Message of the Day from Rev. Mary White
Good Day and Blessings,
This week I want to honour an important cause, and draw your attention towards an unfortunate reality regarding murdered and missing woman which effects us all, because we all share the same life in God’s Spirit.
Their Spirits Live Within Us
Every February 14th at 10:30am, people gather at Hastings and Main streets where family members speak in remembrance. This year, the march will be fully live-streamed on Facebook and Youtube.
The first Women’s Memorial March was held in 1992 in response to the murder of a Coast Salish woman on Powell Street in Vancouver. Her name is not spoken today out of respect for the wishes of her family. Out of this sense of hopelessness and anger came an annual march on Valentine’s Day to express compassion, community, and caring for all women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Unceded Coast Salish Territories.
Years later, the Women’s Memorial March continues to honour the lives of missing and murdered women. Increasing deaths of many vulnerable women from the DTES still leaves family, friends, loved ones, and community members with an overwhelming sense of grief and loss. Indigenous women disproportionately continue to go missing or be murdered with minimal to no action to address these tragedies or the systemic nature of gendered violence, poverty, racism, or colonialism.
This event is organized and led by women in the DTES because women – especially Indigenous women – face physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual violence on a daily basis. The February 14th Women’s Memorial March is an opportunity to come together to grieve the loss of our beloved sisters, remember the women who are still missing, and to dedicate ourselves to justice.
For more information please click on either link below:
With Love,
Rev. Mary White
This Week’s Family Fun
A Short Message from Brenda Pielle
As many of you may know, there have been sing a long videos provided for you on the Powell River United Church website. I am going to send out an email each week to let you know the names of the songs and stories that will be on each recording. Please let me know if this is useful to you.
This week on the parent tot video you will find: Jesus Loves Me, I’m a Little Teapot, Hush Little Baby, a story book called, Try Again Sally, a song about God’s love sung to the tune of Frere Jaques, and a song about God’s love sung to the tune of The Muffin Man.
On the Family Fun video you will find the following songs: I Am the Light of the World, I Can See Clearly Now, Sunshine on my Shoulders, Draw the Circle Wide, 1 Cor. 13 sung, and the story book, Green Eggs and Ham.
I hope these songs and stories provide you with some time to spend as a family singing along, listening, and capturing some quality time together.
Please click on the Kid’s United button below to view, participate and share in this week’s Young Family Fun videos.
Warmest Regards,
Brenda
The Sun Will Rise by Crystal A.J. Smith
Rage in my heart
Rage out on the streets
Person to Person
It’s passing through everyone
What a horrible feeling
We’re fighting for our past
not yet able to be in our future
Crying and suffering
will never be gone
happiness is not yet here
hopefully when people understand
the sun will rise
and sunlight will be
received by everyone
then our healing will begin
Our past will be in our past
though never forgotten
Our future will be our future
and with hope and gratitude
that we will move forward
and keep on going
peeking back,
learning from
peoples mistakes.
Excerpt from: Sharon Moon Returning to the Healing Oasis
It happens after a day of profound teaching. Jesus had been sharing parables with those who came to learn from him, with those who wanted to experience this teacher of God. It happens in the extremity of fear and panic. It happens when the disciples are experiencing abandonment. They feel that Jesus does not even care about them.
These are seasons of the soul with which most people can identify. We have all been in places where we felt that the winds of change were going to overpower us, when we felt that we were going under, where we felt abandoned by God or by those close to us. We have also been in places where we needed another person to still us with assurance that we will be all right and that the storms of our lives will be stilled.
You may know as well that in Hebrew scripture the sea is a symbol of chaos. In creation, the Spirit breathed over the seas of chaos and brought order and created dry land.
PRAYER
Freeing Spirit
You have swept over the earth and breathed life into all things. We are grateful to you for giving to us life that is full and free. May we be mindful to the knowledge that all you give is priceless and cannot be bought. Help us to see life as grace given from Love. Through the life and example of Jesus, may we spread that same Love to all we meet. May we be renewed and empowered to serve through wisdom and experience, knowledge and insight, faith and love each and every day. We pray in the name of the One who guides us.
Amen