Watch this week’s service on YouTube by clicking:

February 25 Worship Service Video

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

• The next Senior’s Fellowship event is a Bowling and Pizza Supper on Saturday, March 16 from 4:00 to 7:00 PM at Coronation Lanes. Tickets ($30) for the bowling event are on sale after church on Sundays. While this event is being planned by the Senior’s Fellowship Team it is absolutely open to anyone of any age!!!

• World Day of Prayer is on Friday, March 1. While the local inter-church committee has not been reconstituted following the pandemic we are pleased to once more offer a link to the online national service: https://youtu.be/QzruEM-91Rs?si=nO2NO7KwzWMBB1ip . This year’s service has been prepared by Christian women in Palestine.

• Mark your calendar:

Sunday, March 10           Annual Meeting in the Van Roon Community Hall immediately following worship

Saturday, March 16         Bowling and Pizza Night

Friday, March 29              11:00 AM Good Friday Service

Sunday, March 31           10:00 AM  Easter Sunday

Saturday, April 6               Quiz Night (Roof Project Fundraiser)

Saturday, April 13             Rummage Sale (volunteers needed)       

Saturday, April 20             “SoulCollage” Spirituality Workshop       

Tuesday, April 23             Bridge Luncheon (Roof Project Fundraiser)

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

Dear Friends

Welcome to worship for Sunday, February 25, 2024.

Something rare is about to happen. Something that has only happened five times since the beginning of the new millennium. Something that is so essential that without nothing less than time itself would be altered. Yes, this is a leap year!

Come next Thursday there will be the quadrennial visit of February 29. Sure it will feel like March 1. Actually it won’t be much different than February 28 either. But we can’t have February 29 every year. If we did, nothing would make sense. In order that the seasons remain relatively constant we have to add an extra day to the calendar every four years. It turns out that the planet doesn’t turn in a perfectly harmonious fashion. Rather the earth’s rotation around the sun is six hours longer than a length of time evenly divisible by 365.  

If we take the longest day of the year, June 21, as a fixed point and then threw out leap years, every four years the longest day would arrive one day earlier. That may not seem like much of a difference. After all, every twenty years that fixed point will only move back five days. Would it be so bad if the longest day of the year was on June 16?

Even over the course of an 80 year lifetime we would experience the longest day only moving back 20 days. It would still be in June for heaven’s sake.

I suppose we could take the long view. If we simply did away with leap years altogether, then the day would come when the longest day of the year was at Christmastime. And it would stay so for several years before receding into the Fall. This would be a disaster. Just think of all the Christmas songs and Christmas traditions would have to re-write or re-imagine. But if the Australians can do it, I suppose we would figure out a way.

I wonder if God knew what chaos would come of making the cosmos so inexact. Did God think we would discover this in the fullness of time? Why couldn’t creation have been made so that there could be the same number of days in every year? Come to think of it, it would have been nice if the months could be the same length of time too. Avoid all kinds of confusion. “In the beginning, God made the earth in a perfect orbit around the sun, lasting 12 months of four weeks each, year in and year out.” Easy.

Perhaps it is the way it is so that we can embrace the imperceptible imperfection of it all. God’s time is not our time even though God breaks into our time with goodness and grace. It doesn’t matter to God what time it is or what season we are in when we love our neighbours as ourselves. The Greeks had two words for time, Chronos and Kairos. Chronos was used for measurable time, the hours, days, and years by which our lives are lived. Kairos was reserved for the times of our lives, the moments which feel out of time, which have the air of eternity. Chronos is what we feel when we sing our least favorite hymn (it lasts forever). Kairos is what we feel when we sing our favourite (that went by so quickly).

February 29 only comes around every four years and maybe we should celebrate it for that. We could rejoice that this gift keeps the seasons in balance and provides some constancy to our lives. But I hope leap year or leap day remains as it is, just another day. For it comes to us as a free day, a gift of grace, to use as we see fit.

This is the day that God has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

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.

• The annual Crowdfunder campaign for the Winnipeg Free Press Faith in the News Project has launched. You may be aware that CUC includes support of this initiative in our church budget. Individuals who would like to learn more about it can visit: https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/support-faith

• 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

• Share the service with friends by forwarding this email or using this link: https://youtu.be/X7rn8F729Dw

• Read this week’s scripture lesson here: Mark 8:31-38