Message from Rev Phil- June 3, 2020

Dear Friends of South Bay and Picton United Churches;
Greetings on this sunny Wednesday morning! (Sunny where I am – but I realize if you don’t like the weather out the front door, look out the back!)
Today we are about halfway between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. I thought it might be a good opportunity to reflect for a few minutes, once again, on the heritage we’ve received from our forbearers in the faith.
May you be blessed and encouraged by these words and the thoughts they engender – as you continue your pilgrimage.
Grace and peace with pastoral love and caring;

Rev. Phil

“The golden evening brightens in the west; soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest; sweet is the calm of paradise the blest. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!”
(Voices United #705, vs.4 William How 1864)
“And for our own, our living and our dead, thanks for the love by which our life is fed, a love not changed by time or death or dread, Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
(Voices United #706, vs.3 Shirley Murray 1986)
As we live through these trying times of COVID-19, with their weeks and now months of social distancing and isolating in place – we are often struck by the reality that in our lifetime these are unique circumstances.
But today we take a few minutes to reflect on the experience of the generations before us.
Just five years before I was born in 1950, the world was engulfed in a World War that took the lives of 70-85 million people – about 3% of the total population of the world in 1940. From Canada 1.1 million men and women (young folk) served in the RCAF, Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Army, the Women’s Army Corps. and the Merchant Marine. Forty-two thousand never returned home. The numbers, though impressive, don’t tell the whole story. Every community across the country had young people away at war – every community knew of brother, sister, parent, son or daughter who “paid the supreme sacrifice”.
Our parents and grandparents pulled together, made sacrifices, adjusted their life-styles to contribute to the war effort – and to the victory in the spring and summer of 1945 – seventy-five years ago.
Further back, just 15 years before I was born, Canadians and the rest of the world were in the grips of The Great Depression. Thousands of men “rode the rails” across the country seeking work. After successive crop failures, caused by drought, there were families facing starvation. (I highly recommend Pierre Burton’s The Great Depression as a history of that decade told with passion.)
The people of Canada had compassion for one another. Train loads of food made their way from the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario to help feed the destitute on the Prairies. Some may recall your parents offering meals to those who were hungry.
In both the Great Depression and World War II, the Women’s Missionary Society (WMS) of our United Church of Canada was active in organizing assistance and calling for action to feed the hungry and clothe and house those in need.
Certainly, we are living through times of great difficulty, worry and anxiety. In these circumstances, we can take courage as we remember that we are cut from the same cloth as those who overcame great adversity and triumphed.
Like the WMS, we are called to faithfully follow Jesus’ Way of Compassion – loving the world in Jesus’ name. We respond in caring with our own family, friends and neighbours; and move outward to recognize all people everywhere as our kin.
“Where cross the crowded ways of life, where sound the cries of race and clan, above the noise of selfish strife, we hear your words of life again.
The cup of water given for you still holds the freshness of your grace; yet long these multitudes to view the strong compassion of your face.”
(Voices United #681 vs.1&3 Frank North 1903)