Kindly submit your Newsletter items to [email protected]

by Thursday at 11:00 AM

We will have a simplified Newsletter for the summer, with fresh content each week ~ please refer to the June 25th Newsletter click here~.

Sunday, August 15, 2021 at 11:00 AM (note time!!)

Our service will focus on PRAISE. This service will be the first Sunday in seventeen months that we have been able to join together to SING our praises to God!! Many Psalms of Praise will find their way into the service, including Psalm 89: 5-18 click here~.

The service will be recorded, and an edited version posted to the Ralph Connor Canmore YouTube channel later on August 15th, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi8loA1BP8lNAppSRR9_aQQ

Please note that our Aug 22 worship service will be an online service on YouTube... and then we're back outdoors on Aug 29!

As noted last week: a variety of helpers are needed for our outdoor services: a set-up crew (including additional helpers for the "glory job" of raking up and disposing of the elk droppings prior to service time!), and a person or two who can help with sound system setup on Aug 15 (and could help again with the sound system on Aug 29). If you can help, please contact Greg, [email protected] 

In order to help our Worship Committee and Church Council know your hopes and preferences on returning to in-person gatherings, including Worship, we hope that lots of RCMUC and Rundle folks will fill out a brief online survey at http://ralphconnor.ca/survey/. The survey will be open until August 20th. Thanks in advance!

In light of the Province's lifting of most COVID restrictions, Council has revisited our COVID Guidelines for building usage. The new, briefer version is posted here~.

$  ""A message from the Stewards   $

Or if you prefer, use the “Donate Now” button on the websites: for Ralph Connor, please go to http://ralphconnor.ca/giving/

or for Rundle, http://rundleunited.ca/donate/.

During September we hope to operate a booth in front to our church. People will be invited to pick up orange bookmarks to learn more about the history and importance of this day, an orange ribbon and orange candy. We have a sun/rain tent organized and comfy lawn chairs. We would welcome donations of orange shirts with or without logos.

Please consider signing up for 2 hours or four hours. No training required just a welcoming smile. For more information contact Mary Shearer - 403-609-0690 [email protected] or the church office - 403-678-5354 [email protected]  

If anyone from RCMUC would like to donate items to the Rundle United Thrift Shop, please contact Carole Rowe [email protected] or Sim Stroes-Gascoyne [email protected] and they will receive the items at their homes or even collect from your home and then deliver to Rundle.

Clothing, housewares, and small electrical appliances are all welcome but no furniture. Currently the Thrift Shop has a good supply of books.

An urgent need has been shared with us via our Bow Valley Refugee Project. Will Tatari and his partner are in urgent need of housing, by September 1st. Please contact Will at [email protected] or 403-493-4503 if you can provide housing, or if you know of someone who can. If you'd like further information, please feel free to contact Karen Fraser (see Instant Church Directory for Karen's contact info). Thank you!!

"Members Only Trial" of 50 packets available for purchase at August 15 outdoor service. Bring your $10 cash and go home with 5 notecards. Proceeds to Benevolent Fund.

Could worshiping in nature resuscitate Christianity? Wild Churches don’t have buildings. They meet exclusively outdoors, because they believe trees and birds and rivers and stones are sources of divine revelation. Could such worship help restore environmentalists’ faith in Christianity? Click here~.

Pope Francis released his first encyclical letter, Laudato Si’, on 24 May 2015, in it he foresaw a return to outdoor prayer. "The natural world will show you the face of God; He is in fact to be found right here in the heart of the world. As Pope Francis writes “The universe unfolds in God, who fills it completely. Hence, there is a mystical meaning to be found in a leaf, in a mountain trail, in a dewdrop, in a poor person’s face.” (233) There’s a reason that Jesus used so many metaphors from nature for his parables. God uses nature to show himself to us. 

Holy Hikes, is a national eco-ministry dedicated to renewing connections with God’s creation through liturgical hikes. “Holy Hikes is helping people realize that their faith is not limited to the buildings they have come to know and love,” said Mark Rollenhagen, pastor of Good Soil. “We end up setting the elements—the bread and the wine—on a fallen tree. It really kind of brings home the sacredness of the outdoors when you’re gathering around word and sacrament under the trees and sky.” Click here~.

We aren’t the only ones praying outside: Prayers at Jerusalem's world-famous religious sites, sacred to Muslims, Christians and Jews, have been halted or heavily restricted as Israel and the Palestinian Authority imposed sweeping lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Muslims in Jerusalem pray outdoors amid virus lockdown, and were praying outside in small groups during the holy month of Ramadan as measures aimed at curbing the coronavirus pandemic remained in place, including a halt to prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam. Click here~.

The holiday of Sukkot (the Tabernacle Feast) refers to the temporary dwellings, or “booths”, that commemorate the period of wandering in the desert and in which Jews are required to eat, and live for the week. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that the time will come when humanity as a whole will enter one great big Sukkah, figuratively meaning a major shift in society’s values: nature’s quality of love, bestowal and positive connection prevailing over selfishness, exploitation and detachment. At that time, humanity will experience harmony, happiness and perfection through its balance with our outdoor surroundings. Constructing the Sukkah and living inside it in the “wilderness”, will change our values, from individualistic and egoistic to connective and altruistic, creating a safe, harmonious and happy world. Sukkot for the year 2021 starts on the evening of September 20, ending at sundown September 27th. We certainly have been wandering this year; maybe if we’re still outside in Sept we can build a sukkah using some ideas from the U of C School of Environmental Design. Click here~.  

Our need for true connection is giving rise to phone-free, read outdoor, spaces. The past year has shown us that screen-time is a poor substitute for in-person-time, wherever that may be. Click here~.

A one-of-a-kind international symposium: “Communication for Social Justice in the Digital Age”, will offer a chance to explore new visions for digital justice, public space, and actions that will make a difference. The symposium, September 13-15, will be jointly hosted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC), and will also be co-organized by Brot für die Welt, the Evangelical Church in Germany, Evangelische Mission Weltweit (EMW), and the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF). Click here~.

The lessons from COVID-19 could help catalyze an urgently needed tipping event in humanity's collective moral values, priorities and sense of self and community. It could remind us of our common fate on a small, crowded planet with dwindling resources and fraying natural systems.” — “Coronovirus will change the world. It might also lead to a better future,” link here~.

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New Outgoing: [email protected]