Lent
By Michael Wilson Pastoral Letters March 8, 2024

 

 

 

 

Watch this week’s service on YouTube by clicking:

March 10 Worship Service Video

 

 

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

 

(DON”T FORGET TO MOVE YOUR CLOCKS FORWARD – DAYLIGHT SAVINGS BEGINS THIS SUNDAY)

 

 

  • 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 – tickets go on sale this week)

                              Saturday, April 13             Rummage Sale (volunteers needed)

                              Saturday, April 20             “SoulCollage” Spirituality Workshop

                              Tuesday, April 23              Bridge Luncheon (Roof Project Fundraiser – tickets are now available)

 

  • 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/  We have begun to receive donations for this summer’s Roofing Project which will be held separate from Operations and Mission & Service. Thank you for your generous support.

 

 

Dear Friends

Welcome to worship for Sunday, March 10, 2024.

There’s a scene in Spike Lee’s movie about Malcolm X where the 1960’s African American civil rights leader is approached by a couple of young, idealistic, white college students. They ask him what they can do to support the causes Malcolm was working for. His brusk answer was, “Go home”. It is an oversimplification to say that the main difference between the Malcolm X approach to Black civil rights and Martin Luther King Jr’s approach was ally-ship but as the recent RMTC play “The Mountaintop” illustrated, that idea was one of the things they did not share.

Being an ally means making a commitment to the rights and freedoms of others even when we are not part of the aggrieved group. And I don’t think it is possible to underestimate the value and the power of standing in solidarity and being an ally. At least not as far as it is an expression of loving your neighbour with all your heart, mind, body, and soul. To paraphrase Michael Ignatieff in his Massey Lectures book “The Rights Revolution” guarding the rights and freedoms of the others is the only way to guard the rights and freedoms of ourselves.

This week there are two days that ask us to stand with and support groups whose rights and freedoms cannot be taken for granted. Today (March 8) is International Women’s Day. The theme of this year’s campaign is Inspire Inclusion and the aims according to the group’s website are: Celebrate women’s achievement. Raise awareness about discrimination. Take action to drive gender parity.

But the need to remain committed to the aims of IWD came into sharper focus this week when Darshani Ekanayake and her four children were killed in their Ottawa area home by a 19 year old man. Though not a case of intimate partner violence such as we saw in Carman last month, it nonetheless lifts up yet again the crisis and tragedy that women and children are most often the victims of domestic violence. Ally-ship for the goals of International Women’s Day may not have prevented these particular horrific acts but women need to know that they are not alone in the struggle for justice.

Next Thursday is PIE Day. It is so named because numerically March 14 can be described as 3.14, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, better know as ‘Pi’. But the focus of PIE Day is solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. It stands for Public, Intentional, and Explicit. Though the United Church declared in 1988 that sexuality cannot be used as a barrier to baptism and thus full life in the church, our sisters and brothers in this community continue to meet resistance and hostility in church and in society. Charleswood undertook a congregational study in 2005 that led to a non-discriminatory wedding policy that explicitly named for us that discrimination on the basis of sexuality would not be accepted here. We continue to serve as allies in the struggle for equal rights and freedoms that reflect the abundance of grace in which we gather.

If ally-ship can be a path to unity then we will continue to strive to be allies for people who long for acceptance, wholeness, and love even while we confront our biases. There is a poignant power to ally-ship that finds expression in the memorable words of Lutheran theologian Martin Niemoller after World War 2.

 

First they came for the Communists. And I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the Socialists. And I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists. And I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews. And I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me. And there was no one left to speak out for me.

 

Grace and peace,

Michael

 

 

  • 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.
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