New Vision Notes Fri May 21 2021

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 20th is our 7th 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