Originally published as http://notthechurchlady.wordpress.com/2013/08/05/the-impossible-dream-by-not-the-church-lady-aka-kelly-galbraith/

I have a challenge for all who wish to participate.  I would like you to design a worship/church service. You have to start with a clean page – don’t use anything that is comfortable for you now. The idea was sparked by a conversation I had with someone a few hours ago who says they don’t go to church as they don’t fit in, find it boring and don’t understand it.

You pick the theme of the service and build around that.

A minister friend just emailed me this and I thought it was hilarious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D2_c81Nnsc0

The last comment that a priest made as CBC covered the Introduction of the Pope was "This has restored my faith in the institutional church."

What would restore our faith in the institutional United Church. Or do we not have those same worries?

What is expected of someone going to church in terms of donations, volunteering, involvement etc?

Does it matter how often they go?  Does it matter if they become a member?

let's presume that some wars are good, and that going to war in Afghanistan was a Christian thing to do. Okay.

That war was lost years ago, even back in the Bush days. Indeed, it has turned out to be the most expensive military blunder in history. It has long been known that we are leaving AFghanistan, precisely because our leaders know we cannot win. So why is it taking so long to leave? Because our leaders don't want to be blamed for the defeat. And so they can avoid blame,

A century-old United church just down the street from me was demolished this week. The newspaper editorialized that it should have been kept as a heritage site. As usual, the editor showed no undersanding at all of what is going on.

People have tossed around the idea of a wondercafe conference or gathering.

I am posting this thread to allow us to weave in & out of the idea

Some of the things that come to my mind are:

a) what is unique about wondercafe and contributors that would be interesting to others

b) what would the conference look like? would it have lanes similair to the discussion topics

c) what location would make sense 

d) funding  / costs / challenges

[QUOTE]

The United Church of Canada is poised to strike a special task force dedicated to uncovering historic forced adoption practices, just as a national group prepares for an unprecedented conference next week that it hopes will catapult the topic squarely on to the public agenda and pressure the federal government to call an inquiry.

Want to use the new United Church crest? You have to ask permission, even if you are a congregation or ministry of the United Church.

http://www.united-church.ca/history/crest