Weekly Events

Worship, Sunday 10:30 am 

Bible Study, Tuesdays at noon 

                                               Advent-Christmas Pastoral Letter

                                         My heart shall sing of the day you bring.                                                  

                                         Let the fires of your justice burn.

                                        Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,

                                       and the world is about to turn.

            The words above are the chorus of The Canticle of the Turning, one of myfavourite Advent hymns. It is inspired by the Song of Mary in the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke (46-54) Like Mary’s Song, The Canticle of the Turning is both defiant and hopeful. It defies the powers that are in their insistence that there is no alternative and that the world must always remain as it is---arranged for the convenience of the wealthy and the powerful. It is exuberantly, even wildly, hopeful that God is doing a new thing. It looks for the dawning of a new day and a new order.

            I think we need to hear this song because it is easy to get stuck in an Ecclesiastes way of thinking and being: “All things are wearisome…….What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.” (1:9) Anyone who has ever attended a church meeting will know whereof I speak.

            And yet, there are always surprises. Just when it seems that everything is paved over and that all life is smothered under a thick asphalt of inevitability, something happens. As Leonard Cohen sings, “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

            For me, one of the welcome surprises of this season has been Pope Frances’ pastoral letter, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel). He speaks of the urgent need for the church to move beyond its obsession with sex, dogma and institutional survival. It is time, he says, to proclaim and live a Gospel of love and inclusion, especially for those afflicted by the cruel economic “reality” much of the world has embraced. While the Pope is speaking primarily to Roman Catholics, his words are important for all Christians everywhere. He reminds us of who we are and what we are here for.

            The church year begins with the first Sunday of Advent. We are starting over again. There is indeed something new under the sun. We await the birth of the Holy Child of Bethlehem. What matters is what he will become for us and in us. I want to conclude with the last section of Catherine Alder’s poem Advent Hands:

I see a fist held tight and fingers blanched to white.
Prying is no easy task.
These fingers find a way of pulling back to old positions,
protecting all that was and is.
Blanched to white. No openness. All fright.
But then the Spirit comes.
A holy Christmas dance begins
and blows between the twisted paths.
This fist opens
slowly,
gently,
beautifully,
the twisted fingers letting go.
Their rock-solid place in line has eased.
And one by one the fingers lift
True color is returned
And through the deepest of mysteries,
The holiest of holies,
O longing of longings
Beyond all human imagining
this fist,
as if awakened from Lazarus’ cold stone dream                                                         reaches out to hold the tiny newborn hand of God.

           Have a blessed Advent and a joyous Christmas.

         (Rev.) John Moses

 

Plans well underway for our year-long

 

Celebration in 2014!

 

 

 

Information panels advertising our 150^th year anniversary have been installed on the outside front of the church and were dedicated on November 24, 2013 at Trinity’s Anniversary Service. It is the hope that the panels will serve as reminders to church goers, as a welcome to passersby, and perhaps an enticement to residents to participate in some of the various activities planned for the year.

 

 Posters have also been designed outlining the various events tentatively planned for the year. These are displayed throughout the church building.

 

 Our first ever New Year’s Day levee! We will start our celebratory year officially with this exciting venture for our church. We anticipate that 200 to 300 people will pay a visit to our sanctuary, between 11:30 AM and 1:30 PM, to view the beauty of it, to meet some of the Church Council and other members, to have a bit of refreshment with mulled cider and cookies, and perhaps to gain some knowledge of the long history of this downtown church building. This Levee will be family friendly, not just an adult occasion, so all are invited to attend.