Hello! Happy August to all of you! 

It is a delight to be back from vacation and study leave and I am looking forward to reconnecting. I spent my July trying my best to balance reading, visiting people in my family bubble, and enjoying the outdoors. I set a record for my longest bike ride ever and even managed to get in some highland dancing through zoom. 

All of the communication skills I have been intentionally cultivating in my relationships like setting boundaries and paying attention to my own needs have come to the test this past month. Navigating the many different ways people are dealing with covid-19 is a challenge and yet I feel grateful for the deepened sense of connection that is emerging in learning new ways to show care and kindness. 

I look forward to learning more about your adventure in sharing worship with Knox United in July and give thanks to Rev Gail Fricker and the Knox United Church for their hospitality. 

Coffee Hour and Worship Service- Sunday August 9

Coffee Hour starts at 10 am

Worship at 10:30 am

Thanks to the new possibilities of zoom, we are continuing to draw our circle wide during worship this August. We are excited to be joined by Knox United Church throughout the entire month and will be joined by Windermere United Church on August 16th. I encourage you to extend this spirit of hospitality even further and feel free to invite a friend or two to join us for worship. The more the merrier!

Worship for August will be held online through zoom using this link:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84186611070 and can be joined by phone: +1 647 558 0588, enter 84186611070# when prompted.

Please continue to keep the church in your prayers!

A very special thank you to all of those who are finding new and creative ways to bless the church with their time, talent, and treasure. Your support is what makes it possible for us to continue thriving as a church, even in the midst of these challenging times. Please click here https://www.glenmorrisunited.ca/pages/donate for more information on how you can support the church financially.

How are you?

Send me an email or a text. Please feel free to pick up your phone (647 967 0746). What I miss most during this time of physical distancing is how we have much less casual and unplanned opportunities to check in with each other. These are challenging times we are facing, each and every one of us. It can easy for us to downplay our struggles when we think of crisis as a singular event but it’s completely normal for the long-term stress of this pandemic to be exhausting, for there to be less respite in ‘finding the new normal’ as we had hoped. While this article is talking about the American reality, I think there are still many insights to be gleaned from our Canadian context. 

Engage: How do we live out our faith in the world? How can we bring calls for justice to the church?

Learn more about the ways that frontline social workers are being impacted during covid19 in this article. 

Race vs Religion: Carl Lentz, lead pastor of Hillsong East Coast, sits down with Emmanuel Acho to have an uncomfortable conversation about the role religion plays in fueling and/or killing racism. What idea stood out for you while you were watching this? Did Pastor Lentz idea of a ‘dirty house’ make sense to you?

 

Yours in Christ,

Michiko