FREELTON STRABANE UNITED CHURCH
To Live Our Discipleship With Integrity And Grace
Horseshoe Falls Regional Council
Twenty Third Sunday of Pentecost
November 13 2022
Rev. Will Wheeler BA M. Div. E-mail: [email protected]
Organist : Joan Simpson
Announcements
M and P Monday Nov 14 7pm at the Freelton Strabane Church
Tech Tuesday for Seniors Nov. 15 1pm at the Freelton Strabane Church
Finance Committee Nov 15 7pm at the Freelton Strabane Church
Time to lay in those winter supplies with a McGregor meat order. Order forms are available at Church or from the Manse or by Emailing Janice.
The fundraiser will run from now and orders will be due back to me by Sunday November 27th with payment by cheque made payable to "Freelton Strabane United Church" or cash. Orders can also be dropped off at the manse mailbox with payment as well. I can also pick up orders if needed. Product comes frozen and must be picked up on Saturday December 3rd at 10:15am at Freelton Church. Any questions please call Janice McGeachy @ 905-906-7873, or email [email protected].
Thank you for your help with this.
Janice McGeachy
Freelton Strabane United Church
Mark the date and hang out the holly it’s a
Celebration:
Seasonal Lunch Craft and Bake sale
at the new Freelton Strabane United Church event
November 26 8 – 1pm
Once more the Mitten Tree has grown in our sanctuary and we hope that you will help to fills its branches with warm mittens, hats, scarves and socks all of which will go to the Westley Urban Ministries to be a part of their Christmas outreach program. We will be collecting for Sunday Nov 20 27 and Dec 4 We can bring warmth into someone’s life
We are looking to help bring the joy of God coming in Christ at Christmas by partnering once more with the Flambourgh food bank and will be helping to sponsor a Christmas Family. Donations to help support this out reach can be made through the Church.
I personally want to take a moment to thank you all for work and support that you all have shown over the last three weeks as we have truly allowed the winds of God to set our sails as we move into our new Church. Yes it has been an emotional time for us all. But, with out tears at times we cannot know joy. All of you have helped to make the last three weeks a truly special if not historic in the life and work of this community of faith. May God bless us as we move forward. Rev Will
Take note, as we live into the our New Church please take note (and share) That the official name to use when writing cheques to the church is Freelton Strabane United Church. The old church accounts will be closing and we will not be able to accept cheques with the old names on them.
Also as both congregations are now one it does mean that there are over laps of offering envelope numbers. (the number that is associated with your name.) Please note that we will be issuing a new number in the next couple of weeks. Please rest assure that we are keeping track of all of your givings so when tax receipt season comes you will be accredited what you have given. If you have questions please don’t hesitate to contact Rev Will.
Council meeting Monday November 28th 7pm at Church
Rev Will is always Available for calls. If you find you need to talk or need something please don’t hesitate to call the Manse.
Consider PAR as a means to support the Church
Call To Worship
One: The sovereign God of all nations summons us all of us are children of God. .
All: As children of the Eternal one we seek realities that are yet unseen. .
One: God calls us to fresh and abiding hope and imparts to us the good news of salvation
All: God is merciful to all who live in love and seek to do good to all people.
Prayer of Approach.
Lord, help us to know the truth of our finitude. Our projects, our plans, our institutions, our lives do not go on forever. Our lives are limited. We have not, within ourselves, to make our lives count for ever, to establish the value of ourselves by ourselves. Redeem us, good Lord. Save us from the ravages of time. Lift us up and make us count for something. Enable us to put our trust, not in ourselves, our projects, and our plans, but in you and your eternal, creative, life giving love. Amen
REMEBRANCE
One: 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.
All: At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.
The Last Post
Minute of Silence
Piper’s Lament
Reveille
In Flanders Fields Word’s by John McCrea Strabane
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
One Eternal rest grant unto them, O God, and may perpetual light shine down upon them.
All: May their souls through your mercy rest in peace
Poems of reembrace
Aftermath Pte Frank
Aftermath
by Pte. Frank
With Desolation and the Stars
I lonely vigil keep,
Over the garner'd fields of Mars,
Watching the dead men sleep —
Huddled together, so silent there.
With bloodless faces and clotted hair,
Wrapped in their long, long sleep!
By uptorn trees and crater rims
Along the Ridge they lie,
Sprawled in the mud, with out-spread limbs,
Wide staring at the sky.
Why to the sky do they always stare,
Questioning heaven in dumb despair?
Why don't they moan, or sigh?
Why do I rave, ‘neath the callous stars,
At their upturned faces white?
I, surely I, with my crimson scars
Slumber with them this night!
Death, with shadowy finger bare,
Beckons me on to — I know not where;
But, huddled together, and freed from care
We'll watch till the dawn of Light.
From the Somme,
1916
Prayer
God of many names, we pray for peace with ourselves in our relationships, in our communities in our world. May we be empowered to do the work of peace wherever we may find ourselves so that you may work through us. We pray for all those that have served and all those that are serving. We honour the memory of those that so willingly said yes when called by their country and never came home. We honour those that so willing said yes and came home broken souls. Grant us your presence in this time of remembrance, give us courage to seek peace, to speak of justice and willingness to work towards healing a broken world. Through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen
Royal Anthem
National Anthem 524
All: (sung) In God we live and move and have our story.
In love God lives in us and makes us whole
O Jesus may we hear the Word that calls us near;
Your story makes a home within our soul.
Your story makes a home within our soul
One: Our lesson is taken from. 2 Thessalonians 3 :6-13
One: In the word we find the inspiration of the Spirit Here the goodness of the Gospel taken from the Gospel of Luke 21:5-19
One The word of God for the People of God
All Thanks be to God.
I have always been a huge Titanic enthusiast. I have more than 1 book on the Ship. I can say it was an emotional experience to be in Belfast and be where the ship had been designed and built. In the now iconic 1997 James Cameron movie one of the main characters refers to it as “a ship of dreams” in an age of the Edwardian it was a symbol of the height of civilization
She was billed as un sinkable. I remember once someone said that every ship is unsinkable until it sinks. Titanic, was lost on her maidan voyage. Her younger sister Britannic hit a mine during while serving as a hospital ship in 1916 during the first world war. Only the older sister Olympic had a long life. But even that came to an end in 1937 when the ship was broken up. But even know you can buy fittings from the ship. To all things there is an ending
Theologian Karl Barth has written that “Our being in time will one day come to an end when our present will never again be followed by a future
Jesus and the boys are walking into the big city Jerusalem. Some are commenting on how wonderful the temple looks how wonderful it is. Jesus, looks up munching on a rather tasty fig and saying “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down
Jesus was right about the temple look at it today nothing is left
This passage is known as an apocalyptic
It reminds us of the importance of the here and know.
As I mentioned the fall is a very reflective time for me. The last three weeks have been very much so. I think about where I am in my journey and although these past weeks have been emotionally hard for me I still sit back looking out the window and think. Life is Good.
It’s like the scene from Titanic. Jack one of main Character a happy live from hand to mouth artist who finds himself up from third class in the first class dinning room (remember the classes should not mix in 1912) says I got air in my lungs, some paper sitting around a table with fine people and a good meal. Life is good.
The night before he met his tragic death Martin Luther King Jr. spoke in an apocalyptic mood. He looked ahead beyond the moment, beyond the Civil Rights Movement, beyond his own life, and spoke of seeing the promised land. This is the vision at the end, that gives one a hope that endures beyond our end.
I look at all that has to happen yet with all that goes into living into the Amalgamation and I feel just a wee overwhelmed. As Rev Jane said, how do we sing in a foreign land. What is the new song we shall sing. I think I will just hide in the basement and work on my Titanic Model. Then I think of King’s words I’ve been to the mountain top and I don’t mind I just want to do God’s will and he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain and I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. And I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mime eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. I don’t know what will happen in the next week, next month or when I am celebrating my 125 Birthday. What I do know is I have been to the traditional spot where Moses stood and looked from the mountain top and seen the other side the promised land. I know that it will be good.
We are where we need to be at this moment in our lives.
I sat at my desk pondering all this and looking at the rock collection. Picking out samples I collected this in Bancroft. It leaves me always a little awed that that whole area at one time were massive mountains. And now all that is left are the very roots of the mountains. The Grenville Orogeny is a range that takes in the Appalachian the Adirondack the blue ridge mountains up through Eastern Ontario (we call it the Haliburton highlands) All once a part of huge change of mountains running from south central US all the way up and including Newfoundland. They rival the Rockies mountains. Time changes all things.
But look up. Your redemption is drawing near. There is our hope
The good news and challenge of this scripture is this. This is a good time for us to bear testimony to the presence of God, the promise of life in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us to sing a new song.
I read a statement that a women made to her minister. She said.
I have been forced to go on a journey I did not want to take. This the worst of my times, has also been the best of times, I am closer to God than I have ever been Because so many of the things I leaned on have been taken away from me, I have been forced to lean on Jesus. And I have found him trustworthy and true. It is well with my soul
We in our journey can hold to this that we can lean on the everlasting arms of Jesus. A rock which cannot move. Grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love.
Yes For therein is our hope. That God will be with us, that Christ has given us life and inspiration and that the Holy Spirit, will challenge us and show us the directions we will go in this ever changing fluid world that we find ourselves. That we will live in this moment. We will see that life is good. Trusting God with tomorrow and knowing that we are not alone.
Prayers of the people
Hear our prayer we humbly offer
Grant to us your peace O God
Hear our prayer we humbly offer
Grant to us your peace O God.
Prayer, Blessed God in you we find our hope. We know that in time all things will pass away. That mountains shall be come plains, that Rivers will become canyon and that we will in our time be one with the saints of heaven. Give us such strength that we do not dwell on what will come but to live in the moment to experience the wonder of your world. Be with us in this moment so that we maybe for others in their moment. We pray for all of those who are trying to rebuild lives. Lives broken by war and food insecurity. Lives broken by illness, and natural disasters. Lives lost in the overwhelmingness of the world. Be with those that we never shall know and be with those who walk and journey with us. We hold up the names of those in our hearts. God of the now, in this moment in this place fill us once more with your grace and hear our own personal prayers of thanks giving for we know that in your way and time our prayers are answered. We come with one voice and say the prayer that unites us as one saying Our Father.
Offering
We give thee but thy own. The work of the Church continues and there are three ways you can continue to support that work. Consider using PAR, use the donate button on our Web Site or drop your gift at the Manse. Let us make our offering and give thanks.
One: Praise God who from all Blessing flow
Prayer God, we bring our offerings with open hearts knowing that you have always blessed us even when we have strayed. With these offering we will minister to your people and help those that are week and needy that are your children.
Sending Forth and Blessing.
One: Go out to live and work and witness do not weary in well doing.
All: We reach out to others with help not judgment remembering how God has met our needs
One: Receive the gifts God offers you dwell in the wisdom God imparts.
Blessings
One: May God the one who brings us comfort surround you, May Christ our Joy walk with you. May the Continued presence of The Holy Spirit illuminate our path and keep us safe until we can gather again in community. Amen
Our Mission
Mission Statement:
“Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness.” (2 Corinthians 3:12)
Freelton Strabane United Church together honours over 170 years of Christian leadership and discipleship in the communities of Freelton and Strabane. Together we take pride in our commitment to worship in which our faith story is told in word and song. In living out our Faith we own that...
It is our mission to take forward the vision of a vibrant faith Church Community from the past into the future,
It is our mission to provide a safe place of worship for all who call this their spiritual home.
It is our mission to greet people where they are in their spiritual journey and promote spiritual growth.
It is our hope to be a place where people will find support and recharge their faith.
It is our hope to extend hospitality and a sincere welcome to all into our Faith Family
To be a venue where local groups can meet in community;
We are Called by God, as disciples of Jesus, to reach beyond our own faith community to seek right relations and be supportive to the wider community and world
In all of this We go forward in faith knowing that we are not alone but one with Christ.
Yesterdaywe honour our heritage.
Todaywe know that we are not alone,that we live in God's world.
Tomorrowwith God,we will discoverthe undiscovered country.
Upcoming Events
