The Mustard Seed Volume 18

Issue 6 September 2012

United Church of Canada—41st General Council

New Moderator

Rt. Rev. Dr. Gary Paterson

Over the course of his upcoming three-year term as Modera-

tor, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Gary Paterson will offer a special prayer

to God daily.

During the service on August 18, 2012, where he was in-

stalled as the United Church’s 41st Moderator, Paterson told

commissioners and guests that he would promise his best to

say a prayer based on Ephesians 3:14–21 every day of his

term.

“I calculated that’s well over 1,000 times this prayer will be

said,” noted Paterson, who outlined that the verses speak of

being humble and grateful for being filled with the fullness of

God.

“I pray that each of us and all of us...will be strengthened in

our inner being with power through God’s Spirit,” he added.

Paterson’s sermon compared the early church described in

Paul’s letter to the ancient city of Ephesus with The United

Church of Canada in its very beginnings.

“We think we have a history of only 87 years, but we were

back there at Ephesus. They found themselves in a vast multi-

cultural community and began struggling, praying, wrestling,

and fighting about what it means to be an intercultural

church,” said Paterson.

“We, like those people of Ephesus, are struggling, and we

need to hear this prayer from Paul,” he added.

In his closing remarks, Paterson bid farewell to commission-

ers; “In a couple of hours, a thousand of us will be scattered

from this place to the corners of this continent, this country,

and then around the world. We will go filled with the power

beyond our understanding, with the God who can do so much

more than you can ever imagine and ask, and you are

equipped to love the world,” said Paterson.

Resolutions

- The church's General Council voted today to

call on its members to avoid buying products

coming from Israeli settlements in the occu-

pied Palestinian territories. Presbyterian and

Methodist churches in the United States have

made similar calls.

- The General Council approved other resolu-

tions, including one that directs its General

Secretary, to issue a public statement

“categorically” rejecting the controversial

Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline. The call

was initiated by the Native Ministries Council

of British Columbia, which has expressed con-

cern about a possible environmental disaster.

- Commissioners to the 41st General Council

gave overwhelming approval on August 12 to

a proposal to invite Aboriginal people to be-

come signatories to the Basis of Union and to

include changes to the

crest to recognize Abo-

riginal spirituality. The

crest changes include

incorporating the four

colours of the Aborigi-

nal medicine wheel and

adding the Mohawk

phrase “Akwe

Nia’Tetewá:neren,”

which means “all my

relations.”

Logo of 41st General Council

Events and Worship

September 23rd

10:00 a.m. – Worship in the Sanctuary:

7:30 p.m. - Contemplative Prayer Group in the Trinity Lounge

September 30th

10:00 a.m. – Worship in the Sanctuary

October 6th: 10:00 a.m. – Decorate the Sanctuary for Thanksgiving.

October 7th: Thanksgiving Sunday and World Wide Communion Sunday

8:00 a.m. - Outdoor Service at Gyro Park

8:40 a.m. - Pot-luck breakfast in Church Hall

10:00 a.m. - Worship in the Sanctuary: Giving Thanks and celebrating our global partnerships

Bring a food item for the Food Cupboard, please.

7:00 p.m. - Taizé service in the Sanctuary.

October 14th

10:00 a.m. - Worship in the Sanctuary: Celebrate World Food Day

7:30 p.m. - Contemplative Prayer Group in the Trinity Lounge

October 15th

7:00 p.m. - Dream/Think/Be/Do with Ascension Lutheran folk in Church Hall

October 18th: Friendship Tea in the Church Hall

2-4 p.m. a chance to get together over tea and sandwiches and visit together and to sing some old

favourite songs. All seniors are welcome.

October 21st: UN Peace Sunday. Kootenay Presbytery weekend in Trail.

10:00 a.m. - Worship in the Sanctuary

October 22th

7:00 p.m. - Dream/Think/Be/Do with Ascension Lutheran folk in Church Hall

October 27th

Nelson Refugee Committee Fundraiser Dinner – Church Hall; stay tuned for more details.

October 28th: Reformation Sunday.

10:00 a.m. - Worship in the Sanctuary

7:30 p.m. - Contemplative Prayer Group in the Trinity Lounge

November 4th

10:00 a.m. – Worship in the Sanctuary Celebrating All Saints Day

7:00 p.m. – Taizé service in the Sanctuary.

November 5th

7:00 p.m. - Dream/Think/Be/Do with Ascension Lutheran folk in Church Hall

November 10th

UCW Bazaar. Mark on your calendars.

November 11th

10:00 a.m. – Remembrance Worship in the Sanctuary

Important

Events!

“Interruptions can be viewed as sources of irritation or opportunities for service, as moments lost or experience gained, as time wasted or horizons widened. They can annoy us or enrich us, get under our

skin or give us a shot in the arm. Monopolize our minutes or spice our schedules, depending on our attitude toward them.” William Arthur Ward

I’ve a confession to make: I’ve just bought a new iPad. There was a promotion at Save on Foods to use your points to purchase an iPad and I thought about it and went for it. I’m trying to be more efficient in keeping track of appoint-ments, planning, and using the iPad as a docu-ment reader rather than taking paper copies of documents to meetings (I attend a lot of these!). My children have been trying to get me more “connected” for years. They first bought me an iPod shuffle, a tiny iPod which plays only music. After not using it for more than a year I finally decided that I needed to take it out of the case and at least use it as an expression of my love for my children. I found I enjoyed using it to listen to music; in fact I enjoyed it so much that I soon kept bumping up against its limita-tions. Janet told our children of my desire for an iPod, it seems, for one appeared in Santa’s stocking the next Christmas. The lesson I’m learning is that, within rea-son and our own interest, we need to keep pace with the changing technology. (A second confession: I once was on Facebook, but gave it up; so, I don’t use all of the modern techno-logical resources!) As long as the technology that we are employing is of benefit to us in terms of time, fun and efficiency, I say, “Go for it!” As one of my more techie friends once said, “you need to re-tool every now and then.” Without being too literal, that’s what this summer has been for us at Nelson United. We’ve retooled our staff. Lois is now our Church Administrator; she’s taken on some ex-tra duties and that is working out really well. Michelle is now our Family Ministries Coordina-tor and is fitting into our Staff Team well. We look forward to the programs and offerings that Michelle will be bringing in the next months. We’ve retooled to respond to our modern con-text and situation. On the 22nd of September, our Church Board will be meeting for a planning afternoon; we’ve retooled our way of administration and

the Board is anxious to set some plans and goals to give shape to the manner in which we live out our Purpose Statement… “We dare to live the Way of Jesus, embodying the Love of God.” Michelle, Lois and our Staff Team will feature in the implementation of our goals and objectives. The United Church of Canada, after lis-tening to Keith Simmonds and Jean Daniels (who were 2 of our Commissioners at the re-cent General Council) at a recent meeting, is also retooling, also. The United Church is sim-plifying the Manual, which can be burdensome, simplifying some procedures, putting resources into congregational development and growth, renewing our commitment to social justice and partnerships with people in Canada and around the world advocating for a lasting and just peace in the world. Ascension Lutheran Church folk will no longer be worshipping in their church after Thanksgiving; before their church falls down on top of them, they are tearing it down and will be rebuilding a new church. Our thoughts and prayers and our support will be with them in the coming months. St. Saviour’s Anglican Church is also embarking on a change to the building. So, there is lots of retooling going on! The doom and gloom sayers keep sug-gesting that mainline Protestant denominations are in “serious condition” in North America. We certainly have our challenges, but the Gospel still needs to be proclaimed. We still have something to say! The liberal Protestant tradi-tion that speaks of openness and inclusivity, and that speaks of partnership and justice with peace, needs our voices and welcomes new voices. With a new Board, a new Staff Team, and with whatever tools are at our disposal (including iPads), we are discovering a new voice to speak in this new world of 2012. Blessings on this new year!

From David’s Desk

Technology "The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency." --Bill Gates "A computer is like an Old Testament god, with a lot of rules and no mercy" --Joseph Campbell

Adult Christian Development News

Here are some of the programs and events we’ve got planned to the end of the year:

Thursday morning breakfast book club: We’ll start October 11th at 6:45 a.m. All are welcome;

talk to David for more info.

Dream/Think/Be/Do: Joint Discussion with Ascension Lutheran Church. We have 4 more ses-

sions to complete the series. We’ll meet on Mondays starting October 15th and run for 4

weeks; to be held in the Church Hall at 7 p.m. Fall Bible Study at Lakeview Village: Carol Prochaska and Leslie Windsor will present a mean-

ingful Bible study, time and day to be determined.

Advent Study: To help us feel the spirit of the season, let’s get together to talk about our journey

through Advent to Christmas and beyond. We’ll start Wednesday, November 28th at 5 p.m.

Each session is 1 ½ hrs at most. The study series is called The Light Will Shine. It follows the

readings for each Sunday in Advent and helps us prepare for the Coming One. Talk to David

for more information and to sign up. We need to know if you want to participate by November

1st so that we can order the materials. There is a cost of $20 to participate.

Contemplative Prayer/Meditation: This is a spiritual practices group in which we engage in ½ hr

of meditation together. We support each other in our individual discipline of meditation or oth-

er spiritual practice. One of us leads a little prayerful reflection and we talk about our lives.

2nd and 4th Sundays of every month, 7:30 p.m. in the Trinity Lounge.

Also, a note to ask if there’s any interest in gathering for a “Lectionary Bible Study” during the week,

perhaps a Wednesday morning. This study is simply to read the bible lessons that we use the following

Sunday, learn something of what the lessons mean and talk about why they are important to us and how

our lives impact the Word. We had such a study for many years but stopped 5 or 6 years ago. Please

let David know if you are interested.

A warm, Nelson United Church welcome to Michelle Sylvest,

our new Family Ministries Coordinator: “After growing up as a youth in the United Church in the Kootenays, I am excited to facilitate the same kinds of experiences for youth and young adults with which I was fortunate enough to be involved. I have helped organize BC Youth Confer-ence (Evolve) for the past decade and have been privileged to work with youth in the context of community. Having recently completed the Youth Ministry Certifi-cate Programme through the United Church, I look forward to working in partner-ship with this congregation.”

Michelle is a long-time resident of the West Kootenays, having been born and raised in Castlegar. She attended universi-ty in Abbotsford and after completion of a Bachelor of Science with a double major in biology and history, she and her fiancé (Trevor) have returned to the Kootenays. Her hobbies include roller derby and skiing. Michelle can be reached by email at families@nelsonunitedchurch.ca or in person most mornings in her office at the church. She looks forward to meeting the youth, young adults, and families at NUC. Stay tuned for new program developments and exciting new opportunities to support family ministries in our congrega-tion.

The Mustard Seed is the newsletter of

Nelson United Church

Submissions are welcome and can be

dropped off at the church office.

Next Mustard Seed to be

distributed November 25th

Deadline for submissions is

November 21st.

Electronic submissions to

tkbaker@shaw.ca

Check out our website at: www.nelsonunitedchurch.ca

Webminister:

Jody Dudley

Flood Report

We are very fortunate that our insurance company is covering

the costs for clean up and restoration of both the July 1st and July

17th floods. Our deductible for each flood is $2,500. They will

not cover another flood unless due diligence has been taken to

ensure it won’t happen again. Bob Steed, Marg Stacey, Jean

Elliot and Steve Marshall are looking at how best to take care of

this problem.

The carpet tiles have been cleaned and sanitized and all but the

pieces around the edge of the room are back down on the floors

in the Church Hall and Sunday School rooms. Maglio’s install-

ers will be in soon to finish the job. This is a very big job because it is like putting an extra large

puzzle back together!

The linoleum has been removed from the kitchen floor and new flooring will hopefully be down by

the end of September. The bare floor has been cleaned and sanitized.

We should have the replacement furniture pieces such as a couch and chair by the end of

September.

A huge thank you to the people who volunteered their time assisting in cleaning up, laying down

cleaned carpet tiles, researching flooring options for the kitchen, sourcing out replacement furni-

ture pieces and looking into how to make sure the water from those torrential rainstorms don’t

come into our church again.

Submitted by Lois Berg

To the Nelson United Church

This is a photo of the first new Nelson United Church garden which was con-structed earlier this year, to benefit the Nelson Food Cupboard at the church. From left to right: Lois Berg, Church Administrator, Ann Alma, gardener, and Anna Kirkpatrick, administrator of the Nelson Food Cupboard. On Tuesday the 21st of August, the Kootenay Coop donated 1% of its reve-nue on its monthly Community Dona-tion Day to help fund the building of the planter. Nelson Home Hardware contributed the paving stones, the City of Nelson provided the soil, and youth from Skills Links assisted Bob Steed in constructing the large planter.

Rancho Vignola Nut Sales

Once again this year

we will be selling Ran-cho Vignola nuts and

dried fruits as a Nelson Food Cupboard fund-raiser. This is a terrific

way to support the Food Cupboard and get

high-quality nuts and fruits at the same time.

Prices are similar to

those in grocery stores, but the profit will go to

the Food Cupboard to buy equivalent products for our customers. Ran-

cho Vignola is a family business based in the

North Okanagan that sells quality organic

and natural dried fruits,

nuts, seeds and confec-tions. The order form

will on our website in the first week of Sep-

tember. Orders must be in by Wednesday,

September 26, and will

be ready for customers to pick up in mid-late

November.

Come for the apple pie and

stay for the AGM!

This year we are host-ing an apple pie social

to coincide with our Annual General Meet-

ing. Join us on Tues-day, October 23 in

the basement of the Nelson United Church.

We will be serving

fresh apple pie made with Harvest Rescue

apples starting at 7:00pm. Pie will be

available by donation

to the Nelson Food Cupboard. The AGM

begins at 7:30pm. Come see our

slideshow, hear our

news and connect with other members!

Don’t let edible food rot –

donate to Harvest Rescue today!

Harvest Rescue, a program of the Nelson Food Cupboard Society (which is lo-

cated in the basement of the United Church), connects fruit and vegetable do-

nors with volunteers who pick the produce. The harvest is shared evenly be-

tween the donors, the volunteers, and local social service agencies – everyone

in the community benefits!

Many fruit tree owners are reporting that this year their trees have little or no

fruit. Common explanations for the lack of fruit are the cold spring, and lack of

pollinators. For many of the clients of the Nelson Food Cupboard, donations

gleaned through the Harvest Rescue program are the only time they get to eat

fresh, local fruit and vegetables.

We welcome donations of fruit, veggies, and nuts. To donate a portion of your

abundance, please call the Harvest Rescue Coordinator at 250-551-8343 or

email harvestrescue@gmail.com If possible, please contact as before your fruit

is fully ripe as this us to ensure available volunteer pickers.

Fresh surplus produce of any kind, including Grow-A-Row donations, can also

be dropped off at the Food Cupboard on Mondays and Wednesdays between 9

am and 1 PM.

Photo Page

Church Picnic

June , 2012

Ecumenical Service in the Park

September, 2012

There is no better exercise for the heart than reaching down and lifting someone up.

Kid’s Page How to press leaves

Sandwich leaves between newspaper. Place the paper with the leaves inside a heavy book, then set a couple of bricks (or more heavy books) on top to apply a constant pressure. Check on them occasionally - it will take 1 to 2 weeks to dry and press the leaves

How to wax leaves Requires adult supervision for children! You will need;

kitchen paraffin (found in the canning section of the grocery store) a sheet of aluminum foil a small aluminum foil pie tin pressed leaves.

Melt the paraffin in the pie tin, by placing it in a warm over. Once the paraffin has com-pletely melted, remove the tin from the oven, and place on a non porous work surface. The paraffin should stay liquid long enough to wax many leaves. If it begins to solidify during this activity, simply return it to the oven until it has melted. Take one of the leafs by the stem and dip into the wax, completely coating the leaf on both sides. Remove the leaf from the wax and continue holding for 15 to 20 seconds until the wax has a chance to harden. After the wax is firm to the touch, set the leaf on the aluminum foil to finish hardening; about 5 minutes. Continue waxing leaves in this method, until there is sufficient to complete your project.

How to use waxed leaves Waxed Leaves can be tied to the top of canning jars containing homemade jams and soup in a jar gifts. Leaves that have just been removed from the paraffin, can be ad-hered directly to the jar itself for an usual affect.

A collection of small wax leaves can be used to decorate an Autumn cake; tuck them around the base and center a cluster of three in the center. Leaves can also add a decorative garnish to platters of cold cuts and other items on the

buffet table. Great for your Thanksgiving table!