Further heart moments from Monday - and on into Tuesday!

Monday evening we were graced with the play that was put together by Iridesce.  It was quite lovely to see the letters & stories that have been shared to the Living Apology project embodied by several actors for this play.  Anne Squires, who was our Moderator in 1988, received a horrifying and shocking letter from a woman who wrote, I hope that you are afflicted with AIDS.  The person who played the role of Anne, was barb janes - incredibly moving to see this:

At the end of the play, the actors all stood together on the stage, holding hands - companions on the journey.  We were then all invited to form small groups to continue to share the stories with each other.  One of the stories I heard this morning was that two of the young people who were watching the play had not yet been born in 1988.  They had no idea of the history of those years in the life of our church.  It re-enforced for me the strength and the necessity of making sure those stories continue to be told to honor those whose lives were so traumatized.  This play was a huge gift to all of us who were there.

This morning part of our worship was the Prayer of Four Directions, led by Elder Bernice Saulteaux:

After which we moved into our decision session for Governance and for Ministry Personnel proposals.  I think we may have gotten through 2 whole proposals!  These are the times when we can debate and discuss at the mikes - a necessary, but rather drawn out process!  And then we get to use our clickers to do the actual voting:

So far, we have only had to choose between 1 & 2 - those are the choices - agree or disagree.  We will be using all the buttons on Thursday when we move to voting on who the next Moderator will be.  I am very curious how that whole process will go!

Today at lunch time we gathered as a diaconal community.  It was a great time to have one on one conversations around the table, but rather impossible to have our usual circle and check-in.  There were 29 of us at the table, but I know that at least 3 others are here who weren't able to join us.  As always, I am so very grateful to be connected to these "DUCC's" - diaconal ministers of the United Church of Canada.  Here are a few random pictures of those who broke bread together at our diaconal table.  This afternoon we are moving into discussion around some proposals related to sacraments - a conversation that is not always easy (to put it mildly) to have - may we be graced with patience, wisdom, and good humor!