Mid-Week Message - Feb. 18

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be always with you!

You may notice a new look to my mid-week Message - the day has come when MailChimp's free account no longer meets our needs. Thanks to my colleagues, I have exported our mailing list to Cakemail, and will hopefully be sending our weekly emails from here moving forward. Not only do they have significantly more generous allowances for their free account (twice the audience size and 12x as many emails per month - not that I would ever need to send that many), but they are also a Canadian company, so our data is now housed in Canada. Once I know that everything is working well here, I will permanently delete my MailChimp account.

Anyways, last week I mentioned that I had been watching a lot of the Winter Olympics, and based on conversations that I've had with a number of you, I know that I'm not the only one. (At a Westfield Stewards meeting last Tuesday, three of us were a bit late as we wanted to watch the end of a speed skating race!)

I'm not normally a sports person.  I'll watch the occasional hockey game in the winter, but even with Toronto's performance in the World Series last fall, I think that the last time I watched a baseball game was... 35 years ago? The last time the Jays won the World Series?  But I love watching the Olympics.

One of my colleagues likes to say that she watches the Olympics because she thinks that these games can teach the world an important lesson about resolving conflict with bobsleds rather than with bombs.  And it is true.  I love watching an athlete finish their race, and seeing their competitors - not just their teammates but competitors from other countries - rush over and lift them off the ground in a big hug. What if the world could celebrate each other's achievements and lift each other up, rather than being jealous of what other people have?

There is also the teamwork aspect of the games. I heard an interview with the Canadian Women's Team Pursuit Speed Skating team (yes, the same team that won the gold medal yesterday) after they got through the qualifying round. Isabelle Weidemann, who is an amazing speed skater on her own, says that she travels faster than she ever has before when she has her teammates behind her on the ice. Together, they are better than they could be alone.

I've loved watching athletes completing in sports that have traditionally been individual sports, but are now being added as team sorts. Team figure skating. Alpine skiing team combined. To see athletes wanting to do well, not for their own glory but because they want to see their team do well, warms my heart.

I do think that there are some valuable lessons that we can learn from the Olympics, even if, like me, you're "not normally a sports person." How can we, as the church, be more like the Olympics, lifting each other up and cheering each other on and consoling each other when we stumble, all for the sake of something bigger than ourselves.

And finally, I have to mention the joy. Sometimes the joy just radiates off the screen in front of me and makes tears of joy well up in me. For example: this picture (screenshot) that I grabbed as that Womens Team Pursuit Speed Skating team received their gold medals, and sang O Canada from the top of the podium.

Anyways, I'm not going to know what to do with all of my time when the games end on Sunday, but church life continues!

Here are some of the announcements for things happening around the church:

• Worship on Sunday will be at 9:00 at Summerville (note the earlier start time than usual due to our Annual Meeting), and at 11:15 at Westfield and on Facebook Live. This is the first Sunday in Lent - our Lenten theme is "Hungering for God" and this Sunday's theme will be "Hungering for Wholeness." Our story will be Jesus tempted in the wilderness - Matthew 4:1-11 for those of you who like to read ahead!

• Ash Wednesday - Today is the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, and we will be having our Ash Wednesday service at 7pm at Westfield United Church this evening. I look forward to gathering with you as we receive the sign of ashes to acknowledge our mortality and as a symbol of repentance; and then as we share in the bread and the cup.

• Pray for Peace with Hands and Heart - our first gathering will be next Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 7pm at Westfield. At this first gathering, we will be praying for peace within ourselves. You can see the poster and the full schedule by clicking here. These gatherings are suitable for all ages - children, youth, adults, and seniors - and everyone is welcome. Our world needs peace more than ever these days.

• Encounters with Paul - Steve, our Student Minister, is leading a Lenten bible study every Wednesday from 10-11:30 in the parlour at Westfield, looking at Paul's letter to the Romans. Again, everyone is invited! You can see the poster by clicking here.

• Lent Socials (Westfield) - If you were in worship last Sunday, you probably saw the wheels turning in Chris's head as he realized that the start of Lent is upon us! We will be resuming our Lent Socials this coming Sunday after worship - Session will have the tea and coffee on, and anyone with a last name from A-L (inclusive) is invited to bring "eats and sweets" to share.

• Paper Shredding Event - Mark your calendars! There is going to be a paper shredding fundraiser at Westfield United Church on Saturday May 23 from 9am to 1pm. Thank you to Paige Danaher, Realtor, for sponsoring the cost of renting the industrial shredder for the morning, because this means that any money that is collected will go directly to the church. You will have the opportunity to shred as many bags or boxes of paper as you would like, in exchange for a freewill offering to the church. To see the poster, you can click here; to see a list of what can and can't be shredded, you can click here.

• Westfield Choir:  "The Best of the Best" - the next concert in this year's concert series is coming up on Thursday March 26 at 7pm at Westfield United Church. Admission is $30 at the door, or by showing your season subscription ticket. This concert is a special one, because each choir member has chosen their favourite anthem, and will introduce it as we go. You won't want to miss it! You can see the poster by clicking here.

• Session and Official Board - a reminder that our meetings will be next Wednesday, March 25, in the parlour at Westfield. 6:30pm for Session and 7:30pm for the Official Board. You can watch for agendas to come out soon from the chairs!

Thank You Corner:  This week's thank you goes out to Cindy Patstone, for all of the bits of work that she does behind the scenes. I realized on Sunday that her name doesn't appear anywhere on the Nominations page of our Annual Report, and yet she is always doing things to support the work of the church, from organizing the paper shredding event to tracking down sponsors for the choir concert series, to creating posters to advertise church events. Thank you, Cindy, for all that you do!

For a closing thought this week, I shared on Sunday that I have been accepted into the Doctor of Ministry program at the Toronto School of Theology (Emmanuel College), and will begin this spring. It is designed as a 4-year program (at least, depending on how long it takes me to complete my thesis) that is done while working in full-time ministry. If you are curious to learn more about this program, clicking here will take you to their website and you can explore!

Blessings to you and yours, today and always!

Kate.

Rev. Kate Jones

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge

(506) 757-2201 (office)

(506) 343-1307 (mobile)

www.tworiverspastoralcharge.com

Pronouns:  she/her/hers

"Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law?"Jesus replied, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: "You must love your neighbour as you love yourself."

(Matthew 22:36-39)