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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Whether opening the side door for young people in need or welcoming those with addictions and other illnesses to fellowship, Holy Trinity Anglican Church has been a refuge for the suffering in Yellowknife for many years.

Lay leader Elvis Hwata, left, Bishop Chris Williams and lay leader Joey Royal stand inside Holy Trinity Anglican Church after Sunday's service. - Thandie Vela/NNSL photo

While the SideDoor, which started in the Anglican church in 1995, has now moved to its own building, anyone looking for a message of hope need only drop by the 51 Street chapel for a Sunday morning service.

"The world may look broken and full of trouble, like God is distant or uncaring," lay leader Joey Royal said during his sermon last Sunday, highlighting the issues of substance abuse, lack of hope, lack of purpose for the future and sickness that is commonly seen in the city and the world at large.

"But even behind all of that, God is at work and bringing the world where he wants it to be."

"Just as a mustard seed blooms into a tree, or yeast gets into a batch of dough and makes bread, so it is with God's kingdom," Royal said, basing his sermon on the parables of Jesus.

"God is at work bringing the world to his purposes, even if we don't immediately see it."

Visitors to the church may be greeted at the entrance by a lady named Rona, wife of Bishop Chris Williams, who gives each person a detailed program of the service, the Book of Alternative Services, and the Anglican Church of Canada hymn book. The Book of Alternative Services is very helpful in keeping up with each part of the service, which is highly structured like Roman Catholic Church services. When the Anglican church was formed out of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, the church preserved many of the traditions of the Catholic Church, including the succession of bishops, and early church creeds.

While the robes of the clergy, infant baptisms and the structured liturgy are reminiscent of the Catholic Church, Williams says the closest denomination to the Anglican Church is the Lutheran Church, which they consider a partner.

"Most of the differences are historical rather than doctrinal," Williams added.

Any baptized Christian, regardless of denomination, is welcome to partake in communion by the Anglican Church.

There are an estimated 70 million Anglican Church members in 164 countries, including 64,000 individual congregations.

The Anglican Church is noted for being one of the Christian churches that blesses same-sex unions, but the Diocese of the Arctic, of which the Yellowknife church is a part, does not marry homosexual couples, Williams said.

"We accept them as people but we don't approve of their lifestyle."

The mandate of the church is, "to know Jesus Christ and make Him known to the community."

The Anglican church was first built in Yellowknife on Latham Island in 1937. In 1950, the chapel that stands now on 51 Street near 49 Avenue was built. Sunday family service starts at

10:30 a.m.

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