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REGULAR
EVENTS AT EHP:
Tuesdays:
SCRIPTURE 101: 6:30-8pm in the Fellowship Room (Sept-June)
Wednesdays:
LECTIO DIVINA: 12 noon in
the Fellowship Room (soup provided; bring your own sandwich)
Saturdays:
THRIFT STORE: 11am-4pm in
the basement
Sundays:
CHANCEL CHOIR REHEARSAL: 9am
(Sept-June)
MORNING SERVICE: 10:30am
GOSPEL CHOIR: 11:30am (Sept-June) OUTREACH: 2-4:30pm Snack in the basement
EVENING SERVICE: 4:45pm
COMMUNITY DINNER: 5:30pm in
the basement
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The
Dream Weavers Presentation and Invitation on March 29, 2009
Emmanuel Howard Park
United Church
is a spiritual community and a building that was given to us by our
ancestors. Over several generations EHP has grown and thrived, struggled and
survived.
But we are facing critical challenges: we worship in an 80 year old building
that will require major capital expenditures to keep it safe and functioning;
in recent years we have rarely balanced our budget; our tireless volunteers
actually do get tired and sometimes dispirited. The United Church of Canada
itself is only a little older but it is also facing huge challenges that
question its relevance and its future.
In an increasingly fragmented world, do we really matter? Is EHP worth the
effort? What do we stand for? Who are we? Who do we want to be?
EHP’s church council recognized that we didn’t just want to cope
and survive, but to thrive as a community. And to do that, to make all the
effort worthwhile, we need a compelling vision.
The council asked a small group of us to start the ball rolling in order to
come up with a concise vision statement by early this summer. We have already
met several times and are beginning to see our way forward with the help of a
book called "Holy Conversations".
Our role is not to create a vision or impose a vision but, in continuing holy
conversations with this congregation, arrive together at a broader and deeper
sense of our mission in this world.
We are calling ourselves the Dream Weavers because we want to help this
congregation weave a dream from its many threads. We are excited about
that possibility. The Dream Weavers don’t yet know what the dream, the
vision, for this church and this community will be. It will be a product of
the people who come here to worship and to be together. We also hope that the
dream will reflect the larger community who comes to use and be in this place
just occasionally, from time to time.
We can’t and won’t weave this dream alone and present it to you
as a finished product. That’s because it is not the dream of the Dream
Weavers. It is a dream of what EHP is and might be, a dream that needs to be
broad and textured enough to encompass our precious diversity, but which will
also give us a powerful vision of the deeper unity of our community.
You have probably noticed the two huge blue banners hanging outside of the
church “Hear God’s Music in the Voice of a Child” and
“Welcome to this Holy Place :
Love Grace Community”. Imagine if you could replace those with a banner
that captures the essence of what EHP means to you, or what it could mean. It
might be a slogan, a headline, a hymn or line of poetry. It might even be a
drawing. Put aside any apathy, cynicism, fear or isolation that you may feel;
we need to know what sings to you about the spirit of this holy place.
If you know of anyone who is not here today or anyone who has stopped coming
to EHP for whatever reason, please invite them to be part of this
conversation. Give them a strip of this paper and ask them for their best
vision for our church in ten words or less. Bring those strips back to us
because we really want to dream big.
Even if you are here today for the first time we welcome a few words on what
drew you here or what you need to find. If you don’t know why you are
here, a question mark might be a good contribution.
It doesn’t matter your age or what you believe or who you are. We need
everyone’s dreams. The more threads (of varying materials, colours and textures), the greater chance we have of
weaving a dream tapestry that truly reflects the spirit of this community.
We will collect these at the same time as the offering later in the service.
We are going to extend this same invitation at the evening service and over
the next several Sundays, and to the community groups that use our premises.
By the end of April, we are confident that, with a little creative
enthusiasm, we will have a lot of material to work with.
Then it will be time for the Dream Weavers to engage in some arts and crafts.
As a committee we are going to do a lot of cutting and gluing and weaving
with all these strips of paper. The end result will be a tapestry of
everyone’s dream threads which we will put at the front of the church
for everyone to see.
We want to use this tapestry during May to have smaller group discussions
with those of you who want to continue this holy conversation, about what we
have dreamed and hopefully to begin to discern the outlines of a vision for
our future.
We are aiming for June to come back to the congregation as a whole with a
vision statement that is big enough for the very big heart of this community
and strong enough for the profound challenges ahead.
That’s a very tall order. Maybe it’s too much to expect.
But I take great comfort in the name of our church, Emmanuel Howard Park. EHP
is the descendant of several different congregations; that’s the reason
why we have a double-barreled name - Emmanuel Howard Park. It’s a
mouthful and we usually shorten it to EHP. But what about the meaning of the
words embedded in our name?
Emmanuel is a word used in the Bible meaning “God is with us”.
Howard Park is another older name for High Park . It was John Howard who gave the land for the park to
the city back in the 1800’s and it is High Park
that has become the name for this neighborhood. Parkdale would have also
derived its name from the park because of its proximity.
So the Howard Park part of the name represents “here”, our
community, our congregation.
Emmanuel Howard Park means “God is with us . . . here.” What at
first glance may have seemed a clunky, inelegant name,
captures in a powerful way what our spiritual ancestors bequeathed to us.
It’s a precious legacy and one that deserves our very best dreams.
Rob Rose.
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