Keswick United Church
177 Church Street L4P 1J4 Keswick, ON, Canada

I don't know if every country in the world has a place that the rest of the country dumps on, but we do here in Canada. It doesn't matter if one lives in a muni...cipality just outside of it or on the other side of the province, or even somewhere else in the country, unless one lives in the Greater Toronto Area, it's the place that is often the butt of jokes and the head of derision. Sometimes it's done for a laugh, sometimes it's out of a deep sense of frustration. Today, if you're like me and don't live in the GTA, I'm going to ask you to set all that aside, because the latest wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is straining the health care and support systems there to the breaking point. If you are in the GTA... well, you probably already know. As reported by CP24 two days ago, "The Ontario government is turning to other provinces and territories for nurses and health-care professionals to help 'increasingly strained' hospitals that are grappling with a surge in COVID-19 patients." Ontario's Deputy Health Minister Helen Angus, "said the assistance is mostly needed in southern Ontario, particularly in COVID-19 hot spots in the Greater Toronto Area." We need to remember that this strain doesn't only affect those with COVID-19, but every other emergency health need, too. There isn't much that we, as a church, can do to answer the call for health-care workers. That's up to the secular decision makers. But what we can do is be aware, be supportive - and, as we pray for all who are dealing with COVID-19 around the world, pray in particular for the people of the GTA. These are difficult times, friends. So, will you pray with me? God of all people, all places, all things, my attention is on one place this morning; a place of over six million people, with all of the hustle and bustle, all the ongoing 24/365 life that a metropolis has; and a place where the COVID-19 pandemic has hit levels that endanger everyone there - not just because of what the virus itself can do, but because of the weight of having to focus so many health care resources on the damage it does, means that those resources are there for other emergencies, other needs just as important - today I am praying for the people of the Greater Toronto Area. For the doctors, the nurses, the paramedics, the technicians, the support staff, all those who make the hospital's places of healing - that they would have all they need to do what they do so well, I pray. For the decision makers, the politicians, the civil servants, the advisors, the power-brokers - that they would set aside partisanship, listening to the science, to take into account the lives for all in their care, I pray. For the neighbours who are seeing what is happening, and are doing all they can to physically distance themselves, to wear their masks properly when they can't, who are getting vaccinated, who are doing everything they can to protect those around them, and themselves - I give thanks and I pray. For the people who, for whatever reason, choose not to mask, not to get vaccinated, who gather together thinking "oh, it's just this once," or, "it's not all that bad," - may that which clouds their ability to understand disappear, that they would change what they are doing, for their well-being, and their neighbours, I pray. For those who are most vulnerable - the people who can't "shelter in place", the folks who need to work, away from their homes, and those in the factories and warehouses and transportation and stores that have been deemed essential; for the people whose housing situation is not safe; for the people whose health conditions make this time of danger even more precarious... I pray. God of healing, God of wholeness, help us to help one another; Help us to be generous in heart and thought and action; Help us to live your love each moment, every day - in the GTA, and around your world. In Christ's name, by the infinite love of the Holy Spirit, and in the Creator's strong embrace, I pray. May it be so.

When the ground shakes, and the heat of the earth comes to the surface, life is in danger.... Sometimes it bubbles, other times it explodes in a shower of scalding water and ash, with clouds that choke, even as they coat the earth. And there is nothing we human beings can do, except watch, and wait, and get out of the way. Tonight I pray for the people of St. Vincent Island, as they evacuate by the tens of thousands, seeking safety from the shadow of the volcano, La Soufriere. I pray that they would find safe haven, and that the earth would be calm, that damage would be minimal, and that life would not be lost. May hands from around the world reach out in prayer and support, as the earth finds its equilibrium, and the people build their lives again. In Christ's name, I pray. Amen. (Image: National News)

April 4, 2021 Keswick Ravenshoe Worship Service on Youtube. https://youtu.be/ycUrcBkYSt8

Good Friday-Keswick/Ravenshoe Worship Service, April 2, 2021 on You tube. https://youtu.be/kdZaH2NRQlY

"The universal quest for gifts is nothing other than a seeking after God, by whatever name we may call him. For only the One who has made all things and who own...s all things can give them without asking anything in return except our gratitude. "Thus, there comes a day when a man understands that all is of grace, that the whole world is a gift of God, a completely generous gift since no one forced him to it. We see each flower, each drop of water, each minute of our life as a gift of God. He gives them to all, both to those who know him and to those who [do not] "God is far from disinterested in those who are the recipients of his gifts; he loves us, each one of us in particular, personally. He gives with joy and he rejoices in our occasions of joy." ~ Paul Tournier, The Meaning of Gifts

Let's light a candle and share a prayer on December 20, Advent "Love" Sunday. Let your Christ-light shine! Please make a gift through Mission & Service this Chr...istmas: http://ow.ly/7f6F50CIeyw Draw me to the warmth of your light, O God. Warm my spirit by your soft but mighty glow. Illumine my life's Mission & Service. Bless all who receive my gift of love. Bless all whose love I receive. Fill me with gratitude for every sign of hope, movement toward peace, expression of joy, and impulse to love. Amen [Photo: Rev. Michael Perreault, Rothwell United Church] #UCCan #Advent2020 #MissionandService #LoveSundayCandle

It’s my birthday ~ ~ here is a memory from my birthday 34 years ago. Jim wrote this song for our friends who participated in the Great Peace March of 1986.... We went to Washington, D.C. to participate in the end of the march ~ and spent my birthday walking, in total silence, down 16th Ave. to the Lincoln Memorial. If you need a justice song for Advent ~ here you go ~ FYI ~ we now have 95+ songs available for you at https://strathdeemusic.com/SingalongVideos.html See more

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 #UCCan [Photo by Deb Dowd on Unsplash]

"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God." - Psalm 90:2 #UCCan [Photo by Antonio Grosz on Unsplash]

November 15, 2020 Keswick Ravenshoe Worship Service on Youtube https://youtu.be/nc-wCXMoq4U

December 13, 2020, Keswick/Ravenshoe Worship Service on Youtube https://youtu.be/3qsGgOEizhY

Wishing a Happy Hanukkah to everyone celebrating.

In wartime, in peacetime, in our own borders, around the world, those who are serving, those who have served,... those who come home, those who do and did not... we remember them. And we will work to support them, them and their comrades, and we will work for peace. Peace in our time, peace in the world. We remember them.

When I was growing up, one of the phrases that I remember connected to Remembrance Day was "Never again." Armed conflict comes all too often, and yet I still h...old hope that we can work for a world where governments only reason to deploy our Armed Forces is to help one another, rather than fight one another. Perhaps that is naive, but it is what Remembrance Day challenges in me, each time I stand at a cenotaph and hear spoken the words, "They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them." --- God of all times, God of all places, God of the war-torn, God of the great peace... on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, time stops, for a minute, or even two, with the weight of Remembrance. That minute, or even two, when we stop, when the silence that fills my ears (and my heart) is the quiet of the grave. The silence of lives lost, and the lives changed - in service, in wartime and peace time, by the people of the Canadian Armed Forces, and others, the world around - shouts loudly in those minutes... and I remember place names, like Ypres and Dieppe, and Kapyong, and Kandahar... and I remember people's names like Choi and Casey, Miron-Morin, and Smith and Templeton, and on and on... fallen in service, remembered and loved. I remember. In the weight of this silence, I remember, too, the innocents - the civilians caught in the lands of death - that war claims as its own. And, as I remember, I reach out my hands to grab the torch tossed from the fields of Flanders - and commit myself, again, to be someone who do all that I am able (and more) to work for a world of justice and hope, a world where war is not, where everyone can sit 'neath their vine and fig tree, at peace, and unafraid. In that two minutes, (and in the days that follow,) I remember - and remembering, I grieve their deaths, I give thanks for their lives, and I commit myself, anew. God of all times, God of all places, God of the war-torn, God of the great peace, hold me to my commitment, and hear my prayer. Amen.

The world needs community like never before. In that spirit, we offer this series of prayers. 10 December 2020 God in the return ... to a simplified Christmas; God in the advent of extravagant joy: may we, who are so accustomed to connecting happiness with an accumulation of things, receive the gift of valuing the connections we already have. May a stripped down celebration and a slower pace to the season reveal the treasure that was ours all along. And may we find in the strangeness of this year’s Christmas the wonder that was present in its first incarnation. Amen. www.corrymeela.org See more

November 8, 2020 Keswick/Ravenshoe Worship Service on Youtube https://youtu.be/3sB5_JSl89E