Friday Message and what's coming

Friday Message

What's Coming!

November 27, 2020

ADVENT

"Angels, Hope & Joy"

As we are about to slide into December, I know that the familiar Christmas debates are just around the corner. I am sure you know what I mean. Live tree vs artificial. Jellied cranberry sauce vs whole berry. Merry Christmas vs Happy Holidays. And, the old-time favourite, Christmas vs Xmas. Someone is bound to wail, “They’ve taken Christ out of Christmas!”

Christ may have been replaced by commercialism in the celebration of this festival season, but that isn’t where the “X” comes from.

The word “Christ” in Greek, the early language of the New Testament, looks like this: ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ (pronounced “christos”). The first letter is an “X,” but it isn’t an “ex” as in our alphabet, but a “chi” (rhymes with “sky”) in the Greek alphabet. This letter has a “ch” sound – like in the word “Christ”. It was used by early Christians as an abbreviation for Christ.

The second letter may look like a "P" (pee) in our alphabet, but it's a rho in the Greek alphabet and has an "r" sound.

These first two letters, ΧΡ, “chi rho,” became a common Christian symbol. Because of the shape of the letters, the symbol is often mistaken for a “PX”. A chi-rho symbol is one of the oldest Christian symbols.

Spelling the holiday “Xmas” doesn’t necessarily take Christ out of the holiday; and neither does spelling the word “Christmas” put Christ into the holiday.

Blessings, Kathi

Oh, and it is whole berry sauce, of course!

This Week at EMUC

UPDATE on WORSHIP SERVICES

The EMUC Sunday and Wednesday Prayer services will continue online using the Zoom platform until further notice. The possibility of returning to the building for worship will be reassessed each month at the Leadership Circle meeting.

Sunday November 29:

10:00 a.m.: Online Worship led by Rev. Kathi

Advent 1: Angel visits Zechariah and Elizabeth

Blessing the donations to Deacon’s Cupboard

Monday November 30:

7:00 p.m.: Bible Study via Zoom

Wednesday December 2:

6:45 p.m.: Prayer Service via Zoom

NOTE:

The website server environment for Churchweb Canada (our provider) was hit with a coordinated ransomware attack on Monday. Out of an abundance of caution, the entire system was taken down. Work is being now being done to eliminate the threat and restore everything to full capacity. Our email service has been taken offline for the time being to avoid the possibility of infection.

That data is secure, but not available during the attack.

At present we do not have an estimated time of restoration. We apologize for this serious inconvenience.

Details are available here: https://status.churchwebsupport.com/

If you wish to access our temporary webpage please go to :

Churchwebcanada.ca/erin-mills.

Kathi has mentioned that she is ok with her personal email: revkphillips@gmail.com being included in the Friday message, and in the bulletin.

The temporary church email: erinmillsunited@gmail.com

Give me a call if you have any questions. My cell is (905)510-6796; home (905)825-3369.

Tina Driscoll, Office Administrator

What's Coming!

Office Hours:

For the month of November, Tina will be taking vacation days on Mondays. Her office hours will be Tuesday 12:30-4:00pm; Thursday and Friday 9:30am-1:30pm. If you need access to the church outside of these hours, please contact the office for an appointment. Tina continues to divide her time between working from home, and from the church. Please note that in the case of inclement weather, Tina may be working from home to avoid poor driving conditions. Please contact the office before driving in to confirm whether Tina is in the office.

CHRISTMAS TEA 2020 = D-TCBP-U*

In these COVID times, the Membership and Pastoral Care committee, with support from the Worship committee, is offering an alternative to our usual Daytime Christmas Tea. We have organized a *Drive-Thru Cookie Box Pick-Up event to be held on Wednesday, December 9 in the church parking lot from 2 until 3 p.m. If you usually attend the Daytime Christmas Tea, we want to sweeten your holiday season. To ensure our busily baking elves prepare a cookie box for you, please register for your cookie box by phoning or emailing Sandy Hayes by Sunday, November 29.

Home: 905 820 4437 Email: sandyhayes88@gmail.com

Ho - ho – ho!

Affirming Working Group - We Need to Hear from You

Over the last few weeks, an announcement about EMUC becoming an Affirming Ministry within the United Church of Canada has been circulated through the Friday message. We hope you have had a chance to read it. Perhaps you have even visited the Affirm United website and explored the Open Hearts document. As we mentioned, much of this work will require face to face discussions and in person workshops. When we are back together, this work will go ahead.

Thankfully, there are a few things we can invite you to help us with right now. Please consider thinking about and responding to the following questions. Your answers are so important to help our working group move forward in planning the education process around our Affirming mission.

1. Why should EMUC consider becoming an affirming congregation?

2. What are your concerns/questions around becoming an affirming congregation?

3. With consideration of the various learning styles that individuals have, which educational method do you find most beneficial? (i.e. reading material, movies, workshops, guest speakers, etc.)

We invite you to email anyone on our working group with your responses and any other feedback that may be helpful as we move forward in this process.

Thank you in advance for your participation,

Joanne Hines (twokids@rogers.com)

Karen Colwell (karencolwell.home2@.gmail.com)

Sandy Hayes (sandyhayes88@gmail.com)

Rebecca Hines (hines.becca.j@gmail.com)

Deb Sturgeon (sturgs4@rogers.com)

Linda Appleby (lapplebymuskoka@gmail.com)

Amnesty International Write for Rights 2020

Every year, leading up to International Human Rights Day on December 10, Amnesty International organizes Write for Rights Events. They identify people and communities at risk of human rights abuses world-wide and join them in solidarity to seek justice. This year the Interfaith Peace and Justice Committee is asking you to visit the write-a-thon website and participate individually.

Nassima Al-Sada was arrested in Saudi Arabia in July 2018 for campaigning for women to have the right to drive and carry out their daily lives without the permission of a male "guardian”. She is allowed one weekly phone call with her family and no visits, even from her lawyer. Please write to the king of Saudi Arabia urging him to free Nassima and other activists immediately and unconditionally.

To learn more about Nassima and to help her, visit the Write for Rights website: writeathon.ca/resources/#cases.

Thank you for supporting human rights. If you have any questions, please contact Debby Sturgeon (sturgs4@rogers.com )

Advent 2020

“Angels, Hope & Joy”

Sunday Nov. 29 10 a.m. Advent 1: Angel visits Zechariah and Elizabeth

Blessing the donations to Deacon’s Cupboard

Sunday Dec. 6 10 a.m. Advent 2: Angel visits Mary

Communion

Sunday Dec. 13 10 a.m. Advent 3: Angel visits Joseph

Sunday Dec. 20 10 a.m. Advent 4: “O Zoom All Ye Faithful” Pageant

Monday Dec. 21 7 p.m. Longest Night - Hope and Healing Service

Christmas Eve

Thursday Dec. 24 8 p.m. Christmas Eve & Communion Service

Sunday Dec. 27 10 a.m. Christmas Sunday

Sunday Jan. 3 10 a.m. First service of 2021 & Communion

Donations to EMUC

Some of you have asked how you can make donations to operations, mission and service, the benevolent fund, and the Deacon’s Cupboard. You can donate through Canada Helps by going to www.emuc.ca or by mailing a cheque to EMUC at 3010 The Collegeway, Mississauga, ON., L5L 4X9. Please mark the envelope "Attention Envelope Secretary".

Please note that Deacon's Cupboard would prefer to receive financial donations rather than actual food donations because the church remains closed so that managing food is difficult. The Cupboard is giving only vouchers to its guests. They are open only on Wednesdays and not on Monday evenings for the duration of the pandemic.

Thank you to everyone for your ongoing support.

EMUC Finance Committee

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