News > 2008 Parish Life Notes > 08.12.14 Parish Life

Brass and Organ Concert

Mark your calendars for Dec 16, 7:30 pm for this St. John’s tradition. Come and hear the VSO Brass Quintet and Terry Fullerton on the organ. Tickets are available at the door only and are $20 for adults and $15 for Seniors and Students, Children 12 and under are free.

Nominating Committee.

Nominations are invited from Members of St. John’s for 2009 vacancies on Church Committee and Trustees, and for Synod Lay Delegates and Alternate Lay Delegates. Please submit a nomination of an existing St. John’s Member in writing to David Ley, Chair of the Nominating Committee. Nominations must be received by Dec 31, will be reviewed by the Nominating Committee, and will be voted on at Vestry.

Year End Offerings

Please note that our fiscal year end is December 31st. If you wish to have a tax receipt dated for 2007, please ensure that your offering, dated Dec 31, reaches the church office on or before January 2. All offerings given on January 6th will be for 2009.

Senior Communion and Lunch

St. John’s Seniors Christmas Communion and Lunch will be held on Tuesday, Dec 16. Communion will be at 11:00 am in the chapel with brunch to follow in the Trendell Lounge. Our guest speaker will be Maurice McElrea who has been head of the Union Gospel Mission in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and will soon step down after many years of service. Please RSVP to the church office at 604.731.4966

St. John’s Richmond

Advent greetings from St. John’s Richmond. We continue to pray for you in your leadership and stand for the gospel. Please pray for us as we invite friends and neighbours to hear the story of the incarnate Jesus, in Biblical context, today, Dec 14. This is our second annual Family Christmas Pageant prepared jointly with Broadmoor Baptist Church. Thank you for your continued thoughts, prayers, and support of SJR as we move into our third year of local ministry in Richmond.

Donations Needed

Friendship Providers, an informal group of evangelical churches in Metro Vancouver, distributes food and
clothing to needy people in the Downtown Eastside. St. John’s has collected good used clothing for men, women, and children for them for several years. We are also collecting for a single parent family of a woman and 3 children whose home was recently destroyed by fire (Mom is a medium, one boy is 2 , girl 12 tall and slim and second boy, 14). Please clearly mark such donations as, “Coquitlam Fire Victims”. A drop-off bin is available opposite the Resource Centre. Call Brian or Val Cole at 604.464.0019 for more information.

Room Needed

A young man from Australia is moving to Vancouver for 6 months and is in need of a room to rent starting Dec 28. He is the son of an Anglican minister in Sydney. If you have a room for rent or know of one, please contact Ken Moser at ken(at)stjohnsshaughnessy(dot)org or at 604.731.4966 ext 23.

Parking – Please be considerate!

Recently one of our neighbours reported that his driveway had been blocked on a Sunday two weeks running and he couldn’t get out. They are considering asking the City to make their block “For Residents Only”. This would make life very difficult for all of us on Sundays and during the week.

Please park legally:

• Corner Clearance: 6 meters or 20 feet from the inside edge of the intersecting sidewalk
• Lane or Driveway Clearance: 1.5 meters or 5 feet from an intersecting lane. This is the minimum. A car parked directly across from a lane or driveway must be at least 5.5 meters or 18 feet from the street entrance to the lane or driveway
• Fire Hydrant: 5 meters or 16 ½ feet.

Parish Announcements

Condolences. Please keep Deirdre Keegan and her family in your prayers as they mourn for two family members this
Christmas season. Her father died Oct 25 in Ontario and her sister-in-law’s youngest brother died on Nov 2 in a tragic drowning.

Please also keep Donna Leemet and her family in your prayers as they mourn the death of her father this week.

Flowers. The flowers on the Credence table are given to the glory of Christ and in loving memory of our dear parents and grandparents, from the Leys.

Volunteers needed! We are looking for volunteer receptionists and bulletin stuffers. If you have a few hours a week to volunteer please contact Joanne McKinnon in the office.

“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” Luke 2:29-32

In this passage, Simeon, holding the 8 day old baby Jesus, clearly articulates who Jesus is and His
purpose. From this, we start to get a glimpse of what Christmas is about. In today’s passage we
hear Peter confess Jesus as “The Christ of God” and in this Peter starts to understand the meaning of Christmas. Understanding what Christmas means, is coming to the realization of who Christ is and responding. Here are some snippets of responding, to remind us of Christmas.

Confessing Christ
Today, 7 people are publicly confessing their faith in Christ. This is a response to Christ’s love and recognition of salvation through faith in Him. What a great encouragement it is for us to share in this service of baptism with them.

Sharing Christ
The St. John’s children’s choir will be going caroling this week and handing out invitations to St. John’s Christmas services. Two children in the choir suggested this idea and it was fully supported by their fellow choir members and choirmaster, Amber Salladin. WHY? They know who Christ is, sing about Him every week, and they want others to hear and come to know Him.

Submitting to Christ
On December 9th, David Short and Dr. Jim Packer were appointed honorary clerical canons of Sydney’s St. Andrew’s Cathedral. This recognizes their submission to Christ and Christ’s faithfulness in their lives and labour. Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Peter Jensen said the Anglican world is privileged to have theologians of the caliber of Dr. Packer and he paid tribute to the vision and faithfulness of David Short’s ministry in Canada.

Building Christ’s Church
The first draft of the constitution of the new North American Anglican Church states that Christ is the cornerstone and its focus is on mission and outreach. It has been supported and blessed by the GAFCON (Global Anglican Future Conference) Primates and they presented it to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Williams, as a resolution for the crisis in the Anglican Communion.

Joanne Lawrie