The Blessing Out of our pastor, Rev. Cecilia Eggleston, last Saturday was a very moving moment in the life of Northern Lights MCC. It was a chance for us to join together and show our thanks for Cecilia, all she gave to us and the core values she embodied as she journeyed with us. As was evident from how many people showed up, she very clearly brought hope and light to so many. We will miss her but we were so lucky to be able to celebrate with her as she moves on to exciting new adventures living out her call from God with integrity and honesty. It will be an exciting time of change for us all as we move onto the next stage of our journey together and as a Board we will be making sure that you are all aware of the process, but before we look to the future, the Board would like to thank everyone who made last Saturday such a special day. These events may seem to almost take care of themselves, but as the many of you who helped out are aware, it is the result of a lot of hard work and planning.
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There is too little time to thank everyone individually, and what we showed more than anything was our incredible ability to work together as a church community, but we are so blessed to have such wonderful members of our welcome, AV, music and worship teams. These teams put in hours of practices, planning and preparations and were at the church hours before the service to make sure it went without a hitch. There were also individual contributions which may not have been so obvious on the day, Kate, Charlotte Norton and Mikee who prepared key parts of the service, PowerPoint and music as well as the wonderful words from Helen, Jeannie, Ian and the Rev. James Breslin who were able to express our feelings so well. The key to the service however was Charlotte West, who led the planning and preparations for the service and ensured it was a truly fitting send-off and most importantly of all, one with plenty of cake. As such the Board wants to thank each and every one of you for your input, and those of you who turned up, all of which helped made it such as success.
Cecilia has asked us to thank you for the lovely send-off, and all your generous gifts. Finally, a word from the Moderator of MCC, Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson;

“Northern Lights MCC, I know that even now God is calling upon that person who will be your next pastor, that there’s that right person for you who will lead you into your new era into being MCC right where you are. I love you and bless you, and look forward to the time - even after I’m no longer moderator - that I might come and visit you, and worship with you. I give you my heart and love, and my greetings, God bless you.”

​Alice, James, Kirsten & Michael

Time whizzes by. I have two more Sundays left at Northern Lights MCC. Thank you to everyone who has invited me to coffee or lunch, or wanted to just chat for a while. In these final couple of weeks, I will be focussing on making sure that the transition goes smoothly and that all my current responsibilities are covered by others in the church or will stop for now. We have a newly elected Board, some Ministry Team leaders have been willing to take on more responsibility and others in the congregation have taken on additional tasks. I am very grateful to everyone who has been willing to ‘step up’ at this time of change. I will not be making any more individual appointments now, in order to focus on the transition.

Many people have told me that they don’t like change. This is rather a broad statement I think. We encounter change on a regular basis, but sometimes we are more in control of it than at other times. We change what we wear, try new food, buy a new car or try a new hairstyle. Often these changes are positive and enjoyable, so we don’t think of them as change. When the government increases the tax allowance, we rarely complain about more money going into our pockets, even though it is a change that is beyond our control. Many of us do associate change with being a bad thing because the change that happens, like tax policy, is often outside of our control. Redundancy or other work related situations, changes in health, relationships that shift or even break down, can all be changes that we feel powerless about. All we can do then is decide what attitude we are going to take towards the change that has been forced upon us.

When Monica died, I was left with a life that I hadn’t chosen and I didn’t want. I was brokenhearted, griefstricken and very angry at God for calling me to serve so far away from my family and friends, only to leave me alone and lonely, as it felt to me at the time. It took a couple of years for me to be finally in a place where I could look at my life and start to make proactive choices about how I wanted to live. I looked at what I was most unhappy with in my life and decided what, if anything, I could do about it. If I couldn’t change it, or was not taking any action to change it, then I decided to stop moaning about it. I couldn’t, or wouldn’t, change some bits of my life, but I could change my attitude to it.

Over the next few months, change at NLMCC will affect you all in different ways. I ask that you are gentle with each other. Assume that people are doing their best. Mistakes will occasionally happen and some things will not get done. Change can bring loss. It also brings opportunity for growth. And God is with you. All the time.

God bless,
Cecilia