Three Care Groups each Sunday are invited for in-person worship services. When your Care Group’s turn comes up, please feel free to invite your friends or neighbours. Just please let us know when you fill out the Invitation RSVP who will be attending with you. We are looking forward to seeing you Covenant!
Advent 2020
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Advent Faith Formation Kits
This year each member/household/family will receive a worship-at-home devotional kit, for us to do as a whole church body! We’ll all get the basic supplies to make an Advent Wreath, with the intent that each of us make it unique and special. Take a photo of how your Advent Wreath looks and send it to our church office (admin@covenantcommunity.ca)! Along with this fun craft, we will together participate in an Advent Devotional, and the devotional cards are included. Even though we can’t meet all together, we can all participate in this weekly at-home, Advent devotional! |
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Blue Christmas Service:
Join us Sunday, December 13 @ 6:30 pm at West End CRC (10015 – 149 St) as we create space during the Advent season for our losses, grief and struggles. A Blue Christmas service is quiet and reflective, a service holding out healing and hopes during a season that often heightens our aloneness. Watch for more details.
Join us Sunday, December 13 @ 6:30 pm at West End CRC (10015 – 149 St) as we create space during the Advent season for our losses, grief and struggles. A Blue Christmas service is quiet and reflective, a service holding out healing and hopes during a season that often heightens our aloneness. Watch for more details.
Candlelight Service
December 20th @ 6:30 pm. |
Christmas Day Service
December 25th @ 10:30 am |
Calvin Institute of Christian Worship: An excellent opportunity, coming to us from the Calvin Symposium on Worship! Every year in January, the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship holds a special training conference for the “study and renewal of worship”, helping local congregations learn, grow and reflect together on key topics and themes in worship and in Christian Life. The Worship Symposium that runs January 6-26, 2021 is FREE online, for this year only! You are warmly invited to register for this free, online learning experience. Registration and information can be found here: https://worship.calvin.edu/symposium and feel free to also contact our Director of Worship Beatrice (worship@covenantcommunity.ca).
FAITH PRACTICES PROJECT
September always feels like new beginnings. Usually, our ministries and committees start up again after a summer’s rest, along with the new school year, sports teams and all sorts of extracurricular activities. Things look a little different this year, but one thing we can begin anew this September is our commitment to those transformational Christian practices that help us grow deeper in faith. The CRCNA’s Faith Formation ministries provides us with the
“Faith Practices Project” beginning September 2020. Each month a new set of resources are released online focusing on one of 12 faith practices. Check it out! https://www.crcna.org/FaithFormation/practices
“Faith Practices Project” beginning September 2020. Each month a new set of resources are released online focusing on one of 12 faith practices. Check it out! https://www.crcna.org/FaithFormation/practices
November
The Practice of Generosity
The Practice of Generosity
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November 1
A grateful heart overflows in generosity. How might your gratitude for God’s good gifts overflow to bless your neighbor? If you’re grateful for the gift of good food, for example, how might that spur you on to help make sure your community is fed? If you’re grateful for your family, how might you extend a sense of love and belonging to others?
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November 8
End-of-year giving opportunities abound at this time of year, so be intentional about your giving. Consider doing some research to discover a new local ministry or organization that supports a cause you care about deeply, and then give generously of your time, talents, and treasure to help it flourish.
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November 15
It can be relatively easy to donate money to a cause we care about, but it can be harder to decide to give of our time. Has the Spirit been tugging on your heart when a certain person, cause, or organization is mentioned? Be attentive to those prompts. How might God be calling you to act on them?
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November 22
We often associate generosity with financial giving, but we can also cultivate a generous spirit in our relationships. Ponder how you might practice this in daily life, perhaps by focusing on refraining from mental criticism, attributing the best motives to people’s actions, being “present” and attentive when spending time with others (especially children), or doing acts of random kindness.
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November 29
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Our God is a generous God. Read Psalm 36:5-9, and spend some time thinking about the abundant gifts God has lavished on us in creation and in other ways. Make a list of everything you can think of that testifies to God’s generosity. If there are kids in your home, invite them to draw pictures of those things. Hang your list where you can see it often!
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October
The Practice of Gratitude
The Practice of Gratitude
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October 4
“I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds” (Psalm 9:1). Each day this week, look for one thing you’re grateful for, and then tell someone about it. Write a note of thanks, make a phone call, say a prayer, or express your gratitude in another tangible way.
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October 11
A great quote to ponder from author Alice Walker: “Thank you is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses gratitude, humility, understanding.” What are you thankful for today?
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October 18
Keep track of God’s good gifts using a format that works for you. Some ideas: keep a gratitude journal; express your thankfulness on paper strips placed inside a Gratitude Jar; write or draw things for which you are grateful on a paper tablecloth during mealtimes. Save your lists and drawings and revisit them when you need a reminder of God’s provision.
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October 25
“Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations” (Psalm 100:4-5). How has God been faithful to the generations in your family? Tell those stories to each other.
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September
The Practice of Sabbath
The Practice of Sabbath
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September 6
In Wendell Berry and the Given Life, author Ragan Sutterfield quotes Berry: “[Sabbath] is not a break so that we might become renewed and refreshed for more work, but is rather a time when we live in the simple reality that we are creatures whose lives are given by God.” How might this insight change how you celebrate sabbath?
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September 13
“God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” List all the things you “created” last week: work projects, meals, social media posts, family schedules, clean clothes, conversations…. Which of your creations were “very good”? Which helped others flourish? Which did not? Take some time to bring your list to God in prayer.
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September 20
In Keeping the Sabbath Wholly, Marva J. Dawn writes, “A great benefit of Sabbath keeping is that we learn to let God take care of us—not by becoming passive and lazy, but in the freedom of giving up our feeble attempts to be God in our own lives.” Set aside some time today to reflect on the specific ups and downs of the past week, and recognize times when you attempted to be God in your own life. Then invite God to take care of you in the sorrows and joys you and those close to you experienced during the week.
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September 27
In Rhythms of Rest, Shelly Miller writes, “God's creation is a life-giving inhale for all of us, and Sabbath is the exhale.” Wherever you are today, find a bit of God’s creation to enjoy as you take time to “exhale.” Look at a leaf with a magnifying glass. Sit and watch birds in flight. Look at the clouds overhead. Quiet your busy mind. Then read Psalm 148 for a taste of how all —creation praises God.
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