TRINITY VOICES

FALL 2010

   

 

 

Trinity United Church

 

‘A welcoming, caring family of faith, 

celebrating God’s love in Jesus.’

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Contributions are welcome anytime via email, drop off to the Church Office (in printed form or saved on disk or CD) or by contacting Heather

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From Elizabeth’s Desk: Taking Up our Faithful Adventure Together!

Wow! Labour Day Weekend sure hit us with the temperature changes necessary to put beach days in the memory file and brace us with the invigorating energies of Fall! It’s good to be back in supportive shoes! It’s good to be wearing a sweater! It’s good to be commuting on the colour-turning back roads between Waterloo and Guelph! It’s good to be wrestling with the lectionary bible text and planning for worship! It’s good to be meeting and greeting and visiting our friends in this community again! It’s good to be back at Trinity and getting up to speed! By the time you read this we will have shared our first communion service and will be warming up our ovens for the annual turkey!

Peter and I are happy to once again be accompanying you on your faithful adventure together as we move toward a new era of leadership at Trinity. Let us continue to pray for the important work of your search committee, even as we actively address the issues and concerns that present themselves on the way. Hospitality! Pastoral Care! Grief Support! Therapeutic Touch and Prayer Shawl Ministry! Adult Study! The Prayer Chain! Fellowship Groups and events! Peter’s and my first experience of the Holly Fair Bazaar! Choir and Christmas Cantata! Church Council and Committee Initiatives! UCW! Womankin! Contact Place! Outreach! The Trinity Website! Sunshine Club! Church School! Youth Group! VBS! Book Club! There is an abundance ways that followers of Jesus can serve in the faithful adventure of ministry that is ‘Trinity’.

Allow me the opportunity to introduce you to another. Under the name of “Two Countries – One World” (‘TCOW’), Waterloo Presbytery has been sending youth to Central America for service and learning since 2004. With the Mission: “to change lives and produce globally aware students who can help shape a just and more sustainable future”, TCOW has been a particular passion of mine since its inception.

This coming March 2011 (11^th - 20^th) marks the fifth time we have launched such a trip and the first time I will have stepped from a role on the planning committee to a role as leader! What is more important is that Sydney Siminoski, from our own youth group, has been chosen to be one of the 18 youth participants from Presbytery! Through out the fall and winter, we will be preparing with others for an experience that will take us to Nicaragua, where we will learn from our host families and community leaders, while joining in their own service projects in Barrio Grenada, a small and challenged neighbourhood in the capital of Managua. These projects cover a field of endeavour from digging to install a potable water system, building of portable house packs, health post restoration, to the establishment of a park/play area, and mural painting.

It is our hope to make Trinity partners in this ministry. We will be asking to become one of the official Trinity outreach projects for 2011 and together with you share our insights, our learning, and our fund raising! Time has proven just how exciting and enriching these events can become for congregations who get involved. We hope this will be so for Trinity as together this fall, we take up the faithful adventure of discipleship!

Blessings on the journey & Happy Harvest Time to our Trinity family of faith….

Elizabeth Eberhart-Moffat

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From the Editor’s Desk: A Conversation About Church With My Daughter and My Mom

 

I had a long talk on the Labour Day weekend with my mom and my daughter Allison, age 22. The question was, "Why aren't more young people going to church?" It isn't that they aren't spiritual. Having worked with a number of 20-somethings over the past few years at the theatre, I know that that just isn't true. And some of the material I read from the local Unitarian congregation got me thinking—they have fifty members, and fifteen children enrolled in their children's program, which is a much higher ratio than any mainline Christian church I've been to in a while. Why are they turning to the Unitarians, and not the churches of their parents and grandparents?

My mom and I noted that many churches are now located in "mature" areas, where few if any young people live. Yet instead of facing reality and serving the surrounding population of seniors, they'd rather moan about how the Sunday School is dwindling. Usually this is accompanied by memories of the "glory days" of the late fifties and early sixties, when the building was full to overflowing with kids.

But not only are fewer people regularly attending church as in those days, there simply aren't as many kids! Large families are not the norm anymore. Schools that were full when I was a kid have closed their doors. The baby boom generation is not young anymore—we're now approaching senior citizen status. It provides a tremendous opportunity for the church, but not the one the church seems to be looking for.

Allison remarked that "Christianity has a bad name among 20-somethings." This was the statement we unpacked in the car on the long drive home from her grandparent's house.

First off came the expected comment about how what they read in the bible, what they learn in school and in the world, and what they see their elders actually doing are all at odds with one another. My daughter told me that she had learned the lesson that I'd taught—that the bible must be put in the context it was written in order to understand it, and was never meant to be read as literally as some Christians read it, but that most of her age-mates didn't have that advantage.

We talked about how a few vocal conservative evangelical Christians are getting all the publicity. The group that wanted to burn the Qur'an was getting a lot of press at the time of our talk. That group contains fifty people, far fewer than our Trinity church family. And I believe that most of us would disagree—some of us quite strongly—with what this group wanted to do. But they got the press, and we remained silent. My mother asked, "Does this mean we have to make more noise?" and my daughter's immediate answer was, "Yes!"

From the environment, to gay rights, to justice for native peoples, to the authority and place of the bible, the majority of the United Church is actually in step with what most 20-somethings believe, but they don't know it because we don't tell them! We need to speak out, often and loud, in order to say, "This is what we believe, and why, and we're proud to be different!"

The second thing she told me is that our worship rituals are incomprehensible to outsiders. We stand up and sit down in random places, sing songs that have theologies that don't relate to real life. God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and always good. Viewed that way, Haitian earthquakes or flooding in Pakistan are incomprehensible. Since the flooding and the earthquakes are real and verifiable, our views of God must be skewed, they reason. Then we recite random words like zombies—all together, but not really thinking about what we're saying or why. We need to re-think our worship, and if we decide that it's fine the way it is, we need to do a much better job of orienting new folks to the worship service. And whether we like it or not, if an "old favourite" doesn't really reflect what we believe, it's time to change the words or stop singing the hymn. "Onward Christian Soldiers" is no longer in our hymn book. The omission caused much controversy, but given the current climate, I'm glad it's not in there anymore. It doesn't reflect who the United Church is or how we want to be in the world.

I got a vision while Allison was talking about the incomprehensibility of our service of doing an "alien" worship service—one where the "usual" order of service wasn't followed. Sitting in a circle. Asking questions and inviting discussion instead of preaching. Singing popular songs instead of hymns. Talking in text speak, or about video games. Think on this—we want to invite 20-somethings into our midst, yet most of us don't even speak their language, and most sermons aren't addressed to their concerns. How would it feel to most regular church attendees?
 

I've led "alternative" services before—ones that invited participation, where I used Power Point or drama or storytelling. In general, they were well received, but some folks sat in the back, arms crossed, and most folks agreed that they'd only like it "once in a while." The familiar was far more comfortable, even if they got more out of the alternative. But we didn't discuss at all the concept that the familiar to us isn't familiar at all to those outside our "in-group," and constitutes a barrier.

Of course at some point during the service, we ask for money, and don't give any information about what it's for. Something about the "General Fund," whatever that is, and the "Mission and Service Fund," which sounds a bit more promising, but still really general. Think about this—would you rather pay an extra $100 in taxes, or would you rather donate $100 to the building fund of a local hospital? Even though hospitals in Canada are funded with tax and health care premiums, we'd still rather donate directly than pay extra taxes, because we know where our money is going! So why don't we tell people, on a week-by-week basis, where their money goes?

No wonder the ones that come in don't stay! They don't really understand what's going on, and no-one thinks to teach them, or they believe (often rightly) that we only want them to serve us, and not the other way around. Sometimes it seems that the only things we really want are their bodies in the pews, the contents of their wallets in the offering plates, and their kids enrolled in our Sunday Schools. In support of this statement, I read JNAC report from a United Church which will remain nameless, not to protect the guilty, but because it could be the JNAC of a vast majority of the United Churches I know—even Trinity. The report talked about falling attendance, and aging parishioners. It talked about how "alternative" services had been tried, but with no success, but how the congregation was willing to change if it would pull younger people in. That's hopeful, as far as it goes, but then it spent a lot of time on financials, and how it takes x number of younger givers to replace 1 older giver who has died.

The report admitted that they had only talked to members. There was no indication of any contact with the outside world whatsoever—no statement of how the congregation was involved in local mission or outreach. There was no asking, "How can we meet their needs?" Instead, the only question asked was, "How can they meet our needs?"

If we want more people to join us, then we need to find answers to that question and put them in action. Then we need to tell the world who we are and what we’re about.

 We don’t follow a man who constructed a building, put a small advertisement in the local newspapers, and invited everyone to come visit once a week. We follow a man who was out there, touching, healing, learning from the people he’d come to serve. Some gave freely what they have, others gave nothing. And in the end, they turned on them.

He served them just the same. We, his church, are called to follow that example. The world isn’t here to meet our needs. We’re here to meet the world’s needs.

 

Ruth Cooke

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Church isn’t where you meet. Church isn’t a building. Church is what you do. Church is who you are. Church is the human outworking of the person of Jesus Christ. Let’s not go to church, let’s be the church.

 

Bridget Willard

 

Sign outside a church: You are not too good to come in. You are not too bad to stay out.

 

Some people are kind, polite, and sweet-spirited—until you try to get into their pew.

George Goldtrap

Jesus said, “No procrastination. No backward looks. You can’t put God’s kingdom off till tomorrow. Seize the day.”

 Luke 9:62, The Message

What can you say about a society that says that God is dead and Elvis is alive? 

Irv Kupcinet

 

People are funny: They want the front of the bus, the middle of the road, and the back of the church.

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Some Thoughts from Ralph Milton

 

A year or two ago, Bev and I took ourselves down to the local hockey arena where they had a big “Senior’s Festival.”

The place was jammed. Our small quota of geriatric energy was used up trying to elbow our way from one display to the next, and then we couldn’t get near enough to see anything without pushing and shoving.

So I didn’t see anything in particular, but I did come away with some general impressions. There are a whole bunch of people out there hoping to make a buck on the aches and pains and problems of seniors – everything from various prosthetics to herbal remedies to motor homes. And “Financial Advisors” everywhere. Every one of those entrepreneurs was well aware that they were selling to the wealthiest, healthiest, longest living bunch of seniors in history.

A few generations back, prospectors headed for the Klondike yelling, “There’s gold in them thar hills!” Now these same prospectors are setting up booths and buying up mailing lists yelling, “There’s gold in them thar pills.” In the parking lot, after we finally escaped the madding throngs within, was a large RV with a bumper sticker. “We’re spending our children’s inheritance.”

There are lots of seniors with lots of money. There are also lots of seniors living on tea and toast and the occasional can of cat food. There were none of the second kind at that exhibit, which suited the exhibitors just fine. Poor seniors also don’t get all the wonderful discounts offered through the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP). Bev and I are not poor seniors, so we joined and now we get their magazine.

You can tell right off that the CARP mag is not for the little old lady living on tea and toast. They want seniors who can read an ad about 10% off on a cruise, starting at $20,000 without choking or laughing. The CARP mag has ads for expensive potions and prosthetics to help you look half your age, and ways to make sure the tax department doesn’t get its hands on your money. CARP should change its name to CARRP, the Canadian Society for Rich Retired Persons.

Lest you think this is sour grapes, you need to know that Bev and I will have a nice, comfortable retirement. We won’t go on a lot of those cruises (though as you read this, we are on one celebrating our 50th), and I don’t worry at all about how much money the tax department gets – now, or when I die. But we won’t be eating cat food either.

I noticed something else at that exhibit and in the CARP magazine. Everything was focused on the idea of making our own lives easier, more fun, more secure, more healthy – and there’s nothing wrong with that. But there’s wasn’t anything pointing in the other direction. Outward, to somebody else or forward to those who will come after us. Nothing for those seniors who’d like to do more in their retirement than take up space and spend money.

The older I get, the greater is the temptation to think only about myself –on my arthritic knees, on the interest rate I get on my savings. Or, how long it is till happy hour when I can have my first drink.

I am genuinely bothered, not so much by what seniors are doing, but by what they don’t do. Their lives become so narrow. “Why should I bother recycling stuff,” they mutter. “I won’t be around long enough to worry about the problem.”

I wish more of us could stand on that mountainside with old Moses just before he died. A hundred and twenty years old they said he was. I wish we could raise our eyes from our own knees and our own flabby body, and look up, beyond our own lifetimes, over the horizon, and dream a future that is not ours.

I wish more of us had a vision of what life might be in the future for those we love and care about and for folks in other parts of the world whom we’ve never heard of. It may be OK to spend our children’s inheritance, but let’s not destroy their legacy.

A former news broadcaster, open line host and church administrator, Dr. Ralph Milton is the author of 17 books including the bestselling Family Story Bible; Angels in Red Suspenders; and Julian’s Cell, a novel based on the life of Julian of Norwich.

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The Good Life: Judging by the time they picked up their morning newspaper, my newly retired neighbours were getting up later and later. One morning I was outside when my neighbour slipped out to pick up his paper.

“Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins, you know,” I teased.

“So is envy,” he replied.

Some advantages of old age:

• You can say, “When I was your age…” to more and more people.
• Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.
• You can sing in the bathroom while brushing your teeth.

Richard Lederer

The purpose of life is not to arrive at the grave in a well-preserved body, but to skid in sideways, screaming, “What a ride!”

John Batt

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Pack Your Bags and See the World

I was very busy when I had a job. When I came home each day from my 9 to 5 routine, I thought I deserved a rest. I just relaxed in my easy chair, reading or watching TV. Jobs around home were done on weekends and holidays. Making the best use of time was a priority. Then the day came, in June 1992, when I retired. At first I kept busy doing all the work I had put off until retirement. I soon got that all finished because the necessary money and energy to finish them dried up.

We always loved to travel. In my youth on the farm, I never dreamed I might see many of the wonders I saw only in magazine pictures. But now I have stood in awe at the wonders of Canada, the United States, and Europe, thinking about my good fortune to be looking up at the Rockies, and looking down at the Grand Canyon. I have walked the streets of Venice, Edinburgh, and Berne. What a contrast there was to what I saw in Inuvik, Yellowknife, Dawson City, and St. John’s Newfoundland. It cost a lot to attend that Strauss concert in Vienna, but I thought it was worth it. The ride on the cable car in San Francisco was a thrilling experience, because we had to hang on the outside platform. It was more fun taking those pictures than it is to look at them years later.

I am so glad we travelled while we were young enough to make the most of the experience. My education taught me a great deal before I went, and was very helpful when I arrived. But being there made the facts so much more impressive. Travel is the best way to learn about our world. Seniors today are more fortunate than their parents if they want to travel. They have much better health and more money. Some travel brochures feature stops at casinos and bargain outlets. If you’ve seen one of those, you have seen them all. You are lucky if you have health and money to see the world. Go while you can! It will keep you younger. If your heirs find the fortune they hoped for is a little smaller than they imagined, they will know that the old folks knew how to enjoy life. That example will help them to enjoy their retirement when it comes.

Howard Parkinson

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If God is your co-pilot, swap seats!

When asked what he thought of Western civilization, Mahatma Ghandi said, “I think it would be a good idea.”

They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of him as somewhat of a recluse.

Emily Dickenson

The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too.

Teresa of Avila

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We Live in God’s World

In recent months, we have been made aware of tragedies from around the world. Miners trapped in a Chilean mine are living in a tomb, and it may be months before they are rescued. The oil well leak in the Gulf of Mexico has been capped (finally!) but the environmental damage will take years to reverse, if it’s reversed at all. Earthquakes, floods, fires. How do we respond as a people of faith?

The Mission and Service Fund is the United Church’s way of helping those in our world who are in need to help themselves. Unlike many other charities, we in the United Church do not impose our solutions to the problems of others, but allow them to work together to create solutions appropriate to their culture and environment. We send missionaries only when asked, and only to meet specific needs. We work “on the ground” with partner agencies, rather than sending our own people to do the work that could (and should) be done by locals.

This means that the Mission and Service Fund creates much more “bang for the buck” than many secular ministries. More of your donated dollars go directly to the projects involved rather than to administration costs, salaries, etc.

There are two components to M&S Giving. First and most important are regular donations by weekly envelope holders or groups such as the United Church Women. These donations help fund ongoing ministries both in Canada and abroad. Some examples are chaplaincies at universities, hospitals and prisons, services for homeless and precariously housed individuals, addiction recovery services, smaller rural parishes which, though unable to meet salary budgets, are providing essential ministry to isolated communities, and so on. While I would never ask anyone to decrease their local offerings, I am asking those of you who do not contribute regularly to the M&S Fund to reconsider. There is so much need, and donations in recent years have seen steep declines.

Another component of the M&S Fund is the “Special Appeal” fund. This fund has been, in recent years, of higher profile than the general fund because of the earthquake in Haiti and the floods in Pakistan. A special appeal is made to United Church members to fund emergency relief to areas experiencing acute distress. Because these stories are often on the front pages of our daily newspapers, we sometimes know more about what is going on in those countries than we do about what is going on in our own city!

The people at Trinity have historically responded well to special appeals. We seem to enjoy putting our collective heads together and creating new ways to earn the dollars for the Mission and Service Fund to send to our overseas partners, and we’re aware of and enthused about the fact that one hundred percent of such donations go to our partners in the affected areas, as administration is already assumed by the existing Mission and Service Fund structure.

But please remember in your giving—without the existing structure to lean on, there would be no ability for the M&S Fund to respond to these very special needs. Please consider regular giving to the Mission and Service Fund when you budget for the coming year!

The Outreach Committee

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Our task must be to widen our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures, and the whole of nature in its beauty.

Albert Einstein

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Milk Bags for Making Sleeping Mats

We thank each and every one of you who has donated the outside milk bags for the sleeping mat project by Evergreen Centre croceters. However, the volume of milk bags has at times been overwhelming, and time spent processing the bags is taking away from the time spent actually crocheting the mats. If you could begin the process by cleaning and cutting the bags, the group at the Evergreen Centre would be grateful.

There are three different steps that would be very helpful:

1.      Milk Bag Preparation: (This step is important to do at home, as soon as the milk bag is empty and ready to be set aside, as it reduces the formation of mildew.) To be usable the milk bags must be thoroughly washed, dried carefully and then folded flat. Make sure to turn them inside out, rinse and thoroughly dry the bags before folding them and remove any bag clips. This helps to reduce mildew growing on any stray drops of milk. Often, simply wiping out the bags is sufficient and reduces the problems in trying to thoroughly dry out the bags.

      2.      Cutting: Smooth out the milk bag and fold two or three times length-wise.
     

      Trim a few millimeters off the bottom of the bag so that it is now open on the bottom and the top. Starting at the bottom, cut width-wise approximately every inch. Stop cutting once you reach the crinkled-up part where the tag used to be. You can discard to the top of the bag from the crinkle up. You should now have several loops about an inch wide.

           

      Looping: To create the “yarn”, you will need to loop the bag pieces together. Open loop number one and pass about an inch of loop number two through the opening near one end. Then, open the short end of loop two and pass the long end through and pull tight (the plastic is strong and tighter knots will make crocheting easier). Repeat until you start to get a length of "yarn”.

      

      Start rolling the "yarn into a ball and stop looping once the ball is about the size of a grapefruit. Any bigger than this will make the crocheting difficult. You can continue by making more balls.

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It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

Eleanor Roosevelt

If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a month, get married. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help someone else.

Chinese Proverb

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Historical Notes: The United Church of Canada

This past month of June the United Church of Canada celebrated the 85th anniversary of the union of Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational congregations.

I remember nothing of the service itself, held June 10, 1925, but I do recall when we arrived home, my mother placing the hymnbook on the table and as she did so, she said “Now we are a united church.” She said it in such a way that I can hear – and remember - her words 85 years later. I would have been 7 ½ years old at the time.

Mildred Long

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Historical Notes: Trinity Choir

 

Sue Beemer, choir secretary, in the 1993 Trinity Choir Report, wrote: It was a very busy but a productive year for the choir. A talented group of singers and composers and musicians alike performed to provide our Trinity family with a ministry of music, which is much appreciated and loved. Trinity’s choir has a long tradition of being an integral part of the worship services. What follows is a brief description of a very few of the choir programs.

The choir began to sing two numbers at each service from 1964 under George Thorne which he stated  “brings into play latent talent within the choir.”

A Christmas Eve Carol Service was held in 1961 which evolved into a candlelight service led by the choir. The choir ventured to sing a Cantata “Wonder of Christmas” in 1973. Rehearsals had started in September for the presentation at Christmas. In 1983 an Easter Cantata “Man of Destiny” was added to the choir program.                      

For several years after 1973 the choir joined with Melville United Church, Fergus, for a Christmas program and presented their cantata. This association continued for about five years, including concerts at Arthur.

To raise funds for new music the choir began to sell United Church calendars in 1976 and in 1984 a cook book was produced and sold.

The McLaren family, as a memorial gift, provided the church with a new piano for the choir in 1977.

The new Baldwin 635 organ was purchased to coincide with the 25^th Anniversary of the church. It was dedicated in April 1980. The choir purchased new gowns to celebrate.

Next issue, the desert musicales and other choir events.

Ross W. Irwin

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At the end of June, four members of Unit #2 UCW made another excursion to IKEA in Burlington. We purchased four dozen juice and water glasses plus “sharp” knives for the Church Kitchen. Mind you it took us all day to purchase these items but a fun day for all involved.

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Thanks so much to everyone who sent cards or e-mail messages with greetings on our 50th wedding anniversary, July 16. They were symbols of a huge circle of friends that stretch across a good number of years.

It was great to have all of our family in the same place for one wonderful day.

Tom and Janice Watson

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Did you know eggs should NOT be boiled? Bring the eggs just to the boiling point. Turn off the heat and leave for 20 minutes. Immediately chill in cold water.

P.S. Older hard cooked eggs peel more easily that fresh eggs.

 

Use a pastry blender (cutter) to chop hard cooked eggs for egg salad sandwiches.

 

To keep leafy greens fresh for up to two weeks.

1. Wash and drain well

2. Wrap each half in paper towels

3. Store in a plastic bag

 

Store brown sugar in the freezer. A few seconds in the microwave will soften it for use.  No More brown sugar too hard to use!

 

Jean White

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      When I was a boy the Dead Sea was only sick.

George Burns

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400 Stevenson Street North, Guelph ON N1E 5C3

Telephone: 519-824-4800 FAX: 519-824-4205 Email: tuc@bellnet.ca

Website: www.trinityunitedguelph.ca

WORSHIP TIMES

Sunday Mornings: 9:00 am & 10:30 am
Please note: One Service ONLY at 10:00 am
from the Victoria Day Weekend in May to Labour Day Weekend in September

There is a nursery…available on the upper level next to the Upper Parlour.

Sunday School…is offered (September to June), beginning in the Sanctuary then moving to their classes following children’s time. Children may be picked up in their classes after the service of worship.

Trinity Sponsored Groups

Sunday School, Youth Group (Grade 6 to 12), Guides, Pathfinders & Rangers, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts & Venturers, Adult Study Group, Book Club, United Church Women (UCW), Womenkin, Art For The Soul, Quilters, Tuesday’s at Trinity, Therapeutic Touch, Trinity Choir, Trinity Prayer Shawl Ministry, ContacT PlacE, Sunshine Club, Volleyball

Groups Using Trinity Facilities

Gingerbread House Preschool, Dunara (Trinity House), Royal City Men’s Club,
Weight Watchers, Guelph GoGo Grandmothers (4Gs), Corduroy Road

ONGOING OUTREACH INVOLVEMENT

Mission & Service Fund, Guelph CORE Program, Tytler School “Morning Snacks” Program, Meals to At-Risk Youth (Previously Change Now)

We extend a Warm Welcome to All People

Copyright 2010 Trinity United Church of Canada
All rights reserved.