Message from Our Minister Reverend Mary White
Good Day and Blessings,
This Easter Sunday we are celebrating the Sacrament of Communion. Remember to have your bread prepared and your choice of drink ready for Christ’s feast. Easter is a time for community coming together to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Like people everywhere, we have adapted how we remain connected within our faith community. Behind the scenes there are many who continue to give their time and themselves with grace, enthusiasm and generosity and we are appreciative. What matters most is the joy and wonder of creation: whether at the sunrise in the morning or the food on our plates, the intricacy of a grain of wheat or the diversity of people. Markets, bread baked and broken, gardens, orchards, kitchens, poetry, painting, music … or simply being are all part of the way good communities make themselves and value their distinctiveness. We are people of hope who will be together in person and we will once again appreciate each ones’ skills and talents, jokes and laughter, potlucks and baking. We have much to look forward to and remember the situation we find ourselves in today will not last forever.
With Love,
Rev. Mary White
This Week’s Family Fun • Message from Brenda Pielle
Happy Easter Dear Families and Parents:
We are celebrating yet another special season in a different way than usual, due to the Covid-19 virus. Missing certain family traditions sure makes me appreciate them all the more. I pray you are finding new ways to make special memories for your children and youth, and that thinking about celebrations from your own childhood brings a smile to your heart.
This week the parent tot video once again has names of our children in the first song that is called, “The More We Sing Together, the Happier We’ll Be” followed by “Pussy Willow" and "Look at the Robin". There is a short reading from a children's Bible, and the video closes with a song called, "May there Always Be Sunshine".
The Family Fun video has the following songs: “Tell the World that Jesus Loves You", "In the Bulb there is a Flower", "Pass it On", "Rockin' Robin", "Bye, Bye Love"; and closing with a song called, “Go Make A Difference”. The story this week is about Mary Magdaline finding the empty tomb, as written in a children's Bible.
May these songs and stories provide you with some time to spend as a family singing along, listening, and capturing some quality time together.
Sincerely,
Brenda Pielle
Reaching Out to Families
Powell River United Church
Special Announcements
Our Gratitude and Thanks to Del!
Many thanks to Del Mansell for the wisdom and care he has brought to the Navigation Team over the term of his service, as well as for his diligent work as Secretary to the team. We continue to appreciate his voice as one of the One-Take Wonders, singing the hymns at our weekly on-line services!
A Very Warm Welcome
We are very pleased to welcome Alaa Badran, who has volunteered to take on the Secretary position with the Navigation Team.
Navigating Towards the Future
We are glad to report that Lynn McCann has agreed to join the Navigation Team, joining Alaa, John Taves and Jeremy Buhay as our most recent additions to the team. Their ideas and perspectives will be invaluable as we journey together into a future that may look very different from the past.
You Are Warmly Invited to Celebrate Easter
On Saturday April 3, 2021 from 3:00pm until 5:00pm we are handing out Easter baggies filled with surprises.
This is a drive by so decorate your car and wear your Easter bonnet. Drive onto Crofton Street from Michigan Street and we will safely give you your Easter bags.
For those who cannot come by on Saturday, we will deliver your Easter bag to your home on Monday April 5th. looking forward to seeing you.
2020 Annual Report is Now Available
Printed versions of our 2020 Annual Report are available upon request at the Church office, please call 604-485-5724 in advance.
The Annual Congregational Meeting will need to be delayed until later in the year, with the hope that we can then meet in person.
Navigation Team March 18 Meeting Minutes
Poem • Joy Mead from “Words and Wonderings”
A Dream of Markets …
that are sensual
not abstract
and smell of flesh, growing things
warm animals, sun on coloured awnings,
never to be forgotten scents
of strawberries, new bread, fresh coffee.
Such markets are coloured
by every shade of vegetable, fruit
… and people …
who know themselves,
beyond their working days,
bigger than their achievements.
People with baskets
to carry their needs
and voices to tell
their stories knowing,
with clowns and poets,
that here is a window to look out
on our own place.
Here, where people meet and sing again,
buying and selling is always aligned
to the heart’s growth.
Happy Birthday to Hazel Lawlor
PRUC Online Worship Service
Please join us for the following Easter services:
• Maundy Thursday 6:30pm
• Good Friday 11:00am
• Easter Sunday 11:00am
Reading • Eucharistic Living by Donald Eadie
Michael found immense joy and wonder in creation. He said once: ‘When we arrive at the gates of heaven we will be asked one question: “Have you found delight in my creation and delight in each other?”’ Over and over again Michael reminded me that it is God’s intention that we find joy in each other.
Eucharistic living is about sharing. Perhaps you also are shaken by the sight of aid workers throwing bread into the outstretched hands of girls and boys, women and men in refugee camps. Perhaps you also are impatient with the Church’s Eucharistic practice that individualises, privatises, spiritualizes and institutionalises the bread-sharing of Jesus among the people. I wish that Michael had lived to hear of the Bread Church in Liverpool, where all sorts and conditions of people, including asylum seekers and Big Issue sellers, made bread together – two loaves: one to keep and the other to give away. Together they explored the mystery of yeast, of kneading and rising within their own stories and the stories of their communities. Companions – we are learning – are those who share with us the bread of life.
Excerpt from: Neil Paynter “In Love With the Life of Life”
PRAYER
God of Resurrections
Through bread and drink, you nourish our physical being and through unconditional love you feed our Spirit. As we wait for our life lessons to be learned, be our companion along this journey given with absolute love. Be with us as we wait patiently for this transitional time – keeping us physically apart – to come to completion. Bless us with moments of minor epiphanies not remarkable in themselves but remain in our memory to be recalled long afterwards. Help us find the positive in all life experiences. We pray in the name of the One who broke bread with friends.
Amen