Dear Fellow Christians !
hopefully
you can enjoy the summer, at the cottage, at a lake,
wherever you may be.
Summer – that can be an opportunity for playing in the
sand.
As we see our children or grand-children play, so we
ourselves can try it out again when we play with the
children. Building a sand castle, erecting an entire
dike-system, marvelling at our footprints in the sand.
So we do enjoy the sand.
What then, if the sand becomes dangerous? If a house,
even a church sinks into the sand? This has actually
happened in the north of Denmark. There one can see only
the tower as the remainder of a once large church, which
now is called “Tilsandede Kirke” / ”Silted Church”.
In the Middle Ages, the Laurentius Church of Skagen was
the largest House of God far and near. Yet, since the
beginning of the 17th century, the area was
greatly effected by the flying sand of shifting sand
dunes, so that the church was more and more covered with
sand. For a long time, one kept the path to the church
free with shovel and broom; however in 1795 the church
was closed. The inventory was auctioned off and the
poverty stricken people could make good use of the
building stones of the nave for their houses. Now today,
only the tower of the church looms above the dune
landscape.
What a sad fate! It reminds me of the parable of the
entrusted talents, of which we read in Matthew 25. Here,
a master entrusts his servants with talents; meant by
this are great quantities of silver which they are
supposed to manage well during his absence; but we can,
indeed, also understand this in a figurative sense.
About one servant it says, “He went and dug a hole in
the ground and hid his master’s money”. When the master
returned, he settled accounts with his servants. But he
realized quickly that everything that he entrusted to
this servant had silted up, because he was negligent and
disinterested.
Our talents can silt up. Those good abilities and gifts
which God has put into our lives can become useless if
we are negligent. The danger is that also a community of
a church congregation can suffer from this. Our faith
can silt up; an entire church can silt up. Let us act
differently! Let us use and develop our abilities with
which God has entrusted us! Let us contribute our gifts
to the good of the community. Our church lives from
everyone contributing all the manifold and different
gifts which she or he has!
Having said this, I wish you a beautiful summer
and look forward to seeing you again.
Your Pastor Alexander Mielke
I would
like to thank all those pastors who are conducting
services while I am at the Summer Camp, at the DELKINA
Conference or not in office because of vacations: Pastor
Gerd Hille (on July 26, he is Anna Lisa's father), Pastor
Herbert Herms (UofT), Pastor Joachim Knaack and Pastor Harry
Oussoren (from our neighbouring Wesley Mimico United
Church).
In
September, young
people can again join Confirmation Class at Martin Luther
Church.
Confirmation instruction takes place every two weeks on
Friday evenings, and for the new-beginners, this then leads
to Confirmation on Pentecost Sunday, June 12th,
2011. Please bring this instruction to the attention of your
family and circle of friends.
An Information
Session which is the first meeting of the
confirmation class after the summer break too will be
held on Friday, October 2, 6:30 p.m., in the church.
You can contact
Alexander Mielke concerning this matter: 416-567-2487.
As you may have
already seen, we are glad to have a new showcase in front
of our church. We are planning to have a small
celebration of this, together with the plaque for the
stained glass windows, in automn. We will keep you informed.
Special Collection 2009
It’s summer, and
like in previous years, we would like to call upon you with
our Special Collection which us very important and urgent
for our Congregation during the summer months.
Your support is greatly appreciated.
On October
4, 2:00 p.m., we will have a German reading event in our
church. Anne C. Voorhoeve is going to read out of her novel
"Lilly unter den Linden" (Lilly under the Lindens), which is
suitable for older children too.
Story:
When thirteen-year-old Lily leaves Hamburg in secret after
her mother’s death to go and live with her aunt’s family in
Jena, she finds herself faced with such confusing slogans as
this one in the streets, and with many other initially
baffling situations in the daily life of the German
Democratic Republic. In her novel for young people,
Lilly unter den Linden, Anne
Voorhoeve brilliantly succeeds in uniting such disparate
subjects as Lilly’s loss of her mother and her adventurous,
illicit journey to the GDR with information, suitably
presented for her readers’ age, about daily life and its
problems in the Socialist part of Germany shortly before the
fall of the Berlin Wall. She tells the story from the point
of view of its protagonist Lilly, now ten years older and,
at the age of twenty-three, looking back at that critical
period.
Portrait:
Anne
C. Voorhoeve was born on 19 December 1963. She read
Political Science, American Studies and Ancient History in
Mainz and then worked for a year as an assistant to a Brecht
researcher at the University of Maryland. Following an
internship at the editorial office of a specialist medical
journal, she worked as an editor in a publishing house and
did PR work for a Protestant monastery. In 2000, she became
a freelance editor in order to be able to devote herself to
writing once again. Lilly unter den Linden was first written
as a script and was filmed by MDR. In July 2004, the novel
was published by Ravensburger Buchverlag. As well as working
on her next book, the writer intends to continue to write
scripts.
On June 7, we were able to welcome the
EKD-North America-Conference in our midst.
On the photo you see (starting from the right):
OKR Paul Oppenheim/Hannover; Caren and Frank
Kopania (with their dog)/Miami; Martin,
Christine and Ricarda Mencke/Washington; Antje
and Christoph Ernst/Ottawa; Alexander and Heike
Mielke (unfortunately not present: many children
as well as Barbara and Wilfried Wassermann/New
York).
|
In
the "Center of Renewal", a retreat centre of
Franciscan sisters in Lewiston/New York, Sr
Karen Allen gave us a very helpful and
interesting introduction in Franciscan
Spirituality. |
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In
spite of the cool temperatures, we had a lovely
Congregational Picknick in Camp Edgewood.
Many were enjoying the nice and warm swimming
pool. |
On
Pentecost Sunday, May 31, 2009, Lukas Frantzke
and Benedikt Mielke could celebrate their
confirmation. |
Our
team "In Mission For Others" invited the team
"Faith and Hope" from the Wesley Mimico United
Church, so we had a very interesting
exchange of thoughts about how to continue to
develop our congregations. |
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On July 5,
we welcomed many guests: a Brass Band from
three towns close to Bremen in the northern part of
Germany, with three musical directors, Susanne
Herzer from Wuesting, Iris Redenius from
Bookholzberg (whose relatives live here in Ontario,
which was one of the reasons why the group liked to
come here), and Ursel Reiss from Ganderkesee (who
had a great responsibilty in organizing this trip).
A big thank you for a wonderful concert, and
God's blessings for all future activities of our
guests! |
BAPTISM
Olivia Margarethe
Mary Grammenz
June 7, 2009
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on
your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct
your paths.
Proverbs 3:5&6
I've commanded you to be strong and brave. Don't ever be
afraid or discouraged!
I am the Lord, your God, and I will be there to help you
wherever you go.
Joshua 1:9
FUNERALS
Eduard Pohlmann, at the age of 47 years
June 12, 2009
Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal
life, to which you were called.
1 Timothy 6:12
Olaf Weigelin, at the age
of 78 years
June 20, 2009
Bless the Lord, O
my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O
my soul, and do not forget all his benefits.
Psalm
103:1&2
Linda Berndt, at the age
of 45 years
July 10, 2009
He restores my soul.
Psalm 23:3
