We’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone in the WCV community a merry Christmas. It’s amazing that we’re here again – another revolution around the sun and on the eve of another new year.

Throughout this Advent season we’ve been exploring the gospel of John and the idea of homecoming.   We hope you’ve enjoyed using the “Heart has a Home” booklets.  Please let us know if they’re helpful.

We’ve been praying for a deeper understanding of the events we celebrate at Christmas, primarily the incarnation – God becoming fully human in the form of one of us.  It’s quite astonishing that God would make his home among us as one of us.  It’s even more astonishing that he would take up residence in a young woman’s uterus for 9 months and would subject himself to the beautiful mess of the birthing process, in an animal stable no less!  That he would live as a son of a carpenter in a backwater region of the Roman empire and that he would learn to talk, walk, laugh, cry – all the experiences that make us human, are all signs of the depth to which he came to live with us as one of us.  This is God making his home among us and it’s simply astounding.

However, our reflections haven’t centred only on events that happened 2,000 years ago, as amazing as they were.  We’ve also looked for his coming in our daily lives in the present.  In all our comings and goings we’ve been listening for his whispers, trying to perceive his fingerprints, and opening ourselves to his presence with us.  The hope of Christmas is, in part, that the incarnation continues today and that he makes his home amongst those who welcome him.

And finally, we’ve been looking with anticipation to the final homecoming when Jesus, who is the Lord of all creation, comes to take his rightful place once again.  John paints a grand picture of heaven and earth coming together again at last as he records the angel’s ecstatic shout, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them…” (Rev 21:3).  This is our ultimate hope – that our home will be with God.  Jesus made a way, we experience it now in part, and we long for it’s fulfilment in the age to come.  This is not a disembodied hope in a vague afterlife.  It’s is real life grounded in a renewed earth with fully alive renewed bodies and pure hearts.  Jesus models the way for us.  Paul calls him the “first of a great harvest” (1 Cor 15:20-23).  What happened to Jesus, will happen to those who are at home with him.  This is our great hope, which is stirred as we look to Jesus’ birth, made real as we experience the Father’s loving presence through the Spirit today, and is fanned into flame like a warm crackling fire in the hearth as we look to the final day of Jesus’ final return home.

Wherever you are, and whatever your situation is this Christmas, we pray these realities will give you strength and a tangible hope for today.  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Scheduling:

Christmas Eve service:

• Dec 24, 6pm – 7pm.
• We will worship together and will end with a candlelight celebration.

Christmas Day Sunday Gathering:

• Dec 25, 10am – 11:15am

Celebration Sunday:

• Jan 1, 10am – 11:45am
• We’re going to enter 2017 worshipping together!  We’ve also got a few interesting prayer exercises we’ll do together.  Come prepared and expectant.

Office Hours:

• Normal office hours are Mon – Thur 9am – 4pm.
• For the week between Christmas and New Years the office will be open Wed, Dec 28, 9am – 3pm.

Year-end Giving:

If you are planning on making a year-end financial contribution to WCV we need to receive all funds by Dec 31, 2016.  Post-dated cheques, or other contributions, received in 2017 will only be applied to 2016 if:

• The cheque is dated for 2016 and is mailed and Canada Post has processed and stamped the envelop in 2016, or
• You have contacted Lillian by Dec 31, 2016, and stated your intention to contribute towards 2016.  You can call her at (204) 582-2900 x15 (leave a message), or email.

In both cases cheques must be dated for 2016.  If we receive a gift in 2017 (even if the cheque is post-dated) and neither the above conditions are met, we will not be able to apply the gift towards 2016.

Thank you!