead and God supplied.
On Don’s right is my other brother-in-law John Cline who is a good friend and a Baptist Pastor in Edmonton. John is a deeply pastoral person who loves Jesus, and is a great credit to our family. To the direct right of John is his father, my father-in-law Rev David Cline who is turning 88. What an inspiration David has been through the years. What courage he has shown in standing up to false teaching. What kindness he exhibits to hurting and broken people. Without David and Vera, we would not be active today in the wonderful Christian Ashram retreat movement. Thank God for loving, faithful family, including Nana Allen and Vera Cline who have since been promoted to Glory. I am truly grateful for the gift of family.
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.
Thanking God for godly mentors in 2011
September 14, 2010
By Rev Ed Hird
Happy 2011! The New Year season is a time for both remembering and anticipating. This New Year, I particularly remember one of my mentors Ernie Eldridge who has helped me more effectively spend the last 6,900 days on the North Shore.
Healthy mentors make the world of difference. Ernie Eldridge mentored me when I was just finding my way in the world.
Ernie believed in me when I first came to faith in 1972 and reassured me that I had done the right thing. Ernie gave me sage advice about relationship choices, even assisting at my wedding thirty-one years ago. When I was completing my Social Work degree at UBC, Ernie carefully listened as I shared my dream about becoming an Anglican priest. After thirty years of ordained ministry, I am grateful that Ernie could see potential in a well-meaning, rather naïve young adult.
In the mid 1970s, we started a singing group called Morning Star and a parallel LivingStone Productions which organized contemporary music concerts at Queen Elizabeth Theatre and the PNE Gardens. Thanks to Ernie Eldridge’s mentorship, Morning Star received a national grant that enabled us to sing throughout BC, including an extensive outreach to Vancouver Island. During that period, we sang extensively on the North Shore, including Hillside Baptist, West Vancouver United, and St. Simon’s North Vancouver.
As a social worker, I had the privilege of working for John Braithwaite in 1975-76 at North Shore Neighbourhood House. But I had no idea that God would one day have me spend several decades living on the North Shore. That was never on my radar screen. After four & a half years serving as the assistant priest at St Matthew’s Anglican Church in Abbotsford, I knew in 1986 that it was time to become a Rector/Senior pastor. One of the first people that I asked for advice and prayer was Ernie Eldridge. Ernie agreed that it was time to move on. In ‘casting my bread on the waters’, I applied for two positions: St Thomas Chilliwack and St. Simon’s North Vancouver. When I met with the St Simon’s selection committee on Badger Road in Deep Cove, they asked me a lot of challenging questions. My answers did not always impress myself, but I left that meeting with a deep sense that I would be moving to the North Shore.
Ernie Eldridge always cheered for me when I was facing my next major transition. One time he went to bat for me with my bishop at great personal risk. Two of Ernie’s gifts to me that have been invaluable on the North Shore were his ‘Death & Dying’ and ‘Time Management’ courses. He taught me the need to prepare for one’s death and to grieve the inevitable losses that we will all face. While writing my book ‘Battle for the Soul of 
Canada’, my wife and I were privileged to visit Ernie and Barb in Beaver Harbour New Brunswick before Barb died from ALS. Recently Ernie produced a thoughtful book ‘Hope, Help, Heaven’ on his last ten years with his dear wife Barb.
Because Ernie uses a time management system, he was able to write his book in which he journals his thoughts and activities on a daily and weekly basis. One of Ernie’s favourite verses was Psalm 90:12: “Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Through Ernie’s influence in 1982, I began using the Seven Star Diary system after my voice was restored through surgery. For the past twenty-eight years, I have regularly recorded my work activities in a journal format. As a result, I know exactly how many hours I have spent on any particular activity. Ernie taught me to ‘redeem the time’ because life is short and easily wasted (Ephesians 5:17, Colossians 4:5).
Through Ernie’s time management system, I am aware that I have now spent 6,900 days serving the North Shore. Time flies when you enjoy your work. It is a great privilege to serve each of you. It has not always been easy. In the past twenty-four years, I have been privileged to be involved in some of your baptisms, weddings, and funerals. Through the Deep Cove Crier and the North Shore News, I have been privileged to communicate with each of you in hundreds of diverse articles. Over the last two decades, St. Simon’s NV has served many of your children, preteens, teens and young adults through our gifted young pastors, the Rev Ken Bell, the Rev Josh Wilton, and Jill Cardwell. In the past 17 years, I have had an opportunity to personally visit over 6,600 of your homes to see what you think and feel.
I am excited in 2011 about the possibilities of having even more impact on the North Shore. St Simon’s NV, which has been in existence for the past 65 years, recently celebrated its 6th anniversary at Maplewood School. We, the St. Simon’s NV family, are here to stay and committed to serving you using our time, talent and treasure. In the same way that Ernie Eldridge has helped me make better use of my time, I pray that each of us reading this article will learn to more effectively redeem our time and become better stewards of this sacred gift of our fleeting days.
The Reverend Ed Hird, Rector
St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Mission in the Americas (Canada)
http://stsimonschurch.ca
- previously published in the 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
I Love You, I Love You, I Love You…
July 12, 2010
By Rev Ed Hird
Who can figure out this mysterious, intangible reality called ‘love’? It won’t show up under a microscope, an ultrasound, or a CT Scan. But most of us know in our heart of hearts that love is real and love matters deeply. Without love, something dies inside. With love, something miraculously comes alive.
In the mid-1970’s, my wife and I were part of a soft rock band called ‘Morning Star’ which played for five years throughout BC. We were also part of a concert promotion group entitled ‘LivingStone Productions’. One of our favorite rock musicians that we brought in to the Queen E Theatre was the late Larry Norman, the father of GodRock. One of his songs ‘I Love You, I Love You, I Love You’ impacted us so deeply that my sister and future brother-in-law sang it to each other at our wedding.
“We can be together now and forever
I love you, I love you
Hey, can you hear me, I’ve got to have you near me
I love you, I love you
I was lonely till you came along
Now you’ve got me singing your love song
I love you, I love you, I love you….”
It is not enough to sing a love song once at one’s wedding. We need to re-sing it every day in a thousand ways. After thirty-three years of marriage, I have learnt that love needs to ‘have legs’. Love needs to be practical. Love is taking out the garbage. Love is driving the kids to school . Love is doing the dishes when you are feeling exhausted.
The Good Book says that it is not good for man to be alone. I too can sing ‘I’ve got to have you near me…I was lonely till you came along’. A loving marriage is a gift beyond description, a gift of intimacy, caring, and hope. God knew what he was doing when he invented the miracle of marriage.
“Life is a mystery, love is a dancer
I love you, I love you
I had a question, you brought the answer
I love you I love you
Oh but I need you so
I could never let you go
I love you, I love you, I love you…”
No one can figure out love. It just is, or it just isn’t. Love brings a contentment that makes no sense. Love is stronger than death. Thirty-three years later I realize more than ever how deeply I need my wife, how much she calls forth the best in me and our children. My wife, to put it frankly, is irreplaceable.
“I was lonely once but then you came along
And you gave me love so I wrote down this song
I wanna spend my life with you like the angels on high
You’re the morning star, you’re the Son in my sky.
I love you, I love you, I love you…”
All of Larry Norman’s music pointed to Love beyond love, Life beyond life, Hope beyond hope. My wife and I have discovered again and again that the heart of our marriage is Love, the love of God found in Jesus Christ. May each of us discover the heart of love, the morning star, the Son in the sky.
edhird
