And the memories continue to come ...

Today in the inbox there was an email from another member of our vast extended family ... this one had some pictures attached.

We've had many emails and quite a few pictures. But these were a bit different - in this case it was pictures of the delivery of the refurbished pews when they were brought back to the church in 1997 ...

The attached email read:

As with so many people I have been saddened by the loss of the church. So many memories flood my mind; Sunday school, Christmas eve services, attending strawberry teas and 4H speeches, numerous family weddings and funerals-- My own wedding and the baptism of my daughter. I have been following the articles in the Brandon Sun and being kept informed by my siblings who still live in Minnedosa. Today in the mail (my sister) sent me a copy of the February 20 Minnedosa Tribune. As I read the articles and check the blog from time to time the beauty of the church comes to mind time and time again. More than once the beautiful stained glass windows, which will forever be etched in my and many other's minds I am sure, have been mentioned. At the time of my wedding I, like many young adults had not settled into a church of my own yet. I could not imagine having gotten married anywhere but Minnedosa United. The summer( August 1997) B--- and I got married the church was under going a bit of a facelift with new carpeting and the pews being refinished. When I approached Elgin Hall and tried to pick out a date he said the weekend I wanted was the first possible the church would be completed. As the date approached, the carpet was installed, but the pews were still being refurbished. Elgin told me at one point you can get married in the church but everyone one may have to stand. I have attached pictures of the pews being hauled down the street in front of the church only a few days before the wedding. The church was beautiful that day as always and when I look at the photos now of my wedding and my daughter's baptism these family treasures bring a new value and set of memories to me.

Such is the legacy of a building that for 105 years has stood at the heart (figuratively and literally) of our community here in Minnedosa ... I welcome other notes, photos and memories ... It reminds us that we've lost something special, but the memories remain ...

L'Chaim,

A reminder of what we lost ...

An email arrived at the office today from Ken Doerksen, the technician with Allen Organs, who came and installed our new organ a few short months ago i December of 2002 ...

I cried as I opened the email and was confronted with the interior shot of our Building ...

There are no words to describe the sorrow I feel looking again, even in a picture, at the beautiful sanctuary space that we've lost ... It was a warm and welcoming space that was great to worship in ... the organ and the piano (to the left in the picture) complimented the experience ...

Thanks Ken for the reminder ...

Being a Pilgrim People ... living the journey:

MINNEDOSA UNITED CHURCH
CLERGY: REV. SHAWN ANKENMANN
MINISTER EMERITUS: ELGIN HALL
ORGANIST: ELEANOR TAYLOR
CHOIR DIRECTOR: KENDRA FALLIS
MINISTRY: THE PEOPLE OF GOD GATHERED HERE
February 26th, 2006

GREETINGS ANNOUNCEMENTS MINUTE FOR MISSION

HYMN #105 Dust and Ashes Touch Our Face

CALL TO WORSHIP:
One: Everything that happens on earth happens at the time God choses.
Women:God sets the time for birth and the time for death.
Men: God sets the time for sorrow and the time for joy.
Women:the time for tearing and the time for mending.
Men: the time for scattering and the time for gathering.
Women:the time for seeking and the time for losing.
Men: the time for keeping silence and the time for speaking.
One: Everything that happens on earth,
ALL: HAPPENS AT THE TIME WITHIN GOD’S CARE.

PRAYER OF APPROACH:

One: People of God, Celebrate the life that lies within you !
ALL: STANDING ON THE MOUNTAIN, OUR EYES SHALL BE OPENED.
One: People of God, bow your heads before the Holy One
who is our wisdom and our strength.
ALL: THE PRESENT SHALL HAVE NEW MEANING,
AND THE FUTURE WILL BE BRIGHT WITH HOPE.
One: People of God, place yourself before our God,
ALL: THAT WE MAY BE TOUCHED AND RENEWED
BY THE POWER OF GOD’S SPIRIT. AMEN.

HYMN #612 There Is a Balm in Gilead

PRAYER FOR WHOLENESS:

One: Glorious and ever loving God,
Your thoughts are not our thoughts,
And your ways are not our ways …
Yet, you look into the ugliest soul and see
The wings of angels yet to be unfurled …
ALL: WE SCAN THE FINEST OF OUR NEIGHBOURS,
ANXIOUS TO FIND THE FLAW…
One: Tender and caring God, your view time from the context of eternity,
And find a place for waiting … for yearning … for suffering … and for dying …
ALL: WE DEMAND INSTANT RESULT;
AND LOOK TO TOMORROW BEFORE SAVOURING TODAY.
One: Ever present God, you know that only one who suffers can ultimately save,
That is why you walk the way of the cross and lead us on …
ALL: WE FEAR THAT VULNERABLITY THAT DEFIES POWER,
AND SO WE JOIN THE CRY FOR CRUCIFIXION OF OTHERS.
One: your thoughts are not our thoughts …
ALL: AND YOUR WAYS ARE NOT OUR WAYS …
One: And yet we know that your way is the ladder to heaven,
ALL: LEFT TO OUR OWN DEVICES,
OUR WAYS WILL SLOPE DOWN INTO THE DARKNESS OF DESPAIR …
One: But we are here, not to have our worst comfirmed,
But to have our best liberated and set free …
And so we pray:
ALL: FORGIVE IN US WHAT HAS GONE WRONG,
REPAIR IN US WHAT HAS BEEN WASTED,
REVEAL IN US WHAT REMAINS GOOD …
One: Holy One, our friend and our companion,
Nourish us with better food than we could ever purchase:
ALL: YOUR WORD,
YOUR LOVE,
YOUR INSPIRATION,
YOUR DAILY BREAD FOR OUR LIFE’S JOURNEY.
One: In the company of Jesus the Christ, we pray …
ALL: AMEN.

HYMN #299 Teach me, God, to Wonder

THE STORY STOOL:

HYMN #395 Come In, Come In and Sit Down

Scripture Readings: Mark 9:2-9 & Psalm 50 (pg 775 Voices United)

CHOIR ANTHEM: COME BUILD A CHURCH

REFLECTION: “Looking up from the valley … It’s a long road …”

Today is Transfiguration Sunday, the last Sunday before we draw close to the beginning of Lent. Wednesday is Ash Wednesday … the day of penitence – the day when we begin the journey to the events of Holy week and Easter. Today is a reading about a mountain top experience that begins our Lenten journey – today mountain top experiences are somewhat lacking in our midst – but we know they will come … Yet, saying all of that, I will also acknowledge in many ways, we as a community have been on our Lenten Journey for the last two weeks…

The imagery of dust and ashes has for obvious reasons, been looming large in our life as a faith community and as a community at large. The taking stock of the past and what we once were about is also a dominant theme in much of what we are doing and will be doing in a few minutes after lunch …

BUT, as an Easter people, our Lenten journey will be one that is heavy on the journey part … everything we do as a community of faith right now involves securing a place, moving people and resources and gathering … we are a pilgrim people on a journey that will stretch ahead of us for more then just the 40 days traditionally associated with Lent … Our journey could take considerably longer then 40 days … but we’ll do it together as we journey closer and closer to the resurrection that is promised.

Today, perhaps like no other time in the life of this community, we are forced to really consider what it is that is important in our faith journey … what words do we speak, and what do they mean? …what ideas do we share, and how do they affect our lives directly?

No longer do we merely say – we are a pilgrim people … or we are a people of the resurrection … today we are being forced through our circumstances, to live the very words that a few weeks ago rolled off our tongue so easily …

The reality is though, that right now, as we await the promised resurrection, we have a long road ahead of us up the mountain … Our Gospel reading has Jesus taking three of his intimate friends up to the top of a mountain. The mountain that is thought to be the place the Transfiguration happened, is one that stands like a huge pimple on the vast plains of Jezreel (or to modern folks – the plains of Armageddon).

The Jesus and the group climb to the top of the mountain, and suddenly he is transformed – his clothes become bleach white and light seems to glow all around him … The disciples are totally bewildered. Everything they knew is suddenly up for grabs … in this moment nothing seems to make any sense (this is not a moment that we can relate to at ALL!)

And so, Jesus is transfigured and all the disciples can manage is for Peter to offer to build a shelter for Jesus, Moses and Elijah … The disciples are standing in the midst of a profoundly holy moment – before them are the two great prophets of Moses and Elijah and Peter says –“It’s good we’re here … let’s build them a shelter …”
Clearly Peter didn’t grasp the moment. All around him is utter holiness and he’s focusing on the mundane … let’s build a shelter to preserve the moment …

Peter is so much like us – we feel overwhelmed and begin to focus on the little tiny details we become distracted … The danger in our distraction in the situation we find ourselves in, is that we can quickly be overwhelmed by things and feelings that are less then helpful … I have heard over the last few days more and more expressions of anger and what can be only described as hatred towards those who have put us in this situation … It is understandable, and in the journey from loss to wholeness, anger is a normal and natural part of the healing journey. But we can not let anger be our dominant emotion …

Martin Luther King once spoke of love and said that we are called to love on the level that God loves. We love another, not because we like them, not because their ways and actions appeal to us – we love them because God loves them … He then went on to muse that he for one was very happy that it didn’t say – “like your enemy … but love your enemy …” He noted that love is the stronger easier emotion – he said, he couldn’t like anyone burning down his house, he couldn’t like anyone beating him and leaving him for dead in the dark of night – he couldn’t like those who would enact violence against them – but he would LOVE them.

He challenged those filled with anger and hate to do their worst to him and those agitating for justice – and he would still love them … his reason was simple – he said – “we shall match your capacity to inflict suffering, with our capacity to endure suffering … and in the process we will so touch your hearts that we will win over and you will be changed …”

Transformation … anger and hate are too great a burden to bear – instead we rise to the level of love – we love those who would burn down our Church because we can afford only to offer pity to them … we haven’t got time for anger – it takes too much energy from the work we have before us …

In offering love (true love that we share with those who like are us are children of God), we name and recognize that something, or someone, somewhere so deeply hurt those young people, that they were filled with a blind rage towards all things religious … and in acting on that rage they were trying to ease that pain. I feel no anger towards those suspected of burning down our Church Building – I feel profound sadness to them, in that they never took the time to understand who the community was that looked to that building as home … had they gotten to know this community they would have been met with love and care rather then hypocrisy and cruelty … And so, may anger is towards those people, places and institutions that hurt and wound someone so deeply, that they would even for a moment consider an action like burning down a Church building …

I have no time nor energy for anger or hate … Instead I seek and I work for that moment on the mountain top when we (all of us together) are transfigured – transformed – resurrected – and feel only love … love NOT like. I would find it hard to like the three suspected of burning down our spiritual home – but I (and all of us) can love them … Love is the understanding, redemptive, creative, good will towards all people that seeks nothing in return … when we love on this level, we will love because God loves us, not because the ways of other appeal to us, but because we wish for them the healing and wholeness and grace that we ourselves have shared …

It’s not an easy road – but it is the road we are called and challenged to live … anger is healthy and natural and timely, but we can not – we must not stop in our anger. We must continue to journey forward to the moment of transformation where we are ABLE to love, even those who have enacted violence against us …

It is easy to be like Peter and to get caught up in the mundane – but today we are called and challenged to let the Holiness of the Transfiguration wash over us so completely that we live out this experience of Holiness …

The path we find ourselves on is not a simple or an easy path … there will be moments when some of us stumble and fall … there will be times when we get too tired to continue … there will be moments when we want to give up … but in those moments – when our steps falter – we will realize that we are not alone: we are on this journey together, and WE will together help to carry one another forward along the way … There is much to do, and the journey ahead is long – we haven’t got time for anything BUT love …

May it be so, thanks be to God … Let us pray …

OFFERING:

OFFERTORY:

HYMN # 477: I Come With Joy

SERVICE OF COMMUNION:
One: We thank you God,
for in the beginning, you set the world on its course;
you led your people into freedom,
and gave them a way to walk in peace and justice.
And so we sing with all who have travelled this road before.
Holy, holy . . . (music on insert Stratdee tune)

One: When we were lost,
you came in Jesus, our companion and guide,
who shows us your way and invites us to follow.
Before his last journey,
to the cross and death,
our Lord gathered his friends for supper . . .
Let us remember together that vision of God’s reign
shown to us in Jesus at table:
ALL: HE SHARED FOOD WITH FOLLOWERS AND FRIENDS,
One: with saints and sinners,
ALL: WITH CROWDS OF THOUSANDS ON THE HILLSIDE,
One: and a few friends in an upper room.
ALL: ON THE NIGHT BEFORE HE DIED,
HE HAD SUPPER WITH HIS COMPANIONS.
One: He took a loaf of bread, and after giving thanks,
he broke it, and gave it to them, saying:
ALL: “TAKE, EAT.
DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME.”
One: Then, he took a cup, and after giving thanks,
he passed it among them, saying:
ALL: “DRINK THIS.
DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME.”
One: Through this loaf and cup, Jesus lives within us.
ALL: IN WORD AND DEED, JESUS LIVES AMONG US.

SHARING OF THE BREAD AND THE WINE:

HYMN #467 One Bread, One Body
(to be sung during the sharing of Communion)

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION:
ALL: WE THANK YOU GOD
FOR YOUR PRESENCE HERE AT THIS TABLE
AND FOR YOUR COMPANIONSHIP ON ALL OUR JOURNEYS.
SANCTIFY THE COMMITMENTS WE HAVE MADE.
BLESS US ON OUR WAY THROUGH LENT,
TO THE CROSS, AND BEYOND.
WE PRAY IN THE NAME AND SPIRIT OF JESUS. AMEN.

HYMN #471 Eat This Bread and Never Hunger

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE THE LORD’S PRAYER

HYMN #649 Walk with Me

COMMISSIONING/BENEDICTION
Lent is the time to take the time
to let the power of our faith story take hold of us,
A time to let the events
get up and walk around in us,
A time to intensify
our loving unto Christ,
A time to hover over
the thoughts of our hearts,
A time to ponder and a time to wonder …

A time to move and journey:
from darkness to light
from dust to flesh
from endings to beginnings
from beginnings to endings
from mourning to dancing
from sorrow to joy
from power to weakness
from weakness to strength
from strangers to family
from death to life
from nothing to everything.

Lent is a time to allow for a fresh new taste of God in our lives …
Go in peace, the world is waiting …

The worship has ended…
…the work of God’s people has just begun
Go in peace
==========================================================
ANNOUNCEMENTS

Reminder of the potluck lunch downstairs following our worship service, and following lunch we will be having our Annual General Meeting … There’s a few noteworthy items on the New Business agenda …

Bible Study: Fridays 10 am in the meeting room of the Minnedosa Library – all are welcome.

Choir Practice – Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. at the Covenant Church.

UCW St Patrick’s Day Tea and Bazaar – Saturday, March 18th at the Ukranian Hall.

World Day of Prayer – Friday March 3rd, 2 p.m. at the Calvary Church.

Spring Supper/Smorg – Sunday, March 26 @ MCCC. Further details will be mailed next week.

Pandemic Planning – The Minnedosa Chamber of Commerce and Basswood Women’s Institute is hosting a presentation on Wednesday, March 1st from 11:30 – 1:00 in the lower room of the Curling Complex. Guest Speaker will be Neil Gamey, Manager Pandemic Preparedness, ARHA. All are welcome. Contact Beth McNabb for further details.

With the relocation of our worship services, we’ve realized that some may be in need of a ride to our services here at St Alphonsus … If you are able to provide rides for those needing them, please let the office know … OR, if you are in need of a ride, please let us know and we’ll help make arrangements. What better way to get to know one another??

Thanks again to the many volunteers who came and helped retrieve a vast array of stuff from the Church Centre prior to its demolition this past week … And thanks to all those who have offered to help, and those who prayed and those who held us in their thoughts … we’re on a journey just beginning, and in the care of each other, we’re in good hands. L’chaim

And the Good News is ...

Following our worship service and our lunch, the Congregation held it's Annual General Meeting, and spent the last half of the meeting discussing the events of the last couple of weeks.The result was: An affirmation of the recommendation to rebuild.

Now, the planning, dreaming and so forth begins in earnest ... Donations will be gratefully accepted, (they can be made at any Royal Bank in the land, and they WILL get to us - or locally the RBC or the Minnedosa Credit Union)

There is a long road ahead of us - and we will begin it with each step ... In time, the Church of Minnedosa United will replace its building, for now, we're building a Church - one person at a time.

L'chaim

Stair way to nowhere ...

Today the clearing of the foundation continued ... the stairs were finally gone by sunset ...

It's sad to see the last vestiges of the building disappear... we can speak of what will arise in its place, and we are already talking of rebuilding (it isn't official until tomorrow's Congregational Meeting) ... but it still hurts to be confronted with the simple fact that something that stood for over a century has been wrenched from us in such a senseless way ...

The response from our community here in Minnedosa has been great ... the response from across the province and the country has been great ... and even the responses from around the world have been great. I've said over and over, that we are NOT alone ... and the last two week shows us this over and over and over ... But it still hurts ... To go down the street and NOT see the building that has so dominated Main St for most of the town's history is a dull ache ...

In 100 years, people will look on what we raise in place of what we lost, and feel of it, as we felt of the old Church Building ... in time we will experience a transformation - a resurrection, to use the proper Churchy term ... but right now, it's about letting our wounds heal ... Until spring there will be a vacant lot on Main St ... until we break ground maybe we'll do something interesting there ... maybe in the warm weather we'll even hold some services and events there ... but until them, like the loss of a loved one - we will ache for what once was ...

In the mean time, the more mundane things continue ... today I borrowed a van (I won't bore you with our vehicle challenges !!) and drove to Brandon to pick up a table to use as a desk in my office ... I spent the afternoon in the offices with Hannah (my 9 yr old), putting together shelves and the table, and unpacking boxes of books ... (I have ALOT of books !!) ... by the time we went home for supper, the space that will be my office was beginning to look like an office ... I have another shelf coming on Tuesday or so, and with that, I will have most of my books unpacked.

I said in 2000 when we moved from BC, that I had no intention of doing "this" again anytime soon ... Hannah commented, "well, you're gonna have to do it again sometime soon ..."

Such is the hope in which we live ... the path may be hard and require alot of work and effort ... but as we live out the resurrection, we know that our work and efforts will NOT be in vain ...

Tomorrow we worship again in a borrowed sanctuary ... and tomorrow we begin to vision what will be ... the path to the resurrection beckons ... one little step at a time ...

L'chaim

The ripples continue to spread ...

I know that there are folks reading this from all over ... the counter is fascinating to check every once in awhile to see where the "hits" here are from ... But today an email arrived that stopped me short and made me appreciate and realize that the family who called the Church HOME is vast and spread literally around the world ...

I recieved a note of thanks from a local resident, who shared in her email a note from her daughter who is truly half a world away right now ... The words of the daughter are so eloquent and so poignant, that they need to be shared ... I won't say the names (they will know who they are, as will their family) unless I'm told it's okay ... For now - here are the words of a young woman who dares to ask the question - WHY ?? And who, like us grieve the loss of a friend and family member who has always been there to comfort and help us ...

From far off Cambodia we hear these awesome words:

dear mom,
so, here i am in an internet cafe in cambodia sobbing
about the loss of a church. i think that it is a
combination of all the emotions i have been feeling
this week and this sad loss of a place that holds so
many memories of me and the people i love.

this week i have seen sights that i could never
imagine seeing. the memorials and museums that mark
the genocide and civil war that have plagued this
country's history cannot do anything but effect the
deepest corner of your soul. humanity has been very
cruel to this corner of the world.

why do people kill each other? why do people burn
down houses of worship? these are questions which i
cannot find the answers to. of course, the loss of a
building pales in comparison to the loss of thousands
of lives, but it is still based on cruelty and
complete disrespect for other people.

i can't believe the church is gone. i can't believe
how much this is effecting me. well, i suppose i can.
i spent many hours in that place.

How can we keep from singing ...

Tonight, in the Covenant Church, our choir gathered for their first Thursday night practise since the fire ... Talk about singing the Lord's song in a strange land ... we will worship in the Catholic Church, the UCW are holding their teas in the Ukrainian Hall, our offices are in a borrowed commercial space, the Bible Study will happen in the Library meeting room, and the choir will practise in the Covenant Church ... it is a friendly land - but it is NOT our home with all of us gathered under one roof ...

The good news for today is that the grand old dame is NOT giving up without a fight ... the Front stairs are 1/3 gone, after a long day with a jack hammer - maybe tomorrow they will make some headway ... the stone foundations are still there, even after four days of pounding with the back hoe ... Tomorrow the site will in all likelihood, cleared and the final filling in of the hole will be completed.

Another highlight for today was the recovery of more packages of choir music from the remains of the basement, along with a variety of plaques and awards that belonged to the senior and junior choir ... We're not sure whether any of the music will be salvagable - many of the packages have been water damaged and tattered - but even if only one copy of music from each package can be saved, it is a beginning ...

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the vast music collection in Minnedosa United Church's basement ... well, immense is only a beginning. There was a cupboard that stood atleast eight feet high, and five or six feet wide, and on tiny little shelves lay yellow legal sized envelopes, all labelled and stacked alphabetically from floor to ceiling and wall to wall. There were literally hundreds of pieces of music - thousands of individual pieces ...

The loss of music alone is staggering ... along with the sets of music were older books, cantatas and other things like the red and blue hymn books ... To be part of bringing some of the material up out of the debris allows me to feel like I'm offering something back to a group of people who give so much to the ministry of our Congregation ... The dirt on my hands and clothes is a small price to pay to say thank you to Eleanor and all the very able people in our choir ... it is a heritage and legacy of this Congregation that deserves to continue ...

My other highlight today come in procuring a nice table and two chairs that will serve as my desk and seat for my office ... now that my books are out and up I want to get a work space organized and set up in our new digs ...

The hole where our 105 year old building, and all its additions once stood will soon be filled, and in coming days we will begin dreaming and planning of what will rise in her place ... the journey ahead will be challenging, but the people of Minnedosa United Church are good people, and we WILL get through this together ... So, knowing and trusting in that - How can we not sing the Lord's song, even in this strange and homeless land we find ourselves in???

L'Chaim

From the ashes ...

The sun was shining all day, and the temperatures were warm ... and before the day ended, we had a gift from out of the ashes ...

The back hoe was working hard today, and by the end of the day only the foundation of the Churhc Sanctuary and the Centre remained, with a little bit of debris left to be cleared. The stones of the steps and the foundation are holding tough even against the back hoe.

But the highlight of the day came around 5 pm when I stopped by the site on the way to pick up Hannah (my daughter) from Gymnastics at the school, and was standing watching the back hoe load the dump truck - and then, suddenly, I noticed some music books fluttering in the debris ... I pointed and Clint (the owner operator of the excavation company) hopped down and took a look ...

We had found some of the choir's vast collection of music ... Clint directed the back hoe driver to pick through the debris so we could get a better look and recover some of the music ... It is simply amazing how deft the back hoe operator was - something so big and so powerful could literally pick through the debris, and as a reult four big boxes of music - frozen, tattered, blackened, but relatively intact music was recovered !!!!

I haven't taken time to look through it, but called Eleanor, our organist and some of our choir people to let them know, and to tell them where to pick up the music ... No telling whether anythign is salvagable - but we can likely salvage something, or even recopy some of the music ... Right now, it's a start.

The other treasures we salvaged today were a metal support from the choir chairs, a small charred chunk from the front of one of our beautiful oak pews, and a granite clock face given to the Church fro the Brandon Conservatory Choir ... one a lone copy of the old blue Hymnary ... Earlier in the day one of the dump truck drivers retrieved the flags for the Scouting groups unscathed and intact ...

It's been an interesting day. Tomorrow the foundation will be taken ot and the steps will be broken up and removed ... in time the site will be leveled and only the church sign will be left.

I spent some time in the afternoon begining to unpack my books and get them on shelves. I realized today that I have some books that I want to use in preparing my services ... so, with a working library back on the shelves, I'm ready ...

Like the last ten days, we mark this journey in small steps. But today, it was a musical step worthy of a jig or two. I hope some of the music we hauled out was salvagable. I hope it will be a step towards retoring the vast catalogue of music that our Senior Choir has amassed over the last few decades ... In the mean time, we keep moving forward ...

Our journey continues ...
L'chaim,

Today we move to the mundane...

The back hoes continued their work today. The Centre, left standing in the fire, has been leveled, and hauled away. Everything salvagable was pulled out yesterday and today the crew from Moffats' (a local company) worked hard and have the Centre down to the bare cement foundation. Tomorrow they try to remove the concrete and the foundation and get to work on the sanctuary portion of the site.

Today we got back to the mundane ... I took my gowns and stoles to the cleaners along with a handmade banner that was hanging in the Centre through the fire. The clothing just stinks of smoke, the banner has some discolouration. The cleaners wouldn't make any promises, but in conversation with Elgin (my predecessor) who designed the banner, and Gladys, who made it, we felt that it will help to add to the lineage of the banner, not take away from it.

Such is the journey back ... we take our little steps and give thanks for the small achievements as they come, and all the rest we give back to God ...

The one highlight for me actually came yesterday, but eased my load in preparing for a memorial service today. I went into the office in the afternoon yesterday saying the prayer: "Dear God, I haven't asked for much, but today I need three things ... I need the service for Mrs-------, who had predeceased her husband a couple of years ago ... I need my resource files for memorials, ... and I need the books I use for funerals ..."

I stepped into the office and began sorting through the hodge-podge of boxes that are piled around the the office in NO PARTICULAR order ... and unbelievably found them ... It made today's task easier ...

Tonight I realized that I Have had some of my prayers of late answered ... On the Sunday of the fire I said the simple prayer - "Please God, let the offices be spared ..." My concern was for the historical records and documents that I knew where there ... Thankfully, and remarkably, the offices WERE spared.

Yesterday I offered the selfish prayer for some pieces of paper and somehow I found them ... Tonight's prayer is for the crew that are clearing the debris ... "If it is meant to be, I hope that we will be able to find some of the memorial and dedication plaques, and the four missing hand bells ..." I will leave it in the hands of our God ...

Lately we've been richly blessed, so I have no desire to push it ... but it would be nice to be able to put in a place of honour, the plaques and hand bells and other items that survived the inferno - but that is entirely up to God.

Much of what has gone on, has been in the hands of God, and after the last week and a half, that's a really good place to be ...

Tomorrow will be a new day ... and tomorrow we will again put one foot in front of another and see where we end up ... the joy is in the journey ...

L'Chaim

rev. shawn

Today ... we buried a friend ...

I've been saying that we would mark this journey in little steps - today, we marked the journey with tiny fragments ... tiny fragments of glass.

One of the outstanding features of the Sanctuary of Minnedosa United Church was its outstanding and beautiful stained glass windows. There were a variety of windows dedicated to the lives of those saints who have gone before us. One window - the showpiece, was a glorious rendition of Jesus knocking at the door, dedicated to the pioneers of Minnedosa on the 50th Anniversary of the Church. Sadly, we had just finished restoring and rehanging it in the fall ...

Today I was joined in the basement by Sarah Burton, a young woman who has deep roots in the community and the Church ... we carefully picked tiny fragments of coloured glass from along the foundation walls below where there were once windows. We marked our progress, not by big glittering chunks of glass, but by find small discoloured fragments of what until a little over a week ago, were glorious works of art ... After a hard, and very cold morning of work we amassed a small box full of shards and fragments, Sarah has taken them to her mother who will in time do "something" with them, and in time Jean's creation will hang somewhere in our new home ...

While Sarah and I searched in the ice and snow and ashes for glass fragments, dozens of others came and emptied the building of all remaining furniture, the kitchen and anything else that could be salvaged. (For those who know the building, and those who don't - we were very fortunate that the renovations completed in 2004, meant that the fire stopped in the foundation of the main sanctuary and didn't spread into the Church Centre, where the new kitchen, the offices and a variety of storage spaces were ... Over the last week, we've moved and cleaned and sorted through a wide variety of things and reclaimed much that would have been lost otherwise.)

A little after noon the back hoes moved in and began to load up and haul away the debris that a week ago what a much beloved church sanctuary ... by sun down the back hoe had knocked the Church Centre to the ground and tomorrow the hauling continues ...

I stand tonight amazed at how utterly devestating a fire can be ... over and over we hope to find something - anything ... but over and over we are struck at how total and complete the fire's destruction has been ... while it spared the Centre, it consumed almost everything else ...

Today, as I said, we mark our journey not by tiny steps, but by tiny fragments ... after school my nine year old daughter Hannah helped pick out some other fragments of glass from below the heritage window ... like archeologists, we dig through debris hoping for a great treasure, but valuing the tiny shards as though they were gold ... and today, they are more precious then gold ...

On a journey just begun ... L'Chaim,

Today we sing our song in a borrowed home ...

MINNEDOSA UNITED CHURCH
CLERGY: REVEREND SHAWN ANKENMANN
ORGANIST: ELEANOR TAYLOR
CHOIR DIRECTOR: KENDRA FALLIS
MINISTRY: ALL OF US GATHERED HERE …
February 19th 2006
“On a Journey just begun …”
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DEDICATION OF NEW VOICES UNITED HYMN BOOKS:

One: In memory and honour of the Saints who have gone
before us, and who have formed the community
that has lived and moved and had it’s being on Main Street,
we present these hymn books to be dedicated to the glory and praise of God.
Choir: For 105 years, music has lifted our spirits and comforted our souls.
ALL: THROUGH MUSIC WE HAVE GLORIFIED OUR GOD.
One: Today we replace some of what we have lost.
Today we open books that are new and strange to us,
yet that are known and familiar.
ALL: TO THE SERVICE AND GLORY OF GOD WE COMMIT AND DEDICATE
THESE BOOKS FOR USE AMONG US AS WE JOURNEY FORWARD,
THE PEOPLE OF GOD AT WORSHIP AS MINNEDOSA UNITED CHURCH.
One: And so our journey begins, we count our losses, and
our gains, we mark our journey in tiny steps …
Loving God, giver of song, bless the use of these books we dedicate today.
May we sing our hymns, share our psalms
and mark the moments of life together in worship and in music …
ALL: AMEN.

HYMN: #332 The Church’s One Foundation

AND SO IT BEGINS …
(Reading of the Letter from Jim Sinclair)
One: On the morning of Sunday February 12th 2006, we awoke to the news that our 105 year old sanctuary had been consumed by a deliberately set fire. As the dawn broke over the edge of the valley, we gathered to confront the enormity of our loss …

Hymn: #182 Stay With us Through the Night

One: It has been less then a week … the smoke has cleared
and with it comes the realization that we have become a homeless people,
a people wandering into the uncertainty of tomorrow, uncertain, angry and confused …
ALL: HOLY ONE, STAY WITH US.
One: We have begun to tally our losses … the memories, the treasures,
the moments shared within a building that has loomed large over our community
physically and spiritually.
ALL: HOLY ONE, STAY WITH US.
One: Today we gather before God to worship …
in our hands are books that are not the same as the one’s we used short days ago …
we sit in pews that do not have the familiar feel of those we called home short days ago … around us, are none of the familiar things of our spiritual home …
ALL: HOLY ONE STAY WITH US.
One: Like the people of Israel, we are homeless and wandering …
dependent upon the care and support of one another and our neighbours …
ALL: HOLY ONE STAY WITH US.
One: Today we begin to realize what it is that we have lost …
the lists we compile are long and range from
Sunday school scissors to our majestic organ…
our losses pile up and threaten to overwhelm us …
Yet, in the midst of our shock and grief, we name what we have not lost:
ALL: EACH OTHER …
Choir: The song within our soul.
AOTS & UCW: Our desire to serve.
Bible Study: Our yearning to learn.
ALL: OUR CARING FOR EACH OTHER AND THE WORLD.
One: We have lost much. But we have not lost the Church, we have not lost each other.
We have not lost the community that called our building home.
ALL: HOLY ONE STAY WITH US.
One: The journey ahead will be difficult,
but together we shall face it and its challenges,
and together we shall find the place of healing and wholeness …
ALL: HOLY ONE STAY WITH US …

HYMN: #105 Dust and Ashes Touch our Face.

PSALM 137 – Voices United page 858

Prayer for Wholeness:
One: Holy One, the smell of smoke lingers among us,
the taste of ash is bitter on our tongue …
ALL: WHY O HOLY ONE, WHY?
HAVE WE DISPLEASED YOU ?
HAVE YOU ABANDONED US?
WHY O HOLY ONE, WHY??
One: The question lies heavy in our souls …What once was, is no longer …
the security of our past has been wrenched from us …
the certainty and comfort of the familiar is suddenly gone …
ALL: BENEATH US IS SHIFTING SAND …
AROUND US IS ONLY CONFUSION AND HURT …
One: Be with us in this hour and in the days ahead Loving God,
hold us in our moments of anguish, soothe us in our moments of anger.
Take from us our taste for revenge and guide us to the path of resurrection …
Men: Resurrection.
Women: It means Transformation.
Men: Resurrection?
Women: It means new beginnings.
Men: Resurrection!
Women: It means rebirth and life anew …
ALL: RESURRECTION !!
WE ARE EASTER PEOPLE,
PEOPLE OF THE RESURRECTION.
One: Easy words … a harder journey …
ALL: IN THE COMING DAYS O GOD, BE WITH US AS WE STEP INTO TOMORROW.
HOLD US IN OUR WEAKNESS.
SUPPORT US IN OUR ANGUISH.
BE WITH US AS WE WALK THE PATH OF RESURRECTION …
One: The Journey ahead will not be easy …
ALL: THE JOURNEY WILL BE MADE EASIER BY TREADING IT TOGETHER …
One: Are we alone?
ALL: WE ARE NOT ALONE …
(IN UNISON: The New Creed – Bulletin Cover)

HYMN: #166 Joy Comes With the Dawn
Scripture Reading: Psalm 147 (part 1) Pg. 868 Voices
Mark 2:1-12

CHOIR ANTHEM: Psalm 91 - On Eagles' Wings (pg 808 Voices United)
REFLECTION: “What’s important ??”

So, How was your week ?
To say that this past week has been eventful is to understate the obvious … Today is a good day … we have been given the gift of a place to worship … we have our offices up and running … and yesterday we were fortunate to have hosted a concert by Ron Klusmeier and company wherein through music, we celebrate the Church year …
But today, today we turn our faces to face the uncertainty of the future, and all that it offers and promises … today we count our losses, but more importantly, today we claim the promise and potential that this past week represents.
Will we rebuild? Well, that’s a decision for you, the people that are Minnedosa United Church to decide in coming days … For now, we are a Church that is homeless … our roots, our place – our axis mundi, to use a fancy theological term – has been ripped from us … yet, here we stand – the people of God – part of the vast family of God … and we can say with faith and with certainty, that we simply are not alone: God is with us in this place, and in all the places that we find ourselves. We are not alone.
Those are easy words to say – harder words to live. Yet, they are central to who we are, and who we’ve always been. The idea that God is with us, even in the moments of darkness and in the depths of despair, are found throughout the scriptures. The Israelite people – the Jewish faith, understand the idea of being homeless and feeling abandoned by God. Throughout their history, they have encountered, lived and overcome moments when they felt abandoned and utterly alone …
For 40 years they wandered through the desert, yearning to go home to the land promised to their ancestors. Then they entered the land, built a society, built their houses, and even built the vast temple that stood on the hills of Jerusalem.
But then in the 5th Century BC, the temple was flattened by the Babylonians, and the people lamented their loss. The words of Psalm 137 come from that experience of being hundreds of miles from home, knowing that home isn’t there any more … the psalmist sat in Babylon, many kilometers from home yearning to be back in Jerusalem in a home that was no longer there …
It is a sentiment that today many of us can relate to …
Yet in time, the Jewish people returned to the land of Israel and rebuilt their homes and the temple. In time the temple became an exquisite place of worship and life. The Temple rebuilt by Herod was described as a beautiful structure of white marble adorned generously with gold. It is said to shine in the bright Mediterranean sunshine.
Yet, in 70 CE the Roman legions marched on Jerusalem and utterly destroyed the city and the beautiful temple that loomed over it … To grasp the enormity of the loss to the people of Israel, we must realize that every aspect of life in Israel revolved around the temple … Socially, religiously, economically, and (dare I say it) politically – the temple was at the very heart of the Jewish people. Even when occupying armies came and crushed the people, the temple was the refuge where the people could gather before God and preserve what it was that was important to them in the face of a world gone mad.
But in 70 AD, in a few short hours – all of that changed. The Romans came and set the temple and the city aflame … the inferno was so intense and so hot that limestone blocks disintegrated … the fire was so intense that today in many corners of the city you can still see the visual evidence of the fire. Walls and stones are scorched black from the inferno 19 Centuries ago – archeologists can identify where arches and buildings stood by the patterns their destruction left …
Then for 19 Centuries, the Jewish people wandered homeless across the face of the planet – and for 19 Centuries they put their hope of return in one simple statement: “Next Year in Jerusalem.”
At Passover each year they toasted their well being and said – “next year in Jerusalem,” at Bar Mitzvah’s where boys became men, they proclaimed their hope – “Next year in Jerusalem,” at Sabbath dinners they proclaimed their certainty – “next year in Jerusalem.” Over and over they said the simple words – “Next year in Jerusalem,” until in 1948 that moment finally came to pass and the Jewish nation returned to Jerusalem …
Today we share a similar cry … I have no desire to walk with you into 19 Centuries of exile, wandering homeless (I think it is safe to say that our sisters and brothers at St Alphonsus will throw us out long before that). But our journey may take 19 weeks or even 19 months …
Today we share the cry of homelessness and the certainty of faith that comes from knowing that God has NOT abandoned us on this journey …
ON Wednesday at Presbytery when we gathered with our sisters and brothers of faith from across West Man including folks from Brandon Hills and Central United in Brandon, both places that lost their homes to fire – we were affirmed in our journey and offered support and care. But the wisest words I heard came from Rev. Boyd Drake from Rapid City and Cadurcis … Boyd reflected on the reading from Mark and said – “the job of Presbytery right now is to carry you folks in Minnedosa over our heads to the place of healing …” He went on to observe that Brandon Hills, getting ready to build their new building, are almost there – they are being lowered through the roof – but we have a ways to go. But in time we will arrive at the house and hands from across the region and the country will help to tear open the roof and lower us into the place of healing that is promised …
There will be moments when the distance between here and there – that place of healing seems vast and uncrossable. But we ARE being born on the shoulders of our sisters and brothers of faith … like the good folks of St Alphonsus who have generously and graciously given us space, we have many others who have made offers and are truly carrying us forward.
We are on a journey that will be marked by small steps and achievements. But we are on a journey forward. There will be moments when we stumble, when we feel too tired to continue – but in those moments hands will reach out and lift us and carry us forward.
Today, we are a homeless people. But in our homelessness, we’ve discovered what is really important. On February 12th 2006 dawn came and revealed to us the destruction of our 105 year old sanctuary. In the media, they’ve said – “the United Church in Minnedosa burned down.”
Today we are showing each other, our community and the world – that the CHURCH in Minnedosa didn’t burn down. We are the Church. What we lost was, in the words of one of the many emails we’ve received – our clubhouse where we gathered and stored our stuff …
Today the Clubhouse we called home is gone. But we’ve been fortunate that much of our stuff was spared … we’ve lost a lot. But we haven’t lost each other …
In the coming days our journey – our exile – will be challenging. But we will remember and we will celebrate that we are not alone: God is with us, we are with one another, and from the phone calls, the emails and the letters that have poured in – the Children of God are with us.
Our journey has and will be a challenge, but at the end of the day – we’ve only lost a building … no lives were lost, and in time we WILL rebuild.
The promise of the Resurrection is not a promise of immediate healing and restoration. Sometimes the resurrection requires, and even demands some work on our part … We’re in it. There is work to be done, but personally, I can’t imagine being in a better place with any better people then those who I have been blessed to call friends over the last few years …
We are on a journey just begun … we are wandering homeless and uncertain … but as we’ve sung today, as we will sing in the coming days – the promise of resurrection is there for us to claim and live. And in the hours and days since the fire – we’ve been living the resurrection … In the coming days when we falter, there WILL be many hands to support and carry us …
That is the promise of our faith – that is the promise of the family of which we are a part …the family that WILL carry us when we grow weary …
Resurrection – it’s only a building – forgiveness – rising again … they’re easy words to say – they are harder words to live. But with the help of God and God’s children we WILL live those words and we will again mark life’s transitions and passages in a home to call our own …
The Jewish faith use the term – “L’chaim” To Life, to take stock not of their losses, but to celebrate their gains. For 19 Centuries they toasted and celebrated themselves by saying – “L’Chaim” … in the coming days may we have the courage and the faith to celebrate that the United Church of Minnedosa has not burned down – we’ve merely been temporarily rendered homeless. The fire burned down our building – it didn’t burn down the church … The Church survived and we WILL endure and we WILL live the Resurrection … easy words to say – but we WILL live them out in the coming days … L’chaim … to life … to resurrection … In the coming days - "TO LIFE !!" We're still here - L'chaim !!
May it be so, thanks be to God …


HYMN: #509 I THE LORD OF SEA AND SKY
OFFERING:
OFFERTORY:
PRAYER OF DEDICATION:
One: We bring our offerings of time, talent and treasures
to lay on the table along side those precious things that were spared the inferno …
ALL: ALL WEEK WE HAVE PRAYED, WE HAVE WEPT,
WE HAVE ROLLED UP OUR SLEEVES AND LENDED A HAND …
One: From the ashes we have retrieved little,
but what we have retrieved reminds us of what is important.
ALL: THE CHURCH IS NOT A BUILDING,
THE CHURCH IS THE PEOPLE …
One: We are the people that are Minnedosa United Church,
and together we commit ourselves to living the journey
of resurrection we have been called to trod …
together we will be carried to the place of healing where people will sing together:
HYMN: (insert) WE ARE THE CHURCH

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE & THE LORD’S PRAYER:

HYMN: #716 MY LIFE FLOWS ON

THE NEXT STEPS & ANNOUNCEMENTS:

PRAYER FOR THE JOURNEY AHEAD:

HYMN: #595 WE ARE PILGRIMS

COMMISSIONING & BENEDICTION:

SUNG RESPONSE:
#586 WE SHALL GO OUT WITH HOPE OF RESURRECTION

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

WORK PARTY: Tomorrow at 9am, we need strong backs, boxes and trucks to clean out the last of the furnishings and the contents of the kitchen, so that demolition and site clean up can begin … if you can help – just come.

OFFICE: We’re down, but not out. On Wednesday morning we had all of our equipment moved, plugged in and operational. The Minnedosa United Church Offices are now located in the former Ken Sharpe accounting office next to the Train Park. Our hours are the same – 9-3 Tuesday to Friday, and even though we’re short of seats – the coffee is on, and you are always welcome. (the smoky smell is getting better all the time) Stop in and say “Hi,” and check out our new “temporary” home …

BIBLE STUDY: For the next couple of weeks, Bible Study will be meeting in the meeting room of the Minnedosa Library – usual time, usual good fellowship … different locale.
All are welcome to join us.

THANKS: Thanks to the AOTS Mens’ Club, and everyone else who helped keep the Ron Klusmeier concert on track yesterday. Thanks too, to the staff at TCS for providing the space for the concert …

THERE ARE NO WORDS … This past week has been incredible … I can’t even begin to describe the roller coaster I was on … I want to say thank you to EVERYONE in our faith family. There are too many people to thank … I don’t know where to begin or to end … I can only say thanks to you, the community of faith I feel deeply and humbly blessed to live and worship with. We’ve lost our home, but we haven’t lost what makes us Church …

One week after the fire ...

Last week at this time, I was still struggling with my sermon ... the words weren't coming, the Sunday School programme wasn't working for me, and my soul was troubled ...

Then came the 6am call that changed my world ... and the world of our community and our church ...

It has been a week. The journey has been challenging, frustrating, infuriating and at times even fun ... I wouldn't wish it on anyone, but at the same I wouldn't miss any of it for the world ...

Today though, we returned in a way to what we do best - gather people together and through music and food celebrated being the church ... The day began in a rush - I was trying to get my bulletin done for tomorrow, the phone was ringing, the kids were fighting ... and then word came that the Klusmeier ensemble was on its way into town ... the next two hours were a total blur as I dashed to the school to help them set up, and in short order, Ron and his group had the workshops underway and the afternoon was soon over.

Then the AOTS Mens' Club provided supper for all who gathered, and it was on to the concert ...

I hope anyone who reads this and knows the location and date of the Klusmeier concert stops nearest you will heed my words and GO !!!! It's well worth it.

The music and readings and multi-media presentation is a powerful evening ... for us, as we begin to slowly rise from the ashes, there was a message in the music ... a message of resurrection. Song Circling all the Earth, is a wonderful musical odyssey that lifts the soul and brings comfort through song to those who listen ... Trust me on this one ...

The night ended with hugs and more food and a feeling of knowing in the core of our being that we have never been alone, even at those times this week when it felt that way ...

It has only been a week ... and we have taken many tiny steps that have helped draw us close to the resurrection that WILL come ... Tomorrow will be a hard day ... we will gather in a borrowed sanctuary ... we will acknowledge our losses, and the simple fact we are a homeless people ... but we will celebrate the faith that in time WILL lead us home.

We may be homeless, but we are not without hope or faith ... and with hope and faith, and the love that has been shared so richly from everyone ... we will rise again ...

dayenu, and shalom,

We begin taking stock of our losses ... to the right is the detail of one of our many, now lost stained glass windows. This came in an email from one of our vast family (thanks Chris) who have, over the last 105 years, called our building home ...

The windows of our sanctuary were beautiful ... the whole sanctuary was beautiful - it was, as one of the many emails I've recieved noted so eloquently - a refuge and a place of peace.

Over the last few days I've heard from people all over Canada telling me about what this building meant to them and their families. Hundreds of marriages, baptism and funerals, socials, suppers, showers ... the transitions of life in our community have been marked within the walls of our sanctuary. But more then that, over her 105 yer history, the building has recreated itself with renovations, renewals and additions ...

The building of today is not the building of yesterday - but they are intrinsically connected ...

Today has been a day of little steps - phone calls, visits in the teeth of a very bitter prairie wing (wind chill equivilent to minus 50C - the range where C&F meet !!!), moving supplies to our temporary home, and beginning to watch the rebuilding fund grow ...

It has been a long week, and I feel a weariness and see it in the eyes of those who I have travelled with since Sunday morning. We've accomplished much, yet it feels like we've achieve soooo little. The ruins still stand - the smouldering smoke has finally gone, the office is still a jumble of boxes and bins and piles (mine always was - but now, all the office is messy), and the feelings in the community are slowly, inexorably turning to anger as the realization sets in that we and the people of Brandon Hills may have been victimized by the same people ...

It's been a hard week ... today the small accomplishments continued:
- the memorial book listing donated items turned up in the office stuff
- the new Bibles to replace those sitting on the pulpit arrived (their not the same, but they will do)
- the hymn books were stamped and prepared for dedication
- one of the choir members came with a bag of musical pieces he had tucked away at home - it's a start in rebuilding a collection of THOUSANDS of pieces of music that was much cherished by the choir
- we began (not me, but others) assessing what we have lost by compiling an inventory of every room
- we sent letters of appreciation to the local paper, for all the gestures and comments of help we've recieved

Tomorrow, we host Ron Klusmeier and his ensemble in a series of workshops and a choir concert. It was to be in the church, but it will instead be in the elementary school ... It will be a hard day. It will be our first doing what we've always done well - "holding a special event as a congregation." Even tonight, the conversation turned to what we've lost ... "where will we get coffee urns??"

The mundane bring tears and laugher simultaneously ... a good sign of healing ...

The journey continues ... one tiny step at a time ...
More tomorrow ...
Dayenu,

Church Arson times two ...

Today the news came that the RCMP have pressed charges for a second Church fire against one of the suspects in our Church fire ... Sadly, we are the second fire ...

When I served as Chair of Assiniboine Presbytery, the congregation of Brandon Hills United Church, a few short kilometres south of Brandon, awoke on Sunday morning to find their historic and designated heritage building aflame. By dawn it was a smouldering ruin, nothing remaining but the bell that had fallen from the steeple and the stairs that lead to no where.

I remember arrving on site that afternoon and watching as the bell was carted away ... it was horrible.

Now two years later, I find myself facing a gaping hole and a set of stairs that lead to no where.

And today we learn that one of the suspects is also the suspect in the Brandon Hills fire and in the destruction of tombstones in some rural cemeteries ...

I was told that he has a hatred of the Church ...

It's sad. I understand why people have issues with organized religion. I have issues with the very body in which I live and breath and have my being as minister. There are days (more then I can count) wherein I too hate the Church.

BUT, an action like burning down a historic church building doesn't hurt the CHURCH. Instead actions like this hurt the women who have spent decades pouring tea, serving sandwiches and caring for one another ... it hurts the little kids who go to nursery school and now want to know WHY? ... it hurts the generations of people who have marked life's transitions through weddings, baptisms and funerals ... it hurts then people who look to the building for a place to meet and be community ... it hurts the town in which it stands ...

Today we are hurting ... but thankfully, today we are beginning to journey back from the abyss.

I feel nothing but pity for the three who would so foolishly do this ... I feel only sorrow for three people who have been so wounded by organized religion that they would entertain even for a moment the notion that this would settle some score ...

I hope they get help, and I hope one day they grasp the enormity of their actions and in the process have an encounter with the holiness that lives and breaths and moves in places like Brandon Hills and Minnedosa where people care for one another and care about one another.

Today is a wake up call to people of all faiths - we need to be about living out the Gospel rather then focusing on the dogmas and the nonsense that wounds people and leads them to consider actions like those we've endured this past week in Minnedosa ...

On the positive side, today has been a day of accomplishments:
- at 7:45 am, while still in my pjs, I answered the door and was greeted by someone who said - "I have seven boxes from the post office ..." (We don't have home delivery in Minnedosa) - our 100 copies of Voices United had arrived ...
- Wilf met with the Insurance folks ... not sure what transpired, but with Wilf we're in good hands ...
- in the office we found a guest book from 1991 that had the names of the people who attended the 90th anniversary of the building ... it was dedicated to the saints who had come before us, and will be used to celebrate the saints that remain ...
- our computer, phone, fax and internet connections are all up and running ...
- we met with the folks from St Alphonse Catholic Church and made plans and arrangements for our Sunday services and congregational happenings ...
- we met as a worship committee and planned the next few weeks of worship services up to and including Easter...
- a sister church outside of Winnipeg emailed just as I was about to place an order from a supply company for a baptismal font ... the folks at Oak Bank offered us a Baptismal Font that was in need of a good home ... and a good home we shall offer it ...
- after taking our kids to piano lessons in Brandon, we went out for supper and had several people (total strangers who had been watching tv) express to me their care and sympathies for the people in Minnedosa ...
- then when we arrived home, I found in a door a small gift from the good folks from the 10 000 Villages store in Brandon, with it was a note, a donation and a replacement of the tiny terra cotta piggy bank we used to use for our penny drives ...
- tonight as I am writing this, the phone rang and an offer for two hand made collection plates was offered and accepted. The plates are in memory of one of predecessors ...

Today, in the face of the brutal unfolding of details involving our fire and that of Brandon Hills, I've repeatedly confronted the profound goodness of people.

Today has reminded me that even though some people are capable of horrible, hateful and hurtful actions, others - the vast majority, are profoundly loving and caring individuals ...

I grieve for our building, but I grieve for the hurt that could cause people to act in such a horrid way ... thankfully though, we are people of the resurrection - people of the light and though it may try, the darkness WILL NEVER triumph ...

dayenu,

rev. shawn

On a Journey just begun ... the smoke has cleared ...

Tonight as a Board we met and began to plan ... we looked back on what has happened in a few short days and we began to make plans ...

We started with the mundane - services, supplies and so on ...

We moved to the intimate - conversation about what we've lost and how we will inventory ...

Then we spoke tentatively of the future ... what will be ...

Our meeting tonight came on the heels of our Presbytery meeting in Brandon where a wave of support and care washed over us and carried us home knowing in our hearts and souls that even though this place we stand is a hard place, we are not alone here. Our sisters and brothers from Central United, who lost a building not that long ago, and our sisters and brothers from Brandon Hills who lost their building a couple of years ago, stood with us and lamented what our loss represents, not only to us, but to the community and the region of west man.

Then tonight the visitors from Conference office and from General Council came and stood in the ruins with us as we described what was once there ...

The decision of where we go from here is that of the Congregation to make on the 26th when we meet together ... and they can decide that. For now, we play the part of the wounded healer ... we have been called to rise from our place at the city gates and to venture into our community and tend the battered and broken and wounded ... our own wounds hurt and ache, but in ministering to others, we find ourselves ministered to as well.

This community will, as the Stan Rogers' song Mary Ellen Carter says so wonderfully - "rise again", and tonight we listened to the song as a way of focusing on the task at hand around the Board meeting ... it was significant that at the end of the song Stan moves from the boat lying on the bottom of the ocean and says - "no matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love a friend, like the Mary Ellen Carter rise again ..."

The people of Minnedosa, the people of Minnedosa United Church, the Church called Minnedosa United WILL rise again ... of that I have no doubt ...

I can not end tonight without expressing the profound appreciation I feel personally for the hard work and dedication that our Board Chair Linda Bertram has put in over the last few days in guiding us through this, and most of all I want to give thanks for the incredible work and commitment that Wilf Taylor has put into dealing with all things insurance and property since the fire. Wilf got on to it right away on Sunday and has been our rock since then ... I know that without his steady, calm influence I would have been finished long ago ... Thanks Wilf, you've done an incredible herculean task - and there is much work to do, but with you at the helm we're make our way through the troubled waters we find ourselves in ...

Today I appreciate the ministry that ministers recieve ...

dayenu,

Minnedosa Fire ... the smoke begins to clear ...

If you want more information on our fire - the press side of it, I invite you to visit the Minnedosa Tribune (in the links) or the Brandon Sun (also in the links) ... the Minnedosa Tribune has powerful before, during and after photos on the site right now (they will be there for a week or so - so check them out).

Well, today has been a hard day ... we took out more stuff from what is left standing. The offices have only some furniture left ... the kitchen is still waiting. The kitchen - the place that we JUST built 18 months ago - the place we had renovated so lovingly and had finally settled in to ...

Now we prepare to rebuild ANOTHER kitchen ...

The positives for today are thus:
- we've ordered new copies of Voices United
- we've ordered new Bibles (and they are coming as a gift from the Bible Society - thanks !!)
- we've had calls and notes of support from almost everywhere in Canada (a huge thanks for that)
- we've set up an office and got the phone working (thanks to MTS for the phone)
- we've begun recieving donations for our rebuilding fund
- we've had countless offers of help
- we've heard wonderful words of encouragement and care
- we've been offered resources and supplies
- we are being loved and cared for ...

Today from where I sit, this is not about speaking of the resurrection - this is a time when we are living the resurrection.

It has been a long three days - but a rewarding three days. I appreciate everything that is happening around me here, I particularly appreciate the hard work and dedication of the people in THIS community. People who hefted boxes, inhaled smoke, moved furniture, and just been there ... the thanks would take hours - so may a simple "THANKS !!!" suffice for now ...

Tomorrow we gather as a Presbytery, and we say our thanks to our sisters and brothers in faith for all they've done ... It's been a long three days, but it's been a rewarding three days ...

The United Church in Minnedosa is not gone, it's just temporarily homeless ...

dayenu,

The Fire ... Day Two ...

On a journey just begun ...

By the waters of Babylon, we sat down and wept ...
Okay, the waters here are a little frozen and hard, and we haven't sat down in the snow - but we have wept ... we've wept bitter tears as we've tallied our losses and begun to take stock of what we've lost.

Today we cleaned out the office space, moved our tables and chairs and began the slow arduous work of setting up a new office, two doors down the street.

My day began at 4 am when I awoke in bed and couldn't get back to sleep. Rather then peaceful dreams, in my mind I wandered through the building that now is nothing more then a smoking ruin.
I started in the top corner, in the cry room and took stock of the furnishings, the toys, the shelving, the pews, the hymn books ... I wandered down the stairs into the Fellowship Hall and noted the Memorial Plaques remembering the veterans of Both World Wars from Minnedosa and the Cameron District ... in the corner is the Bible remembering the six from Cameron Church who died in the trenches of World War One ... in the cupboard were some of the bells from the Bell Choir and hymn books from the Blue to the red to the green ...

The walk carried on until 5 am when I got out of bed and began my day - prayerfully, reflectively and thankfully that even with our enormous loses, there have been glimmers of hope and love from across Canada ... By 6 am, my inbox was abuzz with messages ... by 7am I had done my first interview of the day (my umptenth since the fire) ... and so my day went. At 8:30 my children wanted to go into what is left and see the place for six years they've called home ... My daughter is thankful that the pictures and notes I have put on my filing cabinet since 1997 were intact and okay ... they are the memories of the little congregants who have given me note, valentines, coloured pictures and handicraft treasures that I have had on display on the art gallery that is my filing cabinet ...

Then the day took off - a buzz of activity and phone calls and visits with hugs and tears as people came to SEE ...

An old friend is gone ...

Through the day we moved truck load after truck load to the new office space we've been so generously provided with ... the inventory of the mundane is startling. You don't realize how much you've accumulated until these moments ...

Without countless volunteers over the last couple of days, we couldn't have cleaned this up and moved the stuff we've amassed ... books, records, ... you name it - it's been picked up, carried out, loaded up and moved ... A HUGE thank you must go to those folks ...

Tonight the Board met and we began with a lament ... we reflected on what we've lost ... then we began to look to tomorrow ...

Mundane items were covered - hooking up phones ... fixing locks ... moving the last of the STUFF ... and planning for what happens next ...

Tomorrow will be a new day - we don't know what is will bring, but it can only get better from here, especially after yesterday ...

Thanks to all those who've sent notes, phones and just shown up ... the care and love is enormous and much appreciated. Thanks ...

Tomorrow will be a new day ... we'll talk soon ...

After the Fire ...

The Morning after ...

It has been a long twenty four hours ... Yesterday at 6 am, my day began harshly with the ringing of the phone to tell me our historic 105 year old church building was on fire ... By 8 am it was gone ... a smouldering ruin that took the better part of the afternoon to extinguish.

The losses are immeasurable ... how do you calculate the losses of a building that has served generations of a prairie community town?

From the hand made toys in the nursery to the Honour Roll Plaques, my mind reels at the enormity of the loss. In my mind's eye I walk from room to room and think about what it is that went up in flames yesterday ... the groups and organizations who have lost EVERYTHING. In every cupboard, in every corner, in every room were treasures and things belonging to our cubs and scouts, our brownies and guides, our UCW, our AOTS, our Choir (oh, the loss our Choir have experienced is simply staggering ... gowns, folders, stands, and the music: a cupboard that was eight feet wide, eight feet high and packed full of thousands of pieces of music gathered over the last 105 years !!!! - my heart grieves for the choir) ... Then we step into the sanctuary and begin to tall the losses there - the new organ, the new piano, the communion table and the baptismal font built lovingly by saints of our congregation ... The hymn books, from Blue to Green to Burgundy - ALL of them are gone ...

The list goes on and on and on ... banners, toys, books ... as I walk through each room in my minds' eye the list grows and grows and grows ...

Thankfully, there were some bright spots: The offices were unscathed - smelly and damp - but unscathed. The fireman went in and saved my "treasures" then, at the end of the afternoon a group of us went in and cleaned out the records, the computer, and my books (I have gathered a vast library and by the grace of God - it's okay ...). Today we will go in again and clean out everything we can get out the door and into a vehicle ...

Then across the street, in a borrowed office - we will hang our pictures and we will resume as best we can, our presence on Main St ...

Words can not express the thanks I feel for the support and care we've recieved. The emails, the calls, the prayers - all are appreciated.

The hard work has begun. Like a gaping wound, the smouldering ruins of what was an incredible church will remind us all for coming days of the whole that this fire has formed in the life, not only of our Faith Community, but of our whole Community. There are few families who do not call our sanctuary "my church" or who have turned to us for transitions and passages, or who have been in the building for something ... showers, socials, concerts, nursery school, marriages, baptisms, funerals, special events ... the list is as long as the history of the building ... the memories and tears are flowing thick and fast ...

It hurts. It will hurt more and more today as we count our losses ... but like the message of resurrection tells us with great certainty - we will count our blessings and we know that the Church of Minnedosa United Church stands unscathed.

We sing it often, but today we begin to live it - "the church is not a building, the church is not a steeple, the church is NOT a meeting place - THE CHURCH IS A PEOPLE."
Today, the Church in Minnedosa will weep at the senselessness of this ... tomorrow we will begin to journey forward knowing that each step is a resurrection ...

Thanks and stay tuned - we'll be back ... Today we tell the world when we change our sign ...

Today it WILL read: "Stay tuned, we'll be back ..."

And tomorrow we will be ... every step on the journey is a resurrection ... today our steps are faultering a bit, but we'll get there ...

Church Fire in Minnedosa ...

There are no easy words in this moment.

This morning sometime between 4 and 5 am, someone broke into our 105 year and set a fire in the cloak room ... By 6am, the building was fully involved ... by 7 am the roof and the steeple caved in and it was gone.

The Sanctuary is a total loss ... The offices and the Hall are still standing and NOT fire damaged. We have been in, and and taken out photos, pictures, my worship garb, and the majority of my library ... The fireman had earlier saved some very, very precious items for me (and for that I am thankful). The losses are simply staggering ... I can't even begin to think about what we've lost - the heritage and historical things ... the Bibles, the hymn books, the Choir gowns and music, the furniture, the pews, the handmade items ... Oh, so many things ...

We've wept bitter tears, we've raged at the unfairness of it, and we laughed in the memories of a building that is an integral component in the fabric of our town ... In coming days I will share more ... tonight and can only ask for prayers ...

peace ...

Bible Study Material for February 19th 2006 - 7th after Epiphany

Isaiah 43: 18-25:
Throughout the book of Isaiah, the reader is urged to remember God’s past actions. … Yet, here we are urged to “forget about what’s happened, don’t keep going over old history.” What does this mean? Are Isaiah’s readers being asked to remember who they are, their identity in God, and at the same time to forget their past history of mistakes and disobedience?

What does it mean to REMEMBER our past, yet face the future?
How do we make space in our lives (as people, as a church) for new things?
What are we, as a church, called to prepare ourselves for?
Could “new ways” of BEING church, be the NEW thing?
Why is wilderness associated with God’s judgement?
What does such a view of wilderness say to rural people?
How important is the forgetting of mistakes and disobedience in this reading?
How important is the forgetting of mistakes and disobedience in our lives?
What stories from our past (personal and communal) are worth passing on?
How do we discern which are worth passing on and which should be forgotten?

Mark 2:1-12:
A group of frogs was traveling through the woods, when two of the frogs fell into a deep pit. All the other frogs gathered around. When they saw how deep the pit, they told the two frogs they were as good as dead.
The two frogs ignored the comments and tried with all their might to jump up out of the pit. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead. Finally one of the frogs took heed and gave up. He fell down and died. The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could.
Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, the other frogs said, “Did you not hear us?” The frog explained that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time. …

What lessons does this story teach us?
What do we seek in our times of distress, healing or wholeness?
Is there a difference?

Rabbi Yoshua ben Levi came upon Elijah the prophet while he was standing at the entrance to Rabbi Simeron be Yohai’s cave … He asked Elijah, “When will the Messiah come?” Elijah replied, “Go and ask him yourself.” “Where is he?” asked the Rabbi. “Sitting at the gates of the city.” answered Elijah. “How shall I know him?” asked the Rabbi. “He is sitting among the poor covered with wounds. The others unbind all their wounds at the same time, and then bind them up again. But the Messiah unbinds one at a time and binds it up again, saying to himself, ‘Perhaps I shall be needed, if so, I must always be ready so as to not delay for even a moment …’”

How important is healing in our faith?
How important is wholeness in our faith?
What does the wounded healer tell us about healing and wholeness?
What does the wounded healer tell us about ministry?
What did Jesus do that was so shocking?
Which is easier, healing? or the forgiveness of sins?
What was Jesus asked for, healing or wholeness?
Is there a difference? Should there be a difference?

Jesus, for the first time in this gospel, goes head to head with the religious leaders. He does it by going to the very heart of his message. It is unimaginable that Jesus would not have been aware of the impact the words “your sins are forgiven,” would have had on those listening. Given the growing reputation that Jesus was gaining as a healer, and given the lengths that the paralytic’s friends went to, to get the man to Jesus, no doubt they were as amazed and perhaps as put out as the religious leaders at Jesus’ response. Physical healing is an understandable, recognizable here-and-now event. Forgiveness of sins is a different kind of experience, one that must be taken on faith. Ancient Near Eastern cultures believed that sin and illness were connected. In healing the man’s body and proclaiming the man forgiven, Jesus was making it clear that the gospel he was preaching was about all of life and the whole person. Any gospel we preach must also speak to life in all its complexity.

How do we share THIS gospel?

Psalm 41:
If ever there was a psalm that celebrates what might be called divine luck, it is Pslam 41. Amongst the graphic details of things that can befall a person from enemies and even from friends, are delightful celebrations of the unexpected graciousness of God. True, the Psalmist can’t avoid a little polishing of the apple by reminding God that God’s favour is not wholly undeserved. But throughout there is a tone of delighted wonder at God’s goodness.

How do we celebrate when we need healing?
Is celebrating in times of need a form of healing?
How do we experience God’s goodness in our lives today?

Sermon for February 5th 2006

I started my preparation work for this service and sermon, while the 72 men where trapped underground in the potash mine near Esterhazy Saskatchewan. As I read the words of Isaiah, reports came that the men were coming up and out of the mine and were slowly returning home. As I read and listened to the accounts of their 24 hours spent in the safety stations 3 kilometres below ground I got to the final verses of Isaiah where he says – “those who wait upon the Lord, shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not grow faint …” I heard those words, listened the reports from Esterhazy and wondered – “what does it mean to live those words?”
What does it mean to be 3 kilometres underground – under 3 kilometres (a mile and a half) or solid rock, huddled in the dark, knowing that the mine is filled with choking deadly smoke … they made phone calls, they played checkers, the men who spoke to reporters said they took the time to reprioritize their lives and decided what is really important … What does it mean in those moments to wait upon the Lord and to rise up with wings like eagles?
I found a story in one of my resources that told of a man and his dog in a training session for the dog. The dog scored a 296.5 out of a possible 300 in the category of training – almost a perfect score - but the author noted that what made this dog unique was not the perfect score, but was the role and tasks that it would have because of its training.
The trainer was in a wheel chair, and the dog – a sheltie – was being trained to be a helper dog for people with disabilities. We know of dogs for the blind, and hearing dogs, but of late, people have been training dogs to do all manner of tasks, in order to help them. And this dog was to become one of those helper dogs that would assist the trainer in his wheel chair.
The author of the text noted that sometimes the moment where we rise up on eagles’ wings is not moment of miraculous healing, but is a moment of time when you are able to accomplish much in spite of the wheelchair … sometimes it is a moment of acceptance and a commitment to live life fully in spite of what others would perceive as limitations.
I would, as an aside, offer the example of Stephen Hawkings as a person who has lived the soaring on eagles’ wings … despite having been limited to a wheelchair for almost 40 years, and being able to communicate through a computer generated voice – Hawkings has plunged (literally) into the depths of the cosmos and has gone intellectually where few dare, or are capable of following … the wheel chair and his disability have become a fact in his life not a limiting factor …

So how shall we rise up with wings like eagles? How shall we soar, when life has seemingly given us a lousy hand?
I would be so bold as to say – we do it all the time, but we simply don’t take notice of those moments because they are sometimes so common place …
The Gospel story today, the healing of Simon Peter’s mother in law is a good reminder that sometimes these moments of triumph just happen. Jesus enacted a miracle without even breaking a sweat. The text tells us he just did it …
And so, that is the call to faith for us when we are seeking that moment when we rise up on eagles’ wings, when we run and not grow weary and when we walk are don’t grow faint.
We can spend all our time calling for that moment – waiting for it … demanding it. Or we can sometimes just put one foot in front of the other and carry one … then down the road in a few days or a few weeks, or even a few months, we will suddenly realize that … hey, we’ve come a long way … we’ve made a great deal of progress … we’ve risen up from that moment and we’re suddenly looking back from a mountain top rather then lingering in the valley bottom ...
This moment of rising up sometimes just happens …

In Bible Study on Friday we had a conversation on eagles and why Isaiah used an eagle in this particular text. I shared some of my moments where eagles offered a very spiritual encounter in my life and my journey …
This text from Isaiah is quoted in a chorus that was used repeatedly at every single funeral in the native community in Bella Coola. At the wakes following a death, we would sing: “they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not grow faint … they shall mount up with wings like eagles …” Over and over we would sing as a community, that chorus. This week I had some insight as to why …
In most native communities, abuse, poverty, ill health and all manner of suffering are painfully normal. Yet, in the face of this darkness, the people of Bella Coola could sing the sure and certain hope that God WAS with them even in the darkness. Like the miners in the depths of the earth waiting, the people of Bella Coola never gave up hope that it WILL get better. Maybe not right now, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not even in their own personal lifetimes – but it WILL get better. And so they could sing …
The other aspect of eagles for the Bella Coola people, is the importance that bald eagles have spiritually in their traditional understanding of the world. At every burial, we looked to the sky for an eagle – and they were there. The eagle came to carry the spirit of the deceased to the spirit world where the ancestors awaited them – at the hall that evening, the spirit dance would symbolically enact what we’d witnessed earlier, with the eagle dancer being the last figure through the hall, representing the soul of the departed.
At Sam’s Baptism, on the edge of the Bella Coola River, a bald eagle flew back and forth over the cold green waters – maybe he was looking for lunch, or maybe, as one of the elders said – “he was there as a guardian.”
Our last afternoon in Bella Coola a Bald Eagle landed in the front yard of our home before our moving van rolled away. A friend said later, that was a good sign – he came to wish you well, and to tell Noahkila (that’s Sam Indian name) that he would be okay no matter where he was …
But, looking back I realize that the moment wherein I realized how important eagles were, came early on in my time in Bella Coola when I was called on to preside at my very first funeral service. The man who died had been killed by his drinking companion in an argument over a bottle of wine …
In the days that preceded the funeral service, the family struggled with a huge variety of feelings – anger, sadness, rage … and so on. The deceased was the second person in his immediate family to die a violent death through someone else’s hand.
When the RCMP had finished with the house, they allowed the family to go in, and retrieve things. I was invited to accompany them. As we wandered through the house, the scene of the murder, over and over we encountered the passage from the Gospel of Luke where Jesus, just hours before his own death said – “Father forgive them for they know not what they do …”
In the victims Bible, lying face down and open to that passage beside his chair … on a plaque on the wall above where his body had fallen … on a book mark stuck to his fridge – over and over we found the words: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do …”
The victim’s mother took all of this in, and inspite of her fragility of health and well being, said – “It’s a message. It’s what we have to do … we have to forgive the man who killed my son …” Daisy had lost two children to murder and she knew that hate was too heavy a burden to carry – forgiveness was her only option.
As we stepped out on to the front porch of the house, … when we stepped into the sunshine … Daisy was still insisting she and her family had to forgive the perpetrator of this hideous crime, and in that moment we saw before us, in the huge spruce tree in front of the house – close enough that we could have reached out and touched it – a beautiful Bald Eagle. He had landed just as we stepped outside. Daisy looked up and talked to him in Nuxalkmc, smiling the whole time. The eagle called out in reply and Daisy said – “It’s Ron, he’s okay. He wants us to know he’s okay and it’s going to be alright …”
The morning before her son’s funeral – Daisy went to inspite of the insistence of a very large RCMP officer that she couldn’t do this – went into the jail cell and forgave her son’s killer …

Sometimes rising up on eagles’ wings doesn’t mean we get what we want … it doesn’t mean we get the miraculous healings … it doesn’t mean things are how we would like them to be … but it means that we’ve learned to run again and not grow weary, to walk and not grow faint and to know that we’re doing all we can to live full lives of faith and care.
I think that’s what Isaiah had in mind when he envisioned the moment when we step from the darkness in our lives and stand blinking in the light of God – we rise up knowing that even in the darkness God is with us, and God will accompany us forward …
We may not be heading where our ego wants us to go, but in time we will see that we’ve climbed out of the darkness and into the sun …

Daisy didn’t get her son back, but having lost two children to violent crime she wasn’t going to let anger and hate destroy her … hate was too great a burden for her to carry … instead she spoke words of love and forgiveness and in her acceptance, she not only found grace, she lived it … and a few months later it was Daisy who stood up on the banks of the Bella Coola River and under the watchful eye of a majestic flying eagle, gave a little boy a very big name …

May we have the faith to run and not grow weary, to walk and not grow faint, and may we have the faith to rise up on eagles’ wings … even if we don’t realize it … It can and WILL happen … may it be so for all of us … Thanks be to God …