Welcome

Welcome!

Please join us for the live-stream at on our Morningside-High Park YouTube channel at 10:30am each Sunday.

 

 

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Who is Welcome? | Workshop – Led by Sue Senior (Elder, Knox Waterloo) – Co-convenor Rainbow Communion, Special Committee of the General Assembly 2017-21

This interactive workshop utilizing various methods of engagement, will focus on the work of the General Assembly’s Special Committee – Rainbow Communion – as well as provide opportunities for questions and discussion. The hope is to encourage participants to formulate
a meaningful response to The PCC’s Confession to God and LGBTQI People (adopted by the General Assembly in 2022) regarding the harm caused by homophobia, transphobia, heterosexism and hypocrisy.

At the direction of the 2017 General Assembly, the Moderator (the Rev. Peter Bush) issued a Letter of Repentance (2018) to LGBTQI people and all who have been harmed by homophobia and hypocrisy within and by the church. Throughout the letter, the harms done to LGBTQI
individuals were named and followed by, “we are sorry, and we repent”.

Congregations have been encouraged to begin living out this repentance and confession to be a welcoming community of faith. However, many have found themselves ill-equipped to have these kinds of conversations around addressing the harm done – and ensuring that harm does not continue – for those who identify as LGBTQI and/or their families, friends, and allies. This work informs and intersects with how we as a faith community can be inclusive of all marginalized and minoritized people. Our time together will explore ways in which communities of faith can be more welcoming to all.

MHP Monthly – March 2024

Jesus said, “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” – Matthew 6:1

I share this snippet from the Christian writer, Diana Butler-Bass…“Jesus states this negatively, “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them…” To restate this positively, “Practice your faith by attending to your inner life.”

That’s what Jesus is pointing to — he isn’t saying that faith is private, that it isn’t to be locked up in a closet or squirreled away in a box in the attic. No, faith is a profoundly, annoyingly courageous, really hard, and very public thing — about living the Kingdom of God, about love and sacrifice and embracing and enacting an alternative way of life over and against the powers of this world.

But, in order to enact it in public, we have to practice first. Giving, praying, fasting— these three things are practices. We do them in order to get better at them; we don’t do them because we are naturally good at them. We are changed by practice. Jesus had some hard words for people who don’t practice what they preach. He called them hypocrites. The bridge between a hypocrite and a faithful follower is practice.”

I am away for the next few Sundays, on vacation in Thailand. If you need pastoral care, please call the office 416-766-4765 and our amazing Office Admin Laurel will connect you with the right person.

While I’m away, I’ll say what I always said to my kids, “take care of each other, eat all your vegetables and no wild parties”

Pastor Cherie

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Other matters

  • There are so many organizations helping out with the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. Pick one of the many emails you have gotten about it, and actually make a donation. If you don’t know where to give, go to Canada Helps – Donate To Ukraine and there is a long list.
  • Want to get involved in Worship?  You can play a prelude, sing with the pick-up choir, or suggest a song! Please click this link for more: https://Sites.Google.com/MorningsideHighPark.com/Worship
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