Mid-Week Message - September 10

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

By now, most of you have realized that I am a cat person, and my favourite corner of the internet is a Facebook Group called "Clergy with Cats."  We are just over 3000 members (3293 as of this moment) coming from different denominations around the world, and are an inter-faith group as there are many rabbis who are part of the group.  The group rules only allow pictures and stories of our cats and the cats that we encounter, and it has become a very supporting caring environment.  Here is a story that was shared with the group recently.

Two handsome and much-loved tuxedo cats, coming from different homes, both ended up in a small shelter due to sad circumstances - the human who belonged to one of them had to move to an assisted care home and wasn't allowed to bring her cat, and the human who belonged to the other one died. These cats had never met before, but because it was a small shelter, they both ended up in the same cage.

They tolerated each other well, but they weren't what you would call friends - no cuddling, no grooming each other, in fact, they didn't even seem to notice each other's presence.

After a month, there had been no interest in adopting either one of them, and they were moved to a larger shelter (where one of our Clergy with Cats group members volunteers).  Because it was a larger shelter, because the two tuxedo cats had come from different homes, because of the stress of so many transitions for them, and because they seemed to ignore each other, it was decided to place them in separate kennels.

Three days passed, and neither cat was doing well.  Neither one was eating.  Neither one was playing with the toys that were available to them.  They would both interact politely with staff and volunteers, but that was it.

And so the staff decided to try moving them both into one large kennel - big enough that if they wanted to stay separate they could, but one that would allow them to interact if they wanted to. They moved one over, placing him on one side of the kennel with a barrier up to separate the space into two smaller spaces, and then moved the other cat over, placing him on the other side of the barrier.  After giving them an hour or so to sniff around the new space, they removed the barrier.

Immediately, one of the cats poked his head through to the other side.  As soon as the other cat saw him, he came over and started grooming the first cat's head.  They came together and cuddled and purred and started grooming one another.  And then they ate.  And then they played with their toys.

And then the shelter changed the signs on their kennel, stating that the two of them were a bonded pair, and they were up for adoption as a pair, not as individuals.

This story made me smile, because none of us is created to be alone - human or cat.  We are created for community.  If we believe that we are created in the image of God, the God in whose image we are created is community (the Trinity, the three-in-one).

The creation story found in Genesis 2 includes the line, "it is not good for the human to be alone" - this is a passage often read at weddings, applying it to the community that can be found in marriages, but I like to interpret this much more broadly as community can be found in so many other ways and places. There is the community of family (your family of origin or the family that is created through marriage).  There is also the community of "found family" - people coming together to create an intentional community.  There is the community of the church.  There are communities formed by people who share an interest.  It is not good for humans to be alone - we were created in the image of community - and we can find that community in so many different ways.

(The two cats in my story got a happily ever after to their story - less than a week after our group member shared their story with us, she gave us an update letting us know that they had been adopted, together, and had moved to their "furrever" home.)

Moving on to announcements for this week:

• Worship on Sunday will be at Long Reach at 9:15 and at Westfield and on Facebook Live at 11:15. We are done our summer series, and are moving into the Season of Creation which will stretch from now until Thanksgiving.  It has been a couple of years since we have marked the Season of Creation here at Two Rivers - it is a time of the year set aside to acknowledge that God is the Creator of all, and that we are part of an interconnected community of creation.  (There's that word "community" again!) This week, we will be reading Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28 and Luke 15:1-10.

• Westfield Folks - this will be Joan's last Sunday playing for us (Bertis and the choir will be back on the 21st), so you are all invited to come out and say "thank you" to her for all that she has done for us in the past 4 months!

• Asking the Big Questions - our first gathering for the fall will be on Tues. Sept. 16 from 4:30-6 (followed by pizza!), asking "Jesus tells us to love our neighbours - what about the people we don't like?" There will be different activities and prompts to help us explore this question (a bit like Sunday School for all ages), and everyone is welcome!

• Session and Official Board - Wednesday September 17 at Long Reach - Session at 6:30 followed by Official Board at 7:30.

• Westfield United Church Choir Concert Series - this was announced in the spring, but now the first concert date is drawing closer! Instead of the usual 1-2 concerts per year, this year the choir is embarking on an ambitious 4-concert series! You can buy one ticket that will give you admission to all 4 concerts ($100, which works out to $25/concert), and tickets to individual concerts will be available at the door for $30. Series tickets are available from any choir member (and for those of you on the peninsula, I will have them with me when I am over there for worship or for my office hours). The dates (7pm each night) and titles of the concerts are:

  Oct. 9 "My Grateful Spirit Sings"

  Dec. 18 "What Did the Star See?"

  March 19 "The Best of the Best"

  June 4 "Hold Me, Rock Me"

• Harvest Garden Artisan's Market - a reminder that if you would like a table to sell something you make/grew at the market on October 4, the deadline is September 15. You can register by clicking here.

• Bible Study - we had our first gathering this morning, and we will continue to meet every Wednesday at 10am in the parlour at Westfield United Church. Everyone is welcome - no prior bible study experience is necessary!

• Confirmation - we are going to be holding a confirmation class this fall. As in previous years, it is open to all ages, from teens through to adults. (And even if you were confirmed when you were younger, if you would like an opportunity to explore the basics of your faith from your current life perspective, you are very welcome to join too!) If you or your teen is interested, please let me know - I'll be figuring out the where/when of the class once I know who is interested.

• Seen & Strong Women's Conference - if you are on Facebook, you might have seen this advertised. Grand Bay Baptist church is hosting it on September 26-27, but it is open to women from all churches in the community. (I was invited to speak at it, but when they approached me last spring, my September calendar was completely open with the exception of Sept. 26-27 when I have a couple of meetings at AST.) If you would like more information, you can click here.
  

Thank You Corner - thank you to everyone who made the picnic on Sunday such a success! Thank you to Anne and Ross for being willing to host us (and for pivoting their plans and still doing a lot to host us even when we met at the church). Thank you to Joan for offering to play the piano for us when we moved back inside. Thank you to Chris for preparing communion. And thank you to everyone who brought such delicious potluck offerings!

For a closing through this week, and somewhat tangentially related to the opening reflection about community, you can click here to see a beautiful post from Kate Bowler titled "15 Ways to Stay Human in the Age of AI." (I also shared it on the church Facebook page this week as a Mental Health Monday post.) What do you do to stay in touch with your human-ness?

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)