Blue Corn Tortillas, Parking In The Clouds, Mayan Ceremonies, Living Presence

Dear Friends,

I hope you have found some rest and renewal after the demands of Holy Week and Easter – and that the Risen One will continue to meet you in surprising ways and places this Eastertide!

And, I hope you can give some thought and prayer to joining in the Guatemala Pilgrimage this August 2-12, 2024.

In our Executive Minister Treena Duncan’s Holy Week message, she wrote, “Despite facing generations of trauma and scarcity, the people of Guatemala demonstrate unwavering faith and hope, pouring out their love and devotion into the world. Witnessing their dedication reminds me of the inseparable connection between faith and hope: when we nurture faith, we nurture hope; when we nurture hope, we nurture faith. There is resurrection going on.”

Our intention is that this pilgrimage of ministry leaders, will indeed nurture our faith and our hope – and that we will see, and be, signs of resurrection.  

Guatemala: a tour for ministry leaders
August 2-12, 2024

I know it’s expensive – and I believe it is really, really worth it. I’ve sourced a few options for financial assistance, with links below.

We’ve set the registration deadline at April 30, so we can make a decision on whether the trip is a go – and if it is, we’ll continue to accept more participants, so spread the word!

• You can register directly with World Pilgrim Global Education, here: World Pilgrim Global Education Incorporated » Application Form

Lots more information is on the event webpage, here: Guatemala: A Your For Ministry Leaders in the Time of Lent — LeaderSHIFT UCCan, including a recorded Zoom information session with our guides in Guatemala, as well as the itinerary.

I hope you can join us – it would be really meaningful to be on this journey with you (and don’t worry about the heat, it’s quite cool in the highlands where we’ll be going)!

Deep blessings,

Michelle

Sources of funding:

 
For Diaconal Ministers, through Diakonia of the United Church of Canada:  2023editedKaufmanFundBrochure (ducc.ca)
 
For Youth/Young Adult Ministry leaders, through the national church:    vision-fund_con-ed-bursary_application-form_2024.docx (live.com)
 
For clergy, through VST:H.R. MacMillan Fund application - Vancouver School of Theology (vst.edu)
 
For lay and ministry personnel leaders in Pacific Mountain Region:Pacific Mountain Congregational Learning Fund — LeaderSHIFT UCCan
 
For lay and ministry personnel leaders in Chinook Winds: there is some leadership funding available, contact me!

- Michelle

Knowing Jesus In A New Way

Dear Friends,

Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! Alleluia, alleluia!
 
One of the wonderful things about Easter is that it is not over – it has just begun.
 
While the rest of the world may mark Easter Sunday with bunnies and chocolate and then move on, the church knows that the mystery of Easter is far too big and deep, beautiful and important, to be explored or celebrated in just one day. The mystery of the rising is so great, that it takes not one Sunday, not one week, but seven, to truly enter the mystery. Well, perhaps it can take our whole lives to really comprehend the mystery of the resurrection, but the circle of the church year gives us seven weeks in which to hear all the ways the disciples encountered the risen Christ, and to look together for signs of unexpected and paradoxical new life.
 
During this season, the Risen One is made known to them in absence (in an empty tomb)…in the breaking of the bread (on the road to Emmaus)…in doubt (with the disciple Thomas)…and in waiting (for the day of Pentecost).

I am always struck by the way Jesus reveals himself to his friends. He does not come in a show of glory and power, blasting open locked doors, like a superhero. He does not perform wonders and miracles, like a magician. Rather, he comes in silence, hardly recognizable at times, a physically scarred human being.  
 
It takes the disciples a long time to recognize and accept the mystery of Easter, and I find this tremendously comforting. This broken, beautiful world is suffering right now, and just like the disciples, I am often full of doubt, and fear, and confusion, and longing.
 
It helps, I think, to remember that the word “faith” in scripture, doesn’t mean a cognitive acceptance of intellectual truths. It means something more like trust, loyalty, giving your heart. Rather than talking about “having faith”, we should perhaps talk about “faithing” – the choosing to give our heart to the Risen One and the kin-dom he proclaimed and embodied. To trust that the rising is occurring, “unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see” (in the words of Natalie Sleeth). And then, to commit our lives, our words, and our actions, to be witnesses of these things.
 
May we be given the grace to trust in God’s power for resurrection, and to keep our eyes open to see it, ears attuned to hear it, and bodies prepared to enact it, even and especially when it is hard to glimpse.

During the season of Easter, and beyond, you’re invited…

to the Theological Banquet!,
to take a Deep Dive!,
to Live Generously!,
to enter into Pilgrimage!

Easter Blessings,

Michelle

Passion and Compassion ~ A Maundy Thursday Message

Good Friday Spiritual Practices For Children. Photo T.Brotsky

Greetings and blessings to you, as you prepare for the high holy days that lie ahead.

Tonight begins the Paschal Triduum, the Christian retelling of Jesus’ last supper with his friends, his trials and suffering, his crucifixion, and his resurrection from the dead.

I have always loved observing Maundy (or Holy) Thursday, with the sharing of communion together. I am always moved at the realization that Jesus welcomes to his table the friends who are about to betray him, abandon him, and deny him. Not only does Jesus welcome them: he also serves them.

And he gives them a new commandment ( the name “Maundy” comes from a corruption of the Latin “mandatum”, meaning commandment). That commandment is simple: to love one another.

It’s something to cling to, as we enter these final days. That Jesus’ willingness to undergo the passion (meaning suffering), is rooted in his compassion (meaning, to suffer with).

Passion and Compassion

The arc of the three days before us is grounded in, and carried by, and finds its fulfillment in, love. A love that is radically self-giving. A love that suffers with all the ways Jesus’ body continues to be broken in our own time and place. A love that will not back down from confronting the death-dealing forces of empire. A love so strong, that it can bring life again, unexpected and paradoxical, in places of loss and death.

May you know that love, deep within you, and flowing through you, as you follow Jesus to the cross, and then discover again the empty tomb.

And, may you remember that Easter comes not because of the amount of work you put in – but purely by the grace and power of God. I pray that you will be pulled by the Holy Spirit into the story once again, letting it carry you and your community of faith through all the services and events and prayers and vigils and and and… to a time of rest and restoration after Easter!

Deep blessings,
Rev. Michelle Slater
LeaderSHIFT Regional Minister