Midweek Message – April 30, 2025

I sometimes wonder if anyone reads these… but based on a few emails when I didn’t write one last week, I guess you do! 😉 Following Easter, I took a few comp days to recharge my energy banks; I’d been putting in a great deal of extra time, including a number of Saturday events. And really it was only one extra day since I had worked on Good Friday, which is my day off. So on a week where there was nothing much planned, I took advantage of some downtime at the church and mostly read and watched TV for three days. I wasn’t in the pulpit on Sunday either because I will be in the pulpit on a Sunday when I’m on Study Leave, scheduling worked better for me and for the church.

I never know how you are going to receive some of my ideas and so you have no idea how delighted I was when I came in on Monday and found a bunch of little wooden houses! I’m looking forward to getting the rest of them back.

Worship this week: We move into the book of Acts, which is considered to be a continuation of the Gospel of Luke. The Book of Acts — often called Acts of the Apostles — tells the story of how the early Christian movement began and spread after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.

At its heart, Acts is about:

• The inclusion of all people — Jews and Gentiles alike — in God’s promises.
• The Holy Spirit empowering the first followers of Jesus.
• The formation of the church, starting in Jerusalem and expanding outward.
• The work of key leaders, especially Peter and Paul.

On Sunday, we’ll be looking at Acts 6: 1-7; read it closely and see what jumps out at you; I’ll share with you what jumped out at me on Sunday.

It’s also Red Dress Day on May 5, 2025, so if you have a red dress, you could bring it in and we will place it on the railings by the pulpit. You could also wear red. Red Dress Day honours missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2 spirited people. I took the photo below at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg a couple of years ago.

United in Faith

It was my turn to do the Wednesday Spiritual Reflection for the United Churches for Dartmouth Facebook group, I’ve included it here; some of it was taken from a Sunday reflection a couple of months ago.

Strengthened By Friendship

I wound being the speaker at Wellness Wednesday; as I told the folks who gathered, if I were superstitious, I would say that we are not supposed to talk about MAID. We first had a speaker scheduled for January, but there was a big storm, so we cancelled Wellness Wednesday altogether, this time, our speaker was sick, so rather than cancel, I got some information from the Dying With Dignity site and there were a couple of videos we could watch from the same site… except my computer wouldn’t talk to the TV… so I presented the material as best I could and the gathered folks were gracious.

Building a Community of Love and Justice

So Much Property Stuff! I always encounter new things in an Interim Ministry setting; this time it’s navigating a property matter.

Ministry in the Wider Church

• It’s the Annual Meeting of the Association of United Church Clergy, so that will take some time Thursday morning; I am the treasurer.
• It may be my last Future Directions Committee Meeting for the Region; I let them know that I wouldn’t be continuing on as Chair or a member of the committee after the Regional Annual Meeting.
• I am participating in something at the Regional Annual Meeting which will be a Commemoration of 100 years of the United Church; I’m not quite sure what I agreed to yet, but I have a Zoom call Thursday afternoon and trust I will find out.