Mid-Week Message - June 3

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

It is good to be back this week, after spending two weeks in Toronto doing the first course of my Doctor of Ministry. The course I was taking was "Theology of Ministry" - each day we were in class together from 1-4; and the course was seminar-style, which means that we had a bunch of reading to do between classes (ie in the evenings and mornings) so that we would be prepared and ready to discuss what we had read.

I've told several people that it was like taking the nerdiest church-geek from every seminary class and putting us into a room together and giving us thought-provoking and meaningful readings to discuss. I loved it! So much food for thought each day.

We were a very diverse class too. There were 17 of us (plus the professor) - 10 of us in our first year, and 7 in their second year. (For next year's class, it will be all of us who will be in second year by then, together with the incoming first years.) Of the 17 of us, only two of us were from the United Church of Canada - the rest of the class was a mixture of Anglicans, Roman Catholics (priests and lay), Presbyterian, Evangelical, Eastern Rite Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Baptist! So you can imagine that we had different understandings of what a theology of ministry might be.

Our first essay that we had to write (the one that we submitted after the first week of class) was a personal essay, exploring our own theology of ministry. I wrote about how my own understanding of ministry is grounded in two things - God's call alongside the ministry of all believers. You have likely realized by now that I believe deeply that the ministry of the church isn't the ministry of only the called minister.  The ministry belongs to all of us - I'm not the "professional Christian" here on your behalf doing all of the work.  Instead, I see my role as more of a coordinator of the ministry of the church.  And God calls all of us to the work of ministry.

For our second essay (due next Monday!), we are supposed to take what we wrote about in our first essay and revise it based on what we have learned in the course, through the readings, and through any outside-of-the-course readings. For me, one of the gaps that I ran up against in my first essay is the tension of the both-and.  Ministry is BOTH the ministry of all people, AND the particular form of ministry (ie the ministry of Word, Sacrament, and Pastoral Care) that I am called to.

Both-and paradoxes can be difficult to express in concrete words, but my plan for this second essay is that I am going to build a theological framework using the Trinity - for me, the ultimate both-and!  God is three, and God is one.  Ministry takes many shapes or forms, and the ministry is one ministry because it is God's ministry. Wish me luck! I've got a couple of articles still to dive into, as well as a book, then the actual task of writing the essay.

(And if any of you want to do a nerdy deep dive with me about how you understand ministry, let me know! I'm always open to a conversation!)

Moving on to announcements for this week:

• Worship on Sunday will be at 9:15 at Long Reach and 11:15 at Westfield. This week, we'll be reading about Jesus the healer, with two (or is it three?) stories of healing. Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26. (On the topic of ministry - is Jesus calling you to be healed, or is Jesus calling you to a ministry of healing?)

• Choir Concert "Hold Me, Rock Me" - the last concert of this year's concert series is coming up tomorrow, Thursday June 4, at 7pm at Westfield United Church. Spread the word, and invite your friends and neighbours - you aren't going to want to miss this one! Admission is $30 at the door (cash, please), or by showing your season subscription ticket. The choir will be singing gospel music, and there will be a couple of hymns for you to sing along with too.

• Thank you, Elaine - After keeping the church office running for 11 years, our beloved Elaine Elkin retired at the end of April. The Official Board decided that we want to celebrate everything that she has given to the church over those years, and suggested that we do a shared worship service (ie all three of our congregations together) followed by a potluck lunch. The date that worked for Elaine and Rob (and for me) is Sunday June 14. We will just have one service that week, at 11:15 at Westfield United Church, followed by a potluck lunch. I encourage all of you to attend, so that we can express our deepest thanks to Elaine for her ministry of administration.

• Asking the Big Questions - our last "big question" before the summer break will be next Tuesday, June 9, from 4-6:30. We will continue a conversation that we began at bible study this morning, and we're going to be asking "Who's got the power?" Power dynamics shape so much of what happens in the world, and some things make more sense when we can understand how power works. As always, there will be prompts and activities to dive into the big question, and we'll end with pizza.

• Bible Study - our last gathering before the summer break will be next Wednesday, June 10, from 10-11:30am, and we are going to be looking at the book of Daniel. We're also going to have a potluck lunch to end with! I'm also looking for suggestions for where we might go for bible study in the fall, as we've finished our multi-year journey of exploring the Old Testament looking at the story arc.

• Strawberry Drive-Through Dinner - The Westfield UCW (and Friends) are busy planning this year's Strawberry Dinner! It will be on July 9 this year, tickets are $18, and must be bought in advance at the Grand Bay Home Hardware. Only 125 tickets are available, so make sure that you get yours early! You can see the full poster by clicking here.

• New Office Email - Daniel has been busy updating the church office, and one of the updates is getting a new email address. Please update your address books - you can get rid of the old wuc sympatico email address and replace it with office@tworiverspastoralcharge.com (Peninsula folks - I know that you will be especially happy with this change, as we now have an email address that includes all three churches rather than one that implies that it is a Westfield United email address only!)

• Church Calendar (Westfield) - one of Daniel's other updates is moving the church calendar from a paper calendar on the wall of the office to a digital calendar on our website. This means that you can see who is using the church and when.  If you would like to book the church for something (e.g. a committee meeting, a baby shower, a birthday party), the process is still the same - contact Daniel in the office by phone or by email and he will book you in. The only difference is that you will be able to check ahead of time to see if the church is available. You can click here to see the calendar. (This is also a reminder to committee chairs - make sure that you keep Daniel in the loop about when your committee is meeting so that he can keep the calendar up to date!)

• Church Connection Committee - this is another announcement primarily for Westfield folks. Session is exploring ways to help keep our congregation connected with each other and with the church - you may have received a phone call or two in the past six months from someone at the church, checking in with you. They are now at the point where they want to formalize this work into a committee whose sole mandate is to keep our church connected. Chris (chair of Session) and I will work with the people who join this committee over the summer to figure out together what this is going to look like. If this sounds like a ministry that you might be interested in, if you like talking to people and connecting with them, we would love to hear from you! You can talk to me or to Chris if you are interested or if you would like more information. (Note - this is a different sort of committee than most of our church committees - we don't think that there would be frequent meetings, only enough to coordinate the work, but then most of the connecting could be done on your own time from your own home.)

Thank You Corner - This week's "thank you" goes out to Joe and Brenda for the help that they gave Daniel in getting the office set up (moving filing cabinets, painting, etc). Many hands can make an overwhelming task manageable! (And if you haven't seen what has been done in the office, be sure to stop by to check it out next time you are at Westfield.)

For a closing thought this week, here is a link to one of the movie clips that we watched in class last week. (We weren't always serious, and reading just academic articles!) As you watch it, you can ask questions like the ones we were asking in class:  Does this movie show ministry? What does leadership look like in this clip? (Or this movie, if you have seen the whole thing!)  Who has the power?  Does this clip show "ministry of all people," "ministry of the leader," or both? You can watch the clip 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)