Words of Blessing

In the auditorium with our Polynesian fellow church members.  “Bonding!” There are so many words that have such deep meaning to me that will not mean the same to you.   That said, I might think of them in a new way when I hear words of Blessing at conference.

Sunday morning, Fred Robbins lead our Pray and Share time.  He gave us one word to contemplate - “Awesome”.  The sharing was …awesome!  Betty Williams shared about receiving an unexpected gift in the mail, a book with one word on it -“Gratitude”. Betty is looking forward to filling the book.  Bob Riley was in charge of the next service - “Communion”.  A service we all shared in.
 
“Encourage” is the word I like.  I want to encourage you to ask yourself and others to send “Words” in to Karin Peter - Words of Blessing.  Think about words that you are drawn to, ask those around you about a word they would think was “encouraging”.  Different people have different words and I plan to ask all ages about a single word that they like, that brings them joy or makes them wonder.
 
Send WORDS to Karin Peter - Words of Blessing c/o World Conference Directors, 1001 W. Walnut St., Independence, MO, USA  64050. Or you can email your WORDS to kpeter@cofchrist.org. Please use “words of blessing” in the subject line.
 
Just a last thought,  what do you think of when someone greets you with “Aloha”... great images for me!

​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

At this retreat, we’ll learn self-care techniques to help ourselves, and to aid the caregiver in each of us, which we all are in someway or another. We’ll look at ways to ensure we don’t take on the pain and baggage of the people we care for, how not to burn out, how to ensure our cup is full so we have something to offer others, and simple practices to de-stress, find meaning in our lives, be joyful, and pamper ourselves.

Debra Donohue
Creating Connection Director Canada West

Letter to Canadian Saints

I Arthur, one of you, just like you, called to serve Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to all of you, not just for you, but flowing through you as a blessing to others, to all communities.

As I write, at the start of this new year, I remember all of you fondly, thinking of times we’ve shared and picturing places you are and situations you face.

My prayer, for you, at the start of this year, with all the joys and promises ahead, is that the Holy Spirit will do what I’ve always known it to do, meeting each of us and all of us and everyone mysteriously as needed.

In the middle of exile,
In a time of despair,
May the Spirit of hope shine through
So we see ways out of hopelessness with hope our beacon and our proclamation.

In a time of joy and celebration,
When all our needs seem met,
May the Spirit illumine and remind us of those in need on the margins
So we hear voices and understand the perspectives of others.

May we lift up and care.
Outside forces and our own weaknesses,
Lead so many to see the church as irrelevant
Or as an instrument of hate and harm, exclusion and injustice.
But the mission of Jesus Christ remains.

It’s not just some external promise of things that God will do,
as if by magic in some future, decades away.
YOU are a gift.
YOU are to be a light to the world.
YOU are to open the eyes of the blind, to release the prisoners.

See through the fog of fear and hate.
The mission of the church is not irrelevant, hateful or harmful.
Your mission, this year, where you are, is to participate in
Release from demonization, marginalization, poverty and all sorts of captivity.

Everyone is invited in,
To participate in this purposeful project.
How it happens will be as diverse and varied as the two or three of you who gather to support each other,
to dream and to plan.

No person abandoned.
All invited to participate.
No matter if you live in uncertainty, decline of your community, or despair.
May this be our mission, their liberation and our liberation. All at once.

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 last year:
​

• Margaret Looysen, Regina, SK-January 14, 2022
• Gwyneth Beer (nee Willis), Chilliwack, BC-May 3, 2022
• Norman Roy, Regina, SK-May 6, 2022
• Marvel Riley, Chilliwack, BC-June 15, 2022
• Lillian Ida Perkins, Wainwright, AB (Ribstone Congregation)-June 22, 2022
• Liron Jukes Jenkins, Edmonton Congregation-July 19, 2022
• Dwayne Alan Skoye, Edmonton Congregation-July 29, 2022
• Dianne Schiissler, Saskatoon, SK-December 17, 2022
• Gail Mathilda Ungstad, Edmonton Congregation-December 23, 2022
• Looi Bourgonje, Porcupine Plain, SK-December 28, 2022

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

​Written by Kat Goheen
Canada West Mission Centre Co-President

I have always been captivated by the story of the wise and foolish virgins in Matthew 25. They all wanted to go to the wedding, they all showed up at the right place, but only half of them had enough oil to get them through the night when the call came. The others were sympathetic, but firm: the foolish ones needed to go find another supply! They ended up missing the big event, even with the best of intentions!

​Discernment and action are two key ways of not being a foolish one – being aware of what’s needed and then following that knowing into right action. Right now there are some wonderful opportunities: the Nurturing Spirit retreat in Chilliwack, BC, the Discernment Facilitator course through Graceland Seminary, being a delegate at World Conference for Canada West, zoom and congregational discussions of resolutions for World Conference. But the clock is ticking! This is a good moment to count the cost and stop long enough to sense into what God might be calling you into right now in the midst of your daily life. Let’s have enough oil so that our wick doesn’t burn out. Let’s move fluently into God’s preferred future.

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

Dear Friends,
 
As Christmas draws near we are reminded of what a gift each of you are to the Canada West Mission Centre. We wanted to share with you a few photos from our homes as we await the birth again of the Christ child in our hearts and lives.

And from Joyce Rupp we share these words:
​
"May you daily open the gift of your life and be grateful for the hidden treasures it contains….
May you go often to the Bethlehem of your heart and visit the One who offers you peace. May you bring this peace into our world.”

​With peace,
Gwyn, Kat, and Shannon
gwyn@communityofchrist.ca
​kat@communityofchrist.ca
smcadam@communityofchrist.ca

​​Click on the video above to watch A Christmas Greeting from your Mission Centre President team, and an invitation to gather.

Click on the button below to see our calendar of events for 2023.

Third Advent week of Joy

A good friend of mine from our Community of Christ Spiritual Formation and Companioning Program built this labyrinth at her home in Lamoni, Iowa during our three years training together. Even looking at this image gives me such grounding! In a labyrinth, I journey physically toward the centre but also spiritually to my own centre. I love how Harriet placed a representation of the Christ child at the heart of her labyrinth during the Christmas season. This reminds me that when I journey within, I do not journey alone but toward the transformative source of life who loves me beyond measure.

“Let every heart prepare him room!”

​Let this reminder bring you joy as well!

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

Hope

“Hope is the thing with feathers” says poet Emily Dickinson, to which poet Caitlin Seida replies “Hope Is Not a Bird, Emily, It’s a Sewer Rat” , to which I reply  “Caitlin, have you met seagulls?” 

Hope, I’ve learned, has a sense of humour.
 
In October I attended an online retreat for contemplatives where the theme was Hope. We talked about both of the poems above, as well as where the idea of where hope comes from, and what different traditions teach about hope. Advent, we often say, is a season of hope. Hope for what is to come, a sense of anticipation for what is about to happen, the promise of a pregnancy, looking towards the unknown with some optimism.
 
The most interesting thing I find myself returning to from that retreat is the idea that hope, while a verb, isn’t necessarily something that we have to do or strive for. Instead, hope finds us. Like that bird or sewer rat or sky rat (aka seagull), hope shows up when we least expect it, it appears out of nowhere, and hope’s resilience leaves an impression on our souls. Hope, it turns out, (or Elpis as she was known to the Greeks) was hidden in an unbreakable home just under the rim of Pandora’s jar. (Did you know Pandora opened a jar, not a box?! I only learned this recently, so fascinating!) In Pandora’s story all that was left after the bad things escaped was hope, stuck under the rim, unbreakable, tucked away at the threshold.

Hope, it turns out, will find you when you have come to your limit. Hope will find you when you live on the brink (Monika testifies of this beautifully in a recent Herald article here). Hope will find you when you are inside of a threshold, when you are in a transition.

Hope requires nothing of us except to be open to her when she appears. Hope rarely shows up in the way we want or expect it to. The Hope of the World certainly did not come to Mary, a young, unmarried, woman in an expected way.
 
So I invite you to be alert and awake to hope this season, for it may catch you unaware. You don’t need to go seeking out hope, you don’t need to clench your jaw and grit your teeth to be hopeful. Instead, trust that hope is there, waiting in the alleyway or inside the brim of that burnt pot of mashed potatoes. Hope will surprise and delight you, just like a baby king did over 2000 years ago.

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

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)

​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