Who We Are

Comfortable Words is a Christian community in Montreal focused on the abundant grace of God shown to us in Christ Jesus. We believe that our worth is not our own abilities and accomplishments, but in God’s love for us. Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, God makes us his own and welcomes us into relationship with him now and forever. As a result, our worth and our value do not come from what we do, but from our relationships and above all from our relationship with God. We are freed from having to prove ourselves worthy – and so are freed to really love and care for those around us, not in order to prove how good we are, but in thanksgiving for what God has done for us.

We meet on Tuesdays at noon in Birks Chapel on the McGill campus (the second floor of the Birks Building, 3520 rue University) for worship according to the Book of Common Prayer 1962.

Our chaplain is the Rev. Ben Crosby (feel free to call him “Ben,” or “Pastor Crosby” or “Father Crosby” if you prefer). Ben is a priest of the Episcopal Church (the equivalent of the Anglican Church of Canada in the United States) and a PhD student at the McGill University School of Religious Studies, where he studies the English Reformation. He is available for conversation; feel free to get in touch at benjamin.crosby@mail.mcgill.ca.

Comfortable Words is a project of St Martha’s Chapel Montreal, a multi-church ministry to young adults, and the Society of St Mary Magdalene, an ecumenical Protestant society dedicated to knowing Jesus, pursuing holiness, and sharing the good news. We celebrate the full participation of women and LGBTQ people in all parts of our ministry and are committed to the work of Gospel proclamation and justice and reconciliation in the world.

What We Do

Worship is at the center of what we do as a community. We meet every week during the academic year to celebrate Holy Communion according to the 1962 Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church of Canada. Our service is held on Tuesdays at noon in Birks Chapel on the McGill campus (the second floor of the Birks Building, 3520 rue University). When we come together, we praise God, hear God’s Word, confess our sins, receive the assurance of God’s love and forgiveness, and celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

The liturgy (or order of service) we use might seem a bit unusual at first glance. Certainly the language is old-fashioned – you will hear words like “thee” and “vouchsafe” and “beseech.” But don’t let the unfamiliarity put you off! At its heart, the service is about nothing other than the Gospel: God is for us in Jesus Christ, accepting us not because of our worthiness but because of his love for us.

The point of the service is to convey the core experiences of Christian life, which we might sum up as guilt, grace, and gratitude. This liturgy seeks to make worshippers aware of our sinfulness, the ways that we fail to love God and our neighbor. But it doesn’t leave us there! Even if the language is somewhat harsh by contemporary standards, the point is not to make people feel bad about themselves. Rather, the service introduces sin in order to more fully celebrate God’s grace. And what is grace? Grace is God’s one-way love, which he shows to us in the person of Jesus Christ. In Jesus, God gives himself to us on the cross, in Scripture, and in the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion. And so we receive the forgiveness of sins and new life through faith in Jesus Christ. Our salvation is entirely God’s work, not ours. But this does not mean that there is nothing for us to do: the liturgy then calls people to live a life of grateful obedience and thanksgiving to God in response to the incredible gift of himself that God has given us.

What We Believe

Our beliefs are grounded in the Bible interpreted through the historic creeds of the Church and the Anglican formularies. This means that

• We affirm that there is one God who exists as three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit;

• This God created everything in the universe;

• The second Person—the Son or Word—became the Jewish human being Jesus of Nazareth; 

• The Son became human (this is what “was incarnate” means in the Nicene Creed), lived among us, taught us, and died on the cross for us all so our sins could be forgiven;

• Jesus did all these things so we can return to right relationship with God, grow into who we were created to be, and ultimately be raised from the dead like him;

• Holy Scripture, or the Bible, is composed of the Old and New Testaments and contains all the things we need to get to know God, return to right relationship with God, and grow into who God wants us to be;

• God has given us ways to know we are forgiven and become more like Jesus such as being baptized, receiving communion regularly, being a part of a Christian community (church), and praying and reading the Bible;

• Having our sins forgiven, coming back to right relationship with God, growing into who God created us to be, and being freed from death are completely the result of God’s love freely given (grace) and we do not earn these things through our own power; 

• Any ability we have to respond to God or work alongside God comes from the Holy Spirit working within us.

For more information, you can read the Articles of Religion, one of the formularies that summarizes many key Anglican beliefs, here.

[Statement of Belief lightly adapted from the Rev. Dr. Chris Corbin. Used with permission.]

Becoming a Christian

Are you looking for comfort that lasts in the middle of a society that makes your accomplishments or your perfect opinions or your abilities the measure of your worth? We would be thrilled to walk with you in your questions and share with you the answer that has turned our lives upside down: the love shown to us in Jesus Christ.

You are welcome to contact our chaplain Ben for a conversation, and attending our service is a good place to start. The way to become a Christian is through the sacrament of Baptism; Ben would be privileged to prepare you for baptism and baptize you in the context of our regular worship or to connect you with a local church.