TSA Trumpet With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. Psalm 98:6
Raw Gospel Endings and New Beginnings End of Life
October 2018
October 2018
TSA Trumpet Contents 4 .... From the Pulpit 5 .... Point of View 6 .... Raw Gospel 6 .... UCW - Information evening 9 .... Search News 10 ... Endings and New Beginnings 11 ... Moderator's Welcome
Cover Photo by Eiliv Aceron on Unsplash TSA Trumpet - October 2018
3
FROM THE PULPIT Grace and peace to all of you as we enter the season of fall, a time of meetings and responsibilities. The holidays are at an end and the joy of meeting our commitments has begun. I hope your summer time met your needs for rest and sunshine and renewal. As I enter my third month of being your minister I am very grateful for all the people who are so actively involved with this church and who are supportive in so many ways. Names are still a challenge, but slowly I am remembering more and more. I am very conscious of only being here half time and so cannot attend all the events and meetings being offered, yet I want to attend as much as possible. Hopefully, as my time with you increases, I can attend each committee at least once or twice over the next year. One of the questions asked at the bible study was what brings you extravagant joy in this church. The response was the times in which people gather together, whether over a meal or other event and were able to get to know each other. As Thanksgiving approaches – or will have just passed as you will receive the Trumpet after Thanksgiving, I invite you to reflect on what brings you extravagant joy at church, at home, at work and give thanks to God.
Rev. Anja
Welcome to Trinity-St. Andrew's United Church in Brighton, Ontario. Our active congregation offers meaningful worship with a varied music program, Sunday School, opportunities for faith exploration and discussion, as well as fellowship, more traditional Bible study and educational opportunities for all ages, in a liberal Christian context. With the excellent leadership of Rev. Ken Lewis we are very blessed. Our mission includes elder care, such as friendly visiting, and outreach activities like Friends of Migrant Workers and the Clothing Depot. Come join us in our bright, centrally located and historic space. Trinity-St. Andrew's is an Affirming Congregation and has a policy of full accessibility for those with disabilities.
4
TSA Trumpet - October 2018
TSA Trumpet October 2018 TSA Trumpet is the newsletter of Trinity-St Andrew's United Church. Our goal is to inform members and adherents of the activities and upcoming events in our fatih community MANAGING EDITOR Brian Ostrander COPY EDITOR Tammy Ostrander PUBLISHER TSA Public Relations & Publicity Committee Trinity-St Andrew's United Church 58 Prince Edward Street Brighton, Ontario K0K 1H0 613-475-1311 www.trinitystandrews.ca
POINT-OF-VIEW We have so very much to be thankful for here at Trinity-St. Andrew's. So as we breathe in the Autumn, with its cool freshness, let us breathe out all of those things that are holding us back from being the best we can & doing the best we can. Let us be thankful for everything God gives us, the things we see as blessings, the challenges set out before us. Thankful for the new things in our lives, and those things that provide us with moments of nostalgia. Let us be thankful for what we have, our heritage sanctuary and our "new" hall; and for those things that are coming our way, our new audio-visual system and our new minister. Thanks be to God, Happy Thanksgiving,
Brian Ostrander
ADVERTISING Internal advertising for TSA functions is free of charge External advertising inquire tsatrumpet@gmail.com Advertising in this newsletter does not constitute endorsement by Trinity-St Andrew's United Church, nor guarantee quality, value or effectiveness of any products, services or methods advertised.
TSA Trumpet - October 2018
5
Raw Gospel Raw Gospel, A Men’s Gospel Music Group will be conducting our worship service for the first Sunday in November. They sing and perform in four-part harmony the greatest gospel songs in Gaither Vocal Band style. This group also makes themselves available for local church fundraisers. Let all of your friends know that on Sunday November 4th they will be conducting our worhsip service adn performing right here at Trinity-St. Andew's
6
TSA Trumpet - September 2018
Community Care Northumberland Hospice Services
search News by Brian Ostrander At our recent September meeting we discussed the one resume that had been sent through to us by Conference. We agreed that we would ask again for Conference to forward the "availability" list and that we would run an advertisement in the Observer (October and November online & November in print). We of course continue to offer the information on the TSA and Conference websites and have been listed on the UCC vacancy list. During the surveys the four "most important" qualities in a new minister identified by you were: - Ability to work with and relate to people of different age backgrounds. - Ability to communicate a Christian message meaningfully. - Ability to conduct worship that is relevant to the needs of the congregation and the community while being aware of global issues. - Ability to guide support and lead a congregation through a time of discernment, challenge and change. We don't ask much.. do we? Your committee remains steadfast in our goal to find the right minister for our congregation, not the first one who present him/herself. We remain prayerful and hopeful!
TSA Trumpet - September 2018
9
Endings and New Beginnings by Nora Sanders By season, fall is a time of endings, but in most of our lives, and certainly, in our regular church cycles, it is a time of new beginnings. For us in The United Church of Canada, this fall is a time when endings and beginnings are swirled alongside each other as we say goodbye to former structures and roles and prepare for new ones. As is always the case with change, we are preparing for the new as well as we can, yet knowing that there will be unexpected experiences or issues or feelings that we encounter. That is something to be both nervous and excited about. At the General Council Office, we have gratefully retired certain phrases, like, “should the remit decisions be enacted by General Council,” that were previously part of every planning discussion. With the conditional removed by General Council’s decisions in July, the preparations are fully underway. Everyone has a lot of meetings in September. Here are mine: - Moderator’s Advisory Committee (new) - Governance and Agenda Committee - GC43 Executive (new – not yet in authority but planning for how they will work in new ways) - General Council Office management group - All parties to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement - Indigenous Ministries Council (as the Aboriginal Ministries Council has renamed itself, during their time of preparation for developing new structures and relationships within the Indigenous part of our church, flowing from the Calls to the Church approved at General Council) - Staff leaders - Expanded meeting of staff leaders, General Council staff deployed in the regions, and program staff from the regions… (many people in new roles and coming together to form new working relationships) - National meeting of United Church Women leadership - Joint meeting with Anglican and Presbyterian counterparts to consider shared services possibilities - GC42 Executive (coming up this weekend, to consider business referred from General Council and manual changes arising from decisions made at General Council) I may have forgotten some, but you get the idea, and I know that you have your own lists. Pretty well all of these meetings have had some common themes… Change, new ways of doing work, racial and other forms of diversity, white privilege, right relations, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. These are the topics coming up over and over again as we work into these new times. It’s a time of stretching ourselves, a time that is both invigorating and uncomfortable. In the midst of this time when so much is changing, let’s remember to turn to these words from Hebrews: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." 10
TSA Trumpet - October 2018
Moderator's Welcome Message by The Right Rev. Dr. Richard Bott Transcript of Videotaped Message: September 2018 Hello, my name is Richard Bott. My pronouns are “he,” “him,” and “his.” This past July, the General Council elected me as the 43rd Moderator of The United Church of Canada. I’ve been asked what it is that I’m hoping to focus on over the next three years. I’d really like to see us—as individuals, as communities of faith, and as a denomination—to explore what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ in The United Church of Canada in the 21st century. Who is Jesus—for me, for you, and for us—and what does that mean for how we live and work and celebrate the presence of the divine together? Part of the joy of The United Church of Canada is that we have so many different answers to these questions—and, when we get down into the vulnerable depths of discussion, we have the ability to experience God’s presence in powerful ways, learning from one another. I believe that the Holy Spirit was moving at the 43rd General Council—in gusts that carried us further along paths that we’ve been discerning for a time—as we listened to, and accepted, the calls to action of the Caretakers of Our Indigenous Circle. We have a long way to go to truly become people walking together in right relationship with each other and with the Creator, but I am so thankful for the teachings and the challenge that our Indigenous siblings have been willing to offer, and that those of us in Christ’s church who are settlers and descendants of settlers are listening, learning, and acting. I believe that the Holy Spirit was moving at the 43rd General Council—in a gale-force whirlwind, when racialized commissioners and commissioners who are differently abled spoke of the experiences in their lives of racism and ableism—not just in the world but in The United Church of Canada. In those few hours, God challenged those of us who are part of the dominant church to realize that every single person is a beloved child of God and to do the deep, hard work of rooting out and changing our internalized and overt racism and ableism. In all of this, there is listening that needs to happen, and conversations that need to happen, and there’s action that needs to happen. There are moments that each of us will feel overwhelmed. If we take a look at the biblical stories, there are times that many of the disciples who walked right beside Jesus were overwhelmed—even ran away. But they came back, and they lived Jesus’ Way to the best of their ability. There are so many things happening in the life of our church and in the world around us right now. Political changes, social changes, structural changes, and all of these changes, whether we think they’re good or not, add to our stress. There’s a phrase that I once heard used by a Buddhist teacher, a play on words that both makes me smile and gives me pause, “Don’t just do something. Sit there!” It was their way of challenging the listener to stop and simply be until the moment was right to act. For me, as a disciple of Jesus, those moments of quieting myself are a lead-in to the conversation with God that we often call prayer. So I’d invite you, in those moments when all of the change, all of the transition threatens to be overwhelming, “Don’t just do something. Sit there!” Listen carefully—to yourself, to your neighbour, and to God. Then act, and let your action be as full of your love and God’s love as you are able to make it! Let’s see where Jesus’ Way is leading us today. TSA Trumpet - October 2018
11
church Calendar
Submissions Submissions may be sent to tsatrumpet@gmail.com