Hello friends of Faith,
In a little over a week from now the church enters the Lenten season. Lent is the 7 weeks leading to Easter. During this time, the church does a house-cleaning of sorts, a springtime cleansing. Because part of this journey involves examining ourselves and our place in the world, we reset on basic building blocks of who we are and do as the church.
Since the beginning of our history as Faith Lutheran Church we have valued not only the relationships of those we know in our community. As a Christian church, we have also attempted to follow Jesus Christ in his mission to the world. In other words, we’ve sought as well to value and nurture relationships with those whom we don’t yet know.
Over time, our congregation has supported local mission groups as an extension of who we are and what we do. Recently, the church council has suggested we invite representatives from various mission initiatives we have supported over the years.
For the five Sundays in Lent, we will invite speakers from these organizations with ties to Faith Lutheran Church. They will offer words to describe their work and how we can continue reaching out to build relationships in Christ with those we do not yet know.
Representatives from the Carlington Community Chaplaincy, Multifaith Housing Initiative, Ottawa Lutheran Refugee Sponsorship Committee, Lutherlyn Camp & Conference Centre and Algonquin College Campus Ministry will be our guest speakers in Lent and I will be pleased to welcome them and work with them for these services of worship.
I want to encourage you to consider joining us in person (look for updates sent to your email box soon indicating which Sunday in March the doors will open at the building) and continue watching our online church services.
Let us join together this Lenten season to give thanks for, and learn more about, the areas of mission this congregation has focused on in the past and continue to support at this time in various ways. We want to continue building relationships inspired by those who exemplify the Gospel in action.
In Peace,
Pastor Martin
