The Church of the Holy Rubbermaid Tubs ...

This weekend we loaded all of the Hymn Books we bought after the fire, all of the worship ware from our collection plates to the prayer shawls, we rolled up the banners and carried out the basket of books and colour sheets for the kids and loaded the WHOLE works in our van ... Almost everything went into Rubbermaid tubs ... 20 hymn books to a tub ... a tub for the collection plates and guest book, a tub for the bulletins and other items ... and all of the tubs were neatly stacked in the van ... We became for the weekend The Church of the Holy Rubbermaid Tubs ...

Thursday night we worshipped in one of the Chapels belonging to the local funeral home, Minnedosa Funeral Services - we shared communion, and told the story of Jesus' final night on earth among his disciples.

On Friday morning we joined with our Protestant sisters and brothers in a Good Friday Service at the Community Conference Centre. The music was lovely (thanks to Eleanor and the choir she organized), but the service went in a direction that I wasn't comfortable with, nor happy about ... I think that next year's service will be held somewhere as a United Church service ...

Then on Sunday we unloaded the van at the elementary school and held our services in the Band Pit. When the morning had ended, we loaded all of the stuff back in the van and I drove over to the Seniors' aparment building Townview and held a third service there ...

On one level it is inconvenient to have everything in rubbermaid tubs and loaded in a van, but on another level it is a moment worthy of reflecting on what is really important in the life of the church, and what do we really need to be a church ...

We carried our hymn books, we brought our bulletins and we gathered in a borrowed space to worship and to join in a fellowship. Thanks to the men of the AOTS, and Services to Seniors our three services on Sunday were framed with food and fellowship around the table - a true connectedness to the New Testament Church that arose from the ashes that were left following the death of Jesus and the scattering of his disciples ...

The early church began simply, in houses, in places where people gathered. They sang their hymns, they offered their prayers, they reflected on their faith, and then they ate and drank in Jesus name. In time tensions would arise over how the Church shared their foodstuffs, and on the wording of the prayers and hymns, but for a moment, the Church was able to offer a pure moment of worship. They gathered, and in Christ's name they worshipped. This weekend in Minnedosa, we did the same thing - we gathered, we unloaded a van and we worshipped, then we loaded up the van and moved on ... At the end of the day, what was important wasn't the place, it was the gathering of the community ...

We are an Easter People - we are people of the Resurrection, and what is important in that is the people ... where two or three are gathered in my name, says Jesus - I'll be there, and this weekend in Minnedosa we lived that simple truth over and over and over ...

Thanks be to God - dayenu,