Thur Mar 18 2021
1. This coming Sunday, March 21, is the International Day for the Elimination of Racism. To mark the occasion, the United Church is hosting a webinar from 6:00-7:30 p.m. Eastern Time, called “A Biblical and Theological Exploration on Preaching Race and Racism.” This will be a rich conversation about anti-racist preaching, biblical interpretation, and realities of racism in The United Church of Canada, led by United Church of Canada Emmanuel College preaching professor HyeRan Kim-Cragg.
2. Palm Fronds for Palm Sunday (March 28) have been ordered and will be distributed on 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 too, 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)
3. We will share in a Maundy Thursday agape (love) feast and then a service of the shadows (Tenebrae) in our zoom worship gathering room on Thursday, Apr 1 at 7 pm. Please use this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86280033103?pwd=bWxKZVdOeUtlOC9hdGpqMDY3Y0YrUT09
4. A brief worship gathering will take place in the New Vision virtual worship room on Good Friday at 10:30 am. Please use this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89632575420
5. Thanks to all the cooks in the kitchen last Sunday for our first annual national PIE Day. We have three recipes for New Vision PIE (Public, Intentional, Explicit) from our work together on Sunday for the upcoming year. I am sharing one now and will share the others in the weeks ahead.
6. 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. You may also choose to sign the petition you find there.
7. Even though Hamilton has moved into the Province of Ontario’s “red zone” the New Vision Church Council prefers at this time that New Vision not participate in potentially virus-spreading activities in the community. Hamilton residents are being given clear warnings by our Public Health Board that faster spreading variants of the coronavirus are now occurring here. 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.
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