five short pieces for Christmas

http://www.rejesus.co.uk/site/module/nativity_icon/

stumbled across these five short pieces for Christmas, which I thought were really useful in helping us focus on aspects of Jesus' birth that somehow often get lost in the shuffle. see what you think!

Christmas Day & Boxing Day there will be no emerge gatherings at the Undercroft, so please celebrate Jesus' birth heartily with your friends,families, and the local Christian community wherever you find yourself this time of the year!

have a very Merry Christmas and a God-filled New Year!

christmas eve december 24th

we are invited to join with our friends at St. Stephen's Church, Westmount, at 4.30 pm on Christmas Eve for their relaxed, informal and often touching, Carols by Candlelight event. it's a great way to start the celebration of Jesus' birth especially for those unfamiliar with the story. there's a party afterwards at their house next door. they tell us that everyone is welcome, and they really mean it!

Christmas Day & Boxing Day there will be no emerge gatherings at the Undercroft, so please celebrate Jesus' birth with your friends,families, and the local Christian community wherever you find yourself this time of the year!

Christ is coming

Christ is coming - An Advent Meditation

A beautiful advent meditation, well worth spending a quiet five minutes of your time watching and listening.

...always together in Christ our Lord

Slideshow with past and present members and friends of Emerge.

sunday december 12th

I will finish my time as Bishop's Missioner to Young Adults at the end of this year, and commence a new role at St. Stephen's Church, Westmount, as half-time priest-in-charge on January 1st! So, the end of a chapter for both emerge and myself, and the start of new ones.

Sue & I would love it if you could be with us on Dec. 12th.

Please RSVP by clicking  http://emergecelebration.eventbrite.com

sunday december 5th

celebrate the feast!

something we have not done for a while.

gathered together on a sunday evening, to eat, talk, and to celebrate the Lord's Supper in an unfussy way! so along with catching up with one another, and taking some time to talk about the future, we will "celebrate the feast" emerge style.

meet 5.00 pm in the Undercroft.

hope to see you there!

saturday december 4th

You are invited to an evening of prayer, food and Christmas festivities!

Curieux  and emerge have joined more than 150 communities of faith all over the world to launch a new book of prayers edited by Shane Claiborne, Enuma Okoro and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove,called "Common Prayer".

All of these parties are taking place from December 1st - 5th,and ours will be on Saturday, December 4th. 

emerge and curieux are collaborating to celebrate this exciting new book AND the upcoming Christmas season. What better way than with a prayer party?! 

So bring some food to share and come, slow down and create some space for The Divine as we enter Advent. 


Check out the following link for more information on the concept of the
Common Prayer Parties being hosted globally:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBhopwX4lRI

WHERE: St. Stephen's House, 1 Weredale Park, Westmount, QC, (Atwater
metro)
WHEN: Saturday, December 4th at 18:00
RSVP: Click to register
EMAIL: montrealcommonprayerparty@gmail.com with any questions

Hope to see you there!

******************************************

A word from Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove :

"After several years of working with scores of communities, liturgy
experts, artists, and musicians, we’re excited to announce that Common
Prayer: Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals will be out in time for Advent.
It’s more than a book… it’s a way of life. We’re excited to share it
with you.
 
We’re so excited, in fact, that we’ve been working with friends
across the country and around the globe to plan nearly 150 release
parties. (We hope you can find one near you.) We wish we could be at
every one of them (and, with a little technical assistance, we might be
able say hi). But more importantly, we want you to come and see the
beautiful art that’s been created for this project. We want you to have a
chance to pray these prayers with a gathering of friends. We want you
to sing these songs and take them home with you, knowing that you’re not
alone, but part of an incredible family of fellow travelers that stretches all the way back to Abraham and Sarah."-- Shane Claiborne and
Jonathan

sunday november 28th messymerge!

the last messymerge before Christmas will be taking place at the Undercroft between 4 and 6pm. Potluck as usual and fun crafts and songs! Kids and big people alike very welcome!

See you there!

sunday november 21st

sunday november 14th

some people (you may be one of them) might want to put a question mark after the title of this week's chapter in TGBG. that would be understandable given the world we live in.

this week's soul training is to make a list of the many things for which we are grateful to God. mine includes soccer and soul music so its obviously not an exclusively "religious" list. 

what's yours going to have in it? 

to find out what others have included in their list, and to share yours, gather at the Undecroft at 5.00 pm for bread, soup, coffee, conversation, and possibly a little music!

sunday november 7th

hi there!

my October wanderings are over! I had a good time racking up the Aeroplan miles.
after last sunday's costumed messymerge,complete with cookie making & pumpkin decorating, we resume reading 'The Good & Beautiful God' together. you can read the Introduction, Chapter 1, and a few pages of Chapter 2 at the link.

we are going to be focusing on the chapter, "God is good", which brings up lots of conflicting ideas about suffering etc. so, read the chapter, do the soul training, and come along this sunday ready to share your experience and to learn from one another. don't forget to try to learn the first four verses of Colossians 2, yes, by heart! 


don't worry if you haven't been reading the chapters, come anyway!!!

Sunday 31 October 2010 MESSYMERGE!

A COSTUME Messymerge will be taking place at the Undercroft between 4 and 6. Potluck as usual and fun crafts and songs! Kids and big people alike very welcome to dress up! See you there!

sunday october 24th

GBG Chapter 1: What are you seeking?

In preparation for this sunday's gathering, read the Introduction, How to get the most out of this book, and most of Chapter one, here. 

 a bunch of us are reading this together, there are some more copies available for those who want them. 

there will be bread & soup gather at 5.00pm at the Undercroft.

see you there!

sunday october 17th

the emerge community it's about to try and do what it has never been able to do before! read a "The Good and Beautiful God" and discuss it as a community (or as near to one as we can get!) hopefully be our focus of our sunday gatherings for the rest of the year with the exception of messymerge sundays and Christmas/New Year. we are asking each other to read a chapter, do the "soul training" exercise, and come to the sunday gathering ready to share your experience. in this way we hope to grow as followers of Jesus at a time when it is not fashionable to be one.

the sunday gatherings will feature bread & soup as usual, after which we will focus on our experience with the chapter for the previous week. so for this sunday, please read the Introduction and Chapter One. if you need a copy, I have some, they are $16.86 each. you need to be quick, I leave for Calgary Thursday evening, but I'll do my best to get one to you before I go. I'll also make sure there are some at the Undercroft on sunday for those who are not able to contact me before I leave.

sunday october 10th

this sunday sees us gather in preparation for our reading of the book "The good and beautiful God".  the plan is to read a chapter by ourselves, and then on sundays come together to discuss our experience of reading the chapter and of doing the soul training exercise. I'll have copies of the book for you to buy, and we'll also have some thanksgiving appropriate food!

see you at 5.00 pm in the Undercroft!

happy thanksgiving!

sunday october 3rd

last sunday we had an exceptional messymerge with members of curieux plus visitors.

this week the idea is to join with other Christians in a tri-lingual celebration called Christ Awakening. that means there will be no gathering at the Undercroft this week. Christ Awakening runs 1.30-5.00pm on Sunday, in Lasalle. if you need a ride, meet at 1.00pm sharp at the Undercroft and we'll give you a ride, alternatively make your own way by bus and metro. either way, if you intend to go you must email me your name so I can put you on the guest list, otherwise you may not get in!

I think this is going to be good, and joining with other Christians in a multi-lingual celebration sounds like fun to me. BTW I am playing in the band for this event!

sunday september 26th

This Sunday, we're meeting with Curieux at 4pm at the Undercroft for another Messymerge evening entirely devoted to kids! This time, We're gonna explore Jesus' story of the lost sheep (it might be a bit nostalgic for the parents...) As usual, there will be craft stations and activities related to the story and some songs. For supper, there will be some corn on the cob, but we ask you to bring some side dishes or drink to go with it.

A reminder that Messymerge is open to everybody, so even if you don't have kids, please come!

See you Sunday!

Ce dimanche, on rejoint le groupe Curieux à 16h00 à l'Undercroft pour une autre soirée Messymerge entièrement dédiée aux enfants! Cette fois, nous explorerons l'histoire de la brebis perdue et retrouvée (ça risque d'être nostalgique pour les parents!) Comme d'habitude, il y aura des activités bricolages en lien avec l'histoire et quelques chansons à la guitare pour les petits et les petites. Pour le souper, il y aura du blé d'inde de fourni, mais on demande quand même aux gens d'apporter des plats ou des breuvages pour compléter. 

Je vous rappelle que tout le monde est invité à Messymerge, alors même si vous n'avez pas d'enfants, venez faire un tour quand même.

À dimanche!

sunday september 19th

photos by Julia Smith Brake










"paraclete"
this summer emerger Julia Smith Brake spent a week in Haiti as part of the Quebec response to the large scale disruption caused by the January earthquake. she is going to give us a taste of her experience, in words, pictures, music & food!

5-7 pm the Undercroft.


thursday september 23rd
guerilla bible study 6.30-8.30pm the Undercroft.

sunday september 12th

lost is not just the name of one of the most popular television series of the last six years, it's also the experience of having lost something that Jesus talks about in two of his best known stories.

what's it like to find something important you have lost?

what have you lost then found recently?

this sunday we'll gather in the Undercroft at 5.00 pm. there will be soup to eat, music, talk, prayer, and plenty of time to catch up after the summer! hope to see you there!

praying by colours

sunday september 5th

seems like there is never enough time to pray. so we thought we'd make prayer the major focus of this sunday's gathering. praying that is, not simply talking about praying. to help us do that we are going to use five headings-

thanks
mercy
peace
healing
justice

and we're asking people to bring something that symbolises one of those headings. then we're going to pray, on our own, together, silently, out loud, in writing, in fact any way you want!

5.00pm at the Undercroft.please bring something to eat and to share!

see you then.

sunday august 29

so, having been decidedly unlucky with the weather last sunday, and as the number of predictably sunny days is on the decline, let's go see how the McGill field has stood up to Frosh 2010. this sunday august 29th, meet at 5.00pm at the Undercroft, then we'll hike up to McGill together. bring something to eat and to share. we can also check out how Emma's vegetables are doing! a chance to catch up, read, think, talk & pray together. if it rains (which it won't) we'll just stay in the Undercroft! even though it's the last sunday in the month it won't be a messymerge this time, as all of our younger members and friends from curieux.ca are doing others things!

Griffintown à pieds

sunday august 22nd

Jesus spent much of his time walking the backroads of 1st century Israel with his friends. we are going to walk some of the streets of 21st century Montreal, with an eye to looking at this historic district, it's history and possible future, in a slightly different way.

what do we see?

what might Jesus see?

we'll walk first then eat later.

so wear comfortable shoes for walking, and bring some food to eat and to share.

Taika will be our travel guide.

rendez-vous 5.00 pm sharp at the Lionel Groulx Metro Station

a little improv anyone?

this is us improvising our version of Luke 15.11-32
photo by Joan Lillo














sunday august 15th
ever got annoyed with a movie because something in it was unrealistic?
ever wanted to take a play or story in a different direction?
this is your chance!

we are going to do a bit of interactive, improv theatre with a story many of us know well, just to see where it takes us! bring your imagination and be prepared to participate and have fun!
5.00pm the Undercroft. this will be a piece of "after dinner theatre" so please bring some food to eat and to share!

celebrate the feast!

sunday august 8th

it's been a while since we celebrated the Lord's Supper together. so when we gather this sunday that's one of the things we'll do. we will also eat, talk, think, listen, read, pray together. please bring some food to eat yourself and some to share.

we meet at the Undercroft at 5.00 pm, and if it's fine, (which it should be), we'll meander up to the McGill field for our time together.

under an open sky

sunday august 1st
a new month!
another chance to meet together.
meet at the Undercroft at 5.00 pm, then we walk to the McGill field, to eat, talk, think, pray together. bring yourself, some food to eat and to share.

messymerge!

sunday july 25th
messymerge is a more kid-friendly way to gather as the emerge community. song, story, messy activity, and of course food, all combine to create an enriching time for all ages. we'll meet at 4.00pm at the Undercroft, and then walk up to the McGill field. don't forget to bring some food to eat and to share, maybe a blanket to sit on, and be prepared to get messy! we will wrap things up at 6.00pm, so you will have the whole evening free. contact Nick for more details.

photos from messymerge! by Joan

The Guerrilla Bible Study

Update: It's happening every Thursday

Hello Emergers,

We are starting a new bible study program, every Thursday evening at the Undercroft. This will be a time for meditating together over the Scriptures, a time of fulfilling silence and a nurturing time of prayer.

We invite you to come along on Thursday nights to this new initiative. As we saw that many of us have hectic lives, we decided to have a Two-Track System. Our program is designed so that some of us can attend every two weeks (2^nd and 4^th Thursday of the month), and others can attend weekly.

MEETING: Every Thursday

LOCATION: The Undercroft

TIME: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Guerrilla leaders: Emilie, Ondrej, Joan and Julie-Maud

Guerrilla participants: Anyone

SUMMER SCHEDULE – BOOK OF DANIEL

July 21 (Ondrej: Bible Study) Daniel Chapters 1 - 3

July 29 (Emilie: Bible Study) Chapters 4 -6

August 4 (Ondrej craft/activity/sermon)

August 12 (Joan: Bible study) Chapter 7 - 9

August 19 (Emilie: craft/activity/sermon)

August 26 (Julie-Maud: Bible study) Chapters 10 - 12

September 2 (Joan: craft/activity/sermon)

Structure of the Guerrilla Bible Study will be:

(6:30pm -8:30pm)

1) Welcome

2) Song (Taizé songbook)

3) Opening Prayer

4) 15-20 minutes presentation on a specific passage of the Bible, which will be assigned beforehand.

5) Discussion period

6) Prayer + silence

7) Closing song (Taizé songbook)

*This structure will be followed every Thursday.

Structure of the (Craft/Activity) Guerrilla Bible Study will be:

1) Welcome

2) Song (Taizé)

3) Opening Prayer

4) 5 minute presentation of the craft

5) 20-30 minute craft/activity/sermon

6) Discussion period

7) Prayer + silence

8) Closing song (Taizé songbook)

We hope you’ll have fun and make this gathering of discussion, learning and prayer a fulfilling way to share time with God and your friends in Christ.

The Guerrilla team

sunday july 18th

looks as though sunday should be nice, so we are going to plan to meet at 5.00pm at the Undercroft, then we'll walk up to the McGill field, (behind the construction site), for a picnic, a time to catch up, and time to talk about following Jesus in the workplace. don't forget to bring food & drink for yourself and something to share! also a photo of yourself at the place you work!

picture by Vicki Swords

seventeen of us, including four I had never met before, plus people from curieux & emerge, gathered in our backyard last sunday, for a post World Cup Final barbeque. some actually watched the game! it was a good time together, especially if you were rooting for Spain!

this sunday july 11th

it's only once every four years!
so we thought that this sunday july 11th, we'd have a curieux & emerge World Cup Final watching party and post-game barbeque to round off the four week festival of soccer that is the World Cup. it'll be a chance to catch up with one another, and if you can't stand soccer (we'll pray for you) you can always chill in our backyard. children are more than welcome. we'll provide burgers (meat & veggie),you bring a salad, or something to drink or munch. things'll get started at 2.00pm, 3498 Harvard in NDG is the place.

no gathering at the Undercroft this week.

some of the talk from the arts-based community development workshop revolved around the time of the sunday gathering, with some people suggesting that a sunday morning slot might be better for people. so to test out that theory we are going to gather on sunday july 4th at 10.00am at I, Weredale Park, Westmount. that's the house were St. Stephen's Church meets, and this sunday they have asked me to be there to help them kick-start their seven week series using the Student Alpha videos. {"Student Alpha is a seven week course introducing people to the Christian faith. Over the last ten years Student Alpha has proved to be one of the most effective tools for university students and young adults to explore the Christian faith, with over 600 courses now running worldwide. Its simple format has seen courses run everywhere from churches and halls, to McDonalds restaurants, curry houses and night clubs! It contains the same material as ‘classic’ Alpha, except that it’s been ‘squeezed’ (into seven weeks), ‘squashed’ (into thirty minute talks) and ‘spiced’ (with multi-media ingredients)."} I said I would, if it was OK to bring my emerge friends. they said that was fine, so we are all invited to a relaxed morning worship and excellent video presentation, followed by a delicious lunch, and you don't even have to bring anything to share!

messymerge was great last sunday with a bunch of curieux and emergers of all ages exploring "Jesus' surprise picnic" in bilingual song and story-telling, fun activities, and (of course) yummy food! we said au revoir to Catou & Daphne, and ate chocolate cake. a special thank you to those emergers without young children who came and got involved. way to go!

there are wild rumours circulating about a wordXchange revival possibly taking place in the Plateau. watch carefully as these subversive groups have been known to spring up in the strangest places and at the weirdest times. "where two or three gather in my name..." weird things can happen! let me know if there is a danger of a wordXchange erupting in your area.

this sunday

sunday june 20th

at the end of may, Audrey animated an arts-based community development workshop in which 18 emergers participated. this sunday we want to revist what that workshop produced and continue the conversation. it would be great if as many of that 18 as possible plus other emergers could be there to ensure the conversation involves as many people as possible. things start at 5.00 pm in the Undercroft, and include live music, worship.

please bring some food to both eat and share.

this weekend

friday june 11 sees a bunch of us head up to Oka to do a few nights camping, should be fun.




sunday june 13 we head back to Montreal to rendez-vous at the Undercroft at 5.00 pm to "celebrate the feast!" our way of being obedient to Jesus' command to "do this in rememberance of me." so bring yourself, bring some food to enjoy and share, and bring something to be thankful for! I am sure you have lots of those.

sunday june 6th

I have arranged for emerge to repeat something we did in the earlier days, visiting the ladies at the Fulford Residence, playing some music, and talking one on one with them. It was an excellent way of doing something for others. We will meet at the residence at 3.00 pm and spend a couple of hours with them. There will be no meeting at the Undercroft.

people, get messy!

Messymerge is happening this Sunday, May 30th at the Undercroft.

Please join us for some definitely NOT neat and tidy action, following the theme of "Jesus and His Young Friends Have a Play-Date" (Matthew 19:13-15) There will be music, and paint will be spilled, and a good time will be had by all.

This evening is geared to the younger ones of us but EVERYONE is welcome and encouraged to participate.

Kick off is 4 p.m. sharp, and we wrap things up with a potluck supper so please bring something to share!

this sunday may 23rd

an arts based community development workshop
is a hands-on way to find out about what people value about their community, and where they would like to see it headed. we are going to use this workshop to help us get abetter handle on our own emerge community. Audrey is going to lead us in this very interactive (and sometimes messy) workshop!

5.00 pm at the Undercroft. please bring some food to eat and share!

This Sunday May 16th...

Get out your most comfortable sneakers or your bike from the garage and let's warm up our voices(example here) for a nice talk!

We'll be meeting at the Undercroft and walk to the Mountain.

Time 5pm/17 hrs sharp!

The idea is simple: Get together, and walk, ride, talk about Emerge in an honest, non filtered way. Let's do a retrospect of these past 7 years and look to ourselves then and now as a Christian community to finalize our evening with a group prayer at the bottom of the Cross.

Picnic: bring something to share.

Destination: behind the Belvedere lookout (Map)

With your presence this experience will be more than fun, will be EPIC!!

See you there!

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

IMPORTANT: Since weather has been unpredictable these days , in case of rain keep your spirits high because we'll be doing the picnic at the Undercroft and we'll walk in circles till we get the 3 km or so. ha-ha! no escape for that workout Eh?!

Joan

nxt 7

condition:critical is the name we have given to the time between now and the end of June, which we want to devote to an evaluation of where we are as a community, and to come to decisions about our future. we hope you will involve yourself in this important process, by participating in the different Sunday gatherings where we will discuss where we are, also in an online survey which will go out to everyone on the emergemontreal Yahoo!groups list whether or not they are currently actively involved in emerge. it is important that we get the input from past as well as present members of emerge.

as today’s community, we will need to come to some decisions about our future that may be difficult, and will require us to be honest about our commitment to the mission, vision, and values of emerge.

please pray for God’s guidance as we enter this time of reflection and decision-making together.

this sunday may 9th we will gather at the Undercroft at 5.00 pm to begin this process, and discuss how it might best proceed. as we do so we meet in the context of the Lord's Supper, conscious of Jesus' presence with us as we gather in his name, and fo his promise to be with us always. so come, bring your ideas and insights, and maybe even something that symbolises how you feel about emerge. hope to see you there!

sunday may 2nd

not exactly drops in a bucket, but drops on a table top!







add your "drop" this sunday may 2nd, 5.00 pm the Undercroft. we're having a potluck hosted by Ondrej, which guarantees the conversation will be good! come ready to eat, think, talk, pray.

last sunday

twenty eight of us of all ages got messy last sunday in the Undercroft. paper boats were made and decorated; wondrous windmills were constructed; worm jello was crafted into fish shapes before being consumed; water was splashed liberally! "wake up Jesus!" was our cry as we explored the boat ride that went pear-shaped, as recorded by Mark. friends from curieux.ca joined a bunch of emergers to spend a joyful couple of hours, including a yummy potluck supper. thanks to you if you were a part of the gathering!

next messymerge, may 30th

sunday april 18th

we haven't celebrated the Lord's Supper for ages, so tonight as well as eating together, having some live music from Tanya, and looking together at some final instructions that Jesus left us, we'll celebrate, his victory over sin & death and his continuing presence with us, in the way he told us to. so do your best to get down to the Undercroft for 5.00 pm today. I know some of you are facing crunch time and can't make it, please know we will be praying for you.

emerge planning team meets tomorrow night (monday) at 8.00 pm, so please let me know if there are particular things would like us to discuss.

nxt 7

celebrating Easter in Havana, Cuba, as I did, was unusual to say the least. joining with other Christians last Saturday night, in a darkened Plaza de la Catedral around a flaming brazier, and then entering the Catedral with lighted candles, was a wonderfully dramatic way to commerate Jesus' rising from the dead.

wherever or however you celebrate it, the resurrection of Jesus is an amazing fact if history. the difficult thing is living in the ongoing reality of its happening. it was the event that transformed one hundred and twenty-odd scared and despairing disciples into a dynamic missional people. it potentially can do the same today.

sunday april 11th we gather at the Undercroft at 5.00pm to celebrate, to remember, and to examine how we are (or are not) living in the reality of Jesus' resurrection. food, drink, friends, scripture, worship, will all feature. see you there!