We conclude our There’s a Crack in Everything series this week. My reflection title is Everybody Knows… and Still We Sing Hallelujah. I’ve got lots of scripture in this one: Psalm 88: 1-12, Psalm 89: 1-2, Psalm 12: 1-8, and Lamentations 3:22–23, I may not wind up using all of it.
We will have two special guests this week! Graham Doyle, a former student of Dean’s from Dalhousie, will sing Everybody Knows and Poppy Mason, who is a student at Accents Music will play Hallelujah for us (you may remember her playing at our Christmas concert in 2024.
You are probably familiar with Hallelujah, perhaps not so much with Everybody Knows. Here are YouTube videos to familiarize yourself if you like.
Our hearts and prayers go out to Donna and all who knew and loved George; his funeral will be held on Saturday @ 2 pm in the church, with a reception to follow; you can read the full obituary HERE.
It’s been a while since I gave you a rundown of my week, so here goes.
Monday – Snow days with no power don’t mean anything when you usually work at home on Mondays and you have a generator! So, I put together Sunday’s bulletin, George Kuhn’s funeral bulletin, wrote part of the funeral reflection, and did the year end financials for the Association of United Church Clergy.
Tuesday – Popped into Food Bank for a brief period, dropped off the socks and gift cards to the Dartmouth Navigator, dropped off the bulletin with Donna for her to review, finished the funeral reflection and then in the evening, the Transition Team met.
Wednesday – I’m doing some Lent planning so that Dean can start rehearsing with the choir. Lent is early this year, it starts on February 22. I am away for the first 3 weeks of Lent this year, the first time in my ministry that I’ve ever been away during Lent. But that’s when my trip with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank is and the date wasn’t negotiable and the opportunity wasn’t to be missed. Rev. Renee Clark will lead worship those first three weeks. The theme is Tell Me Something Good. This evening is our monthly Leadership Team Meeting.
Thursday – It’s the monthly meeting of the Association of United Church Clergy in the morning, The United Church’s Interim Ministry Cohort meets via Zoom in the afternoon and hopefully I get a start on Sunday’s reflection.
Friday – Even though a day off, I’ll probably finish up my reflection for Sunday and then attend the funeral of Susan MacAlpine-Gillis’s father at Cole Harbour United in the afternoon.
Saturday – George Kuhn’s funeral in the afternoon, which for me takes up a chunk of the day between being at the church by noon and at then being present at the reception.
In between all those tasks are phone calls, emails (55 between Monday and Wednesday!) conversations with folks who pop in for something.
St. James United Church Dartmouth 