BREAKAWAY 2012
For the 80 persons who were able to attend Breakaway this year it proved to be once again: a recharging station for rundown batteries; a chance to let down our hair and let off steam; an opportunity of getting to know one another at closer quarters, as well as being a time of discovering fresh truths about ourselves, God, and being the Church in the world.
The fact that there were over 70 of us had its parallel in Jesus’ sending out 70 of his followers two by two to proclaim the Good News of his kingdom. We were at Breakaway for a purpose: to renew our faith, and to become better conductors of it to others.
To that end we were each presented with the gift of a flashlight when we arrived, reminding us that we are ‘the light of the world,’ and that it is up to us to ‘let our light shine.’ There is plenty of darkness all around us, but in Christ, who is ‘the light of the world,’ we are empowered to overcome the gloom and shed hope instead of despair, faith in place of fear, and love as an antidote to hatred and violence.
Bishop Philip Poole proved to be ‘a burning and a shining light,’ pointing us in the right direction with insight and humour. He started off by comparing us with the church people he visited recently on a visit to Malawi in Africa, where in spite of poverty and unemployment thousands of worshipers fill the open-sided churches on Sunday for services that go on for five hours, with exuberant singing and dancing and hour-long sermons! He felt that they had a different spiritual DNA from us, and that it was perhaps time for us to work on our own DNA. Referring to Lent and the practice of self-denial, he suggested that ‘taking up our cross and following Jesus’ involved more than giving up some trivial habit: it required denying our own self-will and self-centredness and making a serious commitment of acting on the command to love God and our neighbour as being part of ourselves.
During the free-time on Saturday afternoon some of us attended a Kairos presentation led by Bruce Cameron. It included a ‘Blanket Experience’ – a dramatized account of Canadians’ relationship with 1st Nation people over the past 400 years. The blankets on the floor represented Turtle Island – the land of Canada before Europeans arrived. We were asked to stand on the blankets as though we were the original inhabitants. Sections of treaties were then read that progressively depleted the land and meant that we had less blanket to stand on. In addition, the blankets contained measles, TB, and smallpox germs that also decimated our numbers. Massacres and deportations carried off others, leaving the remaining survivors very little of Turtle Island left to call their own. Instead they were herded onto reserves where many continue to live under sub-human conditions. This whole experience had a profound effect upon the participants and caused us to do some serious heart-searching afterwards.
Saturday evening featured Saturday Night Live – a lively program of entertainment put on by the brave-hearted, including children and adults all having fun together. There was a varied assortment of skits with solo performers and groups dressing up and generally making fools of themselves in a way they never get a chance of doing back in the parish, but greatly appreciated by the audience who were kept in stitches most of the time – all of it ‘virgin on the ridiculous!’ See the photographs.
Sunday morning concluded with the Bishop’s telling us of various new expressions of faith and ministry in the diocese, and urging us to think ‘outside the box’ and get on with developing our own unique gifts and resources. This led into the closing Eucharist in which we all gathered around in a circle as Bishop Poole celebrated and embraced us all in his own special brand of faith, hope, and love. One couldn’t help feeling that this is the kind of bonding together in a unity of heart and mind that ought to characterize all that we do as a parish family.
Frances Flint who had carried the responsibility for organizing Breakaway this year gave the parting words, thanking all those individually who had participated in various ways. In thanking her, Bill Drummond spoke for us all when he said:
“Not only did she step up to the plate... she hit a home run!”
Breaking away from Breakaway gets harder each year: you know you can’t duplicate that experience in the parish. At the same time, each participant comes away with something they know is going to make all the difference from now on.
And there is always NEXT YEAR – and the 20th anniversary of Breakaway – to look forward to!
Peter Gratton