Hey folks. Generally speaking, we live in a culture that trains us to be pretty good at aiming at things, and that rewards us when we hit them. Acquiring skills, laying out strategies, planning trips with clear destinations and timelines, self-improving – just a few examples of ways we learn how to set out to do something and receive some version of applause when we do it, even if we have to put our own gold star on the chart. No wonder we find all the present uncertainty difficult. It’s not what we’ve been practicing for. That said, we’re also part of a community of spiritual explorers, and that means we regularly find ourselves in the terrain of “I don’t know”. That space of not knowing can be a difficult one in which to retain hope. However, “difficult” is not the same as “impossible”, and this week in the Talky Bit I want to explore a Jesus story in which most of the characters don’t know which end is up, most of the time, but they still manage to do some simple things that help them re-open hope as they blunder through their disorienting circumstances. No tidy answers, but what I hope will be some approachable actions as we all travel together through the unique shared uncertainty of these days.

As is our present practice, we’ll gather online at 10:45 a.m. Sunday If Facebook isn’t your thing, we’ll post a podcast version of the Talky Bit later in the week.

Important Details:

Kids Table – Here’s an update from Arielle about something very special that is coming up for our littles:

Finance Update: Thanks to everyone that helps keep the community going financially! We’ve been able to keep our expenses as low as possible, which helps (it’s a good time to not own and have to pay for a building). That said, this is always a challenging time of year for us so money is very tight right now. If you are interested in giving online, you can find a Paypal link as well as info about etransfers (which are now set up as auto-debit so no password is required) http://thetablewinnipeg.com/giving/ Other options that keep working when giving in person at a gathering is interrupted include pre-authorized withdrawal, details for which are available at that same web address.

Re-opening: No new news on that front at the moment. Our continued commitment is to proceed in the manner that best serves the health and safety of the wider community as well as possible. Since assessing that is still very much a work-in-progress, we’re not going to announce any detailed timelines at this point.

Needs in the Community: I realize that singling out any particular area of need can bring with it the danger of creating a hierarchy of needs. That is not my intent. With that in mind, three thoughts:

-Please remember that you can share any needs or concerns on The Table Facebook page any time, and can do so in real time each Sunday morning when we have a live-hosted Community Time online. If you are not part of that group but would still like the wider community to be aware of some particular needs, you can email me by responding to this email and I’ll make sure what you want to share gets passed along to the Facebook Table group.

-The tensions of this pandemic are surfacing and exacerbating long-standing issues of justice in many areas. I would invite our community to do