Mark this special service on your calendars and plan to attend this virtual service which will be available via Zoom. Please click on the button below and be sure to use the link that appears now. There were problems with the previous link and it was replaced.
We will celebrate the ordination of Brenda Senga (Saskatoon) to the office of High Priest/Evangelist and Doug Hayden (Calgary) to the office of High Priest. Both calls were approved at the 2019 Mission Conference in Edmonton. Ordinations had been delayed due to the COVID pandemic. Apostle Art Smith will bring the ordination message and officiate for both ordinations. Mission Centre President Steve Thompson will preside. Several others will participate in this special service to celebrate the call of these two servants to further service in the church. The service will begin at the following time in each time zone:
Black Lives Matter
Indigenous Lives Matter Lives of People of Colour Matter For two Saturdays in January at least twenty-eight congregational leaders from Canada West and Canada East Mission Centres participated in a workshop on the theme: Exploring a Post-Pandemic Church: Discern, Plan and Act in Hope. The workshop was sponsored by Canada West and was facilitated by Joan and Carman Thompson from the Kitchener, Ontario, Community of Christ. For about five hours each day (plus homework assignments in between the days!) we were challenged to consider how the experience of living with COVID might affect our expectations of church after the pandemic. Here is just one sample question from early in the workshop: What might be the difference between gathering together to follow a worship outline, versus gathering together to engage meaningfully in each other’s lives? We discussed societal changes that are affecting the growth and ministry of Christian churches. We discussed models of doing things “To” people (typical of oppression and injustice), “For” people (typical of arrogance and band-aid solutions), and “With” people (typical of transformation, meaningful relationships, and, wait for it… “Mission!”). We talked about various experiences of exercises of discernment in our lives and in our congregations to determine what we felt God was calling us to do. Here are some key phrases and challenges from the workshop that may be useful to you:
Here are a couple of my own questions for you:
As with all good workshops we came away with a few good ideas and lots more challenges. I enthusiastically urge all congregation leaders and members to consider how we might “do church different” after the pandemic. We have had almost a year of doing church differently and I think we are actually surviving better than we thought we might have. What can you and your congregation learn from your experience and the experiences of others as you explore and build your post-pandemic church? This may be our opportunity to build the Community of Christ that we have always thought we could be! As always, I pray for you God’s blessings of joy, hope, love, and peace in these challenging times. Steve Thompson Canada West Mission Centre President [email protected] Black Lives Matter
Indigenous Lives Matter Lives of People of Colour Matter How many stories do you know from the Bible? I know that today many people are not as familiar with Bible stories as they once were. There are many reasons for that – which is not the point of what I want to discuss today. Suffice it to say that some of you reading this will be able to name many Bible stories and others – well, not so much. And that’s okay! I have many Bible stories that I have come to love and to respect over my lifetime. On this past Sunday I had the opportunity to use the Book of Jonah in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) as a primary text for a sermon. If you are not familiar with the whole story of Jonah, I encourage you to look it up and read it. It is short – only 4 chapters and a total of 48 verses. But the writer of Jonah manages to pack a lot of action into those 48 verses! If people know anything about Jonah, they know that he was swallowed by a giant fish (sometimes mis-characterized as a whale) and that he lived in the fish for 3 days and nights before being thrown up by the fish (sorry for the imagery!) on the seashore. From there he finally obeys God’s direction to go to the city of Nineveh. God asked Jonah to invite the people who lived there to repent of their evil ways. (To “repent” means “to feel such sorrow for sin or fault as to be disposed to change one’s life for the better.”[i]) The unstated assumption, at least on Jonah’s part, was that if the people did not repent God would bring destruction on the city. The story tells us that Jonah went to Nineveh, walked about a third of the way across the city, stopped, and preached to the people only five words in Hebrew (8 in English): “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” (Jonah 3:4) From those few words the Ninevites responded! They did NOT throw Jonah out of the city! No – they repented! They, along with their king, committed to change their ways and they all wore “sackcloth and ashes” as a symbol of their humility and repentance. If the story ended there, it would be a happy ending. But it continues with Jonah complaining to God that God did not follow through and destroy the city. Jonah felt that his credentials as a prophet had been undermined. But God responded that he simply could not ignore the well-being of that many people in such a large city after they had responded so positively to Jonah’s (very brief) sermon. The lesson for Jonah and the book’s readers is that “a prophecy of destruction is meant…to educate and bring repentance.” Even for foreign nations (Nineveh was in a foreign nation outside the boundaries of Israel) “the prophecy of doom is a conditional prophecy that will come true only in the absence of repentance.”[ii] Our God is a loving and patient God, always prepared to extend forgiveness when we stray from his expectations of how we should conduct ourselves. As humans we can never truly be “perfect”. In the eyes of God, we are always persons of worth and human beings subject to the unearned gift of forgiveness from God when we stray. May God bless you as you seek to repent of old ways and try to do better in new ways. As always, I pray for you God’s blessings of joy, hope, love, and peace in these challenging times. Steve Thompson Canada West Mission Centre President [email protected] -----------------------------------------------------------------------------[i] Dictionary.com [ii] New Oxford Annotated Bible, NRSV, 4th edition, p. 1302 Information about upcoming Canada West Mission Centre programs for the early part of 2021 has just been released. Click here for details. All of these programs will be offered online. Please consult the details for each program and follow the instructions for registration and fees.
Programming will be announced throughout the year which we hope will meet a variety of interests from general to specific to leadership development. We do not know yet what the new year will hold for us in terms of the opportunity for holding in-person retreats at our campgrounds or congregation buildings. In 2020 we quickly adapted in-person programs to an online format. For 2021 we are using this experience to improve the online program environment and hope you will enjoy the programs to be offered. There is still hope we may be able to offer in-person programs by the summer of 2021 but this is far from certain. Canada West Mission Centre staff will follow the progress on reducing the risks of COVID-19 throughout the mission centre. We will also be following the progress in Washington State and the eventual opening of the Canada/U.S. border in relation to potential events at Samish Campground and Retreat Center. Watch for announcements about summer camps and retreats as we get closer to those months. I encourage you to check out our upcoming programs and to get involved. We all look forward to in-person events again. Until then the online events will give you an opportunity to re-connect with friends and to continue in your faith journey in Community of Christ. Grace and Peace, Steve Thompson Canada West Mission Centre President [email protected] Black Lives Matter
Indigenous Lives Matter Lives of People of Colour Matter New Reading for a New Year Might you be interested in some new books for your reading pleasure in 2021? Let me share some titles that have recently appeared on the Herald House website. Exploring Community of Christ Basic Beliefs: A Commentary is a contemporary successor to two previous editions of Exploring the Faith texts that were published in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The introduction to the book makes it clear that this work has been in the making for many years. The “commentary” is on the statement of Basic Beliefs of the church that was first released in 2009. This is part 1 of a 2-part series. It is currently only available as an e-book for purchase from Amazon.ca here. Of interest to Canada West readers will be that Shannon McAdam (Vancouver) is acknowledged as writing one of the chapters, and Kat Goheen (also from Vancouver) is acknowledged as a co-editor of a previous draft of the chapters. Commentary on the Community of Christ Doctrine and Covenants, Volume 2, by the late former Apostle Dale Luffman, has just been released. This is a “must-have” for preachers, teachers, and students of church history and theology. This volume covers sections of the Doctrine and Covenants from 1860 to the present. Volume 1 covers earlier sections originating with Joseph Smith, Jr. Just a warning: there is a “double-sticker shock” effect on these books. First, they are on the expensive side and the currency exchange rate only makes that worse for Canadian purchasers. Second, the shipping charges from Independence make the total expense nearly double the purchase price (that might be mitigated somewhat if you are ordering both books at the same time). Sadly, until we can travel into the U.S. again, we cannot just ask someone going to headquarters to pick them up for us. Mail-order is the only option. The Non-Violent Life is written by John Dear (not a Community of Christ author). In follow up to the motion on non-violence approved by the 2019 World Conference, this text is an important resource for gaining some perspective on the issues surrounding the idea of non-violence and how individuals can pursue a lifestyle that actively supports non-violence. It is available in e-book and paperback format on Amazon.ca here, which enables avoiding U.S. dollar exchange and those shipping rates! I will also just mention three other slightly older titles in case you missed them somehow. God All Round is a book of personal stories and testimonies from former Apostle Linda Booth. It is also a manual that emphasizes the importance of storytelling in ministry and teaching. It is available as an e-book from Amazon.ca here. A Way of Life: Understanding our Christian Faith, by Anthony Chvala-Smith, is a very readable theological consideration of Community of Christ faith. I am currently using this text as a discussion guide for our “Virtual Visiting Fellowship Meetings” each week (a shameless plug, just in case you are interested). The e-book version is on Amazon.ca here. Choose Generosity: Discovering Whole-Life Stewardship, as you might expect, has been prepared by the Presiding Bishopric to promote a reasonable and faithful stewardship perspective among church members and friends. I could not find this book on Amazon in either Canada or the U.S. I hope there is something here that “tweaks your interest” either for personal reading or perhaps for a study group at some point in the future. As always, I pray for you God’s blessings of joy, hope, love, and peace in these challenging times. Steve Thompson Canada West Mission Centre President [email protected] Black Lives Matter
Indigenous Lives Matter Lives of People of Colour Matter Last week I provided information about programs and activities from Canada West Mission Centre coming up in the next two months. You can review that entry here. It includes summary program information and links to more details about each one. I want to repeat the notice for this program coming up this weekend:
Now on with THIS week’s message: Have you noticed that we are in a new year? The theme scripture for this past Sunday from the church’s worship resources was the first five verses of the Bible: 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. --Genesis 1:1-5, Authorized King James Version What if we were to approach the new year as if it is a new creation? A new beginning? An opportunity to do things differently – and better? This analogy may go sideways sooner than later, but bear with me for just a few more sentences… If we are leaving 2020 behind us and consider it to have been a less-than-ideal year, might we consider 2020 analogous to being “without form, and void” and perhaps even a place of darkness? And can we pray that the Spirit of God might move upon the face of our waters. And, oh, that God might command, “Let there be light!” And that “there (would be) light” to help show us the way through this new year. Surely, we would celebrate that evening and that morning being the divinely promising first day. And surely, we could promise God that we would celebrate that new creation and build the new year so much better than the last as each day succeeded the other. Well – certainly, we can pray. And, most definitely, we can conduct our lives in this new year so as to recognize the points of joy that come our way as we are privileged to enjoy them. And may we give thanks to God for this new beginning and for the blessings that will come from it. You can judge how well that hopeful and well-intentioned analogy worked for you. My intent and my conclusion is that 2021 is now upon us with a “blank slate” ahead for the next twelve months. It is up to us to make it a better year than the last one and, come next December, to be able to look back on it and declare with God that “it was good!” As always, I pray for you God’s blessings of joy, hope, love, and peace in these challenging times. Steve Thompson Canada West Mission Centre President [email protected] Barrie Community of Christ and the Bahá’í Community of Barrie presents:
Each year on the 3rd Sunday in January, religions of the world and the community gather in an observance of unity, celebrating the shared values and principles common among diverse faith traditions. Due to COVID-19, this year’s event takes place by Zoom and Facebook Live this coming Sunday, January 17 at 10 AM PST/ 11 AM MST/ 12 PM CST and 1 PM EST. Never more than this past year has there been a need to help create pathways in the world for peace, and, with your help, this event promises to bring greater awareness to the common goals, principles and values shared across all faith traditions, while fostering closer bonds of unity, cooperation and understanding amongst such diversity. The theme for this year is “I AM” (Interconnected, Aware, Mindful), and will include participation and attendance by many faith traditions from the Barrie area, around Ontario, and potentially across the world, united in compassion and hope. Representatives from each religion will share how their tradition understands and embraces this year’s theme, followed by a sacred reading or prayer. Moments of music videos, interactive chat, on-screen engagement, and a closing Q&A will also be part of the program. President Stephen Veazey will present Community of Christ's Daily Prayer for Peace at 1:00 PM Central Standard Time on New Year's Day.
The video will play on the church's Facebook page. You do not need a Facebook account to watch the video. Black Lives Matter
Indigenous Lives Matter Lives of People of Colour Matter Happy New Year to you! I hope that everyone has had a good experience over the Christmas and New Year’s period. Along with you, I look forward to 2021 with expectations of a better year. For today’s message I will highlight the variety of programs and events that are already on our Canada West Mission Centre calendar for the first couple of months. There are MANY of them. Truly, there is a plethora, some would even say a cornucopia, of choices! Full information about all of these programs appears elsewhere in this week’s Weekly Wire. Here is the summary of what is upcoming – click on the links where you can find more details. First, a cancellation announcement followed by a replacement announcement: The Canada West Mission Centre e-Conference (i.e., online conference) scheduled for Saturday, February 6, has been cancelled because of a lack of enough business to conduct that would justify the meeting. Check with me or with your Pastor for more details. In its place an Online Ordination Service is being planned. It will be on the same date, February 6, and will begin at 10 a.m. Pacific Time/ 11 a.m. Mountain Time/ 12 p.m. Central Time. Two persons will be ordained: Brenda Senga (Saskatoon), to the office of Evangelist; and Doug Hayden (Calgary), to the office of High Priest. Both calls were approved at the 2019 Mission Conference in Edmonton. We will be using the principles and guidelines for offering the sacraments through online means provided by the First Presidency last fall. Watch for more details about this service in the coming weeks. Here are three multi-session events that are highly recommended:
All of the following events also are scheduled in the next few weeks. Without providing any details here, follow the links to these events:
There is obviously LOTS of activities from which to choose. I invite you to register now in the events of interest to you. As always, I pray for you God’s blessings of joy, hope, love, and peace in these challenging times. Steve Thompson Canada West Mission Centre President [email protected] In the December 2020 financial update the Presiding Bishopric shared details about the church’s current economic situation and other information from the December 5 meeting of the World Church Finance Board. The next financial board report will be in June 2021.
Learn more about the church's financial condition.
Total contributions through November 30 equal $9.95 million. That means to meet the $12 million dollar goal for Worldwide Mission Tithes in 2020, December contributions need to total $2.05 million.
You can still help. If you are able, consider an extra contribution to support mission tithes. If you give weekly, give an extra week’s contribution before the end of the year. If you give monthly, consider adding a contribution. Every extra gift makes a difference and provides hope to many at a time when it is needed most. See just a few of the things your mission tithes support in Generosity at a Glance. Each year at Kirtland Temple, the Christmas story is shared through scripture and carols. Although the community cannot gather in-person, the Spirit of the season was expanded and streamed around the world. This was an evening to remember!
If you were unable to connect live to the Advent Worship Service on December 6, it is archived and available for viewing on the Community of Christ YouTube channel.
Watch in English, French, or Spanish. Yes, in case you were wondering, even at Christmas:
Black Lives still Matter Indigenous Lives still Matter Lives of People of Colour still Matter This afternoon, Marian and I served a 4-hour shift at the Edmonton Community of Christ to help distribute food hampers to clients of the Edmonton Food Bank. The church has served as a weekly depot for the Food Bank for many years. It is a good community service for the congregation. Today we received 32 hampers to serve 15 families. A “family” could be a single person receiving one hamper, or a family of 5 or 6 persons receiving up to four hampers. Today, all recipients were receiving with their hampers a frozen turkey or ham for their Christmas dinner. The people receiving hampers are all good people who have found themselves, usually temporarily, in need of the Food Bank services. I had not been in the church building for at least two, maybe three, months. I was struck by how good it was to see and greet the three people we were relieving who had been at the church since mid-morning. Not just greet them, but greet them in person! (Yes, physical distancing happened. No hugs.) There were some nice (artificial) poinsettias which had been placed in the foyer to add some Christmas colour to welcome our food bank guests. There was very pleasant instrumental Christmas music playing on the sound system. Still, it is sad to know that tomorrow evening, Christmas Eve, there will be no service here. No collective sharing of the Christmas story. No energetic community singing of favourite songs. Along with all of you, I miss the people. I miss the sound of visiting. I miss the laughter. I miss the sharing of the week’s stories. I miss the worship. I miss the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our worship services – especially at Christmas. Let me end on a positive note. In our “Virtual Visiting Fellowship Meeting” this week I shared a video clip from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” in which Linus shares with his friends the “true meaning of Christmas” by reciting the story of the appearance of the angels to the shepherds and their message to them. Follow that link to see the clip yourself. (Watch for Linus symbolically dropping his security blanket just as he begins to quote the angels, “Fear not…”) Or, better yet, re-read the Christmas stories yourself: Luke 2:1-20 (the one with the shepherds) and Matthew 1:18 to 2:12 (the one with the wise men). Besides reminding you of the reason we celebrate Christmas, these stories can bring hope and encouragement in a year that has been lacking in positive community emotions. Marian and I felt good about our minor role in helping ensure a few Food Bank clients had a happier Christmas. We look forward to our “virtual” gatherings with family over the next few days. We also look forward to returning to in-person congregational gatherings sometime in the new year. I wish for each of you the best of the Christmas season. May you feel the blessings and promise of the birth of the baby Jesus. May you remember in your celebrations all of the blessings that may be a part of your life. May you also take time to remember those who need an interest in your prayers of support for the challenges they may be facing. And then, may we all look forward to a good and happy new year! As always, I pray for you God’s blessings of joy, hope, love, and peace in these challenging times. Steve Thompson Canada West Mission Centre President [email protected] Apostle Carlos Mejia in Honduras reports that Hurricane Eta damaged the northern part of the country on November 4, followed on November 17 by Hurricane Iota that destroyed many roads and bridges throughout the country. Communication since has been unreliable, Mejia says.
The Presiding Bishopric indicates $40,000 in Community of Christ Oblation Aid has been sent to assist in response to the storm damage. Oblation aid is part of the Worldwide Mission budget. "We had not yet woken up from Hurricane Eta when the other Hurricane Iota arrived. This was an experience never lived for some generations," Mejia said. "Several of our members and many families in general lost everything. Reaching some neighborhood communities is like reaching a war zone, everything is destroyed. At this moment there are many places that the water is still flooding the houses and it is impossible to reach these people with help." "Thank you to the entire church for your support in these difficult times," he concluded in a recent message to International Headquarters. Supporting Worldwide Mission Tithes helps meet needs created by the COVID-19 pandemic, storms, and fires around the world. May we remember and pray for all those affected by these tragedies. Black Lives Matter
Indigenous Lives Matter Lives of People of Colour Matter This coming Sunday (December 20) will be the last of the four Sundays of Advent. Advent is the first season of the liturgical year as supported by the “Revised Common Lectionary.” Some of you may be asking, “Steve – what does that sentence even mean?” Let me deal with those key terms in reverse order and ultimately concentrate on Advent. The Revised Common Lectionary is a three-year cycle of weekly themes and related scriptures that cover the major stories of the Bible. It is around these themes and scriptures that the weekly Worship Resources are based, as published each year by Herald House. The Revised Common Lectionary has a history that I cannot summarize here but that is well documented in the introductory pages of the print version of our Worship Resources each year. The Revised Common Lectionary was adopted by the church in 1995 as a basis for our worship planning. Relevant scriptures from the Doctrine and Covenants and/or the Book of Mormon are added on most Sundays to ensure representation of our “additional witnesses of Jesus Christ” in our worship planning. The “liturgical year” is the calendar of significant events in Christianity around which the Revised Common Lectionary is built. It includes the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost and then “Ordinary Time” for the months between Pentecost and Advent. Other than Christmas and Easter, I associated those terms with other “main-line” Christian denominations – Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran, etc. – from the time I first became aware of them (probably in high school) until well into young-adult-hood (early to mid-1980’s). Then we started to hold “Maundy Thursday” services just before Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Then Advent became part of our worship planning in the early 1990’s or so. And the other seasons became known to us as we became more familiar with the worship planning cycle. “Advent” has two meanings in Christianity. It refers to “a time of preparation and penitence before Jesus’ birth” (Worship Resources). “Advent also refers to the second coming of Christ and the final judgment that accompanies the coming of the kingdom of God.” Also, “historically, Advent is a time of fasting and repentance, yet it has strong overtones of joy as the Christmas season approaches.” (Dictionary of Bible and Religion, Gentz) That “fasting and repentance” part has somehow escaped me for all these years. I generally look to the prevailing themes of hope, joy, peace, and love as precursors to the celebration of the birth of Jesus on Christmas. The “overtones of joy” have definitely taken precedence for me. My hope is that you are enjoying the hope, joy, peace and love aspects of this Advent season. It has not been an easy year for us. Despite the restrictions on household gatherings in most areas, I hope you are being able to plan events that will enable you to be in contact – even if by phone or video conferencing tools – with your loved ones. This will undoubtedly be a Christmas that we will all remember for a long time – but for reasons that none of us anticipated last Christmas. May you truly be able to celebrate this last Sunday of Advent with its emphasis on love. It is important that we remember and celebrate both the human love we have for one another and the divine love that is shared between God and each and every one of us. As always, I pray for you God’s blessings of joy, hope, love, and peace in these challenging times. Steve Thompson Canada West Mission Centre President [email protected] You made our Giving Tuesday campaign a great success!
Thanks to your generosity, our community had one of its most successful Giving Tuesday Campaigns on record! Donors from all over the world responded generously by contributing to Worldwide Mission Tithes in order to support the mission of Community of Christ. Your generous giving coupled with the increased matching donation of $330,000 USD (up from the original $200,000 USD) resulted in a grand total of $773,000 USD! Canada GAVE $45,730 (a record for giving to date for us). These dollars will be used to directly fund the mission of Community of Christ around the world. Donations to Worldwide Mission Tithes help bring hope to people around the world! In 2020, contributions have supported:
With every donation, Facebook share, retweet, and Instagram post, you made our #GivingTuesday campaign a success! Watch the Giving Tuesday Contribution Update on the Community of Christ Facebook page! Black Lives Matter
Indigenous Lives Matter Lives of People of Colour Matter COVID-19 Update Just before getting to our “We Share” topic, there have been some substantial changes in provincial strategies in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of the four provinces in which congregations operate in the Canada West Mission Centre have implemented significantly revised procedures, some of which affect congregational worship and other church gatherings. These changes are very briefly summarized in this Updated Summary of Provincial Requirements. Links to more details on provincial websites are provided. Please at least review the summary for your awareness. We Share…Scripture in Community of Christ This is the 12th and final in a series on the “We Share…” theme. For background, see the first entry in the series here: We Share #1 In the book, Sharing in Community of Christ, upon which this series of columns is based, the section dealing with “Scripture in Community of Christ” can be found on pages 63 to 67. The section consists of a “Preamble” statement followed by nine “Affirmation” paragraphs. Each of the Affirmation paragraphs are very tightly worded and do not lend themselves well to summarization or abbreviation. Rather than trying to do so, I will pick a few key concepts from the Affirmations to share as examples. From Affirmation 1: “We declare that Jesus Christ…is the Living Word of God. It is to Christ that scripture points.” From Affirmation 3: “Scripture is a library of books that speaks in many voices. These books were written in diverse times and places, and reflect the languages, cultures, and conditions under which they were written. God’s revelation through scripture does not come to us apart from the humanity of the writers, but in and through that humanity.” Affirmation 5 (quoted in its entirety): “Scripture is vital and essential to the church, but not because it is inerrant (in the sense that every detail is historically or scientifically correct). Scripture makes no such claim for itself. Rather, generations of Christians have found scripture simply to be trustworthy in keeping them anchored in revelation, in promoting faith in Christ, and in nurturing the life of discipleship. For these purposes, scripture is unfailingly reliable (2 Timothy 3:16-17).” Affirmation 9 (also quoted in its entirety): “With other Christians, we affirm the Bible as the foundational scripture for the church. In addition, Community of Christ uses the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants as scripture. We do not use these sacred writings to replace the witness of the Bible or improve upon it, but because they confirm its message that Jesus Christ is the Living Word of God (Preface of the Book of Mormon; Doctrine and Covenants 76:3g). We have heard Christ speak in all three books of scripture, and bear witness that he is “alive forever and ever” (Revelation 1:18).” Scripture varies in age and nature from the ancient accounts of God’s mighty acts among ancient peoples (Book of Genesis and much of the Hebrew Bible – or Old Testament) to modern prophetic revelation that is current and relevant to the challenges of the world today (the latest sections of the Doctrine and Covenants originating in the last two to sixty years). All of scripture is worthy of our study and efforts at discerning its message for us in our own lives. The revelatory experiences with God, recorded by humans with the best words and language available to them to express the unexpressable, are available to us today to study, to interpret, and from which to learn and gain wisdom. It is a lifelong opportunity and challenge available to anyone. If you have an interest in pursuing questions or further discussion about scripture in the Community of Christ, please contact the writer or a congregation near you. Material for this column is drawn primarily from the book, available online, Sharing in Community of Christ: Exploring Identity, Mission, Message, and Beliefs. This is the last in our “We Share” series. I commend the book referenced above for your reading pleasure and study. It is the best current statement of what defines Community of Christ as a Christian denomination. If you are someone newly interested in Community of Christ, get to know us a bit better through this book. If you are a member of Community of Christ, get to know your church a little better and be more prepared for sharing the church with your friends and associates. I pray for you God’s blessings of joy, hope, love, and peace in these challenging times. Steve Thompson Canada West Mission Centre President [email protected] In his most recent video, President Steve Veazey shares some important updates and words of encouragement with the church. As you prepare to hear his message, consider these additional resources:
President Veazey's video has subtitles in French and Spanish. |
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