Our Lenten journey continues…
Are you ready? …for the third word of our Lenten journey…
REvive!
REvive – to restore, enliven, to awaken to new way life and opportunity.
Church history includes gatherings often called ‘revival meetings’, held in tents, or auditoriums or sanctuaries. The meetings include preaching and singing and often an invitation for people to commit their lives to God.
Revival meetings haven’t been a major part of the history of The United Church of Canada.
However, United Churches as well as faith communities of other denominations are now in a time of REvival.
When TMUC gathers for in-person worship on March 26, we are gathering for a kind of REvival meeting.
After two years of COVID, two years of primarily worshipping, meeting and visiting online or by phone or text or email, it’s time to begin again!
It is time for a REvival of worship, community life, of living with respect in creation, loving and serving others and seeking justice.
So, this is your invitation to join the TMUC revival on March 26 as we continue our Lenten journey to Easter resurrection and new life.
- As In-person worship resumes on Sunday, March 27 at 10 a.m, the TMUC policy on vaccination and masks remains.Greeters are needed to help welcome people to worship on Sunday mornings. If you can volunteer as a Greeter please call Shelley Schau for details – 431-275-9169.
- The world also needs a REvival movement – a REvived commitment to building a world of peace and compassion for the well-being of all creation.We continue to pray for peace. We continue to pray for Ukraine. We continue to invite you to pause each day at 6:00 pm – wherever you are and whatever you’re doing – to Pause and Pray for Peace.
Some other announcements and reminders:
- We welcome Laura Sechman to the TMUC Staff Team! Laura is our Office Administrator and will be available in the Church Office Tuesday-Friday, 9-12:00 and 12:30 – 3:00.
- TMUC’s Glenlea Greenhouse plant sale fundraiser is available for online shopping until April 15, 2022. Get growing with us by supporting the online plant sale by clicking on the link and selecting Transcona Memorial United Church in the drop-down menu at check out.There are bedding plants, hanging baskets, hanging bags, vegetables, and herbs for sale with 20-25% of profits being returned to TMUC. The more we sell, the more we get back. Here’s the link.The plants will be delivered to TMUC on Friday May 13 and pick up usually starts around 4pm. If you require delivery, please contact tmucflowers@gmail.com and we can make arrangements with you.
Chocolate Easter Bunnies are back!
- TMUC is partnering with Mordens’ Chocolates in a Chocolate Easter Bunny fundraiser. Each 90g Pure Milk Chocolate Flat Solid Bunny is $7.00. You can order or pick up by contacting the church officeTMUC must place our last order with Mordens’ on April 3 so that means we need to know before then how many bunnies you would like!Send your order by email (tmuc@shaw.ca) or phone Laura in office hours at 204-222-1331 (extension 101).
- The United Church of Canada is responding to an urgent invitation of the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) to join them in the Korea Peace Appeal. This campaign has been initiated by more than 370 South Korean civil society organizations, religious groups, and international partner organizations with the goal of ending the Korean War and concluding a Korea peace agreement. The Korea Peace Appeal is a global campaign that seeks to collect 100 million signatures by 2023. For more information and to sign the Appeal, Here is the link
We are thankful for the grace and blessing of everyone engaging with us on this COVID-19 journey. We are grateful to share ministry with you and really appreciate your efforts to stay in touch and to continue to care about TMUC with your prayers and your financial support.
The Prayer List is distributed separately and allows us to remember specific people with our prayers. If you want to receive the Prayer List, or add a name (with their permission), please be in touch.
Donations on PAR (note: the PAR program now accepts monthly credit card donations as well as automatic monthly bank withdrawals), Canada Helps, e-transfers to the church’s email address: tmuc@shaw.ca, and cheques mailed to the church are making a difference. We do not anticipate any significant Government support this year and knowing how helpful that was to us in the past two years, we will have a challenge ahead. Thanks to everyone for prayerfully considering additional financial support of the congregation! The Council has a planning meeting on March 22. We welcome ideas and input as we look for funding and fundraising. Thank you!
Even though we cannot be together in one place, let’s continue to be a community at prayer together. On Sunday at 10, please think about the gifts we have in our lives, and needs of our world, and then pray the Lord’s prayer (you can pray silently, or out loud).
And, sometime, when you want to have a longer worship time, we are including some words and videos for your use.
As we share this week’s TMUC worship service, we are called again to listen to our faith community’s words of reconciliation:
We are gathered for worship and work in Treaty One territory, which is the traditional land of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dené peoples and the homeland of the Metis Nation. For thousands of years Indigenous Peoples walked this land and knew it to be the centre of their lives and their spirituality. We respect the Treaties that were made on these territories, we acknowledge the harms and mistakes of the past, and we dedicate ourselves to move forward in partnership with Indigenous communities in a spirit of reconciliation and collaboration.
Worship for Sunday, March 20, 2022
Introit: “Holy Sacred Spirit”:
Come, Holy Spirit!
Come to awaken our faith,
to inspire our hope
to embolden our love
and to let Christ live in us!
Come, Holy Spirit!
Today’s opening hymn is ‘Come, We that Love’:
Esther and Emmett talk about ‘Spring Begins!’
Esther and Emmett talk about Spring and Easter
Scripture reading:
Luke 13:1-9
At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”
Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
Jeff offers a reflection:
Let us pray:
God, lead us to repentance,
that we may change our ways and live with respect in creation;
that we may learn the ways of peace;
that we may share Your love in this world.
God, revive our spirits,
revive out souls,
revive our living, our loving, our faith.
God, we pray for a world revival of peace and reconciliation and healing.
God, we pray…
We pray for Ukraine. We pray for an end to the bombings, to the invasion, to the killings, to the destruction.
We pray for peace.
We pray for refugees from Ukraine. We pray for countries welcoming refugees and countries providing aid and support.
We pray for peace.
We pray for the people of Russia experiencing sanctions.
We pray for peace.
We pray for all who live in places of war and conflict.
We pray for peace.
We pray for the people of Korea – for peaceful coexistence on the Korean peninsula.
We pray for peace.
We pray reconciliation in Canada. We pray for indigenous people who grieve a history of undocumented deaths, who grieve systemic destruction of their cultures and communities, who grieve the harm and pain inflicted upon them. We pray that all Canadians commit to fulfilling the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action.
We pray for people in Japan affected by this week’s earthquake.
We pray for the people of Afghanistan experiencing a hunger crisis.
We pray for health as COVID restrictions end in many countries. We pray for an end to the spread of the virus.
We pray for refugees. We pray that all people be welcomed into safe places.
We pray for all who are homeless. We pray for all offering shelter and food and friendship.
We pray for all who are living with, coping with, illness, disease, injuries, and physical, mental, and emotional challenges. We pray for healing. We pray that people know caring and supportive communities of family, friends and health care workers.
We pray for people living with economic uncertainty. We pray for all people to be able to live with access to food, shelter, medical aid, education and employment opportunities.
We pray for Your creation, for this planet Earth. We pray for humans to adopt new ways of living to lessen our impact on climate change. We pray for the healing and revival of the Earth.
We pray for faith communities seeking to follow the way of Christ and to be agents of healing and hope and sacred presence in the world.
We pray as companions of Jesus and as resurrection people.
We pray in the name of Christ. AMEN
Our closing hymn is “I See a New Heaven”:
May God bless you and keep you.
May God’s face shine upon you.
May God grant you peace and joy.
Be in the peace of Christ, this day and always. Amen
We keep you in our prayers,
Jeff and Carol