Sunday, 29 December 2019
NEW YEAR, NEW DECADE
When I left the car auction ten days ago, I
was wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. A car dealer, the fellow I know as Sam who hails
from Somalia, responded with a smile and said to me, "Happy New
Decade!" It stopped me in my tracks
as I realized the truth of his salutation...which I have shamelessly used a
dozen times since he offered it. Twenty-twenty... it really rolls off the
tongue, doesn't it?
As the last days of the year unfold, I find
myself drawn to an annual exercise is crystal ball gazing. I survey several different news feeds on the
web and pour over the year-end edition of the Economist; everywhere I look, I
see one central theme: uncertainty. The
twenty-tens are closing in a haze of ambiguity.
Across Canada and around the world, I'm confronted with unresolved
situations in every sphere of endeavour: international trade; the rule of law;
social justice; climate change; national politics; world and regional
economics...you name it. The dominant
characteristic is uncertainty.
One pundit wrote: "Uncertainty is the
enemy of progress; if uncertainty becomes sustained, it devolves into
fear. Fear is an emotion powerful enough
to pull everything and anything down with it". Whoa - just wait a minute! That's a long leap from uncertainty to
collapse.
I have always believed that times of
uncertainty, distressing as they might be, are times of opportunity. Uncertainty and change arrive on our doorstep
like evil twins. They disrupt our steady
state, they challenge our expectations, they loosen the cement that holds our
foundations firm. Uncertainty and change
also force us to look at how and why we do things, with the follow-on step of
doing things differently and ultimately, doing new, different things.
And so, approaching a new year and new
decade, I'm more excited about the opportunity than I am concerned about the
uncertainty. As First United seeks a
path for transition and renewal of its mission and ministry, I'm drawn to the
question that challenges all of us in times of uncertainty: what would we do if
we weren't afraid to fail?
We could literally do anything together. Let's ring the bell...together.
Pat...still
Ring
the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in
~ Leonard Cohen, Anthem, 1992 ~
Friday, 13 December 2019
ECUMENICAL CHAPLAIN MINISTRY AT UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH
I never went to university or college as a
young adult. Even if I had, I don't
think my experience of it on Thursday would have been like it was 45 years
ago. Yesterday, I spent a few hours in
the midst of about 22,000 students who go to the University of Guelph (or, as
some people call it, Cow Poo U).
There were young folks every where...some
were heading out for the Christmas holidays, being picked up outside their
dorms by parents and friends, suitcases and duffle bags in tow. Others were in the student union building
alongside a Starbucks, coffee in one hand, muffin in the other, staring at a
text book or a lap top. It was the next
to last day of exams and there was a fair amount of cramming still going on. I felt their pain.
I was at the Guelph campus to learn about the
Ecumenical Campus Ministry (ECM) led by United Church minister Andrew
Hyde. He's a young-ish man, full-time
chaplain to the university students and staff who seek to make a Christian
faith connection on an otherwise secular campus. His chaplaincy is funded by money provided by
the Anglicans, the Presbyterians and the United Church of Canada; this is where
some of our Mission & Service donations go, to support the pastoral care
that he provides to students attending university in Guelph.
I had no understanding of his calling until
yesterday's visit; it didn't take me long though, to appreciate the value of
that ministry. I frequently read of or
listen to reports of the pressures that young adults deal with when they begin
post-secondary education. Many of them
are away from home for the first time; most of them have significant academic
workloads they have never experienced before.
The majority shoulder a significant financial burden to attend
university - tens of thousands of dollars of student debt is common. The pressure to achieve is immense.
It's not surprising that rates of anxiety and
stress for university and college students is high and climbing. It gave me confidence and hope that Andrew
was able to provide spiritual care and a safe place for students who need some caring
attention. He told me that he frequently
encounters students who have been desperately waiting three weeks for access to
counselling services provided by the university. For young adults whose faith community is far
away, or for those who have no faith background but just need a listening ear
and compassionate heart, his ministry is a life saver...literally.
I've never doubted the value of my giving to
the Mission & Service Fund; it made me feel good to experience the positive
impact of my gifts in the pastoral support provided to students by Andrew Hyde.
The purpose of the University of Guelph is
"Improving Life". Andrew Hyde
and the Ecumenical Campus Ministry are doing that.
Pat
Take This Thought
Away With You
"When
the Student is ready, the Teacher shall appear."
~ ancient proverb ~
A Week's Worth of Gratitude
Saturday
~ food drive at the hockey game
Sunday
~ the wonder of White Gift
Monday
~ Truth & Reconciliation
Tuesday
~ home in the snow
Wednesday
~ knights of the rectangular table
Thursday
~ Guelph Ecumenical Ministry
Friday
~ every day is a day of thanksgiving
I WONDER...?
Jesus was no dummy. But I wonder if he could read and write?
When I searched Google, what I found wasn't
convincing to me. There's that passage
from John 8 when Jesus intervenes to stop the stoning of the adulteress and
utters his famous words, "whichever one of you has committed no sin may
throw the first stone at her." Just
prior to that, the scripture says that he bent over and wrote in the sand with
his finger. As far as being able to
read, there are several passages that refer to him reading passages from
scrolls...but I wonder.
Jesus was known as rabbi - teacher - and we
know without doubt he was a great one.
He was a supreme story teller with an amazing grasp of Hebrew scripture. He was raised in that tradition and we know
he was drawn to learning. He knew how to
connect people and their lives to God through imagery and the spoken word. My guess is that most of his learning would
have been listening to stories, lectures, discussions and debates; I doubt that
he would have been allowed to handle the religious scrolls that made up the
Tanakh (the Hebrew bible) - certainly not as a child, and by the time his
ministry began, he wasn't exactly on the best of terms with the ruling order of
priests and lawyers...those that controlled access to the scrolls.
For most of the people, the whole process of
learning was based on oral communication (story telling). To be a teacher, you didn't need to read or
write. More likely, a teacher trained to
listen and memorize, then repeat to pass that information on to others. Writing itself was a very specialized skill -
those that could write were called scribes.
They earned their keep by writing or copying text, but they were seldom
teachers.
So, what was Jesus writing in the sand as he
contemplated a response to the Pharisees who brought the woman accused of
adultery before him? Maybe he wasn't
writing but drawing, tracing out something that he had seen before. Perhaps he wasn't writing but doodling to
gain time in formulating his response.
Think about that!
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