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

​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

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.

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

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

We were so blessed at Mission Conference by the ordination of Linda Klughart to the office of Seventy and by the way this event inspired Apostle Art Smith’s Sunday message. It has been ringing in my heart ever since, and we wanted to bring you this excerpt to feed your soul, so that you can return to it again and again. This is what matters most for us right now.
 
God bless!
Mission Centre President Team

Jesus tells them stories. 
 
The stories are absurd sounding. 
What woman having lost one of her ten coins wouldn’t light a lamp and search for it all night long? Well, no woman would do this. In the story, she would have spent more on oil burning in her lamp than the lost coin was even worth. And then, when the coin is found, she calls a celebration. By the time she had purchased a cake from Costco, she’d have spent way more than that little coin was ever worth. 
 
And no self-respecting shepherd would ever abandon the 99 sheep, risking everything, to find one that had wandered off.
But the story continues similarly. The sheep is recovered and there’s a celebration.
What would the party look like? Roasted sheep! I imagine. 
 
Absurd stories. 
 
But the stories are told to help the grumblers understand that from God’s perspective, when anyone is missing, or excluded, whether it’s just one in a hundred, or one in ten, or one half, it’s profoundly wrong in Heaven.
 
So when we talk about growing together, growing in knowledge of God’s will and ways, we need to be careful.
We’re a little religious community in decline. 
We might be tempted to circle the wagons and to focus in on each other.

After all, maybe if we can strengthen ourselves, get better at what we do, then others might want to join us.
After all, surely one of our greatest strengths is the way we love one another, the way we can count on each other to always make other members of our community feel at home.
 
But what I take from this 15th chapter, at the heart of Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel according to Luke (which is by the way the kind of content so much at the heart of the gospel that I know people who have Luke 15 tattooed on their forearm), what I take from this chapter is that growing together for us means growing in our capacity to notice the ones who are missing.
 
As we grow, we become keenly aware of those who are not here.
Later in chapter 15 it’s one of the two sons who's gone off with half of the inheritance.
It was obvious he had gone. 
 
With the woman, it was one tenth of what she had that went missing.
 
With the shepherd, it was one out of a hundred. 
 
We grow in our awareness and sensitivity towards the lost. We prioritize them, not us, and we celebrate when we get to be together again.
 
The paradox is that our growing together isn’t really focused on those who are here.
We grow together in our ability to notice those who are missing and in our ability to focus on them without religious or righteous grumbling.
 
Linda will be ordained today as a minister for noticing who’s missing.

The scriptures talk about the dangers that the seventy will face because of the places they will go. But today I’m thinking about the risks that will be generated back at home as the seventy do their work. They risk provoking grumbling among the religiously faithful. 
 
The seventy, like the angels in heaven, recognize how profoundly wrong it is that people are being left out, forgotten, ignored or excluded.
​
They are passionate for the lost. 
 
But it’s risky work. All around the church, in our little communities, getting smaller all the time, we can ill afford, it would seem, to have some of our best ministers off focusing elsewhere.
Focusing on those who aren’t even religious. 
Running after immigrants, visiting prisons, working with special needs people, paying attention to the LGBTQ community.
They aren’t the ones paying the bills. 
We’re not too sure we really want our little community to be dominated by those people anyway.
 
It is risky work to which you are called Linda. If you’re doing it right, there may be grumbling.
 
But today, it seems a little bit clear. 
And my dream is that we’ll grow together, not necessarily to become more religious, more spiritually pure, but to be more sensitive to the ones who’re not here, those we’ve lost along the way, and maybe we can also grow to be a little less grumbly.

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

​It was so good to see so many of you this past weekend for our Canada West Mission Centre Conference! We will share more in the future about the decisions that were made in our business meeting this year, but for now, here are some photos of the fun we had in Vancouver, Calgary, and Regina, where we were able to see you in person.

​Change is on my mind lately. The change in weather is forefront, and the resultant change in schedule for our family – back to school, back to teaching, end of camps and trips for now. It seems that I’m daily surprised by friends’ changes in jobs and unexpected changes in personnel at our girls’ schools. Reading the new World Church appointments showed change on a larger scale – seeing the legacy of service provided and the new faces stepping into bishopric and apostolic roles. The phrase that keeps coming to my mind is, “Well you didn’t expect things to stay the same, did you?”
 
Change can be stimulating as well as intimidating. I do best with change when I don’t chain it to the past and constantly rehearse comparisons from my limited viewpoint. While listening to a First Nations Okanagan story-teller this summer, I learned that in their wisdom tradition it’s the young people who adopt and promote change quickly, while the elders are more likely to dig in their heels and value the long view. Where am I on this spectrum of interaction with change? Where do I long to be?
 
We have our Mission Conference this weekend, and it’s new in some ways and familiar in others. We hope that above all we can do the business of our conference while taking pleasure in being together, whether on screen or in one of the sites that will host gatherings. I picture us like a satellite’s view of Western Canada at night: bright splashes of light that push against the darkness, connected by heart instead of highways. Please join us this weekend and make room in your heart for change – for new possibilities to be born!

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

This week and next week our column will address some of the business that will be before us at Mission Centre Conference on Sept 10th.
 
This conference we have an important new motion to consider, which is:

1. Resolved: That the bylaws of the Canada West Mission Centre meeting procedures be amended to: 
   1. Remove current guideline section “Delegates” and 
   2. Replace it with the following (wording taken from Church Administrator’s Handbook):
      Voting:
      All members in good standing within the mission center are voting members of the mission center conference.
      A member who has changed his or her place of residency but whose transfer has not yet been processed may be given the right of voice and vote by action of the assembly. 

The reason we currently have a delegate conference is that when the mission centre was first created, and all conferences were in-person, it was important to make sure that there was representation from across western Canada no matter where the conference was held.
 
This representation continues to be very important to our life together as a mission centre. There has been a big change though, since the original bylaws of the mission centre were created, and that was the year we voted to allow for virtual aka online conferences and voting. It's amazing to think about how technology has made it possible for everyone in far-flung corners of our mission centre to join us in our decision making.
 
As we prepared for this year's conference it became clear that allowing for many voices and perspectives to speak and vote at conference is very important to many people across the mission centre. It emerged that delegate conferences were perhaps limiting participation, especially for "non-resident" members who don't have a local congregation.
 
So the idea to open up conference voice and vote to more of our members will be before you this year. We are looking forward to the virtual pre-legislative sessions where you can share your thoughts and questions with one another on this topic, as we continue "Growing Together".
 
Virtual Pre-Legislative Session options:

• Sunday September 4th at 2pm Mountain time
• Wednesday September 7th at 7pm Mountain time

Watch for the Zoom Link in the conference hub soon!

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

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

As the summer heats up I've realized that we are now just 40 days away from Mission Centre Conference! Wow! How time flies. To think that this time last year the three of us were beginning to discern and understand a calling to this work of being a volunteer Mission Centre President team.

This year's Mission Centre Conference, like the conferences in the past two years, will look different as we continue to think carefully about how to use everyone's time, talents, and treasure in the best way possible. If you haven't heard, we decided to leverage our team of three to do something previously not done, which is to have your  Mission Centre President be in multiple places at the same time! Gwyn will spend the weekend in Regina, Shannon in Calgary, and Kat in Vancouver.  We encourage you to plan on joining us in one of these locations as we still have so many of you to meet and get to know better.

Our main purpose for this gathering is to conduct the business of our Mission Centre, but it is also the way we are able to reconnect with those we don't see all the time. The world of online events has changed this, and I suspect many of you have seen a variety of faces from across the mission centre more often in the last two years than you may have before. I know I have, and what a joy that has been. But what a delight it will be to see many of you in person! I'm very excited.

In preparation for conference I was reviewing the documents from the creation of our mission centre in 2004. Did you realize we are fast approaching our 20th anniversary of being a mission centre? I didn't! What a journey these last 18 years have been of stretching our hearts across four provinces to create a new grouping of faithful disciples, supporting one another in following Christ's call. I remember those first few conferences being almost like starting at a new school, so many new faces, and a few vaguely familiar ones. Now those new faces are familiar faces, and so beloved. I can't imagine this discipleship journey without all of you.

While our conference is September 9th-11th, we will have opportunities in the week leading up for you to engage early.  We will have two options for virtual pre-legislative sessions on September 4th in the afternoon and 7th in the evening for you to learn about our business agenda and ask questions in a more relaxed setting.  There will also be a "coffee and conversation" virtual gathering on the evening of Thursday September 8th with Debra to explore questions around our theme of Growing Together.

​So, I hope you are able to join us online in the week leading up to conference, and then many of you in-person (or online) the 9th-11th. Even if you are not a delegate this year, you are invited to listen to the meetings, join in the worships, and celebrate with us how we are continually Growing Together.

​Written by Kat Goheen
Canada West Mission Centre Co-President
kat@communityofchrist.ca

I was so blessed to spend the weekend at Hills of Peace for the Spiritual Retreat three weeks ago. The lake, the hills, the food, the poplar trees all whispered peace to me. Two of us were there for the first time, and the campground seemed happy for our group presence after almost three years of no camps there.

We gathered from three provinces and shared deeply about our response to God’s movement in our lives, guided by the stories of Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and Jesus in the New Testament. Everyone was full of insights from their lives and from the texts. I am amazed by how much growth we saw in those biblical figures within a few short paragraphs, and how we were able to identify those rhythms and movements of Spirit in our own lives. I saw myself in each of our biblical friends and was able to touch into some places within that can still use love and healing. It was brave of us to go through grief and resurrection together and I am so happy that we practiced leaning on the heart of God in community.

May our service be blessed with spaciousness. May our contemplation lead us to action. May we always willingly receive the gift of new life!

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

As we get closer to gathering together at camps again, we wanted to provide additional thoughts on our COVID guidance for in-person events. You’ll notice this is “guidance”, not rules or policies, that wording is intentional, as is the wording “Personal responsibility can look like” there are options for everyone.

As you can imagine I’m sure, there was consideration of stricter requirements, like Spectacular has chosen to have. After much consultation and discernment, we instead offered this list of many ways we can all take responsibility for protecting each other at camp. COVID is still making many people ill, and leading to death everywhere in Canada, and the last thing we want is for our gatherings to become exposure events.

In my social circles it has become common practice if one is going to a gathering with a larger group to take a rapid test that morning or the day before as tests are freely available at pharmacies, and testing gives a person confidence that they will not pose a danger to others. It’s not required, but it is a way to take personal responsibility. Testing regularly myself gives me peace of mind when I go to church on Sunday or gather with immune-compromised family members.

We trust that this list of ways to protect one another is not new, but are the kinds of things you’ve heard public health authorities advocate for, and habits you are already taking on as you prepare for any trip or larger gathering. For example, I myself wouldn’t be able to isolate before traveling because I have to go to work, but I’m vaccinated and boosted, and I can easily take a rapid test. If someone isn’t vaccinated, and can’t access testing, this list proposes that isolating is a way to protect others.

Again, these are guidelines, not rules or policies, and are intended to help you think critically and manage risk in ways that are accessible to you.

Kat, Gwyn, and I are happy to address any other concerns you have or if others you speak to raise concerns, please send them to us.

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

​A picture says a thousand words! I could have told you here that the three of us were blessed to attend Gwyn Beer Sr.’s memorial this weekend in Chilliwack, but you can see in this picture how glad we are to be together, and how much we love Gwyn Sr.
 
We are preparing for Mission Centre Conference, and an important feature of the conference is to remember our dear ones who are members of our Mission Centre who have died this year. If you are carrying one of these losses close, please consider sending in pictures as a tribute. We would love to feature one from their youth, one from young adult or middle age, and one recent picture. You can send them to sandra@communityofchrist.ca.
 
Our conference is different this year from any I have experienced – it is neither online only nor all of us in one place, but truly hybrid. The three of us will lead the conference from Regina, Calgary, and Vancouver, and you are free to travel to one of these sites or participate from home. You can also organize a watch party from your congregation, although you’ll have to bring your own food!
 
We approach this 2022 conference as a time to take stock of where we are and what we can do. Our theme is “Growing Together”, and that is exactly what we hope to do!

Please plan to join us on September 9-11 for this chance to grow together and discover who we are.

Do you remember what it felt like to receive a party invitation when you were young?  They were in the form of a card, or maybe if you’re younger than me, it came to you in an email.  Whether it was on paper or digital, it was fun, even exciting and receiving the invitation gave you a feeling of being wanted and included. I’ll get back to this later.

At the Nature and Nurture retreat June 3-5 at Samish Island, we ‘invited’ people outside of our church community by advertising on meeup.com and Eventbrite. One-third of our attendees were people we had never met before and who had never been to Samish Island!

Our goal for this retreat was mainly to welcome people back to in-person activities.  We knew a lot of our regular team would not be available that weekend, so with the small team of Patti Beer, Barbara Rose (Seattle) and myself we planned a retreat that was largely outdoors, with lots of time for visiting.  We intentionally allowed up to 2 hours for meals and cleanup so everyone would have lots of time to linger over their meals and chat, and we set up the mornings with a toast bar at 7am, Yoga at 8am, and Breakfast didn’t start until 9am so that those who needed sleep could rest a little longer.

Mother Nature had her fun with us, pretty much turning on the faucet a few times, but she did share the sun with us for several hours on the Saturday.  We had advised people to bring appropriate clothing so we could be outside no matter what the weather conditions were, and we kept the fireplace in the dining going the whole weekend.

Our activities included Dancing the Labyrinth, Meaningful Conversation Groups, Forest Bathing, Qi Gong, Blue Mind Water, Canoeing and Paddleboarding, Yoga sessions, and the 5 Rhythms.  There were challenges navigating the world of Covid precautions and of course the weather, but for those of us who know Samish it so was great to be back, and our new people were wide eyed with amazement at our retreat space.  One of them will be coming to Samish Reunion with her grandson, and a group of women intend to make the Nature and Nurture retreat an annual event.

Back to the ‘invitation’.   If you’ve ever felt like inviting a friend to one of our Community of Christ events is pressuring them, I want you to re-think that and remember how it feels to be the one who is invited.  Community of Christ members have a history of being invitational and we truly are a welcoming community.  Let’s remember that. And remember that during covid many people have been lonely and are searching for a place to belong.  Let’s not miss this opportunity to make wonderful new friends and welcome them into our community whether it’s a retreat, a zoom session, a Creating Connection activity, online church or in-person church. 

To learn more about advertising on meetup.com or Eventbrite or other social media platforms, please contact me,  debra@creatingconnection.ca or toll free 1-877-411-2632 ext 4. This is YOUR invitation.
​
Debra Donohue
Creating Connection Director