Minister's Annual Report...

 

Celebrating the gifts of the Spirit,
we are a loving and supportive congregation

in service to the Church, the Community, and the World through Faith

Do you recognize those words? They are from our congregational Vision Statement. I believe that Vision Statements do two things. They describe both who we think we are and who we want to be (or more theologically, who we are called to be). I also believe that Vision and Mission Statements are meaningless if we never look at them, reflect on them, and ask how they intersect with what we are actually doing. So as you read through this Annual Report I encourage you to ask yourself how you see the words of our Vision and Mission Statements (which you can find printed out at the beginning of this booklet) lived out in these pages.

Everything you see in these reports, everything you see when you come in for Sunday worship, everything you see when taking part in the communal life of St. Paul’s is made possible because many people have worked together to make it happen. People have given money. People have dreamed and planned and facilitated events. People have attended and supported. Everything that happens in this community happens because of this community. Thank you all for making this place what it is.

• thank you to Ministry Team members
• thank you to readers and greeters and communion servers
• thank you to those who prepare and serve coffee each Sunday
• thank you to those who deliver newsletters, who connect and check in on community members
• thank you to all who faithfully give via envelopes or e-transfers or PAR
• thank you to those who are intentional about greeting visitors and newcomers
• thank you to those who share their musical gifts
• thank you to those who help other events happen (from Garage Sale to Concerts to Coffee parties)
• thank you for all those other things I have forgotten as I made up this list

Together we live out our Vision Statement. Together we make this community the place we love, a place where we feel loved and supported. Thank You Thank You, and in case you missed it – THANK YOU.

The past year has had its ups and its downs. We have said good bye to active and vital members of the community, even as we have celebrated their lives and given thanks for the gifts that they shared. We have carefully watched our local givings even as we celebrate the added income form Card’s which has led us to another 5 digit surplus. We have shared dreams about what we could maybe possibly do even as we have been forced to acknowledge that maybe we have less energy and fewer volunteers to do what we dream. I wonder what your highlights and lowlights of the past year have been? Maybe we can find a way to share some of those at the Annual Meeting this year?

One of the purposes of an Annual Report, in my mind at least, is also to look ahead. What do we need to do to continue to grow into the community described in our Vision Statement? How do we move beyond existing into thriving, how do we become a more vibrant voice for God’s Beloved Community in Grande Prairie. As I ask myself those questions I think back a couple of years to the report from the Pathfinders group. That report highlighted the need for intentionally marketing ourselves to the community, making St. Paul’s better known. It is an issue that comes up repeatedly in churches. We tend to say “this needs to happen” but are not sure how to do it or are lacking the tools/confidence/know-how to make it happen. Your Council has agreed to have someone come to talk with us about marketing questions. It is my hope that we can find a way to light our light shine more brightly. It is my hope that as we do that we can more boldly invite others to come and check us out, to see if we are a community where they too find a spiritual home.

For the last few years General Council has encouraged us to live into this vision:

Called by God, as disciples of Jesus, The United Church of Canada seeks to be a bold, connected, evolving church of diverse, courageous, hope-filled communities united in deep spirituality, inspiring worship, and daring justice.

In the Toward 2035 initiative (https://united-church.ca/toward2035) launched last year we are encouraged to imagine:

In The United Church of Canada, inspired, resilient, and diverse contextual communities of disciples seek to continue the story of Jesus by embodying Christ’s presence in the world. The church is present and deeply connected coast-to-coast-to-coast in rural and urban settings, and in ecumenical and global relationships. Guided by hope-filled, adaptive and effective ministry leaders, the denomination is increasingly multigenerational, multiracial, and intercultural.

As a part of that national vision may we be Deep, Bold, and Daring in 2026 and beyond, God being our helper and guide.
--Gord

Lent Newsletter -- Deep Spirituality

 Let us start with a story...

Jane looked at the time. Listed office hours were over. There was nobody else in the building. With a deep sigh she pulled out her phone, turned it off and put it back in her pocket. Then she stood up and made her way to the sanctuary.

There Jane turned on the sound system and started playing some gentle instrumental music. Then she turned off all the lights, letting the space soak on the sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows, and made her way to the chancel. Jane flipped open the big Bible on the communion table till she found the passage she was looking for. She read it aloud into the empty space, letting the words resound off the walls, then she flipped open the book of poetry she had brought from the office and read aloud one of her favourite pieces. As the last line of the poem echoed across the room Jane set the poetry down and sat silently in the choir loft.

4 or 5 minutes later she stood up and made her way down the chancel steps. Slowly, reflectively, even meditatively, Jane started weaving her way through the rows of seats. Carefully she passed between the rows, back and forth, like it was a very basic labyrinth. As she walked Jane allowed her mind to drift. For a while she reflected on the passage she had just read. For a while she replayed the poem. Then she started to quietly murmur words of prayer. Finally she fell silent and walked on, down one side of the sanctuary then back up the other, until she found herself standing again at the foot of the chancel steps.

There Jane settled into the front pew. She sat with her eyes closed, letting the music flow over her, silently lifting up her joys, her worries, her confusions, her hopes to the Holy One.

Suddenly she heard the church door slam and a cluster of voices in the hall, calling out her name. Then a group of people, the Social Committee, burst into the sanctuary. “Oh good! You aren’t busy!” the chair called out. “We need to have a quick meeting to discuss next month’s pancake supper!”

Jane grimaced. Then, as calmly as she could, she said: “Actually I am in the middle of something. If you go to the library I can join you in about 15 minutes.” The group left (though she could hear some grumbling as they went) and Jane tried to find that quiet calm place from which she had been dragged. But alas the moment was gone. She gathered up her book, turned off the sound system, grabbed what she needed from the office and joined the group in the library.

The next day there was a phone call from the chair of the personnel committee. They were concerned that when a group of people had come in (unannounced) and asked to talk Jane had made them wait even though she had clearly had only been resting in the sanctuary. Jane explained that she was working, she was doing the work she needed to be ready to serve, she was taking care of her Spirit. The call ended with a rather brusque “Well don’t let it happen again”.

....................

Back in 2022 the General Council released new vision and mission statements. Embedded in those were three pairs of words: Deep Spirituality, Bold Discipleship, Daring Justice. We were all invited to embrace those ideals as ways we live out our Christian faith. This year our newsletters will invite us to reflect on them. As it happens I have also chosen them as the launching points for three of our Sundays in Lent this year.

We start with the most foundational piece – Deep Spirituality. This is, in my mind, what we build on if we are to be bold disciples. It is what gives us the courage to dare and take risks for justice (as I write these words I think of the people of Minnesota where dozens of clergy were arrested this weekend as part of protests against the terror inducing activities of ICE). As people of faith we are invited and encourage to intentionally take time and sink into God’s presence. As people of faith we feed our spirits/souls to allow us to live out our faith.

Christopher Grundy has a song called By the Stream. Within that song are these lyrics (I think inspired by Psalm 1)

“Blessed are those who trust in God

they will be like a tree by the water
and sending out its roots by the Stream”

Listening to the song, reflecting on those lyrics reminds me of the importance of attending to our spiritual needs. There we get nourishment. There we get what we need to be able to live out our faith.

The story about Jane up above is a work of fiction. It started writing itself in my head a couple of days ago. It is not a “names changed to protect the innocent” thing it never happened to anyone I know. In fact it is based on an old joke about the minister in their study praying and someone comes in and says “oh good you aren’t busy”. I just expanded it a bit. But the story (and the old joke) tells us a lot about how we sometimes see the work involved in deep spirituality.

Sometimes we see those quiet, “non-productive” times as less important, a thing that can be knocked off the calendar in favour of more important “productive” work. With all the important things to do can we really take time to sit quietly, or walk along the creek, or watch the birds, or sing random hymns? I think we have to. I think that when we don’t take that time it is so much harder to keep doing the “important” things.

As people of faith our guidance and strength comes from God. If we don’t attend to our spiritual health, if we don’t sink deep into God’s presence and love we suffer. We might become exhausted. We might lose hope. We might start to think it all depends on us. Deep Spirituality may not always prevent such things but it can help avoid them, it can help us recover when they hit.

I close with one of my favourite verses, one that I have used as a bit of a mantra at times to sink into God’s presence: “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)

To Ponder, PErchance to Dream --Christmas Eve 2025

(Cross posted to Worship Offerings )

And Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart”
In her heart, not just thinking them over, she pondered them in her heart. The place where dreams and hopes live. The core of our being. That is where these things she had heard and experienced rested. Her heart.

What did Mary ponder that night? As she lay there exhausted in that place where animals usually slept, looking at her newborn child in that manger ,what ran through her mind, heart, and soul. As the baby woke and cried out, as she picked him up and began to nurse, what was she seeing, thinking, feeling, hoping?

Did she wonder what the future would be like? Had she, like many parents before and since, spent the last 9 months dreaming about the life her child would live? Now that the child was here did she listen to the story that the shepherds babbled about angels and a message from God about a Saviour and wonder what that meant for her son? Did it make her hopeful or worried?

Or maybe she thought back to that day back in Nazareth. Was it only 9 months ago? That day when suddenly Gabriel appeared and told her she was favoured. He had told her that this would be a special child, one who would regain the throne of her ancestor David. Mary had not known what to do, this couldn’t be right, she questioned Gabriel and then agreed to the offer. But maybe a seed had been planted in her heart. Is that where the dream began?

Maybe she then thought of the hurried trip to see Elizabeth. She had to get away from the rumours and sideways glances, had to find a place of safety. Elizabeth was family, was married to a priest, and lived far away. That would be a safe place. Did her thoughts drift to the day she arrived and Elizabeth told of her child leaping and dancing with joy at the mere approach of Mary and the baby growing in her belly?

Maybe the pondering landed on the song that came to Mary’s lips that day. The song of power and defiance and hope. The dream of a world renewed and reborn. The dream that her child would bring healing, liberation, and freedom. The dream that God was at work in turning the tables, turning the world upside down through this child that she carried. Somehow Mary just knew it to be true. This little being that was turning and swimming in her womb would do all those things. It was more than a dream or a hope, it was a promise. Now that the child was here did her ears ring with that song once again? Did she sing it to him now, just as she had sung it to him so many times before?

Had she been there when Elizabeth’s son was born? Had she been there that day when John was named and Zechariah found his voice again? Had she listened to his song of hope and promise about John and about another, a saviour who would come? Listening to that song may well have deepened the dreams about the child. The dream wasn’t only hers...

Or maybe there was another side to the pondering. Maybe Mary remembered the dream, the hope, the promise and then compared it to what she knew of the world. Would the dream survive in the midst of imperial power? She knew what that power could do. She had seen the legions in action. Would Rome step aside as the dream came true?

What did Mary ponder as she held her newborn son to her chest, listening to his breathing?

I think she saw the hope. I think that she looked back on all that had happened over those last 9 months and remembered every moment. I am sure that like so many other parents-to-be she had spent many a night dreaming about her child. I think that in those sleepless nights when it was so hard to get comfortable she thought about what Gabriel had said, what she had sung, remembering many long talks with Elizabeth about the future, whispering and singing to her belly, sharing the hope and dream with her unborn child, and now she looked at that child and saw all those hopes and promises reflected in his eyes.

Then she would come to the present. The long journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the arrival in a town bursting at the seams, the beginnings of the labour pains even as it became obvious that nobody had any room, the grateful acceptance of a space in the lower level of a house because the guest room was full, the pain of childbirth, and the surprise of shepherds bursting in with their story. And she pondered it all, seeing the dream and the hope, a dream and hope that the shepherd’s story seemed to reinforce. I want to think that Mary held the dream high and pondered how the world could be so much better because of this small child gently nursing in her arms.

And now, 2000 years later we sit and listen to the story again. We too are invited to ponder all these things in our hearts. We too are invited to share the dream.

What do we ponder here tonight? What dreams do we bring with us to this Christmas Eve?

I think our Christmas dreams have much in common with Mary’s. I think that after all these years the dream of God re-ordering the world, of God bringing peace and justice to God’s children still resonates among people of faith. The world sometimes seems like a broken place. There is much that could be better. Christmas invites us to dream of the ‘better’.

The Christmas promise carries with it many dreams. The birth of a child always makes us dream about the future, the birth of this child also makes us dream about the present. At Christmas God breaks into the here and now, the promises are for a Jewish peasant family 2000 years ago, for us here and now, for those who will come after us.

The birth of Jesus awakens hope in our lives. Hope that drives out despair. In a world where bad news and violence and division seems to rule the day Christmas wakes us up to possibility. We are people of hope, we dream of a world where hope is stronger than despair.

One of the titles Jesus is given is the Prince of Peace. Our Christmas dream is of the “time foretold when peace shall over all the earth it’s ancient splendours fling”. We dream of a transformed world where weapons of war are turned into tools of peace, where “they shall not hurt or destroy on all God’s holy mountain”.

A traditional Jewish song says “Joy shall come even to the wilderness...deserts like a garden blossom”. The old carol proclaims “Joy to the World, the Lord is come!”. Our Christmas dream involves Joy. In the dry places of our lives, where joy seems distant or impossible Christmas reminds us of the God who shares our lives intimately, the God who is always with us. We sink into deep trust and find Joy in God’s deepest presence. We dream of Joy blossoming in the world like the desert after a rain.

Love came down at Christmas, Christina Rossetti once wrote. Love was born at Christmas. The idea of Emmanuel, God-With-Us taking on human flesh and walking among us sounds like a dream. The idea of Love taking on human form and moving in the world is a dream, a dream of the God who is actively leading us to love each other as we have been loved. Our Christmas Dream includes remembering how deeply we are loved by God.

Mary dreamed that her child would transform the world. Mary dreamed of a time of peace and justice and renewal. All these centuries later we still share her dream. We ponder the promises of the story. We dream a dream, a hopeful dream that leads us to live as renewed people, people of hope, people building peace, people singing for joy, people actively loving our neighbours.

Keep dreaming my friends. As we listen to the angel song ringing through the sky keep dreaming of all that this night promises: Peace on the Earth, Good will to all. Christ is Born, Alleluia! Amen.

Advent Pastoral Letter

We wait for God, creation longs to see a new day dawn.

And though the night is dark and deep, we dare to sing our song...
We watch for God, the earth cries out, “Will violence ever cease?”
he one who saw the signs is seen in ways that make for peace.
(from “We Wait for God” by William Kervin, #57 in Then Let Us Sing)

Friends in Christ,
Grace, peace, hope and love be with you as we move into another Advent Season.

Every year I am struck by the circular nature of the church year. We move from the last Sunday of the year where we name that the Reign of God is a reality growing in our midst directly into the Advent time of preparation and waiting for God to break into the world as a newborn baby.

There is a passage in Isaiah that is sometimes used on the first Sunday of Advent (we often hear from Isaiah in our Advent waiting and preparing). It begins “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence” (Isaiah 64:1). Some years I feel that prayer more acutely than others. This is one of those years. From Alberta to Chicago to Ukraine to Gaza and so many other places there is much that needs to be set right with the world. It would be nice if God were to break into the world and cause some speedy transformation in how the world works.

We are promised that in the birth of Jesus God is doing just that. When we wait and prepare in Advent it is not just to remember a birth long ago and far away it is also to remember that Christ continues to be born, that God continues to come to us bringing hope and peace, joy and love. Advent means that God is coming, coming to transform us, to change the world, Glory to God in the Highest! And on Earth Peace.

For now we watch and we wait. We light candles and we sing songs and we pray. But primarily we watch and wait. We open our hearts and souls so that we might recognize what God is up to around us. We name the troubles we see near and far and we join creation in longing for a new day, we cry out with the rest of the earth, we dare to sing our songs.

There are traditions that go with this annual time of watching and waiting and preparing. For many many years one of our traditions has been to gather with the CGIT for their Vespers Service. Though CGIT has come to its end the Vespers Service continues as a group of Alumnae have gotten together to welcome us to worship with them at 7:30 on November 30^th. The theme for the service this year is Faces of Joy. All are welcome.

Another tradition of the Christmas season is that we stretch out and think of the community around us. This year the Social Justice and Affirming Ministry Team (SJAM) is encouraging us to make extra donations to our Local Outreach Fund. This fund allows us to support our neighbours in times of need. It allows that when one of our partner agencies phones the office and says “we have a client who needs some help” we can respond with a voucher for groceries. Every day I drive past the Salvation Army building and see a line of people waiting for the Food Bank to open. There are so many of our neighbours who are struggling, let us do what we can to be the hands and face of Christ in Grande Prairie. SJAM is also reminding us all that the Salvation Army Christmas Kettle campaign is in need of volunteers to staff the kettles.

Dream a dream, a hopeful dream, as children do on Christmas Eve,

imaginings, surprising things to hold and to believe
Dream a gift, the Christmas gift that changes every thing we see:
the shimmering of angel wing, the Child, the Mystery.
(from “Dream a Dream” by Sheila Erena Murray, #158 in More Voices)

In a world where the news is so often nightmarish it is good to dream. I think that dreaming is a big part of how we, as Christians watch and wait for God. Dreaming can be, I believe, a big part of how God shares their vision for what the world could be. With that in mind the theme for my Advent sermons this year is The Christmas Dream. What dreams has God planted in Scripture as we prepare for Christ to be born? What dreams spring up in your heart and soul as you think of Christmas? Sometimes it feels like Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love are just dreams for the world. What might it look like if those dreams came true? I invite you to dream along with me this season. Our Christmas Eve celebration will be at 8:00 and we will probably talk some more about dreams that night.

I close this year’s letter with a piece of news. United Church ministry personnel are encouraged to take time for rest and renewal. After a few years of encouragement from the St. Paul’s Ministry and Personnel Team I have decided, with their agreement, that is it time to take a Sabbatical Leave. I last did this in 2016 to mark 15 years since I was ordained, so in 2026 I will do the same to mark a quarter century in ministry. Between three months of leave and the normal month of vacation I will be off from May 8-September 8. Look for more details in the New Year.

I look forward to you joining us during the Advent and Christmas season. If it is a challenge to join us in person, all our worship events are also streamed on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@st.paulsunitedgrandeprairie).

Have a Blessed Advent and Christmas Season!

For the Advent Newsletter

Dream a dream, a hopeful dream...

Dream a time, this Christmas time...
Dream a peace, our planet’s peace...
Dream a gift, the Christmas Gift
that changes everything we see...
(Words from Dream a Dream by Shirley Erena Murray, #158 in More Voices)

We are entering the time of preparation and waiting we call Advent. Four weeks of lighting candles and preparing our hearts for the birth of a baby who will change the world. As we get ourselves ready for Emmanuel, God-With-Us to be born what dreams fill your heart, soul and mind this year? What does Christmas need to bring for the magic of The Word becoming flesh to re-energize your world as we move into 2026?

Dreams are important, they help us envision a world renewed and re-vitalized. Dreams remind us that there is another possible reality. In our faith stories dreams are often a way that God communicates with God’s people (it happens 4 times just in the first 2 chapters of Matthew!). What dreams has God placed on your soul this year?

This year as we gather on the four Sundays of Advent I invite us to be open to the power of dreams. The theme I have chosen for the season is The Christmas Dream:____. Each Sunday we will finish the phrase with one of our Advent themes: Awakened Hope, Transformative Peace, Blosoming Joy, and Embodied Love. Sometime between now and then I will figure out how we might finish the phrase for Christmas Eve itself. When you think of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love what dreams stir in your heart?

The weeks leading into Christmas can get very busy and hectic, but let’s take time to pause and listen. Let us dream together. Let us share our dreams with each other. May we be open to how God is speaking to our hearts and minds as we prepare for God to change the world by becoming one of us, to walk around among us. In 4 weeks a baby will be born. We will sing carols and remember shepherds and angels. Hope, peace, joy and love will break into our lives again. Life can be a dream. Dream along with me.
--Gord

For the Next Newsletter

It is October 28, 2025. My heart is heavy. My outrage is bubbling. To be honest I don’t know how to write about Gentleness today.

Between the draconian and undemocratic ending to the Alberta teachers strike, the prospect of millions of US citizens losing access to financial support for food through SNAP, the real possibility that ethnic cleansing will continue in Palestine, news of a category 5 hurricane set to ravage Jamaica, and whatever other troubling things might pass under my eyes today my heart is heavy.

How do we respond to all the {expletive deleted} that comes flying at us these days? How do we remain gentle and meek in the face of injustice and unfairness and suffering? Some days I think the better question is “should we remain gentle and meek?”...

In the end I think we should. I think we are called to respond passionately but gently. I think we are called to find a different path. We follow the one who told his followers to love their enemies, to turn the other cheek, to put away their sword. Jesus reminds us that there is the way the world usually works and there is the way the Reign of God works – and we are called to strive for the second one.

Which does not mean it will always be easy.

Maybe part of the problem lies in what we often think it means to be gentle. Maybe it is only me (though I guess I am not alone) but to be gentle carries with it the idea of letting others walk all over you. It suggests remaining calm and not getting worked up, not calling people out, not engaging in conflict. Certainly it seems idealistic and naive to suggest that we respond to the violence of the world with gentleness and expect to make a difference. In all of this I think I am wrong.

To be gentle does not mean we can’t be passionate or forceful or just accept things as ‘that’s just the way it is’. To be gentle is about how we are passionate and forceful about what we believe to be right. To be gentle means following the path of a Mahatma Gandhi or Dr. Martin Luther King. To be gentle is to model a different way of changing the world rather than letting the world change us.

We know that the world is not what it could (or should?) be. There are things that will make us rage. There are things that will make us weep. There are things that call for us to stand in the breach and protect the vulnerable in our midst. Do all those things. Be passionate about what it means to love. Be forceful about how we should live. But also be gentle. Be loving. Don’t let the violence of the world lead you to counter with violence. May God help us to live lives filled with all the flavours of the fruit of the Spirit.
Gord

FAll Newsletter

 What do these things have in common???

• You are in a hurry, running late for an important meeting and somebody is driving really slow in front of you. You run out of patience and want to lean on the horn.

• Your favourite football player announces he is engaged to some singer (or maybe favourite singer engaged to some football player?) and in your excitement you want to scream and dance.

• Scrolling through Facebook one day you see a post from someone in your extended family that seems pretty racist. Do you bother to engage and offer a different point of view?

• With a deep sigh you read the news and discover that yet another government announcement has come out with an idea that you find so aggravating you want to throw your phone against the wall.

• A close friend gives you wonderful news but then says “don’t tell anybody else”. You are so happy for them you can barely keep it in.

• Your young child is insisting “me do!” but it is taking forever and the mess keeps growing...

The common thread? All are opportunities to practice the virtue of self-control. I am sure that given a chance you could think of a multitude of other examples when that opportunity has passed your way.

I am also sure that, like me, you can admit that your record of embracing the chance for self-control is mixed at best.

Paul lists self-control as one of the flavours of the Fruit of the Spirit. In some ways I think this is one of the most challenging, and judging from some of Paul’s letters (looking at you Corinth) I suspect Paul found that many people had issues with self-control as well. In fact when I think of Paul’s lament in Romans 7:19 “For I do not do the good I want but the evil I do not want is what I do” I suspect Paul found himself struggling with self-control from time to time.

Why is self-control an important part of living out our faith? I mean I can see why it is important for keeping us employed, or married, or out of jail but where does faith tie in? In a world where, more and more, we are encouraged to “just be yourself” why not just do that?

I think it is an act of love, the predominant flavour of the Fruit of the Spirit. Practising self-control is about pausing and asking ourselves if our automatic reaction is the most helpful, the most encouraging, the most appropriate, the most loving. We may end up doing that thing anyway, self-control does not automatically mean self-denial, but at least we have stopped to reflect on our actions and made a conscious choice. We may even find that we are moved to a more constructive action than our initial knee-jerk response.

I encourage all of us to think before we act. I encourage all of us to ask if what we are about to do or say will help accomplish the building of a loving community or will it just tick people off. Will we make a difference or just blow off steam (and if the latter will it hurt someone else in the process)? Is this event so important that we have to respond? What might the Jesus we meet in the Gospels encourage us to do in this circumstance?

In everything we do, in every situation we face, we are called to act lovingly, to love our neighbour, enemy, family member and friend. Over and over in life we are challenged to keep what is truly important in view and not be distracted by the shiny or the loud. Self-control helps us to do just that. We won’t always get it right, but we are encouraged, challenged, called to keep trying.

But I have to admit that sometimes those knee-jerk reactions (however unhelpful or immature they may be) do feel really good – in the moment. Sometimes what feels good is not what is right. May God help us all to know which is which.
--Gord

More SUmmer Newsletter -- Centennial Thoughts

 A church with the soul of a nation. That was the dream of the founders, or at least one of the dreams of the founders of this thing we call the United Church of Canada.

100 years ago the hard work of negotiating, cajoling, debating and voting of many years came to fruition. A project that had been started before the Great War was finally seeing a product. Not a final product, that still is yet to be, but a product – a new denomination, a truly Canadian experiment, a church that would help guide the nation as it grew and developed. There was, in the hearts of its supporters and advocates, great joy and hope as they gathered at the Mutual Street Arena for the inaugural service.

There are many books and articles about our history as a denomination. There are many other stories that have been shared but not yet made it into a book. There are stories of times when we did seem to help shape the soul of the nation. There are stories about times when we became too much a part of the standard operating policies of the nation (Indian Residential Schools for example) when in hindsight we maybe should have stood stronger to shape that soul in a different way. There are stories of times we heard the Holy Spirit lead us into more inclusion and widening the circle and there are stories of times when we were afraid of the circle widening and fought against it – often on the same issues.

We have not been a perfect church. But I believe that we have grown and changed over the years.

The United Church that turns 100 this year is a wholly different church than the one that was birthed (after many years of gestation and hard labour) in the arena in Toronto in 1925. Then the hope was that we would be the mainstay of Protestantism in the nation, that we would be a national church helping to shape the nation. We would be at or near the center. Now we are much more out at the margins. We see our role of shaping the soul of the nation in different ways than assuming the Prime Minister would take a phone call from the Moderator and listen to his advice. But we are still here. We are still a voice (even if sometimes it feels like a voice in the wilderness) calling our neighbours to share the vision revealed in Scripture, the vision of a new heaven and a new earth.

Many months ago I sent out an e-mail asking if we wanted to host something big to mark the centennial. One response I got back was that people might find it depressing to remember the church that was once so vibrant shrinking so much. I have heard similar things expressed many times over the course of my ministry. We have had our ups and downs (though as a percentage of the Canadian population we have in fact been shrinking since the 1930’s) but we are still here. A prayer I wrote for the 85^th anniversary named that there were people wondering might be left for the 100^th. We are still here. Different, smaller, less powerful but still here. How will we continue to help shape our society going forward?

This morning (well this morning on the day I am writing this – not on the day the newsletter comes out) I was starting to create an image of how we would mark the centennial in worship. On May 25^th I am inviting us to look back at who we have been thus far, the good and the bad, the triumphs and the disasters, the celebrations and the divides. On June 8^th, Pentecost Sunday, as we gather at the amphitheater at Lake Saskatoon I am inviting us to listen for where the Holy Spirit might be leading us next.

How would you tell the story of the United Church in your life? What will we pass to the generations who follow us?

--Gord

Summer Newsletter Submission

 Faithfulness. What does that mean? How does one measure it?

I think faithfulness is one of those words where we just “know what it means” without giving it a lot of pause. We know it when we see it. We know when it has been violated.

For me faithfulness is closely linked with trust and trustworthiness. To be faithful is to show trust and also to keep trust. In fact I am sure that with out trust faithfulness becomes almost impossible. Without trust we are always hedging our bets, always making back-up plans, expecting to be disappointed, Nothing about that is faithfulness – unless the faith you have is that the other will disappoint/fail you.

In his book The Heart of Christianity the late Marcus Borg talks about faith as the way of the heart. He suggests that in the life of church people we sometimes think faith (as in making a faith statement) means giving intellectual assent to a statement or doctrine or dogma. This makes faith, and faithfulness, about how we think. Borg suggests, and I tend to agree, that this takes us in the wrong direction. At its heart, Christianity is an invitation to follow a way of living, not an invitation to subscribe to a particular set of philosophical statements. It is a matter of the heart more than a matter of the head.

When we trust in God we can be faithful. When we trust that God is with us faithfulness follows. It allows us to relax into the arms of God, not because we think God will make everything right but simply because we know those arms will always be there. We trust in God who is trustworthy so we can have faith.

Faithfulness as a matter of the heart also links, in my mind, with words like commitment, loyalty, and allegiance. Where we are faithful, where we put our faith and trust, shows where our true center is, it shows what pole we use to ground ourselves, what we orbit around. To be faithful to the God we meet in Jesus is to center ourselves on the teachings of Jesus, to ground ourselves in the promise of Resurrection life (and that in abundance). We are most faithful to those things and people that are most important to us. To be faithful is to be loyal and committed. When God, known as Parent, Son and Spirit, holds our primary allegiance then we can not help but remain faithful to The Way Jesus lays out, the path that he invites us to follow. When something or someone else claims our primary allegiance we fall prey to idolatry, we wander from the path. We have trouble being faithful.

So why is faithfulness one of the overtones of the fruit of the spirit whose main flavour is love? I can think of a couple of reasons. One is that it sustains us, the trusting in God sustains, comforts, and emboldens us. Maybe when we sink into faithfulness we sink into a more healthy place, a place where we can feel the abundant life promised by Jesus. The other reason is that it keeps us grounded. Being faithful reminds us what we orbit around, what the center of our circle is, what is most important. Both of these flow out of the knowledge (or trust or even faith) that we are Beloved children of God. And then they help us to be loving children of God to everyone we meet.

WE are people of Faith, Hope, and Love. We are challenged to be faithful in all things. May God help us live into that reality.

--Gord

Minister's Annual Report

 Oh a song must rise for the spirit to descend. Oh a song must rise once again.

Singing out God's praises and glory, the faithful voices blend,
Oh a song must rise for the spirit to descend.
(Refrain from Oh a Song Must Rise,#142 More Voices, Written by Paul Svenson)

It always amazes me how the song we lift up changes over the years. 2 years ago as I sat down to write my Annual Report submission we had just had 3 consecutive years of 5 figure deficits – each bigger than the last – and I had to make plain the fact that the congregation was on an unsustainable path. This spurred a lot of discussion and not a small amount of angst. By the end of 2023 we felt forced to make drastic decisions and even last year at this when there was much better news to share there was still a sense of “what do we need to do to ensure our survival as a congregation” in the air.

This year, unless things have changed greatly from the first draft I saw, our financial statements will show a 5 figure surplus. Between 2022 and 2024 expenses have gone up but still the bottom line has turned around by something like $40 000. Where we were lifting up a song of anxiety we can now lift up a song of praise and thanksgiving. I find myself thinking of line in the old Chumbawumba song Tubtumping: “I get knocked down...but I get up again”.

There are a few factors that have led to this turn around (a really successful 2024 Garage Sale, the addition of Card’s as a renter to name two) but the biggest reason is YOU. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the people who gather together, of the people who make this a welcoming place for others to gather a difference has been made. Not only have our Envelope Givings (which include PAR and e-transfers) gone up but the demographics of the congregation are starting to change. When I look out on a Sunday morning I see a different crowd then I saw 5 years ago. Growth gets measured in a variety of ways, and I believe St. Paul’s is growing as a congregation.

So a big THANK YOU to all of you who have made this happen. Thanks for the many many volunteer hours you have put in. Thanks for holding the congregation in thought and prayer. Thanks for showing up even on those -30 degree Sunday mornings. Thanks for your dedication to this community, this family of faith.

From every house of worship, in every faith and tongue,

a song must rise once again.
From the villages and cities a new song must be sung,
a song must rise for the spirit to descend.
(Oh a Song Must Rise, verse 3)

In 2025 the United Church of Canada turns 100 (and this congregation turns 114). Nationally we are definitely not the same church we were in 1925 (or in 1950, or 1975 or 2000...). Locally we are not the same church we were when we gathered at the Elks hall to celebrate our own centennial in 2011. What kind of church will we be in the future? What song will we lift up? As the Spirit descends where might it lead us?

The road ahead has its challenges. Locally and nationally the United Church is not the powerhouse it once was. We definitely need to be open to new ways of living int to God’s call to be the church. Personally I think that includes some more intentional engagement with the digital world even as we continue to maintain traditional physical “real world” connections. We will likely need to find new ways of funding ministry, new partnerships. In 1940 the committee that created the Statement of Faith reminded us of the need for each generation to find its own way of declaring what it believes. I think that each generation also needs to find the best way to be the church, the gathered family of God in a fashion that meets the needs and styles of the world in which it lives.

In the end we don’t know where exactly the Spirit will lead (or drag) us. The future is always in flux. But I firmly believe the Grande Prairie in particular, and Canada in general, needs the unique expression of faith we call the United Church of Canada. I continue to find truth in the confidence shared by a former Conference Executive Secretary almost 20 years ago. He shared his belief that the United Church was the best tool for sharing the Good News of God in Canada today. We are not what we once were, we are not what we once dreamed we could become. We are smaller (though not yet leaner, that is still a work in progress). But we are not gone. I close this with some words of hope from the Rankin Family:

... as sure as the sunrise
As sure as the sea
As sure as the wind in the trees
We rise again in the faces
Of our children
We rise again in the voices of our song...
And then we rise again

May we continue to lift up our songs. May we continue to let the Spirit lead us. May we continue to rise up as God’s people, sharing God’s words of hope, of love, of promise as we live into a transformed world where God’s Reign is indeed known on earth as it is in heaven.
Gord

Advent Pastoral LEtter

 Advent candles burning bright
Gods love shown in flickering light
Love and Joy and Peace and Hope
It’s with God’s help that we can cope
Advent candles glowing fair
Driving out fear and despair

When the nights grow long and cold
Gods promise calls us to be bold
A promised child, with us to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
See the candles glowing there
Shining Gods love everywhere.
(Untitled poem ©November 2006 Rev. Gord Waldie, Atikokan ON)

November 25, 2024

Friends in Christ,
Grace, Peace and Advent Blessings to all of you!

All of a sudden another year has gone by and we are starting Advent again. Once again we enter the time of lighting candles and looking for Hope Peace Joy and Love in the world around us. Once again we sing the carols and tell the stories. Once again we await God breaking into the world in the form of a helpless infant. What will the Advent journey bring us this year? How might God surprise us in this time of waiting and preparing?

I don’t know. God tends to reveal them-self in ways we don’t expect after all. But some things I do know.

I know that we at St. Paul’s will continue to open the door (or maybe a window) to let God come in. I know that we will continue to welcome all God’s Beloved Children to join us in worship, either in person or via YouTube, as we light candles, explore the Advent themes, and remind ourselves that Jesus is coming. I know that the CGIT and Explorers once again invite us to join them for the Vespers service at 7:30 on December 1^st as a way to launch us into the Christmas Season. I know that on Christmas Eve many of us will gather in the sanctuary at 8:00 for a time of singing and storytelling as we celebrate the birth of the Word-Made-Flesh and hear again the words of the angel “for to you is born this night...a Saviour who is Christ the Lord”. These things I know. I just don’t know what God will do or reveal as we do all these things.

Like any community, we have traditions at St. Paul’s. One of our traditions is to highlight our Local Outreach Program during the Advent season. In the past this has meant collecting items to pass on to our partners. More recently we have made cash gifts to them. This year our Local Outreach fund has been a bit depleted which limited our options. We realized we could not support as many agencies as we had in the past. One of our long-time partners has been the Elders Caring Shelter and as they are an agency that tends to have less public support we decided that we would make a special appeal for funds to share with them. The other goal is to replenish the Local Outreach Fund so we can continue to provide grocery vouchers to our neighbours throughout the year. St. Paul’s has consistently showed itself as a very generous community and I thank you for that.

For many of us the Christmas season is a time of great joy and anticipation. For others it is a time of sadness and uncertainty. There are members of our community who feel quite strongly the absence of a beloved family member or close friend. There are some of our neighbours who will be stressed about the costs of trying to have a joyful season. Amidst the bright lights and the bouncy songs there is ‘blueness’. We need to make space for that. One way we do that is through our memory tree, where folk are invited to put a name or names on an ornament and add it to our tree. At the same time I encourage all of us, in our Advent and Christmas prayers to name the ‘blueness’ and uncertainty of the season and lift it up before God. Jesus comes into the world to meet us where we are and bring the assurance that God is with us in the bright lights and shadows, the loud joy and the quiet sorrow.

Each of my planned sermon titles for the four Sundays of Advent this year start with “Jesus Is Coming”. To me this is not only about preparing for a birth. Advent is a time to get ready for Christmas but it is also a time to make room for the Risen Christ who breaks into the world, and our lives, on a regular basis. Jesus comes into our lives, into the world, meets us where we are and invites us to be transformed. Jesus is coming to invite us to follow him into a whole new world. Jesus is coming to help us see the world through a different set of lenses. This Christmas season as we make room for Jesus to come into the world, into our lives, again may we keep our eyes open for Hope in a chaotic world, may we relax into Joy, may we allow ourselves to be refined for Peace, and may we sing of Justice and dance the steps of Love.

Have a Blessed Advent and Christmas season friends. May God surprise you with Hope, Peace, Joy and Love
Gord