Imago Dei Gatherings
We meet on the first and third Mondays of each month
Where?
We are meeting at Church of the Way, lower level at 450 Lilac St. The meeting starts at 7:00pm and last for 90 minutes
Imago Dei is an ecumenical network of Christian faith communities based in Vancouver, British Columbia, (http://imagodeicommunity.ca) with sister groups across Canada, as well as in the USA and Asia. It is a ministry that has formed around principles of spiritual direction for the encouragement of a genuine experience of growth in the Christian spiritual life.
Mary Reimer, former pastor at FaithWorks, together with Jan Woltmann and Kym Lukin co-ordinate these evenings. The flow generally includes singing hymns from scripture, a period of silence, pondering a portion of scripture and discussion of the meditation posted in this newsletter. The evening closes with a time of Communion and prayer.
Imago Dei provides resources for the cultivation of the practice of prayer and the life of faith. It also models and encourages small fellowship groups for those who wish to pursue, in community with others, a growing communion with God in their lives.
Our ministry is
- to encourage a deeper spirituality in the lives of Christians
- to help recognize and welcome God’s transforming work in life
- to encourage a growing faith towards the life God is calling us to live in this world
For more information about the national Imago Dei organization, visit http://imagodeicommunity.ca.
You might find this article, “Christianity Offers No Answers About the Coronavirus. It’s Not Supposed To” by N. T. Wright (Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews) in Time magazine helpful.
To live a life of prayer means to emerge from my drowse, to awaken to the communing, guiding, healing, clarifying, and transforming current of God’s Holy Spirit in which I am immersed (Douglas V. Steere, Dimensions of Prayer)
The same One who brought Jesus from the tomb and called Lazarus to life seeks to bring new hope and life to us even when that seems an impossible feat, even for God. —Rueben P. Job
God‘s presence is indefinable but unmistakeable. Today I give thanks for that holy and sustaining Presence within my life and within all creation. — Norman Shawchuck
We are born and we shall all die. The person who is in communion with God wears mortality comfortably. To be with God is to be at home in this world and in the next. — Reuben P. Job
God’s love for us means we need not stay as we are, for the Holy Spirit is with us to help us face ourselves and to go from where we are to where God wants us to be.
—Norman Shawchuck, Reuben P. Job and Robert G. Doherty How to Conduct a Spiritual Life Retreat
Jesus’ Freedom – from Henri Nouwen
Jesus was truly free. His freedom was rooted in his spiritual awareness that he was the Beloved Child of God. He knew in the depth of his being that he belonged to God before he was born, that he was sent into the world to proclaim God’s love, and that he would return to God after his mission was fulfilled. This knowledge gave him the freedom to speak and act without having to please the world and the power to respond to people’s pains with the healing love of God.
That’s why the Gospels say: “Everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all” (Luke 6:19).