May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be always with you!
I wrote my section of the Annual Report on the weekend, and as I did so, I was pondering the question of where did we see God working in Two Rivers Pastoral Charge in 2020. I won't repeat my full report here (you'll have to wait to read it once the full Annual Report is circulated!), but I came to the conclusion that God was very active in our pastoral charge last year, despite a global pandemic. Even though we were pushed into doing things differently than we normally would, we continued to worship God, we continued to support each other as a community, we continued to grow in faith, and we continued to serve the world around us, making God's love known to our neighbours.
As I've said all along, I don't believe that God sends pandemics; but I also believe that God can and does continue to work in the world, even in the middle of the pain and suffering and loss that Covid-19 has brought. God is with us, no matter what our circumstances are.
I feel like I don't have many announcements this week - we are in a bit of a holding pattern until we can move from orange back to yellow. Worship will be livestreamed at 11:15 on Sunday on the Two Rivers Pastoral Charge page (this week, we will read about some of the early disciples, and the invitation that they extend to others to "come and see" - John 1:43-51). Our 1pm check-ins are continuing from Monday-Thursday (we are currently reading the gospel of Luke, and have had some really engaging discussions this week). And Wednesday morning bible study continues to meet on Webex until we move back to yellow.
I did want to say a quick word about our Annual Meetings, along with a thank you to everyone who sent your reports in to Elaine. The annual report will be circulated by e-mail as soon as she has finished compiling it, and some copies will be printed and made available in each church for you to pick up if you prefer a paper copy to an electronic copy.
Our tentative schedule for our annual meetings this year is:
Long Reach: Sunday February 7, 9am
Westfield: Sunday February 7, 11:15am
Bayswater-Summerville: Sunday February 14, 9am
Two Rivers Pastoral Charge: Wednesday February 24, 7:30pm (NOTE - this is a week later than we had scheduled at the last Official Board meeting, due to a conflict with Ash Wednesday)
The congregational meetings will happen in-person, if we have moved back to yellow. (If we are still Orange, they will be postponed.) We know that there are some of you who aren't comfortable attending in-person gatherings at this time, but we don't want to exclude you from the annual meetings. The plan is that we will have a telephone option for you - you will be able to phone the cell phone of someone who is attending in-person to listen to the meeting (they will likely have you on speaker phone so that you can hear), and pass your vote along to them over the phone.
The meeting for the full pastoral charge will happen in-person if we are in yellow, or over Webex if we are still in orange.
And I think that is it for today. I hope that you have all had a chance to get outside and enjoy the relatively mild winter that we have had so far!
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)