Category: New Vision Notes

Fri May 21 2021

1. We have been having a fantastic time celebrating Asian Heritage Month. We have one more Sunday to go! Our planning group will be sharing more thoughtful videos and music this Sunday as we draw the month to a close.
2. Sunday June 6 we celebrate the United Church of Canada National Pride Day with a gathering led by our Affirming Committee. In addition, everyone is invited to join “We are One, We are Many: A Celebration of the Affirming Designations of Antler River Watershed, Horseshoe Falls, and Western Ontario Waterways Regional Councils” that same day, at 2 pm. Follow this Zoom link: https://united-church.zoom.us/j/92162978931
3. New Vision and our property redevelopment partner the United Property Resource Corporation will be holding a virtual town hall gathering on June 10th in which we consult with our neighbours and the community about options for our Holton Ave. S. campus. Please plan to attend one of the two gatherings: one from noon to 1:30- pm and the other from 6 pm to 7:30 pm. You can get yourself on the mailing list for the townhalls in order to get registration details by going to this website. More information about our project and our ministry will be posted to this website in the weeks ahead, so you might bookmark it and come back to it from time to time.
4. Sunday June 20^th is our 7^th anniversary. Ward 3 Councillor Nrinder Nann has accepted our invitation to come speak as our guest at our worship gathering on that Sunday. Other pieces are in preparation.
5. With June being both Pride month and National Indigenous History Month, the United Church of Canada is presenting a webinar called “Two-Spirit People: A Part of our Circle and our Teachings” on Monday, June 28 at 7 pm. Follow this link to register. It is free – brought to us by The UCC’s Mission and Service Fund.
6. All of Ontario, including Hamilton, continues in pandemic lock-down, although in the weeks ahead provided there is good progress in lowering the incident levels of infection the restrictions will be progressively relaxed. At this time I am sad to say this still means that New Vision folks without access to Zoom will have to wait for a while more to participate in person at 24 Main W in our Zoom worship gathering on Sundays. But we are getting close! I know those gathering on Zoom keenly miss those who have been gathering in person. I am looking forward to the day we can meet again in person, and I am sad that this is the second Easter we will not be able to gather in person as a Christian faith community.
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 toll free. Call 1 855 703 8985, 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 May 21 2021

1. Happy Easter!
2. Christ is risen.
3. Indeed.
4. This Sunday coming is Pentecost Sunday – the last and best of the Sundays of Easter. We gather to be and become a body to witness to the ministry of Jesus in all our times and places.
5. Come “hell or high water” as the saying goes.
6. We are celebrating Asian Heritage Month for the whole month of May. This Sunday Rev. Roni Beharry has accepted our invitation to Break Open the Word. She will be remembered by many New Visioners for giving leadership in our “Starting with Why” and “Ninety Percent of Life” workshops that began our intercultural journey as a faith community. Roni’s theme will be “An Indo-Caribbean Woman’s Faith.”
7. Here are links to the two videos used by the Asian Heritage Month Planning Group during their deeply appreciated Breaking Open the Word last Sunday; “Struggle and Grace: Asian Heritage in the United Church”, and, “Eyes Open: An Anti-Asian Racism Public Service Announcement” .
8. Sunday June 6 we celebrate the United Church of Canada National Pride Day with a gathering led by our Affirming Committtee. All are invited to join “We are One, We are Many: A Celebration of the Affirming Designations of Antler River Watershed, Horseshoe Falls, and Western Ontario Waterways Regional Councils” that same day, at 2 pm. Follow this Zoom link.
9. New Vision and our property redevelopment partner the United Property Resource Corporation will be holding a virtual town hall gathering on June 10th in which we consult with our neighbours and the community about options for our Holton Ave. S. campus. Please plan to attend one of the two gatherings: one from noon to 1:30- pm and the other from 6 pm to 7:30 pm. Link information will be sent out to you when it is available.
10. Sunday June 20^th is our 7^th anniversary. Ward 3 Councillor Nrinder Nann has accepted our invitation to come speak as our guest at our worship gathering on that Sunday. Other pieces are in preparation.
11. The digital recording of The Celebration of Bob Marentette’s Life and Witness to the Resurrection may be viewed at this link.
12. All of Ontario, including Hamilton, continues in pandemic lock-down, although in the weeks ahead it appears that the restrictions will be progressively relaxed. At this time I am sad to say this means that New Vision folks without access to Zoom will have to wait for a while more to participate in person at 24 Main W in our Zoom worship gathering on Sundays. I know those gathering on Zoom keenly miss those who have been gathering in person. I am looking forward to the day we can meet again in person, and I am sad that this is the second Easter we will not be able to gather in person as a Christian faith community.
13. 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.
14. You can also call in to the gathering on the telephone toll free. Call 1 855 703 8985, 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 you are able to join in on Sunday ~ again, or for the first time ~

Rev Ian

Thurs May 6 2021

1. Happy Easter!
2. Christ is risen.
3. Indeed.
4. We are celebrating Asian Heritage Month for the whole month of May. This Sunday, Christian Family Sunday and Mother’s Day for many, we will be thinking about Asian family immigrant experience and affirming our commitment to end anti-Asian hate.
5. The Pastoral Care Committee is offering a worship gathering of lament on Tuesday, May 11^th at 8 pm for the New Vision community. We have suffered a lot since the beginning of the pandemic emergency, and we have seen much suffering. This will be a space for us to acknowledge our grief and to draw God into controversy with us over it. Here is the Zoom link for the gathering: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84971560584?pwd=SzNvWEw3bmU0ZlZ6TmEyMmlIN0IzZz09
6. Saturday Night at the Movies this month will take place on Saturday May 15 at 6 pm. The movie has been chosen by a group of our Asian heritage folks. It is Minari — the story of a  Korean family that started a farm in 1980s Arkansas. It was nominated in this year’s Academy Awards for 6 Oscars including best picture, and won the Oscar for best supporting actress. Not sure how we will watch this together but join at this link https://zoom.us/j/92720992834?pwd=MWNOcVVxWUFGOERPT0d4b0pzc0ZHdz09 and we’ll go from there.
7. Our ‘feature presentation’ Sunday of Asian Heritage Month will be Sunday, May 16 when our Breaking Open the Word will be led by the Asian Heritage Month planning group.
8. The following Sunday, May 23, will be led by the Worship Committee. Rev. Roni Beharry has accepted their invitation to Break Open the Word. She will be remembered by many New Visioners for giving leadership in our “Starting with Why” and “Ninety Percent of Life” workshops that began our intercultural journey as a faith community. Roni’s theme will be “An  Indo-Caribbean Woman’s Faith.”
9. All of Ontario, including Hamilton, continues in pandemic lock-down. I am sad to say this means that New Vision folks without access to Zoom will have to wait for a while more to participate in person at 24 Main W in our Zoom worship gathering on Sundays. I know those gathering on Zoom keenly miss those who have been gathering in person. I am looking forward to the day we can meet again in person, and I am sad that this is the second Easter we will not be able to gather in person as a Christian faith community.
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 toll free. Call 1 855 703 8985, 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 Apr 30 2021

1. Happy Easter!
2. Christ is risen.
3. Indeed.
4. Tomorrow brings May flowers, but the cherry blossoms have come, and will be gone in a few days from now. We are celebrating Asian Heritage Month for the whole month of May. What a poetic place to begin from – within this grove of cherry trees gifted to the City of Hamilton and planted in a park in Dundas by alumnae of Toyo Eiwa Jogakuin in Tokyo. With their gift they have honoured and celebrate all the Canadian women teachers who taught at their school – the school that Centenary’s Martha Cartmell began in 1881.
5. The Pastoral Care Committee is offering a worship gathering of lament on Tuesday, May 11^th at 8 pm for the New Vision community. We have suffered a lot since the beginning of the pandemic emergency, and we have seen much suffering. This will be a space for us to draw God into controversy with us over our grief. The Zoom link for the gathering: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84971560584?pwd=SzNvWEw3bmU0ZlZ6TmEyMmlIN0IzZz09
6. Saturday Night at the Movies this month will take place on Saturday May 15. Watch this space for the start time and zoom gathering to watch together. The movie has been chosen by a group of our Asian heritage folks. It is Minari — the story of a  Korean family that started a farm in 1980s Arkansas. It was nominated in this year’s Academy Awards for 6 Oscars including best picture, and won the Oscar for best supporting actress.
7. All of Ontario, including Hamilton, continues in pandemic lock-down. I am sad to say this means that New Vision folks without access to Zoom will have to wait for a while more to participate in person at 24 Main W in our Zoom worship gathering on Sundays. I know those gathering on Zoom keenly miss those who have been gathering in person. I am looking forward to the day we can meet again in person, and I am sad that this is the second Easter we will not be able to gather in person as a Christian faith community.
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 toll free. Call 1 855 703 8985, 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 Apr 16 2021

1. Happy Easter!
2. Christ is risen.
3. Indeed.
4. Follow this link to hear the choir sing the Hallelujah Chorus of Handel again (or for the first time).
5. We have been engaged by the wider community of Hamilton in complex ways over our redevelopment plans at 85 Holton Ave. S.
6. On behalf of Church Council and at the encouragement of our chair Dixon Challoner I thank all of you who wrote to your ward councilor as a part of New Vision responding to this engagement in the last week. You can follow this link to read the letters from among New Vision folks that were submitted in time to be included in the agenda as correspondence for the meeting.
7. Others who wrote can be assured that your councilor received your letter, even though your letter did not make the deadline for inclusion as received correspondence.
8. Our rough estimate is somewhere between 20-25 letters from New Vision and its friends came to the Councillors between Sunday afternoon and Tuesday evening.
9. Councillor Nann’s motion to refer the intention to designate motion back to the Planning Committee for staff input and the opportunity for us to present the various scenarios of what the redevelopment might look like to the Planning Committee was passed 13-1 by the Council.
10. This was our hoped-for outcome as it provides us with an opportunity to engage new residents to the former St. Giles neighbourhood who are not aware of our deep connections to the neighbourhood, the history of the project, nor how our plans for the property are in fact an evolution of the identity of the former St. Giles as it ended and New Vision began: a clear social justice vision and concern for the well-being of the neighbourhood.
11. For a fair report on the Council meeting decision and the current views of various parties interested in it, the Spec published on the story here.
12. This Sunday we are joined in our worship gathering by our Rockville United partners in Maryland with whom we are bringing the Al Zahar family from Syria to Canada as refugees. Since the United Church of Christ in the USA (of which they are a part) is a full communion partner of The United Church of Canada, we are able to mark the occasion of our partnership with communion. Please have your beverage and food of choice available to you when you come to the worship gathering on Sunday.
13. Our theme on Sunday will be the theme of provision of sanctuary to refugees and our commitments and the conditions under which we seek to live out those commitments as Christians as part of the global community.
14. In other news…one of the first fruits of our Intercultural Relationship Currency Design Project is our celebration of Asian Heritage Month throughout the upcoming month of May. A planning group assisted by the Worship Committee is moving plans forward.
15. And in still more other news…the New Vision Affirming committee recently met to review our PIE Day recipes and to plan how to bake them into the year ahead (apologies for the bad pun). We will be hearing more from the Affirming Committee soon. Look forward with me to the New Vision UCC national Pride Sunday celebration on Sunday June 6.
16. One technology note: those of you who are on our Threshold Partnership e-list were sent some reports of actions your Church Council was taking with respect to the redevelopment plan at 85 Holton Ave. S. earlier this week. We’ve learned that some of those emails went into the spam/junk/promotions folders of more than one or two. If you are receiving this New Vision Note, and believe you should be on the Threshold Partnership e-list, please check in those various folders for email from this address officeadmin@newvisionunited.org. If you can’t find the emails, please contact New Vision by responding to this edition of New Vision Notes and let us know.
17. Hamilton is back into the Province of Ontario’s “grey zone”. I am sad to say this means that New Vision folks without access to Zoom will have to wait for a while more to participate in person at 24 Main W in our Zoom worship gathering on Sundays. I know those gathering on Zoom keenly miss those who have been gathering in person. I am looking forward to the day we can meet again in person, and I am sad that this is the second Easter we will not be able to gather in person as a Christian faith community.
18. 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.
19. You can also call in to the gathering on the telephone toll free. Call 1 855 703 8985, 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

Notes Wed Mar 31 2021

1. I invited those of you at our Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday worship gathering this past Sunday to engage the passion and crucifixion stories of Jesus as texts through which you lament the violence that causes and reinforces marginalizations with which many live.
2. There is little doubt (based on my awareness of my own privilege) that this is a disturbing engagement for any one of us. Privilege and marginalization are experiences and realities of most of our lives. Extended marginalization or privilege is only sustained through violence, as the cross of Jesus shows.
3. Violence in any form brings trauma, and one of the realities we sit with in lamentation at the violence of the crucifixion of Jesus is the trauma of the violence upon our own bodies that comes with inequality, exclusiveness and monocultural frames of social reference.
4. This is hard work.
5. This is Holy Week work.
6. Jesus verbalizes this work in the passion stories with his prayer to God in Gethsemane, “Not my will, but your will be done.”
7. During this holy week, I invite you to accompany Jesus in enacting this prayer as far as you can in your lament over his passion and crucifixion. For on the other side is…
8. Reach out to me or trusted others. We are not alone.
9. We will share an agape meal Maundy Thursday – bring some snacks and beverage of your choice to our virtual worship gathering at 7 pm. Depending on numbers we will break out into smaller rooms to enable conversations to take place. After we have settled in we will join together for a service of shadows (Tenebrae) in our zoom worship gathering room. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/782292511
10. A brief worship gathering will take place on Good Friday at 10:30 am in the New Vision virtual worship room. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/782292511
11. Good Friday is not part of Lent – Lent ends on the Thursday of Holy Week, Maundy Thursday.
12. In some countries hot cross buns are baked and eaten on Good Friday to break the Lenten fast and begin the Easter celebration. They are a soft, sweet bread roll made with a vanilla icing cross on the top. Something to bake on Good Friday during a pandemic? Enough to have some around still on Easter Day? Here is a recipe – not a recommendation of this particular one, but an invitation –

13. Looking ahead: Our Rockville partners in bringing the Al Zahar family from Syria to Canada as refugees will be joining us for our virtual worship gathering on Sunday, Apr 18 at the usual time of 10:30 am.

14. Hamilton is back into the Province of Ontario’s “grey zone”. I am sad to say this means that New Vision folks without access to Zoom will have to wait for a while more to participate in person at 24 Main W in our Zoom worship gathering on Sundays. I know those gathering on Zoom keenly miss those who have been gathering in person. I am looking forward to the day we can meet again in person, and I am sad that this is the second Easter we will not be able to gather in person as a Christian faith community.

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 toll free. Call 1 855 703 8985, 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 in the days ahead, and at Easter – again, or for the first time ~

Rev Ian

Notes Sat Mar 27 2021

1. Palm Fronds for Palm Sunday (March 28, tomorrow) have been ordered and will be distributed today Saturday, March 27th at the west side parking lot at City Hall (exit off Bay Street) from 10 am to 11am, rain or shine. We will deliver the Palms to those who wish them, and will be seeking volunteers to help with the delivery. We will be asking the ‘callers’ who keep in touch with our folks on the ‘Phone list’ to advise them of the Palm pickup, or arrange for a delivery of the palms. For more information, reach out to Dan Peace (dgpeace1@gmail.com)
2. A video recording of the United Church’s International Day for the Elimination of Racism webinar called “A Biblical and Theological Exploration on Preaching Race and Racism” from last Sunday is available on the United Church’s YouTube channel here.
3. We will share in a Maundy Thursday agape feast (more to follow on this tomorrow at our worship gathering) and then a service of the shadows (Tenebrae) in our zoom worship gathering room on Thursday, Apr 1 at 7 pm.
4. A brief worship gathering will take place in the New Vision virtual worship room on Good Friday at 10:30 am.
5. Our Regional Council social justice officer is inviting Hamilton residents to contact their ward councilor to encourage them to pause changes to the City’s Official Plan initiated by the province that would cause more urban sprawl. For more information for your email follow this link to a petition you may also choose to sign. https://www.environmenthamilton.org/stop_sprawl
6. Looking ahead: Our Rockville United Church in suburban Washington D.C. friends who are partners in  the Al Zahar family from Syria to Canada refugee project will be joining us as a congregation for our virtual worship gathering on Sunday, Apr 18 at the usual time of 10:30 am.
7. Hamilton moves back into the Province of Ontario’s “grey zone” this Monday. I am sad to say this means that New Vision folks without access to Zoom will have to wait for a while more to participate in person at 24 Main W in our Zoom worship gathering on Sundays. I know those gathering on Zoom keenly miss those who have been gathering in person. I am looking forward to the day we can meet again in person, and I am sad that this is the second Easter we will not be able to gather in person as a Christian faith community.
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 toll free. Call 1 855 703 8985, 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.
10. For updates on New Vision plans in the post Covid-19 emergency recovery, please visit http://newvisionunited.org/new-vision-covid-19-updates/.

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

Rev Ian