News

This letter was shared in worship this morning:


To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven
(Ecclesiastes 3:1)


To: Marlene Davidson, Board Chair, Riverview United Church
Janet Buckley, Secretary, Cambrian Presbytery
CC: Leigh Mills, Chair of M&P, Riverview United Church
Rev. Barb Miller, Chair of Cambrian Presbytery
Rev. Cheryl Kinney Matheson, Chair of MPE, Cambrian Presbytery


In the church we are called to follow the leading of the Spirit. We are called to trust in the Spirit and to live in God's time. In that living into God's time and the leading of the Spirit we remember the wisdom shared in the above line from Ecclesiastes. We also remember that the God who we follow is the one who proclaims through the prophet Isaiah “Behold, I am doing a new thing”.

Over the last year I have done some intentional listening to the voice of the Spirit. And out of that I have realized that the Spirit is calling me to a new place. And so I am writing to request a change in Pastoral Relations, effective July 1, 2010, to enable me to respond to a call to ministry with St. Paul's United Church in Grande Prairie Alberta.

At last month's Presbytery meeting Barb Miller included in her remarks this quote from the movie Hope Floats: Beginnings are usually scary and endings are usually sad, but it's the middle that counts. Try to remember that when you find yourself at a new beginning. Just give hope a chance to float up. And it will. That describes the feelings I have as I write these words. I look at the middle, the 9 years of living and working and “churching” together with all of you. As a family we have been truly blessed to live and work within the faith community of Riverview United Church, the wider community of Atikokan, and the wider faith community of Cambrian Presbytery. It is with sadness that we look to leaving. But with endings come new beginnings and the promise of growth and new experiences and so mixed in with the fear and sorrow is anticipation. And as always, we, who are people of hope and faith, wait for the hope to float up.

As we move into this time of endings and new beginnings may we do so secure in the knowledge that this part of our journey is taken in the presence of God. May God be with us as we all plan for the future. May God work with us as the new thing comes to fruition.

Peace and Love,

Rev Gord Waldie.