Talks

 

Today we highlighted some wonderful things that have grown out of or around our community. Matt Balcarras talked about his new book on hidden stories of peace-making in the lower mainland of BC. Then we featured our main event, a description of The Gathering by Geordie Hull. This involves a monthly meal with music and fun for lower income folks in our area that has been going on for about 17 years. It also has a store with excellent items at fractional prices. After this, Haydn Wiebe shared some of the vision that led him to start the monthly Coffee House and he sang a song as a sample of what happens there. Then Raymond Funk spoke about the community garden and Alex Henderson described a new initiative in post-service, non-crazy, healing prayer. Walter Thiessen finished the time with a Brendan prayer that is sometimes used in the Celtic service. Somehow it all flowed together, and everything seemed full of life.

Here is a link to the picture powerpoint of The Gathering.

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Joy Benson Green speaks about inclusive Christianity.  Perhaps it is important to not just learn to accept those who are different, but to value the gifts that ‘the other’ can bring to community.  Tune in as Joy shares a sacred moment between herself and a Muslim lady who led her back to Jesus.

Here is a

to the complete (if you want it all!)service today. Happy 25th birthday SCV!

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Peter Fitch drew on Scripture, James Fowler, Martin Buber, Thomas Merton, and a song by the Dave Matthews band in this talk. He wanted to show videos from Social Good Now but our internet crashed. The talk includes elements from different sources to give ideas and practical help in learning how to love people that think differently than we do. Finally, it ends with some thoughts about how God breaks down barriers between Himself and all the people in the world.

Link to videos that we didn’t get to use! Why Facts Don’t Convince People (and what you can do about it) and Why Debates Turn into Arguments (and how to fix it)

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We planted SCV on October 4, 1992, so this Sunday was our 25th anniversary. We are going to celebrate this over the next few weeks, but today was full of special elements. Brad Jersak gave the teaching and he opened the way for people to share about some of the incredible things that have gone on this week. Some people had participated in a symposium for Indigenous leaders and leaders from various Christian denominations. Others had been involved in concerns related to a white-supremacist group that had been hoping to have a protest in St. Stephen over the weekend. Through it all, the theme that kept rising to the surface was that of light.

The entire service is here in the recording, beginning with the worship set by Lindsay McKay for about 25 minutes, then poems by Jessica Williams, music by Joel Mason and a children’s story by Brad Jersak for the next 30 minutes or so, then Brad’s talk and sharing for the remainder. All rich!

 

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Peter Fitch thinks about the dreams that individuals have and the dream that God has for societies. Two links at the end of the talk; “I have a dream” speech (August 28, 1963) Martin Luther King, Jr. and Patti Griffin’s song, ‘Up to the Mountain’

 

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Walter Thiessen reflects back on the year of monthly talks related to practical prayer ideas by emphasizing the importance of committing and practicing rather than over-thinking things.

Attached are the two resources that I mentioned: “Simple Contemplative Prayers” and “Contemplative Reading List”

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Walter Thiessen explores another of the ways that we might be tempted to water things down in order to appeal more to culture or be less embarrassed by some pockets of Christianity. Today he shares about the ways that Jesus was great at offending just about everyone. Don’t settle for less. (you can listen to the start of the service/music

)

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Walter Thiessen wonders if devotion – the intersection of love/dedication/commitment – is a piece sometimes missing from contemporary spirituality. He conducts an experiment to see how “God” (in this case Colin) needs to move around in order to help a blindfolded Joel to walk the path toward Goodness and Compassion. Are we devoted to the One who calls us toward Goodness/Compassion and do we feed that devotion through regular practices?

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This was a training service (we do something different and more hands-on each month on the third Sunday). Today Rick Coates shared information about Deep Listening and led us through a couple of small meditation exercises. The first one was with relative silence (aside from a noisy fan!) and the second one was with a piece of electronic music that he has composed.

is the music from the first part of the service.

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