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In his reflection, Doug Martindale picked up on the passage in Isaiah 65 which refers to a new heaven and a new earth. Doug explored what a new heaven and a new earth would look like in our place and our time. He talked about many visions and examples.;
But "what have these visions got to do with me, you may well be asking. [Visions] are very personal for each of us because we are co-creators in the visions of a new heaven and a new earth. Our visions need our hands to make them become reality. It means we have to think, act and feel differently."
And because "we are creatures of habit" what we need in order to co-create these visions is "new practices"
Read the entire reflection: A New Heaven and a New Earth by Doug Martindale
Jim Taylor's reflection on Remembrance Day Sunday was not about the wars that Canadians have participated in and not about the sacrifices made, the heroics, and the graveyards. Instead he talked about a different kind of heroism. Of people working together, without concern for their own welfare, for the good of all.
He told the story about the miracle that happened in October 1972 when a plane crashed in the highest peaks of the Andes.
At the centre of his reflection Jim quoted Nando Parrado, from his book "Miracle in the Andes," about his perception of God:
"To be honest, as hard as I prayed for a miracle in the Andes, I never felt the personal presence of God. At least, not as most people see Him. I did feel something larger than myself, something in the mountains and the glaciers and the glowing sky that, in rare moments, reassured me ...If this was God, it was not God as a being or a spirit or some omnipotent superhuman mind... It was simply a silence, a wholeness, an awe-inspiring simplicity."
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Read the entire reflection: Heroism by Jim Taylor
Read the entire reflection by Rev. Alice Hanson: "The Heart Path"
Read the entire reflection by Rev. Bob Thompson: "Prayer - Speaking with the Heart"
At this World Wide Communion Sunday Alice Hanson reflection on "Oneness in Diversity".
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Kim MacMillan shared his journey to finding out what the foundational truth was that all the religions point to. This journey was influenced mostly by great mystics of various faiths like Rumi, Hafiz, Rabia, Kabir, MIra Tukram, Buddha, Baha'u'llah. St. Francis of Assisi, Meister Eckart, Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Paul and the greatest of Jewish mystics, Jesus of Nazareth.
Read the entire reflection here: It's All One by Kim MacMillan
Jim Taylor was leading a musical service all around songs from Gordon Light and how parables help us "get away from our fixed ideas, and seeing things in new ways". Some of the captivating and heart-warming songs included:
River Running in You and Me
Cana Wines
She Flies On
My Love Colours Outside the Lines
One more song that Jim shared with us:
But I can laugh, and I can cry
Sometimes failing, still I'll try
Falling down, I'll touch the sky,
My dreams can take me to the heights
There are no answers say the wise
Not much light to fill my eyes
But let the music in me rise
And I'll go singing in the night...
Read the entire reflection here: A Little Light Music
“For everyone who makes himself great will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be made great.”
The Christian author C. S. Lewis put it this way:
“True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”
Read the entire reflection here: "Humility"
"Draw it Wider Still." How might we do that?
One thing that comes to mind, is to become an Affirming Congregation. Council has had that on its agenda for quite a long while now, and hasn’t had the time to look at it, and introduce it to the congregation. Perhaps this is a time when we could do so.