Service on Sunday, February 1st, 2026 at 10 am. Annual General Meeting

All are invited to the Church service on Sunday, February 1 at 10 am. The Annual General Meeting will follow the service.

Here are Heather’s notes on the upcoming service.

There are some parts of our Scriptures that are very familiar.   Psalm 23; John 3:16 for example. Many of us can recite the words of the Psalm by memory or may have “For God so loved the world” embroidered on a napkin.  Matthew 5:1-8 may well fall into this category. The ‘Sermon on the Mount’ is scripture that we have heard over and over again. They have become so familiar in fact, that we often lose focus when hearing them again. Like white noise.  We believe we have a good grasp of their meaning, and we may well have.  In fact, we may boil the words Jesus spoke in his first ‘public ministry’ act in the Gospel of Matthew down to life lessons, or a recipe for success and happiness. There are those who compare these Beatitudes to the 10 Commandments Moses spoke to the Hebrews centuries before. We contrast these two almost as a stick and a carrot.  A lot of do nots (the stick) and dos (the carrot).  There may even be a temptation to set Jesus aside when we listen to these familiar words, assuring ourselves that we’ve got this and have all the confidence to assume them as our own personal recipe for faithful lives.

And yet, we miss so much depth if this is our temptation. For Jesus, as he was known to do, uses these very words to turn the world upside down and enliven faith with justice, compassion and righteousness. In these current days when our world seems very literally upside down, perhaps we might listen with fresh eyes to the teaching Jesus offered while sitting upon a mountain.

Heather