February 2022

Raymond Funk and Hayden Wiebe led the music this morning, and our hearts were heavy because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Peter Fitch was feeling the same things, so he didn’t bring a prepared talk. Instead, he read Psalm 31 and asked people to share their thoughts and their prayers together. We wove silent prayer together with singing and the prayers and comments that people brought forward. Together, we sensed the need for a global heart of love to encompass the militarization and pain in the heart of the aggressors in this war, and we prayed for God’s deliverance and strength.

With so many strong and polarized feelings around the Convoy Protests in Ottawa, Peter Fitch thought it was a good time to reflect together on the meaning of Jesus’ words about loving our enemies. Jacob Rose and Rick Coates, who played songs before the talk, had the same idea as they started the service with a song by The Brilliance called “Brother.” It begins, “When I look into the face of my enemy, I see my brother . . .” There were many great insights from the crowd around the various Scripture passages that we looked at. Peter made mention of a Daily podcast last week, An American-Style Protest in Canada where he thought that both sides would be able to hear some things that they appreciated. Near the end of the time, Rick Coates, shared some insights from a TED talk, I grew up in the Westboro Baptist Church. Here’s why I left, by Megan Phelps-Roper.

Walter Thiessen followed up his last talk addressing what a church community is for. This time he talked about the need to keep structure & teaching integrated with a living Spirit. Lots of chat at the end about how we keep exploring new things that resonate with the teaching of Jesus and the diverse ways that we can invite the Spirit.

Peter Fitch shares the first part of a lecture on ancient-future orienteering. The focus of this part is the way that Jesus treated people. This leads to a discussion about whether or not “the arc of history is bending toward justice” in terms of abolishing prejudices based on ethnicity, economic status, and gender. The whole talk also relates to the expression, “Anchored with Wings.” Peter thinks that it’s possible to honour people who want to stay closer to the anchor of a tradition and, at the same time, to honour people who want to fly forward with progressive thoughts for their generation.

At the end of the talk we listened to “Apostles’ Creed” by Third Day and Friends and then to “Imagine” by Pentatonix because, together, they represent elements both old and new.