blocks-image-54 (Demo)
By Michael Wilson Pastoral Letters January 26, 2024

 

 

 

 

Watch this week’s service on YouTube by clicking:

January 28 Worship Service Video

 

 

Join us for Worship Sunday at 10:00 AM followed by fellowship and refreshments in the HeBrews Café

 

 

  • Bell Let’s Talk @ Charleswood UC – This month Canadians are once again  focusing on working for good mental health and to eliminate the stigma of addressing it. In support we will be holding a public education event on Wednesday, January 31 at 7:00 PM. The program will feature two members of our community with a keen interest in this issue. Colleen Gockel-Askew is a person with lived experience of mental health challenges who has emerged into a place and time where she is eager to help others. John Cail is a retired Psychiatric Nurse with 40 years experience. Colleen and John will share personal stories and discuss resources available in a conversation moderated by Michael Wilson. There will be an opportunity for questions and comments from the audience but this is also a safe space for those who wish only to listen. This evening is for those who struggle, those who want to help, or anyone who simply wants to join in the conversation. Let’s talk.

 

  • Root to Rise is a workshop on climate change hosted by Mission and Social Action in conjunction with Crestview United Church. Join us Sunday, February 4 at 1:00 in the Van Roon Hall.

 

  • Tickets are now available for our first fundraiser for this year’s roof project. A concert with “The Very Groovy Things” is the place to be on Saturday, February 17 at 7:00 PM. Tickets are $25 and available from the church office or before and after service on Sunday.

 

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

 

 

Dear Friends

Welcome to worship for Sunday, January 28, 2024.

We are going to be receiving new members on Sunday which is a cause of great joy around here. Adding new people means that we become new.

A church is literally a ‘congregation’ of individuals gathered into community with all of their respective gifts, experiences, and faith. We are changed when new gifts are added just as we have to adjust when the gifts of those who go before are removed. It is part of the dynamic of church, the constant state of change which is a blessing for it means we are alive and breathing. The Hebrew word for breath, ruach, is also used for wind and Spirit. When we welcome new members it is as though the Spirit is breathing new life into us. How can we keep from singing?

I say ‘welcoming new members’ but that is a bit of an umbrella term so I thought I might explain some of the language we use for people in the church and what our categories mean to us.

 

Transfer refers to people who were members of other United Church of Canada congregations. They have requested that their membership (literally their names on the historic roll of the church) be moved from one congregation to another. The request is made by our office and the other church provides a certificate of transfer. I don’t think the world would come to an end if someone was listed as a member of two churches at the same time. But you never know. LOL

Profession of Faith is an expression we use to describe those who are joining Charleswood United Church from Christian denominations other than the United Church of Canada. Because those other churches are not part of the same institution as us they may or may not have the practice of transferring membership. They certainly are not obliged to do so as fellow UCC congregations are. Nonetheless, some people come into our community baptised into the body of Christ by another tradition and they now desire to exercise that membership with us. Could one have dual citizenship and be both United and Roman Catholic at the same time? We’ll never know…

Formal Association is a relatively new term. It refers to a member of the Ordered Ministry of the United Church of Canada who is either retired or working outside the UCC. Ordained and Commissioned Ministers are, by definition, members of the wider church for life and thus ineligible to be a lay member of a congregation. Nonetheless, in retirement they may choose to be active in the life of a congregation, open to sharing their gifts and experiences, and otherwise offering to be wise elders in our midst. We are receiving one person in this category on Sunday.

Adherents is how we describe the many people who, for various reasons, prefer not to have formal membership in a congregation. Yet they remain fully and completely a part of our community of faith participating in all aspects of our life together including sacraments. At any given time up to 25% of a congregation (approximately) may be adherents as opposed to members. Now they say that membership has it’s privileges but there are not a lot in the church. Adherents may not vote on the hiring of a ministry or the sale of property. That’s about it. Oh, and they can’t be Chair of Council (hey – they may be onto something).

So those are some the terms you may hear on Sunday as we welcome new members into our community. But our categories primarily serve an administrative function. As we say at the end of a baptism service, all who are united in the sacrament of baptism are the body of Christ in the world.

May it ever be so.

 

Grace and peace,

 

Michael

 

 

  • 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.

 

  • Through the United Church of Canada’s membership in the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, an appeal for donations has been issued for the Humanitarian Crisis in the Middle East. For more information and to donate please visit:  Humanitarian Crisis in the Middle East Appeal

 

 

 

 

 

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.
More posts by Michael Wilson