Wednesday reflections...

One of the pieces I absolutely love about General Council is hearing French much more often than I usually do.  Our musicians here are absolutely wonderful.  Wednesday morning Brianne led us in singing a couple of verses in French for Lord Jesus, of you I will sing as I journey.  This hymn is one that I think of as the L'Arche hymn - my sister volunteered with L'Arche in France 45 years ago, and then returned there as part of her gift to herself just after retirement this summer.  So while we sang it in French on Wednesday, I felt myself lifting a glass to my sister!

I was glad to have those thoughts in my head/heart as we moved to the business portion of our meeting and our colleagues and friends from French Canada spoke to their pain at feeling like the rest of our United Church has forgotten that we are a bilingual church. After much discussion, we did pass a motion that moved us towards being more intentional at making sure that there is a French voice and perspective involved in our decision making council at the national level.


One of the other exciting pieces of business we passed was our motion to formally enter full communion with the church: Disciples of Christ, in the United States and in Canada.  To be in full communion means that we will work even more closely together in the places where we can - primarily in social justice and education, but also in our leadership.  We are also in full communion with the United Church of Christ in the United States.  When the vote was passed there was a huge cheer and many hugs up on the stage!

In our opening worship on Wednesday morning, the theme was that very simple sentence: Love One Another.  Sounds so simple - yet has so, so, many layers to it!  Our preacher (I'm sorry I can't seem to find her name anywhere in my dazed state this morning!) spoke about the long history of accompaniment in the Middle East.  She said that since 2002, there have been about 1200 people from around the world that go every year as part of this program of walking alongside those whose lives are in danger - hopefully helping to bring some safety through solidarity.  She said that what the world needs is not perfectionism, but love - we need to be courageous, not perfect.  It was helpful to hear her perspective as we think about the theme of this General Council: Risking Faith - Daring Hope.

Wednesday afternoon and evening provided a MUCH needed break - business was suspended as we all scattered to give our brains some rest!  I chose to go on an excursion to two wineries in the Prince Edward County.  It was a relaxing day to chat, to sip some excellent wine, and to just let things settle a wee bit.  Here are some of the photos from our afternoon:

Our Bus!

 

 Happy to be on the road!

                                     

At the final winery there was a rather spectacular sculpture garden.  I am quite sure some of these will show up in my power points for worship back in Portage La Prairie.  It was fun just to wander and take some more photos.

 

This is not a sculpture!  It is my friend Tricia - contemplating life:

We finished the evening with a delicious supper at a VERY long table and then a 2 hour bus ride home, where apparently I could be heard snoring!  I was rather exhausted.  But it was a good day and a good break.  Thursday we move into choosing our moderator, and hopefully moving a little more quickly through the many proposals that are still on the table for us to take action on.  Here is how we ended the day on Wednesday: