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e call the community into a time of prayer.
Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found.
Lord in your mercy…
This is the text from a meditation on lament, offered on March 25, 2009 in our continuing series of Wednesday evening Lenten liturgies. The music for the evening was offered by Kerri Woelke, with Brian James sitting in to play a bit of rootsy and atmospheric organ.
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his is the fourth in a series of five evenings built around the theme of pilgrimage. Jim Draper launched us out on this series, with a reflective wandering through some of the great old hymns of pilgrimage. He invited us to think a bit about what kind of church it was that produced those hymns, how different is our church is in these times, but also what fresh insight this church of ours might need to hear from that church of an earlier time.
“Those that do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God”.
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ather, we have heard the words of the lessons this evening and just as we are all unique and individual, we all receive unique and individual direction from you. We are invited to be born again; to follow Jesus; to sin no more; to ultimately surrender into the presence of the transforming God. O Father, we are up to the task – however and how profoundly you intersect our lives.
May we observe silence in these thoughts…
A truly unique take on the old day-camp model
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ast summer, in collaboration with the Plett clan, we sponsored our first ever day camp program, aimed at kids of elementary and middle school age. According to all reports, a wild time was had by all, and so we’re set to offer up round two.
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onight we live in a relatively peaceful city, we will sleep relatively soundly in our beds, tomorrow will bring a relatively mundane and ordinary day. We know that this is not the reality for millions around the world. Their reality is war, violence, anxiety and struggle. Some have never experienced life without these things. Some will close their eyes tonight filled with fear. Fear of death, fear of rape, fear of what tomorrow might bring. Re-sensitise us to this injustice, cause in us the desire to demand its change and use us to speak truth and hope.
In song we cry out to you…
Over this season of Lent, our weekly Wednesday evening liturgies have been built around the theme of “pilgrimage.” On March 11, the liturgy included a reflection on the violinist Oliver Schroer’s Camino project, in which some music was played and the following meditations were offered.
Part 1 – In the Middle Ages, pilgrimage was one of the most common acts of devotion; whether to Canterbury – as was the case with Chaucer’s characters – or to Rome or Jerusalem… or along the Camino de Santiago, a 1000 kilometre walk beginning in France and continuing across the north of Spain to the city of Santiago, the reputed resting place of the bones of St James. Often undertaken as an act of penance, the pilgrimage was understood to be an act at once physically taxing, emotionally exhausting, and spiritually renewing.
Lord in your Mercy,
Hear our Prayer
A remarkable resource for Lent
I really want to alert people to a wonderful resource for Lent, by the UK cartoonist Si Smith. A year or two back, and over the course of the 40 day Lenten season, Smith drew one panel a day to be posted on his church website, and since then there has been an explosion of interest in the project.
It isn’t hard to find it on the ‘net, with versions easily available on YouTube. You can go there to take a look, but you might also be interested in getting at a legal download through the mayBe site of the Anglican Diocese of Oxford. For just a couple of Canadian dollars, you can get permission to do a download and thereby own a copy for use in your own context.
What makes Smith’s work so wonderful is that for all of the simplicity of the cartoon medium, he manages to express some things – and raise some questions – of significant theological depth. It is a treasure. Go see for yourself.
Jamie
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e call the community into a time of prayer.
Lord Jesus, you were tried and tempted by the forces of evil. May we never be ashamed of temptation, but save us from the weakness of giving way to it. Help us choose the way of faithfulness rather than popularity, service rather than fame, sacrifice rather than power. In time of need reassure us that your support is close at hand. Lord in your mercy,Hear our prayer.
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