Dear Friends,
This Sunday we will celebrate World Communion Sunday. This is the day when the churches participate in communion together to remember that in Christ we are one. It is also the Sunday when we receive the Peace and Global Witness Offering. This particular offering will go for peacemaking and reconciliation work locally as well as worldwide.
There is always a need for peacemaking and reconciliation in the world. This year, however, we have become more aware of the need to respond faithfully to the rise in tensions and traumas around the world. Our heightened awareness comes in part because we are more affected by global troubles than in years past. All populations of the world have been unified by the pandemic. This isn’t the kind of experience we yearned to share, and yet we do share it. Most people know someone who has suffered psychologically over the past year, or who lost a job or was laid off, or whose social connections were cut off. All of this has led to increased stress and anxiety across the globe.
But we share more than just stress and anxiety. We all share in the oneness offered through Christ. This unifying force for good is just as active today as it has been in the past and will be in the future. This Sunday is a time to remember and affirm that truth. As John Oxnam’s 1908 hymn says:
In Christ there is no east or west,
in him no south or north,
but one great fellowship of love
throughout the whole wide earth.
I look forward to celebrating this global fellowship with you this Sunday!
Pastor Jen