St. Luke's Zion Lutheran Church Welcomes You!

Sometimes I forget that worship, especially communion, isn’t an individual act to be carried out solemnly and with great seriousness. To be sure, there are times when I arrive at communion with deep sorrow and regret. Yes on those days it feels very quiet and solemn. Other times it has a routine feeling that provides comfort with the habitual nature of our weekly practice. Lately I have experienced something totally different. I noticed this at a ministerial worship service, a monthly gathering of the Winnipeg pastors, a deacon, and myself. After the worship service concluded and we were heading into a meeting room, one attendee stopped me and said, “You have to be one of the happiest people in Manitoba right now”. I’m not sure what Manitoba had to do with it. Maybe it was a large enough population of people to make his point without overdoing it? But, what he said was likely true. It was all I could do to keep from laughing and shouting out in excitement during communion that day. You see, on the way over I was a part of some very difficult conversations in my car pool. We were talking about violence and poverty and loneliness and powerlessness. My tendency is to be completely shut down by these realities and conversations about them, stagnating me to such a degree that I retreat physically and mentally and can only think to cry. Not very helpful; not very hopeful. But lately, I’ve been trying to grasp hints of God’s peace and what exactly that might mean for us. There are so many beautiful words in our worship, and what’s even better is that they are words we believe have true meaning and value in our lives and in the world. Like when we share signs of God’s peace and goodness among us now and talk about how all of creation will experience the fullness of God’s grace. Well thank God! – I wanted to cry out that day. Violence and poverty and loneliness and powerlessness are not the final words! Hurrah! There we were, a people gathered together into one. Not just me, not just my tears and my stagnation. A whole people! A whole people who long for and seek God’s peace! That is who we are at communion. That is who we are through all of our days. A people. A people seeking God’s peace in the world. I’m so glad.

I have never been able to keep a New Year’s resolution. In fact, I have stopped making them as I have found it to be an exercise in futility. I start out with the best intentions, but it does not take long before the resolution falls by the wayside. Why does it happen? Why am I not able to stick to my resolution? Is it because I have no willpower? Was my resolution unrealistic or was it simply nor worth the effort? The answers to these questions continue to elude me. However, I have found the answer to a more important question: Am I alone whether in success or failure? No, I am not. I have an advocate in Christ Jesus, who supports and believes in me. He gives me the strength to make decisions and to live with the outcome. As I hear myself reading what I have just written, I am reminded that such resolutions are meant as promises to improve and that there is always room for improvement. Today’s title should in fact be changed to read: “Resolutions Not Needed but Improvements Always Welcomed.”

Debbie Ristimaki

From Eternity for Today ELCIC

A huge thanks for making this year’s Sunday School concert a success goes out to Val Kunkel, Sunday School Teachers, Parents and of course the Sunday School Children! Thanks for all your time and commitment making this an event so treasured! You all did an awesome job!

Information/History of ELCIC and Its’ Mission

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) is the major Canadian representative of the traditions of the Lutheran reformation of the catholic Christian church. Baptized membership is around 152,500 members. (Now exceeding that amount). The ELCIC came into being in 1986 through the merger of two predecessor bodies.

We derive our teachings from the Holy Scriptures and confess the three ecumenical creeds of the Christian church. We hold to orthodox catholic theology as enunciated in the ecumenical councils of the first five centuries of Christianity.

We trace our roots as a confessing movement to the reformation of the catholic church initiated by Dr. Martin Luther in Germany in the 1500s. See Project Wittenberg for a great deal of primary source information. From Germany, Lutheranism spread to Scandinavia and the Baltic states, as well as to other areas in central and eastern Europe.

Today, Lutherans are to be found around the world. Lutherans have been continually present in Canada since the 1750s, when German Lutheran immigrants arrived in Halifax.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada holds membership in the Lutheran World Federation, the Canadian Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada is in full communion with the Anglican Church of Canada. See the joint Waterloo Declaration for details.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada is composed of five synods. From west to east, they are the British Columbia Synod, the Synod of Alberta and the Territories, the Saskatchewan Synod, the Manitoba/Northwestern Ontario Synod, and the Eastern Synod. The presiding officer and chief pastor of each synod is a bishop.

Newsletter Items:

Items for the February newsletter can be given to Trish Rosolowich or emailed to trishroso@shaw.ca by no later than: Sunday, January 23^rd, 2011.

Saturday, January 1st, 2011