Manitoba Government Grants to United Church Overseas Projects

Did you know that through Manitoba Council for International Cooperation, the Province makes $1 million dollars available for matching grants for overseas development work? Manitoba is one of two provinces that does this. The UCC currently has two projects being funded: Rural Drought Relief in Zimbabwe and a Community Development project in El Salvador. If you speak with your local MLA, be sure to express appreciation for this support.

Conference Weekly News - June 29-July 3, 2009

Archbishop David

Eugene Peterson

"The Biblical fact is that there are no successful churches."

That just jumped out at me when I was re-reading Peterson's 1987 book Working the Angles: The Shape of pastoral Integrity.

"There are, instead, communities of sinners, gathered before God week after week in towns and villages all over the world. The Holy Spirit gathers them and does his work in them. In these communities of sinners, one of the sinners is called pastor and given a designated responsibility in the community. The Pastor's responsibility is to keep the community attentive to God."

The book is a call to return to that responsibility through Prayer, Scripture, and Spiritual Direction. To return to that responsibility not because the church will be successful but because the church needs to be faithful. It's still a pretty radical notion three decades after he wrote these words.

"The Biblical fact is that there are no successful churches."

Bishop David is now "Most Reverend"

Our very own, Bishop David Ashdown, has been elected the new Metropolitan for the Province of Ruperts Land. That makes him an Archbishop and rather than simply the "Right Reverend" David Ashdown he will be addressed as the "Most Reverend."
Congratulations David!

For those of us from other traditions the Anglican Church website explains ...

"Parish, diocese, ecclesiastical province and General Synod are the four main levels of organizational structure within the Anglican Church of Canada.

The local parish is the primary centre of worship and mission in the church. Each parish is within one of 30 dioceses, and functions under the jurisdiction of the diocesan bishop.

Each diocese is within one of four regional groupings known as an ecclesiastical province. One bishop, elected by each Provincial Synod holds the office of Metropolitan and the title of Archbishop.

Collectively, the dioceses created a national body, the General Synod, to act on their behalf in specified areas. Representatives of the dioceses come together every three years in a meeting of the General Synod. Between these meetings, an executive committee, called the Council of General Synod, implements the General Synod’s strategic plan. The Primate, who is also an archbishop, is the chief pastor of the Anglican Church of Canada and President of the General Synod"

Mennofolk at the MCC Relief Sale and Festival

Come on out to enjoy two days worth of music at this year's MCC Relief Sale and Festival. On Friday June 19th in the evening from 8pm - 10pm, there will be performances from The Other Brothers (featuring Chris Neufeld and Donovan Giesbrecht) and Flying Fox and the Hunter Gatherers. Then on Saturday June 20th, come and enjoy an all day free stage featuring musicians like Demetra Penner and Paul Bergman, childrens performers Alphabet Soup and Graham Wiebe, as well as sets from participants from MCC's Open Circle program. Mennofolk at the MCC Relief Sale and Festival; come for the mennoburgers, stay for the music.

software development and models of church

Twice in as many months I have encountered a great illustration of a theological / ecumnenical issue illuminated by a comparison to software. At a conference I attended at CMU Doug Gay from the UK was trying to explain how he liked "high church" liturgical practice but couldn't buy the hierarchical forms of church government. He said he wanted to "unbundle" the software from the Operating System like the EU forced Microsoft to do. He wanted to use a "high church browser on his low church operating system".
Today I read a cool commment by Jane Stranz on her blog Of life, laughter and liturgy . . .
"Do we want cathedral ecumenism (top down, institution driven) or bazaar ecumenism (networked, organic)? The idea for these two terms actually comes from software development. So do you want a microsoft or a linux trinity, word or open office ecumenism? Let's open the theological software bazaar."
I hadn't heard the Cathedral and Bazaar image before but it reflects perfectly my emerging convictions about how ecumenism really works. Our present reality is that people don't care about our denominational affiliations, its the job at hand that gets them excited.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to shovel the driveway and a time to just sit back and admire the snow,

a time to wake up and a time to sleep in

a time to spring forward and a time to fall back

THIS SUNDAY WE SPRING FORWARD. DON’T BE LATE FOR CHURCH!