Blog ..Blogue
News from SouthWest ..Des nouvelles du Sud-Ouest
It’s a SouthWest Holiday Bazaar!
Saturday, November 17th, 9:00AM-4:00PM
White elephant table, bake table, book sale, Knick knacks, etc and Snack Bar!
Tables to rent for $15.00.
Bakers and volunteers needed.
Please call Sheila at 514-762-9940 if you require more info.
It is with great enthusiasm that we announce our Mini Market will now be open every Wednesday. This is due to the ever-increasing need for fresh vegetables and fruit within our community. It is our seniors and shut-ins that are at most risk from having a lack of a well rounded meal.
SouthWest wishes to thank Sheila and her team for literally doubling their efforts to make this happen! See price list attached and drop by Wednesday, October 17th, to discover secret items at extra-special low prices!
Come celebrate our return to the Church with a service filled with wonderful music, the universal language. The building will be warm, clean and inviting, on the inside at least! Musicians include Roman Fraser (violin) and Joshua Morris (cello).
Details to follow.
Venez célébrer avec nous notre retour à l’église – on a hâte! Malgré les travaux à l’extérieur, l’intimité, la chaleur et une merveilleuse ambiance nous attend à l’intérieur. Les musiciens : Roman Fraser (violon) et Joshua Morris (violoncelle) préparent un programme tout a fait extraordinaire !
We do what it takes to create a safe, enjoyable gathering for for our community to celebrate season’s change through food. On September 26 SouthWest celebrated a Harvest Party with a sponsorship grant from AVIVA Insurance company. The Breakfast club team was on hand at 6:00am preparing to feed over 35 children at our Breakfast club with special guest Chewbacca of Star Wars greeting the children and staff! While over in the SouthWest kitchen, the kitchen teams were under the watchful eye of guest Chef Atena and SW Community chef Leonore preparing a Persian delight. Local Verdun musician Henry (AKA Bud Nice) serenaded the community with his guitar. Mini-Market coordinator Sheila and Mobile March Verdun Mobile Market coordinator Stefana supported the day with a bountiful harvest of mini-market fruits, vegetables and baking and of course Rev. David welcoming all to the table.!
Thank-you all for your help on that day and to new volunteer Francois for his technical support.
We are thankful for what we have and amazed at the potential of what we can do for ourselves and our community!
Darlene
Throughout history, women have gathered in sacred circles. Be it around a fire in prehistoric times, within hushed monasteries of the Middle Ages, in quilting bees, around the dining room table playing cards, or online groups in the digital age, women have long congregated to laugh, share, heal, care for children and parents, grieve, and spiritually connect in community.
SouthWest United Church & Mission is initiating a Women’s Circle.
Gathering on the 2nd Sunday of the month
The first circle to be held on October 14 after the 11:15 regular worship, at the SouthWest Mission 631 Melrose avenue.
DLM Beryl Barraclough will lead women in a journey of worship, healing and fellowship as we meet with intent, and tradition of Christian values.
Light refreshments will be available. (Donations welcomed)
Please note that the circle will be led in English with support from within the circle for any translation into French, perhaps other languages if others are able.
Gratitude: En toute circonstances!
'Soyez toujours joyeux.
Priez sans cesse.
Remerciez Dieu en toutes circonstances!'
(1 Thessaloniciens 5:16-18).
Quel défi que de remercier Dieu en toutes circonstances. Depuis que mon jeune frère est décédé le premier janvier de l’année passée, j’ai souvent lutté pour trouver cette reconnaissance. Comment disons-nous merci quand nos coeurs sont blessés, brisés ou simplement triste? Je choisis de bénir au lieu de condamner et je crois que dire merci au lieu de commenter les circonstances négatives qui parfois m'entourent m'aide à vivre avec reconnaissance. Je relève ce défi comme parent, pasteur et leader communautaire, défi d'être positif et d'affirmer le bien en moi et les autres. Ce n'est pas évident ni sans effort.
Les chants de louanges m'aident à dire ma gratitude dans la tradition de mes aïeux. Ils m’aident de regagner et garder mon équilibre émotif. Ma grand-mère maternelle a souvent chanté le cantique suivant et moi aussi je le chante:
Loué soit notre Dieu! Que notre vie entière
Tous nous vivions joyeux sous le regard du Père.
Qu’il nous tienne en sa grâce et nous guide toujours,
Nous garde du malheur par son unique amour.
(Martin Rinckart, 1636, NVU 34)
Que l'Action de Grâces 2018 soit remplie de gratitude pour nous tous!
Qu'elle soit une pause de reconnaissance pour chacun de nous!
Alléluia et amen!
Pasteur David
Radical Gratitude of Thanksgiving, 2018
Last week the words “radical hospitality” were written in the newsletter expressing the way that Jesus welcomed all who came to him with unconditional love. I experienced such hospitality last Sunday on the ‘official’ welcome Sunday at Emmanuel. I have lived in such generosity at SouthWest for some 19 years now.
I am pondering the idea of a gratitude that is radical. Paul writes:
“This is what God wants from you in your life in union with Jesus Christ. Be joyful always, pray at all times, be thankful in all circumstances.” (1Thessalonians 5: 16-17).
As a follower of Jesus I am invited to a life of joy, prayer and thanksgiving, no matter the circumstances. I have at times found this difficult to live, especially in times of loss. Last year I struggled to live it after the death of my younger brother, for grief was so sharply smothering thanksgiving. As circumstances of life change and evolve I am challenged to live a relationship with God in Christ where I am rooted in prayer. That daily prayer brings a joy that does not depend on the emotions of the moment but rather on the certitude that God will provide for all needs, every day, no matter what is happening around us.
Gratitude is present in such faith and practice! It flows from prayer and joy. It speaks a gentle Alleluia no matter the highs and lows.
As I experience the changing of the seasons and the abundance of the harvest, I pause to express thanksgiving to Creator for life, love, food, friends, and our communities of faith.
I enjoy the words of Henry Alford who penned the following invitation in 1844:
Come, you thankful people, come,
raise the song of harvest home!
All is safely gathered in,
safe before the storms begin;
God, our maker, does provide
for our needs to be supplied:
come to God's own temple, come,
raise the song of harvest home! (VU 516)
Let our gratitude be radical, in all situations and circumstances, a constant song of thanks!
Alléluia! Amen!
Rev. David
Big news here at SouthWest Mission. It’s Year Three for our Mini-market, and it’s going from every second Wednesday to every Wednesday, as of October 10th. You can check in here to see what we’re ordering as of the Friday before, or pick up a price list/ order form at the Mission. Click below to see what will be on offer at the market next Wednesday, October 10th, from 10:30 to 3:30. If you drop by that day at 12:30 you can also enjoy a tasty, healthy lunch, another food program we offer weekly. Your donations are what keep us going!
The following article by Domenic Fazioli appeared in the Verdun Messenger.
They were up at the crack of dawn chopping vegetables, preparing the kale, spreading hummus on whole wheat tortillas. A team of volunteers at the SouthWest Mission in Verdun worked together to produce 300 « health wraps ». They were all gobbled up by an army of children at Verdun Elementary in less than a minute.
SouthWest Mission was one of a handful of Montreal community organizations that produced free lunches for schoolchildren as part of Action Day on School Nutrition on September 20. The effort was meant to promote healthy eating habits to boys and girls.
« For the most vulnerable people, it’s easier to go to McDonald’s for a ready-made meal. But if you make it at home, it’s much cheaper and better for you, » says Léonore Pion, food coordinator at SouthWest Mission.
Besides the wrap, the lunch bags also contained a small container of homemade coleslaw, a banana-kale mini-muffin and a shiny red apple.
How do we welcome, and live radical hospitality?
At the Welcome Wednesday community meal this week there was a festive ambiance. The Aviva insurance company was donating some monies to SouthWest for a Harvest Celebration, thanks to Darlene for submitting our name! The theme was Better Together/Mieux Ensemble and there was lots of joy as “Chewbacca” visited Breakfast Club, then local musician Bud Rice played during the lunch, and guest Chef Atena worked in the kitchen with Léonore and volunteer cooks to produce a Persian-inspired meal. Two families, newly arrived to Canada and with us for the first time, asked if the special moment was for them. Of course it was! And for all of us!
Welcome is an important part of the moments, seasons and changes in our lives. Helping people feel part of community and a sense of belonging is much of what we do as a community of faith.
I remember wanting to worship at a local church on a vacation Sunday only to find they had merged with another congregation that day. No one thought to put that information on the front door. No welcome there! I turned away frustrated.
I remember the guest for baptism wearing their cap and the complaint that in essence said, hats in church are disrespectful. Ever take your child to worship and have someone turn to you and say an infamous: Shush?! How did these words and attitude touch these persons? How would we feel? Not very welcomed.
There is a wonderful gospel story about mothers bringing their babies and children to Jesus. (Mark 10: 13-16). They heard of his welcome and inclusion, in a world where women and children had no recognized legal value, which was radical for its time. Jesus stopped what he was doing, turned to smile, hold babies and bless them and their mothers. He was criticized by his male disciples who said these interlopers were disturbing the status quo. “Shush!” they said to the children! Throughout the gospels Jesus often practiced this radical hospitality in his ministry especially towards those on the fringes of society and religion.
We learn how to live a more radical hospitality from this story. That we must:
- Let people (and children) interrupt what we are doing.
- Affirm that relationships are more important than rules.
- Open our circles (sometimes they look like cliques) to include the newcomer.
- Speak a word of welcome (go out of our way!).
- Celebrate the welcome in a ritual, song, or blessing. (holding needs in prayer, blessing children and parents, singing our joy!).
I enjoy this chorus, by Gordon Light, of welcome to a widening circle. It speaks to all the moments of gathering including last week’s Méli-Melo ( with 13 children and 14 adults) and worship at the Mission for September and October.
Arms open wide we sing:
Images from the Better Together/ Mieux ensemble Harvest Festival
Draw the circle wide! Draw it wider still!!
Let this be our song, no one stands alone,
standing side by side, draw the circle wide.
Traçons un grand cercle. Traçons le plus grand.
C’est notre seul chant, nul n’est solitaire,
debut solidaires, traçons un grand cercle.
(More Voices #145)
Rev. David
