I’m writing this the day after our in-person Sunday Celebration service at the Rotary Centre for the Arts, and my glow is still on.
What a delight it was to be together! What a joy to see everyone in attendance and to sing loud and proud without having to wear masks, unless we chose to do so. (I noticed my hearing is so much better when I can see lips moving!! LOL!) I’d wondered if I would feel awkward hugging after going without ‘public hugs’ for so long, but no way — it was warm and wonderful. Thanks!
I so love that the feeling of community is alive and well within CSL Kelowna! We were uplifted by the music and spirit of Rev. Barb Samuel — Sista B and her Boyz! It was so good to be immersed in the vibration of her voice and the great music of the band playing a lot of the songs that have become signatures for our Centre: “We Let the Love Wash Over Us”, “The Spirit of God is Upon Me” and lots, lots more. I loved that they also did a beautiful rendition of “Let There Be Peace on Earth” which was so poignant for our times with the situation in Ukraine. Ending the service with “We Are Family” was so reminiscent of the family community that we’ve known and loved over the years. Thank you Rev. Barb (aka Sista B and the Boyz). We are blessed, blessed, blessed! (That song will be for another Sunday!)
I’m delighted to say we’ll be back at the Rotary Centre for the Arts for our In-Person Easter Sunday service on April 17th. I can’t tell you how happy I am to say that by then, all mandates will be lifted and we can truly welcome everyone. My personal apologies to those who couldn’t attend yesterday due to the one mandate still in place. (Sigh…)
Yesterday marked the full two years since we’ve held our regular in-person Sunday services. Now that things are opening back up, your Board of Trustees and myself are working on our next iteration of being. So far in our searching (now that we also have a beloved online community as well as our local people), it has seemed to be somewhat of a challenge to come up with a location that will house us locally as well as provide the necessary internet strength and set up required for us to offer a quality hybrid service. I’m putting this out there, with the hopes that maybe someone reading these words, just might know of the right location for us to support our needs (maybe even something like sharing a space with an already existing community). If you know of or think of something, please reach out to me, at revgord@shaw.ca. I know our next ‘home’ is ready and waiting for us and we are ready to discover it!
I also want to let you know we had a wonderful open house at the Peace Centre yesterday. It was so good to see so many of you and I’m hoping many more will be able to attend our more formal goodbye, gratitude and Releasing Ceremony, that will take place there on Sunday, March 26th at 10:30am. Dr. Nadene Rogers will be facilitating the event so that our Centre’s leadership (our Board members, our Staff Ministers and our Practitioners), in addition to our community, can receive and be nurtured during this time of goodbye to our building. Everyone is welcome.
Peace and many blessings,
Dr. Deborah
PS: Our AGM is on March 27th on Zoom. In order to vote, you’ll need to make sure your online Membership form is completed by 5pm PT on March 26th.
If you missed yesterday’s In-Person Sunday Celebration at the Rotary Centre for the Arts, with the talk given by Dr. Deborah Gordon titled Conscious Completions, you can watch it (and other past services) on the CSLK YouTube channel.
MIND-FULL MOMENT
“I want to tell everybody to celebrate every day, to savour the day and be good to yourself, love yourself, and then you can be good to others and be of service to others.”
— Charlotte Rae
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