One More Step

One more step along the world I go.
From the old things to the new
keep me traveling along with you.

So sang the congregation at the end of last Sunday’s Anniversary service. Since then, our next steps have become a bit clearer.

As Dennis informed us last week, the largest number of votes received at the meeting on November 6th opted for a merger between SouthWest and Summerlea United in Lachine. The second highest number were for SouthWest to remain independent but to meet in the Summerlea building at a different time (we have been offered 11:30). A number of people also expressed a preference for finding a space to rent closer to home (Verdun or Lasalle) but unfortunately, we have not found such a place, and at any rate, we cannot, as SouthWest United, choose multiple paths; we must settle on one.

Church Council met this past Monday, and some of the members of council attended a meeting at Summerlea on Tuesday where they were greeted with open arms. The path forward that emerged from these meetings is this: SouthWest will merge with Summerlea, but there will be a transition period of at least six months.

Those of you who have been in this place before know that amalgamation is not necessarily a quick and easy process. Just because we will leave our current building as of December 31st, doesn’t mean that SouthWest can be dissolved as of January 1st. We will still have to do financial and annual reports accounting for the past year. There is also the fact that SouthWest has a contract with Pastor Beryl until June 30th, 2023. Therefore, the ministry plan that will be presented to Regional Council will propose a merger with Summerlea, but allow for a transition period of 6 months or so.

Beginning in January, a SouthWest service, led by Pastor Beryl and Sarah, will take place at Summerlea at 11:30. As per her part-time contract, Beryl will lead worship three times a month. Where we have had lay leadership filling in once a month at SouthWest, we will instead suggest that on Pastor Beryl’s Sundays off, SouthWest people simply attend the Summerlea service at 10:00. This will allow us to get to know their minister and the congregation and should help smooth the way to eventual merger.

We know that some will not be willing to attend an 11:30 service, even temporarily. Some may make the jump to attending Summerlea’s service right away, or may opt for another church altogether. Of course we cannot force anyone to stay with SouthWest. At the same time, we do think of all of you as family and therefore want to make sure that the distance is not the thing keeping you away. It has not been formalized, but we will work on finding lifts for people who wish to attend the 11:30 service in Lachine.

SouthWest will continue to pay three employees for six months: Beryl, Sarah and me. Summerlea is offering us some storage space and even possible office space. The newsletter will continue to go out every Friday for the time being. Also it looks like our grand piano, and a few other treasures, will go with us!

We will keep you informed of any new developments. Meanwhile, the snow on the ground reminds us that in another week or so we will be in Advent. Let’s enjoy one last Christmas season in our beautiful church.

And it's from the old I travel to the new.
Keep me traveling along with you.

 

-  Amy

Jesus Started a Movement

Sometimes the things I read are so profound that I just want to share them with everyone. This week I am reading from Richard Rohr’s daily meditations which opened with the following words:

 I really don’t think we can ever renew the church until we stop thinking of it as an institution and start thinking of it as a movement. —Clarence Jordan, letter, 1967.

Michael Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. is passionate about the church rediscovering itself as a movement of Jesus, and he said:

Jesus did not establish an institution, though institutions can serve his cause. He did not organize a political party, though his teachings have a profound impact on politics. Jesus did not even found a religion. No, Jesus began a movement, fueled by his Spirit, a movement whose purpose was and is to change the face of the earth from the nightmare it often is into the dream that God intends. . . .

That’s why his invitations to folk who joined him are filled with so many active verbs. In John 1:39 Jesus calls disciples with the words, “Come and see.” In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he asks others to “Follow me.” And at the end of the Gospels, he sent his first disciples out with the word, “Go . . .” [. . .] As in, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). . . .

If you look at the Bible, listen to it, and watch how the Spirit of God unfolds in the sacred story, I think you’ll notice a pattern. You cannot help but notice that there really is a movement of God in the world.

Curry identifies several characteristics of the Jesus movement : [1]

First, the movement was Christ-centered—completely focused on Jesus and his way. . . . Long before Christianity was ever called the Church, or even Christianity, it was called “the Way” [see Acts 9:2]. The way of Jesus was the way. The Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of God, that sweet, sweet Spirit, infused their spirits and took over. . . .

The second mark of the movement is this: following the way of Jesus, they abolished poverty and hunger in their community. Some might say they made poverty history. The Acts of the Apostles calls this abolition of poverty one of the “signs and wonders” which became an invitation to others to follow Jesus too, and change the world. . . . It didn’t take a miracle. The Bible says they simply shared everything they had [Acts 4:32–35]. The movement moved them in that particular way.

Third, they learned how to become more than a collection of individual self-interests. They found themselves becoming a countercultural community, one where Jews and Gentiles, circumcised and uncircumcised, had equal standing [see Acts 15:1–12].

Curry continues, taking inspiration from the early church for our own moment:

Ministry in this moment . . . has to serve more than an institution. It has to serve the movement.

If you found inspiration in these shared words, I am blessed in being able to share them with you.

And, as we enter the season of Advent in Hope, please consider this inspirational image:

We cannot see the wind, but we feel it. We recognize its presence by watching the world around us move in response to its power. At times, the movement of Spirit towards justice feels invisible and interminably slow, but like waves slowly shaping the shoreline, in time we see the fruits of God’s movement. (unknown)

In peace

Pastor Beryl, DLM

[1] Curry draws on Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza’s book In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins, 10th anniv. ed. (New York: Crossroad Publishing), chapter 4.

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75th Anniversary Service

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Our building is 75 years old, and has been a United Church for all of that time. Although the Crawford Park congregation was founded a few years earlier, the first service was held in what is now the hall of this church in November 1947. When the upper sanctuary was completed five years later, it was inaugurated in November of 1952. Our Nov. 13 service will be devoted to remembering our church history. All are invited to share a particular story or memory.

A Word from our Clerk of Session

Our pastor Beryl commented that the vote taken last Sunday was "disappointing". I am not sure which disappointment she was referring to. I found it disappointing that we only received 28 ballots, two by email, one by Canada Post and the balance of 25 in person.

 The totals for the 4 options were: no votes for closing down the ministry, 10 votes to rent space anywhere, 14 votes to rent space in a church and 17 votes to merge with another church. People had the option of making more than one selection.

 So, we have two strong options to manage. We, the members of the church council will do our best in the coming weeks to secure an arrangement that respects the wishes expressed by these ballots.

 In January we will be worshiping God together. At what time and where is still up in the air,

but we will be together. Thanks be to God.

 

Dennis Brown

Doors and Windows

Thoughts gleaned from Steve Johnston in Bumper Sticker Theology

 

“When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us”.  Alexander Graham Bell.

At face value this statement seems simple and true, but much is left to interpretation.

How do we evaluate what’s a door or window and what’s not a door or window?

What if there are multiple doors and windows?

How do we know who it is that is opening and closing?

So often we assume that God’s goals for us are the same as our own.  Like when we pray for something and then expect to get the answer we want.  This is bumper sticker theology and, if we are honest, we know that this is not how things work. It’s not how God works.

As we mature, we begin to understand and, hopefully, accept the real possibility that the prayer we want answered is not God’s goal at all and there is no window to be found.   

Sometimes we assume that, because God is sovereign or supreme, God has infinite ways to get us what we want and to where we want to be. So, when a door is closed it is not actually “no” but rather awaiting an alternative path to be revealed.

This idea is read into many verses and Bible stories such as Romans 8:28. “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” The idea read in is that since God wants good for us, if something happens to hinder or stop that, God will find a way to make the good thing happen.

Again, the problem is our idea of good—achieving our goal—may not be the same as God’s idea of good.

Finally, there is the assumption that all the responsibility to close doors and open windows is God’s and we are to just wait.

But there are those times when it is our responsibility to close a door to something in our life and to seek out that window whatever that may be.

Also, it could be that a door seems closed but we need to knock for a while or apply some effort before it will open.

The major limitation with this statement is in thinking it is all-encompassing, something to be believed under any and all circumstances.

In reality doors do close for good and there is never a window opened.

Sometimes a relationship ends and there isn’t another one.

There are doors in Scripture that at one point are open but then are closed and there is no window.

When God closed the door of the ark there was no other opened or a window for an unbelieving world.

Jesus, who called Himself “The Door,” foresaw a day when lost people would try to enter yet be unable to do so because it will be too late. The one door of salvation will be forever closed to them (Matthew 25:11).

Our assurance as believers is that God has a plan and a purpose for us and is constantly working behind the scenes in every circumstance in our life to further that plan.  But, here is the catch……we need to remember it is God’s plan, not ours.

So, living as disciples isn’t about making our plans and going through the doors and windows of our own design to accomplish what we desire. It is about coming to terms and a place of peace for God’s purposes for us.

Many of us are saddened by the closing of SWU, myself included.  Many of us are unsure of where we are headed –either as a community or on our own.

But I encourage you to take a breath, look back over the doors which have been slammed in your face over the years.

Have you not realized that, recognized and welcome or not at the time, something changed and you found yourself exactly where you were meant to be?

Yes, the vote last Sunday was disappointing.  But let’s ask God for the wisdom and courage to look towards a future yet unseen, giving thanks for works which has already been accomplished and daring to have enough faith to believe in God’s plan for what is yet to come.  Amen

In peace

Pastor Beryl DLM

 

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