2018 Bible Study Guide ~ Every Day Worship

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Since 1991 MW Canada and MW USA have worked with MennoMedia in publishing an annual Women’s Bible Study Guide. This is an excellent resource for personal study, women’s groups, retreat settings, and individual study and inspiration.

In the past we have sent out a free copy to churches and women’s groups across Canada who affiliate with Mennonite Church Canada.  In 2016 this number was 253.  It has come to our attention that many of these guides are not being actively used so the executive has decided to change how we distribute these free copies.  Each church that would like to receive a free copy will have to ask for it to be sent.  Liz Koop (Past President) will be the BSG distributor and she will also have copies available for sale (market cost plus shipping).  You can reach her at 905-562-5920 or koopfarms@becon.org. When the new BSG is available (usually in July) announcements will be sent out via our contact email list, our blog and our FaceBook page.

Discover the rhythm of worship. Every day, every week, every year, there are ways to worship God. Every Day Worship inspires women to be worshipful people, not just people who worship. Using the elements of a worship service, author Carol Penner guides and invites women to dive deep into Scripture and faith through worship experiences.

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Carol Penner lives with her husband Eugene in Vineland, Ontario, in a house surrounded by apricot trees. She worked for fifteen years as a pastor in Ontario and Alberta. She is currently assistant professor of theological studies at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario, where she teaches practical theology. She writes worship resources and shares them on her worship blog www.leadinginworship.com. In her spare time she likes to hike on the Bruce Trail, read novels, and do anything crafty.

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AB Women host Annual Spring Retreat ~ May 20-22, 2016

DETAILED RETREAT INFORMATION - CLICK HERE

NEW YEAR'S PRAYER OF HOPE

Lord, we stand at the door of this New Year,

thankful for the year behind us,
a gift through which we’ve lived and moved.
At this timely threshold,
with our feet poised to walk into 2015,
we turn to you with our prayer of hope.

Hope springs eternal when we walk with you.
Help us walk this year with you.
We hope that this will be a year filled
with joy, with love, with laughter,
a year filled with plenty and abundance,
with purpose and fulfillment.

But if the year brings hard times and hurt,
pain and sorrow, tears and trials,
we know that your care and comfort
will console us month by month.
Grace us with forgiving spirits.

As a community help us walk
with the happy and the sorrowful,
holding their stories tenderly.

We hope for peace in our time,
for an end to wild war music.

We long to hear the sound of governments
listening to their people,
heeding their pleas for justice.

We long to hear the sound of the children of the world
cheering together because peace has been declared,
and they do not have to fear anymore.

We hope for healing for our beloved earth,
for harmony and balance where we have caused
disharmony and unbalance.

This year, Lord, help us to feel in our bones
the beauty of this life, this world;
its sounds and sights and smells and tastes,
the lavishness of being
which you give us in seconds and minutes
and hours and days and weeks and months.

Move in us, have your way with us,
so that on the last day of the year
we can say, wholeheartedly,
this year has been a gift
through which we’ve lived and moved
as followers of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Copyright Carol Penner

www.leadinginworship.com

Thanksgiving Grace

Thanksgiving Grace

We are people with full hearts:
we feel blessed, we are blessed,
and on this Thanksgiving Day we say thank you with all our hearts.
Thank you for your love, and for the gift of your son.
Thank you for those dear to us, those near at hand,
and those much farther away.
Thank you for food.
Thank you for rich soil, good weather, hard-working farmers.
In a society where we are so often
self-sufficient, self reliant and self-satisfied,
give us humble hearts.
All we are and all we have comes from your hand;
it’s by your grace that we have life and breath
on this thanksgiving day.
Bless the hands that have prepared the food,
and those who are serving it.
Bless the food before us,
may it strengthen us to be a blessing to all we meet,
in the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

~ Carol Penner (http://carolpenner.typepad.com)

NEW YEAR'S PRAYER OF HOPE

Lord, we stand at the door of this New Year,

thankful for the year behind us,
a gift through which we’ve lived and moved.
At this timely threshold,
with our feet poised to walk into 2015,
we turn to you with our prayer of hope.

Hope springs eternal when we walk with you.
Help us walk this year with you.
We hope that this will be a year filled
with joy, with love, with laughter,
a year filled with plenty and abundance,
with purpose and fulfillment.

But if the year brings hard times and hurt,
pain and sorrow, tears and trials,
we know that your care and comfort
will console us month by month.
Grace us with forgiving spirits.

As a community help us walk
with the happy and the sorrowful,
holding their stories tenderly.

We hope for peace in our time,
for an end to wild war music.

We long to hear the sound of governments
listening to their people,
heeding their pleas for justice.

We long to hear the sound of the children of the world
cheering together because peace has been declared,
and they do not have to fear anymore.

We hope for healing for our beloved earth,
for harmony and balance where we have caused
disharmony and unbalance.

This year, Lord, help us to feel in our bones
the beauty of this life, this world;
its sounds and sights and smells and tastes,
the lavishness of being
which you give us in seconds and minutes
and hours and days and weeks and months.

Move in us, have your way with us,
so that on the last day of the year
we can say, wholeheartedly,
this year has been a gift
through which we’ve lived and moved
as followers of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Copyright Carol Penner

www.leadinginworship.com