Certificates of Appreciation Announced

Dear friends,

I am delighted to offer my sincere and hearty congratulations to the 2023 recipients of the Diocese of Algoma Certificates of Appreciation.  Each and every one of these faithful and dedicated co-workers in the church and ministers of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ are worthy of our recognition and gratitude.

This is the second year that incumbents and wardens across Algoma have submitted the names of three individuals to receive a certificate. A list of all recipients will be provided once we are assured all certificates have been presented.

Thanks to the assistance of my Administrative Assistant, Liz Hamel, the certificates have been prepared and mailed out to the incumbents and will be presented to the individuals receiving them during Sunday worship. Please send photographs of our honoured recipients to Archdeacon Jay Koyle (jay.koyle@dioceseofalgoma.com)  so that we can post them on our diocesan Facebook page. A few saints have been recognized posthumously with their family members notified – may they Rest In Peace and rise with Christ in glory.

As I look through the list of those being honoured this year, I see many familiar saints of Algoma whose lives and service embody our diocesan mission to do, ‘The gathering work of Christ so that his newness of life overflows into our hearts, homes, churches and community.”

They are people of prayer and worship who minister on Sundays and through the week; they are people with generous hearts whose understanding of local needs sees them reaching into their congregations to one another in fellowship and understanding. They are people who carry the message of the gospel outwards to the world serving as evangelists, teachers and involved in works of social compassion and justice. They are like a city set on a hill whose light cannot be hidden so that others find in them the Christ – the light of the world.

The apostle Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 12 that real effectiveness in ministry takes place when the whole of the body of Christ is working together. “As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.” In the Diocese of Algoma we rely on each and every member to take their place in the body of Christ using whatever gift God has given to them. That gift, offered in love, makes a difference and is a blessing to the entire body.

Hear it from me, your thankful Bishop that your work and your ministry matters. May the Lord Jesus Christ, for whom we wait this Advent, keep you in his love and light.

As we recognize this year’s recipients let us pray:

Lord God, whose we are and whom we serve, help us to keep glorifying you in all the thoughts of our hearts, in all the words of our lips, and in all the works of our hands, as becomes those who signed with the cross and marked as Christ’s own forever. Amen 

+Anne