The Friday Update
for
St. Mark's, Lynden
& Rock Chapel
United Churches

Hi all

Alison is away on study leave this week… she is reading books and chatting with three other brilliant theologians in Berkley California, one of whom you know; Miriam Spies from St Paul’s in Dundas. Oh, to be a fly on the wall of their conversations! Apparently, during one break they went picking lemons. Seems they only picked two but enough for a lovely glass of lemonade I’m sure! So the Friday update is coming from me this week. 


This Sunday is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and the churches in the Dundas Association of Churches is entertaining angels. Each congregation will welcome a visitor from another congregation and invite them to participate in the leading of worship by leading prayer and reading scripture.  There may be others so I thought I’d encourage an added dose of hospitality, but I think Rock Chapel and Lynden folks can attest to how welcoming St Mark’s is on any given Sunday! What’s that expression ...takes one to know one!


The second week of our film series will focus on the film Snowden. (synopsis below)The story told in real time is captured in a documentary entitled Citizen 4 which you can find on Netflix or borrow from me sometime. It is fascinating!  If you don’t know so far, I am a film buff and regularly share a small series from time to time on film of all sorts with my congregations!

We thought you’d like to know that Ron Arner will be receiving the Sovereign’s medal for volunteering! We can all be inspired by his generosity to the community. He will receive his medal from the Mayor of Hamilton (on behalf of the Governor General) this coming Wednesday Jan 25th at 4:30 at the Hamilton City Hall.


And on a more personal note, I will be joining the millions of women around the world in 143 countries who will be participating in the Women’s March. It boggles my mind that we still have to march for women’s rights but we do. It is happening on the day after the inauguration of a world leader whose record for respectful interaction with women is bleak. As our moderator said in her latest missive, there is no point in hating those with whom we disagree; we can only stand up for what we believe to be right. There is a march starting  at Hamilton city hall at noon and after some speakers, the march will go until 2pm. Please consider attending; allies are welcome. Nicolette and I will be marching in Toronto with her godmother!

                                                 Christina



Visioning Team

Just to keep the lines of communication open, the following are the email addresses of the members of the Visioning Team. You are welcome to write to them with any thoughts, ideas or questions you might have. This Visioning Team functions at a round table so it doesn’t matter with whom you communicate. ( I am going to learn how to make these addresses a direct link to make this even easier next week)

Lynden
Annette Rhodes annette@execulink.com
Nancy Berta: bertanancy@ hotmail.com
Jack Brooks: brooksx2@bell.net
St Mark's
Dorothy Bartalos: bartal@sympatico.ca
Barb Williams: barbara.williams@bell.net
Rock Chapel
Bill Park: japark14@cogeco.ca
Lorne McArthur: lorne.mcarthur@hamilton.ca

NEXT TEAM MEETING:Thur Feb 16th @ 7pm at Rock Chapel. 
Film Series
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This Sunday's film is SNOWDEN which stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and is written and directed by Oliver Stone. The script is based on the books The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man by Luke Harding and Time of the Octopus by Anatoly Kucherena. Disillusioned with the intelligence community, top contractor Edward Snowden leaves his job at the National Security Agency. He now knows that a virtual mountain of data is being assembled to track all forms of digital communication -- not just from foreign governments and terrorist groups, but from ordinary Americans. When Snowden decides to leak this classified information, he becomes a traitor to some, a hero to others and a fugitive from the law. The final scene of the film includes the real Edward Snowden saying that he has given up a lot of things since he became a whistleblower, but he has no regrets because he knows in his heart that he was doing the right thing.


January 29th Hidden Figures- Field Trip! (rated PG)
Feb 5th Zootopia Netflix or at Lynden Lions (rated G)
Feb 12th Grace and Frankie Netflix or Lynden Lions (rated R...very very R but very funny!)


Text Link
Sunday School

Sunday School this week is all about popping!

The lesson plan includes popcorn and balloons so you probably can guess we are talking about prayer! Hannah will help them remember all that we learnt last week towards our big project with the help from the balloons. And Erin will pop the popcorn and lead in popcorn prayer.

If you hear some popping sounds of corn or balloons up into the sanctuary, you’ll know why!