Our Lenten journey continues…
Are you ready? …for the second word of our Lenten journey…
REconcile!
To Reconcile is to be brought into harmony, is to enter into a RElationship of friendship, of community, is to entrust oneself to a web of mutually nurturing RElationships.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, TMUC has nurtured relationships and felt connected as a community in many ways.
As provincial health orders change, we are can now prepare to gather again in our sanctuary for worship.
In-person worship will resume at TMUC on Sunday, March 27 at 10 a.m. The TMUC policy on vaccination and masks remains.
We seek REconciliation and peace in the world as we continue to pray for Ukraine.
We invite you to join us at 6:00 pm daily – wherever you are and whatever you’re doing – to Pause and Pray for Peace. For Ukraine, for families displaced and separated, for people helping refugees, for people without enough food or clean water, for family and friends forced to be soldiers seeing and doing things they should never have to see or do, for leaders making decisions they should never have to make, for our world feeling helpless and unable to look away. May we pray, ‘let there be peace on earth’, ‘in your mercy, O God, help the world find a path to peace’, or whatever words or silence echo for you. We will be one with one another. We will #StandwithUkraine.
United Church Mission & Service partners are responding to the rapidly unfolding crisis. You can donate through the United Church’s website
Some announcements and reminders:
- Remember to set your clocks forward one hour this weekend, as Daylight Savings Time begins at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 13!
- On Monday, March 14, we are invited to celebrate National Affirming/PIE Day!Why PIE? PIE = Public. Intentional. Explicit. Those are our standards when we seek to live into being Affirming, Welcoming, or Inclusive people and communities. This years theme is “Everyone Gets A Slice. Looking at the LGBTQIA2S+ acronym, which represents an endless diversity of identities and expressions, we acknowledge that some of the people who are represented by these letters often tend to get left out or underserved. We are invited to consider which folks we may not have included in our Affirming programming and educational efforts and take strides to remedy that.
- While we are not yet gathering in-person as a faith community, we invite you on March 14 to serve some pie and pray for a spirit of inclusivity to continue to guide us and grow amongst us.
- At the Annual Meeting we approved an Environmental Policy for TMUC. The policy can be viewed on our website at www.tmuc.ca. On the homepage, click on ‘News’ and that will take you to the report.
- 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. Please see 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.
- 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 13, 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 ‘God Weeps’:
Esther and Emmett talk about ‘Prayers and Blankets’
Esther and Emmett talk about prayers and blankets
Scripture reading:
Luke 13:31-35
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
Carol offers a reflection:
Let us pray:
God, our Lenten journey will bring us to the cross.
Our Lenten journey will bring us to a story and a place of betrayal, pain and death.
Our Lenten journey will bring us to the wounded and suffering Christ in this world.
God, we continue on our Lenten journey as Christ continues to be wounded and to suffer.
Give us courage and faith and hope as Your Lenten people…
and as people of prayer who offer the wounds and sufferings to Your mercy and grace.
We pray, God, for Ukraine. We pray for the people of Ukraine – those who resist the invasion from Russia, those who grieve deaths of loved ones, those who grief the destruction of homes and communities. We pray for the leaders of Ukraine. We pray for refugees seeking safety in other countries. We pray for those offering support and welcome to refugees. We pray for world leaders trying to end this war.
We pray…
We pray for peace in the world.
We pray for all who live in places of war and violence. We pray for the people of Yemen, Ethiopia, Dafur, Libya…for all in places of conflict.
We pray for reconciliation and for healing of the divisions in the human race. We pray for Indigenous people in Canada as they grieve the deaths of children at Residential Schools, as they grieve families that were separated, as they grieve languages and cultures that were lost because of racist policies and practices.
We pray for LGBTQIA2S+ persons who continue to seek just inclusion in all societies.
We pray for all who suffer from racism, from sexism, from the attitudes and actions of those who do not celebrate and affirm the blessedness of every person as a child of God.
We pray for a spiritual awakening throughout the world, that all people may embrace the sacredness of all creation, and live from a spirit of compassion, just relations, peace and wonder.
We pray for all who are hungry, all who are thirsty, all who are homeless, all who are struggling each day to survive and to live in safety and wellness. God, we pray that humans care for one another and create ways for all people to live with dignity and hope.
We pray for all who are ill; for all who struggle with physical, emotional and mental dis-ease. We pray for healing and for the support of others.
We pray for safety as we continue to live in a world of COVID-19. We pray for health.
We pray for this world in the grip of climate change and severe weather occurrences. We pray for wisdom and will to change lifestyles and technologies to bring humans into harmony with the rest of Your creation.
God, we pray that those who follow the way of Jesus will be sources of healing and love in this world.
We pray in the name of Jesus the Christ, the wounded healer. AMEN
Our closing hymn is “Put Peace Into Each Other’s Hearts”:
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