Sunday Sermon Videos Coming Soon!
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A MESSAGE FROM OUR RECTOR, THE REV’D. CATHY LEE CUNNINGHAM
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT CATHY LEE
She likes to be called by her baptismal name, “Cathy Lee,” no titles, please!
Cathy Lee works part-time in the parish, 20 hours per week, normally on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday Evening.
eMail: beaverbankrector@gmail.com
Parish Office Phone: 902-865-0203
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Warmest love and greetings to you!
Dear Friend:
Welcome to our website, I’m so glad you’re here!
As followers of Jesus — here in Beaver Bank, Nova Scotia — love is at the core of all we do. We believe that the profound love that God holds for us and for the world is eternal, a bond that can never be broken.
That love courses through our veins. It is God’s hope that we will be faithful ambassadors of this most precious gift and that we will pour it out into the world throughout our lives, to transform and heal the small corner of the world where God has planted us to serve one another in holiness and peace.
Jesus was such an extraordinary human being — as much as He is my Saviour, He has always been my hero, the One I want to emulate in my life for ever. He is the friend who will never disappoint you or let you down. And His life inspires beyond measure.
He lived every aspect of His life to show us what God intends the world to be — filled with love, compassion and dignity for every human being. A place where everyone has what they need to feel loved, to be safe, sheltered, clothed, fed and happy.
Jesus chose to use the power of His life to create a better and more just world for all people — and so can we.
As Christians, we are His hands, His voice and His feet, until He comes again at the end of time.
In the face of intense opposition from the religious and civic authorities of His time, Jesus broke down all the barriers before Him, to bring dignity to those cast aside and totally alone in the ancient world, to heal the brokenhearted, and, most of all, to show us how to live, like He did, with open minds and hearts — and the unshakable belief that with God nothing will be impossible for us to do or accomplish in the service of building the world that He showed us how to create.
Many have said that God abandoned us during the pandemic, and they’ve wondered why God doesn’t do something. Many have concluded that God must be cruel.
I don’t see it that way. At the beginning of creation, God gave us the entire world and each other to care for in God’s name. But we’ve chosen to use the world in ways that destroy rather than heal. Mother Earth is hurting. Understandably, she’s now reacting to save herself, and COVID is a sign of the depth of her pain.
I don’t believe that God caused COVID. I do believe that our collective choices and actions as a human race have brought us to this crisis point in human history. God has given us the precious gift of total freedom to live on earth as we choose. And the gift, in Jesus, of showing us how to rise up out of darkness and bring healing to our world.
Yet, we have not treated the earth well, and now we are living through this pandemic time as a consequence of that. COVID-19 is the mammoth cry of Mother Earth out of her pain — for us to wake up, radically change our ways and heal her. And God’s voice is now calling us to be more holy and to fight for what’s most sacred in the world as the hands, feet and voice of the love Jesus.
There is the story of the one who cried to God — Why don’t you do something, God?
God’s response: “I did, I made you.”
The fact that God hasn’t swooped down to fix everything tells me one thing: God still fully believes our capacity to get it right, to turn this terrible trajectory around, to save the planet and indeed ourselves, to offer all that we have to make this world what God originally intended it to be. God is asking us to see that it’s not too late and to do something about it!
These times are showing us all what we’re made of — and God is with us every step of the way. When we move through them with love, we cannot fail.
It is my prayer that you will feel God’s love for you — surrounding you, carrying you, strengthening you — deeply in your heart and your soul.
Always know that with God’s love in your heart, there is nothing you can’t face, bear, overcome, heal or accomplish.
God bless you now and always!
I do hope that you will join us on this wonderful journey of life and faith — to amplify your love, your gifts and to grow in your relationship with our community of faith, and, above all, with God who loves you beyond measure.
With my eternal love in Jesus,
Cathy Lee
PARTICIPATING THE THE GLOBAL CLIMATE STRIKE MARCH IN HALIFAX
September 20th, 2019
It was a joy to march with thousands in Halifax on that gorgeous day, and with our little contingent from Good Shepherd: Nancy and Norman Kemp and me, joined by our dear friend, Archdeacon Mark Kingsbury, Rector of St. Francis by the Lakes, Lower Sackville.
The strange photo in the slideshow (with part of Nancy’s face at bottom left and mine at bottom right, and Norman and Mark’s feet) was our first attempt at participating in a “Die In”, on the sidewalk in front of Nova Scotia Power during the march.
I’m not very good at taking “selfies” while lying flat on a sidewalk!
THE UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
The “Why” Behind the Climate Strike and March
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COMING SOON, FOR 2023!
SACRED TOGETHER ONLINE COMMUNITY
I’m also excited to tell you about the new online community I’m building, to support you in these times, called SACRED TOGETHER, which will go live next year. It’s not a Facebook Group, it’s something different, with many possibilities for bringing us together under a virtual roof for out-of-the-box discussions, learning and sharing in new ways. Great fun ahead inside the virtual rooms, activities and conversations of your choosing!
I’M LAUNCHING MY OWN YOUTUBE CHANNEL, WHERE YOU CAN WATCH MY WEEKLY SERMON
In addition to these two things, I’ll be offering a new YouTube Channel, where I’ll post my weekly sermon and other things, yet to be revealed! I’m finally taking the leap, after several of you have asked me to do so, for too long! Now seems like the right time to enter in. I will keep you posted about launch day — sometime this coming Fall.
Please take a moment to sign up for our live online ZOOM gatherings and worship, if you haven’t already, by clicking HERE.
I feel so extraordinarily blessed to be the Rector of this amazing parish. The love that is shared here, and the caring and compassion that is so freely given by our members — one to another — has been one of the most beautiful gifts of God in my life. Everyone who joins us tells us that’s why they stay. That’s why I stay!
It will bring me great joy to have you join us on the journey, as we wrestle with the challenges of life at this time in history, when so many of us are sick, hurting, afraid of what might come and how this all might turn out.
It is with one another, hand-in-hand with God, that we move through our fears and find our strength to keep going, no matter what.
God bless you, those you love — and those you find difficult to love — in the light of Jesus, who is our friend, our heart and our guide for ever,
Cathy Lee +
TO CONTACT ME:
Parish eMail: beaverbankrector@gmail.com
Parish Office Phone: 902-865-0203
