Mid-Week Message - July 31

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

My sister was visiting me a couple of weeks ago, with two of her teenage children. She is a teacher, and while she was here, she spotted her first "back to school" ad of the summer, even though it was only the 2nd week of July. Her comment was, "I bet all teachers are now angry at <store name>!"

But now it is the end of July, and back-to-school advertising is popping up all around us, in all different forms of media.

Did you know that the United Church of Canada (and our founding denominations, the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregationalist churches) have always valued education and faith formation? There is an expectation of an "educated clergy" which is why the degree required for ordination is currently at a Masters level, and why so many of us go on to further education beyond that.  Bible Study and other study and discussion groups within congregations have always been the norm - as a denomination, we encourage our members to think for themselves, rather than spoon-feeding easy answers.  Even Sunday Schools had their origins in literacy education - back in the days when only the children of the wealthy were able to attend school, churches would set up schools on Sunday (the only day that the children didn't have to work) to teach them to read and write.

So now that we are on the threshold of August, and you might be starting to think about what you want your autumn to look like (sorry teachers!), I wanted to share some educational opportunities that might be of interest to you:

• Do you feel called to, or an interest in learning how to lead worship? Would you like to become a better preacher, or work on your prayer-writing skills? The Licensed Lay Worship Leader program through the United Church of Canada is now offered fully on-line. You can find out more about this program by clicking here.

• There is a Diploma in Theological Studies offered by AST (the Atlantic School of Theology) that is offered fully on-line. This program is designed for people who don't feel called to paid accountable ministry, but who would like to dive into their faith and learn more. It consists of 4 courses (Intro to New Testament, Intro to Old Testament, Intro to Theological Studies, Intro to Pastoral Ministry) offered over two years. You can find out more information about this program by clicking here. (And full disclosure, I've been invited to teach one of the courses for this program next year.)

• AST is also developing a shorter program for people wanting to learn more about their faith, but with a shorter time commitment and a less deep dive than the Diploma in Theological Studies. This will be called the Atlantic School of Discipleship, and is planned to launch later this year - I'll share more information to you once it is available!

• AST also offers a Certificate in Stewardship (click here for details), that participants work through at their own pace; and a Diploma in Missional Leadership (click here for details; next cohort begins in 2025).

• The United Church of Canada offers regular webinars on a variety of topics through United in Learning. You can view their current catalogue by clicking here, but note that new webinars are always being added, especially once we move in to the fall.

If you want to talk through any of these options, if you have an interest that you would like to explore that you don't see on this list, or if you are sensing that you might be called to go further (e.g. with a Bachelor or Master degree), feel free to reach out to me at any time!

In terms of announcements this week:

• Wild Worship is going to be tomorrow, Thursday August 1, at 7pm at Seadog Cove. We will meet at the trail entrance, hike in together, share a short worship service, then return to our cars. August 1 marks the mid-point between the Summer Solstice (June 21) and the Fall Equinox (Sept. 21) on the Celtic Wheel of the Year; and was marked in the ancient church as Lammas (literally Loaf-mass). The beginning of the harvest season will be the focus of our worship service tomorrow. For more details, you can see the poster by clicking here!

• Worship on Sunday will be at 9:15 at Long Reach and 11:15 at Westfield and on Facebook Live. This week's movie tie-in is Toy Story 3 which we watched last night - if you would like to watch it before Sunday, it is available for streaming on Disney+.

• Our Movie Nights continue every Tuesday at 7pm in the parlour at Westfield United Church, right through to the end of August. The upcoming movies will be: Tues. Aug. 6: Frozen (for the Aug. 11 sermon) Tues. Aug. 13: Pride (for the Aug. 18 sermon) Tues. Aug. 20: Muppet Christmas Carol (for the Aug. 25 sermon)

• Our neighbours in the Anglican Parish of Kingston are celebrating their 240th Anniversary as a parish with a concert on Saturday August 10 at 7pm in Trinity Church, Kingston. Performers will include a variety of people from the wider community - admission is by freewill offering to go to Doctors Without Borders. To see the poster, you can click here.

• A reminder that the Saint John Pride Parade is going to be on Saturday August 17 at 2pm. If you would like to walk with the Affirming Churches of the Saint John area, we will be gathering in the Smythe Street Parking Lot (33-49 Smythe Street) between 1:15 and 1:50. If you would like to watch the parade, the route will go up Union Street from Smythe, then turn right on St. Patrick's Street to the bottom of King, then down Water Street to the Area 506 Container Village. Everyone is welcome! This has been one of my favourite events of the summer for the past couple of years.

• The Summerville Art Festival is fast approaching! This year there will be Artists' Talks on August 21 and 22 at Summerville United Church, with the main festival on Saturday August 24 from 11:30-5:00. For more details, you can check out their website or Facebook page.

And I think that's it for this week!

For a closing thought, one of the fun things that started up in the early months of the pandemic was a L. M. Montgomery Readathon on Facebook. As a group, we read and discuss her novels, a couple of chapters a week (which means that it takes us several months to get through a book). Volunteers record themselves reading chapters, discussion questions are posed, and posts giving historical or contextual information are shared. Our current book is Magic for Marigold, one of Montgomery's lesser-known books, which we started on July 1. If you would like to watch the recording of the first chapter of this book, you can do so by clicking here, or if you would like to join the discussion group, you can find it 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)