Ralph Connor Memorial United Church

The Little White Church on Main Street, Canmore, Alberta

covid

Sermon: June 27, 2021 – 2 Corinthians 8: 7-15

As I approach this reading from 2nd Corinthians, chapter 8, it strikes me that the ministry of the Apostle Paul has similarities to the online ministry that we and many Churches have exerted during these past fifteen months. In his own day and in his own way, rather than being entirely reliant on in-person gatherings, Paul’s ministry utilized the technologies available to him. Watch at https://youtu.be/uPbQkjcadEw    download PDF: Sermon_27June2021 Any of us who had Bibles with colour plates, can …

Read more

Sermon: April 25, 2021 – 1 John 3: 16-24

Today I’d like to talk about what it means to ABIDE in God’s love.  But a bit of internet Dictionary work tells me I’d better define that term. To me, ABIDE is a very warm word, directly related to the word ABODE.  To ABIDE, to me, is to be very much “at home” – to be in a place, or engaged in a relationship, where falsehood, or societal expectations can fall away, and I can safely be myself.  That, however, …

Read more

Christmas Eve – is now on-line!

Our Christmas Eve service is now live!!   As always, it’s a community-oriented service and this year, features the Nativity story filmed at various locations around Canmore. service link: https://youtu.be/jm62zY0N258 or you can access it through the Ralph Connor Canmore YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi8loA1BP8lNAppSRR9_aQQ and see all our online services (including Monday’s “Longest Night” service) We are holding no in-person services this Christmastime, as we follow and support the Alberta coronavirus guidelines (and… we would need to decide which 12 of you could …

Read more

Sermon: August 16, 2020 – 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26

When we are at our best, Christians embody their faith.  We look to Jesus Christ as an embodiment, or incarnation, of the Divine, referred to in the gospel of John as “the Word made Flesh.”  God’s presence in the person of Jesus, expresses that this physical world and these physical bodies are places where we experience holiness, sacredness, Divine acceptance, and love.  Theologians like Marcus Borg (pp.39-54) encourage us to view salvation, not as some deferred exit plan from life, …

Read more

Missing the 7 pm bells?

At 7 pm each night, we’re all encouraged to make joyous noise as a note of thanks to our first-line responders.  Part of this has been the peals of the Church bells at St. Michael’s Anglican and Ralph Connor United.  Unfortunately, the next few days both bells will be silenced – at St. Michael’s, an ongoing silence as their bell is broken, and at Ralph Connor, a temporary silence due to the sanctuary & narthex floor refinishing.  For those wishing …

Read more