Hey folks – first things first: YES, we do have a gathering this Sunday! We don’t meet on the summer long weekends (July and August), but we do meet on the September one. So there is a gathering at Creative Manitoba ( 245 McDermot Avenue – 4th floor) at 10:30 a.m.

Hey folks…it seems to me there are some things we shouldn’t try to cram into a “yes or no” question. Like “is the best yet to come?”.  Yes or no? How about, “it depends”? It depends on all sorts of things, among them whether we are willing to keep evolving our dreams, aspirations, and beliefs. This week in the Talky Bit I want to surf the wave of our current reflections on compassion by exploring some ways in which ancient ideas can either leave us stuck with the belief that the best is in the past, or provide inspiration for a better future. Along the way, we’ll get to hear from an artist I regard as one of the best wordsmiths I’m aware of, as well as from a prophet who is convinced that God is really, really mad (isn’t that every prophet?)…but also capable of other emotions. Buckle up – it might be a roller coaster. 

Well, we’ve had some good summer adventures as a community! A three week “camp out” at Mike and Arielle’s, a picnic at the Plett’s, a couple of weekends at the beach. So good! And now it’s time to come back to base camp. Also good, because although adventures can be re-creative, having a sense of home base matters too. This week we will gather at Creative Manitoba (245 McDermot Avenue – 4th floor). I expect it’ll feel a bit like unpacking after the holidays, in a good way.

Kids Table– the littles have had some pretty grand adventures of their own in various spaces this summer, and it looks like that trend might continue at Creative as that organization reallocates it’s various spaces for new tenants. We will keep you posted. As far as this Sundaygoes, Kids Table isn’t back in action yet but we will have a designated space for the young ones.

Talky Bit– renowned author and spiritual sage Peter Matthiessen has posed the compelling question “What if our moral evolution ever caught up to our breathtaking physical evolution?” This Sundaywe will be exploring that “what if”.

Looking ahead– as a community, we need a bit more help with a couple of regular tasks. One more set up team (two people), and one more musical leader are current “for instances”. All serving opportunities can be tailored to the level of availability you may have, and can evolve as they go. We have great people already helping facilitate our Sunday morninggatherings, and they could use some help. If you are interested and would like a bit more information, please contact me.

I’ll see you on Sunday.

Peace

Hey folks – happy post-long-weekend to you!  We all know that summer isn’t over, but in our house at least there is a discernible sense of beginning to consider the details of “getting back at it”. That will happen soon enough, but first a party! In particular, a pot luck gathering at the Plett house this Sunday.

Address and parking details:  If you are looking at this info on our web page, please contact me for directions. You can reach me at (204.232.4574).

Some days it hits me harder than others – the growing sense that there are powerful people and systems operating in our world that seem almost devoid of compassion. Some of them are obvious. Autocrats, Dictators, those clearly (and in many cases, apologetically) motivated by greed without regard for it’s human and environmental costs, and so on. But some are not so obvious. For instance, there is a growing body of research that says our health care system is struggling to operate with compassion. And, of course, ideologically motivated violence provides potent and distressing examples.

Hey folks – we’ll be gathering at Mike and Arielle’s again this Sunday. For those of you that were not able to be there last week, I can tell you first-hand that it’s a beautiful and welcoming space with very gracious hosts and a pretty fabulous play area for the young ones. Parking is on the surrounding streets. If you are viewing this on the website, please contact Tim Plett at <[email protected]> for the address.

We’ll be gathering at this home next week as well, with the added bonus of the following invitation from Sara (and Zoe and Devon), who live a very short walk away in the same neighborhood:

In the Talky Bit we’ll be listening to an interview with the author of a book that traces the intertwined histories of Big Oil and Christianity in North America, with some opportunity for dialogue to follow. It’s pretty fascinating stuff and offers a rather different perspective on the nature of religious movements in general as well as adding a rather significant component to what most of us might think we know about the history of contemporary Christianity on this continent.

I’ll see you on Sunday!

Hey folks – on the subject of “something completely different”, we’re going to spend the next three Sundaymornings gathering at Mike and Arielle’s house. It’s incredibly kind of them, and I think it’ll feel great for us as a community to bring our smaller summer group together in the informal hospitality of a home. Following are some important details about Mike and Arielle’s place, not the least of which a the reminder to bring the kids! I know summers at The Table can feel like a big change-up for the littles, but as the info from our hosts notes, there’s always a special place for them.

“We’re so excited to be hosting The Table at our house for the next few weeks! If you are looking at this information on the web site, please contact Tim Plett for the address. You can reach him at <[email protected]>.  When you arrive, feel free to use the front or back door. There’s lots of street parking, and you’re also welcome to park behind our house!

And as far as the Talky Bit goes, we’re going to dive back into our religious / spiritual closets and talk about what to do when we find ideas in there that we didn’t expect. Yikes! 

Hey folks – I’m feeling quite excited about being together with the good people of The Table on Sunday! It’s been a while. The Plett clan had an excellent time away. I’ll make some connections to that in the Talky Bit, as I usually do. In this particular case, I want to open some ideas about why we should bother to gather, including what it might look like to show up in a community as people looking for guidance. That might sound dangerously like vertical religion, but I can promise you that won’t be the perspective I’m coming from. My hope is that we can come away having reconsidered both what the person next to us might have to offer, and what we might have to offer them, when it comes to guidance.

We will be meeting at Creative Manitoba. Kids Table is officially wrapped up for the season, but don’t hesitate to bring your littles. This is still an “all ages” event…:)

Also, this is our only week at Creative Manitoba in July. For the balance of the month we’ll be meeting in a home, where there will also be space provided for kids and caregivers to step out of the main gathering as needed. So keep The Table on your summer radar!

And on a significant “good news” note – we reached our goal of raising the additional needed funds for carrying The Table through the lean summer months! My personal and heartfelt thanks to those who made that possible, and additionally to everyone that contributes financially in an ongoing way. The Table simply would not exist without your generosity.

I’ll see you on Sunday!

Peace,

Hi Everyone,

Hi Everyone,

Tim Plett is still away, and we’re at the U of W again this week. I’ve include directions below for finding us on the 4th floor of the ‘Castle.’

Also, just a reminder that there will be no Kid’s Table this week. I’ll be using some multi-media stuff during the service, but I may not be able to keep the kids’ attention the whole time. So maybe bring along some activities to share.

This Sundayis Father’s Day, and by the intricate machinations of our scheduling process, I am the one who has wound up speaking. I suppose it’s apt, I am, after all, a father; however, for those of you expecting to bask in my accrued wisdom with regard to fatherhood, I’m afraid you’ll be sorely disappointed, because I rarely feel like I have any particularly insightful wisdom to impart on the parenting front. I doubt that most of us feel that we do. So instead, I’ll use this week’s talky bit to reflect on some of the things I’ve learned from the “mouths of babes,” or more accurately, the movies of babes. So, if you’ve every been curious about how LEGO Batman connects to the suggestion that we suffer (?) children, and just what Scout Finch can teach us about avoiding fascism, stop by the castle this week!

Details about finding our gathering:  Enter the building by the main front doors (right in the middle of the front of the building, on the Portage Avenue side). There is a red and white campus sign on the grounds to the left of the doors that says “Wesley Hall”. Once inside, go straight ahead up the first short set of stairs, and take the wide curving hallway to your right. Once you go around the curve, you will see the elevator in an alcove on your right. Take the elevator to the fourth floor, exit to your left, and you’ll be in the Club. Or you could just follow the smell of the freshly brewed coffee…

Parking is on the surrounding streets, most notably convenient on Balmoral, the first street to the east of Wesley Hall.