Skip to main content
INT_01
By Michael Wilson Pastoral Letters October 23, 2026

Watch this week’s service on YouTube by clicking:

October 25 Worship Service Video

 

Join us for Sunday morning worship at CUC at 10:00 AM with the He/SheBrews Café following in the Van Roon Community Hall

 

 

  • Many Gifts, One Spirit – the 2027 Stewardship Campaign – Our Annual Stewardship Campaign begins this Sunday. Addressed envelopes with pledge cards, stewardship information, and statements will be available in the Entrance Hall. This coming Monday an email version of the information will be sent to those one our email list. Please look for this material and share in our commitment to ministry for 2027.

 

  • Join us next Sunday, November 1 when our guest in worship will be Rev. Dr. John Pentland, long time friend of Michael, bestselling author, and minister of Hillhurst United Church in Calgary.

 

  • A search for a new Children’s Ministry Leader is underway. The posting can be found on our website:  Children’s Ministry Leader Position  Please encourage anyone you think may be interested.

 

  • ONE WEEK LEFT – Our Mission and Social Action Committee invites you to participate in our Soc-tober drive for underwear and socks for inner city agencies. Just drop them off Sundays or during the week and our partners at 1 Just City will ensure that they get where they are needed.

 

  • The ABC’s of Christian Faith is a six-week course of the foundations of our faith for people interested in confirmation, adult baptism, or simply as a refresher. The ABC’s are held every other Wednesday at 7:00. The next session is on November 4 and will be on church history.

 

 

Dear Friends

Welcome to worship for Sunday, October 25, 2026.

 

One of the best stewardship lessons I ever learned came in a sermon by my former friend, colleague, and mentor Bob Galston. Bob told the congregation one Sunday that he, like all of us, receives all kinds of requests for financial support. We can donate to medical charities, our alma maters, the foundations of hospitals and universities, arts organizations, the United Way, Inner City Agencies, the Salvation Army, and on and on and on… We all know this. It is as true now as it was thirty years ago.

 

What Bob said was that was memorable was that they were all deserving, that we have no need to judge. Lots of people do lots of good works. BUT (yes, that’s a big but!) only members of the church support the church. Saying yes to the church may mean saying no to other deserving places but it doesn’t mean we are better than any of them.

 

Only members of the church support the church. This is Stewardship Sunday and it is the one Sunday of the year where we talk about that thing that we don’t like to talk about. No, not that! The other thing we don’t like to talk about. We are asking you to prayerfully consider your support for Charleswood United Church in the year to come.

 

This year’s Campaign is called  “Many Gifts, One Spirit” and it takes inspiration from a verse in 1 Peter 4, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms”. Simply stated, it is only when we bring our many and varied gifts together that we are able to exercise a ministry that is greater than what we can do on our own. Our life together as a congregation allows the ministry we share to flourish.

 

In the Stewardship material we are distributing you can find lots of information about numbers. I don’t want to use this space to repeat what can be found in that mailing or this week’s sermon for that matter. Rather, I would like you to be aware that at the same time we are conveying a message about budgets and donations we are also encouraging new forms of discipleship and volunteerism. A bulletin insert for these three Sundays provides a list of ways to involve yourself more fully in the life of the church. This can include, but is not limited to, worship leadership, hospitality, committee work, and outreach. Most of what Paul refers to as gifts of the Spirit can be lived out in the life of the church.

 

If you are at church between October 18 and November 1 please look for the volunteer information insert in the bulletin. You can place it in the offering plates, the stewardship box by the office, or simply drop it off. If you are not at church these weeks and would like to know more about ways to become involved please visit our website or call the church office.

 

Many gifts make possible the life of the Body of Christ. One Spirit is the giver of the perfect gift.

 

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
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