Imbolc marks the beginning of a season of preparing for the growth and renewal of spring, often including the blessing of seeds and agricultural tools. The Christian holiday of Candlemas is also about preparing tools for the year- making and blessing candles for the church to use in services. In the spirit of these practices, we invite you to bring the “tools” of your lives to the service, where we will celebrate and ‘bless’ our tools for the coming year.

For this celebratory ritual, the tools you bring could be anything you use to make your mark on the world, and do your work (paid or not). We recommend choosing tools that are relatively small and portable, or a smaller object to represent a larger tool that you can’t bring with you. Examples of tools include: pens, notebooks, a laptop, sewing tools, protest signs, paintbrushes, construction or power tools, books, sports equipment, a chalice or other spiritual tools, keys to a vehicle or piece of machinery, cleaning tools, spreadsheets, backpacks, activity sets (like Spirit Play boxes or fidget toys), seeds and gardening tools, lesson plans, petri dishes, tarot cards, workshop materials, cooking tools, mobility aids, safety gear, theatre costumes or props… anything you consider the tools of your life!

We will follow this worship with a potluck meal. Feel free to bring a dish or drinks to share.  All cutlery and plates are provided.

There is some street parking, some parking in the lot of Lord Selkirk elementary (about 3 blocks away) and some parking at the Famous Foods (also about 3 blocks away). Hopefully this map will be useful in finding the church and parking.
 

If you are able, please come a bit early or stay a bit later to help set up for or clean up from our time together. Many hands make light work!