Thanks to all those who came to our Congregational Fellowship Hour this evening. Some had to leave before we took the photo, but look at all those smiling faces!

Same time - same place next week! (Wed. @ 5:30 p.m. MDT) Details are emailed out to our mailing list each week.

If you'd like to join our mailing list, visit our home page. There's a sign-up form just beneath "We're so happy you found us!"

Have you missed your congregational gatherings the last couple of weeks?
Are you yearning for a bit of worship and a bit of fellowship?
Here is a new opportunity for you.
 
You are invited to Canada West Mission Centre’s “Virtual Visiting Fellowship.”
 
It will be offered twice each week at different times to enable different people to participate each time. The schedule will be:

• Tuesday morning at 11 a.m. Central (Manitoba), 10 a.m. Mountain (Alberta and Saskatchewan), 9 a.m. Pacific (BC)
• Thursday evening at 9 p.m. Central, 8 p.m. Mountain, 7 p.m. Pacific

 
Steve Thompson, Mission Centre President, will plan and facilitate these sessions. We will share in some opening comments to set up our time together. Participants will be invited to share to provide support to each other in our “social distancing” environment. We will conclude with a prayer for peace, for each other, and for others who need our support. Each session should last no more than an hour. We hope this will be an upbeat, positive opportunity to help make up for not being able to visit “live and in person” with our congregation on Sunday.
 
How to participate:

• Send an email to steve@communityofchrist.ca to indicate at which time you wish to participate
• You will receive an email back giving details of how to log onto the “Zoom” program
• Zoom connection info will also be circulated earlier on the day of each session through an email “blast” (and possibly on the Canada West Mission Centre Facebook page, pending resolution of some operational concerns)
• Then, you log on from your home computer or laptop or tablet or even a smartphone a few minutes before the start time, and,
• ENJOY!

 
Mark one (or both!) of these virtual gatherings on your calendar and plan to attend. We look forward to your participation in our “Virtual Visiting Fellowship” experiment.

Estimated contributions to Worldwide Mission Tithes in February are $1,075,000 USD. Amid these uncertain and challenging times, church leaders are grateful for those who continue to share generously not only financially but in many other ways. As a community, may we remain committed to working together to support growing needs locally and worldwide.

Consider one of the following giving options that do not require physical attendance:

• Sign up for PAT
• Give online via CanadaHelps
• Mail a cheque:
  

Sam Smalldon, MCFO
Canada West Mission Centre
1185 Strathcona Drive SW
Calgary, AB T3H 4S1

Visit all giving options on our website: https://www.communityofchrist.ca/give.html

Due to COVID-19 precautions the Calgary Congregation's leadership team has updated its February - May 2020 Worship Schedule to reflect our strategy going forward. Click the image below to view/download the new version.

Thank you for your patience and willingness to venture into the unknown as we collaboratively work to address how we might continue the mission of Christ in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.

What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath--
the most sacred of times?
 
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
 
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
 
Center down.
 
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
 
Promise this world your love--
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.

​President Veazey shares a prayer of blessing for this time of global sickness and fear.