April 30, 2026
Happy Easter!
This Sunday (May 3, 2026) there will be ONE shared service for both the Ilderton and Melville congregations. It will be our Covenanting Service – where we make promises as minister and as congregations, with the support of the Antler River Watershed Region, that together we will share God’s love for the world. The one service will be at 11:00 a.m. in Melville (in Ivan on Nairn Rd) with food and fellowship to follow.
I’ve been covenanted into past church relationships. I’ve preached at covenanting services. As chair of Presbytery had the honour to offer leadership to a couple of Covenanting services as well. With the decline and eventual ending of Presbyteries, the Covenanting Service does not have the same wider community experience that it once held. When I started in ministry there was an expectation that if a Covenanting Service was happening within a reasonable distance from your location, you would be there. As people got busier, as the church lost the connectedness that Presbyteries offered, the plans and experiences of the Covenanting Services changed with many congregations seeking to host them during regular Sunday worship times. Which is our case this week.
So Covenanting Service means story time. One year, as chair of a Presbytery region in New Brunswick, I was to officiate at a Covenanting Service for a new pastoral relationship. It was to take place at 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon and a couple of hours drive from my church. Generally, I have a good sense of the backroads in the area and thought if I cut cross-country, I could save time. Well, it did not go as planned. Amanda and I ended up getting our car stuck in a mudhole. Unfortunately, it was before cell phones were commonplace, so I was unable to let folks know where I was or that I was going to be late. After walking back towards a distant farmhouse, we met folks in a truck who were able to get Amanda and I back on the dirt track and on the road. I decided that even though the service would be over by the time we got there, I wanted to at least make an appearance and offer apologies (and let folks know I was safe and hadn’t forgotten about the service). There was relief that I was safe, and the service had carried on without me with a retired minister who stepped up to lead the service and celebration of the covenant!
Covenant language has been replaced by contract language in today’s world. But the language of covenant promises is used throughout the Bible. It is a language of promise and trust often used in the context of God reaching out to the people, promising to be with them. God makes covenant promises with Noah – the rainbow in the sky. God makes a covenant with Abraham and Sarah that they would bear their own children and by extension descendants. God makes a covenant with the Hebrew people, living in slavery and renews the covenant as they make their way to the promised land. God makes covenants with David, with the Israelites in exile… and in Jesus the covenant promise of God’s love for the world is renewed.
The Covenanting Service is traditionally focused on the minister – because the minister is the new part of the relationship. But the Covenant Service also acts as a reminder that as individuals and congregations you are part of this ministry, God’s ministry. Each one of us brings our gifts. Each one of us brings our skills. Each of us brings our passions. Each one of us is called by God to say “yes” to loving our neighbours.
Together we will nurture our faith. Together we will grow in love. Together we will commit ourselves anew to be God’s hands and feet of compassion and justice, revealing the promises of God’s Kingdom that are all around us.
May we come to worship this Sunday with joy and excitement, open to where God’s Spirit is leading our Ilderton and Melville in the years to come. With a thankful heart,
Steve
April 17, 2026
Happy Easter!
Every university has their “Frosh Week” events. It is usually a theme-based fun (and alcohol) centered event that brings the first-year class together so that this new class from a variety of schools and locations might begin to build friendships and relationships for the years ahead. I participated in various events at UPEI – though since I lived at home, I didn’t have the whole on campus experience. When I went to Mount Alison, I skipped the general school-wide program and we, as the one year Education class program, had our own gatherings at the beginning of the academic year.
The Atlantic School of Theology also had their opening week event, though a little less emphasis on the alcohol of UPEI and Mt A. The first week, for the new first year students, was oriented around a reading or theme from Scripture and explored in conversations, games and other activities. Of course, the evenings were gathering times to socialize and make friends. For my class, the gatherings were built around the reading from Luke’s Gospel, chapter 24 that we hear this week – The Road to Emmaus.
I will admit that I was not too familiar with The Road to Emmaus story. It is one of Jesus’ resurrection appearances and you hear the story once every three years – after Easter, when summer is on the horizon and our family church attendance began to wane. On the surface it was not a dramatic story and was overlooked in my modest Biblical knowledge. And yet, to use the language of The Road to Emmaus story, as we talked and shared and broke bread my eyes were opened.
It is a story full of Biblical and life themes all intertwined. The story begins with a journey – the disciples walking back home after the death of Jesus on the cross. The comfort of sharing stories of grief and loss amongst themselves and then to a stranger. A teaching moment as the stranger offers his perspective on what they might be missing. An offer of hospitality, stay with us through the night, that the disciples give to the stranger. The act of breaking bread together – not just in the sense of communion but sharing a meal. The sense of wonder that overwhelms the disciples when Jesus breaks the bread. The joy that sends these two disciples back to Jerusalem celebrating the message – Christ is risen, as he said!
This passage that went from being overlooked in my general knowledge, felt like it was overused in my first year of AST, has found its place as one of my favourite passages to reference because it combines so many themes of life and faith. There is too much for me to fully explore in a few minutes of reflection on Sunday morning, when we gather for regular services in Ilderton at 9:45 and Melville at 11am. But as you hear this resurrection story in Luke’s Gospel, as we sing the story, as we jump and dance celebrating God’s love in the world, may we know that we are not alone on our journey, wherever we may be. Alleluia!
Steve
April 12, 2026
Happy Easter!
Like Christmas, within the life of the Church, Easter is a season. Easter is a season that runs for seven weeks culminating in the Feast of Pentecost, when in the Luke-Acts narrative the Holy Spirit blows through the disciples and sends them out in the world. Throughout this Easter season stories from the Acts of the Apostles – disciples transformed by Jesus’ resurrection, strengthened by the Holy Spirit seek to live the promise of God’s Kingdom in their daily lives — will be intertwined with Gospel stories of promise and presence.
A few years ago, there was a series produced for AppleTV+ titled, “Ted Lasso”. It was highly rated by viewers though Amanda and I just got around to watching it last summer… and it was excellent. Brief backstory, a backwater US college football coach is hired to be the head manager (coach) of a topflight English Premier League (Soccer) Team. He knows nothing about the tactics of soccer but brings enthusiasm and positivity to the job that he is hired to do. It ran for three seasons and after a break a fourth season is in production taking “Ted Lasso” in a different direction.
When I was reading the Scriptures for this week I was reminded of a scene from the first season. The soccer team is struggling, they don’t have an identity, they aren’t gelling as a team, so Ted makes a simple sign… blue letters on a yellow poster board stating “BELIEVE”. He lays it out on the table in front of them and speaks of believing from heart, head and gut. He speaks of believing in your own self-worth, that you are worthy of being loved, believing in hope, believing in yourself, believing in each other. Believe carries a lot of weight and meanings in the story and that sign “BELIEVE” gets taped in the locker room throughout the series, a reminder for everyone to believe.
This week, we will remain in John’s Gospel as the story moves from Mary’s encounter in the garden to Jesus’ appearance to the disciples in a locked room. We will hear the story of Thomas not being there and asking for no less than what the other disciples have experienced – to have his encounter with the Risen Christ. And the following week he gets his desire, with Jesus proclaiming to Thomas, “Do not doubt but believe.” That language is how Thomas became the doubter, though a more accurate translation of the Greek would be “do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
As we touched in some of John’s stories during Lent, I mentioned that in John’s Gospel, believing in Jesus isn’t about creedal statements, it is about a relationship. Believe, trust, know interchangeable terms that connect us to Jesus’ abiding presence in your life. This is what Jesus taught them in the farewell discourse, and this is what we need to hear during Easter. Believe – that you are loved. Believe – in the hope of God’s Kingdom. Believe – in yourself and in each other. Believe – with head, heart and soul that Jesus abides with us each and every day. Believe, trust, know that we, like the early followers, are transformed through stories of resurrection to be disciples of love and compassion in the world.
So, as Thomas proclaimed, “My Lord and My God” we will come to worship our God revealed in Jesus and mystery of resurrection with regular services in Ilderton at 9:45 and Melville at 11:00. Let us continue to rejoice in God’s love and feel the energy of God jumping within us!
Steve
April 5, 2026
Happy Easter!
The lyrics from the closing of the Good Friday service continue to run through my head. The lyrics from MV 90 “Don’t be Afraid” were written by John L Bell who was part of the music leadership with the Iona Community in Scotland. (As a side note he will be part of Toronto’s Lester Randall Preaching Fellowship Conference in October that I plan on attending as part of my Continuing Education). For those that couldn’t attend the words are as follows (you can also find them right at the end of the Good Friday service on Facebook).
“Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger,
my love is stronger than your fear.
Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger
and I have promised, promised to be always near.”
The words echo the message of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse in the Gospel of John. When he gathers the disciples for their final meal, he offers language of hope and comfort, language of love and presence, language of courage and trust. He promises a Spirit, an Advocate. It does not make sense to them in the moment, but the seeds of promise are planted.
As we closed our Good Friday service, we sang this verse three times as we sought to feel the promise of Jesus’ teaching. In the face of death, we wanted to experience a God whose love is stronger than our fear… and a God who has promised always to be near.
Before I entered ministry, I had the typical challenge of trying to rationalize Jesus’ resurrection. It doesn’t make sense in our scientific knowhow and for a while, in that in between time of my faith development, it felt like a block. If I can’t make sense of it… then how can I believe.
But, in conversations with my minister and with others whom I trusted, I came to realize two things – one we, as humans, cannot explain resurrection, but it appears that something happened after Jesus’ died that touched so many of his disciples, in so many different ways, so much so that the Gospel writers wrote of those varied experiences. The second things that these conversations helped me to realize is that having faith – in God, in Christ, in the Holy Spirit, in Resurrection, in the Kingdom of God is just that…having faith. We can’t prove it, but we can live it. We can’t prove that we love someone, but we can show it, we can live it. It was a scary jump, but in so doing, I learned to see the world in a different light, I learned to look for the glimpses of the Kingdom of God, and I learned to both feel and trust that God is indeed always near.
Read the lyrics again, and again. Find comfort, find courage, find strength and know that Jesus has always been proclaiming that we are not alone! Let yourself let go and embrace the mystery – we don’t need all the answers, we have faith to guide us. And it is in the spirit of our imperfect that we will celebrate with communion at our regular 9:45 am Easter service in Ilderton and 11:00 am Easter service in Melville. But also, Melville will have a brief Early Easter (an “after sunrise” service) at 8am followed by a potluck breakfast… all are welcome. As we move from Good Friday may we not skip to Easter but try to live in the Holy Saturday uncertainty until we hear those transforming Gospel stories of an empty tomb, of Mary in the Garden, of directions to go and share that Christ is alive. News that will have us jumping for joy! Amen.
Steve
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