There were games

& food

& story telling

& singing

& face painting

& more balloons

Rev. Bob Shank reminisced about their time in Montreal where they had neighbouring churches and how they had met again in Richmond.

His daughter Susan and her three girls spoke movingly of growing up with Tom & Audrey.

Rev. Gary Paterson spoke of the wisdom & humour that Tom brought to the the life of the church and how he would be missed.

On behalf of the congregation, Jim MacLean Cruickshank presented Tom with a plaque making him our Minister Emeritus as well as a gift certificate for dinner and announced that donations to Richmond GeneralHospital in honour of Audrey totalling more than $2000 had been made (the total total reached $3500).

Tom expressed his thanks for the gifts and for party and spoke of his time with us.  A standing ovation followed by refreshments ended the celebration.

Well, the Easter weekend has come and gone (and when you combine all four services, there were 1000 of us who celebrated in worship last Sunday), but the season of Easter continues on for the next fifty days.  So this Sunday, Rev. Kathryn Ransdell will be preaching on the story about Jesus’ appearance to the disciple, Thomas (“What Did Thomas Doubt?”), and we will continue singing some Easter hymns (though slipping in a few extras like “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”).

Remember that after morning worship, there will be a Healing Service in the chapel with Rev. Tom Miles and Rosemary Kendall.

Let me also put in a plug for “Exploring Our Community”, a programme that will start Monday, April 19^th – if you’ve become involved in the church in the last year or two, and want to go deeper, to become more involved, to learn more about different facets of “life in a faith community”… sort of like Exploring Our Faith – Part 2… then this could be just the thing for you.  Contact Kathryn Ransdell for more information.

Jazz Vespers at 4 pm, as usual, featuring vocalist and pianist Diane Lines, with Rob Ferguson on drums, Tim Stacey on bass, and Tim Porter on drums.

NEWS…. As many of you may know, we are facing some changes in our staffing for next fall and the following year.

Rev. Kathryn Ransdell is pregnant – with twins, no less, who will arrive in September, which means, of course, that she will be on maternity leave for the year; her hands will be full – quite literally!  We rejoice with her… and we will miss her!  The Ministry and Personnel Committee has done some good, practical planning, and is pleased to announce that Tim Scorer, who along with Kathryn, has developed our programme of Adult Education and Formation this past year, is willing and able to increase his time at St. Andrew’s-Wesley, moving from quarter-time to half-time, starting September 1^st.  Because Tim and Kathryn have been working closely together, there will be a real sense of continuity; he and Kathryn have already put together an exciting plan for the fall – just take a look at the Brochure that was in your Easter bulletin!!  Thank you, Tim!!  We feel blessed to have you in our midst.

There’s more….. Rev. Tom Miles will be retiring as of June 30^th this year.  And he will be sorely missed!  However, he’s not going to completely disappear, and has been asked to continue on as our Minister Emeritus.  There will be a celebration of Tom’s ministry here at St. Andrew’s-Wesley on Sunday, June 6^th – a “lunch party” right after morning worship… and everyone is welcome!!!

This has meant more planning by Ministry and Personnel … and they are pleased to announce that Jen Cunnings, our Minister with Children and Families, will take on the further responsibilities for the Ministry of Pastoral Care, and Ministry with Seniors, moving from half-time to three-quarters time.  Again, our congregation is blessed to have Jen expand her ministry in these new directions, following her passion, bringing such warmth and skill.  By the way, many of you may not know that Jen is going to be fully recognized as a Lay Designated Minister by the larger Church, and this will be celebrated at the Conference Celebration of Ministry Service that will occur on Sunday, June 6^th, at 4 pm at Canadian Memorial United Church (16^th and Burrard) – it’s going to be a great day (and busy)!

GLEANINGS…. Another Easter prayer, this time from David R. Allan, who for twenty-two years was the minister at Bloor St. United in downtown Toronto.  His prayers are like poems:

God of Life and Easter

who trumpets in fresh courage and

warms forth faith from cold caves –

Your people sing Your praises in hyperbole

for only One who rules over all

could set nature and nations on edge

and open all the world’s windows to spring.

We forget Easter so quickly,

scurry round closing the shutters,

putting up rules and barring openings,

imagining that darkness and folly are

the true managers,

denying everything for which Easter runs,

preserving all the possessions and power we can

to “do Easter ourselves.”

Where is this Monarch, this Easter Sovereign?

No, the question is: “Where are we?”

See you on Sunday,

Gary Paterson

Robert Meredith passes the flame

At 6:30 am Robert Meredith, a member of our congregation was part of the Olympic Torch Relay.  Robert was the second runner of the day and cheered on by friends and surrounded by security he received the flame, ran 300 metres surrounded by security and media and then passed the flame to another runner.

“It was an unbelievable experience and one everyone should try to do.” he said afterward.

We have sent just over $3200 off to the United Church General Council Offices in Toronto and are assured by the folks at UCC Mission and Service that this money will ,VERY SOON, reach their partners “on the ground” in Haiti and it will be put to work immediately after it is received. These partners are The Methodist Church of
Haiti, The Karl Lévêque Cultural Institute (ICKL), and Action by Churches Together (ACT), the network of churches and Christian aid agencies that enables global responses to emergencies.

For those who have been asking about whether or not our funds will be matched by Federal Government funds, the answer is somewhat complicated. The United Church has, indeed, applied to the government to be one of the
eligible agents for collecting relief funds which will then be matched by CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) but that application has not yet (at the time of writing) been approved. Even if it is approved, we
are advised that CIDA rules, and government committee process will slow the delivery of funds considerably and, furthermore, that there are certain restrictions on where the money can be used. For example, matched funds
cannot be used for the reconstruction of churches or church-run schools.

Consequently, we have decided to send the amounts we have collected NOW and have asked that they be channelled immediately to the trusted partners with which the United Church is working, not waiting for the decision of the
government on the eligibility for matching. (If you have questions on this, please do not hesitate to ask me: michjael.staw@telus.net)

If you have not had a chance to donate and wish to do so, PLEASE CLICK “DONATE” AND BE SURE TO INCLUDE “HAITI” IN THE MESSAGE BOX WHEN YOU COMPLETE THE CANADA HELPS DONOR INFORMATION.

Many thanks,

Michael Dobbin, Director of Development

An open letter to all Canadians from the Moderator
of The United Church of Canada

This letter was born in Copenhagen where, heartbroken, I watched the international climate talks fall apart.

Heartbroken because it was clear to me, as it was to many of you, that the talks in Copenhagen needed to succeed, that it is no longer safe for us to go on as we have before.

I believe this is a unique time in humanity’s fretful reign on Earth, a rare moment that will have historic significance.

And yet the Copenhagen talks failed. We have no plan to reduce deadly emissions of carbon dioxide. Emissions that are a symptom of our broken relationship with the web of life. Emissions that are rising faster than at any time in human history.

We also have no legally binding agreement. Instead we have feeble words cloaked in mistrust, the phantom of a deal.

Our moment of opportunity came and then went, and here we are now, the fate of civilization and of millions of the planet’s life forms hanging by the frayed thread of inaction.

So where is our hope?

I believe the answer to this question is that hope is in you. It is in me and in all of us who choose to reject despair and embrace hope. Together, we will replace the Copenhagen failure with success. It is up to us.

Why do I say that?

Because I believe something important shifted in Copenhagen. Watching the tens of thousands of citizens who gathered at the talks to exhort our world’s political leaders to act reminded me of the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., who said it would be “fatal…to overlook the urgency of the moment.” He also spoke of the “fierce urgency of now.”

King’s fight was against the great moral ills of his day, what he called the “manacles” of racial segregation and the “chains” of discrimination. He refused to wait and called on everyone to act.

I too believe the time for waiting has run out.

While I was in Copenhagen, I reread the letter King wrote nearly 50 years ago in Birmingham, Alabama, where he had been jailed for taking part in a non-violent protest against segregation. White church leaders were harshly and openly critical. His actions weren’t right, they said. His letter, which remains a powerful work of literature, is an answer to their charge that he should stick to his knitting.

He said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

I think about his words now that Copenhagen is over. What if, instead of racial segregation, King had spoken about high greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere? Would his words hold? It seems clear to me that they would ring loud and true.

Biologically, we live within an inescapable network of mutuality. Science tells us that. Without the web of life, there is no life. We need each other. We are emphatically, biologically not alone. As the carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere rise, the planet will fail to provide for us. Life as we know it will die. Millions of human lives are on the line, rich and poor, old emitters and new, vulnerable and strong. There is no inoculation against this except all of us changing our behaviour all at once.

We are tied in a single garment of destiny.

This is why the issue of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has moved far beyond a political process. It has also moved far beyond being just a scientific issue. It is an ethical issue.

Science has shown us that we have caused the chemical changes we can now track in the atmosphere and the ocean. Therefore, because climate change has been caused by our actions, we are ethically obliged to take responsibility for those actions.

I believe the ecological crisis is one of the most urgent moral challenges in human history. Just as racial segregation and discrimination, and before that slavery, were in their times. Responding to this moral challenge lies with us, and the time is now.

I say this despite the fact that there are those who would say faith leaders have no place in addressing the issue of climate change. Stick to praising your God, they say.

That’s what we’re doing.

I do this within the tradition of my own faith community, The United Church of Canada. Because of our faith we have struggled with moral issues for generations, and we have often been criticized for it. We pressed for all sorts of social advances that today are givens: universal education, legal birth control, the social safety net. We did this from a deep faith that hope and change are possible.

My faith also leads me to remember Nellie McClung. Like me, she was a member of the United Church. She used wit, strategy, the power of her congregation, and unceasing political pressure nearly 100 years ago to help Canadian women win the right to vote. She appalled the premier of Manitoba of the day, who muttered to her that “nice” women didn’t want to vote. McClung was remorseless. She placed the church at the heart of women’s right to vote. It was the price of admission for a person of faith.

Like King half a century ago, like McClung half a century before that, like the Englishman William Wilberforce a century before her who used his beliefs as the springboard to abolish slavery, we cannot extricate the pressing moral issues of our day from our faith.

Nor should we. It is my job as a faith leader to refuse the false choice between contemplation and action, between praying and doing. Action requires contemplation just as contemplation requires action. If we breathed only in or only out, we would die.

And so, while it may be true that humanity’s sacred stories don’t speak about the intricacies of climate change, they do tell us about right and wrong. They are an archive of human dreams, a narrative of inspiration, humanity’s call to rise to the occasion. King saw the earliest expressions of Christianity, for instance, as society’s thermostat rather than its mere thermometer. At its best, faith gives us reason to hope. It helps us take heart and understand that there is another way.

That is why I believe we must look at issues through the lens of morality and faith. Science describes what is. Faith describes how things can and should be. On this issue science is not enough. We need more. And that is why ecological issues are also fundamentally moral, ethical, and theological concerns. And, therefore, why faith leaders must grapple with them. Why we all must grapple with them.

Because when our actions threaten the lives of millions of people and other creatures, that is wrong.

When our lack of action endangers communities in every region of the world, that is wrong.

When our economic systems jeopardize the well-being of future generations, that is wrong.

When the lifestyles of the wealthy undermine the survival of the poor, that is wrong.

If we fail to act, we are helping to doom millions of our species to abject suffering and death. That is wrong.

So what am I asking you to do?

Whatever it takes to follow in the footsteps of inspirational leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr.

Whatever you can imagine. I wouldn’t dream of limiting you to my list. The possibilities are abundant. In our homes and offices, in our places of worship, in our families and community organizations, as individuals and acting together, let us choose hope and action over despair and paralysis. Every day I receive new messages from people who are making dramatic changes in their lives. The answers are already here. Together, let us act by our beliefs.

When we do this, we will replace the fearful self-interest of Copenhagen with joyful inclusion and healing of the world.

This is a transformative moment in the planet’s history. The world will be shaped by how we and our communities respond in the months to come. It will take all of us. All of you. I can see your imagination springing forth even now, making this safe, healthy new world come to life.

A new world where broken hearts are transformed as we take heart together.

With sincerity and hope,

Mardi Tindal

Moderator

The United Church of Canada