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Newsletter
Welcome to Simcoe Street United Church!
It is mid February as I write! It is a windy and mild day. I’m really not sure if spring is upon us or we are in mid-winter, but I do know that Lent is about to appear on our doorstep! Ash Wednesday is Wednesday February 22 and that marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It comes early this year as last year Ash Wednesday was March 2! It will be forty days until Easter.
When I think about Ash Wednesdays in my life, I think to my childhood congregation in Mississauga and the very small gatherings in that sanctuary to read scriptures and be marked with the Ashes from the crosses made and burned from the palms of Palm Sunday the year previously. At a personal level the night marked once again, the claim I felt that I belonged deeply to God, to the sacred earth and to the life journey I was on in those early years. The evening also connected me to others who were pilgrims in such a holy time. To discern how I inhabited the life journey God was calling me to proceed into was always joined with the affirmation that the Spirit was goading me along. It was comforting and it was risky. Much like Jesus journey to Good Friday and beyond.
So, we embark on this season as a congregation. We are invited to share Ash Wednesday with Kedron United Church. Oddly enough it is being held on Pancake Tuesday February 21, the night before! It is always good to join in community with others and risk taking the seasonal journey with strangers! It is good to share pancakes with other pilgrims too!
As a congregation ourselves, we have been moving along in our period of Intentional Transition. We claim our belonging and trust to the Sacred One, to Sacred Earth, and Sacred Community. That emerging story is being shaped. The Transition Team is deeply immersed in imagining different options as we move into the next year. We think about what it would take to stay in our building as is. We consider amalgamations and relationship building with other Downtown Oshawa Churches. We consider redevelopment of our property in conjunction with Kindred Works and the Back Door Mission, we consider an online community option. These will be presented at a congregational retreat called, “The Option Fair”. The remarks from congregants echoed again and again are two-fold; we wish to see a legacy of the Back Door Mission continue. We care deeply about the fruit that has emerged from that “door” for nearly 30 years! The second sentiment that has been expressed frequently is that we desire to move into the future together as a congregation with the relationships that we have honed for many years.
The Transition Process is to reach its mid-term by June, but its journey through Lent will be an intense sifting of how we belong to God, how we honour the Sacred and how we risk listening for the call into ministry for the next part of the journey!
I remember Ash Wednesdays as a teen and young adult. In those days I found the prospect of a season marked with Ashes and belonging as life giving and energizing. The future was spread out before me in some ways on those nights. I recall thinking about the journeys others were going through which were penitential, some were filled with rupture and uncertainty. I was deeply aware that some journeys people make are filled with grief and risk. For me Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent was a time to embark with curiosity, yearning, an awareness of belonging to God.
I wonder about what Ash Wednesday means for people here at Simcoe Street. Namely the Transition Team and those impacted in these days. What is it like to be at the beginning of some serious conversations, decisions, and examinations? For me I always feel somehow hopeful that our decisions will be good ones and filled with good theological reflection and prayer. I wonder too about the volunteers and staff of the Mission and how they enter the journey…helping people take their first steps toward help, sobriety, health, belonging. It must be like Ash Wednesday all the time, were it not for the small resurrection conversations and help that settles into people very often “back there”. I think about the patrons who will have weathered another winter and a new season that is being given to them! I think too about when the criminalization of poverty will give way to more proactive and co-operative work between the Region, local government, churches, and citizens. We are a people involved collectively in transition more than we are allowed to stay stuck in one season. We move with belonging.
Please stay tuned for our Retreat and Options Fair in the next 3 months hopefully. In the meantime, join in on the Ash Wednesday service at Kedron United Church which is actually being celebrated on Pancake Tuesday, February 22 at 7:15. They are hosting a Pancake Supper from 5-7pm and then the service follows at 7:15. So join Kedron on Tuesday February 22. Rev. Christopher Whyte anticipates your presence! Then after that, participate in our Lenten services. Join us for Palm Sunday on April 2, and Easter on April 9. If you are online between now and then, please leave a comment so we can all sense the community we share online.
With these Ashes you are marked as Christ’s.
Rev. Daryl
It is mid February as I write! It is a windy and mild day. I’m really not sure if spring is upon us or we are in mid-winter, but I do know that Lent is about to appear on our doorstep! Ash Wednesday is Wednesday February 22 and that marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It comes early this year as last year Ash Wednesday was March 2! It will be forty days until Easter.
When I think about Ash Wednesdays in my life, I think to my childhood congregation in Mississauga and the very small gatherings in that sanctuary to read scriptures and be marked with the Ashes from the crosses made and burned from the palms of Palm Sunday the year previously. At a personal level the night marked once again, the claim I felt that I belonged deeply to God, to the sacred earth and to the life journey I was on in those early years. The evening also connected me to others who were pilgrims in such a holy time. To discern how I inhabited the life journey God was calling me to proceed into was always joined with the affirmation that the Spirit was goading me along. It was comforting and it was risky. Much like Jesus journey to Good Friday and beyond.
So, we embark on this season as a congregation. We are invited to share Ash Wednesday with Kedron United Church. Oddly enough it is being held on Pancake Tuesday February 21, the night before! It is always good to join in community with others and risk taking the seasonal journey with strangers! It is good to share pancakes with other pilgrims too!
As a congregation ourselves, we have been moving along in our period of Intentional Transition. We claim our belonging and trust to the Sacred One, to Sacred Earth, and Sacred Community. That emerging story is being shaped. The Transition Team is deeply immersed in imagining different options as we move into the next year. We think about what it would take to stay in our building as is. We consider amalgamations and relationship building with other Downtown Oshawa Churches. We consider redevelopment of our property in conjunction with Kindred Works and the Back Door Mission, we consider an online community option. These will be presented at a congregational retreat called, “The Option Fair”. The remarks from congregants echoed again and again are two-fold; we wish to see a legacy of the Back Door Mission continue. We care deeply about the fruit that has emerged from that “door” for nearly 30 years! The second sentiment that has been expressed frequently is that we desire to move into the future together as a congregation with the relationships that we have honed for many years.
The Transition Process is to reach its mid-term by June, but its journey through Lent will be an intense sifting of how we belong to God, how we honour the Sacred and how we risk listening for the call into ministry for the next part of the journey!
I remember Ash Wednesdays as a teen and young adult. In those days I found the prospect of a season marked with Ashes and belonging as life giving and energizing. The future was spread out before me in some ways on those nights. I recall thinking about the journeys others were going through which were penitential, some were filled with rupture and uncertainty. I was deeply aware that some journeys people make are filled with grief and risk. For me Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent was a time to embark with curiosity, yearning, an awareness of belonging to God.
I wonder about what Ash Wednesday means for people here at Simcoe Street. Namely the Transition Team and those impacted in these days. What is it like to be at the beginning of some serious conversations, decisions, and examinations? For me I always feel somehow hopeful that our decisions will be good ones and filled with good theological reflection and prayer. I wonder too about the volunteers and staff of the Mission and how they enter the journey…helping people take their first steps toward help, sobriety, health, belonging. It must be like Ash Wednesday all the time, were it not for the small resurrection conversations and help that settles into people very often “back there”. I think about the patrons who will have weathered another winter and a new season that is being given to them! I think too about when the criminalization of poverty will give way to more proactive and co-operative work between the Region, local government, churches, and citizens. We are a people involved collectively in transition more than we are allowed to stay stuck in one season. We move with belonging.
Please stay tuned for our Retreat and Options Fair in the next 3 months hopefully. In the meantime, join in on the Ash Wednesday service at Kedron United Church which is actually being celebrated on Pancake Tuesday, February 22 at 7:15. They are hosting a Pancake Supper from 5-7pm and then the service follows at 7:15. So join Kedron on Tuesday February 22. Rev. Christopher Whyte anticipates your presence! Then after that, participate in our Lenten services. Join us for Palm Sunday on April 2, and Easter on April 9. If you are online between now and then, please leave a comment so we can all sense the community we share online.
With these Ashes you are marked as Christ’s.
Rev. Daryl
OUR 2022 ANNUAL REPORT IS NOW AVAILABLE
If you would like a copy, please contact the Church Office
SSUC Annual Congregation Meeting is March 5, 2pm via Zoom. If you would like the login in link, please contact the Church Office
churchofficessu@gmail.com
905-728-8143
If you would like a copy, please contact the Church Office
SSUC Annual Congregation Meeting is March 5, 2pm via Zoom. If you would like the login in link, please contact the Church Office
churchofficessu@gmail.com
905-728-8143
UNITED CHURCH Of Canada E-News Letter
UNITED CHURCH BROADVIEW MAGAZINE
We look forward to seeing you at in-person worship Sunday's at 10:30am, or virtually, as we continue to live stream our worship service for you.
Virtual (live streamed) Worship will still continue online on our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKz4nf47VSH-ZP2kFNRLVWg
Virtual (live streamed) Worship will still continue online on our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKz4nf47VSH-ZP2kFNRLVWg
