Text: John 6, excerpts (The Bread of Life) * Video of the complete service * Order of service (PDF) Last Sunday, I had two different experiences with livestreaming. When I arrived at church at 9:30 am, Brian Sampson informed me that for some reason, he could not livestream to Facebook. So, I posted a note on the church Facebook … [Read more…]
Text: Luke 2:41-51 (Jesus at age 12 in the Temple) * Video of complete service * Order of service (PDF) Confirmation is the second of the seven Catholic sacraments that I am discussing as part of my preparation for retirement this spring; and it challenges me more than the others. When I was confirmed as a … [Read more…]
Text: Luke 3:15-22 (Jesus is baptized) * Video of complete service Does anyone here remember their baptism? I was baptized in the spring of 1957 a few months after my birth in Kingston Ontario. But I am unsure who performed the baptism. My older sister and brother had been baptized in Cookstown, just north of Toronto, … [Read more…]
Text: John 1:1-18 (“In the beginning”) * Video of complete service * Order of service (PDF) Eight years ago today, on Thursday January 2, 2014, I began work at Mill Woods United Church. I’d been here the previous September for a job interview; and I’d driven to the church on New Year’s Day from the apartment in Oliver where I’d … [Read more…]
Text: “God’s Christmas Star,” based on Luke 2 and Matthew 2 * Video of complete service * Order of service (PDF) Tonight, as has often been my practice, I celebrate not only Christmas, but also an anniversary. This Christmas is a 50th anniversary — not just of the birth of Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, who turns 50 years … [Read more…]
Text: Luke 1:39-56 (Mary’s song of love and justice) * Video of complete service * Order of service (PDF) Friends, in 2005 I joined a choir in Toronto called the “Bell’Arte Singers,” and that December, we presented a Christmas concert. The program booklet for the concert talked about our hopes for a world of greater peace and joy, and it ended with … [Read more…]
Text: Luke 1:26-38 (the birth of Jesus foretold) * Video of first part of service * Order of service (PDF) Like most children born in the 1950s, I became enchanted by Christmas as soon as I became aware of it; and because my late father was a United Church minister, and because Canada was much more religious then, … [Read more…]
Text: Luke 1:18-25 (waiting in silence) * Video of complete service * Order of service (PDF) Five years ago when I decided to put aside the Lectionary during Advent — with its focus on the Day of Judgement on the first Sunday of Advent and on the prophecies of the adult John the Baptist on its second Sunday, and to … [Read more…]
Text: Luke 1:5-17 (the birth of John the Baptist foretold) * Video of complete service * Order of service (PDF) Hope is essential. And so, it makes sense to me that the church focuses on Hope on the first of the four Sundays in Advent and at the start of a new church year. But hope can also elude … [Read more…]
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