Tomorrow (Monday August 1), marks the beginning of a new relationship between me and the faith community of Cedar Park United Church.

For a few weeks now I’ve been trying to create,  for myself at least, a visual metaphor for this process of changing relationship.  The image which is playing in my mind right now  is that of a multi-coloured cloth – the sort of richly coloured  fabric that is sold for table coverings at Dix Milles Villages, perhaps.  (And see the beautiful hymn in Voices United “Dear Weaver of our life’s Design”).  God calls each of us to bring the coloured threads of our lives to the common (or communal) task of weaving a community cloth.  Each of us has one or more strands we are invited to weave onto the warp of the community’s ongoing life.  The coloured strands I was given to weave for the past 7 years were  beautiful colours which signified my relationship with Cedar Park  as ‘voluntary associate minister’, or ‘scholar in residence-cum Bible study leader’, and also ‘pew-sitter, worshipper among many, choir singer, and fellow disciple.’  They have blended well with the colours woven by others in this community.  Now I’ve been given – by the call of God and of this community –  a new colour to weave.  I get to keep “fellow-disciple”, as well as  “choir singer” and “worshipper among many”, but I need to set aside the “Voluntary Associate Minister” thread  in order to weave this new colour into the fabric of our lives of shared discipleship, witness and service. 

 It is a stunning colour, I’m awed to have received it, and will have to learn how to handle it with grace and care, so that its contribution to the overall beauty of the Cedar Park cloth is both functional and beautiful.  It won’t look so good if it’s suddenly the only colour in the cloth, in fact it’s one of those colours that looks best when surrounded by others of many hues and shades.  Please join me in weaving this new section of our cloth together, let’s make something functional and beautiful, that can grace the Table of God’s Banquet.