Pom oct 2013

Place of Meeting

A fresh start September may not be the start of the year, nor even the start of the liturgical calendar, but it’s always full of renewed energy and a sense of beginnings at TUMC. Fittingly, our annual “Gathering Sunday” this year included the installation of longtime member Michele Rizoli as our newly minted associate pastor. A large group gathered to encircle her in a prayer of blessing. More pictures inside...

Toronto United Mennonite Church October 2013

Place of Meeting

Scene at TUMC

is the meaning of the Huron word “toronton,” from which our city gets its name. Fittingly, it can also mean “plenty” or “abundance.”

Place of Meeting is also the monthly newsletter of Toronto United Mennonite Church. May you find plenty here to enjoy and ponder. Opinions expressed are those of the writers and not necessarily of the congregation as a whole.

Contributions of all kinds are enthusiastically received, through the mail folder in the lobby or at dmartens@pathcom.com Next deadline Nov. 5, 2013 Have you discovered the allcolour online version of Place of Meeting, complete with live weblinks? Check this month’s issue out here: issuu.com/pomeditor/docs/ pom_oct_2013l You can also request an email subscription to the colour version in PDF form or a monthly link to the current online issue. Please send a request to dmartens@pathcom.com Editor: Doreen Martens

Place of Meeting page 2

Anne Konrad Dyck describes the origins of the peace symbol to kids on Sept. 22, while youth offer a demonstration of everyday peacemaking.

Below, Venture Club kids meet to plan upcoming activities.

TUMC small groups An opportunity for all

By Anita Tiessen f you go to the TUMC website and read what it says about small groups, you will read the following: TUMC seeks to be a community of communities by encouraging members and friends to be part of small, intentional groups. Small groups within a congregation foster the growth of a faith community. Matthew 18:20 points out, “Where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, I am there among them.� In an oft fractured and impersonal urban environment, being part of a small group provides a solid connection to others in support of our faith journey.

I

TUMC has a long history of encouraging attendees to participate in small groups.

TUMC attendees who meet for worship and education on Sunday mornings live in every part of the city and GTA. It is often difficult to establish close friendships or deeper community when meeting only once a week. Small groups provide a way to meet with others at a time outside of Sunday morning and in more relaxed, smaller and often unstructured settings.

The role of small groups within any church is important as small groups nourish personal relationships and connectedness, but they also nourish churches. The focus is on building interpersonal relationships. By creating these close bonds between members, the congregation as a whole becomes stronger and better able to carry out the mission God has called it to in the world.

Many of the existing TUMC small groups get together for social interaction which often includes food. Other examples of small groups are: Bible study; book club; environmental concerns; new parents; etc. Sometimes small groups will be gathered for a specific purpose or for a limited time. But it is basically up to the members of each group to determine what they want to do and how long they would like to continue together.

As the TUMC small group coordinator, I would like to invite you to consider becoming a member of a small group. Any new small group created will be a mix of people who are new to TUMC and people who have attended TUMC for longer periods of time. While I may not be able to accommodate every interest that people might have for a small group, I will try to get everyone who is interested connected with others of similar interests. If you are interested in becoming part of a small group, please provide me with the following information via email (abtiessen@gmail.com), in writing into my church mailbox or by phone at 905-949-0741, by the end of October 2013.

NAME(S): _________________________________________________________________ Contact Information (if not listed in the directory): _________________________________ Area of interest: For example, new parents, seniors, Bible study, book club, young adults, dinner and discussion, just social, others in my neighbourhood, etc. Feel free to name your own interest: _______________________________________________________________________________________ Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about small groups at TUMC.

Place of Meeting September 2013 page 3

Space Task Force 3 Update on minor building improvements

S

pace Task Force II listed several smaller items that would make our building an easier and friendlier place to be in. Some of these have been addressed.

• Remote door openers have been installed on the north side door and the basement washrooms.

• We did investigate adding more natural light to the youth room, but the youth indicated that they were in favour of the current state of affairs.

• Another item on the list was improved audio-visual facilities. Improved audio-visual facilities includes several items. The most obvious may be to have an improved facility for projecting images onto the large screen at the front of the sanctuary. While it is possible to use a small table-top projector to do this, the process often breaks down and is cumbersome and often distracting. Another possible improvement would be the ability to video tape our services so that they could be viewed by persons not able to attend Sunday services in our building. Several of our members at SCOC are in this situation. There may be other

items that are worth updating.

The Space Task Force is looking for someone to take on this project. Ryan Janzen has volunteered to work on this but needs someone else to be involved. The TUMC Capital fund has money that could be used for this project. If you are willing to work on putting together a proposal and then implementing it please let me know. Major expenditures would need Church Board approval before proceeding.

–– Bob Tiessen Space Task Force 3 Editor’s note: The next big steps in the Space Task Force’s work will be undertaken after the fall congregational meeting. Don’t miss being there to learn more about the plans and make some important decisions. The meeting is on Saturday, Oct. 19, at 7 p.m.

Come early (at 6 p.m.) and enjoy a “faspa” (light supper) prepared as a fundraiser by the junior high GERMS group.

Damaris and David Schmucker spoke about and showed photographs of their experiences in service with Mennonite Central Committee in the Mennonite colonies in Mexico in the Christian Education hour on Sept.

29.

Place of Meeting page 4

Gathering Sunday and Installation Day

Oh, those silly TUMC puppets. Once again, our blue-haired hero tried to get his mop head around the meaning of “installation� (on his laptop this time). But all was explained before Michele Rizoli was installed as our associate pastor. Duelling cakes celebrated that happy event as well as the start of a new year for Christian Education teachers (shown standing during a litany in the Sept. 8 service) and their students.

Place of Meeting October 2013 page 5

Tuning up for worship and service

Fall means a return to rich music in our worship, with plenty of strumming, drumming and bowing, left.

Place of Meeting page 6

Fall also brings opportunities for service. Top: Alak Heise waits for customers for rosettes at this year’s rainy Mennonite Festival Sale at Black Creek, raising money for Mennnonite Central Committee. Above, TUMC youth urge folks to support them in the bicycle Ride for Refuge, to support homelessness programs including Lazarus Rising.

Reflecting on Fat Calf In July a group of TUMC youth, together with youth leaders Michele Rizoli and Peter Haresnape, travelled to Manitoba to participate in the Canada-wide Mennonite youth assembly, dubbed the Fat Calf Festival.

The incredibly well planned event at Camp Assiniboia offered lots of opportunities for fun and service, a chance to get to know Mennonite kids from across the country, and a challenge to connect on a deep, personal level with the loving Father portrayed in the Prodigal Son parable. The days’ messages followed a movement from Lost to Discontent to Return to Celebration. Here’s a sampling of photos of the event

by Michele and Mennonite Church Canada, and excerpts from the journal the TUMC youth kept.

Texting before Fat Calf – Sarita and Seraphyn "15 days until Winnipeg! i'm so excited i cant even wait :)" " I know!! i cant even wait!" " 7days, i already started packing!" "same, i went shopping with my mom last week to get finger length shorts and other things:P" The count down begins---> 6 more days, 5 more days, 4 more days, 3 more days, 2 more days 1 MORE DAY!! <--- No sleep :s "How much stuff did you bring?"

"I brought so much stuff my suit case isn't going to close :s" "I packed so much too! uh oh! well at least we are leaving tomorrow! " These texts are ones between Seraphynn and Sarita. We were all so excited to be able to be part of the Fat Calf Festival in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Since we heard we were a part of the fat calf festival, we counted down the days because of our excitement. We have been looking forward to seeing some of our old friends but also the opportunity of making new ones and sharing new experiences.

Place of Meeting October 2013 page 7

Reflecting on Fat Calf Monday, July 29, 2013 – Derek Our youth group’s journey began at 7 am.

We all met at the airport and made out way to the plane, the whole way thinking about what was to come – everyone was excited!

After the big plane ride that took us first to Thunder Bay then to Winnipeg, we were taken by shuttle to Camp Assiniboia. Right off the bat we met people from another youth group from Saskatchewan. Other youth groups from around Canada were still arriving, so we had free time for a bit.

After we did some ice breaker games and had supper, we had worship. The theme for the week was announced as the Prodigal Son. We sang many different songs praising Jesus and there was also an African band that played Christian African music. Our favourite was a song called “I can be the background.” It was stuck in many people’s heads for a long while!

After the service they had a huge marketplace, which had many cool things: fair trade crafts for sale, magic shows, cinnamon rolls, hats, clothes, henna tattoos, jewelry, most available with “Fat Calf Bucks.” (Special money for the festival) There were also many games and a fire-juggling show. Then, after a long day we finally got to bed.

Place of Meeting page 8

Reflecting on Fat Calf Tuesday, July 30, 2013 – Isaac Our first morning of the Fat Calf Festival began with a worship session. Our worship was slightly shorter than last night, thankfully. However, it still featured excellent music and a good sermon, this time delivered by Erin Morash a pastor from Manitoba.

Her message was how you must accept what happens as something outside or your control and thus, there is no reason to have any negative emotion over it. The example she used was her dealing with an angry phase in her life by going on a 500 mile pilgrimage where she could control almost no aspects of her life. This built on last night’s theme of discontent, which was chosen since it is the first part of the story of the prodigal son. Following that we had some time to reflect on the theme of discontent with our youth group and sponsors.

The next piece of program (following BBQ lunch) was a seminar on how CPT does its work, led by Peter Haresnape. It used examples from the aboriginal justice team, of which Peter is a member.

Following more camp activities and dinner, we had evening worship. Our speaker was Iona Snair. Once again we thematically continued the story of the prodigal son, with a look at the older brother in the story. Her message was that he was no different from his younger brother in straying form the father, it’s just that he did it more subtly.

He still was just trying to get his “rightful” money from his father, while missing out on the father’s love and values of peace and forgiveness, he was just doing it through status quo farm work rather than running away.

Following that we had a hilarious hypnosis show from Jerry Enns and an all camp game to end the night.

Place of Meeting October 2013 page 9

Reflecting on Fat Calf Wednesday, July 31, 2013 – Jonah At this morning’s worship, after much singing, a different speaker, Alisson Goertzen, spoke about needing to wander both physically and mentally. It was a great sermon to listen to and told us what to do when we feel the need to wander.

After the worship we met for small group.

We talked about what we had liked from the day before.

Activities followed small group and then it was time for lunch. Seminars started after lunch and I attended Amy Toews Sports seminar. We started by playing a quick game of soccer while Amy played a biased ref. After the game, she explained how some things in sports may cause us discontent, but we should keep our heads up and play 100%. The seminar ended with a game of Ultimate Frisbee.

More activities followed the seminar and then everybody packed into buses to go to CMU. At CMU we ate dinner, went on a photo scavenger hunt, listened to music and played Ultimate.

After CMU we drove to Fun Montain Waterslide Park for an evening of fun. Popular slides were the Dragon and Cherry Bomb. At the top of the “mountain” the wind was cold, so the hot tub was always packed.

We dried off and went to the ruins of St. Norbert’s Monastery for worship that evening. There we met with a friend of Kathy G. (Giesbrecht) who was a member of the Catholic Church, in a gesture of unity between our two churches. Iona again gave a sermon, continuing the Prodigal son theme by talking about reconciliation. Her words ended in the quietest silence I have ever heard and we departed back to camp wondering what adventures tomorrow would bring.

Place of Meeting page 10

Reflecting on Fat Calf Thursday, August 1, 2013 – Sylvie Just the highlights: Activity/seminar in morning Service trip: packing 2500 hygiene kits (for Mennonite Central Committee distribution) in about 20 minutes, then using a human sandbagging line to send them all around the tent and into the truck Fat Calf Feast Rodeo/Country fair Worship: 300 singing “I will not be shaken” nearly blew the lodge roof off.  Square dance, which is going on without me as I write this in the peace and quiet of the otherwise uninhabited cabin.

Place of Meeting October 2013 page 11

Reflecting on Fat Calf Friday, August 2, 2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Jacobo As the plane roared higher into the skies, I got a glimpse of Manitobaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s beautiful countryside; the sun soaring over the prairies, a sea of gold. This gave me a happy change to look back at our fun week with the Mennonite youth of Canada and all our spiritual learning we had with them. It made me look at our bright future as Mennonites.

The flight I was on was not a trip home, but a trip taking me to the start of a journey: a journey of helping both friends and enemies alike all around the world. I looked forward to seeing my family and expressing my new-found beliefs and ideas to the world.

On Sept. 7, the youth prepared a dinner and reported on their experiences, teaching us the prayer that began each morning of Fat Calf.

Place of Meeting page 12