Text Box: “Minister’s Message” -continued from page 2 Text Box: memory-laden building that has been its home for a long time. It would also have to say farewell to those members who could not make the move to a different neighbourhood. For reasons that I suspect go back to the forced re-location during the war, the Nisei would feel especially badly about "leaving behind" any member of the church family and would look for every possible way to "bring them along". These losses may be more than the congregation feels it can bear, and so it could decide to stay in the current location and try new ministry initiatives in the Bloor and Dovercourt area. One thing is certain: whether the decision is to stay or to move, the congregation's long-term future will depend on bringing in new people and inviting them to exercise their ministries . As is always the case, new people bring new ways of doing things. New people can make our comfortable circles of family and friends feel different. New people want to have a voice in decision-making. New people don't just want to come along for the ride, they want to help lead too. In order to invite, incorporate, and empower new people, we always have to let go of many of our familiar ways. We have Text Box: to actively help make the changes that will open the door to the future. A vital congregation's life is a dance of releasing and embracing. The losses of the familiar are acknowledged, grieved, and then released in service to a larger purpose and a noble calling. New people, and their new ways, are joyfully embraced in service to that same purpose and calling. Does everything have to change? No, of course not. There is so much that is already good and beautiful about Centennial-Japanese United Church. Does everything have to be embraced? Again, no. The congregation cannot hop on its horse and ride off in every direction at once. In order to know the direction God wants us to go, however, we need to keep identifying the beautiful Text Box: that must endure and continually attune our ears to what God is calling us to be, and to do. The Green Tea Conversations, and the important congregational meeting on June 7th, have been designed to help us to look and to listen. My hope is that our scripturally-based Sunday morning worship is also a time of spiritual discernment, and I believe that all your prayers offered on behalf of the congregation are being answered in the mystery of God's quiet way. We are an Easter people with the angel's announcement ringing in our ears: our experience of loss is not the final word, and what looks like an ending is, by the power of God's love, a new beginning. Christ is risen-our faithful Lord and companion. Let "Alleluia!" be our song in this time of releasing and embracing, because the spirit in which we begin has much to do with where we will end up. Rev. Steve Willey Text Box: -photo by Yosh Uyeda The bonsai plant in the foreground was used to represent an imaginary bamboo thicket - “a peaceful spot” to discuss CJUC’s future at the Green Tea Talks.