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Sunday Aug 23, 10:30 AM, Communion at Wares'
Wednesday Aug 26, 1:30 PM, Discussion at Wares'
For future plans see the >> Meetings << page.
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The Foyer
As we are preparing to launch a new season of regular gatherings of our congregation, it feels like the right time for a little backward glance and a reminder about where we’ve come from. Also, folks continue to ask how we did it. What questions did we ask, what was our process to move from a century old, traditional established congregation at #8 Mitchell Street to our current nomadic state with a new, but clear identity, mission plan and path forward?
I recall another summer season we gathered in a circle in our old parking lot, beside the community garden and talked about who we were, who we wanted to be, what were our priorities. How could we continue to be a viable congregation without that building? What could we preserve and what could we do without? Where was our commitment if it wasn’t to the building?
Many, many conversations later our mission emerged. We pushed each other to clarify who we really are, how that will look in this community; what would we do to live our mission and remain visible to our neighbours? A plan was emerging. Seeds for actual projects began to take root, took on parameters, champions stepped forward and put goals before us with budget amounts.
We were at the same time polishing our identity as a worshipping community. Our numbers, our ages and energy levels meant we needed new ways of gathering. Less “sermon-centred” more collaboration and participation. Putting all these pieces together on paper for review and more conversation (we talk a lot)and we had a mission plan, properly integrated with a budget and we were off!
There has been some evolution over the three years that followed but we’ve followed our plan and enjoyed the journey. We feel happy about the causes we’ve supported and the bonds that tie us even more tightly together and to our community. Now enough backward stories. Follow us here for what comes next in this life as the Guelph Elora Community of Christ.
Not much chatter
in the foyer today. We’re deep into summer and our little group is scattered far and wide. Those still at home are consumed with enjoying or escaping the heat, harvesting the beginnings of the garden’s produce , or searching out the truly perfect peach. As I munch on this excellent ear of sweet corn I’m starting to think about plans for the Guelph/ Elora group when we reassemble in September but it’s too early to share just yet. I hope you’re having a good summer and looking forward to meeting soon. Bring your ideas for our mission, what you’ve learned or who you met on your travels. Many and varied conversations will inevitably follow and there will surely be some interesting topics happening in the Foyer. Stay tuned.
Welcome Visitor
This week our discussion group welcomed Brian Carwana, the director of Encounter World Religions to join our conversation. We always appreciate his company , his breadth of knowledge and the ease with which he shares the most interesting information about the eastern religions. We’ll have plenty to talk about over the next few sessions: Religion, that most human thing shared by everyone everywhere.
If you haven’t met Brian, or you’d just like a reminder of what he does, here is his blog. It’s particularly significant in this hiatus time for us in the Guelph Elora congregation. It’s called “The Value of Pausing.”
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>> Some Useful Links <<
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Bible stories
This week our discussion group welcomed Brian Carwana, the director of Encounter World Religions to join our conversation. We always appreciate his company , his breadth of knowledge and the ease with which he shares the most interesting information about the eastern religions. We’ll have plenty to talk about over the next few sessions: Religion, that most human thing shared by everyone everywhere.
If you haven’t met Brian, or you’d just like a reminder of what he does, here is his blog. It’s particularly significant in this hiatus time for us in the Guelph Elora congregation. It’s called “The Value of Pausing.”
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>> Some Useful Links <<
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Were Bible stories a part of your childhood? Did you cheer for the boy David who knocked out the giant Goliath with his slingshot? “POW” right between the eyes! Did you identify with the people escaping from Egypt and watching Pharaoh’s army drowned as the Red Sea rushed back to cover them. Maybe you preferred notions of big sister Miriam watching over baby Moses hoping the princess would find him and rescue him and live happily ever after.
Remember all those animals piling into Noah’s ark. If you didn’t have that toy, hundreds of former generations of children did. For generations of children it was the only toy deemed appropriate for Sabbath play.
What did we learn from Bible stories? How did we learn? What do we do with those stories and their impact today? Or does it even matter? Maybe you were the kid who relished the heroism, the excitement, even the violence of the stories? Or were you the kid who thought about all those drowning soldiers who were just following orders. And what about the whole population and all the animals that didn’t make it onto the boat? The rainbow didn’t mean anything for them.
And all the favourites in Bible stories: Jacob over Esau, Joseph over everybody, Daniel, Ruth… No wonder Jesus’ disciples argued over who was greatest.
This is how our mid-week discussions go. We start with a question or two and end with many, many more. The Bible story topic led us to thinking about how we view the Bible. How do we find guidance in this ancient text for our time? We acknowledge that it’s so very important not to just lift out a text and pick out a plot. We need to dig deeper. Look at context. Reject the obvious, explore our reactions, consider where we find value, recall the enduring principles.
I realize now I could go on and on. (We did go on and on last Wednesday.) This is one way our congregation deals with scripture. Not many “answers” but lots of intention. Not many “sermons” but lots of conversation.
Not In The Garden
For the third morning I’ve stood inside my patio doors with my coffee. Normally I would step outside and begin my morning visit to my garden. It’s come to that amazing stage of glorious bloom. Day lilies and shasta daisies, hollyhocks and cone flowers, spectacular flower planters with coleus, petunias… Oh I could go on and on. Even the prickly pear cactus is at its peak with an explosion of yellow flowers.
I know will only last a very few days. And I really can only imagine them as I’m confined by smoke-filled air to my inside space. I have no answers to offer this morning, only questions.
Our discussion this week was about “choices.” Our choices make a difference. It’s important to engage, to think critically about things and to use our “free will” to make the best decisions about what to do in any given situation. Our choices matter just as the choices of others affect us.
You see where I’m going with this, don’t you? What choices can I make this morning? I can sit in my comfortable, air conditioned house and think about the people affected by choices I’ve made or not made that have brought us to this place. I feel very remote and separate and yet I at the same time I’m also aware of how connected we are.
My own brother was canoeing in the wilderness and needed to be rescued by a helicopter from a rock in a lake near Armstrong in northern Ontario. I’ll not share more of the scary details. He’s safe. But as I think about his story I can’t help but imagine all the other people not so lucky. I think of the families and whole communities who’ve also lost their cars and canoes. But who’ve lost their homes, their lives. Then i think of the animals, the birds and the bunnies and the bears. I think of the trees, the acres of forest, home to insects, snakes, squirrels and others.
The loss is so much bigger than I can imagine. I should be wrapping up this essay with some wise bit of insight. But I have none. I believe our choices matter but today I can only think of all the wrong choices that have brought us here. Where do we go from here? One day the air will clear and I can get back to my garden. But I and we will face new choices. I hope they will be good ones; choices that remember we are all connected to each other and the whole sacred creation.
God in the hymn book
Dorothy sent us to the hymnal at our discussion group this week. We were looking for hymns that best express our own concept of God and what it means to follow Jesus. Needless to say a rich conversation followed. I’m not even going to try to summarize it for you. Instead I offer this hymn, #4 in Community of Christ Sings.
It’s a hymn that was new to me! But a hymn that speaks to just how impossible it is to find any “one” way to express God’s identity no matter how we try. “Source and Sovereign, Rock and Cloud”.
Source and Sovereign , Rock, and Cloud ,
Fortress, Fountain, Shelter, Light,
Judge, Defender , Mercy, Might,
Life whose life all life endows.
Word and Wisdom , Root and Vine,
Shepherd , Saviour, Servant, Lamb,
Well and Water, Bread and Wine,
Way who leads us to I AM.
Storm and Stillness , Breath and Dove ,
Thunder, Tempest, Wind and Fire,
Comfort, Comforter, Presence, Love,
energies that never tire.
And the refrain:
May the church at prayer recall
that no single heavenly name,
but the truth behind them all
is the God we all proclaim.
Words: Thomas H. Troeger, b.1945
