 Apostle Art Smith brings Christmas greetings to the church across Canada in this video made especially for you. He has graciously provided it to us in both English and French. See videos below. English Version:French Version:
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 Yes, in case you were wondering, even at Christmas:
Black Lives still Matter Indigenous Lives still Matter Lives of People of Colour still Matter This afternoon, Marian and I served a 4-hour shift at the Edmonton Community of Christ to help distribute food hampers to clients of the Edmonton Food Bank. The church has served as a weekly depot for the Food Bank for many years. It is a good community service for the congregation. Today we received 32 hampers to serve 15 families. A “family” could be a single person receiving one hamper, or a family of 5 or 6 persons receiving up to four hampers. Today, all recipients were receiving with their hampers a frozen turkey or ham for their Christmas dinner. The people receiving hampers are all good people who have found themselves, usually temporarily, in need of the Food Bank services. I had not been in the church building for at least two, maybe three, months. I was struck by how good it was to see and greet the three people we were relieving who had been at the church since mid-morning. Not just greet them, but greet them in person! (Yes, physical distancing happened. No hugs.) There were some nice (artificial) poinsettias which had been placed in the foyer to add some Christmas colour to welcome our food bank guests. There was very pleasant instrumental Christmas music playing on the sound system. Still, it is sad to know that tomorrow evening, Christmas Eve, there will be no service here. No collective sharing of the Christmas story. No energetic community singing of favourite songs. Along with all of you, I miss the people. I miss the sound of visiting. I miss the laughter. I miss the sharing of the week’s stories. I miss the worship. I miss the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our worship services – especially at Christmas. Let me end on a positive note. In our “Virtual Visiting Fellowship Meeting” this week I shared a video clip from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” in which Linus shares with his friends the “true meaning of Christmas” by reciting the story of the appearance of the angels to the shepherds and their message to them. Follow that link to see the clip yourself. (Watch for Linus symbolically dropping his security blanket just as he begins to quote the angels, “Fear not…”) Or, better yet, re-read the Christmas stories yourself: Luke 2:1-20 (the one with the shepherds) and Matthew 1:18 to 2:12 (the one with the wise men). Besides reminding you of the reason we celebrate Christmas, these stories can bring hope and encouragement in a year that has been lacking in positive community emotions. Marian and I felt good about our minor role in helping ensure a few Food Bank clients had a happier Christmas. We look forward to our “virtual” gatherings with family over the next few days. We also look forward to returning to in-person congregational gatherings sometime in the new year. I wish for each of you the best of the Christmas season. May you feel the blessings and promise of the birth of the baby Jesus. May you remember in your celebrations all of the blessings that may be a part of your life. May you also take time to remember those who need an interest in your prayers of support for the challenges they may be facing. And then, may we all look forward to a good and happy new year! As always, I pray for you God’s blessings of joy, hope, love, and peace in these challenging times. Steve Thompson Canada West Mission Centre President [email protected]  Black Lives Matter
Indigenous Lives Matter Lives of People of Colour Matter This coming Sunday (December 20) will be the last of the four Sundays of Advent. Advent is the first season of the liturgical year as supported by the “Revised Common Lectionary.” Some of you may be asking, “Steve – what does that sentence even mean?” Let me deal with those key terms in reverse order and ultimately concentrate on Advent. The Revised Common Lectionary is a three-year cycle of weekly themes and related scriptures that cover the major stories of the Bible. It is around these themes and scriptures that the weekly Worship Resources are based, as published each year by Herald House. The Revised Common Lectionary has a history that I cannot summarize here but that is well documented in the introductory pages of the print version of our Worship Resources each year. The Revised Common Lectionary was adopted by the church in 1995 as a basis for our worship planning. Relevant scriptures from the Doctrine and Covenants and/or the Book of Mormon are added on most Sundays to ensure representation of our “additional witnesses of Jesus Christ” in our worship planning. The “liturgical year” is the calendar of significant events in Christianity around which the Revised Common Lectionary is built. It includes the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost and then “Ordinary Time” for the months between Pentecost and Advent. Other than Christmas and Easter, I associated those terms with other “main-line” Christian denominations – Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran, etc. – from the time I first became aware of them (probably in high school) until well into young-adult-hood (early to mid-1980’s). Then we started to hold “Maundy Thursday” services just before Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Then Advent became part of our worship planning in the early 1990’s or so. And the other seasons became known to us as we became more familiar with the worship planning cycle. “Advent” has two meanings in Christianity. It refers to “a time of preparation and penitence before Jesus’ birth” (Worship Resources). “Advent also refers to the second coming of Christ and the final judgment that accompanies the coming of the kingdom of God.” Also, “historically, Advent is a time of fasting and repentance, yet it has strong overtones of joy as the Christmas season approaches.” (Dictionary of Bible and Religion, Gentz) That “fasting and repentance” part has somehow escaped me for all these years. I generally look to the prevailing themes of hope, joy, peace, and love as precursors to the celebration of the birth of Jesus on Christmas. The “overtones of joy” have definitely taken precedence for me. My hope is that you are enjoying the hope, joy, peace and love aspects of this Advent season. It has not been an easy year for us. Despite the restrictions on household gatherings in most areas, I hope you are being able to plan events that will enable you to be in contact – even if by phone or video conferencing tools – with your loved ones. This will undoubtedly be a Christmas that we will all remember for a long time – but for reasons that none of us anticipated last Christmas. May you truly be able to celebrate this last Sunday of Advent with its emphasis on love. It is important that we remember and celebrate both the human love we have for one another and the divine love that is shared between God and each and every one of us. As always, I pray for you God’s blessings of joy, hope, love, and peace in these challenging times. Steve Thompson Canada West Mission Centre President [email protected]  Black Lives Matter
Indigenous Lives Matter Lives of People of Colour Matter COVID-19 Update Just before getting to our “We Share” topic, there have been some substantial changes in provincial strategies in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of the four provinces in which congregations operate in the Canada West Mission Centre have implemented significantly revised procedures, some of which affect congregational worship and other church gatherings. These changes are very briefly summarized in this Updated Summary of Provincial Requirements. Links to more details on provincial websites are provided. Please at least review the summary for your awareness. We Share…Scripture in Community of Christ This is the 12th and final in a series on the “We Share…” theme. For background, see the first entry in the series here: We Share #1 In the book, Sharing in Community of Christ, upon which this series of columns is based, the section dealing with “Scripture in Community of Christ” can be found on pages 63 to 67. The section consists of a “Preamble” statement followed by nine “Affirmation” paragraphs. Each of the Affirmation paragraphs are very tightly worded and do not lend themselves well to summarization or abbreviation. Rather than trying to do so, I will pick a few key concepts from the Affirmations to share as examples. From Affirmation 1: “We declare that Jesus Christ…is the Living Word of God. It is to Christ that scripture points.” From Affirmation 3: “Scripture is a library of books that speaks in many voices. These books were written in diverse times and places, and reflect the languages, cultures, and conditions under which they were written. God’s revelation through scripture does not come to us apart from the humanity of the writers, but in and through that humanity.” Affirmation 5 (quoted in its entirety): “Scripture is vital and essential to the church, but not because it is inerrant (in the sense that every detail is historically or scientifically correct). Scripture makes no such claim for itself. Rather, generations of Christians have found scripture simply to be trustworthy in keeping them anchored in revelation, in promoting faith in Christ, and in nurturing the life of discipleship. For these purposes, scripture is unfailingly reliable (2 Timothy 3:16-17).” Affirmation 9 (also quoted in its entirety): “With other Christians, we affirm the Bible as the foundational scripture for the church. In addition, Community of Christ uses the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants as scripture. We do not use these sacred writings to replace the witness of the Bible or improve upon it, but because they confirm its message that Jesus Christ is the Living Word of God (Preface of the Book of Mormon; Doctrine and Covenants 76:3g). We have heard Christ speak in all three books of scripture, and bear witness that he is “alive forever and ever” (Revelation 1:18).” Scripture varies in age and nature from the ancient accounts of God’s mighty acts among ancient peoples (Book of Genesis and much of the Hebrew Bible – or Old Testament) to modern prophetic revelation that is current and relevant to the challenges of the world today (the latest sections of the Doctrine and Covenants originating in the last two to sixty years). All of scripture is worthy of our study and efforts at discerning its message for us in our own lives. The revelatory experiences with God, recorded by humans with the best words and language available to them to express the unexpressable, are available to us today to study, to interpret, and from which to learn and gain wisdom. It is a lifelong opportunity and challenge available to anyone. If you have an interest in pursuing questions or further discussion about scripture in the Community of Christ, please contact the writer or a congregation near you. Material for this column is drawn primarily from the book, available online, Sharing in Community of Christ: Exploring Identity, Mission, Message, and Beliefs. This is the last in our “We Share” series. I commend the book referenced above for your reading pleasure and study. It is the best current statement of what defines Community of Christ as a Christian denomination. If you are someone newly interested in Community of Christ, get to know us a bit better through this book. If you are a member of Community of Christ, get to know your church a little better and be more prepared for sharing the church with your friends and associates. I pray for you God’s blessings of joy, hope, love, and peace in these challenging times. Steve Thompson Canada West Mission Centre President [email protected]  Black Lives Matter
Indigenous Lives Matter Lives of People of Colour Matter This is the 11th in a continuing series on the “We Share…” theme. For background, see the first entry in the series here: We Share #1 “We Proclaim… Jesus Christ.” The Community of Christ’s belief in Jesus Christ has been emphasized in the explanations of many of the “We Share” columns:
After all of those affirmations of faith and belief in Jesus Christ, why is it necessary to have a statement explicitly aimed at our proclamation of Jesus? It is to further emphasize and confirm the primacy of that faith and belief, and to make a clear statement of our place in historic Christianity. Much to the surprise of some persons who may be detractors of Community of Christ, we ARE a CHRISTIAN denomination! From the time of our establishment in 1830, through our “reorganization” in 1860, and our name change in 2001, our focus and reason for being has been to witness of the life, death, resurrection, and continuing ministry of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God! In the book, Sharing in Community of Christ, upon which this series of columns is based, the section of “We Proclaim Jesus Christ” can be found on pages 58 to 60. There are nine statements affirming our proclamation of Jesus. They will not be repeated in their entirety here, but even the first phrases of each one is affirmative, explanatory, and worth listing:
There is much to explore about a faith and life based on the ministry and example of Jesus Christ. Entire lifetimes of ministry have been dedicated to the task. Uncountable books, from authors both in Community of Christ and in other faith traditions, have been written about it. All such efforts, ultimately, find their basis in the scriptural record of Jesus Christ. I certainly commend that record to your reading and study. If you have an interest in pursuing questions or further discussion about the place of Jesus Christ in the Community of Christ, please contact the writer or a congregation near you. Material for this column is drawn primarily from the book, available online, Sharing in Community of Christ: Exploring Identity, Mission, Message, and Beliefs. I pray for you God’s blessings of joy, hope, love, and peace in these challenging times. Steve Thompson Canada West Mission Centre President [email protected] |
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