September 19, 2021 | Hillhurst United Church

good morning and welcome to hellhurst united church yes we're massed up and yes we're inside it is uh been a difficult week in the city and our province and one of the requirements now is this you have to be i have to be away from you yeah which is really hard for you to do i know we're so glad wherever you are whether you're in ontario or northern alberta somewhere around the world the u.s uh you've tuned in to be part of our service and we're so glad you're here hillhurst has a banner out front says whoever you are wherever you're at join us on the journey and you have chosen to be here so we're so glad it's a little awkward we're uh doing this service our chad who's our photographer videographer whatever his title is isn't here so it's up to us well he finally took a week off he's been working for 15 months straight and he took a week off he took a week off and so it's a little sketchy but you guys are doing a great job we're close to we are to do not later in the available in your backyard at your desk in your car we welcome you whoever you are wherever you're at second practice is spirituality uh we have recognized that not all people are religious but all people are spiritual and this past week the programming started up again uh with elderhood i was glad to be part of a spiritual uh and religious conversation with that group and boy they were excited about being on zoom they were i was really surprised how excited they were but they haven't seen each other like in person but they've seen each other online for three months and there was pure joy in just seeing one another and being with one on another and you know and actually they were thrilled that you were there and offered such an amazing uh lesson also who would have thought we'd be thanking everybody for zoom but they were so glad to be there i i was very surprised and i'm actually really happy it means that what we've got coming up is going to really be something special too good and uh just prior to that on tuesday night we had the board meeting first time our new boards gathered as we're seeking to be a discernment board how do we move through the pandemic season and beyond and it was a great board great questions good engagement too it was fun i was really impressed with the questions that they gave us and uh because it's such a brand new slate of a board um it was interesting um to form a board in the middle of a pandemic or something but the fact that we have people in this congregation that are willing to show up for this incred incredibly important job yeah and help us lead us uh and guide us through all this too we'll be introducing uh them to you over the next few months so you get a chance to know who your new board is social justice uh is the third core value like how do we take what we do here and move it into the world and you have a bit of an example of that as you think about uh our covet and our connection to culture yeah we uh we are we are doing what we can as a staff team also to stop the spread and we i applied for this small business uh coveted tests rapid tests that we could have in the building in case any of our staff members particularly felt that they were exposed or anything so we'd know right away and uh during during your meeting i was actually on facebook because i wasn't i didn't have to listen the whole time so just spoiler alert i was on facebook and uh and uh i saw a post that someone in our neighborhood uh their grandmother had been exposed um and they were really worried she's an elderly grandmother and they were trying to find a rapid test and couldn't find one and i said you know what we've got these it's it's our job to if i see it i need to help with it so anyway i got it and texted her and she actually just lives two streets over and she came over and was stunned i actually didn't have any shoes on and i had shorts on and kind of looked a little a little different and so i go out to her and give her the test and she's like you know so gracious and so gracious and she's like you know why do you have these and things like that and and i and i explained it for the staff and she said well you know it's just it's to be okay that i have it i said yeah i said you know right now we're called to be the church in every way we are called to be the church whether it's you know to to feed someone to to do what we can but to to help stop the spread is really important too and so she just wept she just broke down because now she was going to be able to find out right away or if her grandmother you know had had the the virus so anyway i again i'm so happy to be able to be a part of spreading when we're called to be the church and actually stepping into that so that's good and it's taking uh our church out into the world whether people come here or not you know the last uh core practice is risk and we're heading into an election this week you've heard me say it before it's the most important spiritual thing you can do is do your work on which candidate uh speaks to you and who you want to represent us and so going into the ballot marking an x the most important spiritual thing you do uh this coming week so uh blessings and uh prayers for alberta in crisis as we move into a new week and an election uh we are so glad that you're deciding to be with us and part of this worship service we will be speaking with dr david keegan later in the service a medical expert in the city who's very involved in uh coping response and he helps to share how it connects to his life and faith so we're really glad you're here whoever you are wherever you're at you're in the right place joining us on the journey we are so delighted at uh hill hirsch united church to have tony snow on staff as our indigenous lead he is also the indigenous minister for chinook region uh many of you know tony he's been in workshops president worship standing here sharing his learnings and and wisdom with us and during this month there's so many opportunities to learn from tony about reconciliation and uh it's an invitation to go deeper uh to listen and to learn together and so i want to invite you to go to the chinook winds region website to find a way to connect to the educational opportunities from tony and from one another as we come together in a circle online to learn and grow and our deeper understanding of reconciliation so here's tony the treaty between the yahi nakota the nazitapi and zutina people was signed 144 years ago this week on september 22nd a great peace was made with ceremony and prayer between the crown's representatives the church the rcmp and the human beings god's people from this land we know that months of negotiation brokered an unstable peace yet we as the original people have always honored it despite our differences the treaty was signed in 1877 in 1876 the government of canada created the indian act to subsume and extinguish our rights and sovereignty though this fact for the government's bad faith on display we held to the deal for years the indigenous nations called for accountability even as programs of starvation killed many still our elders held to the deal knowing that one day a better balance would be achieved in this season of creation 144 years later we still seek that justice and peace to force though forced assimilation indoctrination acts of genocide and residential schools are people held to the wisdom of our ancestors never giving up who we were and who we were destined to become the original teachings remain written on our hearts and in this land we know that as long as the sun shines and rivers flow this land remembers us and knows who we are it calls us to connect and rejuvenate our souls to perform stewardship and prayer as the original people of this land may it always be some there are many opportunities coming up that we can take part we can take advantage of those opportunities we can also do things on our own like read the treaty or read the calls to action every month there are activities and events that you can join us on this journey toward reconciliation welcome to hillhurst united church i'm keith murray the affirmative coordinator here and we're so glad you're here this morning hellhurst united church is an affirming community of faith and what does that mean that means we celebrate the sacred worth and value each person as a part of our community no matter what your gender identity or expression your sexual orientation your age race ethnic background economic circumstance health status all of you are welcome all of us are celebrated here and our beloved children of god we hope you enjoy this morning service welcome to hellhurst united church [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] like a foreign rain like a river [Music] oh [Music] like is [Music] if you saw the newspaper on thursday it the headline is alberta in crisis and indeed our province is in crisis as we move through this pandemic we've hit another low and i'm also aware that many people are experiencing lows in their life people ill of body and wondering and worrying about health care people ill of mind as we wrestle with mental health facing all these challenges and then of spirit and it all impacts us body mind and spirit there are many ways to seek healing whether it's in creation or listening to music or exercise or reading or being silent but one of the ways that's important to us in this community if we were gathering we would walk around and ask people to name the joys and the concerns and we miss hearing those joys and concerns but when we gather we'll share some words together and then in silence invite you to open your heart and your mind as we seek healing and health please join me spirit we pray for wellness and for repair healing for ourselves for others and the planet be in our breathing that your healing presence come in silence we pray [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] we gather our words in song as we sing together the lord's prayer [Music] be done on earth [Music] us our sins as we forgive those who seek against us [Music] the [Music] in the scripture today jesus asks a very important question and the question is do you want to be well we trust that if there's a desire to be well it is the spirit that helps us to heal and to walk and to run anew so trust this great good news we are loved forgiven and set free god is the one that will help us to do so in the name of the father son and holy spirit may be so amen you know uh as we have a cold church and we just and we'll have a sermon outside today i've been very thankful for the light of this candle and the heat of this candle as we go about our ministry in this church it requires the resources that you're able to share and so i invite you if you're able to make a gift online or you'll see the slide that will come before you there's a way to say yes we support the ongoing life and work of this church seven days a week so i invite you now to res to offer your gifts and we receive them in gratitude [Music] all who are thirsty [Music] come to the fountain [Music] god's mercy as he cries [Music] lord jesus christ [Music] christ [Music] we cry lord jesus [Music] [Music] dip your heart in the stream of life [Music] be washed away in the ways of god's mercy as deep cries [Music] lord jesus christ [Music] come lord jesus christ [Music] holy spirit [Music] holy spirit [Music] jesus was a storyteller he loved to ask questions he was curious today we hear him pose a question that speaks to us amidst this pandemic season a reading from the gospel according to john chapter 5. later on jesus went up to jerusalem for one of the jewish festivals now at the sheep pool in jerusalem there is a place with five colon odds its name in the language of the jews is bethesda in these colonos there lay a crowd of sick people blind lame and paralyzed among them was a man who had been ill for 38 years when jesus saw him lying there and was aware that he had been ill for such a long time he asked him do you want to be well sir he replied i have no one to put me in this pool when the water is disturbed but while i am moving someone else is in the pool before me jesus answered rise to your feet take up your bed and walk the man recovered instantly took up his stretcher and began to walk okay good morning we are sitting outside of hill hershey united church and a sunny day it's thursday it's a little chilly uh but here we are and i'm really pleased to have david keegan from our congregation with us this morning uh we are going to be in conversation uh about many things today i'm thrilled david's going to be here uh part of our congregation for a long time what drew him to the congregation i know is musicals he was in the sound of music honk um narnia uh b and b beauty and the beast and joseph and i also remember i was telling him before we started about uh the baptism of his son john i remember standing at the front of the church and saying okay we're gonna baptize john but hold on john wasn't in the room neither was david suddenly the wide open charges in david with john under his arm got him i needed to change a diaper so anyway here we are in this place uh david you are a congregant a singer a friend and you are in the midst of this covet uh experience ran as a medical doctor and we thought it was so important to hear from you you know i picked up this morning's paper as i often do well i don't pick it up but i read it alberta in crisis uh nobody uh here is um well everyone here is aware we're in this from your side and what you're seeing what's going on what do you make of what's going on with covet in alberta 18 months in well and this connects is the the actual main reason the first reason we came to hill hurst united church was my wife found hillhurst online and she said david listen to this whoever you are wherever you're at come join us and we thought hey that that fits for us and and we're here and that connects to where we are today because alberta is a society our our government hasn't enabled us to actually get through this together so where we are right now is uh our health system is breaking and what does that mean what that means is that we are days away from not having the space or the people with the correct kind of knowledge and skills to take care of people who get seriously ill what that means is that all sorts of surgeries and other procedures are being delayed so there's going to be death and impairment and worsened disability and worsened outcomes and more depression and more chaos in people's lives because of delayed procedures so that we've been able to care for people who are urgently critically ill today what it means is that our health care workers are all exhausted and not being supported by the government the government had all the projections all the scientific projections months ago we should never have reduced our restrictions so quickly after the third wave and the government knew that but they did it anyways they did it anyways in a false hope thinking that the the there was a decoupling of cases uh and admissions when in fact the research showed there wasn't a decoupling in alberta canada or the united states and yet they did it anyways and then when the all the scientific projections showed we were going to have this big wave nothing happened and when they finally brought in weak restrictions they were the weakest ever the mass exemption had holes so where we are now is we're in a place that i've never lived in my life and probably most people haven't before where our government has chosen disability death and despair as a purposeful choice and so what does that do to people what does that do to people our friends and our neighbors and our family what does that do to our colleagues what does that do to our health system and people trying to do their best and getting exhausted when our government has been just doing so little so late with all sorts of ridiculous exemptions that make no medical sense we're in for unfortunately the next two three maybe four weeks are going to be the darkest times maybe in alberta's history so what we can do is care for each other get vaccinated mask up be kind try to limit activities with other people don't eat indoors and do your absolute best to stay safe you know one of the things uh i i agree with you i've been saying for a long time i think october november is going to be tough uh and and i actually i i worry about violence i mean there's a huge anger in our culture uh all of us have just below the surface uh this anger that's simmering one of the things that's disturbed me so much as an albertan when i travel is to say i'm an albertan i've been so embarrassed by that and that bothers me but also when i see protesters outside the hospital i just want to shake and go what is this about what's your take on what are you hearing from your colleagues or nurses and doctors about going for 12-hour shifts dealing with people who are very ill and stepping out and then being harassed what's what's that about well they hate it they don't understand it and they're they're confused and they're they say like so really the person who's against vaccinations who's not gonna get vaccinated who has a high likelihood of getting sick is protesting to the exact people who are gonna help them but more important than that is what the kids in my practice are saying i've got kids in my clinic who are crying with their mask on saying i don't understand why adults just won't do what they're supposed to do why aren't the grown-ups doing what they're supposed to do the kids have had their friendships and their schooling interfered with and zooming back and forth between well zoom and in person and reducing children's ability to engage with each other to go to school to be involved in sports and so on those are the absolute last things we should be restricting we've got still so many more options but we're we're at this point where it's like again we're people are angry but what they're doing is they're hurting kids you hurt kids that has trickle down effects that's eating disorders that's suicide attempts that's anxiety like i think of these kids so many who who've just been crying in my clinic saying why can't grown-ups do what grown-ups are supposed to do and you know what they're right so why are people angry i don't know i think it's because they've got a lot of hurt inside somewhere nobody wants this like i don't want any of the things that we want now i don't want any restrictions i hate masks i i hate all this but we all do of course we do but when i went to school we learned like multiple times that you know a free society means that your restrictions might have to be sometimes compromised when there's an outbreak of a major disease we learn this so many times and and i think some people maybe either didn't learn it or don't believe it but i i think that the root of anger is fear and sadness and grief but it's really just exploding now and my colleagues who are having to see these protests they're they're just upset yeah yeah i uh i see lots of anger and i you know i so sympathize with healthcare workers who uh are involved in um helping and caring for people in a very difficult time you know as this as i think about this and i think about how this relates to our church we are outside so that we're safe uh on a cool day uh talking about this issue i've been thinking a lot about healing because that's a big part of what you do and the people you work with and i'm aware that uh they'll say that jesus number one thing he was a healer uh marcus borg who wrote a book meeting jesus again for the first time says jesus was a spirit person he was a healer a prophet a wisdom teacher and a movement maker not as he was about a movement not about an institution but that's another sermon but the healing part is this jesus they say was a part of physical healings that he had some kind of capability to heal and some people just dismissed that right now but probably everybody knows there are people in the world who heal but more than that jesus was someone who is about a grander healing so they'll say that jesus healed disease that is physical ailment but more than he was about healing dis-ease dis-ease is the cultural social economic political unrest in the world by inviting people to a kind of compassion and justice and love that was wider so the dis ease of the world you know in the biblical text that we're looking at today there's a great line which i love of jesus it's a wisdom text here's this guy he's been sitting around a healing pool for 38 years he's not getting any getting better and jesus walks by and he looks at the guy and he simply says this do you want to be well do you want to be well and i think that's a key question he doesn't assume jesus asked the question do you want to be well i have a i have a sense that's the question all of us have to say is albertans do we want to be well and what does it mean to be well in our culture and our society when you think about where we're at in the social environment what's your sense of that about healing as a society i think you're right i think the key thing is what do we want to happen from the pandemic and if our common goal and i think it is every single albertan wants to be free of these restrictions every single albertan wants to enjoy life and the world we're in as much as we can and grow and learn and have our kids thrive i think people pretty much can agree on that the challenge is that we've got disagreement on how to get there despite science showing the path and not just science like we've got newfoundland labrador pei nova scotia within our own country from the beginning have had have been able to actually have the least overall restrictions and the low a very low rate of infections um you know zero on many days because they've taken a strong approach early and then they're able to dial things down quickly and so when we're in our own country and can see that example and other countries around the world france did a big study on canada looking at how within canada there's been the two approaches and and then when quebec is able to look at that too and change strategy so quebec was more like the albertan strategy but now has shifted and as a result they are nowhere near in the difficult place that alberta is right now so when we've got all this evidence if we can somehow come together and be strategically guided about what do we want do we want to heal from this pandemic and get our lives back closer to normal if the answer is yes then let's just follow the example of and the humility of quebec for shifting gears now i know that that's a bit of an issue for alberta maybe to be inspired by quebec so let's just be inspired by nova scotia um but then there's what do we do with all of this where we're looking at people who are our friends maybe family who have taken very anti-science stances that we know have made the pandemic worsen you know how do we heal that i i think with as much openness and compassion and mercy and forgiveness as we can it's hard to do right now when we've got a government that still is not requiring close contacts of positive patients to quarantine that still is allowing all sorts of exemptions to the new measures if only we had clear guidance that was based on science and a humility in our leaders to say we were wrong we were really wrong and now we're going to do everything in our power to protect albertans if we had that then we can move forward all we need all we need is about nine weeks of good solid measures and we can get to where nova scotia pei and newfoundland labrador are that's it that's it's just a little bit of patience to not strip away measures too quickly if that had been done in june we would never have had this wave we would have had sure the occasional person but you test trace and isolate so it's challenging when the when things are on fire it's like it's like a house you know if a candle is lit and it's in a safe place you could probably walk away but if your kitchen's on fire you can't pretend the kitchen's on fire and it's kind of hard to have a really nice healing conversation with somebody when the kitchen's on fire so we have to recognize our kitchen is on fire people we are we are heading to maybe the darkest times in alberta's history including the dust bowl years including war time this is our home front and we share it and as long as we can get clear strong principled science-based leadership then we can move forward and we can quickly get to covet zero and reopen our our world on our society and give each other hugs so when you that's helpful so you're sort of clearly saying which i saw in the globe and mail there was a story we thought you called for uh for a lockdown of sorts uh or not maybe not of sorts a firebreak don't want to use the l word okay but really yes you know what you're doing you're saying you're saying look it's going to be we need two months of solid work on this and then that'll get us through kind of back to a normal quarter as if we can do every measure protect kids ability to hopefully be able to do school and activities it might be just so bad now that we might be forced there is transmission children despite what some people will deny it's no it's real there is transmission children if we had very close testing tracing isolation even testing of non-symptomatic people with which again is still not accommodated by the government government is not doing is not permitting testing of people without symptoms you know but if we brought in all these proper measures we could protect school kids ability to continue to maybe like engage with each other properly or as best we can and everything else tightened up dramatically we can get to a place it was there we could have prevented the second wave we could have prevented the third wave we could have prevented this wave so let's prevent the fifth wave because the fifth wave is coming the fifth wave will be here there is the lambda variant there is the mu variant there are going to be new variants so this is the most diabolical virus we've ever encountered so we're going to be in this situation again but we can prevent it just like the atlantic provinces have okay so when you know when you talk about very practical things which you're saying uh and and the pandemic in particular uh you know i've heard people say that in in church world that this is the major shift in the last 500 years the biggest thing that we've had to deal with as churches and as all institutions education government uh health care etc major major shift i i i've heard people say this is going to take at least a decade and the shifting and breaking crumbling and rebuilding is is probably a good thing in that we'll have a more solid future together the jewish people would call it tukulum which means the repair of the world and we're seeing that with climate change we're seeing that with violence around the world it feels like all of this is coming into our attention so that we can uh shake ourselves into a long and lasting healing do you believe that yes and i think like i'm appalled by some of the absolutely immoral things i've seen church leaders say and do in this pandemic you know i've seen videos of mega church people saying that covetous was fake and so on it's like i i i can understand when when somebody who's got a busy life might you know not understand that this is possibly real and maybe that there's potential risk for vaccines but then they you seek out good information and or good sources of information but i don't understand when a leader of a church clearly seems to be putting something else in front of life and love like i just don't understand that except for it would seem that they've decided that politics the money something is more important the the size of the church or i don't know what it is it's an embarrassment to me i mean i i uh you get embarrassed of being a church leader when people brand all the same uh one of the things you've told me is that hillhurst has a good reputation in the medical community uh for the the uh policies that we're following the strategy we're following in around this healthcare thing because i think it's it's hard to you can't paint all paint everybody with the same brush so my question for you too is you know what what's been helpful to you uh personally going through all of this well lots of things first um as many people know i've had a very complex health journey this past year so what's been helpful are the people who've cared for me personally so my wife and my kids have been a huge help during this time period but i've had some great health care providers but beyond that though i have to say i've been really it's been really wonderful to think that okay our church believes in science and believes in the grace of science that has been given to us to see our path forward so that's been nice to have that sphere of my life be strong and solid uh it's been wonderful to see people ask good questions and to see when people are hearing different things and say i'm hearing this is this true but then they ask and they seek out so that's been wonderful um i'm seeing i i have say some bits of entertainment like come from away like i'm from newfoundland so i always kind of love the idea of come from away the musical and my wife and i got to see it in real life and but i've been playing that soundtrack over amazing and over and over this soundtrack of songs about people helping each other in an unexpected crisis uh that has been like bomb um and exercise has been also critical for me too but in the clinic where i work everybody's you know we're all on the same team we're all working together and uh there's been actually many beautiful things that have come out of all this i've met i've made friendships that i never would have expected and probably never would have made had it not been for how we're interacting on figuring out coveted messaging and getting good reliable information now to the public uh and so there's been in this dark time still some beautiful things happening and looking for the stars instead of looking at the dark has been key uh but there are days when the government when i see graphs projecting all these cases and i know 10 percent of them 10 of these kids will have long-term disability and this is preventable and our government's doing nothing there are times when it's just so much and those times i've just sometimes cried and then but my wife says you know tears aren't bad and and after crying comes peace and determination to save every life we can save every kid from social and physical disability save do what we can to repair and get us through this together you know you answered in lots of ways the question that's in the in the story for the day do you want to be well and you've given very clear uh do you want to be well yeah you want to be well but i mean i think that's a question we have to ask all ourselves and the people we bump into who seem to not want to be well do you want to be well and if you do this is what it means so i want to i want to thank you for being part of our community and being a public witness in the world to good science and good health and healing for all of us this is not going to be over quickly but we can take action to move it as quick as we can and then really sit and discern about who we want to be and how we want to be in the world so i give thanks that you're part of our community and part of this conversation today well thank you but i also want to thank you i want to thank anne i want to thank the entire team i want to thank annie and the board and i want to thank the congregants knowing hillhurst has got this together and the space you created for science to kind of help us do the right thing has been wonderful for i think all of us and you know i think about our last thanksgiving the the the service here and how beautiful that was and so this this place but the people who make this place this place you've done a really critical thing in this time so thank you thanks david friends i'm really delighted to introduce uh jesse peters who is offering a gift of music from his home uh jesse is our uh artist in residence in music at hill hirsch united church and so welcome jesse hi my name is jesse i'm the new music and arts resident at hillhurst and it's a real honor to be uh part of this today um as john and david have laid out so well we're navigating a really challenging time and i know you know if if any of you are like me you were starting to hope that maybe we were moving forward and then getting the this news is just so it's so deeply discouraging so today i'm going to lean into a part of our tradition that we call lament now this spiritual practice exists for us to name reality as it is to name that we're discouraged to name that we're we're having a hard time to name the fact that we're we're angry we're sad we're frustrated or confused to name those things in order to process them and be able to move towards a space of hope so i've chosen a song i wrote a little while ago and i hope that there's some of that in there for you whether it's hearing somebody say out loud what you've been thinking or just a space to sit with how you're feeling and allow the spirit to enter into that [Music] i can't see a purpose in this my vision blurs and my soul is kissed by dough wish i could figure this thing out [Music] god i can't begin to understand my sense is dulled and my spirit screams for hope i can't carry this alone [Music] so don't leave me here on my own oh love all love speak your flame into my heart again on love all love hold these arms until they're strengthening them until my aching heart beats again [Music] god i can't see hope in this my arms are tired of holding lifelines in this mess i'm troubled i confess god i can't begin to understand my hands are callous dryers burning sand i need water in this thirsty land oh love all love speak your flame into my heart again [Music] hold these arms and tell their strength in them until my aching heart beats again so [Music] oh love [Music] speak your flame into my heart again oh love all love hold these arms and tail their strength [Music] speak your blame into my heart again oh [Music] hold these arms until there's strength left in them [Music] speak your blame into my [Music] hold these arms until there's strength afternoon [Music] until my aching heart beats again conversation with david's been helpful we invite you to share it uh with your friends with others because i think there is wisdom about the medical tradition that he's providing us with as well as an invitation for us to seek to ask ourselves do we want to be well and what does that mean for us in our living our church tries to encourage body mind and spirit health and we trust that god's spirit will be with you and me as we journey in this coming week in the name of the father son and holy spirit one god mother of us all may it be so amen without your sweet kiss my soul has lost my friend now tell me how do i begin again my city's in ruins my city's so come on riser come on rise up come on come on riser come on rise up come on riser come on [Music] now with these hands with these hands o with these hands o with these hands o with these hands with these hands o with these hands o with these hands now with these hands [Music] now with these hands [Music] [Music] [Music] come on rise up [Music] [Music] come on come on [Music] come touch our hearts that we may know [Music] justice to seek a world more gracious come touch and bless come touch our souls that we may know and love your quiet prayers [Music] of understanding to welcome truth and wisdom come [Music] your great strength that we may rise [Music] [Applause] [Music] our wheels [Music] [Applause] all of those [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] friends [Music] and there's a blood red circle on the cold dark ground and the rain is falling down the church door's thrown i can hear the organ song but the congregation's gone my city of ruins [Music] my city of ruiz now the sweet veils of mercy drift through the evening trees young men on the corner like scattered leaves and the boarded up windows and the empty streets while my brother's down on his knees my city of ruins my city of ruins so come on rise come on riser come on rise up come on riser come on rise up come on come on [Music] now there's tears on the pillow darling where we slept and you took my heart before he left without your sweet kiss my soul has lost my friend now tell me how do i begin again my city's in ruins my cities and new ways so come on riser come on rise up come on riser come on riser come on rise up come on come on [Music] now with these hands with these hands oh with these hands o with these hands o with these hands with these hands go with these hands o with these hands [Music] now with these hands there with these hands [Music] [Music] come on rise up come on rise up come on rise up come on rise up come on come on come on come on [Music] come touch our hearts [Music] justice to seek a world more gracious come touch and bless your souls [Music] let life and beauty fill us come touch and bless our souls [Music] help us [Music] your great strength that we may rise [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Hillhurst United Church

Views: 532

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Hillhurst United Church, Calgary Church, Welcoming Church, Affirming, Church, Gay Church, Calgary NW church, Kensington Church, LGBTQ, LGBT, John Pentland, Anne Yates-Laberge, United Church of Canada, livestream church, canada, alberta, god, jesus, spirituality, social justice, feminist, feminism church, gender, gender equality, progressive, progressive church, liberal church, mainline church, liberal, mainline, brian mclaren, richard rhor, theology, bible, spiritual church

Id: BuAoIIHlXDw

Length: 64min 2sec (3842 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021