Pivoting

We are pivoting again.

It was March 2020 when we closed the doors at St. Philip's to in-person worship.  Since then, the sanctuary has seen parts of the service recorded, livestream of worship service with 10 or fewer people in attendance, baptisms and funerals.  For 18 months, the church has been open online but physically closed to congregational worship. 

We pivoted in how we prepare for worship.  We pivoted in how we present the music, how readers share the Word, how we lead prayer, and how we send into the world.  These parts of worship were lead by participants from coast to coast, and in other countries as well.  Pastor Tuula and Chris, the music director, prepared and recocorded their key parts.  And Dave put it all together.  And then the pivot for the kids was the creation of "The Bible Bunch" by Meranda - a video series welcomed by all ages - which included our youngest members.  We became a global congregation.  The pivot brought many wonderful blessings.

And now we pivot again.  September 12, 2021 will see the doors open for in-person worship. To do this, there are many changes:  sign in, wear a mask, keep physically distanced, humming not singing, individual communion cups, not passing the offering plate, and no coffee hour.  We can make this pivot.  And we will share this worship live via Zoom and online through a recording.  We will have safe and accessible options.

We will continue to include people in the worship who cannot attend in person.  We have new audio-visual capabilities.  We can do new things, new ways.

The pandemic has changed many things and we need to pivot again to try these new things and new ways.  Through this though, there are constants: our relationship to God and others (and self) are important.  Our connection to neighbours and living our vision remained strong while it too pivoted.  We can pivot.  God will be in relationship with us whether we sing or hum.

A home for all?

Each year, the Season of Creation challenges us to focus on our common home: the earth. The 2021 theme is A Home for All? Renewing the Oikos of God.

The Psalmist proclaims “the Earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.” There are two statements of faith at the heart of this song. The first is that every creature belongs to the Earth community. The second is that the entire community belongs to the Creator. A Greek word for this Earth community is oikos. Oikos is the root of the word oikoumene, or ecumenical, which describes our ‘common home’, [...]. Our common home, the Earth belongs to God, and each beloved creature belongs to this common oikos. [...] (It points) to the integral web of relationships that sustain the well-being of the Earth.

The word ecology (oikologia) describes the relationships between animals, plants, non-sentient organisms and minerals that each play a vital role in maintaining the balance of this beloved community. Each creature is important and contributes to the health and resilience of the biodiverse ecosystem in which it lives. Humans belong in the right relationship within this Earth community. We are made from the same stuff of the Earth, and are cared for by our co-creatures and the land. Human relationships also have ecological significance. Economic (oikonomia), social and political relationships affect the balance of creation.

Everything that we fabricate, use and produce has its origin in the Earth, whether mineral, plant or animal based. Our habits of consuming energy and goods affect the resilience of planetary systems, and the capacity of the Earth to heal itself and sustain life. Economic and political relationships have direct effects on the human family and the more-than human members of God’s oikos. Genesis 2.15 reminds us that among our co-creatures, the Creator has given humans a special vocation to tend and keep the oikos of God.

Sustaining just ecological, social, economic and political relationships requires our faith, reason and wisdom. By faith, we join the Psalmist in remembering that we are not stewards of an inanimate creation, but caretakers within a dynamic and living community of creation. The Earth and all that is not a given, but a gift, held in trust. We are called not to dominate, but to safeguard. By reason, we discern how best to safeguard conditions for life, and create economic, technological and political architectures that are rooted in the ecological limits of our common home. Through wisdom we pay careful attention to natural systems and processes, to inherited and indigenous traditions, and to God’s revelation in word and Spirit. 8 For centuries, humans (anthropoi) have ordered our lives and economies according to the logic of markets rather than the limits of the Earth. This false logic exploits the oikos of God, and makes creation a means to economic or political ends. The current exploitation of land, plants, animals and minerals for profit results in the loss of habitats that are homes for millions of species, including humans whose homes are at risk due to climate conflict, loss and damage. Reason tells us that in this anthropocene age, ecological and social disintegration and exclusion cause the current climate crisis and accelerate ecological instability. Wisdom equips us to find the answers, and pathways to build green economies of life and just political systems that would sustain life for the planet and people.

Faith gives us trust that God’s Spirit is constantly renewing the face of the Earth. Within this horizon of hope, our baptismal call frees us to return to our human vocation to till and keep God’s garden. In Christ, God calls us to participate in renewing the whole inhabited Earth, safeguarding a place for every creature, and reform just relationships among all creation. During this liturgical Season of Creation, the ecumenical Christian family calls every household and society to repent and reshape our political, social and economic systems towards just, sustainable economies of life, which respect the life-giving ecological limits of our common home. We hope that this Season of Creation renews our ecumenical unity, in our baptismal call to care and sustain an ecological turning that will ensure all creatures can find their home to flourish, and participate in renewing the oikos of God.

From "Season of Creation" for 2021

Outdoor Worship - August 2021

The beginning of in-person worship!

Next outdoor service:  September 5th.

You're Invited

Jesus invites us to a meal. It is an extraordinary invitation to do an ordinary thing: form bonds of love and community through shared food and drink. Like Wisdom inviting us to the feast of insight (Prov. 9:1-6), Jesus’ invitation to share in the meal of his body and blood teaches us about the breadth and depth of God’s love and about God’s desire for us to abide in that love (John 6:56).

 

Jesus’ audience asks a reasonable question: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (John 6:52). Jesus’ answer doesn’t really address the question; instead, he reiterates that he is the true bread from heaven, the true source of eternal life. This must have been off-putting to his listeners. Eat flesh? Drink blood?

And yet, here we find a profoundly grace-filled invitation—abide in me—and a promise: through this meal I abide in you. We are invited to not only join Jesus at the table, but to be at home in the love of God, knowing that Christ makes his home in our hearts and lives too. So come: eat, and get to know God.

From Sundays and Seasons

From Rumbling Tummies to Living Bread

In the Old Testament we hear the stories of "manna from heaven" to feed the hungry Israelites.  In the New Testament we hear of Jesus feeding thousands from 5 fish and 2 loaves of bread. After filling the immediate need for food, Jesus says, "I am the bread of life."  This move us from rumbling tummies to a refocusing on the blessings poured out and the primary benefactor. We see the gifts of God, which come in a variety of ways: physical nourishment, roles and talents lifted up in community, new life given now and into the ages of ages.

 

We find that the gifts are responses to various actions—complaining, building for the future, longing for signs of promise and hope. Yet each of these actions and the gifts mean little if we are not able to see the one who is the giver and to recognize that the gifts are not merely about what we can do to get them or what signs are needed to prove them; rather, it is about trust in God, who is the source of life and living—the one who provides the true bread from heaven.

 

Our role in this story is to tell the history of God’s giving, similar to the psalmist. It is to open our eyes to the way the bread of heaven is sustaining us today, physically and spiritually. And as a community living in God’s promise, we look to the one God sends to us as the bread of life. In many early Hebrew and Greek writings, the stomach was a driving force and a place where hope and faith were lodged. The readings point us to see how a longing for food opens a greater dwelling place for the gifts of faith and promise. From our physical depths we are called to experience a greater spiritual reality.

- adapted from Sundays and Seasons