February 27, 2022
Heart for Ukraine
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.
February 20, 2022
Enemy Love
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.
February 13, 2022
Community: Structure and Spirit
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.
February 6, 2022
The Value of Tradition (Part_1)
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.
January 30, 2022
Longing for a Spiritual Home
In this talk, Jessica Williams reflects on the longings that drew her to St. Stephen’s University and to the St. Croix Church community. She explores the cracks in the foundation of the church and within herself that “let the light get in,” as Leonard Cohen sings. Jessica ends this talk by reading a letter written by Walter Thiessen earlier this week, offering an update for those who “Joined Us As We Stepped Away” from Vineyard Canada in 2020.
January 23, 2022
Humankind
For this Sunday’s talk at St. Croix Church, Peter Fitch gives a couple of important ideas from the Book of Romans in the New Testament, and then he follows this by introducing Rutger Bregman’s book, Humankind. Both parts of this talk challenge conventional wisdom about the nature of humanity and argue for an essential goodness in the heart of people that shows itself in crisis and in caring for others.
January 16, 2022
Why We Gather
In a short (8 minute) talk, Walter asks what the reason is for having a local church community, and he suggests that it’s to create a social place that welcomes everyone interested to participate in exploring meaning together – to express it, to weave it into our lives, to act on it together, to connect it to where we’ve been and where we’re going. You can read the transcript if you’d rather read than watch the video. And after you listen, share your thoughts on what you think is the main reason to have a local church community.
January 9, 2022
Tradition and Revolution
Peter Fitch shared ideas from a chapter in a book by Thomas Merton called “Tradition and Revolution.” Merton thinks that there is a form of traditionalism which is not helpful, just as there is a form of revolution which changes things only in appearance. And yet, there is something priceless, given by God, in the heart of tradition, and there is such a thing as a true revolution, which continually renews the heart as we turn back again and again to the revolutionary message of Jesus.
January 2, 2022
New Birth
The focus this morning was on a poem by Paul Dupuis called “Tears.” We began by watching a worship video from a conference in Brazil where the singers led with the song “Exalt the Lord our God.” Next, Peter Fitch read several passages of Scripture that connected with ideas in Paul’s poem. After that, Paul introduced the poem and read it. This was followed by discussion and prayers, and then we watched two videos of the same song, “One Day”, by Matisyahu. The first is one we used fairly often through pandemic services. The second is from Koolulam, a group that creates social initiative gatherings with music. Both are beautiful, but the second seems miraculous as it brings together 3,000 Jews and Muslims to sing Matisyahu’s song, crying out for the end of all violence and war. Peter explained that he thought this could be a symbol or icon of the need for the world to be reborn.
December 26, 2021
Christmas 2021
Happy Boxing Day!
Today a few of us gathered together to watch the Christmas Eve video that Jess and Janell made with Hayden Wiebe’s help and with musicians young and old. Afterwards, we discussed ideas that we liked in the video and people shared thoughts and feelings in a beautiful way. If you haven’t seen the video yet, here is a link to it.
“We gathered a few readings, reflections and some of our community’s beloved musicians to bring a glimmer of Christmas joy to you and yours at home this year. We hope you enjoy a moment of pause with this Christmas Eve Collective.
Blessings and Merry Christmas from St.Croix Church.”
December 24, 2021
Christmas Eve 2021
We gathered a few readings, reflections and some of our community’s beloved musicians to bring a glimmer of Christmas joy to you and yours at home this year. We hope you enjoy a moment of pause with this Christmas Eve Collective.
Blessings and Merry Christmas from St.Croix Church.
December 19, 2021
Christmas Present
Today’s service began with instrumental music by Michael Leung and Advent readings by Renate Gritter. Then, after prayers, we watched part of David Moore’s talk from last week in Santa Barbara. It was called, “Mary, You did Know!” and can be found at this link. It would be good if everyone in the world could hear this talk. After that, Peter Fitch led in a conversation about Christmas presents God gave to the world in the Christian Gospel. At the end, Peter sang Stephen Foster’s song, “Hard Times, Come Again No More.”