Hello Tablers! Important housekeeping matters first, because if you’re reading this on your phone you might not have time to scroll down past paragraph one…

We’re gathering at Pantages Theater this week, and at the Plett Ranch next week. More details regarding next week in a subsequent blurb, but for now you should know that the gathering time will be the same as usual (not including the drive time from Winnipeg, which is around 40 minutes) and will be followed by a pot luck lunch – basically, our first Souper Sunday of the season. Everyone is welcome to stay for lunch and to hang afterward, but (as always) you can come and go as you need to or are able to.

Kids Table is ON!  They are meeting in this cool room at Pantages that’s like a castle turret, looking down over their parents from a vaunted position…basically, the architectural equivalent of where Freud suggested they already think they live in the universe. Hmmm….

Serving Teams – the awesome groups of people that help our “mobile” gathering happen every week could use some help.  There are presently some people that are on two or three different teams, and if a few more of us step up they can occasionally have a week off. That sounds like a fairly practical type of kindness to me. If you are interested, you can reply to this email, or talk with Jane Penner on any given Sunday. Jane coordinates all of this. For my part, I can’t say “THANK YOU” enthusiastically enough to Jane and the folks on these teams. You turn everywhere we go into a place of welcome.

Talky Bit – I want to do an idea mash-up that addresses the legitimate confusion around what it might look like to both “stand in the Christian tradition” (a phrase I often use to try to place our community in it’s wider historical context), and also to think about what we believe in new ways, which is what I’ve begun to explore in this seasons chats. So just to give you something to chew on, here are two definitions. The question is…what does it look like to bring these two things into the same lived life?  Here you go:

synonyms:doctrine, belief,

Hello Tablers! Let me address the matter that might be “top of mind” for most of us this week right off the hop. This Sunday, we’ll be meeting at Pantages Playhouse. Same time as is usual for Sunday mornings – 10:30 a.m. Use the right hand entry on the Main Street side – we’ll put out signs to help you find the correct door.  We’ll have the coffee on…

And yes – this week Kids Table starts back up, so bring the grommets!

As far as the Talky Bit goes, here’s a little quote that someone emailed me from one of their favorite blogs about “un-fundementalist” Christianity. I’ve included it here because it speaks to a core question for spiritual explorers who stand in the Christian tradition, which is “what kind of story is this anyway?”. That’s generally the terrain I’m planning to be in this Sunday.

Exclusivity is obnoxious. Lording your experience of God as normative and prescriptive for all of humanity is arrogant, perpetuates violence, and erases the identity of large swaths of fellow humankind. But just because I no longer believe my path is the only path doesn’t mean I cease to walk in it. Just because I celebrate the beautiful diversity and plurality of faiths and cultures doesn’t mean I don’t revel in the particularity of my own tradition. I believe in the story of Jesus and the narrative of the Christian scriptures to bring wholeness, liberation, and dignity to all.

If you’re a guest or someone that is reading this on our web site,you should be aware that we’re in a bit of a transition regarding where we gather, so if you want to find us on any given Sunday morning be sure to check the web site for details. It’s all part of the adventure that is The Table!

See you on Sunday.

Peace,

Tim Plett

Hello my fellow peripatetic Tablers! We are, as most of you know, on the move once again. We’re moving from Wednesday evenings to Sunday mornings. We do that every year about this time. However, this year we’re also moving from our location on Notre Dame to a new gathering place downtown-ish. For the time being, we’ll be meeting at Pantages Playhouse Theatre. No, we haven’t lost our sense of scale. We won’t be meeting in the main auditorium. There are several other very welcoming spaces in the building that are much more proportioned to a group of our size, and we’ll be in one of those. No matter which space we’re in, we’ll be using the entrance you can see at the right hand side of the inserted photo (the door with the small looking human entering it – a rather different sense of entry than we’re accustomed to). We’ll also put out some signage, so that should help. We’ll be gathering at our normal Sunday time  – 10:30 a.m.

Kids Table – there are spaces in the building that look like they will work great for Kids Table as well. That will be starting NEXT week, on the 18th. Yippee!!

Parking – just remember that we’re downtown. Make sure you read the signs, wherever you park. Most of the street parking is free on Sundays, but the parking lots generally are not.

Talky bit – I think, given our adventures in finding a place to call home, some reflection on the “enough-ness” of God might be in order. So that’s where I’m planning to go exploring.

I do hope you can come out. I know Wednesday evenings are a big challenge for lots of folks, and I’m looking forward to seeing us gathered as a wider community once again.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me. I’ll try to provide a workable answer to your query.

See you on Sunday!

Peace,

Tim Plett

Well, not literally the last Wednesday of the summer…just the last Wednesday gathering of this community before we switch back to Sundays. And a reminder – there will be no gathering this coming Sunday. Our first Sunday morning will be September 11th. Location to be determined, but excellent progress is being made on that front. I’ll keep you posted.

As far as what we’ll be doing this Wednesday, I expect it’ll be a bit of a wrap up of what we’ve been enjoying these past couple of months. Last week I was all set to talk about what it looks like to begin re-weaving a faith story when you’ve experienced a significant shift in your belief system, but we never got to it. That is because we had such a marvelous time together with people telling their stories about the unraveling of particular beliefs or tenets of faith in their own lives. It was fascinating and deeply affirming of how “normal” this kind of experience is.

So….maybe I’ll talk about what I have planned for this week, and maybe I won’t. It depends on what else happens.  Either way, we’ll have the opportunity to gather and to share love and encouragement with our fellow travelers. I’m excited about that!

Peace to you all,

Tim Plett

Hello Tablers. We’ve been exploring the dynamics of changing faith – what it feels like to have beliefs that you thought were immutable begin to reveal their inherent impermanence. Personally, my favorite part of this exploration has been hearing many of you share you stories in our conversation times. It’s been challenging, enlightening, and entertaining – a pretty wonderful combination of experiences to have as part of spiritual exploration. Thank you…

This week we’ll continue that quest with some consideration of what faith looks like from the back side – from the side that isn’t so tidy, that doesn’t present a coherent narrative, and that is hard to decode. We’ll meet at the usual time and place. I’m looking forward to being with whoever can make it out.

Peace,

Tim