Mid-Week Message - February 25

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

I usually begin these mid-week messages by reflecting on something that is going on in the world right now, or something that is on my mind.  And what is on my mind and in my heart right now is peace.  Between violent immigration crack-downs south of the border to the violence that flared up on the weekend in Mexico, to ongoing wars in Palestine and Ukraine... sometimes it feels like what the world needs now isn't love, sweet love, but peace, sweet peace.

Last night was our first gathering of "Pray for Peace with Hands and Heart" that we have embarked on this Lent. Last night's theme was "Peace Within Me" and we gathered in the Parlour at Westfield United Church.  We talked about prayer beads, we learned about breath prayers, and then we each made a set of prayer beads.  As we worked, we talked about what inner peace means to each one of us, and shared the struggles that we all face that make this peace hard to achieve.  And at the end of our gathering, we dimmed the lights, and spent five minutes together in shared silence as we used our prayer beads to pray our breath prayers.

Our Prayer Beads at the end of the evening

The origin of these gatherings came at a Session meeting when we were talking about what we wanted to do this year to mark the season of Lent.  The Sunday before that meeting, during my sermon I had asked the question (looking for actual answers - it wasn't a rhetorical question), "what is the most ridiculously good thing that you can imagine happening in the world?" and at both churches, the answer that was shouted out in unison was "Peace."

Peace is something that we all seem to be longing for these days, and so from there, we crafted (pun intended!) a 6-week session that would allow us to pray for peace, but to pray not just with words but with our whole body.

To me, the inner peace that we were talking about last night is an inner stillness, a being-with-God, a "peace that is beyond all human understanding." I rather suspect that this inner peace is related to being "in the moment" rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about the future.

If you would like to join us for any or all of the upcoming Pray for Peace gatherings, here is the schedule (7pm each night). Carpooling is strongly encouraged!

Tues. March 3 - Summerville - Peace within Families

Tues. March 10 - Long Reach - Peace within Communities

Tues. March 17 - Westfield - Peace within Canada

Tues March 24 - Summerville - Peace between Nations

Tues. March 31 - Long Reach - Peace within Creation

Moving on to other announcements for this week:

• Worship on Sunday will be at 9:15 at Long Reach and 11:15 at Westfield and Facebook Live. Our worship theme through Lent is "Hungering for God" and this Sunday we will be looking at "Hungering for Mystery." Our bible reading will be John 3:1-17, and communion will be celebrated at both churches. If you are joining us virtually, have some bread or a cracker, as well as some juice/wine/water at hand so that we can share in the feast together!

• Steve, our Student Minister, is continuing his Lenten Bible Study looking at the writings of the Apostle Paul, every Wednesday morning from 10-11:30 in the parlour at Westfield United Church.

• Westfield Choir Concert - it is hard to believe that it is going to be March next week, but this means that our next choir concert is only a month away! Thursday March 26, 7pm, Westfield United Church. Tickets are $30 at the door, or by showing your season subscription ticket. The title of this concert is "The Best of the Best" and each choir member has chosen their favourite anthem. You will be guaranteed a night of outstanding music, as we will be singing the songs that we love to sing! You can see the poster by clicking here.

• Lenten Socials - last Sunday, despite a certain hockey game, we had a great turnout for the first Lenten social at Westfield following worship. Thank you everyone who brought goodies to share with the rest of us! These gatherings will continue for the next 5 Sundays - each week, Session will arrange to have the tea and coffee on, and "eats and sweets" will be brought by you! This year, Chris put together a schedule that allows each of us an opportunity to bring goodies twice. The schedule will be:

  Sun. March 1 - Last Names M-P

  Sun. March 8 - Last Names Q-Z

  Sun. March 15 - Last Names A-L

  Sun March 22 - Last Names M-P

  Sun. March 28 - Last Names Q-Z

• Charitable Donation Receipts - yes, it is that time of year again! Joe asked me to let you know that he and Donnie are working hard this week to get the Westfield receipts organized and printed and he is planning to have them at church for you to pick up. (And hopefully help us, as you do with the Christmas Letter, to deliver as many as possible to friends and neighbours who won't be present on Sunday.)  Also - if you would prefer to have your receipt emailed to you, Joe is happy to do this. Just email westfielduc@gmail.com to let him know!

Thank You Corner - now that we have had all 3 of our congregational annual meetings, I want to extend a formal thank you to the people who chaired and recorded minutes for each of our congregations.  In order of the meetings:  at Long Reach, thank you to Catherine C. for chairing and to Joan S. for recording the minutes; at Westfield, thank you to Brenda B. for chairing and to Amber T-B for recording the minutes; at Bayswater-Summerville, thank you to Bette A. for chairing and to Kelly N. for recording the minutes. The contributions from all of you are very much appreciated!

For a closing thought this week... I share lots of things in this part of the newsletter, from what I've been reading to what I've been listening to, to what I've been watching. I usually try to pick something unrelated to my ministry, just so that I don't have to end off this newsletter with dry announcements. (The Thank You Corner is a more recent addition.) I don't think that I've ever shared a recipe on here before, but most of you know that I like to cook and to bake, so maybe I should have shared what I've been cooking sooner!  I love making soups in the winter - most weekends, I'll make a pot of soup and bring it for lunch every day.  This past weekend, I made one of my favourite soups (that's a lie - my favourite soup is usually whatever I made most recently, so my favourite is a moving target) - it comes together easily, and is delicious, especially if you like lemon and chicken together. It is a recipe for Avgolemeno, a Greek chicken and rice soup that is thickened with eggs. I make it almost exactly as this recipe is written, except that I cut the quantities in half (I only need 4 servings, not 8!), and I usually throw in a couple of frozen chicken thighs at the beginning, then shred the meat at the end. You can find the recipe by clicking here!

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)