Join us at the Farm Centre, 420 University Ave.

Charlottetown, PE Sunday mornings 10:00 am - 12:00 PM

January
The Violence of Final Solutions
Posted on December 31, 2013 by Merry Monk of Love (Erik Guzman) Posted in Merry Musings

12
SPEAKER

2014

Serving this Sunday

WORSHIP TEAM
Tom Zawacki Jesse Ray Jenkins

Utopian idealism makes utopias impossible. The impure, those who dont measure up to the utopian ideals, eventually must be cleansed from the ranks through dystopian violence. This has proven true throughout history by tribes, governments and religions alike. The divisions continue in my own faith tradition, if not through physical violence then through severed communion in the name of doctrinal purity. This from a body of believers who claim the name of the one who prayed that we, may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

So, what to do, separate from those who refuse to acknowledge the unity of all believers? Are we to eventually be one by forming new denominations within which we are the only pure member? It sounds silly, but thats what utopian idealism gets you isolation and loneliness. What if we stop trying to answer Jesus prayer and instead realize that our Father already has? We are one. It is finished. None of our efforts to purify ourselves and our communities can add anything to our union, they only serve to lessen our experience of a gift freely given by an unconditionally loving God. God in us and us in God, union with the one who is love, what a beautiful reality. We have to stumble within it and dare to hope it is true, every day, every minute, if we are to dwell with each other in greater degrees of peace and love. continued on page 2

CHILDRENS & TODDLER MINISTRY

TBA

CLEAN UP TEAM B

Brian Read, Steve & Deb Price, Ferne MacEwen, Tom Banks, Patsy Doiron, Justin Perry, Donna Wigmore

Charlottetown Community Church

Part of the Vineyard Network in Canada P.O. Box 1081 Charlottetown, PE C1A 7M4 Pastor Tom Zawacki (902) 892-5001

communitychurch@pei.aibn.com www.charlottetowncommunitychurch.com

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CHURCH NEWS
Church website is now updated with all activities. If you would like to get something in the newsletter (prayer request, announcement, etc.), please email it to communitychurch@ pei.aibn.com by Wednesday of each week.

CHURCH FINANCES

Four Week Average: $1,631.85 Four Week Average Needed: $2,000.00 Lets keep praying for God to supply all we need!

Now, you may not give a s**t about what religious people suffer because of our religion, but everyone wants better relationships. We all suffer from a lonely thirst that is only quenched by the living water all around us even within us. This is the way to healing for both a broken church and for our broken relationships. The alternative is more pain and division. Check out this extended quote from Henri Nouwen about the futility of burdening those we love with divine expectations. I hope seeing the problem clearly helps point you to more love and unity in the coming year.
When our loneliness drives us away from ourselves into the arms of our companions in life, we are, in fact, driving ourselves into excruciating relationships, tiring friendships and suffocating embraces. No friend or lover, no husband or wife, no community or commune will be able to put to rest our deepest cravings for unity and wholeness. And by burdening others with these divine expectations, of which we ourselves are often only partially aware, we might inhibit the expression of free friendship and love and evoke instead feelings of inadequacy and weakness. Friendship and love cannot develop in the form of an anxious clinging to each other. They ask for gentle fearless space in which we can move to and from each other. As long as our loneliness brings us together with the hope that together we no longer will be alone, we castigate each other with our unfulfilled and unrealistic desires for oneness, inner tranquility and the uninterrupted experience of communion. Indeed, it seems that the desire for final solutions often forms the basis for the destructive violence that enters into the intimacy of human encounters. Mostly this violence is a violence of thoughts, violating the mind with suspicion, inner gossip or revengeful fantasies. Sometimes it is a violence of words disturbing the peace with reproaches and complaints, and once in a while it takes the dangerous form of harmful actions. Violence in human relationship is so utterly destructive because it not only harms the other but also drives the self into a vicious circle asking for more and more when less and less is received. - Henri Nouwen (Reaching Out)

CHURCH GROUPS
There is lots going on, be free, go where the life is, family first.

THE SHACK BOOK CLUB January 15.

Wednesday 7:00 p.m. at Tom & Nadine Zawackis home. Will be completing the book. All welcome

WOMENS GROUP Mondays 7:00.

At Linda MacFarlanes house.

GET INVOLVED!
OUR ELDERS TEAM
The elders are: Wayne & Natalie Simmons, Errol & Shelagh Campbell, Greg & Debbie MacKinnon, Garfield & Brenda MacDonald and Tom & Nadine Zawacki. Please feel free to contact us anytime with your thoughts, questions or ideas.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

Positions we are often looking to have help with are: MEDIA, OFFERING COLLECTION, WORSHIP TEAMS, CLEAN-UP TEAMS, CHILDRENS MINISTRY

OFFERING AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

We are looking for people willing to take up the offering and make weekly announcements. Please contact Tom if interested to be added to a schedule.

COMMUNION

PRAYER REQUESTS
The prayer list is refreshed at the start of each month. All
existing requests will be removed. If you would like your request returned to the list or new requests added, please indicate on the Facebook page, or contact Tom Zawacki.

We do communion on the first Sunday of each month. We are looking for volunteers to offer a meditation and lead us through that part of the service. Please see Tom if interested to be added to a schedule.

FACEBOOK

Lori Knox-Nelsons father and family

Healing, support and encouragement through his fight with cancer.

Joining the Charlottetown Community Church Facebook group is the fastest way to get up to the minute news, prayer requests and get in on discussions. Check it out today!