Let Us Sing

Do you have a favourite hymn? How about your congregation? Are there hymns you love to sing together? Are there hymns that have a habit of reappearing on your order of worship?

We’re a group that loves to sing. Lately we’ve been taking particular notice of our hymns, what they say, how their melodies speak to us. It’s not unusual for someone to ask for a hymn to be repeated, or to ask if we could please sing the hymn just used as a prelude piece.

Last week we discovered an old familiar hymn printed in our current hymnal with new words! It surprised some of us who had thought we could sing this particular hymn without looking at the words. But no. They were new words.

This launched the conversation in our Tuesday group. What was the origin of this hymn? Was it one of “ours” and how did these new words come about? We learned from Jane Gardner’s article in the Herald that the practice of “correcting” hymns began at the very beginning of our church’s history. WW Phelps was assigned to correct Emma Smith’s collection. In discussing our experience with the various editions of the church’s hymnals we recalled many examples of familiar songs being changed, updated or discarded altogether when their words no longer fit the current theology or identity.

We’ve come to pay particular attention to the lyrics of our hymns, both the new ones and the old familiar ones. Very often the words of one our hymns provide the main message for the day. As we launched our new season Hymn 237 formed the foundation prayer. With the words of God Renew Us By Your Spirit we prayed for renewed energy, revitalized dedication to our mission and a sense of joy and celebration to share with all we meet. I find myself returning to the words of this hymn as I plan activities and worship for the months ahead.

Oh, in case you’re wondering, the hymn whose words changed was #127, We Gather Together (in Hymns of the Saints it was #11) in case you’d like to look it up. It’s a traditional Dutch hymn translated by Theodore Baker and “corrected” by Ruth Duck.

--MS

Advice for Tomorrow

Our Tuesday discussion group has roamed far and wide, but the last couple of weeks mostly circled around the theme of “prayer.” As I’ve reflected on our conversations I’ve also noticed that we also explored the idea of how important it is to us, as a group, to have these discussions. We’ve considered how much we’ve learned from each other over the years. We’ve appreciated the deepening relationships that come our of the experience.

I really don’t have a final conclusion to an idea that I can tie a ribbon on and offer up as a “lesson for the day.” But I did find a poem I wrote many years ago that feels somehow connected to last Tuesday’s discussion. Here it is:

Advice for tomorrow

Know that what you seek
will not be what you will find;
what you learn will not be
what you’ve been taught;
what I might tell will not be
what you will hear.

But do not stop seeking
or listening or learning,
because there will always be
more to it than you first imagined
if you are willing to let it grow.

Today’s knowledge is
tomorrow’s mystery
and tomorrow’s mystery
may turn to wisdom
or understanding
or joy.

Today’s pain may turn to courage
or insight or compassion.

Whatever happens
don’t stop living
until you die.

Marion Smith

Unity In Diversity

Our discussion group this week focused on “prayer.” It was not a “prayer service” per se but a discussion about how we thought, or believed or practiced prayer. We considered the place of prayer in our congregation; we looked at differences and similarities in the various attitudes we were willing to own around how our group prays. So interesting!

Our conversation roved far and wide. We talked about sacraments, invocations and benedictions, our practice of praying for friends and family, even the blessing of food at potlucks and picnics. We learned that some of us “pray” the hymns we sing. Some of us “check out” when prayer is offered because we think we don’t share understanding of “what prayer is supposed to do for us.”

Which comes to the point of this blog. How do we know what we understand if we never talk about it? How did we learn about prayer if we’ve never told each other what we think? So our discussion moved into our practice of prayer as children. We spoke of bedtime prayers and table blessings. Do some of us feel that food that hasn’t been “blessed” is less holy or less nutritious or really shouldn’t be eaten without an official “table grace”?

How has our understanding of prayer evolved? How does it evolve without intention? What do we do with this difference? Do we use different language in our public prayer? Do we judge people who pray differently, who pray “wrong”?

One of the valued gifts of our congregation is that of prayer shawl ministry. It is a regular occurrence for us to bless one or more prayer shawls that various members have made as a blessing for those with specific needs. We think of these handcrafted shawls as a warm hug for someone who needs one, whether because of ill health, or loneliness or grief. And we add our congregation’s prayer to those who made them.

Someone might ask just what happens when we pray this blessing. Is it magic? Must we lay our hands on the shawl, or is a virtual touch enough? Is the whole idea a “placebo?” How do we explain the testimonies of “success”?

This really just scratches the surface of our conversation. (We’ll probably talk some more in future.) One of MY main learnings from Tuesday’s discussion is up there in the title. As we talk about our theology we realize that we’re all on a journey and that we mostly take different routes. And yet we also know just how much we value and care for each person in our group. No matter what they believe! In fact we may value their “difference” more than we imagined. And we didn’t know that until we talked about it.

Who knew it was even possible to think of God as a mother until someone addressed their invocation to “Mother God”? Maybe this new thought began a significant moment in my faith journey.

But this might require a further conversation in a congregation like ours. I am so thankful that this is part of our identity. We’ll love you if your ideas are different but we hope you’ll be willing to talk about the difference because it’s those conversations that tie us together.

Gather Us In

Our leadership team met this Tuesday to begin planning for the new season. We’ve had a summer to rest and recharge and now it’s time for us to get back to work. Ten of us gathered to remind ourselves of where we are, how is our budget doing, how have our circumstances changed while we’ve been apart and what do we want to do next.

I’m thinking of last week’s foyer conversation about prophetic people, shared leadership, the need for dialogue and decision-making as we pick up the things we must do if we are to fulfill our mission to represent Community of Christ in this community.

Our identity has two parts: we need to look outward and feel the needs of our neighbours, and the need to gather together to support and strengthen each other.

How good it felt to be together again. To complete the circle and hear the updates each one had to share. The good news of new grandchild, the thank you note from the excited new camper, the report of the various new adventures of various extended family knitted us together. But also the health challenges, the hospital experiences, the sports injuries and the car accident also belong to us all and we are glad to be part of each other.

So here we are at the beginning of September, not exactly “back to school” but back to the familiar routine of gathering as a community, a reborn congregation. We’re in our familiar spaces surrounded by familiar faces and grateful for our shared mission, in our president’s words “to live as citizens of God’s diverse, Spirit-driven community—not for the sake of the church alone but to help restore the world to God’s vision of shalom.”

If you’ve been missing our gatherings, by all means consider this your invitation to come back. Watch for weekly updates of where we’ll be and come along. You’re welcome to join our circle; in fact, we’ve got a place just for you.

*******************

Rebirth

This week our Tuesday discussion group looked at President Stassi Cramm’s opening letter in the latest edition of the Herald. She spoke about the world conference experience and about how the church is set to be reborn, set up to begin a new era with energy and hope. It felt very much like a reflection of what our small group has been experiencing in the past year, and more.

Her reflections on the conference and on the gathered community rang true for us. “We don’t feel like a church that is dying, but one that is being reborn.” As we sold our building and moved into the neigbourhood we fielded many such comments about our future. Friends commiserated and offered sympathy for what they believed must be our sadness. But we weren’t sad. We felt only hope and possibility as we moved into the unknown. And now we hear those feelings echoed in this letter from our new prophet-president.

She speaks of a need to live inside the surrounding culture, to exemplify what it means to live our enduring principles, not just affirm or preach them. To signal how compassion and sharing and advocating for justice can change us all.

References to a new way of operating felt encouraging too. Leadership must be shared. Our decisions come from dialogue, of consensus building, of trying out new ideas and projects that change our extended community for the better.

Resolutions emerging from World Conference were different. They didn’t give instructions on “what to do” but should be seen as “beacons, guiding our path” and calling us all to find that prophetic voice in ourselves. The call to live as “a prophetic, collaborative people.”

Next week we will pick up the traces and get busy on our new season. Our leadership team, which really represents the whole group will work on plans for the rest of the year. Our budget will be modified to add things we want to do. And our gatherings will get plugged into the calendar. Hopefully we can live up to the guidelines Stassi offered: living as possibility people, imagining new and hopeful futures, with the momentum to respond to the Pentecost experience.

Not because we are better than the community that surrounds us but that we are part of that community. We all have access to that Spirit if we are open to it. And as prophetic people we choose to show the way.

Back to School

It seems that everyone is obsessing with going back to school. Even those of us who left school decades ago. It’s in the air. Stores are filled with ”bts” shoppers. Traffic patterns are changing as people leave work early to get to those malls before closing. (Do they ever really close?) And woe to those of us who forget and get caught on our trips out to the doctor or other normal appointments. Must remember to avoid every route around this “move in weekend” at the university!

All this to say that it seems there’s nobody chatting in the Foyer this week! Nothing to say. Must be all the distractions of end-of-summer, back-to-school time. Sorry folks. Maybe next week.

Good luck!

Laugh and play and sing

We had our church picnic at the farm last Sunday. We missed you. It was great! The rain overnight meant that the humidity had broken and the sun was not so hot. Plenty of shade and big fluffy clouds made it the perfect day for a picnic. What a time we had!

Cheryl and Gladys won the mother/daughter three- legged race. Though Jennifer and Diana and Marion and Barbara were close behind. Ed easily took the sack race. Must be his farming background. And Dennis was the clear canon-ball champ. Dorothy stayed on the stilts for the longest time while Diana caught the most caterpillars. Who did I miss?

The food was perfect for all our crazy gluten-free, vegan, no sugar needs but there was also plenty of everybody’s favourite picnic food. And the rain clouds went around us while we visited in a cozy circle for a couple of hours. Thanks to Jennifer and Jacob and Danny for the wonderful hospitality.

Last week we talked about the very serious team that gets serious things done. But this week we remembered that any team also needs to take the time to have fun. And fun we had. We try never to forget to “Be faithful to the spirit of the Restoration, mindful that it is a spirit of adventure, openness, and searching. Walk proudly and with a quickened step. Be a joyful people. Laugh and play and sing, embodying the hope and freedom of the gospel.” D&C 161:1.

We’ll do this again. We hope you can make it next time.