The Third Sunday After the Epiphany
In our 2020 Christmas newsletter we laid out the exciting new adventure for our pastoral church as the SPPC search committee continues its diligent search for new leadership following Candice’s retirement.
In order that the search committee can continue to focus on their job, a nine-month plan has been put in place to keep everything on an even keel until our churches open up physically again and/or you have new spiritual leadership in place. It is primarily lay led, with the addition of specific short-term contracts and the possibility of visiting ministers in the future.
— Read in full in our Christmas Newsletter (pg. 13)
Last week we introduced the lay group that is overseeing the weekly postings on our website, offering ways to worship on Sunday, and news and reflections for the week.
We are also blessed with a group who are part of our church family and to whom we have turned for pulpit supply.
Rev. LeeAnn McKenna is an ordained minister and the Founder and Executive Director of Partera Peacebuilders International. She works around the world doing nonviolence training in conflict zones.
Jill McPherson is a spiritual director trained in transformational community work with a particular interest in interfaith dialogue and healing conversation, particularly in young families.
Ann Harbridge, the current minister at Trinity Centennial in Rosemont, has long been a supportive presence in our midst, and is currently the supervisor with our pastoral charge.
We are well blessed to have these spiritual leaders to teach, guide and lead us when needed.
As we wait and watch to see when our churches may open up again for worship, we know they are standing by to fill in when the time comes. Or, perhaps in co-ordination with our digital oriented lay group, they may imagine new digital formats for Sunday mornings.
All of these women are also available for crisis care, palliative council, funerals and weddings, or anywhere else where an ordained presence is required. If you have need of such care, please call one of our clerks of session:
Ann McAlpine: 519-925-5974
Gail Brown: 519-925-2397
and they will help make the connections.
But this week, our theologians are ‘from away.’
Service
Traditional
Rev. Sandra Abuja, at Westminster United Church in Orangeville, offers a traditional live stream church service Sunday mornings at 10:30. Here is the link to their YouTube channel. You can watch it live or later at your leisure.
“Trust in him at all times; you people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.”
Contemporary
How We Can Face The Future Without Fear, Together
This TED talk was recorded in 2017, not long after the American Election 4 years ago. No matter what is happening in our personal lives, our communities or the world at large, fear can easily overtake our minds. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks offers us a way to move forward without fear, together.
“We may be dust of the earth, the debris of exploded stars, a concatenation of blindly self-replicating genes, but within us is the breath of God.”