HELLO!

If you missed this morning’s funeral for Vera Errington, here it is: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZpPqfJZU71pjmc1hJX0klpDsj0wOjo8Ffqy Please keep her daughter Lori in your prayers.

FINAL CHOWDER OF 2026 WILL BE SATURDAY, NOV. 21. Orders for chowder, choice of whole wheat or white roll, apple or pumpkin pie or carrot cake, preferred pickup,11:30-12 pm, 12-12:30, 12:30 to 1 pm should be phoned to Ralph 902-434-0989 ralphsams@ns.sympatico.ca Orders placed by Wednesday, November 18 at 8 pm guaranteed to be filled.

*Bethe and I are working on our two Christmas Eve services. Please share with me your three favorite Christmas carols, I will keep track of responses. Bethe and I will use the most popular choices in our 4 pm Christmas youth-child led & 8 pm Christmas Communion services*

This Sunday, November 15^th our focus will turn to Matthew 25:14-30. Author and renowned preacher Barbara Brown Taylor asks, “Are we supposed to believe the first two servants in this parable are praiseworthy for making a wealthy man wealthier, for keeping an absentee landlord in business while the third one, the only one who buries the talent where it cannot do any harm, is called out for “overcaution” and “cowardice”? What do we make then of this parable?

This parable cannot or should not be used as an admonition for good financial practices. This would be misusing a profound Gospel invitation into a story where calculation is abolished. That is not the underlying message of our Gospel stories. Witness Luke 14:21 “Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the blind, and the lame”, the opposite of a materialist’s approach to life: we are invited to a meal where there is enough for everyone. In Sunday’s Gospel story, we participate in the joy of our host. “Enter into the joy of your master”. What then can be said about the third servant? If the master is inviting all, as a lesson in superabundant grace and joy (which is nothing other than inviting into discipleship) then the only conclusion that can be drawn is the third servant is not able to hear or accept this invitation. The third servant has not only hidden the talent, he has buried himself. The third servant is not so much condemned as he condemns himself to a place/life that knows no joy. “Enter into the joy of your master”.

Join me, as we accept this grace-filled invitation. Peace, Kevin

PS Lori, filling in for June, some choir members and I will be leading a church service at Oakwood Terrace 10 Mt Hope Ave, Dartmouth this Sunday, November 15^th at 230 pm. Everyone is welcome to join us.