Where are They Now?

 The link for this week's live-streamed service is here.

For Pentecost Sunday, we wore red! Even the choir anthem had a red cover.

Over the years I've written this blog, many members of the congregation have moved away. I caught up on news from a few of them this week.

Edna was a stalwart member of the congregation. She sang in the choir, founded the prayer chain, was a steady and thoughtful member at Bible Study, and organized a grief support group after her husband passed away. We miss her, but she tunes in to our service via the internet. She lives in Southern Ontario and Joan visited her earlier this month and took the photo above.

Helen sat in the front pew on the forest side of the sanctuary. She was there every week, always elegant, wearing beautiful suits. She participated whole-heartedly in worship and always had a kind word to say at the coffee hour afterward. She moved east to be nearer family but she is remembered by her friends at SPPC. She has just turned 104!

Chris and Phyllis are now in Alberta. I got this lovely note from Chris.

Yes Mom and I are in Calgary.  Though my heart is on the Island, Calgary is the right place for me: medical access and doctor availability, commutability, costs, no PST, Calgary to Sidney is a simple 90-minute flight away and interestingly the weather is just fine with dry, clear and blue sky conditions.  Winter is easy as little snow.

 I was medically released from the military after one too many injuries. 

I attend online church either with SPPC ( Ed. note, we often see his name pop up in the chat panel)or other churches.  I hike, bagpipe, volunteer at my mother’s care facility and with my home owners association.

 Mom is 96 and physically well.  She is mobility challenged and wheels herself around with skill.   I visited Mom Sunday.  Though caught in a dementia repeating question loop, her brain remembers most unique memories but unable to remember recent events.  Mom and I actively participate in a care home ministry hymn sing and comprehending the five-minute condensed sermon.  Mom is blessed beyond belief and, within budget, expertly cared for. 

Felicity is Blooming

Felicity is happily living with her partner in the Interior. She is remembered as a prime mover in sending our first mission team to the Dominican Republic, and for her work with the parking lot club. Her big news is a baby expected in the fall! Not to get ahead of events, but wouldn't it be wonderful to have a baptism at SPPC?

Shakespeare wrote: "The evil that men do lives after them;/ the good is oft interred with their bones."

The Bible reminds us that followers of Jesus were often in direct contradiction of the world's values. In this season of Pentecost, let us reverse Shakespeare's worldly cynicism, and remember the good gifts of the saints who have lived among us.  

Many Gifts, One Spirit

The Spirit's Calling

 The link for this week's live-streamed service is here.

Last week we heard an appeal from the pulpit for helpers with the Blue Bus Ministry. A few days later, I received a newsletter from the Blue Bus. I took these two reminders as a nudge to write about the big Blue Bus again. It has featured on this blog numerous times, but ministry is never a one-and-done event.

The Blue Bus is a mobile ministry serving Indigenous youth on the Saanich Peninsula and in the Cowichan Valley. Its director, Rick Wismer, has frequently visited SPPC (with his big blue bus) and spoken from our pulpit. 

For many years SPPC has supported this ministry with cookies and snacks and financial donations. The appeal this time is for able-bodied helpers. We can supply "snack grannies" but not many in our congregation are up for a game of soccer. So, if you, or anyone you know, has the energy, the muscle, the lung capacity, and flexible joints, you are encouraged to get in touch. 

The newsletter included some heartwarming stories of the Blue Bus making a difference in the lives of youth and elders. It also put out a request for garden implements. These tools will allow youth to help out their neighbours on "serve" days. Anyone downsizing from a house to an apartment might have serviceable rakes, hoes, shovels, and shears. To donate, you can contact Rick of drop them off at SPPC and we'll see to it that they find a new home.

To read the entire newsletter, click this link.

For the past several weeks, Rev. Irwin has been including "homework" -- or, as he likes to call them, "invitations" at the end of his sermons. In some ways, this practice is a bit like an altar call but instead of congregants coming forward to testify within the sanctuary, we are asked to take the message out to the world, into our families and our community. 

On Mother's Day the first invitation asked us to "choose one person outside these walls--a neighbour, a colleague, a family member--and pray for them by name, every day this week . . ."

I'll admit, I took the invitation casually, but a name popped into my mind that surprised me--a family member but not someone I'm particularly close to--but I took the sermon to heart and have prayed for this man all week. I don't know if my prayers have affected his life,--this is where the third invitation comes in, ". . .trust the One who finishes what He starts" -- but they have touched mine. 

Thanks to Rev. Irwin for his specific invitations. I encourage all of us to take them to heart and respond.

Mothers of Salem

 The link for this week's live-streamed service is here.

This week we celebrated Mothers' Day, with cake. Yay!

When I was a child, we wore a flower to church on Mother's Day, a coloured one if your mother was living and a white one if your mother had passed away. In northern Ontario, finding flowers in bloom in early May was a challenge. We often resorted to the potted geraniums on a sunny windowsill. Not exactly a fashionable boutonniere but it did the trick. The actual flower wasn't important. What mattered was the symbol of love and respect for mothers. 

Fathers' Day didn't carry the same cachet. And there was no "children's day." Perhaps that is why the church, in her wisdom, has moved to "Christian Family Sunday," so we can celebrate the special kind of love that binds kith and kin together.

As part of the Sunday service we sang, When Mothers of Salem, a favourite with our clerk of session. We use the 1972 Book of Praise at SPPC. The hymn did not make it into the "new" Book of Praise, published in 1997. In fact, many of the hymns I sang as a child are omitted from the latest version of our hymnbook. Anyone remember "When He Cometh?" It's not in the new hymnbook either, yet, while I was pulling weeds in the flower bed and thinking about this blog, I discovered I remembered every word. What we teach children really matters. Those lessons and poems will last a lifetime.

"When Mothers of Salem" was penned by  William Medlen Hutchings, in 1850. It was was written for the anniversary service of St. Paul's Chapel Sunday School, Wigan, in 1850, and was published in a revised form in the Juvenile Missionary Magazine of June 1850. The text is based on the Biblical story told three Gospels, Matthew 19, Mark 10, Luke 18

Although the text is a retelling of the Biblical story, it was seen as a "missionary" hymn, due to these lines in the last verse, "O soon may the people of every land and nation, /Fulfil Thy blessed word, and cast their idols all away;"

The new hymnbook does not have a children's section, but it has an index of "Items for Children and Youth." The index includes everything from Christmas carols to communion. The segment on Mission contains seven suggestions, including "Jesus bids us shine." That's one I recognize from childhood. 

Neither our "old" nor our "new" hymn books list "mothers" in the topical index, but both refer to "family," and both include the hymn, "Happy the home when God is there." That hymn is a great reminder that giving mom a day off and maybe breakfast in bed, is a great way to show her love, but it is God who makes a home truly happy. Another memory from my childhood was that the whole family pleased mom by going with her to church on Mothers' day!

Western culture has secularized many of our holy days, while the church has taken the secular Mothers' Day, and shaped it into a celebration of family with God at the heart of our human relationships. 

I hope everyone had a Happy Mothers' Day and that the children did the dishes. I also hope we all gave prayers of thanks to God for His divine love.

Let's Party

 The link for this week's live-streamed service is here.

Q. What happens when you throw a party and the guest of honour does a "no show?" 

A. You blow out the candles and eat the cake!

That's what happened at Bible Study this week. One of our members had a birthday on that day, so we organized a cake, candles, card and pretty house plant to congratulate her on another year. 

And what happened? She skipped Bible Study that morning.  Sometimes "surprise" backfires.

Even without birthdays or cakes, our Bible Study is a jolly gathering. We start with a video from The Bible Project with Tim Mackie, but discussion can wonder far afield. On Wednesday, after we ate the cake, we ended up talking about Robin Hood. Hero or villain? After all, "thou shalt not steal," but were Robin and his merry men stealing or were they merely returning goods, stolen from the poor by the wealthy, and returning them to the rightful owners? The discussion continues, whether we have cake or not.

At the same time, Norma and Linda were having their own party, clearing out the cupboards in the hall. Apparently there is stuff in there since the establishment of our building. Why does SPPC have two bags full of florist marbles?

On Thursday lots of people came to the party, otherwise known as Friendship Coffee. Discussions around the tables here can range from gardening to travel to taxes. What is constant is the building of camaraderie. Friendship coffee may be one of the longest running programs at SPPC, a measure of its value to the congregation and the community.

On Friday the worship committee met. This is not supposed to be a party, but inevitably there is laughter. After all, we want our worship to be joyful. It is a small committee, but there is opportunity for congregational input. A list on the bulletin board invites members to nominate favourite hymns to be included in the services at the appropriate time. I promise you, all requests are considered.

On Saturday, Tore cut the grass, after fixing the lawnmower. That's a party of one but it is a task joyfully undertaken to bring beauty to our grounds and to honour our physical place in the community.

Like every week in the life of SPPC, the past week held sadness as we learned of the passing of two of our members. But, because Christ conquered death, we can temper our sadness with joy. Our beloved brothers are free of pain and weakness. Our Lord has called them home to a party beyond our imagining. We hold their families in our prayers.