Sunday School – June 6 at 9:30 am
Zoom – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7538449219
Worship & Communion – June 6 at 10:00 am
Zoom – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7538449219
There’s lots of news to share!
Thanks to everyone for helping to make the Glenlea Greenhouse fundraiser such a success, the cheque arrived this week – over $2500!
And, we have received a note from Laura, John, Xander and Lina who experienced a house fire in the fall and who have been living in downtown rental apartments while their house is being restored.
To Jeff, Carol and TMUC Congregation,
Thank you so much for your support and prayers throughout this very trying time as we work to recover from the fire. Our family can’t begin to express how deeply touched and appreciative we are for the outpouring of love we have received. While we all made it out of the house safely, the wounds we experienced from this los are not physical but mental and spiritual. However, we are healing and your words of kindness, thoughtful messages and conversations and prayers have helped to start our healing process.
We feel truly blessed to have such a caring community to call our home and our church. And we look forward to a time when we can thank everyone in person, hopefully in the not too distant future.
In the meantime, we will continue down a path of healing and recovery with the hope of returning to our house and place of worship soon.
Blessings to all,
Laura, John, Xander, and Lina
This Sunday is a Communion Sunday, on ZOOM at 10:00 a.m. And, there is Sunday School with Brenda at 9:30! (It is the same ZOOM link, open early for Sunday School!)
Here is the link for both the Sunday Communion worship and Sunday School, and for the Monday ZOOM at 7-8 p.m.: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7538449219
If you prefer to join us by being on a ‘Party-line’/’Conference Call’ style of phone call, the number to dial is: 204-272-7920
You will be asked if you want to ‘join a meeting’, (say yes), and then enter the meeting ID number: 753 844 9219
As we share this week’s TMUC worship service, as we consider the events of the past week, we are called again to listen to 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, June 6, 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 “Blesses Assurance”. It is played by Lynne ad sung by Crystal:
Esther and Emmett talk about Jesus’ family
Printable Version:
Esther and Emmett_June 6
Mark 3:20-35
Then Jesus went home, and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat.
When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.”
And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.”
And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan?
If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.
And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come.
But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter;
but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”– for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”
Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him.
A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.”
And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”
And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!
Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
Carol offers a reflection:
Printable Version:
Reflection_June 6
Today’s two prayers are being offered throughout the United Church as we mourn together:
Prayer for the Loss in Kamloops, BC
by Rev. Murray Pruden, Executive Minister, Indigenous Ministries & Justice, The United Church of Canada
Creator,
We give thanks for this day and each day you grant us life to walk on this great land, our Mother.
Give us the heart and strength to come together in prayer in time of mourning, reflection, and peace.
The news we have heard these last few days of our relations, our families, the children who have been physically taken away from us and who have now been found.
And with this news, we grieve for their memory, for their struggle, for their spirit.
We pray for good understanding, guidance, and love for all our families and communities who will need direction and resolution at this time.
And we come together in prayer and ask for your light to guide us to be a part of that needed peace, support, and resolve for everyone who is reacting to this great tragedy in our Indigenous Nations of this great land.
Creator be with us, allow us to be brave. Allow us to be strong. Allow us to be gentle to one another. Allow us to be humble. But most of all, allow us to be like the Creator’s love.
Peace be with us, we lift up our prayers to you. In love, trust, and truth, peace be with us all.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Prayer for the Students of Kamloops Residential School
by Moderator Richard Bott, The United Church of Canada
O God, we are grieving.
O God, we are shocked.
O God, we are horrified.
But, God, if we truly listened, we can’t be surprised.
The Elders and the Communities had already told
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,
told the governments and the world,
the stories of the children, dead and buried,
unnoted by the settler systems,
but never ever forgotten by their siblings, their parents,
their communities.
We grieve for the Indigenous children,
taken from their homes and parents by the government,
handed over to the responsibility of the Christian church,
the children who died under its care,
never to be held by their families,
never to be returned to their communities―
not only the 215 children of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc
and other Indigenous communities along the west coast and interior
whose bodies have now been found
on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School grounds,
but all of those children
whose bodies have not yet been found
who died in any of Indian Residential Schools.
We grieve for the survivors of the Indian Residential Schools,
the children who did come home,
but were changed by their experience,
the children who grew up,
and have the trauma of remembering, again,
what happened to them.
Even as we give thanks for their families and communities,
who hold the stories of the children,
who have kept searching,
who keep searching,
we grieve that that search is even necessary,
that even one child was taken,
that even one child died,
that even one child’s death went unnoted by the system.
Help us to stop, to sit in silence,
to remember the names we do not know.
May their spirits have peace,
and their bodies be brought home to their lands.
And God?
Help us to take this grief,
this shock,
this horror,
and turn it into right action―
action that works for right relations―
action that works for healing and justice and hope.
And, please,
don’t let those of us who are settlers
and descendants of settlers,
newcomers to this land,
let the horror, the shock, and the grief
just be an outpouring of words,
or tears,
or ineffectual hand-wringing.
Let this be a moment that changes,
a moment that transforms the brokenness,
that we might walk in right relations,
for the good of your children,
for the good of your world.
Please, God.
These things we pray,
in the name of the one who brought Creation into being,
in the name of Jesus, our teacher and friend,
in the name of the Holy Spirit,
whose wings spread across the sky.
Amen and amen.
We offer these prayers, and all the silent prayers of our hearts and minds, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Our closing hymn is played and sung by Cheryl, Connor, and Liam Jackson. “Who is My Mother” (Kindred in Spirit Through Jesus Christ)
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,
Carol and Jeff