Category Archives: Articles

Report on Trauma WorkshopOctober 13, 2022UCRMN offered a fall workshop on Trauma, Grief and Recovery, called Ministry in the Midst, and offered by Rev. Michele Rowe of Maple Creek, Sask. Michele is Certified as a Community and Workplace Traumatologist and happens to hold a Social Work degree as well as being a minister to aContinue reading “Trauma, Grief and Recovery”

By Joyce Sasse Submitted by Catherine Christie Editors note: this is an Easter memory from Joyce Sasse, reproduced from her ebook, Gleanings from a Prairie Pastor (available for downloading from Centre for Rural Community Leadership and Ministry, www.circle-m.ca)(Apologies are never easy.  t takes time to unload the baggage. That’s what I learned when I was helpingContinue reading “Saying What’s In Your Heart”

By Joyce SasseSubmitted by Catherine Christie Editors note: this is an Easter memory from Joyce Sasse, reproduced from her ebook, Gleanings from a Prairie Pastor (available for downloading from Centre for Rural Community Leadership and Ministry, www.circle-m.ca) One Easter Sunday I spoke about how Beethoven, at the darkest point in his life, wrote the magnificent musicContinue reading “Easter Postlude”

The Postcard Project was hatched in those days when getting together still seemed far off.  We were just beginning to plan for a Rural Routes Through the Holy gathering in June 2022.  Standing in those uncertain days our planning group spoke about the reality we knew – not everyone was online and, even if theyContinue reading “Postcard Project”

Submitted by Connie Sykes, from Frontier, SK The pandemic has pushed us into trying things that we probably wouldn’t have considered before.  Making more use of technology is one of those things that we hadn’t quite imagined could help us as a pastoral charge, until we found ourselves having to stay apart. Only a weekContinue reading “Video Greetings: At Christmas, or Anytime”

Submitted by Catherine Christie As reported in Feb. newsletter, on March 7 and 8 , the International Rural Churches Association (IRCA) held a global prayer event.  Canada hosted 2 of the hours.  UCRMN member Catherine Smith from New Brunswick, instigator of Rural Routes through the Holy (check out https://hemofthelight.com/ruralroutes/ ) was first, beginning on screen atContinue reading “Canada participates in 24-hour prayer”

By Rev. Dr. Donna Mann Is a story important? Why is a story significant? Whose story is central? My dad was a great storyteller. He could tell a story about any of his cattle, why they liked pulped turnips before their oats. Why did they enter the milking area in the same order every night?Continue reading “Importance of story”

By Joyce Sasse This article is made up of the review notes by Joyce Sasse on the book, Men Against the Desert by James H. Gray, published in 1968 by Western Producer Prairie Books. The disastrous conditions of the 1930s and the incredible work that saved the Prairies is a history-making story that has broughtContinue reading “Our Greatest Canadian Story, Almost Forgotten Until Now”

Submitted by Catherine Christie Besides being on United Church Rural Ministry Network,  Eric Skillings and I are on the Executive of the International Rural Churches Association.   Let me share with you some history of IRCA.  There was an international meeting in England in 1998, when participants (Joyce Sasse was there from rural Canada ministries) decidedContinue reading “IRCA Global Prayer”

Submitted by Catherine Christie, article by Joyce Sasse taken from Country Preacher’s Notebook Jesus was born in a manger, in a stable.  In cities, people see the manger scene in store windows or church Christmas displays, or perhaps even set up in their own living room.  But I fear that the scene loses its simplicityContinue reading “Christmas In a Barn”