Category: New Vision Notes

Thur Feb 9 2023

1. We’re in the movies…well, sort of. The French Canadian Paris-Paris is back at 24 Main W to film Season 2 using locations in downtown Hamilton as sets for Paris, Texas, and Paris, France. They are using our building as their base camp as they did for Season 1 during the pandemic. Their production office is the Music Hall, and numerous rooms on the ground floor serve them for wardrobe, make-up, and holding. They have a company dog, whose name is Riley. They are here until the end of May during weekdays. Welcome back. Bonne chance!
2. As a special United In Learning event, join Affirm United and Affirming Connections to learn about the malicious misinformation campaign and threats that have been launched against the drag and 2SLGBTQ+ communities across Canada – and what you can do. Our panelists will address some of the dangerous myths circulating around drag, trans and other queer identities; look at recent Canadian online and in-person instances of anti 2SLGBTQ+ hate, some of which include Christian groups; and explain how these connect to wider hate, racist, and extremist movements. They will also share some ideas on what you and your community of faith can do to bring a faithful public response in your context. Registration through the United in Learning portal is free and required. Wednesday, February 15 8:00pm ET.
3. Stories of Diaspora: Unlocking and Empowering Our Youth: 3 Generations of Black History Come Together featuring a Civil Rights Activist, a Peace Activist, and a Ugandan Dance Troupe – February 27 2023 at the MacIntyre Performing Arts Centre. You can learn more and obtain tickets here.
4. You’re invited to a free screening of SAFE on Thursday, March 2 at 7 pm at The Westdale.  SAFE is a documentary that features Indwell tenants in southern Ontario communities and their stories with hope-filled solutions to homelessness. You’ll be inspired! Reserve your seat at ca/events.  Warning: some strong language and mature subject matter.
5. The 2023 Annual Meeting is scheduled for February 26^th, the first Sunday of Lent. Please place this on your calendar and come attend in person if you can!
6. Speaking of Lent, for those of you making plans for the Lenten season, both the printand the ebook versions of the 2023 United Church Lenten devotional, Good Courage: Daily Reflections on Hope are now available! Good Courage offers honest testimonies from people who have had the courage to follow their hearts, to hope against hope, and to faithfully work toward a better world. In this new book, you will find inspiring examples of practical and courageous hope in the midst of despair that deepen your spiritual experience of resurrection and new life. Edited by the Rev. Alydia Smith, this new Lenten devotional includes daily scripture, reflections, study questions, and prayers for individuals or groups. When you purchase the softcover edition of Good Courage, use code PLANAHEAD to receive one free 2023 Canadian Church Calendar! (Note: You must have both Good Courage and the 2023 Canadian Church Calendar added to your cart for the discount to apply to your order.) Offer valid while supplies last.
7. With contagious COVID sub-variants still spreading in Hamilton, we encourage you to get the fourth vaccination now available to all adults. We will continue our current in-person gathering approach: i) we will form the circle again in the lower hall, distancing the seats by a metre for the time being. ii) people may join the circle if they are willing to wear a mask.
8. The reason for the masks is that we will allow ourselves to sing, and masking reduces the distance air we expel travels with the increased effort singing.
9. New Vision Virtual Worship is experiential, participatory, image-rich and collective, just like worship in person at New Vision! Join us on Sunday mornings 10:30 am week to week during the Covid-19 emergency by clicking here. If you want to put the link someplace easy to find each week, here it is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/782292511. Please share it with others and invite them to a “different” kind of time on Zoom from the usual.
10. You can also call in to the gathering on the telephone. Call 1 647 374 4685, then, when prompted, input the Meeting ID 782 292 511 followed by the # sign. Ignore the prompts for Participant ID and Password. You are in when the recorded voice says, “You are in the meeting.” If you can only connect by video on your computer with no audio, you can use the phone connection for audio and the computer connection for visual.

Hope to see you Sunday again, or for the first time –

Rev Ian

Fri Feb 3 2023

1. This Sunday is the 5^th Sunday after Epiphany and the first Sunday of the month. We’ll be launching Black History month and celebrating communion.
2. As a special United In Learning event, join Affirm United and Affirming Connections to learn about the malicious misinformation campaign and threats that have been launched against the drag and 2SLGBTQ+ communities across Canada – and what you can do. Our panelists will address some of the dangerous myths circulating around drag, trans and other queer identities; look at recent Canadian online and in-person instances of anti 2SLGBTQ+ hate, some of which include Christian groups; and explain how these connect to wider hate, racist, and extremist movements. They will also share some ideas on what you and your community of faith can do to bring a faithful public response in your context. Registration through the United in Learning portal is free and required. Wednesday, February 15 8:00pm ET.
3. You may remember that New Vision hosted a drag story-time before the pandemic in the Music Hall, organized by the Rainbow Collective.  Here’s a photo.
4. Several of us attended the Status for All rally for migrant worker citizenship rights in the Art Gallery of Hamilton forecourt Monday, Jan 23rd. The rally then demonstrated in front of the nearby hotel in which the federal cabinet was holding a winter retreat.
5. The United Church is part of an ecumenical coalition supporting the regularization of migrant worker participation in Canadian society. You can read a letter from September 2022 to the Prime Minister of Canada from the coalition here. https://united-church.ca/news/ecumenical-partners-call-justice-migrant-workers
6. Watch for more ways you can contribute to advocacy to have the federal government keep its promise to legislate pathways to permanent residency for migrant workers in this space.
7. The 2023 Annual Meeting is scheduled for February 26^th, the first Sunday of Lent. Please place this on your calendar and come attend in person if you can!
8. Speaking of Lent, for those of you making plans for the Lenten season, both the printand the ebook versions of the 2023 United Church Lenten devotional, Good Courage: Daily Reflections on Hope are now available! Good Courage offers honest testimonies from people who have had the courage to follow their hearts, to hope against hope, and to faithfully work toward a better world. In this new book, you will find inspiring examples of practical and courageous hope in the midst of despair that deepen your spiritual experience of resurrection and new life. Edited by the Rev. Alydia Smith, this new Lenten devotional includes daily scripture, reflections, study questions, and prayers for individuals or groups. When you purchase the softcover edition of Good Courage, use code PLANAHEAD to receive one free 2023 Canadian Church Calendar! (Note: You must have both Good Courage and the 2023 Canadian Church Calendar added to your cart for the discount to apply to your order.) Offer valid while supplies last.
9. With contagious COVID sub-variants still spreading in Hamilton, we encourage you to get the fourth vaccination now available to all adults. We will continue our current in-person gathering approach: i) we will form the circle again in the lower hall, distancing the seats by a metre for the time being. ii) people may join the circle if they are willing to wear a mask.
10. The reason for the masks is that we will allow ourselves to sing, and masking reduces the distance air we expel travels with the increased effort singing.
11. New Vision Virtual Worship is experiential, participatory, image-rich and collective, just like worship in person at New Vision! Join us on Sunday mornings 10:30 am week to week during the Covid-19 emergency by clicking here. If you want to put the link someplace easy to find each week, here it is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/782292511. Please share it with others and invite them to a “different” kind of time on Zoom from the usual.
12. You can also call in to the gathering on the telephone. Call 1 647 374 4685, then, when prompted, input the Meeting ID 782 292 511 followed by the # sign. Ignore the prompts for Participant ID and Password. You are in when the recorded voice says, “You are in the meeting.” If you can only connect by video on your computer with no audio, you can use the phone connection for audio and the computer connection for visual.

Hope to see you Sunday again, or for the first time –

Rev Ian

Thursday Jan 26 2023

1. The Afro Canadian Caribbean Association is holding an open house tomorrow on January 27 from 5 – 7 pm to celebrate and show their newly renovated space at 423 King St. E. You can RSVP at acca1979info@gmail.com
2. On  Monday, January 30, @12 noon until 2 pm join the City of Hamilton’s  launch of its first official Black History Month Celebration – under the theme We Are Hamilton – Black History Remembered. This initiative is being organized by a partnership between the City and several Black led organizations in Hamilton, namely, the Afro Canadian Caribbean Association, Ghana Association of Hamilton, Haitian Association of Hamilton, Hamilton Anti-Racism Resource Centre, Hamilton Black History Council, Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion, Nigerian Canadian Association of Hamilton and District, and Refuge Hamilton Centre for Newcomer Health.
3. Several of us attended the Status for All rally for migrant worker residency rights in the Art Gallery of Hamilton forecourt this past Monday. The rally then demonstrated in front of the nearby hotel in which the federal cabinet was holding a winter retreat.
4. The United Church is part of an ecumenical coalition supporting the regularization of migrant worker participation in Canadian society. You can read a letter from September 2022 to the Prime Minister of Canada from the coalition here.
5. Watch for more ways you can contribute to advocacy to have the federal government keep its promise to legislate pathways to permanent residency for migrant workers in this space.
6. The 2023 New Vision Annual Meeting is scheduled for February 26^th, the first Sunday of Lent. Please place this on your calendar and come attend in person if you can!
7. Speaking of Lent, for those of you making plans for the Lenten season, both the printand the ebook versions of the 2023 United Church Lenten devotional, Good Courage: Daily Reflections on Hope are now available! Good Courage offers honest testimonies from people who have had the courage to follow their hearts, to hope against hope, and to faithfully work toward a better world. In this new book, you will find inspiring examples of practical and courageous hope in the midst of despair that deepen your spiritual experience of resurrection and new life. Edited by the Rev. Alydia Smith, this new Lenten devotional includes daily scripture, reflections, study questions, and prayers for individuals or groups. When you purchase the softcover edition of Good Courage, use code PLANAHEAD to receive one free 2023 Canadian Church Calendar! (Note: You must have both Good Courage and the 2023 Canadian Church Calendar added to your cart for the discount to apply to your order.) Offer valid while supplies last.
8. With contagious COVID sub-variants still spreading in Hamilton, we encourage you to get the fourth vaccination now available to all adults. We will continue our current in-person gathering approach: i) we will form the circle again in the lower hall, distancing the seats by a metre for the time being. ii) people may join the circle if they are willing to wear a mask.
9. The reason for the masks is that we will allow ourselves to sing, and masking reduces the distance air we expel travels with the increased effort singing.
10. New Vision Virtual Worship is experiential, participatory, image-rich and collective, just like worship in person at New Vision! Join us on Sunday mornings 10:30 am week to week during the Covid-19 emergency by clicking here. If you want to put the link someplace easy to find each week, here it is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/782292511. Please share it with others and invite them to a “different” kind of time on Zoom from the usual.
11. You can also call in to the gathering on the telephone. Call 1 647 374 4685, then, when prompted, input the Meeting ID 782 292 511 followed by the # sign. Ignore the prompts for Participant ID and Password. You are in when the recorded voice says, “You are in the meeting.” If you can only connect by video on your computer with no audio, you can use the phone connection for audio and the computer connection for visual.

Hope to see you Sunday again, or for the first time –

Rev Ian

Thursday September 8, 2022

While Rev. Ian is on vacation and sabbatical leave, here is what’s going on at New Vision:

1. This coming Sunday, September 11th, we look forward to learning more about the important work of our friends at The Hub as Martine shares this week’s message. Dan Peace and other members of New Vision’s community of Faith will lead us in worship.
2. The 11th World Council of Churches Assembly that is being held in Karlsruhe, Germany concludes today. We look forward to learning about this wonderful gathering from Rev. Miriam and Rev. Diane when they return to our worship space.
3. During Rev. Ian’s vacation and study/sabbatical leave, pastoral care will be available through members of our Pastoral Care Team by contacting Albert Jagt or Erin Poole.
4. Rev. Ian was interviewed and images of The Music Hall were featured recently in the Spectator, to view the article, please click here.
5. The Music Hall social enterprise project is moving ahead now with an invitation to the Hamilton community and its leaders to pick up the music venue project with us. For more information, have a look at this page on our website.
6. Our friends at St. Andrews have invited us to participate in a ‘Garage & Trunk Sale!’ to benefit The Bridge (A Hamilton organization that supports individuals who are settling back into their community following hard times). It will take place on Saturday September 17th from 9am-1pm and the cost to participate is only $10 for a table outdoors or $20 for a table indoors.  Payment can be left at their church (479 Upper Paradise) Mon-Fri from 9:30 to noon, or you can send an e-transfer to treasurer@standrewsunitedhamilton.ca (More information is available by calling Jessica at 905-383-7411).
7. Do you have a favourite worship song that lifts you up and makes your spirit soar? We invite you to email your worship song requests to David at dkmotherwell@gmail.com  We will let you know if your song is picked and you’ll get a shout-out in the credits at the end of the service.
8. With a very contagious new COVID sub-variant spreading in Hamilton, we encourage you to get the fourth vaccination now available to all adults. We will continue our current in-person gathering approach: i) we will form the circle again in the lower hall, distancing the seats by a meter for the time being. ii) people may join the circle if they are willing to wear a mask.
9. The reason for the masks is that we will allow ourselves to sing, and masking reduces the distance air we expel travels with the increased effort singing.
10. New Vision Virtual Worship is experiential, participatory, image-rich and collective, just like worship in person at New Vision! Join us on Sunday mornings 10:30 am week to week during the Covid-19 emergency by clicking here. If you want to put the link someplace easy to find each week, here it is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/782292511. Please share it with others and invite them to a “different” kind of time on Zoom from the usual.
11. You can also call in to the gathering on the telephone. Call 1 647 374 4685, then, when prompted, input the Meeting ID 782 292 511 followed by the # sign. Ignore the prompts for Participant ID and Password. You are in when the recorded voice says, “You are in the meeting.” If you can only connect by video on your computer with no audio, you can use the phone connection for audio and the computer connection for visual.
12. Rev. Ian’s sabbatical leave will end January 8, 2023 and we look forward to his return to our worship space on Sunday January 15, 2023.

See you on Sunday!

Thursday August 18, 2022

While Rev. Ian is on vacation and sabbatical leave, here is what’s going on at New Vision:

1. This Sunday, August 21st, the ‘New Vision
   Players’ are planning to lead our Worship in the Church Hall and on Zoom.
2. On August 28th we will be participating in a joint service with Inwood
   United Church with leadership provided by their Minister, and our good friend, Rev. Christine Jerrett.
3. On Sunday, September 4th, our worship will be led by our Helen Bradley
   and other members of New Vision’s community of Faith.
4. During Rev. Ian’s vacation and study/sabbatical leave, pastoral care
   will be available through members of our Pastoral Care Team by
   contacting Albert Jagt or Erin Poole.
5. The pandemic-begun Gore Park Outreach Program on Saturdays continues. They are looking for 2 or 3 more volunteers to join them in the New Vision kitchen Saturday mornings to help prepare the hot meal they serve at noon in The Gore.
6. L’Arche Hamilton is looking for volunteers: They write: Would you or anyone you know be interested in engaging with us by volunteering with Inclusion Coffeehouse? We are looking for volunteers who would be willing to volunteer alongside adults with developmental disabilities in serving baked goods, pouring coffee, taking orders and cleaning the coffeehouse space. We would love to have volunteers who are committed to volunteering with us weekly on Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays in the mornings. We are a Social Enterprise where people with and without intellectual disabilities volunteer together to serve coffee and share our gifts with the neighborhood. located at the Bernie Morelli Recreation Centre and operated through L’Arche Hamilton Please email dave@larchehamilton.org if you are able to support us!
7. Another opportunity this fall: This fall, Good Shepherd will be launching a council that will engage with new projects, policies, and directives to hear how we can better serve everyone in our community. We are inviting people with living/lived experience in areas such as living without a fixed address, living with mental illness, living with a disability, and/or living through challenges related to substance use, racism, colonialism, discrimination, and other forms of exclusion from resources and equity. The Lived Experience Advisory Council will advise Good Shepherd and create a new dynamic of community involvement in social service delivery. For more info: Teresa Caterini, Lived Experience Advisory coordinator tcaterini@gsch.ca.
8. With a very contagious new COVID sub-variant spreading in Hamilton, we encourage you to get the fourth vaccination now available to all adults. We will continue our current in-person gathering approach: i) we will form the circle again in the lower hall, distancing the seats by a metre for the time being. ii) people may join the circle if they are willing to wear a mask.
9. The reason for the masks is that we will allow ourselves to sing, and masking reduces the distance air we expel travels with the increased effort singing.
10. New Vision Virtual Worship is experiential, participatory, image-rich and collective, just like worship in person at New Vision! Join us on Sunday mornings 10:30 am week to week during the Covid-19 emergency by clicking here. If you want to put the link someplace easy to find each week, here it is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/782292511. Please share it with others and invite them to a “different” kind of time on Zoom from the usual.
11. You can also call in to the gathering on the telephone. Call 1 647 374 4685, then, when prompted, input the Meeting ID 782 292 511 followed by the # sign. Ignore the prompts for Participant ID and Password. You are in when the recorded voice says, “You are in the meeting.” If you can only connect by video on your computer with no audio, you can use the phone connection for audio and the computer connection for visual.
12. Rev. Ian’s sabbatical leave will end January 8, 2023 and he will return to our worship space on Sunday January 15, 2023.

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday !

Fri Aug 12 2022

1. This Sunday as I take leave for my month-long annual vacation we begin more than the regular vacation time apart. At the end of my vacation I begin a sabbatical leave from regular duties at New Vision.
2. The sabbatical leave will end January 8, 2023. I will be back for Sunday worship January 15.
3. It has been now just over six years since I came back from my last sabbatical leave. In that leave I visited many new church or renewed church start-ups in Southern Ontario, and spent about a month visiting cutting-edge progressive church start-ups along the Atlantic seaboard of the US, from Washington DC to Boston.
4. This year I am heading into books and journal articles and conversations with theologians. I will be centred in Toronto. The focus will be the theological and faith practice themes that we have been occupied with here at New Vision since we began New Vision.
5. I am not planning to travel much this leave.
6. The Regional Council has appointed Rev. Diane Blanchard to be pastoral charge supervisor during my leave. She will attend Council meetings and be available to the New Vision leadership to address any emergent issues during my leave.
7. New Vision Notes will continue in some form on a regular (if not weekly basis) during my leave. I will look forward to receiving them!
8. Tomorrow, Saturday August 13 at 12pm, Hamilton’s 2nd Annual Indigenous Unity Rally will take place at City Hall.  Last year’s Indigenous Unity Rally was called in response to the decision at City Hall not to remove the statue of John A MacDonald, Canada’s first Prime Minister and architect of the residential school system, from Gore Park.  This decision was taken even as many Canadians were finally facing the reality of the hundreds upon hundreds of unmarked graves at Residential School sites across the country; a reality Indigenous communities have been naming and contending with for decades. Given the inaction of elected officials, some participants at last year’s rally took things into their own hands and pulled the statue down themselves.  Everyone is welcome at this year’s rally: “Bring your good minds and your good hearts.”
9. The pandemic-begun Gore Park Outreach Program on Saturdays continues. They are looking for 2 or 3 volunteers to join them in the New Vision kitchen Saturday mornings to help prepare the hot meal they serve at noon in The Gore.
10. L’Arche Hamilton is looking for volunteers: They write: Would you or anyone you know be interested in engaging with us by volunteering with Inclusion Coffeehouse? We are looking for volunteers who would be willing to volunteer alongside adults with developmental disabilities in serving baked goods, pouring coffee, taking orders and cleaning the coffeehouse space. We would love to have volunteers who are committed to volunteering with us weekly on Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays in the mornings. We are a Social Enterprise where people with and without intellectual disabilities volunteer together to serve coffee and share our gifts with the neighborhood. located at the Bernie Morelli Recreation Centre and operated through L’Arche Hamilton Please email dave@larchehamilton.orgif you are able to support us!
11. The Micah House https://www.micahhouse.ca/ Fundraising Brunch – August 20 th 10:30 AM. Come and support this local ministry to refugees and enjoy a delicious, catered brunch. You will hear from former Micah House clients and our Executive Director, Scott Jones. There is no cost to register but seating is limited at this beautiful venue, the Hamilton Steam & Technology Museum at 900 Woodward Ave. To register please email heidi@micahhouse.ca or call 905-296-4387.
12. Another opportunity this fall: This fall, Good Shepherd will be launching a council that will engage with new projects, policies, and directives to hear how we can better serve everyone in our community. We are inviting people with living/lived experience in areas such as living without a fixed address, living with mental illness, living with a disability, and/or living through challenges related to substance use, racism, colonialism, discrimination, and other forms of exclusion from resources and equity. The Lived Experience Advisory Council will advise Good Shepherd and create a new dynamic of community involvement in social service delivery. For more info: Teresa Caterini, Lived Experience Advisory coordinator tcaterini@gsch.ca.
13. With a very contagious new COVID sub-variant spreading in Hamilton, we encourage you to get the fourth vaccination now available to all adults. We will continue our current in-person gathering approach: i) we will form the circle again in the lower hall, distancing the seats by a metre for the time being. ii) people may join the circle if they are willing to wear a mask.
14. The reason for the masks is that we will allow ourselves to sing, and masking reduces the distance air we expel travels with the increased effort singing.
15. New Vision Virtual Worship is experiential, participatory, image-rich and collective, just like worship in person at New Vision! Join us on Sunday mornings 10:30 am week to week during the Covid-19 emergency by clicking here. If you want to put the link someplace easy to find each week, here it is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/782292511. Please share it with others and invite them to a “different” kind of time on Zoom from the usual.
16. You can also call in to the gathering on the telephone. Call 1 647 374 4685, then, when prompted, input the Meeting ID 782 292 511 followed by the # sign. Ignore the prompts for Participant ID and Password. You are in when the recorded voice says, “You are in the meeting.” If you can only connect by video on your computer with no audio, you can use the phone connection for audio and the computer connection for visual.

Hope to see you Sunday again, or for the first time –

Rev Ian

Fri Aug 5 2022

1. At Sunday’s worship gathering we are confirming the baptismal promises made by his parents and our faith community in his infancy with Jacob Feltham. We will once again be celebrating communion.
2. The pandemic-begun Gore Park Outreach Program on Saturdays continues. They are looking for 2 or 3 volunteers to join them in the New Vision kitchen Saturday mornings to help prepare the hot meal they serve at noon in The Gore. Contact Linda or Helen or write me back here.
3. L’Arche Hamilton is also looking for volunteers: They write: Would you or anyone you know be interested in engaging with us by volunteering with Inclusion Coffeehouse? We are looking for volunteers who would be willing to volunteer alongside adults with developmental disabilities in serving baked goods, pouring coffee, taking orders and cleaning the coffeehouse space. We would love to have volunteers who are committed to volunteering with us weekly on Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays in the mornings. We are a Social Enterprise where people with and without intellectual disabilities volunteer together to serve coffee and share our gifts with the neighborhood. located at the Bernie Morelli Recreation Centre and operated through L’Arche Hamilton Please email dave@larchehamilton.org if you are able to support us!
4. The Micah House Fundraising Brunch – August 20 th 10:30 AM. Come and support this local ministry to refugees and enjoy a delicious, catered brunch. You will hear from former Micah House clients and our Executive Director, Scott Jones. There is no cost to register but seating is limited at this beautiful venue, the Hamilton Steam & Technology Museum, at 900 Woodward Ave. To register please email heidi@micahhouse.ca or call 905-296-4387.
5. Another opportunity this fall: This fall, Good Shepherd will be launching a council that will engage with new projects, policies, and directives to hear how we can better serve everyone in our community. We are inviting people with living/lived experience in areas such as living without a fixed address, living with mental illness, living with a disability, and/or living through challenges related to substance use, racism, colonialism, discrimination, and other forms of exclusion from resources and equity. The Lived Experience Advisory Council will advise Good Shepherd and create a new dynamic of community involvement in social service delivery. For more info: Teresa Caterini, Lived Experience Advisory Coordinator tcaterini@gsch.ca.
6. With a very contagious new COVID sub-variant spreading in Hamilton, we encourage you to get the fourth vaccination now available to all adults. We will continue our current in-person gathering approach: i) we will form the circle again in the lower hall, distancing the seats by a metre for the time being. ii) people may join the circle if they are willing to wear a mask.
7. The reason for the masks is that we will allow ourselves to sing, and masking reduces the distance air we expel travels with the increased effort singing.
8. New Vision Virtual Worship is experiential, participatory, image-rich and collective, just like worship in person at New Vision! Join us on Sunday mornings 10:30 am week to week during the Covid-19 emergency by clicking here. If you want to put the link someplace easy to find each week, here it is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/782292511. Please share it with others and invite them to a “different” kind of time on Zoom from the usual.
9. You can also call in to the gathering on the telephone. Call 1 647 374 4685, then, when prompted, input the Meeting ID 782 292 511 followed by the # sign. Ignore the prompts for Participant ID and Password. You are in when the recorded voice says, “You are in the meeting.” If you can only connect by video on your computer with no audio, you can use the phone connection for audio and the computer connection for visual.

Hope to see you Sunday again, or for the first time –

Rev Ian

Sat  July 30 2022

1. At Sunday’s worship gathering – tomorrow – we are honouring Laura Gallagher-Doucette, the 2022 George Soutar Award winner. The Soutar Award winner is the Sanford Gold Medal winner at Emmanuel College each year. She will join us for our worship gathering and break open the word for us.
2. On Monday from 2 pm – 3:30 pm, join the Afro Canadian Caribbean Association online for “When the Lion Tells the Story. This event is to inform the public of the vital role that Black Hamiltonians have played in shaping our community while revealing the truths of a history fraught with violence, racism, hardship, and perseverance. This event will illuminate the struggles and triumphs of Black people in Hamilton and area and celebrates the contributions of both famous and lesser-known individuals. Using the theme of people, places and things, this community mapping project will unearth stories of the Black community that has largely been hidden. This event presents a unique opportunity to bring together Black families and the dominant cultural community to teach and learn about the area’s Black History. To register follow this link.
3. New Vision was the site of the Hamilton Fringe Festival’s Spark Teen Intensive the past 10 days. It was great to have them in the building.
4. The pandemic-begun Gore Park Outreach Program on Saturdays continues.
5. With a very contagious new COVID sub-variant spreading in Hamilton, we encourage you to get the fourth vaccination now available to all adults. We will continue our current in-person gathering approach: i) we will form the circle again in the lower hall, distancing the seats by a metre for the time being. ii) people may join the circle if they are willing to wear a mask.
6. The reason for the masks is that we will allow ourselves to sing, and masking reduces the distance air we expel travels with the increased effort singing.
7. New Vision Virtual Worship is experiential, participatory, image-rich and collective, just like worship in person at New Vision! Join us on Sunday mornings 10:30 am week to week during the Covid-19 emergency by clicking here. If you want to put the link someplace easy to find each week, here it is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/782292511. Please share it with others and invite them to a “different” kind of time on Zoom from the usual.
8. You can also call in to the gathering on the telephone. Call 1 647 374 4685, then, when prompted, input the Meeting ID 782 292 511 followed by the # sign. Ignore the prompts for Participant ID and Password. You are in when the recorded voice says, “You are in the meeting.” If you can only connect by video on your computer with no audio, you can use the phone connection for audio and the computer connection for visual.

Hope to see you Sunday again, or for the first time –

Rev Ian

Thu July 14 2022

Hope to see you Sunday again, or for the first time –

Rev Ian

Thu June 30 2022

1. Happy Canada Day Eve! May there be fireworks.
2. New Vision covenanted with Horseshoe Falls Regional Council this past Sunday, and together the two covenanted with me. Definitely a delayed gratification — our 6 years of appointments beginning in 2014 were converted into a call in 2020 and all of us decided to wait until an in-person gathering could be held to celebrate. The day arrived.
3. Symbols exchanged: from New Vision to Horseshoe Falls — a Pride flag and the vinyl “Do Well by Hamilton” album fundraiser for The Music Hall at New Vision. From Horseshoe Falls to New Vision (not pictured): towel and basin, cup and plate, water pitcher. From New Vision to Rev. Ian: a level, a lightbulb, and a crystal of many facets and many refractions of light. From Rev. Ian to New Vision: sticks, and stones, and a commitment to healing uses of words.

1. A correction to last week’s New Vision Note about the covenanting: Marilyn Parson who represented the Regional Council this past Sunday belongs to Port Nelson United Church.
2. Volunteers! Pride Reunited! Let me know if you’d like to sign up to be a part of one of the two-person shifts personning a booth New Vision is sharing this year with other Affirming United Churches at Pride Reunited July 8th and 9th, Hamilton Convention Centre. There are still times available on both Friday and Saturday. Our group this year includes Delta United, St. Andrew’s United, and Barton-Stone United-Mount Hope.
3. The pandemic-begun Gore Park Outreach Program is taking this Saturday morning off to give volunteers something of a breather.
4. Here our current in-person gathering approach: i) we will form the circle again in the lower hall, distancing the seats by a metre for the time being. ii) people may join the circle if they are willing to wear a mask.
5. The reason for the masks is that we will allow ourselves to sing, and masking reduces the distance air we expel travels with the increased effort singing.
6. New Vision Virtual Worship is experiential, participatory, image-rich and collective, just like worship in person at New Vision! Join us on Sunday mornings 10:30 am week to week during the Covid-19 emergency by clicking here. If you want to put the link someplace easy to find each week, here it is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/782292511. Please share it with others and invite them to a “different” kind of time on Zoom from the usual.
7. You can also call in to the gathering on the telephone. Call 1 647 374 4685, then, when prompted, input the Meeting ID 782 292 511 followed by the # sign. Ignore the prompts for Participant ID and Password. You are in when the recorded voice says, “You are in the meeting.” If you can only connect by video on your computer with no audio, you can use the phone connection for audio and the computer connection for visual.

Hope to see you Sunday again, or for the first time –

Rev Ian