Slideshow image

Christmas 2020 – Message from the LVUC Board of Governance

On behalf of the Board of Governance of Lynn Valley United Church, I want to share a message of peace, love, and hope.  Although our experiences during Christmas 2020 may be very different from Christmases past, the Christmas story of our faith tradition has not changed.  And in this story, perhaps we can find the space to let go of the feelings of ‘loss’ or ‘not right’, and know that truly, all shall be well, and, in fact, all is well.  One of my family's December traditions is to read Charles Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol.  One of the lines in this book always inspires me to remember the ‘reset’ that is the gift of this time of year.  This statement is relayed by Fred, the optimistic, ebullient nephew of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, who is responding to his uncle’s admonishment that ‘Christmas is a humbug!’  Fred responds that he always thinks of Christmas as ‘A good and charitable time of the year; a time when people seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of others as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.’   As I experience our Community of Faith continuing to evolve – through reaching out to others in kindness, through an energetic and inspiring ‘online’ Lynn Valley Voices choir concert, through deep spiritual connections on our Spiritual Practices Mondays, through deepening spiritual friendships in our worship and team gatherings, and by how we are positively changing lives through the generous hospitality offered by this community – I know that 2021 will be a year of continued transformation.  I also know that there will be many tender, inspiring, transformative, joy-filled moments we will recall from 2020.  May this be so for you. 

Please join me this holiday season to offer special thanks and appreciation to our LVUC staff, who have been adapting and innovating constantly during this time of change. We are so blessed to have such a committed group of people:  Debra, Eric, Frank, Moana, Niki, and Matt supporting our community in this journey.

With blessings to you and yours at this time of year and always, Shauna Grinke, on behalf of the members of the LVUC Board of Governance – Victoria Fawkes, Wendy Harris, Len Grinke, Neil Fancourt, Joe Catlin, Leslie Hemmings,   

Community Sharing Area
Board of Governance
Comments for this post are now off.