office@ralphconnor.ca by Thursday at 11:00 AM

The service link will be posted on Sunday morning, at https://www.facebook.com/affirmingconnections - for more info see https://affirmingconnections.com/what-were-up-to.

All you have to do is visit Savon or Safeway to see how Canmore’s face covering by-law is playing out. When I asked the managers about all the people wandering around the stores with no masks, both told me that they can’t enforce it. It’s a directive, law or “commandment”, which is mandatory but not enforceable. The powers-that-be assume citizens will take personal responsibility to do the decent thing…..yeah, right, like obeying stop signs, slowing in school zones, keeping dogs on-leash and following Jesus’ take on the original commandments…how do we inspire people to go beyond merely hearing communal instructions and mouthing an obligatory response to actively participating in the protection of our fellow citizens and well-being of our communities?

G-d lit a fire under Jonah by putting him in a whale. As Rev Anna Greenwood-Lee says: It’s time to call for real change. No more excuses. Learn about~.

Does our reliance on social media keep us from doing the right thing? “Jesus didn’t reserve his best blessings, healings, prayers, and teachings for the temple. He met people where they were and ended up unleashing a global movement after only three years of public ministry. This is why I believe if Jesus were on social media today I believe he would be calling the Church to move beyond simply sharing content to making disciples.”— Nona Jones, Head of Faith-based Partnerships at Facebook, from her book: "From Social Media to Social Ministry". To hear Nona present her main thesis, click here~.

We have to understand our differences before we can act together. The free Cultural Competency Virtual Fair during September 2020 is an interactive fair which will help Canadians of all ages gain insight into, appreciate and interact with different cultures and belief systems they might not normally have a chance to connect with. The whole line-up is impressive but, try to join Rebecca Many Grey Horses for the Workshop on Blackfoot Ways of Knowing, September 5 at 7:00 p.m. Learn about~.

Esau McCaulley's book Reading While Black, gives us insight into alternate perspectives providing cultural and historical analysis of an ancient text many of us hold sacred. Biblical interpretation has long been dominated by European and North American frameworks, and Reading While Black offers a counterpoint to them by rejecting racist interpretations and applications "to get to what the Bible is trying to teach us with all its life-giving relevance”. Hermeneutics is never objective or neutral, and McCaulley is transparent about his own subjectivity, "Everyone stands someplace, and where you stand informs what you see” and similarly we need to take responsibility for our own viewpoints. Learn about~.

Listen to this original song composed and sung by The Rev. Doug Rawling, the incumbent at St. Aidan & St. Chad, Cowley and St. John the Evangelist, Pincher Creek. Rev. Doug wrote: A Window In My Basement, a few years ago when his Dad was dying from cancer. Listen here~.  OK, I confess I’m a closet cowboy-music aficionado!!