We have been a quiet over the last while, partly because we are all busy outside of the Wondercafe2 project and partly because we have had a lot to prepare as we move forward with creating this new community. What follows is an update on what is happening and an outline of where we are going and what we will be bringing forward to the community over the next 4-6 weeks.

This was posted on a UU Facebook page I follow (I Am UU) and I thought that while the piece and the subsequent discussion are UU, the issue of how to be a missional church in a theological diverse environment is one that the UCCan may increasingly confront. Not expecting much discussion on this, but thought it might be enlightening to some of you.

http://peterboullata.com/2011/12/29/the-liberal-church-finding-its-missi...

Mendalla

I attended an information meeting this evening about the Baba Yaga senior women's cohousing project in Toronto. I was really interesting. 

During the course of the session, it was mentioned that the UCC had approval to set aside a block of apartments for senior cohousing near Bloor Street United.

I could find nothing about it with a Google search.

Is anyone aware of this project, or better yet, involved with it? Thoughts?

Here's a link to a podcast about the Baba Yaga senior women's cohousing apartment buliding in Paris. 

I confess that I have, over the years, contributed to the decline of Canada Post.

I haven’t sent Christmas cards in years.

I rarely send letters, except for business reasons, or to the Canada Revenue Agency.

I have, by and large, turned to e-mail and especially text messaging for much of my communication.

But I still enjoy receiving a letter.

I like reading magazines which come through the mail.

               There is a novel written by American author Thomas Wolfe titled “You Can’t Go Home Again.”  I confess I’ve never read it, but the phrase of the title has entered our language. It means that once you have left a small town and moved to the big city, your mind set changes to the point that you can never recover the way of life you had and any attempt to revisit old memories of those times will fail.

One of the first books I read in University was John Porter’s "The Vertical Mosaic". I might even have the book somewhere in my library. Porter’s work, if you ever read it, was one of the first studies of the elites in Canada and the effect of immigration on our society and who has power.

Porter concluded that there are elites in Canada who hold power, who continue to hold power and who generally don’t give up power. And those elites don’t change, no matter what, even today.

We can imagine being on a small fragile boat, in stormy waters,- no match for the elements..

Just so, we can imagine ourselves feeling very small  and  fragile when the storms of life threaten to overwhelm us.

The ship, or boat, has always been a common image for the church.

That’s where we get the word “nave” for the area you sit in- it’s from the Latin for ship.

There are cruise ships and ocean liners- and some churches are like that., or used to be.

Very few people know what a donnybrook is...  Its a brawl. But in one small town in eastern Ontario its an auction sale.

The Warkworth Donnybrook is a huge auction sale that's held for the benefit of the entire community.

The Sacrament of Holy Communion  is a meal with the community and God.

If you were making a toast at this meal, what would you say?