Neos - Education for Youth Ministry at Five Oaks

03/01/2021

Islington United in Toronto is hiring a faith formation staff. Please find more information at this link:

Download PDF (Job Opportunity – Children and Families Ministry Coordinator)

01/24/2021

Join us for worship tomorrow!

12/22/2020

Still missing.

Minister urges return of sheep to bring joy to people at Christmas.

11/23/2020

And communion with Linda Unrau!!

11/09/2020

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 hold 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.

09/11/2020

This Season of Creation we are sharing the ministry of St Paul’s, Saskatoon. With gratitude, here is today’s reflection.

Do you know when to say, "Enough is enough!"? I do not! If I get on the wrong track with something, I often persist beyond all that is reasonable. Talk about anxiety! Today, I actually managed to let something go! Whew! The relief!

07/01/2020

Canada Day thoughts from the Moderator.

I love you, Canada...

in your multicultural, two-official-language,
multi-party democracy;
in your arms out-reaching, nations united preaching,
freedom of religion teaching,
way-of-being;
in your health care universal, social safety net traversal,
your systems educational,
your work to be relational,
your desire that every person be,
as free, as free can be...

but... that love is idyllic - aspirational -
unless the truth (transformational),
is recognized as well...

that we are broken...

that all the ideals, beautiful as they are,
have been built by colonialism's might,
on the lands of peoples Indigenous,
on treaties' brokenness ubiquitous,
on a willingness to use power of force,
to remove Indigenous sovereignty;
on a history that includes slavery,
anti-Black racism and White Supremacy;
the labour of builders Asian,
with laws to ensure their exclusion,
through much of this country's story.

And now...
when nooses hang in construction sites,
when the "states' rebel flag" flies against the sky,
when children continue to go hungry,
and people live in makeshift tents,
not for recreation, but to survive;
when political power is concentrated
in the hands of the few,
and economic power is concentrated
in the hands of even fewer;
when people are treated as less
because of their s*x, their race, their gender,
their identity, their disability, their age,
their faith, their country-of-origin,
their just-being-who-they-are...

then, O Canada,
my home and native land...

I cannot sing your anthem in celebration,
until that patriot love is for every one of your people,
every one who moves across your terra firm...

that what we stand for,
what we guard,
is more than an ideal,
but is a just and hope-filled freedom,
for every one who lives with this land...

O... Canada.

God?

This land upon which we
live and move and have our being
is glorious and good,
from sea, to sea, to northern sea...
may we who live on it,
be as good, as glorious,
as grace-living as we can be.

Amen.

03/05/2020

Calling all youth leaders! Just in case you hadn't heard, Confirmation weekend is coming up at Five Oaks - April 3-5, 2020. Registration is open. Don't delay.

Confirmation Retreat:

02/24/2019

Neos Youth Ministry Education weekend is here, and working hard on certification in Youth Mental Health First Aid.