Submitted by Brad Inglis
By the time you receive this, our first online bazaar will pretty much have come to a close. Baking orders will have been filled and online sales have been amazing. As humans, it is wonderful how adaptable we can be when we really need to. We learn to do things we never thought we could. We step out of our comfort zone or in the case of covid, stay in our comfort zone to keep safe.
Once again, we offer our thanks to the community for rallying around to help support our first attempt at an online bazaar and virtual bake table. We learned tons by doing this exercise and made money as well, to keep the church going into 2021. However, we did miss the din of voices as guests poured into the Community Centre for the annual St. Nicholas extravaganza or lined up for lunch and picked favorite baked goods. There were no carols wailed out over the chattering crowd and the “trash to treasures” table remained silent and empty. But there were pies and shortbread and date squares and lots of other treats for the sweet tooth. Treasures were purchased online as if we were our very own Amazon distributing centre. So, thank you to the volunteers and donors and shoppers for all of your support to launch this new way of hosting a bazaar.
By nature, we are a social group and yet, when need be, we can hunker down and amuse ourselves. It is mind blowing though, to think of what we can do when we put our collective hearts and minds to it. Clinics get built, schools stay open, bike lanes get put in, masks become the norm and people get fed. As in the past and hopefully into the future we will remain a community of “get to it-ness”. Where there is a need, we see that it gets attended to.
The local coffee club at the Community Centre is like that. With all of the covid protocols in place, the support of the municipality and good will of those who attend – a place of welcome is created. Throughout the winter they will continue to meet between 7:30am and 10:00am Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Again, it is one of those things that you have to be comfortable with the system in place, trust those who attend to follow protocol and be willing to connect with people in new ways and with safety in mind. Covid means being brave and mindful and cautious. The world continues around us and we are not called to stop living – just do things differently.
So yes, as long as covid numbers remain manageable and we are able to provide a safe environment, we will continue church, but folks must register by either calling the church or ideally emailing tobermoryunitedchurch@eastlink.ca so that you aren’t disappointed and we haven’t already hit our maximum number of 30 people in the building. Live broadcasts of the service will be streamed on Facebook and we will attempt to get them up on Youtube as well.
On Sunday November 29th, it is the first Sunday of Advent. The Peninsula United Churches will be hosting an online Advent Kick off using Zoom. This will be a live event that you can register for by sending an email to tobermoryunitedchurch@eastlink.ca. You will then be sent a Zoom invite to participate. If you have any questions about Zoom, please be in touch. In the meantime, be well and be safe.
Brad Inglis is the minister at Tobermory United Church. He can be reached at binglis2@me.com
519-596-2821 (Home)
www.tobermoryunited.ca
