Black Lives Matter
Indigenous Lives Matter
Lives of People of Colour Matter

How many stories do you know from the Bible? I know that today many people are not as familiar with Bible stories as they once were. There are many reasons for that – which is not the point of what I want to discuss today. Suffice it to say that some of you reading this will be able to name many Bible stories and others – well, not so much. And that’s okay!

I have many Bible stories that I have come to love and to respect over my lifetime. On this past Sunday I had the opportunity to use the Book of Jonah in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) as a primary text for a sermon. If you are not familiar with the whole story of Jonah, I encourage you to look it up and read it. It is short – only 4 chapters and a total of 48 verses. But the writer of Jonah manages to pack a lot of action into those 48 verses!

If people know anything about Jonah, they know that he was swallowed by a giant fish (sometimes mis-characterized as a whale) and that he lived in the fish for 3 days and nights before being thrown up by the fish (sorry for the imagery!) on the seashore. From there he finally obeys God’s direction to go to the city of Nineveh. God asked Jonah to invite the people who lived there to repent of their evil ways. (To “repent” means “to feel such sorrow for sin or fault as to be disposed to change one’s life for the better.”[i]) The unstated assumption, at least on Jonah’s part, was that if the people did not repent God would bring destruction on the city.

The story tells us that Jonah went to Nineveh, walked about a third of the way across the city, stopped, and preached to the people only five words in Hebrew (8 in English): “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” (Jonah 3:4) From those few words the Ninevites responded! They did NOT throw Jonah out of the city! No – they repented! They, along with their king, committed to change their ways and they all wore “sackcloth and ashes” as a symbol of their humility and repentance.

If the story ended there, it would be a happy ending. But it continues with Jonah complaining to God that God did not follow through and destroy the city. Jonah felt that his credentials as a prophet had been undermined. But God responded that he simply could not ignore the well-being of that many people in such a large city after they had responded so positively to Jonah’s (very brief) sermon.

The lesson for Jonah and the book’s readers is that “a prophecy of destruction is meant…to educate and bring repentance.” Even for foreign nations (Nineveh was in a foreign nation outside the boundaries of Israel) “the prophecy of doom is a conditional prophecy that will come true only in the absence of repentance.”[ii]

Our God is a loving and patient God, always prepared to extend forgiveness when we stray from his expectations of how we should conduct ourselves. As humans we can never truly be “perfect”. In the eyes of God, we are always persons of worth and human beings subject to the unearned gift of forgiveness from God when we stray.

May God bless you as you seek to repent of old ways and try to do better in new ways.

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]


​-----------------------------------------------------------------------------[i] Dictionary.com
[ii] New Oxford Annotated Bible, NRSV, 4th edition, p. 1302

Information about upcoming Canada West Mission Centre programs for the early part of 2021 has just been released. Click here for details. All of these programs will be offered online. Please consult the details for each program and follow the instructions for registration and fees.
 
Programming will be announced throughout the year which we hope will meet a variety of interests from general to specific to leadership development.
 
We do not know yet what the new year will hold for us in terms of the opportunity for holding in-person retreats at our campgrounds or congregation buildings. In 2020 we quickly adapted in-person programs to an online format. For 2021 we are using this experience to improve the online program environment and hope you will enjoy the programs to be offered.
 
There is still hope we may be able to offer in-person programs by the summer of 2021 but this is far from certain. Canada West Mission Centre staff will follow the progress on reducing the risks of COVID-19 throughout the mission centre. We will also be following the progress in Washington State and the eventual opening of the Canada/U.S. border in relation to potential events at Samish Campground and Retreat Center. Watch for announcements about summer camps and retreats as we get closer to those months.
 
I encourage you to check out our upcoming programs and to get involved. We all look forward to in-person events again. Until then the online events will give you an opportunity to re-connect with friends and to continue in your faith journey in Community of Christ.
 
Grace and Peace,

Steve Thompson
Canada West Mission Centre President
[email protected]

Black Lives Matter
Indigenous Lives Matter
Lives of People of Colour Matter

New Reading for a New Year

Might you be interested in some new books for your reading pleasure in 2021? Let me share some titles that have recently appeared on the Herald House website.

Exploring Community of Christ Basic Beliefs: A Commentary is a contemporary successor to two previous editions of Exploring the Faith texts that were published in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The introduction to the book makes it clear that this work has been in the making for many years. The “commentary” is on the statement of Basic Beliefs of the church that was first released in 2009. This is part 1 of a 2-part series. It is currently only available as an e-book for purchase from Amazon.ca here. Of interest to Canada West readers will be that Shannon McAdam (Vancouver) is acknowledged as writing one of the chapters, and Kat Goheen (also from Vancouver) is acknowledged as a co-editor of a previous draft of the chapters.

Commentary on the Community of Christ Doctrine and Covenants, Volume 2, by the late former Apostle Dale Luffman, has just been released. This is a “must-have” for preachers, teachers, and students of church history and theology. This volume covers sections of the Doctrine and Covenants from 1860 to the present. Volume 1 covers earlier sections originating with Joseph Smith, Jr.

Just a warning: there is a “double-sticker shock” effect on these books. First, they are on the expensive side and the currency exchange rate only makes that worse for Canadian purchasers. Second, the shipping charges from Independence make the total expense nearly double the purchase price (that might be mitigated somewhat if you are ordering both books at the same time). Sadly, until we can travel into the U.S. again, we cannot just ask someone going to headquarters to pick them up for us. Mail-order is the only option.

The Non-Violent Life is written by John Dear (not a Community of Christ author). In follow up to the motion on non-violence approved by the 2019 World Conference, this text is an important resource for gaining some perspective on the issues surrounding the idea of non-violence and how individuals can pursue a lifestyle that actively supports non-violence. It is available in e-book and paperback format on Amazon.ca here, which enables avoiding U.S. dollar exchange and those shipping rates!

I will also just mention three other slightly older titles in case you missed them somehow.

God All Round is a book of personal stories and testimonies from former Apostle Linda Booth. It is also a manual that emphasizes the importance of storytelling in ministry and teaching. It is available as an e-book from Amazon.ca here.

A Way of Life: Understanding our Christian Faith, by Anthony Chvala-Smith, is a very readable theological consideration of Community of Christ faith. I am currently using this text as a discussion guide for our “Virtual Visiting Fellowship Meetings” each week (a shameless plug, just in case you are interested). The e-book version is on Amazon.ca here.

Choose Generosity: Discovering Whole-Life Stewardship, as you might expect, has been prepared by the Presiding Bishopric to promote a reasonable and faithful stewardship perspective among church members and friends. I could not find this book on Amazon in either Canada or the U.S.

I hope there is something here that “tweaks your interest” either for personal reading or perhaps for a study group at some point in the future.

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

Last week I provided information about programs and activities from Canada West Mission Centre coming up in the next two months. You can review that entry here. It includes summary program information and links to more details about each one.

I want to repeat the notice for this program coming up this weekend:

• Exploring a Post-Pandemic Church: Discern, Plan, and Act in Hope: This session will provide a focused opportunity to learn about, discuss, and begin discerning what church will look like once we emerge from the constraints of the pandemic. This workshop takes place over two Saturdays, 2 weeks apart (January 16 and 30). All congregational members and leaders are urged to participate in this workshop. We have had a good response to this workshop. In fact, we currently have more folks from Canada East registered than from Canada West! It would be great to have a last-minute influx of CWM people. Please register right away to take advantage of this important workshop.

Now on with THIS week’s message: Have you noticed that we are in a new year?

The theme scripture for this past Sunday from the church’s worship resources was the first five verses of the Bible:

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
                            --Genesis 1:1-5, Authorized King James Version

What if we were to approach the new year as if it is a new creation? A new beginning? An opportunity to do things differently – and better?

This analogy may go sideways sooner than later, but bear with me for just a few more sentences… If we are leaving 2020 behind us and consider it to have been a less-than-ideal year, might we consider 2020 analogous to being “without form, and void” and perhaps even a place of darkness? And can we pray that the Spirit of God might move upon the face of our waters. And, oh, that God might command, “Let there be light!” And that “there (would be) light” to help show us the way through this new year. Surely, we would celebrate that evening and that morning being the divinely promising first day. And surely, we could promise God that we would celebrate that new creation and build the new year so much better than the last as each day succeeded the other.

Well – certainly, we can pray. And, most definitely, we can conduct our lives in this new year so as to recognize the points of joy that come our way as we are privileged to enjoy them. And may we give thanks to God for this new beginning and for the blessings that will come from it.

You can judge how well that hopeful and well-intentioned analogy worked for you. My intent and my conclusion is that 2021 is now upon us with a “blank slate” ahead for the next twelve months. It is up to us to make it a better year than the last one and, come next December, to be able to look back on it and declare with God that “it was good!”

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]

Barrie Community of Christ and the Bahá’í Community of Barrie presents:
​
Each year on the 3rd Sunday in January, religions of the world and the community gather in an observance of unity, celebrating the shared values and principles common among diverse faith traditions.

Due to COVID-19, this year’s event takes place by Zoom and Facebook Live this coming Sunday, January 17 at 10 AM PST/ 11 AM MST/ 12 PM CST and 1 PM EST.

Never more than this past year has there been a need to help create pathways in the world for peace, and, with your help, this event promises to bring greater awareness to the common goals, principles and values shared across all faith traditions, while fostering closer bonds of unity, cooperation and understanding amongst such diversity.
 
The theme for this year is “I AM” (Interconnected, Aware, Mindful), and will include participation and attendance by many faith traditions from the Barrie area, around Ontario, and potentially across the world, united in compassion and hope.

Representatives from each religion will share how their tradition understands and embraces this year’s theme, followed by a sacred reading or prayer. Moments of music videos, interactive chat, on-screen engagement, and a closing Q&A will also be part of the program.

Black Lives Matter
Indigenous Lives Matter
Lives of People of Colour Matter
 
Happy New Year to you! I hope that everyone has had a good experience over the Christmas and New Year’s period. Along with you, I look forward to 2021 with expectations of a better year.

For today’s message I will highlight the variety of programs and events that are already on our Canada West Mission Centre calendar for the first couple of months. There are MANY of them. Truly, there is a plethora, some would even say a cornucopia, of choices! Full information about all of these programs appears elsewhere in this week’s Weekly Wire. Here is the summary of what is upcoming – click on the links where you can find more details.

First, a cancellation announcement followed by a replacement announcement: The Canada West Mission Centre e-Conference (i.e., online conference) scheduled for Saturday, February 6, has been cancelled because of a lack of enough business to conduct that would justify the meeting. Check with me or with your Pastor for more details.
 
In its place an Online Ordination Service is being planned. It will be on the same date, February 6, and will begin at 10 a.m. Pacific Time/ 11 a.m. Mountain Time/ 12 p.m. Central Time. Two persons will be ordained: Brenda Senga (Saskatoon), to the office of Evangelist; and Doug Hayden (Calgary), to the office of High Priest. Both calls were approved at the 2019 Mission Conference in Edmonton. We will be using the principles and guidelines for offering the sacraments through online means provided by the First Presidency last fall. Watch for more details about this service in the coming weeks.
 
Here are three multi-session events that are highly recommended:

• Community of Christ Adult Lessons Online: Beginning Sunday evening, January 10. If you have been missing the in-person banter of Sunday morning discussions, here is your chance to regain a taste of it. Everyone is encouraged to participate in these classes if possible. There is no fee. Registration is required.

 

• Exploring a Post-Pandemic Church: Discern, Plan, and Act in Hope: This session will provide a focused opportunity to learn about, discuss, and begin discerning what church will look like once we emerge from the constraints of the pandemic. This workshop takes place over two Saturdays, 2 weeks apart (January 16 and 30). All congregational members and leaders are urged to participate in this workshop.

 

• Nurturing Spirit Retreat: This long-standing retreat was popular in its in-person format and retained most of its participation last year as one of our first on-line options early in the pandemic. It has a varied program with many excellent facilitators. It is scheduled for the last weekend of February (26th to the 28th); plan now to attend.

 
All of the following events also are scheduled in the next few weeks. Without providing any details here, follow the links to these events:

• Starting this week: selection of priesthood and other classes from Developmetrics. (Check for the possibility of joining late if you are seeing this after the start dates.)
• A series of several Creating Connection/Nurturing Spirit events including:
  • Afternoon of Nurturing Spirit
  • Coffee and Meaningful Conversation
  • Book Club
  • Satsang: Singing into Silence
• January 10: Climate Change Colloquy Series (note participation of President Veazey)

 
There is obviously LOTS of activities from which to choose. I invite you to register now in the events of interest to you.
 
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]

In the December 2020 financial update the Presiding Bishopric shared details about the church’s current economic situation and other information from the December 5 meeting of the World Church Finance Board. The next financial board report will be in June 2021.

Learn more about the church's financial condition.  

• Financial Update – December 2020
• Video Update
• Approved Worldwide Mission Budget (2021)