St. Paul's United Church Edmonton

04/19/2024

Fair Trade Product Lovers:

I have a new Camino shipment in. All proceeds will go to the Racecourse Community School for orphans and vulnerable children in Zambia. Order pick up is in Blatchford, Edmonton.

Product Summary
Extra Dark 80% Chocolate Bar (100g) - $6
Milk 38% Chocolate Bar (100g) - $6
Mint Chocolate Bar (100g) - $6
Orange Chocolate Bar (100g) - $6
55% Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips (225g) - $8
Milk Hot Chocolate (336g) - $8
Dark Hot Chocolate (336g) - $8
Chili & Spice Hot Chocolate (275g - vegan) - $8
Maple Hot Chocolate (275g - vegan) - $8
Cocoa Powder (224g) - $8
Shredded Coconut, Unsweetened (200g) - $6
Breakfast Blend Coffee, Ground (340g) - $12

Please send me (Heather MacKenzie) a personal message if you would like to place an order.

03/13/2023

Just two days left to bid on home made pies in support of rainbow refugees through this online auction we are running (there are 4 savoury pies available too). You can arrange to pick them up on a day that is convenient for you. Thanks for your support! https://www.32auctions.com/RainbowRefugeePIEs

We also want to give a big shout out to all the amazing bakers: Christina Wallace, Jack Peart, Janet Ellsworth, Gail Mannard-Carr, Catherine MacLean, Teresa Akai, Shirley Perry, Eleanor Wein, Dawn MacDonald, Margaret Russell, Heather Peden, Audrey Groeneveld, Coleen Falk, Chrissie Gardner, Christopher Peet, Jim Stewart and Jim Mullins.

Silent auction 'PIE Auction for Rainbow Refugees (Edmonton Area)' hosted online at 32auctions.

02/08/2023

Eat Pie and Support Rainbow Refugees!

March 14 is Pie Day (third month, 14th day) (3.14) referring to pi π which is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. You who enjoy math and physics use pi π all the time.

March 14 has also been adopted as PIE Day within the United Church of Canada. On this, our National Affirming Day, PIE means we are Public, Intentional and Explicit in our commitment to Two Spirit and LGBTQIA+ people.

In recognition of PIE Day, we have organized an online pie auction. It is LIVE now and will run until March 14th. All of the proceeds will be used for our Rainbow Refugee Ministry. We encourage you to participate in the auction and join us in being Public, Intentional and Explicit in your commitment to Two Spirit and LGBTQIA+ people on March 14th and always! Click here:

Silent auction 'PIE Auction for Rainbow Refugees (Edmonton Area)' hosted online at 32auctions.

02/20/2022

Church in the Woods at Home: Winter- Spring

That period between winter and spring is a space between reality and a wish, where we find hope that winter will end and know that spring is coming.

The Japanese concept of Yūgen describes an awareness of the universe that triggers emotional responses too deep and powerful for words. It’s a profound and mysterious sense of the beauty of the universe, and the sad beauty of human suffering.

Yūgen suggests that which is beyond what can be said, but it is not an allusion to another world. It is about this world, this experience.

“An object so designated (as Yūgen)…is hidden behind the clouds but not entirely out of sight, for we feel its presence, its secret message being transmitted through the darkness however impenetrable to the intellect…we must remember that the … the source of all things is to the human understanding an unknown quantity, but that we can feel it in the most concrete way.” ~ Daisetz T. Suzuki

Where do reality and a wish meet for you? In the melting snow? A sunset on a dreary day? Frost in a window? Where do you find hope?

Dear God, waiting for the spring can be hard. Thank you for the hope that a warm day brings after a long winter. May we carry the promise and beauty of the world with us, even when we long for something more. Amen.

** edited to add that my weather was set for a different location, somehow, with MUCH warmer weather… +2C instead of -16C. Still, spring will come. Then winter again and another false start. Eventually though, it will be spring. And like this in between time of worry amd hope, what carries us through are the sacred moments of profound beauty amidst uncertainty. May God’s love wrap you in love and peace.

01/22/2022

Church in the Woods at Home: Wondering about SNOWFLAKES

The weather this week is great for getting outside and playing in the snow. It might even be the perfect weather for building snow people!

Have you ever wondered what makes snow stick together?

When the temperature is slightly warmer than 0°C, the snowflakes will melt around the edges and stick together to become big, heavy flakes. Snowflakes that fall around -2 °C have the best moisture content and crystalline structure for building a snowman.

It’s at this temperature that we find snowflakes called stellar dendrites. (See the inset photo.) These snowflakes have the right surface size, structure, and moisture to easily bind together.

Psalms were sacred songs, many written in praise and wonder about the world around them. There are no psalms about snow because they were written by people who lived in a desert. I wonder what you would say or sing about snow if you wrote a psalm? What would be your song to give thanks for the wonder of snow? (Did you know you can write your own psalms?) I wonder what this snowman might sing?

12/17/2021

Church in the Woods at Home: Advent Love
Love is a candle on our journey.
Love is the holding and the flight.
All round the aching earth of winter,
This tender flame of Love we’ll light.

For we are a people of a story,
Of stars that sing and love that cries.
And tho’ these nights are getting longer,
The path is lit before our eyes.
~ Linnea Good

It’s cold outside. The nights are almost as long as they will get. If you’d like to venture outside, you might like to walk or drive past the church to see the Nativity set up outside.

Where do you find the candle of Love on your journey? How does Love inspire your living?

12/12/2021

Church in the Woods at Home: Advent 3: Joy
“You will draw water with joy from the springs of salvation.”
Isaiah 12:4

Walk (or if it’s very cold, drive) alongside the river this week. Remember that our drinking water comes from the North Saskatchewan, which comes all the way from the glaciers in the Rocky Mountains. Even when it is frozen and the river has iced over, the water still runs underneath.
Just like our water comes from a source, so do we. As you look at the river, imagine that you’re drawing water from THE SOURCE, not just of this water but the source of all water and the source of all life and the source of all joy.
Bring a hot drink from home, and share this near the river. As you drink, imagine that you are drinking joy from the Source of all. Imagine a deep joy filling you with warmth, just as your drink does, and remember, you carry that with you always.

Where do you find joy? What is life giving? What sustains you? How do you remind yourself of the joy God gives us when it seems there is none?

As you go through advent, carry joy with you. Draw on it, from the Source and let it nourish you and refresh you.

12/05/2021

This week, I found Advent Peace on the rim of the Grand Canyon. As we left, I noticed the poverty of the First People who still live there. I was reminded of the vision of God’s Shalom that Jesus shared with us and of all the healing and justice work that still must be done in the world. Moments of deep peace can remind us that even when it feels there is turmoil and upheaval, God is here, always with us.

Church in the Woods at Home: Advent Peace reminds us that “even (in) times of great upheaval and change, moments of peace exist”. (Shanna Bernier)

Sometimes we find a place where we are surrounded by peace and by inner calm. We are awestruck. We feel the Sacredness of the place. We feel that God comes so close to us and we come so close to God. In these places, turmoil and strife fall away.

I wonder where you have felt peace or awe? I wonder where you have felt close to God? I wonder how we can bring that remembrance of God’s peace into our world so that we can work for peace?

As you go out into your week, sink into the stillness of place and feel awe. Notice where you feel that God is near. It might be in the extraordinary or it might be in the everyday. Wonder and awe are all around us, the Sacred is in the ordinary and God’s peace lives in our heart so that we might carry it with us and work for peace in our world.

If it seems the Grand Canyon is an odd image for Advent, I’d agree. I went on an unexpected trip with my dad this week and we stopped to see the Canyon. Gazing over the depths, I felt a sense of Sacred, and that I was in the presence of God. I felt deep Peace, the kind that I can carry with me. May God’s Peace be with you this week.

The Grand Canyon is the traditional and ancestral home of the Havasupai, the Hualapai, and the place of emergence for the Hopi, the Southern Paiute, the Navajo (Diné), the Zuni, Yavapai-Apache Nation.

You can read more about the ancestral lands and story of the First Peoples here. For them, the Grand Canyon is Sacred ground.

We're Still Here | Grand Canyon Trust
https://www.grandcanyontrust.org/advocatemag/fall-winter-2018/native-voices-grand-canyon

The Voices of Grand Canyon
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/b22a6a09bb2344ff845d9efd3e4152f7

You can read Shanna Bernier’s reflection on peace here:
https://united-church.ca/blogs/round-table/seeking-peace-instead-turmoil

11/19/2021

Church in the Woods at Home: I wonder about snow…,

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.
-Henry David Thoreau

If you can, go outside while it’s snowing. Find a place where you can really see individual snowflakes, or bring a dark scarf or something to collect them with.
What do you notice? What amazes you? I wonder which is your favourite?

Did you know?
Snowflakes always have 6 sides.
Although no one can know for sure, it’s thought that no two snowflakes are alike.
Snowflakes change shape and form depending on the temperature and how much moisture in the cloud.
Each snowflake is made from about 200 ice crystals.
Billions of snowflakes fall in every snowstorm!
The world’s largest ever snowflake found to date was 38 centimeters wide and 20 centimeters thick!

Find more here:
http://howtomakescienceprojectsforkids.com/fun-facts-about-snowflakes/

Like snowflakes, the human pattern is never cast twice. We are uncommonly and marvelously intricate in thought and action…
-Alice Childress

Creating God, thank you for snow. For its beauty, for the water it provides, for the amazing and unique way each snowflake is formed, for how individual snowflakes come together to make something bigger than themselves, for their beauty. Amen.

09/24/2021

Please contact the church office if you’d like to receive our weekly family email.

Church in the Woods At Home:

There is an Iroquois legend about the three sisters who were very different but who relied on each other to grow.

In a three sisters garden, corn, beans and squash are planted together to help each other grow strong.
The first sister — beans — takes nitrogen from the air and uses it to keep the other sisters healthy.
The next sister — corn — grows tall stalks that the beans can climb, holding the plants together.
And the last sister — squash — grows big leaves that cover the ground, keeping weeds from growing and making the ground moist. The spiny squash also keeps away any animals that would eat the sisters.
From
https://www.cbc.ca/kidscbc2/the-feed/three-sisters-soup-and-other-indigenous-food

If you grew a garden this summer or if you can find the three sisters (corn, beans & squash) at a nearby market or store, try making three sisters soup.

Creator, thank you for the gifts in this world you made, and for all of the green and growing things you continue to give us. Amen.

You can find the teachings in the upcoming worship video for St. Paul’s United YEG. (I’ll attach it in the comments when it is posted.)