Author: admin

New Vision Notes Thur Dec 3 2020

Thur Dec 3 2020

  1. New Vision shared in the leadership of a memorial service on the forecourt of City Hall last Sunday evening, The memorial marked the beginning of a vigil by the demonstrators on the forecourt against an order by the City to take down their sleeping tents or face the prospect of the tents being seized and destroyed Monday at 12 midnight.
  2. The service was officiated by me. I led it as a celebration, and drew heavily on our funeral service tradition. We were limited by pandemic orders to no more than 100 people for this outdoor service. I believe those gathered were about 100 people.
  3. We remembered Hamilton people who lived difficult lives who have died who were known to the Wesley Day Centre and New Vision United Church communities, often on the streets and homeless. We remembered Blacks who have died subjected to police violence. All attendees were invited to place a rose in an array in the middle of the forecourt in memory of the persons as they were named.
  4. On Monday morning, around 10 am, I watched a by-law officer issue a ticket for littering to one of the demonstrators when the demonstrator picked up a handful of the roses and placed them before the officer.
  5. Bylaw officers and police attended the forecourt on Monday morning around 9 am and seized and disposed of the demonstrators’ tents.
  6. New Vision’s Church Council issued a letter to the civic authorities on Sunday evening and placed it in the hands of the desk officer at police headquarters around 6;30 pm. The letter asserted that the tents were part and parcel of the demonstrators’ speech, and ordering them taken down placed a municipal by-law ordinance against the Church Council members’ charter rights. As Canadian citizens they wanted to “hear” this demonstration speech of words and tents without obstruction from the civic authorities.
  7. New Vision continues to provide safe harbour to the demonstrators within the walls of 24 Main St. W. Their demonstration is ongoing.
  8. New Vision’s Resting and Hygiene Centre has completed its assignment. Begun in the last days of April, it provided essential relief and support to people who were sleeping rough in downtown Hamilton. There were 3 churches providing these respite centres at the beginning. The other two closed by the end of the summer. New Vision promised to keep its centre going until better arrangements could be made in its place, or it was no longer needed.
  9. A new downtown service for people on the streets and living rough will open this Saturday at 5 pm at 78 Vine St. It will be staffed and run by the volunteers who operated the New Vision Resting and Hygiene Centre. It will be open 7 days a week from 5 pm to 9 pm.
  10. Thanks to commitment, passion and talent, the New Vision centre became over time something much more than a stopping point for hygiene and rest. The resting centre grew into a hub. The centre became a place for social service workers to interact with guests in a gracious space. It became a place where community and mutual aid could be.
  11. Not only did the centre outgrow its original emergency mandate, it became clear that there was nowhere else in the City doing anything quite like it from 5 pm to 9 pm 7 days a week during the pandemic. The unanticipated development of community programming at New Vision led to the realization that the space and our running it was not really set up for such programming. Thus, as we began to peer at the second wave of the pandemic coming toward us, the leadership of the hub looked for a better location to move to.
  12. We rejoice that New Vision seeded something so beneficial and substantial for people living with marginalizations in downtown Hamilton during this terrible pandemic. We celebrate the courage and passion of the leadership who secured agreement from Philpott Memorial Church for a larger space with more amenities for guests in Philpott’s building at 78 Vine St.
  13. We would do it again. We wish godspeed to “The [ ] Hub”  — friends, acquaintances, strangers.
  14. New Vision folks without access to Zoom are continuing to attend our Zoom worship gathering on Sundays in person at 24 Main W. Because attendees are at a religious gathering, pandemic health orders allow us to have 10 people together, when at present in all other circumstances gatherings are limited to 5 people.
  15. If you are interested in attending the in-person gathering, please be in touch with New Vision by emailing officeadmin@newvisionunited.org. The gathering will observe all the best practices for hygiene, screening, and sanitation.
  16. We will be celebrating communion this Sunday, the Second Sunday of Advent. Have a beverage and some bread nearby to join in.
  17. Christmas is right around the corner! As you might have already heard, Wesley Urban Ministries’ Christmas & Holiday Store will not operate like a store this year. Instead, it will provide hampers for people who participate in Wesley programs and through some of its community partners. For more information on how to get involved, please visit the website https://wesley.ca/holiday-assistance-program/.
  18. Purchase donations and do a curbside drop off at 1974 King St E (Pioneer Church), December 6 – 22, 1 – 4 pm. Calendar is here: https://wesley.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/christmas-holiday-hamper-calendar-2020.pdf
  19. Wesley Donation Wish List:
    Plastic or re-usable bags
    Any non-perishable food in individual or family sizes
    New gifts: toys, hygiene items, small kitchen appliances, towel & linens
    Gift Certificates for Walmart, Giant Tiger, Canadian Tire, Toys ‘R’ Us
    New or gently used hats, mitts, socks, winter boots and coats (No clothing)
  20. For those looking to volunteer at Wesley, their new volunteer roles and pandemic protocols are available online at the above link. There will be a limited number of on-site volunteers this year, however, you can also help from home by making pre packed hampers or volunteer as a driver to take the hampers to Wesley programs and community partners.
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. 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 on Sunday –  again, or for the first time.

Rev Ian

New Vision Notes Fri Nov 27 2020

Fri Nov 27 2020

  1.  A protest against the Hamilton Police Services budget and the City housing policy began on Monday in the City Hall forecourt and continues. I have attended and offered a worship service several times, with help from several New Vision threshold partners and other Hamilton area ministers. I see a strong connection between the Scriptural call to solidarity with the marginalized and this symbolic action that makes its point through an encampment that can include people who are sleeping rough. As such I see it as a religious meeting, and when I am present I declare it such. I believe it would be folly on the part of the City to take the tents down. They are part of a prophetic sign-act, as much a sign-act as any of the prophetic sign-acts found in the Hebrew Scriptures – for example, Jeremiah shattering an earthenware pot before the people to symbolize the destruction of Jerusalem. The prophets were primarily concerned with ethics.
  2. In light of this, it is interesting that the Criminal Code of Canada prohibits obstruction of religious services and “certain meetings” — meetings that serve a benevolent, moral or social purpose. It would seem it would be counter-indicated for the municipality to take any action against the protest outside the realm of addressing reasonable safety concerns during a pandemic.  I do not believe the Criminal Code can be so narrowly interpreted as to exclude this protest.
  3. We might ask, “Is this protest always a meeting for benevolent, moral or social purpose, 24 hours a day?” Our ethical prophetic tradition says that the answer is clearly yes. Prophetic sign-acts always break the norms or the conventions in order to draw attention to the ethical concern.
  4. But our ethical prophetic tradition implies something in the outrage it is prepared to countenance: there is a conversation that has to take place in this society – it is the only way adaptive change can occur that brings more equity, and inclusion across a diverse population. Such conversations must and do start at the grass roots – from the bottom up. Or, more precisely, in the friction between the civic authority and the prophetic action taking place on the forecourt of City Hall.
  5. The other night I took a photo of the Ghandi sculpture at City Hall. You can see the protest in the distance and the City Hall Christmas tree.  It’s a journey.
  6. The New Vision Resting and Hygiene Centre for People Sleeping Rough will be winding up by December 11. We are so very grateful to the volunteer coordinators who have made it possible, and to Luke, Steve and Willis who have done well by all of us through providing building services to the centre 7 days a week since late April. Guests will be directed over the next few weeks to available services that they can access when the centre at New Vision is wound up.
  7. We begin a new church year this Sunday with the first Sunday of Advent. To get into the spirit, let me encourage you to send me a photo of your Christmas tree – present or past – and we’ll put it in our opening slide in our worship gathering. You can send to this email address.
  8. The slide deck we drew on in our second Threshold Partner meeting last Sunday to begin our New Vision intercultural relational currency design project can be found here. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Dq2uFRaNjGJMtEV-F4FHio_tOn4olJlG/view?usp=sharing.
  9. Here are the motions passed by the Threshold Partners at the meeting: a) That the Threshold Partners of New Vision United Church engage in “The Relationship Currency Project” in the calendar year 2021 as discussed in this meeting and the meeting on November 1 2020, based on our successful Mission Support Grant  Application “Just Intercultural Consultation with Diverse Communities,” b) That the Threshold Partners of New Vision United Church create a 5 member (including the minister) Steering Group to coordinate Threshold Partners in achieving the objectives of the Project accountable to the Threshold Partners through the Church Council, and c) That the Threshold Partners of New Vision United Church appoint a diverse group that is reflective of the goals of the intercultural relationship currency project to the steering group. Through the Church Council the group can add members in order to achieve the desired diversity stated above.
  10. Several Threshold Partners are considering nominations made at the meeting that they join the steering group. Please hold them in your prayers.
  11. New Vision folks without access to Zoom are continuing to attend our Zoom worship gathering in person at 24 Main W. Because attendees are at a religious gathering, pandemic health orders allow us to have 10 people together, when at present in all other circumstances in-door gatherings are limited to 5 people.
  12. If you are interested in attending the in-person gathering, please be in touch with New Vision by emailing officeadmin@newvisionunited.org. The gathering will observe all the best practices for hygiene, screening, and sanitation.
  13. Christmas is right around the corner! As you might have already heard, Wesley Urban Ministries’ Christmas & Holiday Store will not operate like a store this year. Instead, it will provide hampers for people who participate in Wesley programs and through some of its community partners. For more information on how to get involved, please visit the website https://wesley.ca/holiday-assistance-program/.
  14. Purchase donations and do a curbside drop off at 1974 King St E (Pioneer Church), December 6 – 22, 1 – 4 pm. Calendar is here: https://wesley.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/christmas-holiday-hamper-calendar-2020.pdf
  15. Wesley Donation Wish List:
    Plastic or re-usable bags
    Any non-perishable food in individual or family sizes
    New gifts: toys, hygiene items, small kitchen appliances, towel & linens
    Gift Certificates for Walmart, Giant Tiger, Canadian Tire, Toys ‘R’ Us
    New or gently used hats, mitts, socks, winter boots and coats (No clothing)
  16. For those looking to volunteer at Wesley, their new volunteer roles and pandemic protocols are available online at the above link. There will be a limited number of on-site volunteers this year, however, you can also help from home by making pre packed hampers or volunteer as a driver to take the hampers to Wesley programs and community partners.
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. 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 on Sunday –  again, or for the first time.

Rev Ian

New Vision Notes Wed Nov 18 2020

Wed Nov 18 2020

  1.  On Trans Day of Remembrance this Friday join the Trans Peer Support Group to watch a live stream offered by SexGen at York University from 10am to 2pm, followed by a Zoom meeting from 7pm to 9pm to discuss the SexGen event and Trans Day of Remembrance in Hamilton. Registration is required for both events. You can register directly for the SexGen Trans Day of Remembrance event at this link. Contact transpeers@gmail.com to register for the post-event discussion via Zoom. https://rights.info.yorku.ca/trans-day-of-remembrance-2020/
  2. A ceremonial unity fire will be lit on Sunday November 22, at 4PM, in honour of 125 days of Haudenosaunee land defense at 1492LandBackLane. The fire-keeper will be Phil Davis, and the event will be hosted by Tom Wilson (Kanien?kehá?ka, Hamilton/Kanehsatà:ke), a four-time Juno-award-winning multimedia artist and musician. The main fire will be held in Wilson’s neighbourhood in Hamilton, ON, territory covered by the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Covenant, where he was arrested by Ontario Provincial Police officers for his involvement in supporting the #1492LandBackLane land defense.
  3. You can join the ceremonial unity fire event by Zoom live through New Vision Community Zoom at this link. Joey will be participating by Zoom and lighting our diversity candle in solidarity at the time of the lighting of the unity fire. Have your own candle ready.
  4. The slide deck we drew on in our second Threshold Partner meeting last Sunday to begin our New Vision intercultural relational currency design project can be found here.
  5. Here are the motions passed by the Threshold Partners at the meeting on Sunday: a) That the Threshold Partners of New Vision United Church engage in “The Relationship Currency Project” in the calendar year 2021 as discussed in this meeting and the meeting on November 1 2020, based on our successful Mission Support Grant  Application “Just Intercultural Consultation with Diverse Communities,” b) That the Threshold Partners of New Vision United Church create a 5 member (including the minister) Steering Group to coordinate Threshold Partners in achieving the objectives of the Project accountable to the Threshold Partners through the Church Council, and c) That the Threshold Partners of New Vision United Church appoint a diverse group that is reflective of the goals of the intercultural relationship currency project to the steering group. Through the Church Council the group can add members in order to achieve the desired diversity stated above.
  6. Several Threshold Partners are considering nominations made at the meeting that they join the steering group. Please hold them in your prayers. If there are others you would like to nominate, please contact Helen Bradley helen.bradleyrd@gmail.com
  7. Given the news that the flu vaccine is in scarce supply locally, consider getting the flu shot at the walk-in flu clinics happening every Saturday at the Central Library through Saturday Dec 12. You can find out more information here.
  8. New Vision folks without access to Zoom are continuing to attend our Zoom worship gathering in person at 24 Main W.
  9. If you are interested in attending the in-person gathering, please be in touch with New Vision by emailing officeadmin@newvisionunited.org. The gathering will observe all the best practices for hygiene, screening, and sanitation.
  10. Christmas is right around the corner! As you might have already heard, Wesley Urban Ministries’ Christmas & Holiday Store will not operate like a store this year. Instead, it will provide hampers for people who participate in Wesley programs and through some of its community partners. For more information on how to get involved, please visit the website https://wesley.ca/holiday-assistance-program/.
  11. For those looking to volunteer at Wesley, their new volunteer roles and pandemic protocols are available online at the above link. There will be a limited number of on-site volunteers this year, however, you can also help from home by making pre packed hampers or volunteer as a driver to take the hampers to Wesley programs and community partners.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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 on Sunday –  again, or for the first time!

Rev Ian

New Vision Notes Thur Nov 12 2020

  1. I am looking forward to the Threshold Partners meeting with you on Sunday that will put in motion our New Vision Relational Currency Project. We’ll meet as partners over lunch after gathering for worship  at the usual time – so prepare yourselves something to eat and drink before you attend the virtual worship gathering and then settle in and enjoy the next couple of hours!
  2. The slide deck we drew on two Sundays ago to begin to design our project can be found here.
  3. Here are two invitations to conversation for our sharing times together in break out rooms during the meeting this coming Sunday: a) you are invited to identify characteristics for which New Vision should aim in the relationships we seek to develop and b) you are invited to consider what the role of art/music/creativity is in the development of our relationships.
  4. In line with the main themes of our project, you are welcome to participate in the Western (Canadian) Intercultural Ministry Group annual meeting and dreaming session, Tuesday November 17, at 12:30-2:30 MST (11:30 Pacific, 1:30 Central, 2:30 Eastern.) Two hours at most! Theme: “Building the airplane while flying it: Our 2021 Intercultural commitments”. Bring your favourite hot drink to enjoy. Email jgraham@united-church.ca for the Zoom link. All are welcome.
  5. New Vision folks without access to Zoom or find it a barrier continue to attend our Zoom worship gathering in person at 24 Main W. A simple lunch will be provided for those who attend in-person this Sunday to make it easier for them to remain for and participate in the Threshold Partner meeting.
  6. If you are interested in attending the in-person gathering, please be in touch with New Vision by emailing officeadmin@newvisionunited.org. The gathering will observe all the best practices for hygiene, screening, and sanitation.  We need to know you are coming so that we can keep to mandated occupancy limits for in-door gatherings.
  7. One of our themes for worship this Sunday will be the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR). TDOR occurs annually each November 20.
  8. Christmas is right around the corner! As you might have already heard, Wesley Urban Ministries’ Christmas & Holiday Store will not operate like a store this year. Instead, it will provide hampers for people who participate in Wesley programs and through some of its community partners. For more information on how to get involved, please visit the website https://wesley.ca/holiday-assistance-program/.
  9. For those looking to volunteer at Wesley, their new volunteer roles and pandemic protocols are available online at the above link. There will be a limited number of on-site volunteers this year, however, you can also help from home by making pre packed hampers or volunteer as a driver to take the hampers to Wesley programs and community partners.
  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.
  12. 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 on Sunday –  again, or for the first time!

Rev Ian

New Vision Notes Wed Nov 4 2020

Wed Nov 4 2020

  1. Here’s why we are becoming an intercultural church — as expressed this past Sunday by participants in our worship gathering — people are finding community in the midst of our diversity at NV…Our [breakout] room had a beautiful diversity of responses!…We should be an intercultural church because the alternative would be an exclusionary church… which kind of sucks…we are in a different time period…we should be an intercultural church because … I’m part of this church…If not us then who?…Also, diversity is a clear message growing out of the gospel. We can model how to be in relationship with those from diverse groups…My sense is that if we’re going to be a church that lives out the gospel, we need to be an intercultural community…We are all one in Christ…We need to reach out and be a community which is not based on people’s cultural origins, acknowledging how little we understand each other based on superficial interactions…loved the point about prioritizing interculturalism in the church b/c we get to hear a variety of people’s perspectives on Scripture which leads to a better understanding of God! Hearing and respecting different perspectives is important to understanding and learning more about our neighbours and by extension LOVING them!! <3…God wants those who have struggles to have a place with those who have had the same/similar  experience…Just as we could not interpret theology and how to be as a church without LGBTQ+ people & their voices, similarly we cannot interpret theology and how to be as a church without acknowledging the voices and experiences of BIPOC people, and all other forms of difference that matter…I loved the answer one of our breakout group gave:  why not? such a positive response…One person in our group joined New Vision because we “welcome and accept everybody”…30% of federal inmates are of indigenous background, when they only make up 4% of our population.
  2. Congratulations to Dennis Sendyowa, who was recently awarded a Bill 7 scholarship towards his PSW studies. He spoke eloquently at the recent virtual award ceremony, and shared how much he appreciates the support of the New Vision community. The Bill 7 Award is a registered charitable trust that awards scholarships to gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, two-spirited and queer students who are in financial need and studying at any post-secondary institution in Ontario to attain their first degree or diploma. This year they awarded 20 scholarships of $3500 towards the education of LGBTQ2S+ students.  The Bill 7 Award is named after the 1986 Ontario legislation that extended the protection of the Human Rights Code to lesbians and gays.
  3. This Sunday Rev Miriam will be leading worship. I am on a study break this week.
  4. Worship this Sunday will begin with an Armistice Day moment of remembrance.
  5. The slide deck we drew on for our Threshold Partner meeting last Sunday to begin to design our New Vision relational currency can be found here.
  6. The second Threshold Partner start-up meeting for our Relational Currency Project will take place on Sunday Nov 15 after our worship gathering. For more info, review the slide deck from the meeting this past Sunday following this link.
  7. New Vision folks without access to Zoom have begun attending our Zoom worship gathering and Threshold Partner meeting in person at 24 Main W. We’ll continue with the in-person gathering in the Lower Hall as part of our Sunday virtual worship gathering this Sunday and the weeks ahead. If you are interested in attending the in-person gathering, please be in touch with New Vision by emailing officeadmin@newvisionunited.org. The gathering will observe all the best practices for hygiene, screening, and sanitation.
  8. The Resting and Hygiene Centre requests donations of winter hats and gloves for guests. Also, winter coats and boots are needed. Helen Bradley (helen.bradleyrd@gmail.com) can pick up from people’s homes if that helps.
  9. A New Vision Virtual Lectio Divina prayer group is gathering weekly on Thursdays at 4 pm for an hour. You can join it by following this link.  All are welcome. This Thursday (tomorrow) the group will be praying with Psalm 46 verses 1-7 .
  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.
  12. For updates on New Vision plans in the post Covid-19 emergency recovery, please visit http://newvisionunited.org/new-vision-covid-19-updates/.

Hope you get to the worship gathering on Sunday –  again, or for the first time! See you next Sunday Nov 15.

Rev Ian

New Vision Notes Fri Oct 30 2020

Fri Oct 30 2020

  1. Virtual Worship Gathering homework this week for developing your role in a New Vision practice of gracious leadership: Reflect on Jesus’ teachings and New Vision’s context and respond to the question, “Why are we being called to be an intercultural church?” Make a few notes and have them nearby Sunday for when we create braver space for each other through mutual invitation to share our responses.
  2. You can see the slide deck that I used for Breaking Open the Word last Sunday here.
  3. After our worship gathering this Sunday we are meeting as the New Vision Threshold Partners. The meeting is being convened as a check-in/temperature taking on how we all are doing in this time, and to advance the development of our relational currency through building on our plans for intercultural and intersectional consultation with Hamilton’s diverse communities and their creatives and activists.
  4. We’ll take a five minute break after the worship gathering on Sunday for you to serve yourself lunch when we start the meeting up. Hope you’ll prepare your lunch in advance. Here’s what you will be invited to respond to through mutual invitation during the meeting: consider your own social location – how you experience privilege and marginalization in your life.
  5. New Vision folks without access to Zoom will be attending our Zoom worship gathering and Threshold Partner meeting on Nov 1 in person at 24 Main W. for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic emergency! We’ll observe all the best practices for hygiene, screening, and sanitation.
  6. We will be celebrating communion this Sunday, so have some type of bread and wine food and beverage nearby to participate.
  7. The Resting and Hygiene Centre requests donations of winter hats and gloves for guests. Also, winter coats and boots are needed. Helen Bradley (helen.bradleyrd@gmail.com) can pick up from people’s homes if that helps.
  8. A New Vision Virtual Lectio Divina prayer group is gathering weekly on Thursdays at 4 pm for an hour. You can join it by following this link. All are welcome.
  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 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.
  11. 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 on Sunday –  again, or for the first time!

Rev Ian

New Vision Notes Wed Oct 21 2020

Wed Oct 21 2020

  1. Virtual Worship Gathering homework this week for your part in developing a New Vision intersectional, intercultural practice of gracious leadership: Take a moment and write down what you have noticed as the biggest change(s) in Hamilton over the last five years, or, if you haven’t lived in Hamilton 5 or more years, ways in which Hamilton is different from a community in which you have previously lived. We’ll use break-out rooms to practice mutual invitation with our sharing of our responses to these questions this Sunday.
  2. Our Church Council Chair Bob Marentette has called a meeting of the Threshold Partners for Sunday, Nov 1 after our worship gathering. The meeting is being convened as a check-in/temperature taking on how we all are doing in this time, and to advance the development of our holy currencies through building on our plans for intercultural and intersectional consultation with Hamilton’s diverse communities and their creatives and activists. We’ll take a five minute break after the worship gathering for you to serve yourself lunch when we start the meeting up. Hope you’ll prepare your lunch in advance.  
  3. We will be inviting New Vision folks without access to Zoom to attend our Zoom worship gathering and Threshold Partner meeting on Nov 1 in person at 24 Main W. We’ll observe all the best practices for hygiene, screening, and sanitation. If you would like to be put on a list as a potential attendee of this gathering, please respond to this email with your interest. Whether or not we will be able to accommodate interest in attending the in-person gathering depends on the response we get.
  4. We are going to maintain our virtual worship gathering on Sundays as they are for the time being. We are working on accessibility for those who cannot access Zoom. We keep in place our phone network to sustain our faith across the digital divide. We admit we miss those we don’t see.
  5. The Resting and Hygiene Centre requests donations of winter hats and gloves for guests. Also, winter coats and boots are needed. Helen Bradley (helen.bradleyrd@gmail.com) can pick up from people’s homes if that helps.
  6. A New Vision Virtual Lectio Divina prayer group is gathering weekly on Thursdays at 4 pm for an hour beginning tomorrow. You can join it by following this link. If you are interested in being part of an on-line prayer group during the week, and another time of day and day is better for you please get in touch with me by responding to this email note. We’ll see what we can organize. Here is a link to material describing lectio divina as a spiritual practice.
  7. You are invited to join this Sunday’s amazing celebration of Black Women at the 2020 special edition of Women Who Rock. 29 Black women have been nominated for the Women Who Rock Awards. Get dressed up and join in for a special virtual gala presentation of the 2020 Women Who Rock Awards. Get your tickets here.
  8. New Vision’s role in the campaign for the Music Hall at New Vision is to develop relationship currency for the social enterprise through an intercultural and intersectional consultation with Hamilton’s diverse communities with whom we will develop a cultural benefits memorandum, and codify the Music Hall’s role in providing those benefits with embedding a social enterprise charter in our social enterprise governance and operating structure. We continued our prepatory work for the consultation last Sunday, when we took in an overview the Kaleidoscope Institutes’ idea of the circulation of the blessings of holy currencies, and then focused in on the “currency of relationships,’ the “currency of truth,” and the “currency of wellness.” Thank you to everyone who has expressed interest in shaping and leading this important work.
  9. You can watch the Do Well by Hamilton capital campaign launch video for the Music Hall at New Vision anytime at dowellbyhamilton.ca, the campaign website.
  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.
  12. 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 on Sunday –  again, or for the first time!

Rev Ian

New Vision Notes Thur Oct 15 2020

Thurs Oct 15 2020

1. Here is a terrific video introduction to Caremongerers Hamont that describes their application of the principles of mutual aid. The Caremongerers will be picking up their food delivery program again at the end of October in our Lower Hall.
2. Our Church Council Chair Bob Marentette has called a meeting of the Threshold Partners for Sunday, Nov 1 after our worship gathering. The meeting is being convened as a check-in/temperature taking on how we all are doing in this time, and to advance the development of our Music Hall social enterprise through working on our plans for intercultural consultation with Hamilton’s diverse communities and their creatives about programming policy for the venue.
3. We will be inviting New Vision folks without access to Zoom to attend our Zoom worship gathering and Threshold Partner meeting on Sunday Nov 1 in person at 24 Main W. We’ll observe all the best practices for hygiene, screening, and sanitation. If you would like to be put on a list as a potential attendee of this gathering, please respond to this email with your interest. Whether or not we will be able to accommodate interest in attending the in-person gathering depends on the number of responses we get.
4. The Resting and Hygiene Centre continues in its fond appreciation for baked goods and other snacks you provide to it to share with its guests. Please contact Martine (martini.sings@gmail.com) or Helen (helen.bradleyrd@gmail.com) for assistance with getting baking to the Centre.
5. New Vision’s role in the capital campaign for the Music Hall at New Vision is to develop relational currency for the social enterprise through an intercultural consultation with Hamilton’s diverse communities with whom we will develop a cultural benefits memorandum, and codify the Music Hall’s role in providing those benefits with embedding a social enterprise charter in our social enterprise governance and operating structure. We continued our prepatory work for the consultation last Sunday, when we took in an overview of the Kaleidoscope Institutes’ idea of relational currency. You can watch the full 20 minute video here. Thank you to everyone who has expressed interest in shaping and leading this important work. We will work together on this.
6. You can watch the Do Well by Hamilton capital campaign launch video for the Music Hall at New Vision anytime at dowellbyhamilton.ca, the campaign website.
7. We are going to maintain our virtual worship gathering on Sundays as they are for the time being. We are working on accessibility for those who cannot access Zoom. We keep in place our phone network to sustain our faith across the digital divide. We admit we miss those we don’t see.
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 on Sunday – again, or for the first time!

Rev Ian

New Vision Notes Thurs Oct 8 2020

Thursday October 8 2020

1. First off, in this Thanksgiving edition of New Vision Notes, a shout out to Rev. Miriam Spies whose thoughtful in-the-moment piece on imagining profounder relationships in the new reality ahead was published by Sojourner.net this week. Highly recommended Thanksgiving reading from this quarter!
2. New Vision has secured continued funding from the City for the Resting and Hygiene Centre for people sleeping rough through to November 11. We are engaging in discussions with the City and with our volunteer coordinators over how to reposition the Centre to be open for the winter as part of the public health response to the already emerging second wave of COVID-19 in Hamilton.
3. The Centre continues in its fond appreciation for baked goods and other snacks you provide to it to share with its guests. Please contact Martine (martini.sings@gmail.com) or Helen (helen.bradleyrd@gmail.com) for assistance with getting baking to the Centre.
4. New Vision’s primary role in our capital campaign for the Music Hall at New Vision is to build social capital through an intercultural consultation with Hamilton’s diverse communities with whom we will develop a cultural benefits memorandum, and embed with them the Music Halls’ role in providing those benefits in a social enterprise charter that will be implemented in the Music Hall’s governance and operating structure. We began our prepatory work for the consultation last Sunday, when we took in an overview of the Bennett Development Model for Intercultural Sensitivity. You can watch the 10 minute video describing the model here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vKRFH2Wm6Y. We will begin organizing our consultation engagement in the next week and look forward to your participation and insights!
5. You can watch the launch video for the Do Well by Hamilton capital campaign for the Music Hall at New Vision anytime at dowellbyhamilton.ca, the campaign website.

6. We are going to maintain our virtual worship gathering on Sundays as they are for the time being into the future. We are working on developing an accessibility option at 24 Main West in which those who cannot join our virtual worship gathering elsewhere can join in an in-person gathering at our building at 24 Main West that is enfolded in our ongoing virtual worship. We realize that a “temperature-taking” gathering on how we are all doing that includes both those who have technological access to New Vision virtually and those who remain in the in-person world is plausibly our next step to discerning an imaginable future with more inclusive relationships amongst us. We keep in place our phone network to sustain our faith across the digital divide. We admit we miss those we don’t see.
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.
9. 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 on Sunday – again, or for the first time!

Rev Ian

New Vision Notes Thurs Oct 1 2020

  1. The Civil Rights Movement was birthed out of the Church with the support of many faith based groups. That is why the organizations that form Black Hamilton are calling on faith based groups in Hamilton to join the “Songs of Hope Rally in Support of our Black Community” in the face of longstanding systemic Anti-Black Racism in Canada on Sunday Oct 4, 2020 at 5 pm, Hamilton City Hall Forecourt. Organized by the Centre for Community Engaged Narrative Arts and the Ubuntu Music Collaborative. Given the current restriction of out-door gatherings to 25 people at most, I will confirm if the event is going forward when I hear.
  2. You can watch the Do Well by Hamilton capital campaign for the Music Hall at New Vision launch video anytime at dowellbyhamilton.ca, the campaign website.
  3. New Vision’s primary role in the capital campaign is to build social capital through an intercultural consultation with Hamilton’s diverse communities. We hope the result will be a network of empowered people who have been marginalized to contribute to programming at the Music Hall at New Vision guided by a Music Hall social enterprise charter. You will be hearing more about this consultation in the weeks ahead as the fall gets going.
  4. We will celebrate world-wide communion this Sunday, Oct 4. We are going to maintain our virtual worship gathering on Sundays as they are for the time being into the future. We will work in the weeks ahead on developing an accessibility option at 24 Main West in which those who cannot join our virtual worship gathering elsewhere can join the virtual gathering from 24 Main West. We will keep in place our phone network to share with such folks the distancing and hygiene protocols we will implement in a few weeks time.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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 on Sunday –  again, or for the first time!

Rev Ian

Dennis Sendyowa telling part of the capital campaign story and introducing shn shn at the capital campaign launch last Friday evening.