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By Michael Wilson Pastoral Letters October 13, 2023

 

 

 

Watch this week’s service on YouTube by clicking:

October 15 Worship Service Video

 

 

Join us for worship on Sundays at 10:00

 

  • Please join us after the service in the Van Roon Community Hall for the HeBrews Café, refreshments and fellowship before continuing on with your day.

 

  • Join us next Sunday, October 22 for a special service with guest musician Keith MacPherson. We will be enjoying a theme of peace in pop music. Keith is an amazing talent and a wonderful worship leader. It will be fun!

 

  • Sadly, the Spaghetti Dinner and Dance on Saturday, October 21 has been cancelled. Refunds for those who purchased tickets are being processed.

 

  • We were saddened this week to learn of the death of Dave Yuill. A memorial service for Dave is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, October 28 at 11:00 AM. Please remember the Yuill family in your prayers.

 

Dear Friends

Welcome to worship for Sunday, October 15, 2023.

I received a very gracious gift last week that I am delighted to share with you.

In last week’s online and in person services I talked about the phrase ‘I appreciate you’ which I thought was popping up in a number of places. I appreciate ‘you’, as opposed to an ‘it’ or a ‘thing’ or an ‘action’. I appreciate and value the person.

Over the weekend I opened an email from a couple I have not met before, nor communicated with. Nevertheless, they told me that they are weekly viewers of our online services. That itself was a blessing for which I was thankful.

In the email they told me that there is an expression in Ojibway that has echoes of what I was saying about ‘I appreciate you’. In Ojibway there is a formal greeting, ‘Auniin’ which literally means ‘I acknowledge your light’ but, I was told, kind of means the same thing as I was getting at with ‘I appreciate you.’ It isn’t the only Ojibway greeting as a more common expression is ‘nanaboozhoo’ or abbreviated ‘boozhoo’.

One of the great treasures of inter-cultural and/or inter-faith understanding is to learn of wisdom from one another. We are not on some quest to unlock the universality of all traditions as though they don’t have any differences. Of course, there are differences. That is what makes differing cultures and religions so wonderful. Together they embody what human beings have discovered or realized about the mystery of all life. Every tradition, every culture, every religion has something yet to learn and something wonderful to share.

In the wake of great tragedy among one particular religious community this past week, I fear the near future will see an increase in intolerance and suspicion among different cultural and religious groups. Not just in Israel but in many places, including our own homeland, where the value of the other is not as highly regarded as it might be.

One of the things the couple who wrote to share some Ojibway wisdom with me wanted me to know is that ‘Auniin – I acknowledge your light’ is not some recent popular phrase but was something ancient. How I wish, this week more than ever, that warring peoples would pause long enough to acknowledge the light in one another. Perhaps then they could work together to vanquish the darkness we have witnessed.

 

Grace and peace,

Michael

 

 

  • For news and events please have a look at Life & Work on our website: Life and Work

 

  • Did you know you can support this ministry by e-transfer, automatic withdrawal (PAR), and gifted securities, in addition to weekly or monthly cheques? For Offering Information please visit: https://charleswoodunited.org/support/  Thank you for your generous support.

 

  • Michael Wilson’s book “A Pastoral Pandemic: Remaining Connected in a Time of Disconnection” is available in store and online through CommonWord Bookstore (Canadian Mennonite University). For more information visit: https://www.commonword.ca/go/3408. 

 

 

  • The reading for this week’s service can be found at: Luke 14:15-24

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Wilson / About Author
Michael’s involvement in the wider church has included ministry with children and youth, membership on the National Division of World Outreach, supervision of campus ministry, and the Ten Days for Global Justice National Committee. He has been blessed by the opportunity to represent the United Church of Canada in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Africa on different occasions. Michael has taught at the University of Winnipeg – Faculty of Theology and is past President of the Conference of Manitoba and North Western Ontario.
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