News and Views

Email comments, questions, suggestions to
ware605040@gmail.com

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The Coming Week

Sunday Dec 29, no Sunday gathering this week.

Tuesday Dec 31, No Discussion Group at Wares' this week.

Our change-for-change offerings have provided $750 for each of the Guelph and Centre Wellington foodbanks. Well done, everyone.

Have a delightful New Year, everyone.

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Future Events

Jan 5, Communion , place to be announced,

Ed presiding

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The Foyer
Marion suggested that I (Dennis) should share my Christmas thought with you. Here it is.

Dorothy told me over breakfast on Christmas day that when she fed the fish she wished them Merry Christmas. As for me, I never look at the aquarium. Merry Fishmas doesn't spring to mind.

Dorothy is my better half. She has enough empathy for both of us, projecting consciousness and agency and feelings in improbable places. As a child, she would kiss a pig. Good for her. Even I get some of that. She gets it back.

And that is the spirit of Christmas,
that the world and all its children
get some love
and give some love. 

Merry Lovemas.

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Useful Links

Community of Christ World Headquarters

Canada East Mission

Herald House Worship Resources

Daily Bread

Toronto Centre Place

Brian Carwana: ReligionsGeek

Encounter World Religions

World Accord

Children's Foundation of Guelph and Wellington

Suzuki Early Childhood Music Classes

Merry Christmas

As Christmas nears, is your pace of living ramping up or slowing down?

This is our first “out of the building” Christmas season. And as a congregation we have worked really hard to support the needy in our community. We rightly celebrated exceeding our goal for Adopt-a-Family. We’re imagining some happy Christmases because of our efforts. We’re working on our quarterly donations to the community food banks. We’ve got ideas for our continuing support in the new year.

We’ve celebrated this Advent season “on the road.” To us this has meant four different locations and what amounted to a “Have wreath; will travel” Advent. Which meant bringing fresh greens and carrying the purple and pink candles with us as well as the songs and stories that helped us focus on the meaning of the season. Each location was blessed with a good spirit and the sense of sacred space.

But now we’re looking forward to a bit of a slow-down. After our carol service this week we’ll step back from planning and prepping and general “church work.” Our group is small and we’ve been intentional about pacing ourselves.

We wish everyone a Blessed Christmas season, whatever that might mean. For some it will be sad; may you find comfort in good memories. For some will be hectic; may you find genuine joy in your gatherings. For some it may be lonely; may you be comforted by the true Spirit of Christmas.

Merry Christmas from the Guelph Elora Community of Christ!

The Story Continues

It occurred to me today that there’s a lot of moving around, uncertainty, looking for space in the Christmas story. First, of course, there’s Joseph and Mary, travelling from their home to Bethlehem. They’ve got to find a place to stay, The town is crowded with other travelers and they’re really kind of desperate when they settle down in that stable. But it works. The baby Jesus shows up right on time, Mary wraps him up in the blankets she’s brought with her and lays him in the manger. Phew! They settle down to sleep.

But the story goes on, The angel appears to some shepherds out in the fields. Why them? The story teller wants to let us know that the story is bigger then we thought at first. It’s bigger than that little family, snuggled down for a well-earned rest in that stable. So the shepherds get the message. And they go looking for this very important baby who has been born. They’ve got some clues, but they don’t really know where to go and they go searching.

We’re on the move again. We have choices. Our little group will move out of the nice cozy chapel we’ve been borrowing. Maybe we need a star so you can follow us to this home or that one.

But wait! We’ve got something better than a star. We’ve got the Internet! Please, please, please check your e-mail or look at this website because we’ll always tell you where we are. We’ll put the word out as soon as we know where we’ll be. This week it will be Marden’s community room. Easy access, plenty of parking, midway between our north and south members. Call if you need a ride or help with directions.

Follow the star and know that you’ll find Jesus in the centre of the circle that gathers in this new space just as surely as he has been in every place we’ve gathered before.

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A Prophetic People

Here’s a question:

What does it really mean to be a prophetic people?

Is it possible to use the Bible as a guide for daily living?

What are the core scriptures that Community of Christ lives by?

When everything changes what remains eternal?

In what way are we “exiles” in our own land? How should we read Jeremiah 29 (plant gardens, marry and give in marriage, for in their fortune lies your fortune)?

Yes, but…

It’s Tuesday morning at the Warehouse and our little group is deep in exploring some problem of theology, or philosophy, or ethics, or ecology. We’ve got the alarm clock so we won’t go over time. We meet from 10:30 til noon. We must use a clock or we’d invariably go over time. Each one of those questions above was good for one or two or more weeks of deep discussion. We look at what used to be called “basic beliefs” and we’ve dug into proclamations about Jesus and Scripture.

One inevitable phrase is “Yes, but…” because we’re not afraid to look at a topic from a different perspective. We’ll test a premise against an enduring principle. We look at a question in a way we’ve never thought of before and chew on it for a long time.

We started our discussion group as a way to stay connected through the summer. It’s December now and we’re still going. Not everyone comes every time. But everyone is welcome when they can. Our group of six or seven or eight is pretty consistent. The conversation about “serious” topics scratches that itch for those who still want a deeper dive than our short worship times or our community projects permit.

There you have it. One more facet of the new Guelph/Elora congregation.

The Call to Notice

When our congregation moved out of our building one thing we vowed to do. Since we were no longer meeting the Holy Spirit inside our church building, we would have to pay attention, to notice those times and places the Holy Spirit was at work outside. We pledged to do that. Of course we’d always known the Holy Spirit didn’t belong to us inside those sacred walls, but we acknowledged that sometimes we might have acted that way. So we told each other we’d have to watch and listen carefully. We felt a call to Notice!

Since then, oh my, where to start!

I talked with the man who came to trim the trees in the park near me. Long story short…he was an accountant who felt he needed a new job. Something that got him outside, something that contributed to caring for the earth. He went back to school and now he felt like he was helping restore the balance the planet needs to care for itself. He didn’t use the words “sacredness of creation” but it was clearly one of his enduring principles too.

Barb is the woman who runs the community team of volunteers working out of the portable in the neighbourhood school. The team feeds the families nearby who need some extra help. They plant a garden and accept extras from round about and deliver produce and food to those who can’t get out. They’re busy at Christmas matching up those of us who’ve got extra with those who need gifts to give to grandchildren; they run a “store” where kids without money can shop for presents to give siblings, parents, whoever. And more. They do so much more. Barb is in a wheelchair and can’t get around much but she has ideas and energy to spare, and to share with neighbours who can and will do the work.

I never drop in without thinking about “the blessings of community”

Now those are just two little stories among the dozens of stories our group has shared since we’ve been actively responding to the Call to Notice!

You’ll find it won’t take long of noticing that you’ll hear the next call – the call to pitch in!

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What You Can Do

What you can do when you can’t do anything

Our town, like so many others these days, is in the midst of some very tough times. This has been an especially hard week. We’ve been doing what we can to support the food banks and the Adopt-a-Family. We’ve donated socks and winter coats and we’ve got plans for Janu-wear-y (more later) but it’s not enough.

Some days it feels as if it’s never enough as we bear the burdens of the unhoused and drug poisonings and expulsions. Those feel like problems that are just too big for our small group.

But here’s the thing. The thing we can do when there’s nothing else we can do. We talk to a neighbour, or we’re at the hairdresser, or we’re just passing the time of day in the grocery store and someone refers to “those awful people.” Maybe they speak of some way they deserve punishment or that they’re feeling afraid to go downtown because they’re there.

Well, here’s your call to action. You must remind your neighbour that those people are also our neighbours who’ve fallen on hard times and need our help, not our scorn. No one chooses to live on the street and they would be elsewhere if they could. They’re trying to support each other as best they can. And even if they are frightening they are someone’s child, or sister, or cousin you’ve lost track of.

If you can give to the folks at Hope House or Friend of Downtown Neighbours you can be grateful that someone is helping. If you get a chance to change the conversation so the political leaders lean a different way, please do so.

When there is nothing else you can do, that is what you can do. You can change the conversation to one that is more compassionate. And if yours is the only kind word spoken make sure it doesn’t go unsaid.

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Healing River of the Spirit

Here’s the hymn we didn’t sing on Sunday (technical difficulties)

This prayer for all those touched by war, and for us who search for our right response was written by hymn writer, Ruth Duck. She is an ordained minister, a theologian and retired professor of worship. She has written more than 150 hymns, many included in our hymnal.

“Healing River of the Spirit” # 232 CCS

Healing river of the Spirit, bathe the wounds that living brings.
Plunge our pain, our sin, our sadness, deep beneath your sacred springs.
Weary from the restless searching that has lured us from your side,
We discover in your presence peace the world cannot provide.

Wellspring of the healing spirit, stream that flows to bring release,
As we gain our selves, our senses, may our lives reflect your peace.
Grateful for the flood that heals us, may your church reflect your grace;
As we meet both friend and stranger, may we see our Saviour’s face.

Living stream that heals the nations, make us channels of your power.
As the world is torn by conflict, wars are raging at this hour.
Saving Spirit move among us, guide our winding human course,
Til we find our way together flowing homeward to our Source.

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