Mini-Market March 28

Every second Wednesday you can buy fresh produce at the Mission at very competitive prices. The fruit and vegetables are delivered that morning and the market is on from 10:30AM to 3:30PM. Most items are sold by weight so you can buy as little or as much as you need. Join us next Wednesday, the 28th of March. Click on the button below to see what will be on offer this week.

Minister's Message: Easter Greetings 2018! Joyeuses Pâques 2018!

Sing praises to the Lord, O you God's saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning. (Psalm 30:4-5)

I want to shout it and live its joy: the celebration of resurrection and the promise of new beginnings!

Easter parallels the end of winter and the transition of seasons. We can only appreciate its radical joy after the night of tears. We come to the empty tomb only after the pain and sadness of Good Friday for there is no resurrection without death. As the sun warms our faces and the frozen earth, we see hope realized in the snow drops and other spring flowers.

Death and resurrection, winter’s cold to springtime blooms: all are part of our lives and their seasons. We live in faith community the emotions of passion as the drama of Christ’s last days is relived in liturgy and worship. Out of suffering and death, the love of God raises Jesus to new life.

En cette fête de Pâques, fête du renouvellement de la nature et de nos esprits, nous sortons de l’hiver avec un profond besoin de crier: Alléluia!! Pendant le Carême, nous avons suivi les pas de Jésus dans le désert, un chemin de choix et de sacrifices difficiles à comprendre  pour nous en 2018. La vie vient après la souffrance, la joie après la longue nuit de pleurs, la résurrection après la croix. Oui, nous fêtons, mais toujours après avoir enduré de dures réalités.

Que Pâques remplisse vos cœurs et vos relations de la joie de la résurrection. Quand on vous dit : Christ est ressuscité, criez à pleins poumons : Alléluia!!

May the God of resurrection touch our lives with new life and renewal: Alléluia!

Rev. David Lefneski
SouthWest

Thine is the glory, risen conquering Son:
Endless is the victory thou o'er death has won.
Angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,
Kept the folded grave-clothes where the body lay.

Craindrais-je encore? Il vit à jamais,
celui que j’adore, le prince de paix;
il est ma victoire, mon puissant soutien,
ma vie et ma gloire : non, je ne crains rien!              (VU 173)

UCC Moderator's Easter Message 2018

[transcript of video message]

Hallelujah, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, hallelujah! That is our Easter refrain—full of joy and conviction. But that sure wasn’t the response of Jesus’ disciples on that first Easter morning. The various gospel accounts show the disciples responding with awe, fear, incomprehension, doubt, terror, and amazement. Our response is born of hindsight. Knowing what we now know about how it all turned out, we think of Easter morning and we declare, “Hallelujah!” But when one is in the midst of resurrection, when it is happening to you or around you right now, it’s a very different experience: full of uncertainty, anxiety, dread, and disbelief. Resurrection is, by its very nature, unexpected and unimaginable. We cannot see it coming; we are never prepared for it. It is the revelation of new life where just moments ago there was nothing but the possibility of despair and loss. The hallelujahs we announce at Easter are our affirmation that despite whatever hopelessness threatens to overwhelm us, we trust in the power of God’s love to bring about resurrection within our lives. We don’t know when, we don’t know how, we don’t know what it will look like, and we will certainly be confused and confounded by it if it should happen. But today, our hallelujahs declare that we believe resurrection is possible. And so we do not lose hope, no matter how hopeless a situation appears. This Easter season, as you sing, shout, whisper, and proclaim “Hallelujah!” may it strengthen your faith in the power and possibility of new life for you, your church, and our world. May we truly be a resurrection people.

Good Friday at the Mission

What is so good about Good Friday?

At the bank there was a notice: closed for Good Friday. Please God, I would like to take that day off as well, and change the direction from passion and death to a ‘being anywhere else day’.  What is so good about Good Friday? it is the darkest day of the Christian year. Jesus dies, crucified.

Throughout the Lenten season the invitation to worship has resonated:

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies,
It remains that and nothing more;
But if it dies it bears a rich harvest. John 12:24

Holy Week, with the turning of the cries of Hosanna to Crucify, is upon us.

The only way to arrive at the Easter Sunday shout of Alleluia is to follow Jesus through these dark days of betrayal, anguish, torture, tears and deep dispair. I am forced to face my own death, ponder the meaning of life and to question the darkness of the cry: Whay have you forsaken me?

Read the story in the Gospels, ponder the characters in the Passion. Where are you in the Passion story?

See Matthew 26-27: 66, Mark 14-15, Luke 22-23, John 18-19.

Follow Jesus in his last days.

Experience the depth of emotions, absence and death.

A traditonal hymn and meditation for Good Friday is this one written by Paul Gerhardt in 1656 (Voices United 145, french words by Henri Capieu, 1974, Nos Voix Unies).

O Sacred head sore wounded,
with grief and shame weighed down;
now scornfully surrounded
with thorns, thine only crown:
how art thou pale with anguish,
with sore abuse and scorn;
how does that visage languish,
which once was bright as morn!

De l'humaine misère
tu t'es fait serviteur;
de chacun de tes frères,
tu portes la douleur.
Seigneur, de nos souffrances
et de nos lendemains,
garde notre espérance
en tes vivantes mains.

May the prayer of the brigand dying at Jesus’ side be ours:
Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. (Luke 22: 42)

- Rev. David

The office will be closed, but as is our tradition, we will have a Good Friday service at the Mission at 11AM on March 30th. Stay afterwards for a simple community lunch. 631 Melrose. All are welcome.

Support Needed for Breakfast Club

Our Breakfast Club, which feeds about 70 Verdun Elementary School kids every school day, is short of a few items this month: orange juice (big cartons, not individual boxes), brown paper "lunch" bags, and plain Eggo waffles (or store brand). Items can be dropped off at church on Sunday, or at Meli-Melo between 12:30 and 2:30 Sunday at the Mission.

They are also still in need of volunteers. Even if you can only give your time once in a while, please contact the office to be put in touch with Breakfast Club coordination. 514-768-6231.

Local Family Needs Housing

A local Verdun Family is in need of a home following a fire where the family lost everything. 

FAMILY PROFILE: 2 adults and 3 boys under the age of 7 years.

Either in Verdun or close proximity to Verdun is necessary as access to local school is needed.

We can not accept donated goods at this time.

If you have a lead on housing, please contact: SOUTHWEST MISSION 514-768-6231

Many thanks

Mary Anne Fyckes,
Spiritual life and community animator with LBPSB

Notre Pasteur passe aux ondes/ Rev. David on TV

[ENGLISH BELOW]

Notre intrépide Pasteur David fut le sujet d'un entrevue récent pour l'émission  Info, sexe et mensonges. On lui demandait de commenter sur la publication de la correspondence du Frère Marie-Victorin à sa jeune collaboratrice scientifique, Marcelle Gauvreau, qui date de 1935 à 1944. Botaniste et frère religieux, Marie-Victorin écrivait franchement et avec curiosité de la sexualité humaine. Le topo avec Pasteur David sera diffusé ce soir (vendredi) sur ARTV durant l'émission de 21H, et re-diffusé samedi soir à 22H30 sur les ondes de Radio-Canada. Il sera également disponible sur le site web ARTV.

In a recent interview for the ARTV and Radio-Canada series Info, sexe et mensonges, our fearless minister was asked to comment on the recently published correspondence of Frère Marie-Victorin. In his letters to Marcelle Gauvreau, written between 1935 and 1944, the Catholic brother who trained as a botanist writes frankly and with curiosity about human sexuality. The segment with Rev. David will air tonight (Friday) during the 9PM show on ARTV. It will also be on Radio-Canada Saturday at 10:30PM, and available on the ARTV website.

Soup and Discussion March 18th

Sunday March 18 at the Church

You are invited to share in a bowl of soup after the 10 o’clock service. At the same time, we will gather informally to discuss what could be described as “Practical Prayer.” We are overloaded with concerns, from homelessness in our own backyard to the horrors transpiring in Syria. We face all kinds of challenges to our own history with First Nations peoples in Canada. And we are witnessing the power of American youth in their response to gun violence.

We couldn’t possibly cover all these subjects in one sitting, but perhaps this could set the model for future discussion?

Please join us.

Sarah Fraser, on behalf of
The Sunday Service Workgroup

PS: If you are able, please bring a can of tomatoes - crushed, diced, any kind! - to help re-stock the pantry at the Mission. Thank you.

Blanket exercise at Saint Columba House

Participate in the Blanket Exercise

Explore the 500 year relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples through an experiential activity and conversation. This activity will have an emphasis on the Quebec context.

Wednesday March 28, 2018
6:00-8:00 pm
Maison Saint Columba House
2365 Grand Trunk, Montreal

If you are planning to attend, registration is obligatory                       by March 23rd info@saintcolumbahouse.org

Blanket Exercise facilitators: Tom Deerhouse and Lisa Byer-de Wever. The Blanket Exercise was developed by the Aboriginal Rights Coalition (ARC), one of ten ecumenical coalitions the churches brought together to form KAIROS in 2001.

Thank You

How Does God Speak to us?

How does God speak to us? 

Personally I attempt to discern the voice of God in many different ways:

As I pray, when I sing, as I listen to the stories of scriptures and of our elders, as I observe and interact with life. 

A Bible story:
There is the story of young Samuel who hears a voice as he sleeps in the sanctuary of God (1 Samuel 3). He believes that it is Eli the priest who is calling him. Once, twice and even three times he is called. When Eli realizes it is God calling he gives these words of response to Samuel: ‘Speak Lord, your servant is listening.’ God was calling Samuel to be a prophet.

A hymn:
A familiar hymn used often as a prayer for illumination after the reading of the scriptures reminds us that beyond the sacred page is a Living Word, a living relationship with Jesus. The words are:

Break now the bread of life, Saviour to me,
as once you broke the loaves beside the sea.
Beyond the sacred page I seek you Lord,
my spirit waits for you, O Living Word.

(Mary Artmemisia Lathbury, 1877, VU 501)

A testimony:

A few weeks ago there was a contact on the SouthWest website from a young man wanting to talk about faith, the Reformed tradition and discerning God’s voice. Kevin Williamson is a francophone and wrote these words of testimony. I include them below as he sent them

- Rev. David

Comment Dieu nous parle-t-il? 

Cette question demeure complexe et nécessite une réflexion poussée. Surtout, encore faut-il commencer par mettre la main sur ce que représente Dieu pour ladite personne répondant à question. Tout d’abord, je crois que Dieu apparaît différent pour chaque personne. Dans le christianisme, nous savons que Dieu est venu sur Terre par l’entremise de Jésus. Les chrétiens s’entendent sur ce point (bien que les unitariens rejettent la trinité). Il n’en demeure pas moins que les premières représentations de Jésus ont été imaginées par des artistes byzantins du IVe siècle. De plus, les Évangiles ne décrivent jamais l’aspect physique de Jésus. Par voie de conséquence, si nous nous fions seulement à la Bible et non aux œuvres artistiques byzantines (et des peuples suivants jusqu’à nos jours), Dieu qui se représente dans Jésus est le fruit de notre imagination et de notre propre expérience (en ce qui concerne son apparence physique). Ceci est le début de la parole de Dieu à mon sens. Il compose et articule notre conscience. Il laisse libre cours à notre imagination et notre raison pour le faire vivre en nous, et ce, même s’il vit en nous. Il me parle comme de cette façon. Dans un autre ordre d’idées, nous avons tendance à voir Dieu comme une entité immense qui transcende tout et qui couvre tout. Au risque de paraître hérétique, ce n’est pas mon cas. Pour ma part, Dieu ne siège pas dans l’infiniment grand, mais plutôt l’infiniment petit. Tout part de Lui. Tout part de cette poussière cosmique qui est la force vitale. Dieu débute dans la molécule universelle de la vie, de la matière, du cosmos, du psychique, du spirituel, de l’occulte, etc. Dieu réside dans la vie qui s’empare du vivant pour le faire bouger. Dieu me parle par la vie. Par le vivant en action. Par les forces cosmiques, Il nous façonne pour nous permettre de produire et donner un sens à ce que nous devons accomplir sur terre. Nous sommes créés à son image. Nous venons de l’obscurité et la lumière s’infiltre en nous comme autant de particules vitales… pour retourner tranquillement dans l’obscurité… mais nous participons à bâtir l’éternité puisque nos atomes vont survivre puisque Dieu protège les atomes. Dieu va survivre. Notre lumière survira. 

C’est de cette façon que Dieu me parle. Il me pousse à allumer ma flamme intérieure et à prendre conscience de ma création (physique, psychique, artistique et spirituelle).  

- K. Williamson