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eSpirit...weekly news from Beach United ChurchThis weekly enewsletter is sent every Friday and lists upcoming events happening at Beach United Church plus a message from one of our ministers.
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eSpirit...weekly news from Beach United Church
WedWednesdayJanJanuary9th2013
Week of Jan 8 2012
SORRY FOR THE TECHNICAL GLITCH IN GETTING OUT THIS WEEK'S HEARTBEAT!
News item from USA Today via Jim Winn:
Up to 100 Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic priests and monks swinging brooms clashed inside the Church of Nativity today in Bethlehem in a frenzied turf battle, the Associated Press reports. Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian clerics share the administration of the church, which often leads to jurisdictional disputes. The fighting broke out during cleaning of the West Bank church in preparation for Orthodox Christmas celebrations in early January, as each side jealously guards its territory. Palestinian police, using batons and shields, were called in to break up the fighting inside the basilica. "It was a trivial problem that . . . occurs every year," police Lieutenant-Colonel Khaled al-Tamimi tells Reuters. "Everything is all right and things have returned to normal.” He tells the news agency that there were no arrests "because all those involved were men of God."
I hope there are exemptions for ‘women of God’ too!
With news like this we at Beach United can celebrate our peaceful Christmas ecumenical services with St Aidan’s Anglican congregation. In addition, we are discovering a shared passion with St Aidan’s for serving food to those in our community who are hungry. In shared moments of worship and outreach we can see evidence of God’s love writ large.
And now we move from our Christmas season into our season of epiphany. Christmas gave us an opportunity to see God revealed in baby Jesus. Epiphany offers us 8 weeks to see God’s revelation even more clearly.
We begin looking for God revealed this Sunday when we hear about Jesus being baptized by his cousin John (Mark 1:4-11). Baptism plays an important part in our faith life because it is one of two sacraments, meaning a visible expression of God’s invisible grace. But what happens when we turn that grace into a wall that excludes others? Or when we turn our particular baptism ritual into the only way to enter heaven?
So this Sunday, let’s focus our spiritual eyes on an inclusive God as we revisit baptism. Oh, and prepare to get wet!
Shalom, Abigail
Please click here for HEARTBEAT
Or access on our web page next to the blue wave www.beachunitedchurch.com
WedWednesdayMayMay16th2012
May 20, 2012
Road trip anyone?
Summer is coming up fast and for some that means that the open road is beckoning. Visiting places you have never been before or setting out with no particular destination in mind, can be a wonderful thing to do on a warm, sunny day. For those of us who are trying to reduce our carbon footprint, these trips can happen on foot, on a bike or even a canoe or kayak.
Jesus met most people on the road. All the Gospels portray Jesus on a continual road trip—God in action—urgently making a way to reach us. Along the way, Jesus encountered women broken by disease; a boy willing to share his lunch; women caught in questionable activities; hope-deprived people; and disease-riddled men.
All the people along the way really mattered to Jesus and so he stopped, listened, cared, and healed. Jesus demonstrated that the journey is as important as the destination.
T.S Elliot expresses this idea in the following words:
We shall not cease from exploration,
and the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time.
Jesus did not walk those dusty roads alone; his friends and followers walked with him. What did Jesus’ friends do when he was no-longer with them in body but in spirit? How did they become known as “people of the way”? Well, come and join the road trip this Sunday: travel back in time, walk with a Christian Peacemaker Team and consider which pathway God is leading Beach United Church along.
Meanwhile, enjoy the sunshine!
Blessings, Karen
Please click here for HEARTBEAT our weekly newsletter
ThuThursdayMayMay10th2012
Week of May 13 2012
Truth is stranger than fiction, so said Lord Byron.
And BUC’s Council had a strange truth to deal with recently.
For some time, Council has wanted to update our web site. After our communications administrator, Fenella, moved to Peterborough, our web site has been in need of some TLC. So Jo-Anne LaForty volunteered to keep the site current and change the “skin” or the look of the site. Jo-Anne got everything lined up so we could give the site a brand new look when our site provider said, “early last year we implemented a Gospel Agreement and require anyone who uses our application for their ministry website to agree to it. We grandfathered in all customers already using our application before we implemented this, however when updating a website we like to touch base with the customer and point them to our agreement (http://www.iministries.org/Gospel-Agreement) to either accept or decline.”
Feel free to check out the whole text, but let me give you some samples of this Gospel Agreement . . .
iMinistries is more than just a service provider. We create websites for churches and ministry organizations whose common mission is to glorify God and preach the good news of Jesus Christ. Every church and ministry organization that we partner with must agree with and commit to uphold the following Gospel Agreement
GOD: We believe in the only true God (John 17:3), the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19-20).
JESUS CHRIST: We believe in the total deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe He is the manifestation of God in the flesh. We believe He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.
SCRIPTURES: We believe the Scriptures of the Old Testament and New Testament are verbally inspired by God and inerrant in their original writings.
MAN: We believe man was created in innocence under the law of his Maker but, by voluntarily transgressing, fell from his sinless and happy state. Consequently, all mankind is sinful.
SALVATION: We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice.
SATAN: We believe in the existence of Satan as the originator of sin and the archenemy of God. As a spirit being, he leads his demonic forces in continual attack upon the people and purposes of God.
Our BUC Council decided not to sign this “Gospel Agreement,” and thanks to generous guidance from Pete Gray, Don & Yvonne Gray’s son, we are building a brand-new web site.
In the last few months Council has facilitated congregational reflection on the question, “Why does Beach United Church matter?” For me, BUC matters because in the face of a “Gospel Agreement” we might want to make different statements of faith, statements that are inclusive of other faiths, have a less literal and more metaphorical approach to scripture, and be open to diverse faith perspectives rather than expecting rigid adherence.
Let’s reflect further on Sunday with our guest speaker, Jane Armstrong, as she tells us about a wider church perspective from a recent UCC survey.
Shalom, Abigail
For more news, check out our eNewsletter Heartbeat
Or see the blue wave on our web site home page: www.beachunitedchurch.com
ThuThursdayMayMay3rd2012
Week of May 6, 2012
What is worship?
The bible doesn’t give a formal definition of worship in either the Hebrew or Christian scriptures. The letter-writer Paul tells us about how the first century churches operated but says very little about worship. Maybe that is because Paul sees “worship” as something that happens as a natural part of our everyday living. I like the way John Piper expresses it - "What we find in the New Testament, perhaps to our amazement, is an utterly stunning degree of indifference to worship as an outward ritual, and an utterly radical intensification of worship as an inward experience of the heart….”
If you explore some of the on-line Christian blogs, you will find much more interest in defining worship. Here are a few examples to get you thinking.
Worship is the thank you that can't be silenced - Max Lucado
To worship is to change. Richard Foster
Worship is what we all do all of the time. whether we worship God all the time is another matter. Fishponds Baptist Church
Worship = "pleasing God". Rick Warren
True worship is an all consuming, Spirit fuelled, truth filled response to the revelation of God, Chris Sayburn
Worship is giving God the glory he requires and deserves, submitting to him whatever to consequences seem to be for us, serving in at all times and revering and fearing him. Peter Whittle
Worship and action are not separate entities: rather they flow in the same stream. Jan Richardson
An authentic life is the most personal form of worship. Everyday life has become my prayer. Sarah Ban Breathnach
Hope to see you on Sunday for both worship and the Congregational Meeting – are these different or the same? Looking forward to the discussion!
Blessings, Karen
Please click here forHEARTBEAT
ThuThursdayAprApril26th2012
Week of April 29 2012
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
Went to bed with their britches on . . .
A simple children’s rhyme helps us to remember the names of the four gospel writers. We probably also remember that Jesus had 12 disciples. Can we recite their names? We can guess at a number of them: Peter, James, John . . . oh yes, Judas. We may not remember all their names but we know that they had names: Peter, Andrew, 2 James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, Jude, Simon, and Judas.
At least they had names. You may be less familiar with the female disciples of Jesus. Can we recite their names? We may come up with Mary but then we are stumped. We may even ask, “Did Jesus actually have female disciples?” Yes, Jesus certainly did have female disciples: Mary Magdalene, Jesus’ mother Mary, Mary Salome, Martha and Mary, Mary of Clopas, Joanna, Susanna, Priscilla, Tabitha/Dorcas, Lydia, Phoebe, Junia, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Julia, Nympha, and Apphia.
Read more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_disciples_of_Jesus
Yes, Jesus female disciples had names. And, if it weren’t for women who supported his ministry economically, he may not have been able to do his work. Check out Luke 8:2-4.
Jesus’ disciples, both male and female had a prominent place in his life and ministry, and in the continuation of his ministry after his death. Throughout history male and female followers of Christ have given their focus, energy, love, and sometimes their lives to embody God’s vision of shalom—wholeness for all creation and creatures.
On Sunday, we will hear about a small but mighty piece of the ever-continuing ministry of Jesus as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the UCW. Let’s hear about some modern-day disciples!
And don’t forget to pick up your Congregational Workshop Worship Booklet in preparation for our May 6 event—that’s next week. Or click on this link: worship
Keep in mind that the format is booklet style so either print it out or watch page numbers to make sense of the order of reading.
Blessings, Abigail
For more BUC news, check out Heartbeat
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