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By Michael Wilson Pastoral Letters August 29, 2025

Watch this week’s service on YouTube by clicking:

August 31 Worship Service Video

 

Join us following worship in the Van Roon Community Hall for the He/SheBrews Café.

 

 

  • Church School returns on Sunday, September 7 at 10:00 AM. Please share with others that this ministry with children is ready to welcome all.

 

  • Our annual School Supply Drive for students in need of support in Charleswood schools has begun. A list of supplies can be found on our website here: School Supply List . The School Supply Drive will continue until Sunday, September 7.

 

  • A Celebration of Life for Gary Kent will be held on Thursday, September 4 at 11:00 AM at the church.
  • A Celebration of Life for Peg White will be held on Saturday, September 13 at 11:00 AM at the church.

 

  • Work on replacing the boiler continues. Financing for this unforeseen project is being stewarded by The Heritage Fund and will be repaid in conjunction with our loan for last year’s roofing project. A reminder that those monthly loan payments are a new budget expense this year. Your added gifts will help us meet that requirement and stay on budget. Thank you for your ongoing support.

 

 

 

Dear Friends

Welcome to worship for Sunday, August 31, 2025.

Sometimes the sorrow of the world can overwhelm us.

And I suppose I don’t really mean just the sorrow of the world so much as I mean the violence of the world and the evil in the world. That was the case this past week when I heard about the shooting in Assumption Catholic School in Minneapolis. Yet another shooter, armed with assault style weapons, opened fire on a sanctuary full of children at worship for the beginning of a new school year. Two were killed, seventeen injured, and everybody else horrified, scared, and traumatized.

As the closest large American city to Winnipeg, many of us are somewhat familiar with Minneapolis. I was there twice in 2024, once to see the Timberwolves and once to see the Twins. For other reasons I have chosen not to go there this year but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a certain residual affection for our neighbour to the south. In fact, I maintain that the reason our angry feelings for the United States of late are so strong is not because we hate them but because we love them. We have memories in our heads and mementos in our basements to remind us of an enduring relationship.

Sadly, Assumption is going to be added to a list of names and places where evil has made itself manifest before. Columbine and Parkland and Uvalde. A church in Charleston. A mosque in Quebec City. A synagogue in Pittsburgh. Sandy Hook Elementary. The list is horrifyingly long and the common denominator is hatred, violence, and evil. When added to the stories we hear daily of destruction in Ukraine and devastation in Gaza it can overwhelm our sense of the world as a kind and benevolent place. Make no mistake about it, evil wants us to be afraid. All of the time and of everything.

I found myself reflecting once again this week on the lessons of Job. It is the Old Testament parable in which ancient Israel wrestles with the question of evil in the world. In narrative and discourse the Book of Job describes what Jesus enacts. One of those lessons is that evil does not come from God. It is the agency of the powers and principalities of this world embodied by Satan, the Adversary with seductive power that “ranges over the earth”. This is where the evil that visits Job comes from. Then as now.

The other message I take from Job is that God never abandons God’s people. For forty-three chapters Job wrestles and argues and ponders that he does not deserve the fate God has seemingly placed upon him. It is not until Job awakens to the realization that God has never ceased to be his companion in sorrow that his own healing begins and restoration becomes possible.

Jesus was present with the children on Assumption on Wednesday before the rest of the world became aware of the tragedy unfolding. He remained with them through the horror and the violence through which they were living. And he will continue to love them into healing when the memory of this sinful moment begins to fade in the rest of us.

 

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 / 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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