Spiritual Care Ministry
The Spiritual Care Committee, in addition to assisting the pastoral staff with caring activities, takes responsibility for several ongoing events or programs of the congregation.
Love Neighbours, Share Vaccine:
We are privileged to live in a part of the world where vaccines are readily available. Many of us have wondered and struggled with the inequity of being able to get three doses while people in other parts of the world have little or no access. The Love Neighbours Share Vaccine project is an opportunity for people to share vaccines with our world neighbours by donating money to UNICEF through Mennonite World Conference.
Here is information from the Mennonite World Conference newsletter:
Mennonite World Conference joins with other faith-based organizations to call its members to share vaccines around the highly interconnected world by donating to the UN’s vaccination program through UNICEF. At publication time, $66 000 had been given in the name of MWC for UNICEF’s campaign for global vaccine equity. By mid-January, the campaign sent more than a billion vaccine doses to 144 countries with a target to deliver more than 4 billion by the end of 2022.
More than 5.6 million people in low- and middle-income countries have received a two-dose vaccine. The campaign also supports health care, ensuring the recipient countries have the cold storage, transportation systems and trained personnel in place to distribute the vaccines when they arrive. In Africa, the average vaccination rate is only 8 percent, compared with 60 percent in high income countries. In Tanzania, home to more than 42,000 Mennonites, only 3 percent of the population has been vaccinated.
“The threat of the pandemic will not be over for some of us until it is over for all of us. Vaccines play an important role in lessening that threat end and enabling us to gather in person again,” says J Ron Byler, MWC interim chief development officer. “We are grateful for the donations from our members who bring that goal closer as we look ahead to MWC’s global Assembly in Indonesia.
As church members reflect on Christ’s humble sacrifice for others, MWC invites you to consider supporting our global family through our Love Neighbours, Share Vaccines campaign.
Donate using the button below or designate to Share Vaccines with your cash / cheque gift.
Your donation will help provide 2 dose vaccines for people in the third world.
Help
Resources
Can we help?
If you are feeling that life is just too stressful, that you are all alone or that life isn’t worth living, life may get better if you find someone to talk with. Here are some places you can go to find a professional person to walk with you.
If you wish to speak with a spiritual coach, contact Claire or Garth at Mount Royal Mennonite Church. (306) 382-2677
CFS Saskatoon (formerly Catholic Family Services)
https://www.cfssaskatoon.sk.ca/
200, 506 – 25th Street East, Saskatoon, SK S7K 4A7
Contact Trish St. Onge @ (306) 244-7773
Professional staff provide counselling services for individuals from 6 years of age to youth and adults, couples, and families. Payment schedule calculated on sliding scale.
Government of Saskatchewan Mental Health Services
Sask residents mental health support services
There are four main types of services offered:
- Adult Community Health Services
- Community Recovery Services
- Child and Youth Community Mental Health Services
- Inpatient Mental Health Services
Please call 306-787-7239 or email info@health.gov.sk.ca
Baking Muffins for Westmount School
Anne Maclellan, Community Coordinator from Westmount School visited with the members of our Spiritual Care Ministry team. She shared with us that she needed some help with muffins for the school nutrition program. We thought that we could help with that. So Friday January 21, 2022 Melody, Judy, Marlies and Dory got together in our church kitchen and baked a few batches of muffins. This is currently planned to be a monthly project, and so there may well be opportunities for others to join.
We are grateful to have the resources to share the love of Jesus in this way and help to build the kind of community in which we want to live.
This is an ongoing ministry to the Westmount neighborhood. Muffin baking happens periodically as needed.
Care group Resource Options
Month of Prayers Surrounding the Stories of
MMIWG
in Canada
A Prayer Resource for Individuals, Families, Small Groups and Churches
Tongue-Tied: Learning the Lost Art
of Talking about Faith
Book by Sara Wenger Shenk; 2021, 256 pp; may be purchased at CommonWord
Cost: $20.49 per book 20% discount if more than 5 are purchased.
Are you tongue-tied about faith?
Many Christians easily and eagerly talk about movies, sports, politics, jobs, and emotions. So why are we tongue-tied when it comes to talking about our faith—even with each other? Even with our kids?
Family Complexities: Winter 2013
The Leader Guide
-this can be borrowed from CommonWord - free with membership.
Constituent Member
Members of Mennonite Church Canada, Canadian Mennonite University, and Manitoba Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches may borrow items at no cost. You will be asked to link your account to your congregation or organization.
Theme: Family Complexities
Contents include:
- "Faith at Home and Church" by Kevin Derksen
- "The Ark of Blessing" by Jonathan Bowman
- . . . . and more
Love Wins: A Book About Heaven,
Hell, and the Fate of Every Person
Who Ever Lived
Book, 2011, 202 pp; by Rob Bell
can be borrowed from CommonWord - free with membership.
or purchase from Amazon.ca - - $11.99 for Kindle edition or other options $8.34 - $17.21
Author, pastor, and innovative teacher Rob Bell presents a deeply biblical vision for rediscovering a richer, grander, truer, and more spiritually satisfying way of understanding heaven, hell, God, Jesus, salvation, and repentance. The result is the discovery that the "good news" is much, much better than we ever imagined.
Luke: 26 Studies
for Individuals
and Groups
PART OF SERIES
N.T. Wright for Everyone Bible Study Guides
by N. T. Wright; Patty Pell
Available:
Borrow from CommonWord
Purchase from Amazon.ca, $13.26 each.
Prayer during COVID-19 pandemic
We are nearing a year since the pandemic changes have influenced our lives. Some us may be feeling exausted, some hopeful because of the vaccine, some resigned to the now normal. However we are feeling God knows, loves and walks with us. Whatever form your prayers take from many words to no words, God hears.
Ask
‘I take a little time now to “pray very simply,” laying my requests before You once again, telling You how I’m feeling, and remembering as I do that You are not scowling but smiling with an expression of tender affection’
Here is a website that offers various prayers in this pandemic time from individual prayers to family prayers:
https://www.24-7prayer.com/coronavirusprayer
COFFEE TIME at Bethany Manor
Our seniors, whether they live at Bethany Manor or in their own homes or in other seniors’ facilities, are the foundation of our church. Their wisdom and insight and courage have sustained Mount Royal Mennonite Church for decades. We seek to thank and to honour our elders through visits and sharing the ‘cup and bread’ of coffee and treats.
Be encouraged: They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, (Psalm 92:14)
Eternity Sunday
Eternity Sunday; the last Sunday of our Christian Church Calendar; the Sunday before Advent, also sometimes known as Christ the King Sunday.
On Eternity Sunday each year we participate in a special service remembering our loved ones who have passed away. With combined emotions of grief and love, participants take a taper, light it from the large "Christ Candle" and place it in the large sand filled container. With this special ritual, we support each other, in death and life.