News > 2009 Parish Life Notes > 09.06.07 Parish Life

 Keeping Company with God-Monday June 8th

Are you feeling weary and heavy laden? Needing to come to God for his care and comfort? Or do you want to pray about the court case and this church family? Then come to “Keeping Company with God” tomorrow, Monday June 8th at 7:30 pm, in the sanctuary. Whatever your need; a quiet time with God at the end of your day, a place to receive prayer support for personal concerns or a desire to hold up this congregation in prayer – this is a place of prayer care. Monday June 8th is the last time we will meet until next September.

New to St John’s?

If you have been coming to St John’s for 6 months or less, we would like to get to know you! Please join us for a free ‘Welcome lunch’ after the 11 am service in the Trendell Lounge on June 14th. After lunch, David Short and other staff members will give a short presentation. You can register by emailing or calling the church office.

We have two new summer interns for the youth!

Robert Edwards and Chloe Moore will be working with the young people this summer running our summer youth program. More details to come

Work wanted!

Some university students from our Ekklesia group would love to work in order to earn money to go on the houseboat trip this summer. Do you have any work that they could do? If so, please contact Robert Edwards 778.886.8593 Work wanted!

Men’s Summer Breakfast with Bp Paul Barnett

Bp Paul Barnett, well loved, well known, and highly regarded, is coming to teach a course at Regent College in early July and will be preaching at St. John’s for 3 weeks. He has agreed to do a men’s breakfast while he is here on Saturday, July 4th from 9 am to 11 am. This is a rare opportunity for the men of our congregation to hear Bp Paul and to interact with him. Bp Paul’s topic will be, “Why I am still a Christian”.
Cost will be about $15/person. Because it’s the summertime, we need to know how many men plan to attend so that we can give the caterers accurate figures. Please phone the church reception desk (ext. 0) to confirm your intention to come.

Music Positions Filled

To carry on the work of Amber Salladin, Assistant Director of Music, we have split the position into two; Music Assistant and Evening Service Music Leader. It is our great pleasure to announce that David Poon has accepted the position of Music Assistant and Michelle Sudduth has accepted the position of Evening Service Music Leader. Both assume their positions immediately.

David is one of those rare breeds, a Vancouverite. He has a Bachelor of Music from UBC and mostly recently held the position of Organist and Choir Director at St. Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Church. David has been an active member of St. John’s choir this past year and has become a very active member of the Tippet family with his marriage to Sarah, this past May. David is a skilled musician that is passionate about music and its role in worship.

Michelle hails from Colorado, but most recently she has studied, worked and lived in Nashville. She graduated from Belmont University and has worked professionally in a variety of music and performance arts (most recently she played the role of an item generally found in the produce aisle - ask her about it!) Michelle has been active serving as a musician in her church for many years and is passionate about the union of Gospel ministry and music. She came to Vancouver to study at Regent College, and joined the Evening Service just weeks after her arrival.

Please welcome both David and Michelle into their roles, and pray that God continues to draw our attention and affection to his Son through the music ministry at St. John’s. We all look forward to God’s continued work among us, for His glory and the growth of His Kingdom.

Please join us in prayer for the court case

Everyone is welcome to attend any or all of these prayer services.
• Prayer Services - Weekdays at 7 am (Morning Prayer), 12 pm (Noon Day Prayers), 5:30 pm (Evening Prayer)— in the South Chapel. Contact Norah Johnston for more information, 604.224.8986.
• Evensong on Tuesdays at 5:30. This service occurs on Tuesdays all year long and is followed by dinner together in the church hall.
• Individual Opportunities - We want to cover the trial in prayer and have asked for volunteers to pray for each hour the trial is in session. Thank you to all those who have volunteered their time. We still have two openings on Thursday afternoon and would love to have more people praying during the whole week. Anyone who would like to volunteer or for more information, please contact Joanne M, ext 15 or email.

Legal Updates

During the last two weeks of the trial we have been communicating with the congregation through email updates, and through our website (www.stjohnsvancouver.org). If you wish to receive regular updates please email Krista at Krista@sjvan.org . Please include your name, address and phone number, so that we can update our Parish List at the same time.

You are welcome to go and be an observer at the court hearings. The dates are Monday-Friday, May 25 - June 12. Daily hours of court are 10:00 am - 12:30 pm, and 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm. The courthouse is located at 800 Smithe Street in Vancouver.

There will be a group meeting in the church hall at 9:00 am to pray together and then continue down to the courthouse by public transit. Court adjourned in the early afternoon of Wednesday this past week so please check with the church office to make sure the court is in session the day you were planning to attend.

How to give to the Legal Fund.

Please make cheques payable to ANiC - St. John’s Project and indicate on the giving envelope the it is to be directed to the legal fund and indicate in the memo line of the cheque that is to be directed to the legal fund.

 Baptisms

June 28 is the date of our next baptism services. If you wish to be baptized or to have your child baptized please contact Krista in the office at ext 19 by June 17.

Grade 12 Houseboat Trip

This is the annual call for vans for the Grade 12 Trip to Lake Roosevelt in northeast Washington. We need three vans to use from June 26-July 1. If you can help, please email or call Ken or Julie Moser ssy.org at 778 861 9500.

Parish Family News

Flowers. The flowers on the Credence Table are given to the glory of God and in loving memory of my husband, Geoff Archer and my grandson, Andrew Smith from Rae Archer.

Marriage Announcement. Congratulations to Jane Corrall and Duncan Long who are getting married here next Saturday, June 13th. Please keep this couple in your prayers.

Letter of Thanks. Many of you will remember that last November, I (Edie) asked if we could find a place for a family from Victoria who were here while the father had chemotherapy for a very aggressive form of leukemia. Thanks to you, a caring congregation, Marc and his family were extremely well cared for. This week, Marc’s doctors have told him he is cancer free, and will need to have “maintenance” medication for the next two years, but that he is basically a well man.The Johnston family have asked me to insert this letter of thanks to you:
“We want to express a big thank you to the congregation of St. John’s for their prayer and support of our family from Victoria as we travelled back and forth for many months between Vancouver and Victoria for treatment of Leukemia. You were instrumental in us finding a wonderful home to stay in (people came together to make sure we were comfortable) during the treatment process for which we are very thankful and believe this was an answer to prayer. Blessings to you all”. Marc, Roselyn & Joshua Johnson.

Upcoming Events

Dear Friends,

Welcome to St. John’s. Amongst other things, belonging to a church is very like belonging to a family — you cannot choose your brothers and sisters, we are to love and serve each other and we have the best heavenly Father. The bigger the family, the easier it is to miss out on all the news, so I wanted to let you know several things that are important.

First, with regard to our extended family in Malawi, today Rev. Brighton Malasa is being consecrated bishop of the diocese of the Upper Shire. This will no doubt be a huge celebration with dancing, noise, feasting and colour, particularly because the  President of Malawi, Ngwazi Dr. Bingu wa Muthalika, will be in attendance. Over the last weeks Rev. Malasa has sent regular emails assuring us that they are praying for us during our time of trial. I sent our official family greetings and congratulations to him for the service.
 

Second, we continue to receive messages of encouragement and support from many, locally and internationally, regarding our court case. Our legal team is doing a remarkable job to protect our “family home” and this week will present final arguments to the judge. The expedited trial process has kept our costs very low, but owing to some of the responses of the diocese these expenses have exceeded the original estimates and I want you to know the facts so that you might participate. Those in our church family who have given to the court costs come from very different parts of the family. However, until last Sunday only 50% of those who give to St. John’s have made contributions to the legal defense.

Being part of this whole process has been a wonderful and difficult blessing from God. The blessing is partly learning to trust God when I’d rather be in control, and partly seeing our love for each other grow. In a large family you can sometimes feel, “I am not really needed, after all, there are plenty of others who are better at this than I am, what can I do?” Yet when there is heavy lifting to do, the more who participate the more healthy the family and the deeper the sharing. The legal process is a bit like raising a barn. Two things happen when we come together and all join in doing this: one is that the barn gets raised but more importantly we give and receive the blessing of God both now and in the future. My desire is that each of us would participate in the blessing of God in this. Perhaps we have not communicated this as clearly as we could and so I invite you to help ‘raise the barn.’ Like raising a barn, the legal case is an event with time constraints—we need to deal with our legal bills by the end of June. Please consider your financial participation in this. Regardless of the judgment, we will stand in unity under Christ as his family.

David Short