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.