My job title is bishop of the islands and inlets. I grew up sailing with my grandfather and father and met my husband while crewing on a tall ship. It was only a matter of time before the temptation of a boat to call my own got the better of me.
It took a while to find something that was both seaworthy and in our price range, but last fall James and I become the proud owners of a 1979 Tartan 37 called Payette. She is moored at Oak Bay and over the summer we managed to visit three island parishes by sail.
In July, while on holiday, I spent a lovely Sunday with the good people of All Saints, Salt Spring Island. In August, we had weekend visits to St. Margaret’s, Galiano Island, and St. Peter’s, Pender Island. Once they heard I would be arriving by boat, St. Peter’s insisted on “She Came Sailing on the Wind” as the opening hymn.
Making parish visits by boat has been a lot of fun and a spiritual discipline in its own right. It’s about 30 nautical miles from Oak Bay to Bedwell Harbor and even in a good strong wind with the current going with us the fastest we can get our boat sailing is 6.8 nautical miles/hour. But, of course, the wind is never quite blowing in the “right direction,” and some crisscrossing of the Salish Sea is required. Moreover, it’s not uncommon for the wind to more or less die altogether and for us to have to take down the sails and fire up the 1979 diesel engine (prayers appreciated), whose top speed is a noisy 5 miles per hour. We do our best to avoid motoring but when the wind dies at the mount of Active Pass and you both want to avoid getting run down by a ferry and get to the parish potluck on time, motor you must.
Travelling by boat also requires a certain downsizing of the episcopal trousseau. Climbing on and off boats to get to church limits me to what I can fit in a backpack. I am of course not the first bishop to travel by boat. The diocesan travelling crozier, which bishops in these islands and inlets have been using since 1926, comes apart into three pieces.
When I travel to parishes by boat, I often celebrate the eucharist using the Salal and Cedar Eucharistic Prayer that Laurel Dykstra has given me permission to adapt to suit our context here in the Diocese of Islands and Inlets. That prayer has been posted on our website under liturgical resources. The prayer intentionally places us — in the story of salvation, in this particular part of God’s creation, with whales and eagles, fern and hemlock — and reminds us of our call to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation.
We are so blessed to live in this place. May God give us the wisdom to live in such a way that we honor the lands and waters, the people, plants and creatures and, above all, our creator.
