HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1993-03-03, Page 20BRUSSELS UNITED CHURCH
Rev. Cameron McMillan
Church Office 887-6259 Manse 887-9313
11 a.m. Morning Worship Service
"Making a Fresh Start"
Church School/Nursery
9:30 a.m. Ethel Morning Worship Service
"Let us sing a new song unto the Lord"
HURON CHAPEL MISSIONARY
CHURCH
PASTOR JAMES H. CARNE AUBURN 526-7515
Sunday -10 a.m. - Family Bible Hour
11 a.m. - Morning Service
8 p.m. - Evening Service
Wednesday - 8 p.m. - Prayer & Bible Study
Friday - 7:30 p.m. - Youth
‘,4 "RENEWAL SERVICES"
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S 1\ BRUSSELS MENNONITE -
FELLOWSHIP
Thursday, March 4
Friday, March 5
Saturday, March 6
8:00 p.m.
8:00 p.m.
8:00 a.m. - Men's Breakfast
10:00 a.m. - Ladies' Time Out
7:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 7 9:25 a.m.
7:30 p.m.
Harold White, along with Alex & Grace McCready
Pastor Tom Warner Elder Alice Knorr
887-6388 "EVERYONE WELCOME" 887-9203
MELVILLE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
BRUSSELS
Rev. Carolyn McAvoy
11:00 a.m. - Morning Service
- Sunday School
9:30 a.m. - Belgrave Service
We welcome you to come
and worship with us.
Aeb
BLYTH CHRISTIAN
, REFORMED CHURCH
HIGHWAY 4, BLYTH--523-9233
GUEST MINISTER:
Rev. Gerrit Heersink
Sunday at 10:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
The Church of the "Back to God Hour" and "Faith 20"
Back-to God Hour 10:30 a.m. CKNX Sunday
Faith 20 5:00 a.m. Weekdays, Global T.V.
Aft 'Visitors Welcome Wheelchair accessible
Quality Daily Physical Education
Active kids are healthy kids
Talk to your school principal or trustee
Flipping Away
Forrest (Bush) Whittard (left) and Rob Slater (centre) flip pancakes while Ed Quinn (right)
stands guard over the sausages during the Blyth Trinity Anglican Church Pancake Supper
held Feb. 23 at Blyth Memorial Hall. The event, which was also held at St. John's Anglican in
Brussels, is held annually on Shrove Tuesday which is a day for a final celebration before
Lent.
PAGE 20. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 1993.
From the Minister's Studv
Experience of grief, an erratic process
By Rev. Carolyn McAvoy
Melville Presbyterian, Brussels
Knox Presbyterian, Belgrave
Back when I was in Sunday
school there was a teacher who
always had us memorize a scripture
verse and recite it each week.
What I remember most about that
was John 11: 35 ... "Jesus wept."
That verse sure got a lot of use. In
fact, eventually the teacher made a
rule where a student could only use
that verse once a quarter. Funny
how you remember that verse ...
and yet as Christians, in reality, we
don't often think about the
significance of that verse. "Jesus
wept" ... very human, very risky,
very vulnerable, Jesus wept.
We forget too, the context of the
verse. Jesus came up on a scene of
grief ... a scene where two of his
close friends, Mary and Martha,
were grieving the loss of their
brother Lazarus. Jesus goes on to
raise Lazarus from the dead, a very
tangible sign of his power and
sonship, especially before entering
Jerusalem for his final days. We
talk about the spectacular raising of
Lazarus from the dead ... but we
don't talk too much about the
sobbing, the sadness, the grief that
prompted John to tell us that "Jesus
wept". Why is that? Why don't we
talk about grief?
We live in a throw-away society;
a society that is so fast paced it
waits for no one; a society that is so
concerned with intelligence and
technology that it has no time ... in
deed it looks upon the emotional ...
it almost ridicules and steps on
those who cre vulnerable. We don't
talk about grief, we don't talk about
death, we don't feel comfortable
with any of it. A big part of us
wants people to get on with plans.
Consider this story: "A man was
flying home from Miama. Among
the passengers was a rowdy group
of friends returning from a cruise
and a teenage girl who was
obviously in desperate trouble. She
had been terminally ill for almost
two years, but her family was
surprised to find something
happening so soon. Doctors on the
plane worked on the young girl, but
she died.
The plane landed early in Dallas
and all the passengers were taken
from the plane and watched as the
young women's body was carried
down the steps of the 747 to a
waiting hearse. As everyone
boarded the plane again, the man
noticed the sombre and subdued
mood of the party crowd. Being a
pastor he voluneered to speak to the
group, or help in any way he could.
The stewardness thanked him but
said this ... "I appreciate your offer
... but we've decided to give all of
the passengers free drinks. That
ought to make them feel better.
As we come up to Remembrance
Day this week I think it is obvious
to many that our world today deals
with death in a far different way
than in days gone by ... perhaps
because in the state of cold war and
nuclear weaponry the reality of the
violent death that comes in war has
seemed a far away reality ...
perhaps because as a society we
have less faith to deal with matters
of life and death ... a million
'perhaps'. But we don't deal with
head on with death and loss and
bereavement. We try to forget,
ignore, escape.
There are so many kinds of grief.
We are most familiar of course
with the intense grief that comes
after the death of a loved one.
Widely speaking though ... grief
comes when we have the loss of a
dream. We experience grief when
relationships change ... when a
friendship goes downhill, when we
find ourselves in all the brokenness
of divorce, when we move from a
place where we feel loved and
comfortable, when we feel loved
and comfortable, when we change
schools or jobs ... when we realize
that we can no longer continue a
certain lifestyle that we enjoyed,
because we aren't physically able.
Grief comes when we have loss,
and we all experience loss.
The experience of grief is like 'a
spiral ... lots of work and yet the
work done doesn't necessarily
move us from one 'stage' to
another. Sometimes we feel like we
are going crazy, like we are never
going to get a grip, we accomplish
certain 'grief tasks' and maybe
even feel like we've accepted our
loss, and then we hear a favourite
song, or someone's birthday comes
up and they aren't there, or we see a
picture of that favourite place we
used to live, and all the feelings
flood back again, and we wonder if
we'll ever make it through this. It is
a spiral, a gradual erratic process
and we will feel vulnerable and
confused and like we have no
control.
The greatest gift that can be
given to one who mourns is of
patient listening. Listening with no
agenda, and no time limits.
Accepting another person where
they are, letting them know that it
is okay with you, regardless of
what they are feeling that day.
Patient listening. Listening with no
personal agenda of how the person
'should' be coping, and no time
limits.
The neat thing about this, is that
relationships, very special
relationships develop in such an
atmosphere.
Maybe Jesus knew this when he
wept, maybe he was just overcome
with the emotions of grief ... but we
read that he did weep. He
experienced the pain. Sometime you'll remember that Jesus wept.
maybe you'll think of it, maybe What does that say to you?
You are Welcome at
tfie
BLYTH CHURCH OF GOD
9:45 a.m. - Sunday School for Children and Adults
11 - 12:15 - Morning Worship
Bible Studies - Wednesday 10 a.m. & 7:30 p.m.
Phone 523-4590 McConnell St., Blyth
THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA
You are welcome this Sunday
March 7 — Lent 2
Holy Eucharist
Every Sunday night In Lent a service of Evensong
at 7:30 p.m., Brussels
Trinity, Biyth St. John's, Brussels
9:30 a.m. 11:15 a.m.
Rector, The Rev. E. Paul Acton, 887-9273