Month: June 2020

Happy Father’s Day!

During this time of pandemic we have been using the “Take our Moments and our Days” app and have been enriched through Scripture, sharing, and prayer. Since Pentecost our guided prayer has been based on the Lord’s Prayer.
The following is a prayer from a Friday gathering.
Let us pray,

Rejoice in the Lord always. The Lord is near.
Do not worry about anything, but in everything with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known to God.

God of open hands, we bring our prayers to
you as acts of love for you and for our neighbours.
Lord, hear our prayer.

You provide for all our needs from your bounty.
We pray for ourselves and those dear to us ……..
Lord, give us today our daily bread.

You work wonders in surprising places.
We pray for our community and for our neighbours (add your prayers)
Lord, give us today our daily bread.

You furnish abundance even from very little
We pray for the church in all places, that we may reflect your faithful love. (add your prayers)
Lord give us today our daily bread.

You send forth your Spirit, a breath of renewal and hope.
We pray for the world, for those in need (add your prayers)
Lord give us today our daily bread.

We offer you other concerns we carry in our hearts (add your prayers)
Lord, give us today our daily bread.

God of grace and glory,
you fling the stars into the heavens;
you see every sparrow fall.
Deepen our trust in the mystery
of your power shining through Christ Jesus,
that we may live your love for the world.
In the name of the one who taught us we pray:
Our Father…………

Amen

Good morning!

These past months have held many challenges as well as opportunities as we have responded and adapted amidst a global pandemic.Through congregational conversations over the past months a number of concerns have been voiced. In response, WMC Elders have planned for a series of virtual panel discussions. While these offerings will not address all that we carry, they are a platform to provide information as well as prompt further discussion.

Here is a note from Dan Lebold, WMC Elder and facilitator of our first panel discussion:

From input from our WMC family we (WMC Elders) have begun to put together Virtual Panel discussions around how COVID has affected us. The first of these Virtual Panel discussion topics is “COVID and Finances.” Jamie Gerber joined the panel and provided some very informative answers to financial questions posed to him during the COVID crisis. As many of you know Jamie currently works in the financial industry and has some insights from that perspective. Jamie has also been a pastor for 17 years and looks at finances from a faith perspective as well. Thank you to Jamie for his valuable financial/ faith input and energies in being a part of this first Virtual Panel Discussion. We trust you will find it relative and informative for these challenging times. Stay tuned for further Panel discussions.“

Events in the past weeks have brought the discussion of racism, white privilege, injustice, and more, to the forefront.
As followers of Jesus we have committed to the journey of formation and transformation as Christ’s disciples. The journey of transformation is complex. Spiritual transformation involves learning. Spiritual transformation also involves un-learning and re-learning.
Glennon Doyle in her latest book “Untamed” writes, “In America, there are not two kinds of people, racists and nonracists. There are three kinds of people: those poisoned by racism and actively choosing to spread it; those poisoned by racism and actively trying to detox: and those poisoned by racism who deny its very existence inside them.”

Spiritual transformation is the ongoing journey of growing in awareness of the unredeemed parts that reside deep within. May the Spirit’s gentle presence abide with you/us as we listen, learn, examine, recognize,repent, and are transformed through the power of God’s Spirit….
Let us pray,

I have only a few words
in this feeble prayer.

I am listening.
I am learning.
I am examining myself.

I am trying to recognize
how the system of racism
lives in and through me.

It’s like a tangled up ball of yarn.
I untangle one layer only to encounter another.

Until it’s all untangled, the yarn cannot
be knit, the potential of the yarn
is compromised.
(Prayer by Rev. Terri C. Pilarski)