In the spirit of the bishops letter we’re encouraged to work with other parishes and churches in our area to share together some of the tasks that we are involved with. I’ve often heard it said that “many hands make light work” and I believe the time to put that wisdom into practise has arrived. You’ll be hearing and seeing examples of this in practise soon.

OUR VIRTUAL YARDSALE Wanted: 15-21 cu. Ft freezer. Preferable an up-right but will consider a chest freezer. Call Deb at 942-8259.

PARISH PRAYERS In our parish prayers this week we uphold Robin Taylor, Dave and Judy Taylor, Glen Thompson, Charles and Carol Vaillancourt and Georgette Van Schooneveld. The Emmaus Prayer Chain leader for this week is Joan O’Brien at 705-942-2956. Emmaus Prayer Chain leader for this week is Joan O’Brien at 705-942-2956. If you’d like prayers said for yourself or others please contact Joan and she’ll make sure the request gets out to the prayer group.

SERMON SERMON FOR JUNE A circuit riding priest back in the day was celebrating in an Anglican Church in Muskoka on a hot, hot summer afternoon. It was a long service, the church was hot and stuffy and when the priest finally got up to preach he stood at the pulpit looking at the people for quite a while and then said simply: “Hell is hotter!” and sat down. The person who told me this story said he was a boy at the time but he never forgot this lesson that was so short and pithy but gave him an understanding of a difficult idea and made him laugh. This impressed me. To say complex things in a simple way that people remember is a gift that few have. Since 1st June was Trinity Sunday I decided I’d try and do something similar.

Trinity Sunday the day that the church celebrates the nature of our Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Gospel reading for that day was Matthew 28, 16-20 often called the Great Commissioning in which Jesus tells his disciples to go into the world teaching all that he has told them and baptizing people in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He assures them that he will be with them always.

On Sunday I did something that you’ve probably seen before, usually as a children’s story. Water, ice and steam are three different forms of the same thing….H20: two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. I finished the story by saying that’s like the Trinity….one God in Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I then went on to explore the history of why this was a big deal for the church a long time ago. Arius, a leader in the church claimed that Jesus was not equal to God the Father and his teaching which came to be called Arianism caused quite a rift in the church. In 325 AD a Council was called at Nicaea in modern day Turkey where church leaders throughout the known world met to debate this and establish what was the truth. The decision was reached that there was one God who was Triune: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Arian priests were banished from their churches and their teaching was declared a heresy. The Nicene Creed developed to spell out exactly what Christians believed about the nature of God.

I finished by making the point that this is not much of a problem for most of us today and we celebrate it to honour the struggles and growth of the church and our understanding of the nature of God. I concluded that I believed that the important take-away for us was Christ’s commissioning to “Go into the world teaching people to do what he had said and to remember that he is with us always.

I did not work from notes for this sermon and so there was nothing to print and include with this edition of the Eureka. I hope the above summary gives people an idea of what Sunday’s sermon was about.

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