To TO, To Stay

Earlier this morning, Archbishop Thomas Collins entered into his new See, where he'll be installed next Tuesday before a crowd headlined by 60 bishops and Canada's three cardinals.

The 60 year-old prelate made a characteristically unassuming arrival from his birthplace of Guelph, on the bus he's taken "countless times" since his boyhood. This time, however, something was different: "now I am heading home to Toronto," Collins said in a message sent en route from his Blackberry.

The week of festivities inaugurating TC's ministry as the 12th head of Anglophone Canada's flagship local church begins with one of his signature flourishes Sunday evening as the archbishop-elect presides at a Vespers service with Lectio Divina at TO's St Basil's Church. A series of regional Masses around the diocese begins in St Michael's Cathedral three days following the 30 January installation. The week following, Collins has blocked out two days for private meetings with his new presbyterate.

Due to space restrictions, attendance at the installation liturgy will be limited to ticketholders. Due to cost considerations, a live feed has been tabled, but the feed will be available on a delay to Canadian viewers via Vision TV and Salt and Light. At press time, an archived webcast hasn't been ruled out.

(And, speaking of S&L, in tribute to Archbishop Meagher a moving interview with the just-homegone Kingston prelate has been re-posted.)

As it all nears, keep it here for the wall-to-wall.

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