United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands

CIRMC Weekly

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2023 Girls’ Brigade Week

Wednesday Mar 15, 2023
 
Girls’ Brigade Companies from across the
Cayman Islands gathered on Sunday, March 12,
2023, at the Webster Memorial United Church
(Bodden Town) to participate in the opening
service, launching the Annual Girls’ Brigade
Week.
The Worship Service brought into focus the theme of the 2023
Girls’ Brigade International, ‘Rise in Strength…for Such a
Time as This.’ Rev. Euthman Wray, host Minister of the
Service framed his sermon, entitled ‘Stand Strong for such a
time as this’, based on the story of Esther, to reflect the theme.

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#EmbraceEquity

Wednesday Mar 08, 2023
 
Wednesday, March 8, 2023, marked International Women's
Day (IWD), a global celebration of the social, economic,
cultural and political achievements of women. This year’s
campaign theme is #EmbraceEquity.
But what is equity? Equity can be easily confused with equality.
Sometimes they are even used interchangeably. But these two
similar words cover two inherently different concepts.
Equality means having access to the same resources or
opportunities.
Equity means having access to resources or opportunities
necessary to reach an equal outcome.
The concept of equality is based on the principle of ‘fairness’.
Fairness, however, works only (and is truly fair) when the initial
conditions or circumstances are the same.
Equity, on the other hand, takes into consideration the fact that
people start from different places. Some may require more
resources or opportunities than others to achieve the same
goals.

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Guarding Your Speech by Rev Donovan Myers

Wednesday Mar 01, 2023
 
Please read James 3:1-12
As we begin this year’s journey in Lent, that forty-day period
that Jesus spent in the wilderness, in fasting and prayer – ahead
of being tempted by Satan – we note how prominently speech
or speaking takes centre stage in that Gospel story. Both the
absence of audible speech on the part of Jesus, as He separated
Himself from people in solitude, fasting and prayer; to the
belligerent hounding of Jesus by Satan who tests Him time after
time, after time! You can’t miss the three times the tempter
came to Him and “said” (he speaks or communicates). And
then in response, Jesus replies “it is written”. Both use
language and speech, but while the tempter uses it to beguile
and deceive, Jesus uses His speech to point to God.
It leaves us to evaluate and ask ourselves, how do we use our
gift of speech?

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The Season of Lent

Wednesday Feb 22, 2023
 
As part of the Church’s annual liturgical journey, we have
transitioned from the Season of Epiphany into the Season of
Lent. During the six weeks (and five Sundays) of Lent, we
engage in meaningful spiritual preparation for Easter, the
greatest Feast of the holy days in the Christian calendar.
The very first step of this preparation, Ash Wednesday, sets the
tone for our spiritual journey to the Cross and the Empty Tomb
of our Lord. The symbolic meaning of ashes indicating
mourning and sadness is a stark expression of our sinful nature.
It is also a solemn reminder of our mortality and desperate need
to find forgiveness through repentance and reconciliation with
God. On our own we are hopeless, but through the sacrifice of
Jesus Christ, there is the promise of cleansing and new life that
extends beyond the grave! Let us then journey on in faith, hope,
and love!

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60th Wedding Anniversary- Rev Godfrey and Mrs Lynette Meghoo

Wednesday Feb 15, 2023
 
They met 64 years ago at a Presbyterian Church in Jamaica,
while they both were leading separate groups of children
nearby. Their marriage took place four years later at another
church in Kingston on the 28th of December, 1962. This was
just after the groom was ordained as a minister of Word and
Sacraments. Ministry in Jamaica officially took twelve years,
with some time spent at KNOX College.
A few days after the wedding, they arrived in Grand Cayman
on New Year’s Eve---just in time for a Watchnight Service,
with a special welcome festivity held the same night for the
newly married couple. They have spent a total of fifty years in
Grand Cayman, most of this at Bodden Town, North Side, Gun
Bay and East End Churches—all at the same time, with an
additional preaching point at Old Man Bay. “I believe in
pastoral work,” he says, and his wife believes in youth and
Women’s ministry.

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Turkey-Syria Earthquake

Wednesday Feb 08, 2023
 
As the death toll approaches 20,500, in the wake of the
devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Northern-Syria
on 6 February 2023, the international community, Churches,
humanitarian organizations and charities around the world
hurry to assist with teams of experts, financial aids, supplies and
prayer.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the World
Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) with their partner
agencies are already working on the scene to provide life-saving
supplies, i.e. food, winterization materials, ambulances, and
medical aid in the affected communities.
Please pray daily for the tens of thousands of grief-stricken
people, the injured and those who lost everything and without
food and shelter in the middle of a harsh winter!

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Return to Your Roots Mr. Herman Wilson

Wednesday Feb 01, 2023
  The call to return to the Christian roots is a call for believers to
fervently seek to know our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ better
each day. He is our life, the author and perfector of our faith,
and with whom we enjoy a mystical union, He is the one who
enables us to become deeply aware of the glory, mystery,
holiness, perfection, wisdom and goodness of God the Father
through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what we were
created for.
The call is for us by faith to maintain an eternal perspective on
life, and to frequently remind ourselves of who we are in Christ
Jesus. We are a new creation in Christ, a new humanity created
after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
(See John 1:12-13; Eph. 4:24.) We are the Church, partakers of
the divine nature in Christ, to be an expression of the light of
Christ in the world, and the temple in which God lives by His
Spirit. All believers in Christ have been chosen by God before
the creation of the world. (See Ephesians 1:4; 2 Thess. 2:13-14;
1 Peter 1:2) We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in
Christ in the heavenly places, the realm of an invisible reality.
(Ephesians 1:3) There must be a change in our worldview, a
new way of life inspired by God who gives us the ability to have
a deeper awareness of the eternal compared with the temporal.
Our union with Christ Jesus is by virtue of the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit and is the essence of what it means to be a Christian.
It is a spiritual reality that transcends our finite minds. It is
supernatural and mysterious. (See 1 Cor. 6:17; 12:13; Eph.
5:31-32.) This union was revealed by Christ Jesus in His high
priestly prayer shortly before His crucifixion. He prayed as
follows for all believers.

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UCJCI Women’s Fellowship Week January 22-28, 2023

Wednesday Jan 25, 2023
 
MODERATOR’S MESSAGE
Sisters of the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman
Islands, I greet you warmly on behalf of the Synod. Even
though we are drawing close to the end of the first month in the
year, I wish for you a Happy New Year and pray God’s
blessings upon your Ministry throughout the rest of 2023.
As a church, we thank God for you; for your service and the
various ways through which you contribute to Christ’s Ministry
and Mission in your local congregations, and at the Regional
and Synodical level of the church. We cannot begin to imagine
what the state of the church would be in Cayman and Jamaica,
were it not for our women. This is true for many other
denominations as well. May God continue to bless you, even as
we pray and work towards having more of our men coming on
board, because the partnership is critical.
Careful note has been taken of your Theme: “Women Rooted
in Christ: Bearing Fruit.” It’s a given that any physical tree that
is so purposed to bear fruit, must be rooted; properly anchored
in soil and receiving the required nutrients. Except for when it
is manipulated by human beings, in its natural state, the fruit
that is borne on a tree, is consistent with the type of tree. As
Christians; as Christian women, Christ Jesus has purposed you
to bear fruit. You then must remain anchored in Christ; rooted
in Him and drawing from His Spirit in order to bear fruit. It is a
given, if you are rooted in Christ; drawing sustenance from
Christ, then your fruit must reflect your connectedness; your
rootedness; your Christlike nature. You can therefore
appreciate why Jesus in Matthew 7: 16-20would say,
“By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes
from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good
tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good
tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good
fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down
and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will
recognize them.”

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Everything New! by Ms. Katherine Jackson (Cert. Hon.)

Wednesday Jan 18, 2023
 
Please read Isaiah 43:15-16 and 19-21

When I was a little girl growing up on Elizabeth Street in West
Bay, I would be so delighted if, when I was getting ready for
school, my mother would say, “see, I’ve made you a new pair
of garters”. My mother was an excellent seamstress and when
the tops of my socks would get all stretched up, and Daddy
hadn’t returned home from his turtling voyages to Key West,
Florida when he would bring new clothes, socks, shoes, small
bicycles, and some of everything for us, Mommy would make
me a pair of garters so that my socks could stay up on my
spindly little legs. Garters were simply a length of elastic with
its two ends sewn together, and then you’d slip them over the
socks and then turn down the tops of your socks so that no one
could see how really stretched up they were! New garters were
a hot item and you felt like a princess when you wore them to
school. It was the same when you got a new school uniform at
the start of the term, or a new dress, frilly socks and patent
leather shoes to wear to the Christmas programme! All things
new …
In these Bible verses from Isaiah 43, “the LORD, the Holy One”
is saying, “Forget the former things … do not dwell on the past”
– in other words, don’t park yourself there … See, I am doing
a new thing! now it springs up; do you not recognize it? Don’t
you understand? I am making a way in the wilderness (a place
that no one wants to get lost) … and streams in the wasteland –
a hot and harsh desert !”

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Let the Redeemed Return by Mr Mike Bowerman

Wednesday Jan 11, 2023
 
It was December 8th, 1963. Nineteen-year-old Frank Sinatra Jr.
was relaxing and enjoying an evening with a friend in a Lake
Tahoe hotel in Nevada prior to going on tour as he was, like his
father, a musician. There was a knock on the door and, on
opening it, two men pushed their way in, one aiming a gun at
Frankie while the other tied up his friend.
Barry Keenan and Joe Amsler then drove Frankie, blindfolded,
to an apartment in the suburbs of Los Angeles where a third
man, John Irwin, called Frank Sinatra Sr. demanding a ransom
of $240,000. Frankie’s friend had meanwhile managed to free
himself and call the police who were already on the search.
They, however, advised Sinatra Sr. to pay the ransom and they
would then follow up. It took only a few days for the three men
to be caught, Frankie to be freed and the majority of the ransom
money retrieved.
The key to young Frankie being freed was the payment of a
ransom. A ransom, by definition, is something paid or
demanded for the release of someone or something from
captivity. In his case it was $240,000. We might describe it as
the redemption price.
In the Greek language used in the New Testament, the words
ransom, and redemption have the same root. It is ‘lutron.’
‘Lutron’ has to do with deliverance and freedom won and
purchased at a price.

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United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands