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Sidewalk prayer
‘A Home For All’ was the theme for the
Downtown Churches Association of Victoria, at the Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity vigil – which took place January 19 – 22,
at the corner of Pandora and Douglas each noon hour. The vigil included a
symbolic ‘sleep-in on the sidewalk.’
The week’s activity wrapped up with a noon hour
‘Service of Word and Prayer’ at Centennial Square, January 23.
Prayer walking
Speaking of prayer, the First Church of the Nazarene
website (vicnazarene.ca) includes a carefully-detailed explanation of the
practice of ‘prayer walking.’
The commentary begins: “Prayer walking is a
method of intercessory prayer that involves walking while praying at the
location of the prayer journey. Prayer walking is a way of being on the
scene without making a scene. It could also include riding, jogging,
boating, biking or any other means of transportation. The method of
communication is to pray on-site, rather than from a distance.”
The senior minister at First Naz is Gary Bennett, who
is also on Island Insight’s editorial advisory committee.
From First, to First
Tom Cowan, who was the lead pastor for 23 years at
Lambrick Park Church, is returning to Victoria this month to become interim
pastor at First Baptist Church.
For the past four years, he has been senior minister at
First Baptist Vancouver, and tells BCCN the experience in a city core pulpit has given him some
previously unavailable insights, which he hopes will be useful in the
Victoria setting.
The move brings him, at 63, closer to the Cowan
children and their families. While the term is for six months, the future
beyond that is open to discussion, he says.
A hiking church
A number of Vancouver Island churches make use of the
island’s outstanding scenery to create hiking ministry opportunities
for their congregations. One such is Duncan Christian Reformed Church.
A visit to the congregation’s website
(duncancrc.org) provides photos of several recent hikes sponsored by the
church, to places like Heart Lake, Mt. Prevost, Providence Farm and Genoa
Bay.
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Evans report
Gareth Evans and his wife, Anne, are well-known on the
Island. Evans has done interim pastorates in Baptist churches in Departure
Bay and Sidney. The Departure Bay church, in appreciation, put Evans’
website as a link on their own site.
A visit to garethevansministries.org provides the bad
news that he had bladder cancer – followed by the better news,
that after treatment, the cancer level was downgraded to low. The Evans
have interspersed pastoral experiences with visits to Christian workers in
many countries, and speaking activities at conferences on missions and
revival.
Women at Imadene
The women at Central Evangelical Free Church in Comox
are among the dozens from many Island churches who will attend the Winter
Weekend Retreat February 20 – 22.
The retreat takes place at Camp Imadene, on Mesachie
Lake, west of Duncan in the Cowichan Lake valley. The weekend’s theme
this year is ‘Girlfriends.’ The speaker will be Janet Thiessen,
women’s ministries pastor at North Langley Community Church in
Langley. centralefc.com
– Lloyd Mackey
February 2009
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