This being the first Sunday of the month we will celebrate the sacrament of Communion. We will also make our monthly Second Offering to support our Local Outreach Fund.
The Scripture reading this week is Matthew 28:16-20. We will also read together our congregational vision and mission statements.
The Sermon title is Called To Be Church
Early Thoughts: In the Faith Statement we call the New Creed (other denominations have included it in their worship materials, often calling it United Church Creed) we proclaim that:
We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God’s presence,
to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope.
to celebrate God’s presence,
to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope.
Great. Now what exactly does that mean? How do we live that out?
On this Annual Meeting Sunday I ask that we give careful consideration to that quest. Both to look back at how we did it over the last year and as we look forward to how we will do it in the year to come.
The reason we have vision and mission statements is to guide us as we respond to God's call to be the church. They are there to test all our decisions and actions against. They help us choose how we stewards the gifts God has given us.
Also, during the sermon time there will be time to thank each other for all the ways we have participated in living out our call to be the church, for all the ways we have given of our time and talent over the past year.
WE are called to be the church...
--Gord
Offering thanks - we do not do this enough - thanks!!
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