Mike and Sarah's Arctic adventure: The Cathedral Church of St. Jude, Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada

On Sunday I presided at Holy Communion at the English service at 9.45am and I preached from the lectionary gospel of the day. The congregation reflects the multi-national community including Canadians, Africans, Fijians and South Koreans all of whom have English as a common language. It was very special to share bread and wine together in Christ. The bishop, Darren McCartney, assisted me at Communion and led the intercessions. He spends 3 weeks in 4 travelling to his parishes all of which can only be reached by air. His wife, Karen, resides here in Iqaluit and looks after the music in the cathedral while working full-time for the government of Nunavut, developing the crime prevention strategy for the various communities in the province. They keep in contact daily by phone or Skype. I am looking after the English service throughout the summer.

At 11am there was a service of Morning Prayer conducted in Inuktitut the shape of which I could follow readily enough. I preached and a lady Rebecca interpreted for me. That seemed to go well.

At 7pm in the evening there is an informal service or praise and prayer. This is in Inuktitut but the atmosphere of worship is tangible. So 2 hours seemed to fly by even though you could only occasionally recognise a hymn tune.

Below are some photos of the Cathedral. In one photo you will notice a box of handkerchiefs on the communion rail. There is a lot of brokenness in the Inuit community with high suicide levels and high levels of domestic and sexual abuse. There are many hurting people. In all services people come to the communion rail during worship to unburden themselves before God, often weeping, and they receive prayer.