Thursday, November 26, 2009

Creed for our Advent Pilgrimage


I believe in the promise of Christmas
and the importance of celebrating it in the church.
I believe in the God at the centre of Christmas,
whose hope for the world was imagined by prophets.
I believe in Mary,
who sang of turning the world upside down
and who allowed her life to be disrupted by God.
I believe in Joseph,
whose broken heart broke the rules
to do the right thing.
I believe in the smell of the stable –
I believe there is no place where God will not go.
I believe in the shepherds,
those simple ones open to hear the angels’ song.
I believe in the Magi,
the ones outside the faith, outside the community
who searched out the Holy.
I believe in Jesus,
born in poverty,
soon a refugee,
raised in faith,
lived seeking justice,
died speaking forgiveness,
rose with a love that could not be stopped.
I commit to use this season
to seek out the Holy
both in God among us,
and in God beyond us.
I open myself to an Advent journey of great joy
that will change my life.

(based on A Christmas Creed by Walter Russell Bowie)





Wednesday, November 18, 2009


One of the best kept secrets of the 2009 Oscars is the winner of best "foreign" (non-USA) flick, the Japanese film Departures. In recovery from a long church meeting in Toronto, i strolled down to the Carleton cineplex and entered another country, and another world.

A cello player named Daigo loses his calling when the orchestra disbands due to low audience numbers (sound like church?). Daigo takes a new job in his old home town, where he and his spouse have moved due to financial pressures. He sees a newspaper ad looking for help with departures and applies, assuming it is in the travel business. Which it is, in a way. He is hired for a death ritual known as encoffinment - the body of the deceased is ceremonially washed and dressed, then placed in its coffin - all in the presence of grieving family members.
i don't know how it plays in Japanese, but the pun in the title struck me on several levels: first, the obvious departures of the dear departed and all the leave-takings that implies. But there are also the departures of old resentments and wounds at these ceremonies, opening the bereaved to reconciliation. Daigo himself undergoes several departures: he leaves the career in music that he dedicated his life to (talk about an identity crisis); his wife, disgusted at his new job, leaves him; he leaves/overcomes his culture's taboos about death and embraces the care of the corpse as the care of the living. He departed the urban, urbane city for the hick town with its old bath house, and soon finds himself embracing the bath house as a place of healing and community.
Death, of course, is a funny business. There isn't a minister or funeral director alive who doesn't have a hilarious funeral story (mine involves a skunk). And the humour of Departures struck me as the honest encounter of the living with the dead - body, bawdy, profound.
Perhaps because i had just been in a meeting wrestling about future directions for the United Church of Canada, i found myself resonating with Daigo. What is our calling as a denomination right now? (The cello-playing glory days are over.) Like Daigo, do we think we have signed up for one thing and find ourselves doing something else altogether? Like Daigo, might we reconnect with ancient ritual and find there comfort, hope and meaning - not just for the dead, but for the living, too? And might we let go of our past glory days and embrace the gentle, respectful work we are called to do?

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Like many churches, ours is struggling with money. Wish i could say we have so much of it we don't know what to do...but the reality is the opposite. We had a couple of unexpected Big Ticket items this spring that have put me in mind of a sign i once saw in a rural General Store: "We are a non-profit organization. We don't intend to be. It just works out that way."

Of course, as a church, we ARE a non-profit outfit. Our job is ministry, not amassing great wealth. Or in our case, any wealth whatsoever. If we break even by the end of the year, we're happy.

As our church moves through Stewardship month with all its challenges, i was prepping for a meeting our denomination's executive body, and in the Financial Accountability report (which, by the way, is not a spread sheet but an inspirational tract), i came across this. i found it helpful and challenging, and think with some minor re-writing, it could become useful for congregations. This is from Don Hunter, chair of the Permanent Committee on Finance. Here, he's speaking to members of the denomination's executive.

Expected Roles in Revenue Generation for the Church
1. Make an annual gift commensurate with means to support the church's Mission and Service Fund through yoru congregation or through Pre-Authorized Remittance (PAR).
2. Ensure that issues related to revenue generation (including an update on Mission and Service Fund giving) is on the agenda of every meeting of the General Council and its Executive.
3. Be a well-informed ambassador for the church, comfortable and confident in talking about its work and its mission.
4. Be a well-informed ambassador for the ways and means of supporting th United Church - through local congregations, through the Mission and Service Fund, through estate and major giving, through special or designated giving, and throug the United Church of Canada Foundation.
5. Support the church's revenue generation plan and fundraising efforts.
6. Accept revenue gneration tasks for the church up to one's individual level of comfort and abilities.

What say you to these responsibilities of church belonging?