Holy Week offers up message of hope for local residents

March 16, 2018 · 0 Comments

By Marni Walsh

“Out of hate can come love, out of despair can come forgiveness, and out of no where can come new possibilities.” – Reverend Candice Bist

The Shelburne Ministerial is offering a joint service at the Mel Lloyd Centre on Good Friday. Area ministers will lead biblical readings with music by Bruce Ley to bring congregations together in hope and prayer during the holiest of times in the Christian faith.

The Shelburne Ministerial is formed by leaders of Christian denominations across the community including: Abiding Place Ministries, St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Trinity and Primrose United Churches, Crossroads Community Church, Compass Church, Grace Church of the Nazarene, Bethel Bible Chapel, Shelburne Worship Centre, and St. Patrick’s Catholic Church.

“Things are not going well in the world these days,” reflects Reverend Bist of the Trinity Primrose United Church Charge. “Humanity is stumbling. And sometimes it can seem as if there is no way out of the mess we have gotten ourselves into.”

However, she says, “Holy Week, in the Christian calendar, is a time when we walk right into the middle of that darkness, those things in our lives that don’t seem as if they will ever be right, the economics that internationally, and personally never seem to work, the relationships we currently have with one another, and with nature, that are broken – and we stand there and take a long hard look at the way things are and we say: it doesn’t have to be that way any more.”

Father Paul Mathew Vellimoozhayil pastor for St. Patrick’s Catholic Church reflects on Easter as “a time of transformation and great peace.” He says, “Like the mythical bird Phoenix which dies every five hundred years and rises itself from its own ashes as a new bird, let every Easter be an occasion for each one of us to shed all our negative thoughts as well as attitudes and unhealthy characteristics and grow as people of hope.”

Father Paul’s message is to “Let the darkness of our sad, sorrowful, depressing, unhealthy past experiences fade away from the horizon of our lives and let the peace and joy of the Risen Lord and the hope of a better and brighter future fill our hearts with divine grace and genuine joy. Let this grace and joy be contagious. Let it reach out to those around us.”

The Free Press has also been notified of a Good Friday service on Friday, March 30th at 7 pm at Trinity United Church and Easter Morning Services on Sunday, April 1st at 9:15 am at Primrose United Church and at 11 am at Trinity United Church. St. Patrick’s Melancthon Catholic Church has notified the Free Press of their Services for Palm Sunday on March 25th at 9 am and their Easter Vigil on March 31st at 5 pm to be held at their new place of worship in the United Church at 200 Owen Sound Street in Shelburne.

The Good Friday Service led by the Shelburne Ministerial will be held Friday, March 30th at 10 am in the Mel Lloyd Center at 167 Centre Street (enter by door C.) All are welcome.