We, the Gathering Worship editorial team, would like to introduce ourselves to the whole Gathering Worship community! Get to know a bit about who’s behind the names that appear frequently on your page and screen—the people who put it all together. The first in the series is Susan Lukey. Hello...
We’ve got to stop being defensive about not reading the Bible literally and not believing it is the inerrant word of God. Taking the Bible literally as the inerrant word of God is not “good old-time religion.” The approach only took root about 130 years ago, at “Believers Meetings for...
These prayers were shared in the weekly congregational email and posted on the church website the week before school began. A Prayer for Students and Teachers As a new school year begins, we offer this prayer for students and teachers to use as they enter into the adventure of learning...
Next time you are writing a prayer, consider the period, a simple dot that carries profound power and responsibility. Punctuation was developed in the seventh century CE to help make the written word approximate human speech. For example, a question mark or an exclamation mark at the end of a...
Preaching the Big Questions: Doctrine Isn’t Dusty by Catherine Faith MacLean and John H. Young (United Church Publishing, 2015) Every few months, the question comes to me as a United Church minister from someone in my congregation: “I told someone that I belong to the United Church. They responded, ‘Oh...
As the world around us changes, so does our use of language. Although we have some common images and words that we use often in “church-speak,” we are all becoming more aware of how our language can aid inclusion, honour diversity, and assist with striving for equity and justice. If...
During the summer of 2022, I had the delight of joining the Scouts Canada contingent attending the Finland Scouts national jamboree. The Russian invasion of Ukraine was in its sixth month. A Scout leader from Kyiv, Ukraine, had gathered nine of the ten girls in her Scout troop from their...
We had a delightful time developing the many search possibilities for GatheringWorship.ca. The Gathering team worked hard to imagine what you, as the users of this worship resource, would be looking for, drawing on our own experience as worship leaders. Most of the search filters use drop-down menus. As you...
In 2024, Gathering will celebrate 50 years of sharing worship resources among worship leaders throughout The United Church of Canada and with other denominations in Canada and around the world. For the Pentecost 1 2024 issue, we invite you to tell us what Gathering has meant to you as a...
John Wesley, leader of the English revival movement that came to be called Methodism, provided a way of working with and discerning the message of scripture that now is called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. Wesley said that when one comes to scripture, a particular passage needs to be understood in relationship...
