We celebrate our church anniversary this week with special guest preacher the Rev. Dr. Sharon Ballantyne. Her message is entitled Invitation of Belonging: A Place at the Table. She was part of the United Church Project: A Place at the Table, you can see the video below. And you can read some of the background material HERE. I think there may be cake too thank to Joan!
I think it was Brené Brown who said that we must learn to carry two buckets at the same time: one of grief and one of joy. If we only focus on grief, we miss the joy that is present at all times, and if we only focus on joy, or pleasure, we become self centered and forget to love our neighbours. I’ve been very conscious of that this week as I have visited with June and her family, members of the congregation are grieving the death of long time friends, and my mother spent the day at the ER on Tuesday. At the same time, the Leadership Team/Transition Team/Renovation Team/Tri-Church Consultation Team are all working so diligently and faithfully to a new future, that my heart is gladdened. Joy and grief, grief and joy.
I met with HRM clergy on Tuesday over lunch, the Transition Team met Tuesday night, the Leadership Team is meeting this evening (Wednesday). It’s not often I’m out two nights in a row. And of course, there were the usual tasks of bulletin production, website updating, emails, phone calls, navigating workers! My sister and I packed up most of the large bookcase in preparation of the move to the new office.
I don’t have to write a reflection this week, but I am spending Saturday in Truro at an event with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank; you may remember that I participated in Hunger on the Hill a little over a year ago with CFB. This organization, which is a ‘Christian Response to World Hunger’ is a coalition of 15 church and religious organizations, along with government funding, which seeks to end world hunger, not just with emergency aid, but seeks to address the long term conditions which cause hunger. Which brings me to some exciting news! I have been selected to go on a Learning Tour to Kenya with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank in February, exact dates to be confirmed shortly. It’s been a life long dream to go to Africa. When I was a little girl I used to read stories of missionaries who went to Africa, but of course they were all men and their wives were always teachers or nurses, and I had no desire to be either of those. We don’t do missionary work the way we did 50 years ago, we work in partnership and as the title says, it’s a learning tour, I’m so grateful to be selected. And since it takes about 21 hours to get there, I’m hoping/planning to stay an extra week and do a safari!
Joy and grief, grief and joy.
St. James United Church Dartmouth 