Message from our Minister

February 2026 - Easter Message

“As we look around the world today, we see so much of pain, suffering, and death,” the message notes with a sad beginning. “We are becoming accustomed to violence and death as if these are normal experiences in life.” 

The passage of Ezekiel depicts the same in the scene of the dry bones: Ezekiel 37:1-14 (NRSV.) 

As we journey through Lent and approach Easter in the time of so many uncertainties in our world today, our faith calls us to accompany Ezekiel to the hardest place: the valley of the dry bones. It is important to know that Ezekiel’s vision was rooted in a real historical fact, the military and political defeat of Israel and the captivity of its leadership. Real death, real disaster. In the first steps on the journey of hope, God leads Ezekiel to honestly confront and assess the extent and truth of the disaster, to fully grasp the extent of woundedness, the truth that the bones were dry, disconnected, scattered, lifeless and many, many. During Lent we are reminded of the brutal and sacrificial suffering death of Jesus Christ. “Some of the disciples and many of his followers, including family and friends, thought it would all end there – with a dead Jesus,” continues the message. “They forgot about the promise of Jesus that, on the third day, he will rise again.” The empty tomb is a sign of life, hope, and love. “It tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ,” the message notes. ”In every situation of suffering and death today let us be reminded that the Risen Lord brings us life, hope, and love.”

Love and Grace as we journey together through Lent to Easter - Rev’d Peggy

November 2025 - Advent Message

Dear Friends, 

The Lord says, “I will make you wise. I will show you where to go. I will guide you and watch over you.” (Psalm32:8) ICB. 

We live in a moment of history that presents us with the conflation of some calamitous manifestations: (a) a climate emergency which has brought us face to face with the total destruction of the Earth and the extinction of life as we know it. The devastation of the rainforests, the burning Amazon, the desertification of Sub-Saharan Africa, the floods, hurricanes, and heat waves are the evidence of humankind’s hubris to undo what God has created. We pray and hope that the COP30 in Brazil will come up with radical measures to restore mother earth. (b) Today, in far too many cases, national politics is dominated by narrow, ethnic nationalisms, racism,  authoritarianism, legitimized bigotry, and religious zealotry. The extremism of side-lining others. (c) On top of all these comes the Hurricane Melissa, ushering in crises of fear, uncertainty, and devastation in the Caribean Islands.  In all these, God is looking for advocates who will be prudent stewards of his world that he loved and loves so much by sending his and only son Jesus Christ. 

This is a time of transition for all of us. The wars around us in some parts of the world make us feel uncertain of what lies ahead. The poverty levels globally and even in this country are alarming. Even with all this around us, the Advent season is knocking; no one can stop it:

Advent is a time of anticipation and expectation for the God who lies behind the veil (?) to be with us. It is a desire for the divine being to journey with us to reveal Godself to us. The constant sense of wonder that accompanies Advent is not just our desire to journey with God, but God’s desire to journey with us, that God actually wants to pitch his tent among us. But as in the Advent story, we too are stalked by life-threatening shadows darkening our hopes and expectations at every level and at every moment. The good news of the angels to the shepherds is shadowed by the death news from Jerusalem as they journey to Bethlehem. The journey of the magi is shadowed by the tears of Rachel.  The journey of Mary to Elizabeth lights up in the glorious joy of expecting life. Yet this moment is shadowed by the deep knowledge that a sword will go through both their hearts. Above, and despite it all though, is the star “rising in the East” and journeying across the skies past the place of dark deceit and deadly politics, to “stop over the place where the child was,” the stubborn shining light of hope and joy and life not just hovering over, but enlightening the darkness below, drawing us to what is true and steadfast: Immanuel. God is with us.     

With Love and Prayers in this advent season and at Xmas.

Peggy/November 2025