Sunday School – August 29 at 9:30 am
Zoom – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7538449219
Gather for Worship – August 29 at 10:00 am
Zoom – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7538449219
We are not alone. We live in God’s world …
Those words convey such a simple yet profound message.
Those words are found in the ‘New Creed’ of The United Church of Canada.
“We are not alone. We live in God’s world!”
These are words of faith that we need to hear and say and pray frequently these days.
The daily news tells us of challenges, struggles and suffering in the world. We know challenges, struggles and sometimes suffering in our personal lives.
In these times, in all times, we prayerfully remember that “We are not alone. We live in God’s world.”
We remember that God is an active agent of love, creation and hope in this world. We remember that everything that exists and everything that happens exists and happens within the wonder, the grace, the love of God.
We remember that God is present in our faith stories of both endings and beginnings, of unravelling and rebirth, of death and resurrection.
During COVID, TMUC has not been able to gather for in-person worship or meetings or study groups. We have not been together, but we have not been alone. We have lived in God’s world. We continue to live in God’s world.
We do not yet know when we will regather for in-person worship. The TMUC Council will meet (via ZOOM) on September 8, after the current health orders reach their time of completion.
At that time, the Council will discuss options for a safe re-opening for worship, depending on then-current health orders and conditions.
In the meantime, we continue to offer weekly online worship resources. We also offer periodic online ZOOM worship.
Today we gather online for both Sunday School and worship.
Sunday School will be held at 9:30 a.m. Worship will begin at 10 a.m.
TMUC’s ZOOM link for Sunday is:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7538449219
By phone:
Meeting ID: 753 844 9219
+1-204-272-7920
This September, TMUC will again collect school supplies to donate to the Newcomer program at the River East Transcona School Division. We will do that this year with the drop off for donations as a ‘drive-by’ on Tuesday, September 7 from 6 to 7 pm. This will also be a time for a ‘Blessing of the Backpacks’ for those who bring backpacks or bags.
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.
Thanks again to everyone for 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. Donations on PAR (note: the PAR program now accepts monthly credit card donations as well as automatic monthly bank withdrawals), CanadaHelps through Canada Helps, e-transfers to the church’s email address: tmuc@shaw.ca, and cheques mailed to the church are making a difference. Thank you.
Even though we cannot be together in one place, let’s continue to be a community at prayer together. When you want to have a longer worship time, we are including some words and videos for your use.
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.
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, August 29, 2021
Introit: “Come All You People”
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!
Our opening hymn is “I Love to Tell the Story”:
Esther and Emmett talk about Jesus, God and washing our hands
Printable Version:
Esther and Emmett_Aug 29
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Now when the Pharisees and scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.
(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.)
So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand; there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come; fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.
All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Carol offers a reflection:
Printable Version:
Carol Reflection_Aug 29
Let us pray:
God, we are thankful that we are not alone, that we live in Your world;
that humans exist within Your awesome creation; and that Your loving, elusive, life-shaping Spirit infuses all of Your creation.
You are the heart at the heart of all creation;
the life pulsing throughout all that is;
the divine dance,
the sacred within,
the ground of all being.
We are thankful, God, for the blessing of life;
for the beauty and wonder of the cycles of life;
for seasons, for stars, for sunsets;
for flowers, for forests, for fireflies;
for water, for wind, for waterlilies;
for animals, for atoms, for Alps.
We are thankful for the blessing of our humanity that allows us to be aware of the mystery and the magnificence in which we dwell; and allows us to love appreciate, to be lovers of creation.
Belonging to Your creation, we pray for Your creation.
We pray for this world, for its people and for the creatures with whom we share this planet.
We pray for the people of Haiti who grieve deaths and destruction caused by the earthquake that struck that country.
We pray for all those who have had to leave their homes due to wildfires, for those whose homes are threatened by the fires, for all the firefighters trying to contain the fires.
We pray for all who experience the force of Hurricane Henri.
We pray for the people of Afghanistan, for all those trying to leave that country, and for all those who will not be able to leave. We pray for their safety.
We pray for people throughout the globe as COVID continues to infect and kill. We pray that vaccinations be accessible throughout the world and that people will make responsible and safe choices in protecting themselves and others.
We pray for people whose lives are confined by poverty. We pray for those who are unemployed and under-employed. We pray for those burdened with debt. We pray for economies that value people over profits, and for economies that share resources and wealth in ways that provide for all people.
We pray for those who live with illnesses, with pain, with mental and emotional struggles. We pray for those who seek release from addictions. We pray for all who are victims of violence, of abuse and of prejudice.
We pray for healing of our hearts that we may be people of Your Spirit, God, people of courageous compassion, people who create communities of welcome, affirmation and peace.
And we pray for this planet You have created. We pray for animals, insects, bird, fish, plants, vegetation, soil, minerals, water, air…we pray for a planet that we have too long exploited and polluted.
As we confront the effects of climate change, we pray that our hearts and wills be changed so that we live in a new and respectful relationship with the rest of Your creation, so that we practice new ways of living in harmony and balance with the rest of Your creation.
And we pray that You continue to awaken our imaginations and faith to be companions of the resurrected Christ in embodying hope and healing.
We pray in the name and spirit of Jesus, the Christ. AMEN
Cheryl and Crystal share our closing hymn is “I Am the Dream”:
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