​Yours in Christ,
Gwyn, Kat, and Shannon
gwyn@communityofchrist.ca
​kat@communityofchrist.ca
smcadam@communityofchrist.ca

What: Climate Webinar – “Vision, Venn and Voices for Change"
When: Sunday, December 4, 2022
​2pm PDT/ 3pm MDT/ 4pm CDT/ 5pm EDT 
Where: ZOOM Online Ministry

Our last webinar of 2022 will be a more in-depth video by Katharine Hayhoe about practical guidance on how to talk to family and friends about climate change.  Climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe speaks from personal experience: she discovered AFTER her marriage that her husband was a climate denier.  Is it possible to bridge the gaps in communication with those who have a different perspective on climate change?  Are there ways to talk to climate deniers?  What are some approaches to take that don’t result in heated debate and anger? 

You won’t want to miss this practical, compelling webinar!  The suggestions work for a variety of controversial topics in a world divided by ideologies, politics, and religious differences.  

​All sessions are free and participation in previous webinars and conversations is not necessary to join. ​​If you registered for a past webinar or conversation, you do not need to register again. Once registered, you will be sent a link to join the sessions. 
​
​For more information about the series please visit the Climate Change Colloquy website.

Canada West can send 33 delegates, but we must vote to approve our delegate list. We are letting you know now so you have some time to think about it. Here are some next steps:

1. If you’d like to be a delegate, please email Shannon at smcadam@communityofchrist.ca - please note, we have it within our budget to pay the registration fees for delegates.
   
   
2. Please put January 21st 2023 on your calendar for our Special Mission Centre Conference. It will be lovely to see the sunshine of one another’s faces during the winter months! This will be our first Mission Centre Conference where congregations will not send delegates to vote, all members who live within Canada West will be able to register to vote. Details on how to register to vote will be available later this year.
   ​
   
3. If you have means, consider donating to help others attend World Conference as delegates.

 
We look forward to seeing you online on Saturday, January 21!
 
Learn more about Community of Christ World conference here: https://cofchrist.org/2023-world-conference/

We are so excited to be together again and share in business, worship, learning, and community-building.

​Each conference is unique and this one is shaping up to be another marvelous week. The 2023 World Conference officially begins with the opening legislative meeting at 10am on Saturday, April 22 and concludes with a sending forth worship on Friday, April 28. Pre-conference activities begin on Friday, April 21. Everyone is invited.

The World Conference schedule is now available online. As we get closer to April 22, more details and locations will be added.

The Council of Twelve has tentatively determined two locations for remote sites. One will be hosted in Honduras and the other will be hosted in D.R. Congo. One additional remote location will be hosted at Graceland University to accommodate students who are taking their final exams during World Conference week.

Special attention is being given to health and safety. This will require some precautions not experienced at conference before.

Based on what we know at this time, people will be strongly encouraged to wear masks when indoors at World Conference to protect the most vulnerable in our gathering. We will provide larger spaces for delegation seating using the main floor and the balcony and encourage people to spread out during other indoor events.

We are also strongly encouraging participants to take several self-initiated and self-monitored precautions to include testing for COVID before arriving, staying home if one tests positive or has fever or symptoms, and getting up-to-date on vaccinations to protect one’s self. Thanks for your understanding! 
​
We look forward to sharing with our global family!​

There’s something in my soul that longs for silence. Perhaps there’s something in your soul too, that also longs for silence, a respite from the inner noise of our own thoughts, and the outer barrage of beeps and bells from our cell phones that seem to distract us from that feeling that there’s something beneath the surface calling for our attention. If only we could slow down long enough to listen with love, to ourselves, to each other, and to our planet.

“Listening With Love.” This was the theme of Creating Connection’s Nurturing Silence Retreat at our beloved Samish Island, October 21 – 23rd. I was honored to co-lead this retreat with my dear Buddhist friend and teacher, Jonathan Prescott. Jonathan is a chaplain and pastoral counselor, and long-time ordained student of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. I met Jon in 2018 at an extended meditation retreat at Plum Village, Thich Nhat Hanh’s monastery in southern France. There was something both inviting and familiar about Jonathan’s presence. We stopped and shared a few words, and when he told me he lived near Anacortes, in Washington state, I couldn’t believe it. Here we were halfway across the world, and I happen to meet someone who says he can almost see Samish Island from his living room window. We traded emails, and have kept in touch these past five years, with some deep conversations around silence and spiritual companioning in both the Buddhist and Christian traditions. The seed had been planted, ready to germinate and grow.

Since meeting Thich Nhat Hanh in 2011, and becoming immersed in Buddhist teachings and practices, while staying very much rooted in Community of Christ, I have wanted to bring my two beloved communities together. This weekend retreat of Nurturing Silence seemed like the perfect opportunity, and Creating Connection was the perfect host, with its emphasis on reaching out to communities beyond our traditional congregations. I mentioned the idea to Debra Donohue, and she responded with a resounding “Yes!” We went to work on the myriad details that go into planning and facilitating a retreat like this. As in past retreats, Shannon McAdam provided beautiful altars and worship centers, even providing dried rose petals from her garden, for us to offer back to the earth in gratitude.

I’ve always had an inter-spiritual heart, a heart that cannot be confined to just one tradition, but that looks for the underlying oneness that connects us all. I feel that we need to go beyond just inter-faith discussion, to sharing contemplative practice and silence together. Practicing in silence together allows us to go beyond the words that often get in the way, and connect through the loving silence of the heart.

And so we took time out of the busy freight train of our lives, to slow the momentum, to cultivate a silent space to receive the healing balm of practices drawn from both Buddhist and Christian contemplative wisdom. We learned how to clear the listening space: relaxing our bodies through gentle breath and movement, quieting our minds through meditation and mindful attention, and soothing our hearts by learning how to be still and listen to our heart’s deepest yearnings. Ultimately, we were held by the beauty and sacredness of nature and all creation, and the faith and hard work of many generations of Community of Christ who have supported, tended and cared lovingly for Samish Island.

One of the songs that was woven into the silence of our weekend was from our own Community of Christ Sings: “Listen in the silence, listen in the noise, listen for the sound of the Spirit’s voice.” We also sang a beautiful chant to Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion, nourishing loving kindness and compassion in ourselves and for the world. As I looked around at the faces of all those who had come together to practice, and listened to our voices blending together, my heart overflowed with joy. There’s something about both music and silence that weaves us together in ways that go beyond just talking and everyday conversation.

With many of our congregations struggling, and selling off church buildings, we need to discover new ways of coming together and creating community. In the past, Samish Island has been rented out to different Buddhist groups for their own separate retreats. I hope this retreat has planted the seed for a new kind of model and way of “inter-being.” Instead of seeing renters as just separate user groups, perhaps we can find  ways of connecting through retreats and shared activities  and practices that build bridges and fosters new understanding.

Let the Spirit breathe!

Join us in person and online for Blue Tuesday Christmas Service on December 13 at 7pm CST. The service will be about 30-40 minutes long. 

Address: Community of Christ Church 4710 8th Avenue
Regina, SK.

If you wish to join the service virtually, please email Dan Esch or Gregg Lester in order to receive the Zoom link.

Oasis has changed to Haven, but the spirit remains the same. I hope you can come. Join us online for a meditative spiritual practice experience on Wednesday nights at 7:40pm PST/ 8:40pm MST/ 9:40pm CST. 

The room will open 10 min early and stay open 5 min after. You can just come and leave your camera and mic off – rest for a while at the end of the day. Email kat@communityofchrist.ca for an invitation. 

Blessings,

Kat Goheen
Mission Centre Co-President

Enrollment Information for Online Classes
  
We are pleased to announce that the next classes through the Center for Innovation in Ministry and Mission (CIMM) through Graceland University and the Community of Christ Seminary. Along with the Ministry and Priesthood classes, we will be offering our first “Christian Ministry Certificate” course in the same vein as past “MEADS” courses. We will offer 5 of these classes each year and will provide the certificate after completing 10 classes.  
 
Upcoming classes (opening for enrollment in early November) 
 
Spring A Session: 

• Introduction to Pastor Ministry:  8-weeks, January 9 – March 4 - $25 
• Ministry of the Disciple:  8-weeks, January 9 – March 4 - $25 
• Christian Ministry Certificate Course: 
  • Introduction to Christian Theology: Dr. David N. Anderson, DMin – Jan. 9 – March 4 – mix of online and one live session per week - $100 

 
CIMM offers non-credit bearing continuing education units (CEU’s) that focus on priesthood development, leadership development, and theological education. These CEU’s do not lead to a degree. To enroll or view the schedule of upcoming classes, go to our website. 
 
Blessings,
​
I. David Lloyd
Director, Center for Innovation in Ministry and Mission (CIMM)

​This summer I went to a beaded spider workshop with a Storyteller from the Okanagan Nation. She outlined the story of Spider as she passed around a series of spider bodies that she had assembled - beads of all different colours and sizes. I quickly found the one that spoke to me, so excited to match it with the smaller beads for the legs! Once we had selected our bodies she stopped suddenly and said, "Now think of the person you will give this to. In our Nation we always consider how to share what is precious to us." I was floored! I was already attached to this potential spider. So I detangled myself from this dismay and wondered who it was actually for...the answer became clear! Of course it was for a new friend that I was working with that week. With deep humility I selected tiny beads and threaded them onto the long legs over that next hour, thinking of her the whole time. It was such a pleasure to give her this precious creation, knowing that I had made as if it were for myself. This is a photo of it on her dresser, where it continues to connect us in the memory of that week together.
 
Our generosity cycle is coming to the close for this year, but let me offer that there is always room for a deeper learning about giving. When we offer what is most precious to us to someone else, it becomes sacramental. There is always room in our hearts for more love, room in the world to share more beauty. We really can let go of some of our attachments and touch into the reality of loving our neighbour as ourselves. The truth is: that beautiful beaded spider could not have given me more joy if I had kept her, and I will keep this memory close to my heart. Let us be guided by love.

​Yours in Christ,
Gwyn, Kat, and Shannon
gwyn@communityofchrist.ca
​kat@communityofchrist.ca
smcadam@communityofchrist.ca

As we move into November, it is the time of remembrance. 
 
Remembrance Day is a memorial day observed by Canadians and other members of the Commonwealth since the end of the First World War in order to remember all those who have fought and died in the line of duty to keep us free.
 
We are reminded of the generosity of all who served the country and the world in trying to bring about peace. As we move forward, we see a world in conflict.  Many places in the world are at war or have internal conflict.  Many of you have given generous financial assistance to countries like Ukraine.  Others have offered household items and assistance to refugees.  Acts of generosity from people who want to Pursue Peace on Earth and Abolish Poverty and End Needless Suffering.
 
This last Sunday, I was reminded that we need to pause and remember those who have recently passed on from this earth.  More importantly, I was reminded that those who have suffered those losses need to be remembered too!  I have fallen down on caring for my local community.  Caring for our community means just that.  I thought I had a generous heart but my actions do not follow through.  I need to stop and listen and think about others in my community who I need to contact to sometimes just say Hi!
​
I want my generosity to include support for those in need who  sometimes don’t show that there is a need.

​Yours in Christ,
Gwyn, Kat, and Shannon
gwyn@communityofchrist.ca
​kat@communityofchrist.ca
smcadam@communityofchrist.ca

The Hills of Peace Campground Association is seeking a Campground Caretaker. This position will be of interest to someone who:

• Has an interest in maintaining the grounds at their most attractive level possible
• Can interact easily with people including: camp users, trades people and contractors, and the Board of Directors
• Ideally is familiar with the campground from attending events in past years

This is a paid position. Contract terms will be negotiated with the successful candidate. A more detailed position description is available here. ​Applications will be accepted until a suitable candidate is found.

Expressions of interest should be directed to: 
​Noela Inions, President, Board of Directors
at noelainions1@gmail.com

Unfortunately, there are many scammers looking for opportunities to take advantage of non-suspecting individuals in many different ways, especially on this holidays season!

​We want to warn you about one such scheme that may be circulating among or from Community of Christ members, friends and Mission Centre Leadership right now. 

If you should receive an email that appears to be from someone you know or trust such as CWM leadership, or congregation leadership, other close friends or relatives, etc., stating something like, “Can you do me a favour?”, be extremely cautious. These messages are likely a “phishing” email.

If you reply, the next email asks you to purchase a gift card on their behalf. The message may say they need the card immediately, but they are too busy to do it, and they will pay you back as soon as possible. ​These emails are not legitimate. They are being sent by malicious entities who are impersonating people in your contacts list to gain your trust and exploit you. These kinds of fraudulent emails attempt to gain your trust in order to access your personal and/or credit card information, or to get money (in the form of gift cards).

​DO NOT click any links or reply to such messages. Delete these emails immediately!

What to do next:

If you believe you have received this type of phishing email:

1. Contact the person whose name appears in the email via phone to find out if the request is valid.
2. If not, they should notify their contacts to be on the lookout for fraudulent emails from them.
3. If you are a victim of fraud, report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

Be very suspicious regarding online communication, especially when being requested to purchase gift cards or transfer funds. Remember, scams come in many forms. Click here to see a list of other possible scams published by the Government of Canada.

Note: This notice was originally published by Canada East Mission Centre in April 2021. Canada West acknowledges with appreciation their original drafting. This is being re-published by Canada West due to a series of “phishing” emails that have circulated recently.

I was generous to myself for the weekend.  I really needed and enjoyed the time spent at the retreat. 

Creating Connection is one of the programs from Community of Christ.  All programs cost to implement and the fees applied to the retreats and camps need to cover the cost of putting them on.  All are welcome to join the programs and should not be denied the opportunity to attend.  Through the generosity of others with financial assistance, subsidy programs are available. 

Youth camps and family reunions have a fee attached and all are asked to register.  The fees cover the cost of food, accommodations, class materials and craft supplies.  Hills of Peace and Samish Island have year round expenses that need to be covered as well.  The maintenance of these properties is something all of us can help with through financial generosity and through physical efforts at work parties.

Our pilgrimage to next year’s camps and retreats begins now. Consider how you can mindfully set aside resources - time, talents, and treasure - so you can be prepared to take part in this meaningful ministry. At these gatherings we come together as a mission centre to experience unity in diversity, learn and grow.

​We love our campgrounds! Consider making a donation to sustain your campground. E-transfer funds & write a cheque.

We would like to hear your feedback about this year’s mission centre conference!
 
We’ve created a brief, 3 min survey you can fill out by clicking here or click on the button below. You can also share feedback by emailing our Mission Centre President Team. Please fill out survey before October 28.
 
Thank you in advance for the gift of your feedback.

When: October 21 - 23, 2022
Where: In person at Samish Island
Registration Fee: $275 per person
Follow this link to register 
Special Guests: Jonathan Prescott and Vickie MacArthur

In this weekend retreat of deep reflective listening, we'll explore how to listen in a way that integrates body, mind, and heart, into a loving and compassionate whole. Surrounded by the natural beauty of the ocean and Samish Island, we'll slow our momentum, cultivating a silent space to receive the healing balm of contemplative practices:

• sitting and walking meditation
• gentle yoga, breath, and embodied awareness
• mindful eating (nourishing plant-based meals)
• deep rest and relaxation

This retreat calls upon diverse wisdom traditions and is open to all levels of experience. Keep watching for more retreat info!

The annual Hills of Peace Men’s Retreat was the 3rd weekend in September. Rick James was the guest minister for the weekend and at our request, he has written the following article. Our thanks to Rick!

I was asked if I would be the guest minister at the men’s retreat at Hills of Peace, on Sept. 16th. to 18th. At first, I was reluctant as I did not know what I could talk on. I remembered a book that I had read sometime back by Philip Yancy, called “What’s So Amazing about Grace.” There was a paragraph in it that changed my way at looking at God. I had the CD for it and after much consultation with Pat, I said yes.

I have to tell you, as I was driving east from Red Deer where I left Pat, I thought I was going to end up in Ontario, one long hill after another. But make it I did. It has been many years since I was last there, and I don’t think it has changed much. It is a beautiful place to see.

I had 11 men in the class, and we learned about the Grace that is always with us from God. As I was going over the material, I relearned how close Forgiveness is to Grace. And sometimes I think, we as a people seemed to have forgotten this. The people that Yancy had in his CD, where varied from a story about a woman of the street and a church conflict, to a friend of his that came out of the “closet”, to what happened in Alabama in the early 60’s. And a lot of things in between.

The sentence that got my attention was, “There is nothing you can do to make God love you more and nothing you can do to make God love you less.”  God loves us as much as an Infinite God can love. Yancy goes on to make an explanation of this in his book, but this sentence helped bring me back to the church.
​
I was privileged to be asked to be here as a guest and to worship with these men, my prayer for us, is that we will learn to allow themselves to feel the Grace of all loving God, that is always available to us. 

​​Yours in Christ,
Gwyn, Kat, and Shannon
gwyn@communityofchrist.ca
​kat@communityofchrist.ca
smcadam@communityofchrist.ca

This occasional feature is intended to ensure that people across the mission centre are aware of the passing of persons in other congregations in a timely manner.
 
Information provided here is restricted to the name of the deceased person, the city where they lived (or congregation they attended), and the date of death. Please click on the name to access the obituary (if available). 

If you are aware of other church members who have passed away and whose names do not appear here or in our archive, please advise sandra@communityofchrist.ca.
 
Please support in thought and prayer the family and friends of the following persons who passed away this year:
​

• Gwyneth Beer (nee Willis), Chilliwack, BC-May 3, 2022
• Marvel Riley, Chilliwack, BC-June 15, 2022
• Lillian Ida Perkins, Wainwright, AB (Ribstone Congregation)-June 22, 2022 

For a list of persons who have passed away in previous years, please click here.

There is a wonderful monthly online series on mystics called “Thirsting For God” that’s hosted by the Bend, Oregon Community of Christ congregation. On Saturday, David and Carolyn Brock and Mary Jacks shared a session called “Pilgrims on the Camino Ignaciano: Walking with St. Ignatius” describing their recent pilgrimage to retrace St. Ignatius’s journey across Spain. They shared their own preparations, the spiritual practices that were part of their daily walk on pilgrimage, and the practices that St. Ignatius followed when he was alive, which included extensive time in silence in a cave. Their photos were spectacular, as were their stories!

As Mission Centre Presidents, we have contemplated our camping program a lot over the past six months. With the amount of dedicated support it requires, what does it mean to us? With registration fees now in place, what is it worth? The analogy that keeps coming to my mind is pilgrimage. If I want to walk to holy places, I must get the right equipment. If I want to be able to go, I must free my calendar. If I want to have a rich experience, I must understand how to prepare spiritually. Pilgrimage is intentional and takes effort!

It can be argued that one of the best things we do as a community in Western Canada is camping. That’s a big statement! It also calls us to put our sustained effort and gifts toward this goal, whether we personally set foot on a campground or not. Now that we’ve had a year of camping with our new system under our belts, we can plan our time, our registration fees, and our invitations to others within and outside our fellowship. Let’s turn our feet toward holy ground!

If you would like to join the invitation list for “Thirsting for God”, please send an email to dbrock@communityofchrist.org

​Yours in Christ,
Gwyn, Kat, and Shannon
gwyn@communityofchrist.ca
​kat@communityofchrist.ca
smcadam@communityofchrist.ca