South Stormont Pastoral Charge

Recently, humanity reached another remarkable milestone. We set a new record for the farthest distance humans have ever travelled. On April 11, Artemis II completed its mission of about ten days and returned safely. The spacecraft reached 406,771 kilometres, or 252,756 miles, from Earth. This broke the record set by Apollo 13 in 1970. As they flew around the moon, the four astronauts saw the far side of the moon with their own eyes, a view no one had ever seen in that way before. One of them was the Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Human efforts to explore and discover new things have brought many good results. They have helped us understand the world better. They have reduced the time and labour once needed to grow food and care for a household, opening an age of comfort and abundance. Because of progress in medicine, illnesses that would have led to death only a century ago can now often be treated. Developments in transportation and communication allow us to keep and expand our rel...

#Gathering Hymn This is the Day That God Has Made (#175 VU) Welcome & Land Acknowledgement Lighting the Christ Candle Call to Worship One: When hope feels dim and our hearts grow heavy,    All: Christ comes near and listens to us on the way. One: When sadness and disappointment cloud our sight, All: Christ shows us the way of love and opens our hearts. One: The Risen Christ meets us in our journeys,   All: and turns sorrow toward hope, and confusion toward new life. One: Let us worship the God who does not leave us alone on the road. Opening Prayer *Opening Hymn Joy Comes with the Dawn (#166 VU) Prayer of Confessional and Renewal (Unison) Comforting God, on this new day, you come proclaiming new life in the midst of our distress and despair. We come with our convictions and our doubts, confessing our faith. Where we have uncertainty, you stay by our side, reassuring us with your steadfast love. Where we hold back with fear, you move ahead of us, leading us into ...

Today is the second Sunday of Easter. Last week, we proclaimed that Christ is risen. This week, we are invited to go deeper and reflect on what the resurrection means for us and for our lives. Today’s first scripture reading, Peter’s sermon in Acts 2, helps us see the resurrection more clearly. In Acts, Peter speaks in different ways to different people. The good news remains the same, but the words and images are not exactly the same, because the audience changes. Language, assumptions, and experience all shape how the message is heard. Here, Peter was speaking to a Jewish audience. They knew David. They knew the Psalms. They understood what it meant to wait for God. Because of this, Peter spoke of Jesus through the shared memory and hope of his people. Peter said, “Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs.” Jesus was not hidden. His life was lived in public. People had seen the healings. They had heard the teaching. They had watched him ...

  # Gathering Hymn Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Give Thanks (#179 VU) Welcome & Land Acknowledgement Lighting the Christ Candle Call to Worship One: We come today as we are.    All: God welcomes all into the realm of love and acceptance. One: We come with questions, doubts, and fears.   All: Jesus, resurrected, meets us where we are and offers us peace and the assurance of his continued presence in our lives. One: Let us worship God, together sharing in the spirit of love and peace, gifted to us through Jesus, the resurrected Christ. *Stephanie Richmond. Gathering LE 2026 . Page 40. Opening Prayer *Opening Hymn Sing Your Joy (#253 VU) Prayer of Confessional and Renewal (Unison) Merciful God, sometimes we believe that we live in a room with no window, no door, no light, and no love. Sometimes we act like the world has no sky, no way out, no light, and no hope. Turn our broken, tender, and vulnerable hearts to the window of your eternal compassion, the door leadin...

Today is Easter Sunday. This is the day we proclaim that Christ is risen. It is a day of joy and hope. But the Easter story in today's reading does not begin with celebration. It begins in the dark. Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb early on Sunday morning, before sunrise. The world around her is still dark. Her heart feels no different. She comes with grief and sorrow for the one she has loved. When Mary arrives, she finds the stone rolled away. She is shocked. Her first thought is not resurrection. She thinks someone has taken the body away. She runs to Peter and the other disciple and says, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” The two disciples run to the tomb. They look inside and see the burial cloths lying there, but they still do not understand what has happened. Then they go back home. But Mary stays. When Jesus died on the cross, she stayed near him. While other disciples ran away, she remained. Now again, she does not ...