​As worship last Sunday we shared and discussed some of our favourite poetry and a few poems written by us. As preparation, we held a writing workshop with Bonita Martens who introduced us to some of the basics of reading and writing poetry. You’ll find a selection of the poems discussed below, enjoy!

On Peace
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound...
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

​— “The Peace of Wild Things,” Wendel Berry

Writing Workshop with Bonita Martens
Wednesday, June 15th, 6pm

On Sunday June 19th, as a part of our service, you are invited to sign up to share a short piece of writing you that you find meaningful. It can be something you or someone else has written. You can read your work out loud, you can have someone read it for you, or you can post it on the wall to share. Listeners will have the opportunity to provide feedback to writers. 

To prepare for this Sunday, we are running a writing workshop where Bonita Martens will be giving some instruction on how to start the writing process. EVERYONE is invited to attend - women and men are welcome. If you have never written anything more than a grocery list, this workshop is for you!  Come and explore this amazing way of expressing yourself. 

To sign up for the workshop and/or to sign up to share your writing on Sunday morning, please talk to Rosilee Sherwood - rosileesherwood@gmail.com

By Erika Klassen

When God came to live on earth as a human being, He entered into a culture and a religion that had many, many dark places full of fear and ignorance.  Jesus came to bring light.  He came to bring the Kingdom of God to earth as it is in heaven. He came to show us a new vision and a new way of life.

In the first century a woman was defined almost exclusively in terms of her family relations. One of the biggest issues shrouded in darkness was the role and treatment of women. Jesus lived in an age of sexual discrimination. Women were dehumanized, viewed as objects and property. Most were banned from full participation in public life or any type of leadership role.  
Two primary roles of women were: raising children and satisfying their husband’s desires, sexual or otherwise. 

One day a Jewish woman called out to Jesus, “blessed is the mother who gave birth and nursed you,” to which Jesus replied, “blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” Jesus wanted to make it clear that a woman’s status was not dependent on the children she bears: her identity comes from God.
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By Caleb Ratzlaff
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Although considered the oldest book of the Bible, the Book of Job was probably recorded around the same period as the Book of Daniel and the Book of Isaiah, during what’s known as the period of Exile. During this time period a number of Israeli tribes were taken captive by Babylon (Daniel, in fact, is one of these captives). At the time it was recorded many in Israel would have identified with Job. Like Job, the Israelites felt their current lot in life was unfair, that the scale of life was imbalanced. From their perspective, God shouldn't have handed them over to their enemies, just as Job shouldn’t have been handed over to Satan. 

Before considering Job’s suffering, I’d like to reflect on the imbalanced scale in my own life. 

Last week I volunteered a lot of my time. I spent three and a half days helping my father-in-law replace the roof on his greenhouse, which is over a square acre in size. This was dangerous work. We had to walk the gutters between the peaks of the greenhouse roofs that were three stories high without harness or support. The slightest breeze could have easily swept the giant piece of plastic from the house and us with it. Then, yesterday, after helping my father-in-law, I went to my father’s and helped butcher turkeys. I’m not complaining, I enjoyed the hard work. It made me consider, however, the debts we owe one another.

We have a saying, Dad and I, that volunteer work among friends and family is “money in the bank”, meaning when you volunteer for friends and family the other is in your debt. Thinking about this, however, I realized that the balance of father and my father-in-law was pretty skewed to their side. I owe them so much that no amount of volunteer work on my part could ever satisfy my debt. This is true for many of us, we owe a tremendous amount to our parents or parent figures. For some, however, with irresponsible parents, the scales are imbalanced in the opposite direction, their parents actually owe them. And, it’s entirely possible that these irresponsible parents will never be able to atone for their mistakes. In general, however, I think it’s true that the youth carry a debt that will never be returned. It’s only because of the grace of our parents or past generations that we are free to live ordinary lives. 

At best, our parents and our inheritance, encourages us to live on, using what’s been given us. Through their mercy, we are freed from our impossibly large debt and blessed to transcend the gift given. ​

By Caleb Ratzlaff​

Westview Christian Fellowship is located in the Queenston neighbourhood, a district in St. Catharines that has abnormally high rates of poverty, homelessness, and illiteracy. Westview has become a strong community partner through sharing its resource and expertise with a women’s Centre, Westview Centre4Women. The Centre provides refuge, community, and a variety of services for women living in the Queenston neighbourhood. Although the Centre was initiated by the church as a response to a need in St. Catharines' downtown context, the Centre, in turn, responded to needs in the church when some of the participants became involved in leadership and support.  Last year a number of women from the Centre expressed interest in an introductory course on Christianity. After trying the Alpha program, an evangelistic program which seeks to introduce the basics of the Christian faith, we decided to create our own curriculum to better suit our situation.
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While considering this neighbourhood and the request for a course on Christianity, I was struck by one of the many compelling arguments found in Nik Ansell’s most recent book, The Annihilation of Hell: Universal Salvation and the Redemption of Time in the Eschatology of Jürgen Moltmann. Simply stated, Nik argues that Scripture is a story about the work of God and humanity making a home, a place in this world defined by care, respect, and love—something many struggle with in Queenston. This got my imagination turning: if creation is God’s domestic homemaking skills at work, was God homeless before he turned on the lights? Does God experience similar feelings and challenges as those associated with homelessness?* It’s a strange speculative thought, that creation emerges out of a God forsaken space, a space Moltmann argues is within God, akin to a woman’s womb.

Thanks so much for visiting our website and for taking a browse. Our blog page is a place where we post interesting articles, sermon recordings or just fun things about the Westview family. The blog is maintained by a number of different authors and so you may find some different voices here and we welcome you to contribute your voice to the conversation. Please feel free to leave your comments below and we would love to hear what your thoughts are.

Thanks again for visiting our site and we look forward to hearing your thoughts. 

​Enjoy!