We joined together in worship this past Sunday in a music that was outside of the norm of our worship heritage. Ken Kirkwood got us feeling the rhythm and connecting with our own indigeneity as he brought a message of reconciliation through music with our first nations brothers and sisters. The time reminded me of the earliest use of the psalms in English in regular worship in the 16th Century. The first tunes genuinely were dance tunes. It was only later, as the tradition ossified, that hymnody in the English tradition became four square and stolid.
Ken gave us a great introduction to what to expect at the Reconciliation through Music fundraiser happening in The Music Hall on Thursday May 26 from 6-8 pm. You are invited.
The fundraiser is for the two-spirit element of a campaign led by the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic to help restoration and healing among first nations and settler communities. We have all been affected by the intergeneration trauma of Canada’s residential schools. Hamilton Conference of the United Church of Canada is contributing to the campaign to help make the May 24 event possible in The Music Hall.
This is a reminder that we are taking a special collection for the two spirit campaign ourselves during worship for the next few Sundays.
This Sunday, come enjoy Jazz Vespers for May at 4:30 pm in The Music Hall. Two very talented young women – Jill McKenna on acoustic bass, and singer Avery Raquel join Juno-nominated piano player A
drean Farrugia for a contemplative exploration of spring. I’ll be there with some prayers and practices drawn from the Iona Abbey community in Scotland.
In two Sundays (Sunday May 13) New Vision’s trustees will be reporting to a meeting of the congregation on the redevelopment of the Holton Ave. site (former St. Giles).
See you this Sunday ~
Rev. Ian