Text Box: TO CONTACT MINISTER (See Page 23) Text Box: Minister’s Easter Message (from Rev. Steve Willey) Text Box: -See Message on Page 3 Text Box: -photo by Yosh Uyeda Wendy Evans, United Church Overseas Personnel, is seen with Rev. Willey after the Feb. 23 service. She spoke of her mission in Manaua, Nicaragua. Text Box: And the angel in the tomb said to the women, "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised." With this astonishing announcement the hope of the church was born. Death and loss do not have the final word. What looks like a final ending is, by the power of God's love, a new beginning. God raises the curtain that falls with the suffering of crucifixion, and a new act in the drama of enduring life begins. I was reminded of this recently as I walked the streets of Vancouver wide-eyed at how unfamiliar so much of the city had become. My family has been in Vancouver since 1911. I grew up there, and many of the neighbourhoods were "mine". But they aren't mine any longer. New houses. New stores. New bus routes. New parking lots. New gardens and parks-bamboo and palm trees! The city is being transformed, and I'm glad. But much of the old and familiar had to give way for the new city to be born, and so alongside the excitement of exploring the unfamiliar there was a sense of loss. I had to remind myself that the future is not a threat to what Text Box: exists today. The future and the past do not do battle with one another. Something else is at work; and I remembered a piece of poetry by T.S. Eliot: In my beginning is my end. In succession Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended, Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass. Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires, Text Box: Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth…. Houses live and die: there is a time for building And a time for living and generation And a time for the wind to break the loosened pane…. In my beginning is my end. In the natural rhythm of beginnings and endings/endings and beginnings some things are lost and some things are gained. Life is a dance of releasing and embracing. In some matters, we have a measure of choice regarding what we release and what we embrace. What we choose is important because, as the poem also reminds us, where we begin influences where we end up: In my beginning is my end. One of the realities facing our congregation as it seeks to embrace the future is that all its choices will involve dealing with some measure of loss. Every route to joyful resurrection takes us via the hill of sorrow. If the congregation decides its best future lies in a new location, for instance, it would have to say goodbye to a