Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Hello everyone – Happy New Year and thank you for the break I had after Christmas. It was a needed time to rest, clear my mind, breathe deeply, and spend time with family. I am always amazed at the depth of love Barb has for me, the patience she has for me and the kindness she continually shows. Her wisdom and love ground me and I want to begin the New Year by acknowledging all of that. I encourage you as well to give thanks to God for the people in your life whether they be family, friends, neighbors, or strangers who ground you and support you as well. We are social people and we need each other.
I have a story to tell today. I went for a haircut again this past Monday. The person who cuts my hair is a young Arabic man who emigrated to Canada from Syria a few years ago. He is Muslim. His father was a school teacher who taught both English and Arabic. His father died in 2014 from complications from a series of strokes. He talked to me about his dad. He is one of ten children. His dad would say to them, “if someone hits you on the right cheek, offer them your left”. They would say to him – ‘Dad, that makes no sense – if someone hits me I will hit them back. Why are you teaching us this?’ Their dad would respond, ‘please trust me, in the end it is much better’. His dad would also say, ‘if someone gets angry with you and swears at you, offer them forgiveness’. They would say to him – ‘Dad, that makes no sense – if someone gets angry at me and swears at me, I will get angry back and swear back as well. Why are you teaching us this?’. Their dad would respond, ‘Please trust me, it is much better that way’. He then told me that his dad was a very peaceful man.
He continued, ‘Do you know who Ishmael is?” I said yes, he is the son of Abraham. ‘Yes, that’s right, he said. For us, Ishmael is the father of all the Arab nations – the Arab peoples. And Abraham had another son, I can’t remember his name. “It was Isaac”, I said to him. Yes, he said, that’s right. Isaac was the father of the Hebrew people. We are cousins, you know! Yes, I said, we are all cousins.
But now we are at war, and it is so sad, he said.
Sometimes experiences of God come to us in unexpected places. God came to me that day through my barber. And I give thanks to God for him and our encounter together.
My prayer today is that this week, indeed this year you will open yourselves to seeing God in everyday experiences, in everyday conversations. In that way we will be lights to one another as human beings – all related to each other. For it is the season of Epiphany – the season we open ourselves to experiences of God in our lives.
A couple of other notes to bring you up to date in terms of what is happening at St. Andrew’s:
Today a group of 5 of us are traveling to Trinity Presbyterian Church in York Mills to talk to them again about how they positioned themselves to be able to use their church building to support the mission and ministry of the church. You may recall I have mentioned them before. They have a church building that is 26,000 square feet and in 2023 they raised between 250,000 and $300,000 in lease and rental income to community partners and organizations to help meet the financial needs for the congregation. We will be talking to them about how they did that and about how they hired a building manager and an executive assistant to the lead minister in order to make all of that happen.
Both James Sprung and Geordie Given have tendered their resignations as custodians here at St. Andrew’s. Geordie was offered a job at the University of Guelph – he is very excited about this next chapter in his life and we wish him well. James has decided it is time to slow down a little and explore other options that may not require full time work and we wish him well in his future endeavours too. We give thanks to both of them for the work they have done for us – James for about 12 years I believe, Geordie for 2 years. There will be a celebration of thanks for James in the worship service this coming Sunday.
In the meantime as we sort out what direction to follow – again looking at the example of Trinity Presbyterian Church, we have engaged Jeff Lehmann who worked for St. Andrew’s in the custodial department as a young man for almost 20 years. He is on a three month contract with us. Jeff has his own business as a renovation contractor and the winter months are his slower time so this is a win / win situation. As well, we are negotiating a part time, short term contract with someone within the congregation who may be able to work as an executive assistant to the lead minister (myself). This would free me up to do the work I was called to do – create opportunities for partnership and engagement in the community to strengthen our ministry of care, compassion, love and grace into the lives of people in the downtown area.
These two short term positions will give us the time necessary to figure out our next steps. Human Resources, Property and Operational Council have all been working hard on where we might go. Today’s meeting with Trinity will be helpful in preparation for the next session meeting. We ask for your prayers in all of these deliberations.
Take good care and have a wonderful day.
Marty