New Vision Notes Fri June 23 2023

Fri June 23 2023

  1. Acclaimed Muskoka-based singer/songwriter Emma Cook closes out her current Ontario tour with a Hamilton matinee show (4 pm) at The Music Hall at New Vision United Church on June 25. Expect material from her latest album, Fight Left In Me, produced by Andrew Rasmussen (Carly Rae Jepsen, Wake Owl, Hannah Georgas). Cook has released five albums, reached the finals of the CBC Searchlight competition, and performed internationally. This show, in the venue’s intimate South West Lounge, is highly recommended. Tix here.
  2. Emma Cook’s show is an entrepreneurial-based project between the Music Hall project and Emma. The two came together on a show-creating web platform called Side Door Access. This platform has the potential to increase accessibility for artists and for spaces not typically used by the organized music sector. Your support for this trial run will be appreciated by the Music Hall project. If you can’t come, but know anyone who enjoys shows by singer/songwriters, please pass this invitation along.
  3. The Church Council invites you to an information and discussion session following worship on July 9th on adjustments to our mission and ministry. This is the next step in this adjustment process. It follows up on the consultation we did with Rev. Richard Bott in April and May.
  4. The Church Council asked me to share with you their delight with the news they received this past week that two participants in New Vision have been appointed to positions in the national body of the United Church. Jen Hompoth is joining the Anti-Racism Common Table, and Rev. Miriam Spies has been appointed coordinator of worship for the 45th General Council. At some point soon the Council will profile both the positions and what moved Jen and Miriam to accept these important roles. Thank you both!
  5. The 2023 Soutar Award winner, Heather Morgan, will join us on Sunday July 23 to be presented with the Soutar Award and to break open the Word with us.
  6. The Soutar Award is an award Centenary, and now, New Vision, has awarded each year a Sanford Gold Medal has been awarded at Emmanuel College in Toronto since 1983. 2023 is the award’s 40th anniversary. How blessed we have been over the years to have annually recognized and annually heard from the Sanford medalist.
  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. June is also Wesley Urban Ministries’ Case for Kids month. Wesley has created a video to help promote Case for Kids, which raises funds for Wesley’s children youth and family programs.  This is the link to the video!.
  9. We 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. 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.

I look forward to seeing you Sunday again, or for the first time –

Rev Ian