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The<br />

<strong>Harcourt</strong> Herald<br />

The life and work of the <strong>Harcourt</strong> Memorial United Church community, Guelph, Ontario<br />

February 2016<br />

Holy Rolling: The Church and<br />

Disability<br />

Lent: Words in the Wilderness


<strong>Harcourt</strong> Memorial United Church<br />

An Affirming Congregaton of the United Church of Canada<br />

We are a people of God called together and sent forth by Christ to<br />

Rejoice... Renew... Reach Out<br />

Our Mission:<br />

Inspired by the Spirit, we participate in Christian practices that strengthen us in the building<br />

of just, compassionate, and non-violent relationships<br />

Our Vision Statement:<br />

To be an authentic community of spiritual growth and service<br />

Our Core Values:<br />

Risk...Respect...Responsibility...Vulnerability...Trust<br />

Our Purpose:<br />

To welcome and strengthen in community all who wish to serve God and<br />

follow the way of Jesus<br />

<strong>Harcourt</strong> Memorial United Church<br />

87 Dean Avenue, Guelph, Ontario N1G 1L3<br />

Office Hours:<br />

Monday to Friday, 9am-noon; 1pm-4pm<br />

Phone: 519-824-4177<br />

Fax: 519-824-9448<br />

Email: office@harcourtuc.ca<br />

Web: www.harcourtuc.ca<br />

Ministers: The People with<br />

Reverend Wendy Brown (ext. 222)<br />

wendy@harcourtuc.ca<br />

Reverend Jim Ball (ext. 223)<br />

revjmball@rogers.com<br />

<strong>Harcourt</strong> Herald<br />

Published 10 times each year<br />

by the<br />

Communications Committee<br />

Your contributions are welcome!<br />

Deadline: 20 th of each month<br />

Sept-June<br />

Editor:<br />

Printer:<br />

Gillian Joseph<br />

herald@harcourtuc.ca<br />

Anne Purkis<br />

Director of Music Ministry:<br />

Alison MacNeil (ext. 225)<br />

alisonmac@rogers.com<br />

Church Administrator:<br />

Anne Purkis<br />

E-Comm Coordinator: Nick Swan<br />

Custodian: Darko Cikovic<br />

2


Cover Photo Pixabay.com<br />

Worship Schedule<br />

Sunday February 7 Transfiguration<br />

9:00 a.m. Worship in the Chapel<br />

10:30 a.m. Worship for all ages in the Sanctuary. Nursery care available.<br />

10:30 a.m. “Manna”, an all-ages experiential worship opportunity in the Friendship Room<br />

Wednesday February 10 Ash Wednesday<br />

7:00 p.m. Worship in the Chapel. A short, reflective service, with our Guelph United<br />

Ministries partners, to centre ourselves as we enter this season.<br />

Sunday February 14 Lent I The Celebration of Communion (both services)<br />

9:00 a.m. Worship in the Chapel, Guest Speaker Andrew Hyde, the University of<br />

Guelph Ecumenical Campus Minister<br />

10:30 a.m. Worship in the Sanctuary, Guest Speaker Andrew Hyde, the University of<br />

Guelph Ecumenical Campus Minister<br />

Nursery Care available.<br />

10:30 a.m. “Manna”, an all-ages experiential worship opportunity in the Friendship Room<br />

Sunday February 21 Lent II<br />

9:00 a.m. Worship in the Chapel<br />

10:30 a.m. Worship in the Sanctuary<br />

Nursery Care available.<br />

10:30 a.m. “Manna”, an all-ages experiential worship opportunity in Friendship Room<br />

Sunday February 28 Lent III<br />

9:00 a.m. Worship in the Chapel<br />

10:30 a.m. Worship in the Sanctuary<br />

Nursery Care available.<br />

10:30 a.m. “Manna”, an all-ages experiential worship opportunity in Friendship Room<br />

3


Prayers of the People<br />

by Roz Stevenson<br />

Generous and loving God,<br />

Creator and giver of life,<br />

In whom we live and move and have our being:<br />

We come with grateful hearts for your love and mercy freely given,<br />

and for all the abundance of life.<br />

We are grateful -<br />

- for each day and each night of our lives,<br />

- for the water and food we have in abundance,<br />

- for the family and friends that love and sustain us,<br />

- for the communities that offer us help and fellowship,<br />

We have enough - we have abundance!<br />

Our cups run over – and we are grateful.<br />

We express our thanks and praise by living thankfully, with love and generosity.<br />

We thank you for opportunities to use our time and talents<br />

in mission and ministry,<br />

And our gifts and tithes to help others.<br />

For we are blessed when we give,<br />

acknowledging God is the source of all we have and are,<br />

and ourselves simply stewards of the gifts entrusted to us.<br />

Forgive us -<br />

- when we don’t live with generosity and love,<br />

- when we miss seeing the needs and despair of our sisters and brothers,<br />

- when we plunder the earth, and treat the oceans, waters and sky with disrespect<br />

Forgive us,<br />

- when enough isn’t enough for us,<br />

- when we are tested by greed, envy, coveting, glossy advertisements,<br />

and distracted by our possessions and entertainments.<br />

- when we spend more time imagining how generous a big lottery win will make us,<br />

than we spend BEING generous with the abundance you already gave us.<br />

4


Help us –<br />

- to release our clenched fists, as we try to hold tightly to our money and possessions,<br />

fearing for our future security - when enough never seems enough.<br />

Help us to know we have enough, and can trust in your grace and love,<br />

- and that we are enough to make a difference.<br />

Help us recognize and respond to the needs of our brothers and sisters,<br />

here at home and around the world.<br />

Help us live generously, and do good to help others,<br />

For we are blessed when we give.<br />

Help us live with respect for the Earth, our common home, which sustains us and all<br />

living things, for it is your creation and gift to us.<br />

Hear us –<br />

- when we pray for those who strive for peace and justice in the world,<br />

- for those who lead the countries of the world,<br />

- and for all those who serve and care for others.<br />

Hear our prayers for those who have experienced<br />

fear, anger, heartbreak and helplessness,<br />

in the face of this past week’s violence and hate –<br />

- in Paris, in Mali, in war-torn Syria, in refugee camps,<br />

and in the streets we call home.<br />

Hear our prayers for those we know and care for,<br />

whose names and needs we bring to you in the quiet of our hearts –<br />

Sustain them and give them peace.<br />

And may all of us live in Peace, Grace, and Love,<br />

With gratitude and generosity<br />

Amen<br />

5


Council News<br />

by Lorraine Holding, Chair of Council<br />

Our January 24th Council meeting was busy! We continually evaluate how our<br />

agenda items and discussion honour “Martha” (church management and business) and<br />

“Mary” (the development of people’s<br />

spiritual lives). This balance can be<br />

challenging work.<br />

Peter Gill, as Chair of Chalmers<br />

Community Services Centre (CCSC),<br />

attended to outline plans for the<br />

Centre’s relocation within the City core<br />

by 2017, and to seek <strong>Harcourt</strong>’s support.<br />

Several “players” will be involved in a<br />

new community hub, and the CCSC<br />

Board of Directors plans to become partial owner of the new space. To do this, they will<br />

require a capital campaign to raise funds for the purchase. Based on <strong>Harcourt</strong>’s current<br />

support to CCSC, as well as our history of growth from Brooklyn’s mission outreach by<br />

downtown congregations, Council approved CCSC’s request to fund raise within the<br />

<strong>Harcourt</strong> community. This will be coordinated with <strong>Harcourt</strong>’s Finance Committee in<br />

consideration of timing, the financial target, and other internal fundraising projects. Stay<br />

tuned as more details are provided by Peter and the CCSC Board.<br />

Council continued discussion about our Transition Planning Time path for the next<br />

twelve to eighteen months. I am pleased that the following people agreed to join me as<br />

our “Starter Team”: Esther Devolin, Bill Lord, Sandy Middleton, Sandra Welch, Jim Ball<br />

and Wendy Brown. We met twice in January to begin to define the many components<br />

required as we discern our future in light of Wendy’s retirement. We have many good<br />

ideas to involve the Congregation. Some of the components include:<br />

Communication throughout our time path to/with the Congregation is a<br />

priority.<br />

Recruitment of a Supply Minister for up to one year.<br />

Opportunities for listening, learning and community building in small<br />

gatherings within the Congregation (spring to July).<br />

Farewell celebration for Wendy (June).<br />

6


Discernment of our mission/purpose/needs and staffing model options (July to<br />

September).<br />

Congregational Needs Assessment process, supported by Presbytery<br />

representatives (fall).<br />

Eventual search for any identified, vacant staff position(s) (fall to spring 2017).<br />

Watch for, and contribute to, all these components when they appear through the year.<br />

Council also discussed several administrative items, resulting in the following<br />

decisions:<br />

Approval of our updated Human Resources Policies & Procedures, with our<br />

thanks to Ministry & Personnel Committee for their thorough review.<br />

Approval of the review of our Policy & Procedures for Screening Volunteers,<br />

requested by Pastoral Care Committee. This policy underlies our access to free<br />

Vulnerable Sector Police Records Checks for <strong>Harcourt</strong> volunteers.<br />

Approval for Communications Team to coordinate, with other committees, a<br />

review and gradual improvement of existing communication information/tools<br />

that will provide a consistent <strong>Harcourt</strong> look, including use of the new logo and<br />

tag line.<br />

Recruitment for Council vacancies (Vice Chair, Secretary, Councillor for<br />

Congregational Life), confirmation of committee/team memberships, and<br />

logistics for the February 28 th Annual Meeting require focus now. We welcome<br />

everyone who makes a commitment to actively participate in these roles!<br />

The months ahead are important as we deal with regular "business and busyness"<br />

AND create our future. 2016 marks <strong>Harcourt</strong>'s 60th anniversary of its March 4 th<br />

inaugural service, a transformation from our roots as the Brooklyn Sunday school<br />

mission. How is the Spirit guiding us now and into the next decade?<br />

With faith and hope<br />

Lorraine<br />

7


United Church Minister calls on<br />

province to bring in policies to protect<br />

poor in upcoming budget<br />

Rev. Steve Berubé from New Brunswick<br />

suggests it is time for the provincial and federal<br />

governments to do a comprehensive study<br />

looking at tax policy and in particular its<br />

impact on poor people.<br />

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-<br />

brunswick/steve-berube-riverview-hst-poor-<br />

1.3411589<br />

United Church Ecumenical<br />

Accompanier finds Similarities in Injustice.<br />

The injustices being endured in the Israel-<br />

Palestine conflict resonate with the problems<br />

Canada faces in dealing with First Nations<br />

issues, according to Debbie Hubbard an<br />

Ecumenical Accompanier appointed by the<br />

United Church. Ms. Hubbard spoke about her<br />

experiences from a three-month journey to<br />

Israel and Palestine, and specifically in East<br />

Jerusalem where she was based.<br />

http://lethbridgeherald.com/news/localnews/2016/01/22/israel-palestine-conflictmirrors-first-nations-issues-in-canada/<br />

Government of Canada Extends<br />

Matching Deadline for Syria Donations to<br />

February 29<br />

The Canadian government has extended the<br />

dollar-for-dollar match to cover donations<br />

made up to February 29, 2016.<br />

http://www.united-church.ca/syria<br />

8


www.cartoonsbyjim.com<br />

Used with permission<br />

New to <strong>Harcourt</strong>? We are so pleased you’re here! Give our church office a call<br />

so we can welcome you properly or drop the coupon below into the collection plate.<br />

New friends are soooooooo cool!<br />

Hi….I’m new to <strong>Harcourt</strong>!!<br />

NAME: _____________________________________________<br />

CONTACT TELEPHONE: _________________________________<br />

CONTACT E-MAIL: ______________________________________<br />

9


Committee and Group News<br />

A Great Year Coming Up for <strong>Harcourt</strong>!<br />

by Ben Fear, Property Committee<br />

Have we got plans! Among the things we hope to accomplish in 2016 are the<br />

completion of the main floor accessible bathroom, which has proved to be more<br />

involved than we anticipated. Also in the works are the installation and application of<br />

soundproofing material to areas of the church which currently suffer acoustical<br />

intrusions at inopportune moments. Both of these projects on completion will owe their<br />

existence to funding help obtained through the expertise of Joan Barham with technical<br />

support from Mark Sears.<br />

<strong>Harcourt</strong> United Church is<br />

blessed with a membership that<br />

cares and helps. If there's a job to<br />

be done just ask for volunteers.<br />

There are things that are done<br />

regularly here in our church that<br />

just seem to happen and we<br />

wonder if anyone ever receives<br />

thanks. Well, we thank you! The<br />

Property Committee sincerely<br />

extends their thanks to the<br />

person from the Communication<br />

Committee, Nancy Ryan, who<br />

keeps that bulletin board inside<br />

the front doors looking fresh and topical and the lower hall notice boards arranged so<br />

that they are an "easy read".<br />

We thank the volunteer gardeners who trim, weed and dead-head the flowers<br />

during the growing season. We thank all those who make our Sunday morning coffee<br />

and sometimes provide us with unessential vitamins and calories. We thank all the<br />

members of groups using the church who return things to their "home" after using them,<br />

especially in the kitchen. And we are most appreciative of money-saving work done by<br />

church members such as painting, and carpentry. We could go on but won't. We just<br />

want you all to know that everything you do is appreciated and helps to make our<br />

10


church an authentic community of spiritual growth and service. We also thank our<br />

ministers the Rev. Jim Ball and the Rev. Wendy Brown and our Music Director Alison<br />

MacNeil for their co-operation, inspiration and pizzazz. Our thanks also to Darko<br />

Cikovic our Custodian and Anne Purkis our office Administrator who daily solves<br />

problems, cheerfully, that we are never aware of.<br />

We are indeed blessed.<br />

Some suggestions:<br />

The new floor inside the west entrance is working fine. The replacement of the tiles<br />

not only improved the appearance of the floor but also has encouraged the removal of<br />

wet shoes, muddy boots, and overshoes and the Property committee extend their<br />

appreciation for your efforts. There is however a slight problem when it comes to<br />

departures.<br />

HERE ARE SOME “FOOT IN MOUTH” SUGGESTIONS:<br />

1. On arrival STOMP THE SNOW OFF YOUR BOOTS OUTSIDE AS MUCH AS<br />

POSSIBLE! This helps to keep the interior floor merely wet as opposed to puddled<br />

2. Remove your boots and place them side by side next to the pair at the end of the<br />

row which might be six or eight feet from the door by now. Maybe it's time to<br />

start a new row LUCKY YOU place your boots below the first pair in the first row<br />

or the second pair in the first row etc. By now there should be 2 -3 rows of boots<br />

or more all in straight rows.<br />

3. Put on your slippers, heavy socks, or shoes. Do not go barefoot unless you have<br />

painted toenails.<br />

4. Before you go to your meeting, look at where your boots are located e.g. 4th pair<br />

from the end, second row<br />

HAVE A GOOD MEETING…SING WELL…AND HAVE FUN<br />

On DEPARTURE, LOOK FOR YOUR BOOTS. Don't move everyone else's boots to find<br />

yours. PUT on your boots make sure they are yours. You have your name in them don't<br />

you?<br />

Don't forget to take your slippers, socks or shoes with you. SAFE JOURNEY HOME!<br />

11


ACCESSIBILITY TRAINING FOR ALL WHO<br />

ENGAGE IN STEWARDSHIP AT HARCOURT<br />

Have you completed your “volunteer”, government mandated,<br />

Customer Service training?<br />

The Accessibility for Ontarions with Disabilities Act 2005 requires that<br />

<strong>Harcourt</strong> provide mandatory training for all<br />

staff and “volunteers”with respect to regulation, that we<br />

find uncomfortably named as, Customer Service Standards. You only<br />

need to take this training once.<br />

Please access the on-line training at:<br />

http://www.harcourtuc.ca/space-resources/accessible-harcourt/<br />

In response to regulation, Accessibility has placed a Feedback Box<br />

and Feedback Form in the Greeting Area. You are urged to use this<br />

process for any positive or negative comments. Please ensure your<br />

contact information is on the form so we can respond to you.<br />

Many thanks for your cooperation.<br />

Contact: Joan Barham: jfhbarham@gmail.com; 519 836 0433<br />

[Cite your source here.]<br />

12


The Caroline <strong>Harcourt</strong> Women's Fellowship Learns About<br />

Bridges Out of Poverty<br />

by Ruth Tatham<br />

On the coldest winter morning so far, over 30 women gathered in the sunshine<br />

of the Friendship Room to hear Elaine Weir, Coordinator of the Guelph "Bridges Out of<br />

Poverty". Elaine outlined the work this combined group of professional area people have<br />

organized into ways to cross the barriers from middle (or upper) income families into<br />

the world of local families and individuals who seem never able to plan for any greater<br />

security, especially in terms of food, housing, and longevity.<br />

Research has shown that the lifespan of women and men is directly related to<br />

the income bracket of their adult lives. Hamilton, a city with superior health care<br />

facilities, has almost a two decade longer life-span for middle-income workers than for<br />

the people in the lowest income level.<br />

Health problems, physical as well as<br />

mental, are not solved until homelessness is<br />

solved. Low income people cannot deal well<br />

with any of their problems until mutual trust is<br />

developed between them and the higher-income<br />

people trying to help them.<br />

The Guelph area is only the second<br />

Canadian municipal site which has put<br />

Baseley's Bridge by Hugh Craddock - Wikimedia Commons<br />

into action a structured "Bridge" system wherein<br />

three grades of specific education by group teaching is in place to foster such trust and<br />

learning between income-level people. Other areas in Canada seem ready to tackle the<br />

same methods. Visit the Bridges Out of Poverty website at:<br />

https://www.wdgpublichealth.ca/?q=bridges<br />

The February 8th Caroline <strong>Harcourt</strong> Women's Fellowship meeting at 11:45 a.m.<br />

will feature Paul Webb as the special speaker, presenting the new directions and<br />

methods the United Church of Canada has set in motion for its Mission and Service<br />

Department. With his background in the United Church of Canada ministry, including<br />

directing one of Toronto's best-known Missions providing Food and Shelter, Paul brings<br />

a background of double-sided experience. All women are welcome; bring your sandwich.<br />

Dessert, tea and friendship supplied.<br />

13


A Fun Volunteer Opportunity at the Chancel Guild<br />

by Ann Middleton, Chair Chancel Guild<br />

Once Easter comes, winter will be over (I promise!). Get<br />

into the spring mode by ordering flowers for the sanctuary on<br />

Easter Sunday. We will be decorating with hydrangeas and<br />

azaleas. Please let Marta Coutts (822-5789) know if you would<br />

like to remember a loved one or commemorate a special<br />

event. She needs to have the information by March 17 so<br />

that we can order the flowers and get the notice in the<br />

bulletin.<br />

On another note, The Chancel Guild is looking for new<br />

members. It takes only a few hours a year to join this small,<br />

fun group that swings into action at Thanksgiving, Christmas<br />

and Easter to decorate the sanctuary. Members also take<br />

turns arranging for flowers on Sundays. Aside from that, we<br />

have tea together about once a year. Think you’d like to help<br />

out at <strong>Harcourt</strong>? This is one opportunity that won’t crowd<br />

out your calendar! Contact Ann Middleton, Chair, or talk to<br />

any of our members: Marta Coutts, Norma Fear, Anne Piper,<br />

Marty Ragetlie or Janet Webster.<br />

Lots to Look at in the Library about Lent<br />

(say that quickly 5 times…we dare you!)<br />

by Mary-Lou Funston<br />

February 10 marks Ash Wednesday – the first day of Lent. The Library has<br />

several books to help you take a few minutes in each day to meditate on your life’s<br />

journey as a person of faith. These are found on the shelf marked LENT – found under<br />

the Biography section. I have chosen just three of those we have.<br />

A LENTEN HOBO HONEYMOON (Daily Reflections of the Journey of Lent)<br />

by Edward Hays 242.34<br />

Hayes notes that “Jesus journeyed through life as a hobo, as one with ‘nowhere<br />

to lay his head.’ Each day starts with a short reading, including suggestions for thoughtful<br />

activity, and ends with a brief prayer (usually a sentence or two).<br />

14


SEED THAT DIES TO RISE (Lenten Reflections on Voices United)<br />

by John E. Ambrose 242.3<br />

This one is for those of you who really enjoy hymns. Each day starts with the<br />

words of one verse of a hymn from VU, continues with a brief reflection on the<br />

hymn and ends with a short prayer. Some of the hymns are old favorites, others are new<br />

favorites!<br />

LIVING WATERS (Daily Reflections for Lent)<br />

by Ian Macdonald 242.34<br />

Here is what the ‘blurb’ says, in part: “Always founded in scripture, these daily<br />

reflections draw wonderfully on experiences ranging from an encounter of a policeman<br />

with a duck in Vancouver to well-digging in Ghana to a baptism at L’Arche to the Inter-<br />

Church Task Force on Northern Flooding. I laughed, I cried – and I found both a desire to<br />

grow deeper In Christ and in my connection to others and the whole creation.”<br />

Who can resist that??!<br />

And in a completely different vein! For you fans of Harry Potter we have:<br />

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO HARRY POTTER (Spirituality in the stories of the<br />

world’s most famous seeker) Connie Neal 823 NEA<br />

Come visit the <strong>Harcourt</strong> Library where you can read your way to joy just by signing your<br />

name!<br />

Some Stewardship Reading to Inspire<br />

by Roz Stevenson<br />

On “Remembering Stewardship” Sunday, November 22, we were happy to have<br />

David Armour, the Director of Philanthropy and President of the United Church of<br />

Canada Foundation as the guest preacher at both the 9 and 10:30 am services – before he<br />

dashed off to Toronto (in the snow!) for a General Council Executive meeting. Recently,<br />

he has been working with the new United Church stewardship and giving program,<br />

“Called to be Church”.<br />

It is always interesting when someone can give you a new – and renewed – vision<br />

of what’s going on, and David did that for how we can look at stewardship, both at<br />

<strong>Harcourt</strong> and the whole United Church of Canada. His very first message was “Thank<br />

15


you!” – for all our gifts to the church and to Mission and Service. He noted that the<br />

amounts of money that average United Church donors give puts them in the category<br />

“major donors” for most charities and philanthropies. Most charities are currently<br />

experiencing a downturn in contributions, yet extrapolating down, down, and more<br />

down is not the right approach. Rather, we need to recognize that the pattern is cyclical,<br />

and a slow drop – a few % a year – allows time for adjustment and change to move<br />

towards the next upturn!<br />

Managing for change can involve different ways of telling the story to new<br />

audiences. The “Gifts With Vision” catalog is one approach, allowing choices for giving.<br />

Another is the restructuring of the Mission and Service Fund so that it will not<br />

incorporate funding for General Council, but be dedicated to action for others, with a<br />

small Spirit component directed to developing new ways to be Church. The new<br />

Congregational Giving Program, “Called to be the Church”, focuses on the foundational<br />

elements Inspire, Ask, and Thank, and asks and invites people to participate in a culture<br />

of<br />

gratitude. [ Resources for the program are available online<br />

at www.stewardshiptoolkit.ca/called ]<br />

…donors believe that all<br />

they have is a gift from<br />

God, not their due, or<br />

received for their merit.<br />

Second, they understand<br />

that Jesus taught social<br />

justice, and third, donors<br />

give from a sense of<br />

gratitude.<br />

David Armour spoke of the experience of<br />

trying to explain United Church of Canada<br />

donors to a university class that was studying<br />

philanthropy. Explaining what motivates<br />

them, he said that, first, donors believe that<br />

all they have is a gift from God, not their due,<br />

or received for their merit. Second, they<br />

understand that Jesus taught social justice,<br />

and third, donors give from a sense of<br />

gratitude. After the class, a young woman<br />

came up and said – “you just explained my<br />

grandmother’s whole life!”<br />

During the service, we engaged with the story<br />

from Micah 6:8 (What does the Lord require of you) and with a reading from Second<br />

Corinthians 8:1-4, 7, in which Paul talks about the overflowing generosity of the churches<br />

of Macedonia and encourages the Corinthians to participate. Sounds like the classic<br />

“stewardship shake-down”! But that message came up again for me in some holiday<br />

reading – a new, small book by Karen Armstrong called St. Paul: The Apostle We Love<br />

to Hate. It’s a 160 page Ikon book, published by New Harvest in the fall of 2015. It talks<br />

about the early days of the Christian church and the various views of how Jesus, the<br />

Christ, the Messiah, fitted into Jewish, Roman and Greek traditions. At one point, Paul<br />

16


calls for a major Collection to be made in the churches he dealt with as a symbol of their<br />

link to the major congregation in Jerusalem - the basis of our Stewardship Sunday<br />

reading. The book is an excellent summary of an interesting time, and explained a lot of<br />

things for me. And, it’s one of Karen Armstrong’s short books!<br />

I say short because I am still progressing through a second recent but much longer<br />

(528 pages) Karen Armstrong book, Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of<br />

Violence. An updated paperback edition of the 2014 hardcover was published<br />

by Vintage Canada in September 2015. The theme of violence and religion is clearly of<br />

current interest, but this book starts long before recent news stories. You often hear<br />

people say “Religion is responsible for so much violence!” So what exactly is “religion”<br />

and when and how did it develop? And could, just possibly, religion have developed as a<br />

response to violence? You need to read the book to find out … well, maybe, because I<br />

haven’t got to the end yet. But winter is long, so find a comfy chair and read on!<br />

Community News<br />

Indoor Garage Sale Items Wanted – Let the Cleanup Begin!<br />

by Janet Webster<br />

Time to think about the annual <strong>Harcourt</strong> Indoor Garage Sale. As<br />

the days start to lengthen, spring cleaning those closets and cupboards might seem like a<br />

good idea! Set the extra items aside for the garage sale taking place Saturday April 9th,<br />

2016. Customers are happy to buy kitchen ware, dishes, books, costume jewellery,<br />

records, games, toys, decorative items, artwork, small furniture, garden supplies, tools<br />

etc. in good condition. Unfortunately, disposal of unpurchased computers, car parts or<br />

clothing is a problem and dumping fees affect our profits, so sorry...we cannot accept<br />

them. But please mark the date in your calendars and set aside a few hours to help with<br />

the fund raiser on either April 8 or April 9. It’s so much fun!<br />

17


Retirement Residence Worship – A Vital Ministry<br />

by Esther Keith Devolin, Guelph United Ministries Pastoral Care Committee<br />

You may or may not be aware that the four churches of Guelph United Ministries<br />

(GUM) offer regular visitation, communion and worship services throughout the year to<br />

multiple seniors’ residences and nursing homes here in Guelph. It is a vital ministry as<br />

many of our members transition from their own homes to new settings for extra care or<br />

ease of living.<br />

Regular connection through worship and visits help many folk who are no longer<br />

able to actively participate in their former church communities.<br />

There are many ways that you can support this ministry. You could offer to be a part<br />

of a worship team who leads worship with the assistance of both ordained and lay worship<br />

leaders who share in hymn sings, scripture reading, short meditation, handing out song<br />

sheets or sharing your voice and presence.<br />

You may like to sing, or play an instrument that would add to the worship<br />

experience. You may just enjoy the opportunity to sit with another and share some stories<br />

or memories of shared history of your church or faith. There are many ways that your<br />

presence on a monthly basis or a few times a year could greatly bless the outreach ministry<br />

that we offer to many of our seniors. If you are intrigued or curious, please feel free to<br />

contact either of our ministers or Esther Devolin, Pastoral Care Committee Chair, to hear<br />

more about this and how you might find your own expression of hospitality and service in<br />

this ministry. Note: The GUM Pastoral Care Committee is organizing a worship training<br />

event in the spring 2016 to provide support for all who volunteer to participate.<br />

A dry Lent, a fertile year. (Scottish Proverb)<br />

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PHOTOGRAPHS FOR HARCOURT. WE INVITE YOU TO<br />

SHARE YOUR PHOTOS WITH US!!<br />

“A picture is worth a thousand words”. This is the reality when people view our <strong>Harcourt</strong><br />

website, Facebook, twitter, Herald, Sunday worship material on the sanctuary screens, archives,<br />

flyers and bulletin boards. We need your help in building our<br />

collection of photographs for use across these seven different<br />

avenues where we tell people about the heart and soul of<br />

<strong>Harcourt</strong>. Because photos can take up a lot of space on your<br />

computer and email, we are using Dropbox software that allows<br />

you to save the photos you want to share in a space that will not<br />

take up extra space on your computer.<br />

If you decide to share your photos with <strong>Harcourt</strong> and:<br />

1. You DO NOT have a personal Dropbox account:<br />

Please e-mail Photo master, Marilyn Whiteley mwhiteley@gto.net<br />

to ask for an invitation to set up your personal Drop Box.<br />

If you need help after you receive this invitation, please e-mail mwhiteley@gto.net<br />

2. You ALREADY HAVE a personal Drop Box account:<br />

Please e-mail Anne Purkis at office@harcourtuc.ca to receive a link to the <strong>Harcourt</strong><br />

Photo Congregation folder. If you need help after this, please e-mail<br />

mwhiteley@gto.net<br />

3. When you are “set up” and want to submit a photo, click on the Dropbox logo on your<br />

computer screen and then “drag and drop” your photo into the <strong>Harcourt</strong> Photo<br />

Congregation folder . Easy as pie!!!<br />

4. VERY IMPORTANT !<br />

Please remember to:<br />

- Title your photo with a general description, (e.g., picnic), include your name, and date<br />

it, so there is a way for the photo team to know who sent what when. For example, my<br />

photo filename of the church garden is: barham-garden-feb2016.jpg<br />

If you aren’t able to use Dropbox, just e-mail your photo with the information above as an e-<br />

mail attachment to Gill Joseph on the Communications Committee at herald@harcourtuc.ca and<br />

we’ll put them in Dropbox for you.<br />

In sending us your personal photos you are agreeing that they may be used for the <strong>Harcourt</strong><br />

website, Facebook, Twitter, Herald, Sunday worship material on the sanctuary screens,<br />

archives, flyers and bulletin boards.<br />

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A Shocking Invitation!<br />

Read on to hear why this is so shocking. You won’t believe it.<br />

Picture this: The committee wants to plan for the 2016 Christmas Sale. Under the<br />

cloak of darkness, a few people hold a de-briefing session in December and make notes as<br />

to what was successful about the last event. In<br />

hushed whispers they brainstorm about what to<br />

try next time as they shiver with anticipation. But<br />

it doesn’t end there. Someone panics and a cry is<br />

heard…”we need to expand the event to involve<br />

more people…we must increase the level of funds<br />

we can raise for <strong>Harcourt</strong>!” Slowly and quietly<br />

someone picks up a pen and begins to write under<br />

the flickering light of a hallway exit sign: “We<br />

need you to help us turn great ideas into reality -<br />

to add your ideas or skills to our mad plot”. Janet<br />

Webster stands defiantly in the darkness and<br />

offers herself as a contact person at<br />

fwebst0953@rogers.com . But …something isn’t<br />

right. What are those whispers drifting around the room? The following suggestions for<br />

next year’s Christmas sale would affect committee members forever:<br />

organize a silent auction with possible tax receipts for donations<br />

partner with a local Christmas tree farm to sell trees that day in the parking lot<br />

involve other user groups such as Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, Youth Group<br />

create and display a large banner directing customers to the lunch Room<br />

prepare a “signature” food item such as truffles, butter tarts<br />

add an additional soup choice to the menu<br />

build the reindeer earlier<br />

add Greeters and signage at the Main doors<br />

gather natural materials earlier in the summer/fall<br />

add book sales<br />

We were all shocked! How could such good ideas rise up from an otherwise ordinary<br />

meeting? Was it something in the air that night? But wait…it just won’t feel right if you<br />

aren’t part of all that fun! So please help us to plan for a shockingly great time…it will<br />

make your hair stand on end (ok maybe not!). Christmas Sale 2016. Not for the faint<br />

hearted.<br />

20


Good Food and Warm Fellowship for Those in Need – Saturday Night<br />

Supper<br />

by Jill Gill, SNS Co-ordinator for <strong>Harcourt</strong><br />

As many of you may already know, the Saturday Night Supper Program began in<br />

1998 at the former Chalmers United Church, presently Royal City Evangelical Church.<br />

There are currently 21 churches or groups (of various denominations) in Guelph that<br />

participate in this program. It offers a really good hot meal to those in need, in the<br />

company and fellowship of others. Royal City Church serves a simple meal each night of<br />

the week (food supplied by some church groups and other partners), but the Saturday<br />

Night Supper is the most celebrated one of the week. Each Saturday, between 120 and<br />

160 folks are treated to dinner.<br />

I have received the schedule for 2016 and <strong>Harcourt</strong>’s dates so far are April 23,<br />

August 6th, September 3 and December 3. Please mark these dates in your calendar –<br />

and, of course, I will be reminding you again as we get closer to the events.<br />

<strong>Harcourt</strong>’s customary menu for the night - pasta casserole (recipe available on the<br />

<strong>Harcourt</strong> website), Caesar salad, pickles, cheese, assorted fruit pies, vanilla ice cream,<br />

milk, juice and coffee - will continue throughout the year. The guests love it! We need a<br />

dozen volunteers to prep on site and serve the dinner on each occasion. Food and<br />

volunteer servers are requested to be at the Royal City Church (via backdoor entrance),<br />

at 50 Quebec Street by 5 p.m. Servers will be needed until approximately 8 p.m.<br />

<strong>Harcourt</strong> folks have been wonderful supporters of this worthwhile outreach<br />

project and I thank you in advance for your continued commitment.<br />

Prayers of Taize Coming Up<br />

by Henk Dykman<br />

A Lenten retreat with prayers of Taize will be held from Friday February 26 at 8:00<br />

p.m. till Sunday February 28 at 1:00 p.m. at the Loyola House Retreat and Training<br />

Centre in Guelph. Call 519 824.1250 ext. 266 or email registration@ignatiusguelph.ca for<br />

more details. The cost is $260 for ”live in” and $160 for commuting. The prayers are<br />

beautiful songs of faith reflections and meditations, simple and profound with many<br />

repeats. Some can be found in our hymn books. The musical leader at the retreat is Erik<br />

Oland S. J. who before becoming a Jesuit was an opera singer in Montreal. Tarcia<br />

Gerwing from Guelph leads the silent meditations based on scripture. United Church<br />

minister Sue Anderson plays the harp in a small but talented ensemble to accompany<br />

the songs.<br />

21


Kay Speed’s musical contribution at these<br />

retreats for many years was her wonderful playing of<br />

the flute. She will be been sorely missed.<br />

Lutheran “Brother” Roger Schuetz from<br />

Switzerland started these retreats in the village of<br />

Taize in Burgundy, France soon after World War II<br />

in a successful attempt to bring together and<br />

reconcile people from all the war torn European<br />

nations. Many young people have flocked to his<br />

worship centre for more than 70 years and are still coming there now from many<br />

countries all over the world. This local Taize retreat is also popular and it would be wise<br />

to register as soon as you read this.<br />

Chalmers Challenge 2016 – You Can Do It <strong>Harcourt</strong>!<br />

by Peter Gill<br />

A big thank you to all those who contribute to the operation of Chalmers<br />

Community Services Centre (CCSC), whether it is volunteering, donating financially or<br />

in kind, working in the communal garden.<br />

I’m sure everyone has heard<br />

about and experienced the<br />

dramatic increase in prices of<br />

produce over the past couple<br />

of months. CCSC is also<br />

affected by this increase, so it<br />

is imperative that we stretch<br />

our purchasing dollars as far<br />

as possible.<br />

This past year, 2015, was certainly an interesting<br />

year for CCSC. We experienced a 32% increase in<br />

guest visits (over 9800) at our Downtown and<br />

West locations which was reflected in a large<br />

increase in our purchased food – mainly<br />

fresh produce, dairy and eggs.<br />

In addition to our food purchases<br />

we received donations of 54,000 lbs of<br />

food from many sources – churches, CSA<br />

(community supported agriculture)<br />

organizations, apartment buildings,<br />

community gardens and individuals.<br />

<strong>Harcourt</strong>’s contribution via the shopping<br />

cart in the greeting area was 2200 lbs –<br />

thank you to all those who dropped off<br />

peanut butter, soup, milk powder etc.<br />

22


I’m sure everyone has heard about and experienced the dramatic increase in prices<br />

of produce over the past couple of months. CCSC is also affected by this increase, so it is<br />

imperative that we stretch our purchasing dollars as far as possible. This year we are<br />

asking the <strong>Harcourt</strong> congregation to try to increase their food contribution to a<br />

minimum of 2500 lbs. So when you’re in the supermarket, try to remember to put<br />

something in your shopping cart for CCSC and drop it off in the greeting area.<br />

We will post monthly results in the bulletin so you can follow <strong>Harcourt</strong>’s progress.<br />

Lent: Words in the Wilderness<br />

by Rev. Rachel G. Hackenberg<br />

Huffington Post – May 20, 2012<br />

(used with permission)<br />

It begins for me on Ash Wednesday, as soft black palm ashes smear on my thumb<br />

and I meet each congregant's eye to say honestly, "Remember that you are dust." Like<br />

the build-up of those ashes under my fingernails, the message lingers across the days of<br />

Lent: Remember that you are dust. Remember that you are no more and no less than<br />

human. Be mindful that life's breadth and depth and beauty are ultimately finite.<br />

While many choose to journey through Lent with fasting or generosity as the tools<br />

for considering our human dustiness, I choose to journey into the wild finitude with<br />

words. Each day for the length of Lent, I test the symbols of language by putting pen to<br />

paper to articulate a prayer. Now halfway through the season, my prayer-writing has<br />

observed balloons and planets, considered the river of God's tears and the pain of God's<br />

silence. This human life of ours is nothing short of total wilderness -- breathtaking, wild,<br />

unpredictable, lonely, enchanting -- and the daily discipline of finding words for the dust<br />

is my practice of humility.<br />

My words are like tongs handling the hazy red coals of a fire too holy which<br />

nevertheless has called me to its side. So I whisper: "Beautiful!" and an ember pulses<br />

brighter; "Delightful!" and a spark cracks with laughter; "Restorative!" and a flame licks<br />

warmly. "You are unchanging and ever-surprising," I woo, and the fire swells. "You are<br />

satisfying and unsettling," I affirm, and then I set the tongs down while I bask on the<br />

hearth and rebuild my courage for handling fire again.<br />

Language -- the handling of words -- is no small sacred cow among Christians, yet<br />

it may be one of our most measurable examples of human finitude. Like grass, language<br />

flourishes and withers, seemingly overnight. Words trend. Communication changes.<br />

23


Fresh slang waves at us like a bright green palm leaf before crumbling to ash ... only to<br />

be recycled in another community, by another population, long after we think it has<br />

blown away. My children and their peers invent words to be phonetically expressive.<br />

Domain name creators and marketers and bloggers manipulate language with an<br />

understanding that words are excitable but momentary.<br />

Yet in the Church, where concerns linger that altering the Trinitarian formula --<br />

Father, Son, Holy Ghost -- may actually alter the essence of God, we construct the ashes<br />

of human language into idols and call them sacred, thus avoiding the scary wilderness of<br />

words. Our collective Christian preference for familiar language is at once<br />

understandable and bizarre. Pastorally, I appreciate the comfort<br />

of timeworn words that echo across generations when we recite<br />

prayers and hymns and names for God. Theologically, I<br />

understand that blurred distinctions between The Word Made<br />

Flesh and the Word of God and the written words of scripture<br />

have complicated our idolization of religious language.<br />

Realistically, however, I'm dumbfounded that we expect<br />

words and their meanings to be ageless. When was the last time<br />

any of us used "twitter" to describe a robin's pre-dawn song? We<br />

adore words like "The LORD is my shepherd," yet the lived<br />

experience of those words is rare: how many of us have ever<br />

witnessed an actual shepherd herding actual sheep in an open<br />

meadow? Words and meanings and experiences change.<br />

Language changes -- rapidly these days -- because language is a<br />

human construct. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.<br />

I recently bought (and am quickly falling in love with) a<br />

book entitled "Microstyle: The Art of Writing Little," by<br />

Christopher Johnson. In outlining his premise -- that our<br />

increased brevity in language empowers the general population<br />

to not merely consume language but also create it -- Johnson<br />

asserts that any debates over the pros and cons, rights or wrongs<br />

of this linguistic shift are inconsequential (or at least<br />

secondary). Rather than challenge the shift, he suggests, why<br />

not engage it, see what it does, test out its meanings and<br />

sounds, play with its possibilities? In other words, since<br />

language is temporal along with the rest of human experience,<br />

why not follow it into the wilderness to see what can be found?<br />

Why not mark our church language with ashes, why not risk<br />

Language -- the<br />

handling of words -- is<br />

no small sacred cow<br />

among Christians, yet it<br />

may be one of our most<br />

measurable examples of<br />

human finitude. Like<br />

grass, language<br />

flourishes and withers,<br />

seemingly overnight.<br />

Words trend.<br />

Communication<br />

changes. Fresh slang<br />

waves at us like a bright<br />

green palm leaf before<br />

crumbling to ash ... only<br />

to be recycled in<br />

another community, by<br />

another population,<br />

long after we think it<br />

has blown away.<br />

24


shedding our idolization of sacred words for the possibility of stretching their height of<br />

sound and range of meaning and depth of passion in order to delve all the more fully<br />

into our humanity through the finite dust that is language?<br />

Put on an extravagant spectacle to disrupt our pallid rituals, O Discerning One.<br />

Dance. Tease. Provoke. Goad us with a parody of our vain ambitions and shallow<br />

truisms. Like a searing comedian, point us out to be stingy fools. Name our asinine<br />

inconsistencies, our disbeliefs and our contradictions. Laugh that we have marveled at<br />

the cactus when there are stunning flowers in bloom and sweet fruit at their peak in the<br />

arid wilderness. By your wisdom, mock us for the flighty egos that we are . . . and then<br />

rescue us, too.<br />

As I dive into writing each year during Lent, the experience is spiritually akin to<br />

flopping onto the soft grass on one's back, gazing at the clouds, and pondering their<br />

drifting shapes. The practice of prayer-writing is the practice of curiosity, seeking out<br />

intersections of the human and the Holy through words. "Remember that you are dust.<br />

Be mindful that life's breadth and depth and details -- even life's linguistics -- are<br />

ultimately finite."<br />

A new group has formed at <strong>Harcourt</strong>. A spin-off from<br />

the Artist's Way group that was held last year, "Creative<br />

Intentions" will focus on creativity in various aspects.<br />

Meetings will be held from 7-9pm on the second Monday<br />

of the month. The first three sessions (beginning<br />

February 8) will focus on "Big Magic" by Elizabeth<br />

Gilbert. Email Lisa Browning at<br />

lisa@onethousandtrees.com for more information, or if<br />

you'd like to participate.<br />

25


Announcements<br />

Passing:<br />

STAMMERS, Elizabeth-Anne/<br />

Betty-Anne (nee Limebeer) - Passed<br />

away at her home in Guelph, Ontario on<br />

Sunday, December 20th, 2015. Elizabeth-<br />

Anne, age 80 years, was the wife of William Stammers and<br />

mother of Karyn Davies (Brent), Kelly Farfaras (Tom), and<br />

Kristin Mirotta (Leo). Betty-Anne grew up in Guelph and<br />

attended Macdonald Consolidated School, Guelph C.V.I., and<br />

the University of Guelph (B.A. ’80). She was employed as a<br />

high school supply teacher by the Wellington County Board of<br />

Education, a past President of College Women’s Club, a<br />

member of University Women’s Club and Guelph Historical Society, and she served as a<br />

Chair at Guelph Museums Board. Betty-Anne’s ancestors were pioneers to Wellington<br />

County (Crane Farm). As expressions of sympathy, donations to the Canadian Cancer<br />

Society or to the Juravinski Cancer Centre Foundation would be appreciated by the<br />

family.<br />

ROBINSON, Gladys M. (nee Scott) – passed away<br />

peacefully at the Guelph General Hospital on Saturday,<br />

January 16 th , 2016, in her 91 st year. Beloved wife of the<br />

late Clarence R. Robinson (2013) and loved mother to<br />

Linda (Fern) Cabral, Velda Beirnes, Larry (Linda)<br />

Robinson and Louise Robinson. A tree will be planted in<br />

memory of Gladys in the Wall-Custance Memorial<br />

Forest, University of Guelph Arboretum. Dedication<br />

service, Sunday September 18, 2016 at 2:30 p.m.<br />

26


WATSON, Evelyn Mabel (nee Rodney) - passed away<br />

peacefully on January 18, 2016 surrounded by family at Lisaard<br />

House in Cambridge. Evelyn, the beloved wife of Bill, was 96<br />

years old. Devoted mother of daughters Janice (Randy)<br />

McLeod and Laurie (Martin) Goorts. Evelyn was a retired<br />

nurse who in later years volunteered at the Collingwood<br />

Hospital. She was an avid bridge player, baker and enjoyed<br />

gardening, especially her roses. Her love for hummingbirds<br />

will always be remembered. Evelyn enjoyed her home at<br />

Heritage Meadows. In lieu of flowers, donations to Lisaard House and Cambridge<br />

Memorial Hospital would be greatly appreciated and may be made in Evelyn’s memory.<br />

Baptisms:<br />

FERRIS, Moira Elizabeth, born April 12, 2015. Parents are Emily and Gregg<br />

Ferris.<br />

ROMANOW, Deegan Nicholas, born March 15, 2015. Parents are Nicholas Romanow<br />

and Amy Chapman<br />

Other Announcements:<br />

February 21: Budget information session*, in the Chapel<br />

February 28: Congregational Meeting*, in the gym<br />

Note from Worship*: Please contact Jim, jim@harcourtuc.ca, or Wendy,<br />

wendy@harcourtuc.ca, directly if you would like to receive a copy of the Sunday<br />

Message.<br />

Check out our Project Neutral program: projectneutral.org<br />

Check out *<strong>Harcourt</strong>’s Solar Panel Energy. Click on link:<br />

http://www.tigoenergy.com/site.php?Solar_Array_<strong>Harcourt</strong>_United<br />

27


Behind the Scenes<br />

"If people in your community are going to Wal-Mart in their wheelchairs but not<br />

coming to your church, a lot of times the church community calls them shut-ins.<br />

They're not shut-ins; they're just shut out of the church" (Ned Stoller (cited in<br />

Making Churches Accessible to the Disabled, 1998).<br />

Excerpts from: Encountering the Disabled God<br />

by Nancy Eiesland<br />

The Other Side, Sept/Oct. 2002<br />

I have been part of several congregations whose practice of receiving Eucharist<br />

includes filing to the front of the sanctuary and kneeling at the communion rail. Often,<br />

because I am either in a wheelchair or using crutches an usher alerts me that I need not<br />

go forward for the Eucharist. Instead, I am offered the sacrament at my seat after<br />

everyone else has been served.<br />

The congregation is trying to accommodate my presence in the service. They are<br />

undoubtedly trying to be conscientious and inclusive in their own way. But in effect,<br />

they are transforming Eucharist from a corporate experience to a solitary one for me,<br />

from a sacralisation of Christ’s broken body to a stigmatization of my disabled body.<br />

I am hardly alone. For many people with disabilities, the Eucharist – which should<br />

be the ultimate sacrament of unity of believers – is a ritual of exclusion and degradation.<br />

Access to this celebration of the body is restricted because of architectural barriers,<br />

ritual practices, demeaning body aesthetics, unreflective speech and bodily reactions.<br />

The Eucharist becomes a dreaded and humiliating remembrance that in the church we<br />

are trespassers in an able-bodied dominion.<br />

For many disabled persons, the church has been a “city on a hill” – physically<br />

inaccessible and social inhospitable. This Eucharistic exclusion is symbolic of a larger<br />

crisis. Sadly, rather than offering empowerment, the church has more often supported<br />

28


societal structures and attitudes that have treated people with disabilities as objects of<br />

pity and paternalism.<br />

On those occasions when denominations and congregations make progress in<br />

asserting and implementing accessibility it usually happens through a subtle but<br />

powerful paternalism of the able-bodied church, liberally “welcoming” those of us with<br />

disabilities. Even some of the best denominational statements articulating a theology of<br />

access still speak in the voice of the able-bodied community, advocating for persons with<br />

disabilities but not allowing our own voices, stories and embodied experiences to be<br />

central.<br />

The growing and dynamic disability rights movement in this country and around<br />

the world is raising crucial cultural and moral questions not simply about the meaning<br />

of disability, but the very meaning of embodied experience, human dignity, social justice<br />

and community. It is ripe moment for the Christian church to reflect on its own core<br />

values and traditions and allow the emergence of a theology of disability with liberating<br />

meaning and power for all of us.<br />

Our task is not simply one of correcting some faulty texts or even of building<br />

greater architectural access. The Christian church must develop a theology of disability<br />

emerging from the lives and even the bodies of those with disabilities. Such a theology<br />

must be not construed as “special-interest” perspective, but rather an integral part of<br />

reflection on Christian life. We must come to see disability neither as a symptom of sin<br />

nor an opportunity for virtuous suffering or charitable action. The Christian community<br />

as a whole must open itself to the gifts of persons with disabilities, who, like other<br />

minority groups, call the church to repentance and transformation.<br />

Much of my life I waited for a mighty revelation of God. I did experience an<br />

epiphany, but it bore little resemblance to the God I was expecting or the God of my<br />

dreams.<br />

Growing up with a disability, I could not accept the traditional interpretations of<br />

disability that I heard in prayers, in Sunday school and in sermons. “You are special in<br />

God’s eyes” I was often told, “that’s why you were given this painful disability” Or, “Don’t<br />

worry about your suffering now – in heaven you will be made whole”<br />

29


This confused me. My disability had taught me who I am and who God is. What<br />

would it mean to be without this knowledge? Would I be absolutely unknown to myself<br />

in heaven, and perhaps even unknown to God?<br />

I was assumed that God gave me a disability to develop my character. But by age<br />

six or seven, I was convinced that I had enough character to last a lifetime. My family<br />

frequented faith healers with me in tow. I was never healed. People asked about my<br />

hidden sins, but they must have been so well hidden that even I misplaced them. The<br />

theology that I heard was inadequate to my experience.<br />

For a long time I experienced a significant rift between my activism and my faith.<br />

My activism filled me with a passion for social change that would acknowledge our full<br />

value as human beings. But my theological and spiritual questions remained<br />

unanswered: What is the meaning of my disability? The movement offered me<br />

opportunities to work for change that were unavailable in the church, but my faith gave<br />

a spiritual fulfillment that I could not find in the movement.<br />

I also had to name the ways in which Christian communities participated in our<br />

silencing. Within the church, often other people with<br />

disabilities were uninterested in political and<br />

The Christian community<br />

as a whole must open itself<br />

to the gifts of persons with<br />

disabilities, who, like other<br />

minority groups, call the<br />

church to repentance and<br />

transformation.<br />

activist matters. Many activists, meanwhile, saw<br />

religion as damaging or at least irrelevant to<br />

their work. I felt spiritually estranged from<br />

God.<br />

My return to intimacy with God began at an<br />

Atlanta rehabilitation hospital for persons<br />

with spinal cord injuries. A chaplain asked<br />

me to lead a Bible study with several residents.<br />

One afternoon after a long and frustrating day I<br />

shared with the group my own doubts about God’s<br />

care for me.<br />

I asked them how they would know if God was with them<br />

and understood their experience. After a long silence, a young Africa-American man<br />

said “If God was in a sip-puff, maybe he would understand”.<br />

I was overwhelmed by this image: God in a sip-puff wheelchair, the kind used by<br />

many quadriplegics that enables them to maneuver the chair by blowing and sucking on<br />

30


a straw-like device. Not an omnipotent, self-sufficient God, but neither a pitiable,<br />

suffering servant. This was an image of God as survivor, as one of those whom society<br />

would label “not feasible”, “unemployable”, with “questionable quality of life”.<br />

Several weeks later, I was reading in Luke’s Gospel about an appearance of the<br />

resurrected Jesus (34:36-39). The focus of this passage is really on his followers, who are<br />

alone and depressed. Jesus says to them “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts<br />

arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, see that it is I myself. Touch me<br />

and see”.<br />

This wasn’t exactly God in a sip-puff, but here was the resurrected Christ making<br />

good on the promise that God would be with us, embodied, as we are - disabled and<br />

divine. In this passage, I recognized a part of my hidden history as a Christian.<br />

The foundation of Christian theology is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yet<br />

seldom is the resurrected Christ recognized as a deity whose hands, feet and side bear<br />

the marks of profound physical impairment.<br />

This was my epiphany. The resurrected Christ is a disabled God – one who<br />

understood the experience of the others in my Bible study in the rehab center, as well as<br />

my own. Encountering this disabled God became for me the source of a “liberation<br />

theology” of disability. Jesus Christ, as a living symbol of the disabled God, shares in the<br />

human condition; he experience in his embodiment all our vulnerability and flaws.<br />

Emptying himself of divinity Jesus enters the arena of human limitation, even<br />

helplessness. Jesus’ own body is wounded and scarred disfigured and distorted.<br />

In his ministry, Jesus builds community and experiences human solidarity with<br />

those who are disabled, socially stigmatized and denied their full human dignity and<br />

capacity. Jesus Christ the disabled God is consistent with many images of Jesus in<br />

solidarity with all those who have struggled to maintain the integrity and dignity of their<br />

bodies in the face of injustice and bodily degradation.<br />

Jesus Christ the disabled God repudiates the conception of disability as a<br />

consequence of sin. Our bodies participate in the image of God, not in spite of our<br />

impairments and contingencies but through them. For many people whose disabilities<br />

keep them from participating fully in the church or from feeling a full-bodied acceptance<br />

by Christ, accepting the disabled God may enable reconciliation with their own bodies<br />

31


and Christ’s body, the church. Hence, disability not only does not contradict the<br />

human-divine integrity, it becomes a new model of wholeness and a symbol of solidarity.<br />

The disabled God is a survivor. In our society “survivor” is contaminated with<br />

notions of victimization, radical individualism and alienation, as well as with an ethos of<br />

virtuous suffering. In contrast to that cultural icon, the image of survivor evoked here is<br />

that of a simple, unself-pitying, honest body, for whom the limits of power are palpable<br />

but not tragic. The disabled God embodies the ability to see clearly the complexity and<br />

the “mixed blessing” of life and bodies, without living in despair. This revelation is of a<br />

God who is for us one who celebrates joy and experiences pain not separately in time or<br />

space, but simultaneously.<br />

The disabled God is a God for whom interdependence is a necessary condition for<br />

life; a fact of both justice and survival. The disabled God embodies practical<br />

interdependence, not simply willing to be interrelated from a position of power, but<br />

depending on it from a position of need. For many people with disabilities, mutual care<br />

is a<br />

The foundation of<br />

Christian theology is the<br />

resurrection of Jesus<br />

Christ. Yet seldom is the<br />

resurrected Christ<br />

recognized as a deity<br />

whose hands, feet and side<br />

bear the marks of profound<br />

physical impairment.<br />

matter of survival. To posit a Jesus Christ who needs<br />

care and mutuality as essential to human-divine<br />

survival debunks the myth of individualism and<br />

hierarchical orders in which transcendence<br />

means breaking free of encumbrances and<br />

needing nobody.<br />

The disabled God makes possible a renewal<br />

of hope for people with disabilities and<br />

others who care. This symbol offers us a<br />

liberating realism that accepts our bodily<br />

limitations as part of the truth of being<br />

human. At the same time, this hope pushes us<br />

toward social and interpersonal transformation,<br />

toward a justice of access and mutuality that is free<br />

from<br />

barriers that exclude, constrain and humiliate us. It<br />

situates our hope in the reality of our existence as ones with dignity and integrity. It<br />

affirms that our nonconventional bodies, which oftentimes dissatisfy and fail us, are<br />

worth the living.<br />

32


People with disabilities are part of the sacramental body of Christ in the church.<br />

So it is painful and tragic that the bodily practice of the ritual of Eucharist, as I<br />

described, often serves to stigmatize and exclude those with nonconventional bodies.<br />

The Eucharist is a remembrance of a broken body – and a celebration of the miraculous<br />

liberation that wells up from that broken body.<br />

The church – made up of all of us – is beautiful and broken, impaired but powerful,<br />

complex and gifted. It is this body, the church, which incarnates the disabled God for<br />

our world. It is this body which is called to follow in the liberating ways of Jesus Christ<br />

the disabled God, who embodied a commitment to justice and who challenged all<br />

structures, social codes and rituals of degradation that deny the full personhood of<br />

marginalized people. This liberating mission is only possible when sisters and brothers<br />

with disabilities are integral to the life of the community – when our voices are heard,<br />

our experiences honored and our gifts allowed to flourish.<br />

Used with permission<br />

33


Rewriting the Story<br />

MINUTE FOR MISSION<br />

Recently, people with disabilities and their allies were invited to<br />

share their stories of living with disabilities in the United Church. Some<br />

stories were joyful; many were vulnerable, honest, and painful stories of<br />

exclusion.<br />

Some people reflected on how they could not physically access a<br />

church. Some noted that their disability was the only thing others<br />

noticed or asked them about. Some shared that they could not participate fully in their<br />

community of faith. Some explained how difficult it is to read the Bible passages that<br />

talk about healing from disabilities. Many noted attitudes of exclusion, and that people<br />

with disabilities are not always welcome.<br />

United Church staff and elected members are working to address the hard realities<br />

these stories express by offering new ideas about theologies of disabilities, sharing those<br />

widely in the United Church, and developing educational resources that will be soon be<br />

available to communities of faith. A group of people with disabilities, and their allies, has<br />

been following up on ideas through a United Church consultation on disabilities and<br />

developing new ones for the church. These are positive ways people with disabilities are<br />

changing the church, and they invite the whole church to be part of authoring a new,<br />

positive story.<br />

Our gifts for Mission & Service make it possible to be part of the new accessibility story<br />

that is being written.<br />

Please join me in making Mission & Service giving a regular part of your life of faith.<br />

Top 5 Countries that Visited the <strong>Harcourt</strong> Webpage in January 2016:<br />

Canada, United States, Russia, Ukraine, Germany<br />

Page with the most hits in January – <strong>Harcourt</strong> Sunday Bulletin<br />

Page with the second most hits in January – <strong>Harcourt</strong> Herald<br />

34


<strong>Harcourt</strong> Calendar – February 2016<br />

Updated January 20, 2016–www.harcourtuc.ca for most up-to-date information<br />

Monday February 1<br />

1:30pm Prayer Shawl Group [202]<br />

7:00pm Scouts [G]<br />

Tuesday February 2<br />

11:30am Staff & Admin Meetings<br />

3:30pm Discernment of Spirits [202]<br />

6:45pm Cubs [G]<br />

7:00pm Handbell Choir [M]<br />

Wednesday February 3<br />

9:30am Lightshine Singers [F]<br />

1:30pm Tai Chi [F]<br />

6:30pm Guides [F]<br />

6:45pm Beavers [G]<br />

7:00pm Rainbow Chorus Registration [S]<br />

Thursday February 4<br />

8:45am Mindstretch [C]<br />

9:30am Stroke Recovery Executive [F]<br />

6:30pm Zumba [G]<br />

7:30pm Choir Practice [M]<br />

Friday February 5<br />

7:30pm Flute Choir [M]<br />

Saturday February 6<br />

10:00am Living the Question 2.0 [202]<br />

Sunday February 7<br />

9:00am Worship [C]<br />

10:30am Worship [S]<br />

10:30am “Manna” Service [F]<br />

1:30pm Little Kickers [G]<br />

Monday February 8<br />

11:45am Carolyn <strong>Harcourt</strong> Women’s<br />

Fellowship [F]<br />

1:30pm Prayer Shawl Group [202]<br />

7:00pm Women’s Spirituality [C]<br />

7:00pm Creative Intentions [F]<br />

7:00pm Scouts [G]<br />

Tuesday February 9<br />

10:30am Music and Spirituality<br />

11:30am Staff & Admin Meetings<br />

3:30pm Discernment of Spirits [202]<br />

5:00pm Stroke Recovery Student Orientation and<br />

Training [F]<br />

6:45pm Cubs [G]<br />

7:00pm Cancelled--Worship Committee [C]<br />

7:00pm Handbell Choir [M]<br />

Wednesday February 10<br />

Ash Wednesday<br />

9:30am Lightshine Singers [F]<br />

1:30pm Tai Chi [F]<br />

6:30pm Preschool Toy Wash [K]<br />

6:30pm Guides [F]<br />

6:45am Beavers [G]<br />

7:00pm Ministry & Personnel Committee [L]<br />

7:00pm Worship Service [C]<br />

Thursday February 11<br />

8:45am Mindstretch [C]<br />

6:30pm Zumba [G]<br />

7:30pm Finance Committee [O]<br />

7:30pm Choir Practice [M]<br />

Friday February 12<br />

7:00pm Youth Group<br />

7:30pm Flute Choir [M]<br />

Saturday February 13<br />

10:00am Living the Question 2.0 [202]<br />

10:00am Sacred Circle Dance [G]<br />

Sunday February 14<br />

9:00am Worship [C]<br />

10:30am Worship [S]<br />

10:30am “Manna” Service [G/F]<br />

1:30pm Little Kickers [G]<br />

35


Monday February 15<br />

Family Day<br />

Church/Office Closed<br />

Tuesday February 16<br />

11:30am Staff & Admin Meetings<br />

11:30am Stroke Recovery Lunch [F]<br />

1:30pm Pastoral Care Visitors Support Meeting<br />

[C]<br />

3:30pm Discernment of Spirits [202]<br />

6:30pm Royal City Cooperative Preschool<br />

Registration Night [Lower hall]<br />

6:45pm Cubs [G]<br />

7:00pm Handbell Choir [M]<br />

Wednesday February 17<br />

9:30am Lightshine Singers [F]<br />

1:30pm Tai Chi [F]<br />

5:30pm Pride and Prejudice [202]<br />

6:30pm Guides [F]<br />

6:45pm Beavers [G]<br />

7:00pm Council Meeting [C]<br />

7:30pm Rainbow Chorus Rehearsal [S]<br />

Thursday February 18<br />

8:45am Mindstretch [C]<br />

6:30pm Zumba [G]<br />

7:30pm Choir Practice [M]<br />

Friday February 19<br />

7:30pm Flute Choir [M]<br />

Saturday February 20<br />

10:00am Living the Question 2.0 [202]<br />

5:00pm Potluck and Games Night [F]<br />

Sunday February 21<br />

9:00am Worship [C]<br />

10:30am Worship [S]<br />

10:30am “Manna” Service [F]<br />

11:30am Budget Information Session[C]<br />

1:30pm Little Kickers [G]<br />

Tuesday February 23<br />

10:30am Music and Spirituality<br />

11:30am Staff & Admin Meetings<br />

3:30pm Discernment of Spirits [202]<br />

6:45pm Cubs [G]<br />

7:00pm Handbell Choir [M]<br />

Wednesday February 24<br />

9:30am Lightshine Singers [F]<br />

1:30pm Tai Chi [F]<br />

5:30pm Scout’s Banquet [G]<br />

6:30pm Guides [F]<br />

7:30pm Rainbow Chorus Rehearsal [S]<br />

Thursday February 25<br />

8:45am Mindstretch [C]<br />

6:30pm Zumba [G]<br />

7:30pm Choir Practice [M]<br />

Friday February 26<br />

7:00pm Youth Group<br />

7:30pm Flute Choir [M]<br />

Saturday February 27<br />

9:00am Confirmation Group [C]<br />

7:30pm High School Youth Group [G]<br />

Sunday February 28<br />

9:00am Worship [C]<br />

10:30am Worship [S]<br />

10:30am “Manna” Service [F]<br />

11:30am Congregational Meeting [G]<br />

Monday February 29<br />

1:30pm Prayer Shawl Group [202]<br />

6:00pm ARCH Men’s Group [202]<br />

7:00pm Scouts [G]<br />

Monday February 22<br />

9:30am Quilting Group [F]<br />

1:30pm Prayer Shawl Group [202]<br />

7:00pm Scouts [G]<br />

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