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Birthday Wishes
September is here and the following people are celebrating birtdays this month! 10 - Ken Junck 14 - Gail Berger, Halen Storm and Ellen Luthy 16 - Stavros Kotsireas 21 - Gerry Hilton 30 - Madeline Storm Birthday blessings to you all!
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Outdoor Service and Barbecue
We are having an Outdoor Service and Barbecue on September 11, 2022. During the service we will be doing a Blessing of the Backpacks! You are invited to bring a backpack of your own or one to donate to families from the Ukraine. For the barbecue, the church will provide hotdogs, and you are invited to bring a salad or dessert to share. Your Church Council |
Summer Roundup
Did you know our community garden is one of six Sharing Gardens that make up the Edible Garden Project on the North Shore? For six years it has been providing fresh produce to the women at the Turning Point residence. It was was another dry hot summer so Lin Parkinson, lead gardener, together with volunteers Margaret and Stella had to work out a watering schedule to ensure the vegetables didn't wilt and dry up. To date they have harvested 101 pounds of produce with a couple of harvesting weeks left to go. A colorful addition this year were calendula flowers which are edible and make a great salad addtion. And I 'm sure that anyone feeling low, had their spirits lifted by the cheery row of sunflowers of various heights and blooms. FUN FACT: Scientists call sunflowers hyperaccumulators; the New York Times calls them “toxic avengers with leaves.” Sunflowers grow enthusiastically in all kinds of soils, including those tainted by toxic metals and radiation, and as they grow, their roots absorb and remove the poisons. Decontaminating the earth with plants is called phytoremediation. Sunflowers have been used to clear radiation on the Hiroshima, Chernobyl and Fukashima nuclear disaster sites. Because of its radiation-neutralizing super power, the sunflower is used as an international symbol for nuclear disarmament. ~~~~~~~ QUILTS bring Comfort to Ukrainian Newcomers July 12 was a special Sunday. Not only did we bless the 20 quilts that had been in storage over the two year of the pandemic, we also hosted the Lyubchik family who had recently arrived from Ukraine. Serhii, Nataliya and their 3 yr. old daughter were living in Odessa when the war broke out. Serhii was able whisked them out of the country immediately and they eventually made their way to Vancouver. Their family is growing with a new baby expected later in the Fall, and they were deeply appreciative of the quilts they received - especially the baby quilts made by Dorothy Sanders. In total, seven Ukrainian families comprising of tenadults and nine children received quilts. Pastor Vida has continued to stay in touch with the Lyubchik family as well as some of the moms who are here alone with their children due to the martial law not permitting men to leave the country. for more photos click on the "read more" button below. For more infomation visit:
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Thank You!
Lin Parkinson would like to thank everyone who donated items to the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre! |
Season of CreationListen to the Voices of Creation SEASON OF CREATION - Sundays, September 4 - October 9 We begin our celebration of the Season of Creation this Sunday with a Contemplative Service of Word and Prayer (without Holy Communion) and and a visual reflection on creation will be offered in lieu of a sermon. The inception of the Season of Creation (SOC) as a liturgical practice can be traced to Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios’ 1989 declaration of September 1st as The Day of Prayer for Creation. In the years that followed, ecumenical partners, including the Lutheran World Federation, worked to develop a sustained time of creation-centred intercessory prayer. The resulting Season of Creation extends from September 1st to October 4th, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi; in Canada the season is often lengthened to include the Sunday closest to Thanksgiving. This year’s theme for the Season of Creation, “Listen to the Voice of Creation,” is a response to the Psalmist’s cry, “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims God’s handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge ... their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the Earth, and their words to the end of the world” (19:1-4). This theme asks us to take a stance of conscious listening to the human and non-human beings with whom we share our home. For many of us, this posture of listening necessitates a shift of heart and mind; it requires us to not only acknowledge the voices of other cultures and communities, but to acknowledge non- human beings as having subjectivity, dignity, and mutuality (sharing in action, feeling, and relationship). We are being asked to affirm what the dominant strains of Christianity have often denied: the goodness and vital contribution of each member of God’s creation, human and non- human. The Psalmist makes this affirmation, Jesus makes this affirmation (remember ‘consider the lilies’?), many of our saints and mystics make this affirmation, and Indigenous cultures today call on settler-colonial cultures to remember this affirmation. From such an affirmation, we can begin to see that we have much to learn from ‘all creatures great and small’ and from our human siblings who intimately bear witness to creation’s groaning. As we listen to creation, the SOC Advisory Committee prompts us to “lament the individuals, communities, species, and ecosystems who are lost, and those who are threatened by habitat loss and climate change”; we are reminded to “centre the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor,” who are disproportionately impacted by climate change and environmental degradation. The SOC Committee also asks us to remember that these same populations are often on the front lines of activism working for change, and that many of these movements are led by women who put their lives in danger for the sake of our common home. In our prayer and contemplation, we are to discern what action we are called to take, “so that our lives in words and deeds proclaim good news for all the Earth.” In the context of the ELCIC, both our church and secular calendar help to facilitate this time of contemplation and prayerful action. The fall brings us saint days for Hildegard of Bingen (Sept 17) and Francis of Assisi (October 4). Both saints are renowned for their teachings on creation and spirituality. In our secular calendar, we celebrate Thanksgiving and observe The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Framing the latter with the Season of Creation is a reminder that residential schools were one of the policies that helped to facilitate the transfer of land and resources to the Canadian government, at great cost to Indigenous nations and to the detriment of the varied ecological communities that comprise what is called Canada. As we begin together this time of prayer, may we remember that, as St. Augustine said Creation “is the divine page that you must listen to,” and as Luther said, “God has written [the gospel] not only in books, but in trees and other creatures.” Let us listen to creation, let us listen to the histories that got us here, let us prayerfully consider what science is saying about where we are, and let us listen to the hopes and dreams of our children. Each of these are gifts, and in response we both lament and give thanks in the hope of transformation. (For more information, and ideas for action see seasonsofcreation.org). This post was originally published by the ELCIC Program Committee for Worship and Communication on the Worship website of the ELCIC and compiled and written by Rebekah Ludolph, member of Trillium Lutheran Church. For more infomation visit:
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ELCIC Convention Highlights
Pastor Vida was a delegate to the ELCIC National Convention which was held online this year from July 15 - 16. The Convention limited itself to conduct the essential business of the church with a special in-person Convention to take place in 2023 to allow time for a fuller gathering experience. A highlight of the Convention was National Bishop Susan Johnson's apology to members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Bishop Susan apologized "for the ways that we have not lived up to our commitments and to the ways we have treated you in the past and even now. I want to acknowledge the harms that members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community have experienced in our church.”
Bishop Johnson acknowledged the times members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community did not receive welcome, had been denied sacraments, vocation, marriage rights, and when proper gender identity had not been affirmed. “I acknowledge the harms that we do not know and that people have not shared,” she continued. “I acknowledge the harm experience by those who still feel the need to be closeted and not live out their full identity in our church.” “With this apology I acknowledge the harms we as a church have caused and those harms we continue to cause,” she said. “We have work to do and I cling to a hope that the entire church will learn from the past and work toward a future where all generations will feel acceptance, affirmation, and celebration for the gifts they bring our church as valued children of God.” Bishop Johnson indicated her hope for a similar apology to be carried out in-person at next year’s planned in-person convention. Another hightlight was the report from Rev. Dr Karin Achtelstetter, Canadian Lutheran World Relief (CLWR) executive director. Touching on the war-torn nation of Ukraine, poverty in Palestine, food insecurity and famine in Burundi and weather disasters in Ethiopia and El Salvador, Achtelstetter shared stories of resilience and creativity, as well as that of greening – connecting to the convention theme: Let There be Greening. “We’ve seen the world come together in some inspiring ways, and we’ve seen a world feel incredibly divided and fragmented—including within our own country,” she said. “But I’m here today, in part, to offer thanks, because of your steadfast support over these last years." There were also elections to National Church Council:
For further Convention highlights visit the ELCIC page here.
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