Sunday, June 16, 2019

First Nations Sunday

For the 11:00 a.m. service on Sunday, we will be welcoming two Indigenous Elders from the Shawanaga First Nation, Vincent Pawis and Donna Longlade. There will be a traditional smudging, a teaching on the Medicine Wheel, and a time of fellowship following the service.  

For the organ prelude, Minister of Music Dr. Patricia Wright will play “Aria: God Moves in a Mysterious Way” from In Mystery and Wonder by Dan Locklair and Morning Has Broken by Timothy Albrecht. The Metropolitan Handbells will finish the prelude with The Water Is Wide arranged by John Matheny. The organ postlude will be Earth Dance by Heather Spry. The Metropolitan Choir will sing Words of Chief Seattle by Amy Stephen, and the Offertory music will be Little Innocent Lamb arranged by Sondra K. Tucker. The hymns will be No.304 (O God, Beyond All Face and Form), No.307 (Touch the Earth Lightly), and "Two Boats of Kin", words by the Rev. Jason Meyers to the tune Une Jeune Pucelle (No.71). Sunday's carillon prelude will be played by Naoko Tsujita, University of Toronto student carillonneur.  

The Bible readings are Proverbs 8:1-4 (the gift of wisdom) and 22-31 (wisdom’s part in creation), Psalm 8 (divine majesty and human dignity), and John 16:12-15 (the work of the Spirit).        

The Elders

Vincent Pawis is an Elder from the Shawanaga First Nation. He has been awarded both the Order of Ontario and a Meritorious Service Medal by the Governor General of Canada for his decades of work with at-risk Aboriginal youth in counselling sessions, workshops, healing circles and sweat lodge ceremonies.  

Donna Longlade is also an Elder in the Shawanaga First Nation and works alongside her partner Vince Pawis at the White Buffalo Healing Lodge where she runs Indigenous Circle Hearings.