Category: New Vision Notes

I wanted to get these notes out a little early this week in the event that you are free this Friday or Saturday evening and enjoy live theatre.

Trevor Copps of Tottering BiPed Theatre is presenting Journey to the East this Friday and Saturday evening at 7:30 pm in The Music Hall. In his notes for the performance, Trevor writes about the play, “Joining the streams of refugees from the War, Herman is haunted by a fellow refugee who resembles a lost soldier from the front. As their journey takes on increasingly fantastical elements, Herman’s memory cannot reconcile with the spiritual voyage playing out in front of him.

“Loosely based on Hermann Hesse’s novella, Journey to the East is a meditation on the spiritual aftermath of war.”

Trevor is excited about mounting his play in the Music Hall and exploring the space with his audience as an unconventional yet fitting site for the meditation. Tickets ($20) can be purchased at the door.

On Sunday we come together after worship for the second part of our 2019 annual meeting. We will review 2018 financial statements, set a budget for 2019 and elect our leadership for the upcoming year. Then we will consider a couple of motions with respect to how we use our Holton Ave. and Main St. W. sites to further our mission and ministry. The Sunday School is providing lunch with a hot dog (all kinds) fundraiser.

After the annual meeting and a bit of free time this Sunday afternoon, join me for Black History month jazz vespers at 4:30 pm in The Music Hall. Jazz is a music black musicians created in reference to their social circumstances in the United States, and black musicians invited white musicians in to play it with them. Along with hearing poems of Black American poet Maya Angelou, we’ll pay tribute to, honour and celebrate the roots of jazz, while bearing witness to the oppression of white privilege. Juno nominated vocalist Heather Bambrick joins the Adrean Farrugia Trio. There will be a free will offering (pay as you may).

See you Sunday, for worship, at 10:30 am ~

Rev. Ian

Can’t let the day go by without a big Valentine to you. We’re all loved; we all can participate in beloved community.

The first part of the 2019 Annual Meeting went off well this past Sunday. After the non-financial annual reports were approved, the resolution to form a social enterprise business trust was received for information. At the annual meeting part 2 on February 24 the resolution will be introduced as a motion and we will discuss it and vote on it. The annual meeting part 2 will also include votes on the financial reports and the nominating committee report. Those reports will be available after worship this coming Sunday, Feb 17.

I have to thank everyone who has contributed to the meticulous task of preparing the annual reports and the resolution regarding the social enterprise business trust. Sometimes these things feel so dry, but they are also so important. Thank you all for attending last week. I look forward to seeing you on Feb 24 for part 2.

On Feb 24 after worship and before annual meeting part 2 we’ll be fed by the Sunday School. They are doing a hot dog fundraiser. (There will be a variety of hot dogs to choose from).

Mark your calendar later in the day on Feb 24 as well for our Black History Jazz Vespers. We’ll be hearing readings from Maya Angelou’s writings and poems, and taking in the jazz of Heather Bambrick and the Adrean Farrugia Trio. There will be a collection – it is pay as you may.

Frost Bites is throughout New Vision, opening tonight and running every evening up to and including Sunday evening. If you want to go, you can purchase tickets at the door.

This Sunday is…well, the Sunday when we don’t have a meeting this month!

See you Sunday ~

Rev Ian

We have a very stimulating annual meeting ahead of us in the weeks ahead. The Church Council is bringing a resolution to the faith community for action to establish a new ministry at New Vision, a social enterprise ministry. This ministry will be distinct from, but not separate, from all the other ministries in which New Vision is engaged – from discipleship formation to our Affirming ministry. It will be the basis on which our former sanctuary becomes a live music venue with up to 150 events a year.

This Sunday the resolution will be introduced to the faith community at our Annual Meeting: Part 1. The meeting takes place after a potluck lunch we’ll hold following worship. Everyone is invited to participate. Dan, Bob, Helen, Dixon and Ian will be introducing the resolution.

Two weeks later – that is, Sunday, February 24, we will have a 360 degree discussion of the resolution and then vote on it in Annual Meeting: Part 2. That meeting takes place after a Sunday School hot-dog fundraiser (various types, from beef to vegan). The fundraiser will follow worship. Again, everyone is invited to participate.

See you Sunday ~

Rev Ian

Black History Month kicks off tomorrow. Here is a quote from Maya Angelou, phenomenal woman and American poet: “If someone tells you who they are, believe them.” We’ll be hearing poems she wrote as part of our Black History Month Jazz Vespers at the Music Hall series on Feb 24.

Darcy Dee’s life was celebrated well at a gathering in the Sheraton Hotel last Saturday. Many of us did not know much about Darcy because communication between us was so labored. You will learn more about her in this article written about her and her daughter Veronica published in the Hamilton Spec just this past Monday.

Many people participate in the experiences New Vision United Church offers. One recent addition is Georgi Gardner, who sojourns with us till the end of McMaster’s winter term. She is here in a volunteer practicum placement that is part of her third-year course requirements in practical peace building. She is helping at our Thursday Outreach, and she is researching and exploring concepts for the Social Enterprise Development Team that will help New Vision build an effective social enterprise ministry. Both Thursday Outreach and the Social Enterprise Development Team are grateful she has joined us.

See you Sunday ~

Rev Ian

Happy New Year to you.

On Sunday, the New Vision congregation of Threshold Partners (that’s all of us) are gathering after worship for a potluck and then a working session on developing key concepts for a New Vision Social Enterprise non-profit. The working session will be led by our social enterprise consultant Jeremy Frieburger. He will be using the results of our efforts Sunday to draft a model business plan for us to develop the concept further toward implementation as part of our emerging social enterprise ministry.

The meeting will begin with a brief update on the social enterprise ministry initiative from the Social Enterprise Development Team.

It’s the Baptism of Jesus Sunday this Sunday too. It doesn’t take long in the church calendar for Jesus to get from being born to being baptized. It is an opportunity once again to affirm our commitment to and resolution to develop beloved community at New Vision.

On Sunday January 20 a couple of things beyond our Sunday morning worship are happening. I’ve been invited by the Afro Canadian Carribbean Association to be a panelist in their Martin Luther King Jr. Social Justice Brunch at 754 Barton. The panel discussion begins at 1:30 pm.

At 4:30 pm on Jan 20 come join me for Jazz Vespers in January at The Music Hall with Mike Malone, trumpet and the Adrean Farrugia Trio. We’ll be listening to poems of Emily Dickinson as well as enjoying contemplative jazz in a beautiful space in the midst of the city. For more on New Vision’s jazz vespers, visit our jazz vespers page on New Vision’s website.

See you Sunday ~

Rev Ian

It is a sign of the busyness of the season that I find myself putting this note together on Saturday afternoon of the week, rather than the customary Thursday (and sometime Friday).

Our preparations for the celebration of Christmas are almost complete. Last Sunday we threw the New Vision Christmas party in the Music Hall for the first time. The Jazz Vespers that preceded had the musicians improvising on some seasonal tunes and on the carol “Hark the Herald Angels.” Mary Oliver’s poems resonated with and deepened our awareness of the season’s beauty and transitoriness.

Tomorrow is the Fourth Sunday of Advent; the theme, divine love.

Tomorrow evening JR DiGS throws his 10^th annual Acoustic Christmas Party in the Music Hall. In some parts of the Christian world there is a tradition of a funky party the evening before Christmas Eve. This concert may be it in Hamilton. There are probably tickets still available – check out Bruha ticketing. Proceeds from the concert are going to Indwell and YWCA efforts to end homelessness.

Monday evening we join together in early evening worship to focus in wonder once again on the gift of a vulnerable new-born in a vulnerable place with vulnerable parents. We will meet for worship in the Lower Hall at 7 pm for Christmas Eve worship.

Blessings at Christmas.

See you Sunday ~

This Sunday coming is the Third Sunday of Advent – only two more Sundays to Christmas!

This Sunday, we are holding the first of our Jazz Vespers series at 4:30 pm in the Music Hall. Graham Rockingham wrote a great story about jazz vespers, and about ours, in the Hamilton Spectator yesterday. Rockingham’s story complements the opinion piece I wrote about jazz as an aspect of New Vision’s Affirming ministry that the Spec published last week.

After the Vespers on Sunday, we have our annual New Vision Christmas Party. Santa will not be appearing!  There will be a pay as you may meal, some carols to sing, and a little entertainment to send you off cheerfully into the night. It too will take place in the Music Hall, immediately after the Vespers..

Regular Sunday worship this Sunday (Dec 16) is the last opportunity to bring white gifts in for the Wesley Christmas store. We’ll gather everything that has been brought in and take it to the Christmas Store next week.

Our Blue Christmas Service of Remembrance and Hope takes place next Wednesday evening (Dec 19) at 7 pm, in the Lower Hall. As we prepare once again for the celebration of the birth of our Redeemer and Saviour, such a service helps us to remember those whom we have lost.

See you Sunday ~

Rev Ian

We are in the entirety of December now. Longer nights, and colder ones. The challenges of compassion come clearer as we remember what it is like to have a place, and people with us in it.

In such a spirit I wrote a piece for The Hamilton Spectator published in today’s paper on jazz, Affirming ministry, our Music Hall and New Vision. I hope you might take a few minutes to read it.

This Sunday is the second Sunday of Advent. We are continuing to gather gifts together for Wesley’s Christmas Store. Bring gifts to the church and place them under our Christmas tree. We’ll take them over to the store on Dec 16.

A week Sunday (Dec 16) is our Threshold Partner Christmas Party in The Music Hall. Bring anyone you like, and invite as many as you come across. The party begins with our Jazz Vespers at Christmas with Darcy Hepner and the Adrean Farrugia Trio at 4:30 pm. It continues with a pay as you may meal.  There will be a collection for music and the meal. Hope you can make it.

On Wednesday evening of that week, Dec 19, we will hold our annual Blue Christmas Service of Remembrance and Hope at 7 pm in the lower hall.

See you Sunday ~

Rev. Ian