Our Service of Morning Prayer, Bulletin, and Sermon this week can be found here:

And our Songs this week can be found here:

Our service of Morning Prayer, Bulletin, and Sermon for this week can be found here:

​And our Songs for the week can be found here:

Our service of Morning Prayer, Bulletin, & Sermon this week can be found here:

And our Songs for this week can be found here:

Today (June 14) marks the beginning of the longest season of the Church Calendar: Ordinary Time. It also marks the second Sunday since we have resumed services of Holy Communion at St. Luke's GP.

It was wonderful last week to gather again and worship God as a Parish family, taking another step forward in our journey together on the road ahead of us. Thanks be to God, and to all of you who have helped to make this forward movement possible, and thank you all for your grace, patience, perseverance, and support.

Many blessings, and have a great week.

​Rob+ 

​
​Our service of Morning Prayer, Bulletin, and Sermon this week can be found here:

And our Songs for this week can be found here:

This Sunday (June 7) we begin holding worship services again at St. Luke's Church.
Although it is great for many of us to be with each other again, and to worship God together in community, we also know not everyone feels ready or able to join us in person just yet.  

The Good News reminds us that, wherever we may be, the Risen Son will be with us always through the Holy Spirit, drawing us into the goodness and holy love of our Heavenly Father.

Rather than offer a sermon this week, I would like to invite us to try something perhaps a little new, but which hopefully can help us grow together in the knowledge and love of God. Below you will find some questions for us all to consider this week, inspired by our Scripture readings as well as today’s feast (Trinity Sunday).

Please set aside some time (or maybe a few shorter periods of time) this week to prayerfully reflect on and try to answer these questions as best you can. After this time of prayerful reflection, I encourage you to discuss your ‘answers’ with others, in the Parish or beyond. I for one would love to hear from you and listen to your responses. I know this might be a stretch for some of us, but I want to challenge you to give it a try. 

Many blessings as we seek to worship, love, and serve our holy, Triune God.

​-Rev. Rob

Our service of Morning Prayer, Bulletin, and Reflection Questions for this week can be found here. ​

And our Songs for this week can be found here.

It has been two months since we have been able to physically gather together for worship here in New Brunswick. This has been a challenging season, of course, and there is a deep longing to leave these days of separation behind us and return to our old ways of life.

There are indeed some signs of hope here: the Provincial government has begun to allow some small gatherings for worship (10 people or less), provided they have an Operational Plan in place to insure proper safety precautions are consistently being followed. Also, Bishop David and the Synod Staff have been supporting local clergy and parishes as we all try to prepare to safely open our doors again. 

Here at Gondola Point, the Wardens, Vestry, and I are currently working on our parish's Operational Plan, and we hope to have this all in place in the coming days, though there is much to be done. While the easing of restrictions means the possibility of gathering together in person again, it also means we will have to make some big adjustments in how we do so. 

Please keep us in your prayers, keep looking for ways to encourage and support each other as well as our neighbours, and stay tuned for more information coming soon. 

Our service of Morning Prayer, Bulletin, and Sermon for this week can be found here:

And our Songs for this week can be found here:

And our songs this week can be found here:

Blessings on this the third Sunday of the Easter Season. 

​This week has been an eventful one, with some ups and some deeply tragic downs. 

One the upside, here in New Brunswick we are no doubt excited and relieved to hear that some early steps are now being taken to ease our Provinces restrictions due to the pandemic. While we know it will still be some time before things like public gatherings for worship will be able to resume, and that we all still need to be cautious in order to care for the vulnerable in our communities, it is still a welcome sign that we can certainly rejoice in. Here at St. Luke's Gondola Point, and all across the Diocese of Fredericton, we will be closely following the guidance of the Government regarding all our activities, and we encourage everyone to stay safe and look for ways to safely bless and care for our neighbours.

Of course on the downside, our hearts ache at the tragic loss of life and senseless evil that took place in Nova Scotia last weekend. Our prayers are with all those who are grieving and suffering, and along with the rest of our Country we also "mourn with those who mourn" (Romans 12:15). 

We know that no matter what may come our way in the days and weeks ahead, the Risen Lord Jesus remains with us whether we can feel His presence or not. May our hearts be kindled today by this hope, and help us to share His peace.

​Our service of Morning Prayer and Bulletin for this week can be found here:

God bless, and have a good week.

-Rev. Rob

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!

As we worship and pray on this most holy of days, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the beginning of God's New Creation, may we be filled with the joy that comes from knowing that God's love has conquered sin and death, and set us free for newness of life. 

Our order of service for Morning Prayer can be found here.

Instead of a sermon again this week, I wanted to share with you all a poem I wrote a while ago, which you can find at the bottom of this post.

​In terms of teaching this week, I commend to you this free EBook by N.T. Wright: Resurrection and the Renewal of Creation (only 15 pages in length). 

"In this free Ebook, Professor Wright demonstrates how the common understanding of Jesus, his death, and the afterlife, is the product of a different philosophy than what the biblical writers present. He then unpacks a number of key passages from the New Testament to recast our understanding of resurrection firmly into the overarching narrative of the Bible." 

You can find this EBook here.

This week's bulletin (for news and prayer list) can be found here.

And finally, we have music to go along with our service this week! 
You can find audio tracks for our three hymns below.

Other online Holy Week resources are available through the Diocesan Website, and can be found here.

Many blessings this Easter Day, in the name of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ!

-Rev. Rob

_____________________________________​

In darkness there we stood alone
Against the breaking of the dawn
We dared not hope the day would come
Contented in the shadow’s gloom
Our eyes were dim, our hearing gone
No arms embraced, we stood alone
In darkness there, our prison strong
Without a hope, we stood alone
 
Alone we stood, without recourse
Singled out before Your throne
No excuses, no remorse
No way to hide, we stood alone
But lo, what mystery? What grace?
The Judge of all judged in our place!?
You bore our burden, took our shame
Endured alone our stain and blame
 
You stood alone and offered up
Like broken bread and poured out cup
Your life upon the altar laid
A priest and sacrifice in one
You stood alone, but with Your blood
You cleansed our crimson covered hands
And brought us near, and raised us up
Now peace we owe to You alone
 
You stood alone while others fled
Before the foe that held us tight
No others dared to take Your side
No others joined You in the fight
From cradle to that cruel tree
You harried hard the enemy
And died with sinners at Your side
Before our eyes You hung alone
 
In darkness there You were alone
Swallowed by the shadow’s gloom
And with our futile, fleeting hope
We buried You beneath the stone
In bitterness, in sorrow we
At last could but concede defeat
And tremble weakly in the night
The day had failed. We stood alone.
 
But in that darkest, blackest day
That moment of our world’s despair
The morning dawned! The shadows fled!
Destruction fell on Hades’ head!
The love that bound Father to Son
Could not at last be overcome
And we, the captives freed from hell
Forevermore with You may dwell
Never again to stand alone
For in You now we are at one
With Father, Holy Ghost, and Son
Forever more we are at one

Today is a strange day.

Today marks the beginning of Holy Week, the sacred time in the life of the Church where we recall and enter into again the part of the story which is truly at the heart of our faith: the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and His resurrection from the dead for the sake of God's world. Specifically, today is Palm Sunday & Passion Sunday, where the Church remembers our Lord's joyful reception into Jerusalem, only to have those same voices turn violent; rejecting and condemning Him to death only a few days later. It is a strange day, where the tensions and expectations in the Gospels begin to come to a head, leading us on to the climax of God's strange and world-changing love story: rescuing His broken world by being broken for it Himself on a cross. It is a strange, wonderful story we are a part of, after all.

But we especially feel the strangeness of today because we are unable to gather together. We are unable to retell this story as the people of God gathered, and this painful reality strikes us, and should strike us, as a deep loss... to be acknowledged and grieved. Yes, there are ways we continue to worship, even as we are apart, and we know that Jesus is with us even now, and that we are still united together through the Holy Spirit... yet our inability to be together in person at this sacred time adds an element of strangeness that we cannot ignore.

Yet as the world around us has changed... as everything we have known has begun to suddenly feel strange to us... let us remember this week the Holy Story that remains at the heart of our existence. Let us mark the sacred time of Holy Week in this strange new time we are facing, with a sense of loss and feeling out of place, but also in anticipation of our future joyful reunion together. For it is my intention that at St. Luke's Gondola Point, we will celebrate Holy Week again as a Parish as soon as we are able to gather together in person in our Church.

This week, our Diocese will be making available several online reflections, resources and opportunities to worship and celebrate Holy Week, and I would encourage you to make use of them as best you can. I will also be posting some resources here throughout the week as well. 

For today, our Order of Service for Palm Sunday & Passion Sunday has no sermon, but instead it has much more Scripture to be heard than on a typical Sunday. The first Gospel reading will recount Christ's arrival in Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1-11), and the second Gospel reading tells in full Matthew's account of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ (Matthew 26:14-27:66).  I have included here both the text of the Gospel (NRSV), as well as an audio recording (found below) of the Gospel being read by me. This week's bulletin can also be found here. As we listen closely to God's word to us this morning, may we be reminded that despite all of our uncertainty, and loss, and longing, we find our faith and hope renewed and grounded in this strange and wonderful and world-changing story of God's self-giving love.  

May the Holy Spirit give us ears to hear his word to us today.

Many blessings in Christ,

Rev. Rob