Mission’s Lunch – Sun, Dec 6
Please join us today for a Mission’s Lunch to hear about Steven Friebel’s visit to Cambodia with the Ratanak Foundation. Join us for lunch after the 11:00 am service and hear the latest news from Steven about the projects and people that are bringing the love of Christ to Cambodia through Ratanak. Cost is $5 for individuals or $10 per family. All are welcome.
Parish Prayer - Mon, Dec 7, at 7:30 pm
Please come and join with others to pray for God’s guidance in this crucial time in the life of our parish. We will sing hymns, have a short homily, and pray in smaller groups.
Church Decorating for Christmas
Come help decorate the church for Christmas. We will be decorating our church on Sat, Dec 12 from 9:00 am to 11:00 am. There will be coffee and muffins for the late-risers, and lots of fun as we decorate our church together. Please come and join us. Plan to bring your whole family, and don’t forget to bring your pruning shears and/or wire cutters if you have them.
Senior’s Tea
St. Johns Seniors special Christmas Communion and Lunch will be held on Tue, Dec 15. Communion will be in the chapel at 11:00 am with lunch to follow in the Trendell Lounge. Do come and bring a friend. Please phone the church office if you need a ride.
Nominations for Church Committee
Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven people of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. Acts 6:3
Just as the early church had to quickly figure out how to care for the needs of the growing group of Christians, so do we at St. John’s, each year, need to identify leaders to help run the mission and ministry of the church. Please prayerfully consider whether you or someone you know would be willing to serve on church committee. To find out more, or to nominate someone, please contact the ANiC - St. John’s Project People’s Warden, Lesley Bentley by email or at 604.261.9495 or St. John’s Parish Corporation People’s Warden, David Ley by email or at 604.266.3075. Nominations will close Tue, Jan 5, 2010.
Donating Securities to St. John’s
We want to remind people that St. John’s is set up to receive donations of securities. If you hold securities and wish to include them as part of your giving, and receive the increased tax donation receipt, please contact Krista at the church office by email or at 604.731.4966 ext 19.
Expecting Emmanuel
A Special Advent Prayer Service
Mon, Dec 14 at 7:30 pm in the church
Are you already feeling wearied by the thought of the Christmas season?
Is there too much to do, and very little of it connected to the birth of Jesus?
Is there pain or loss in your life that makes it hard to think about celebrating this year?
Do you desire to spend some time in quiet prayer and meet Emmanuel, our God, who is truly with us?
Then come to this special “Keeping Company with God” Advent service. Please feel free to invite friends or neighbours.
St. John’s Office Volunteers Needed
If you are available on Friday afternoons from 1:00 pm -3:00 pm and would like to join us in stuffing bulletins, eating donuts, and drinking coffee please contact Joanne McKinnon at 604.731.4966, ext 15 or email joanne.
Words of Encouragement Regarding the Judgment
We have received many notes of encouragement from people around the world. Here are two of them:
Bishop Paul and Anita Barnett: “Praying for you all in view of the news just to hand. Much love to all of you.”
Rev Steve and Rachel James: “ We send you our love and support. At our prayer meeting (Holy Trinity Platt, Manchester) on Nov 26, we all stood up to pray for you to signify that we are standing alongside you. May God bless all of you.”
ANiC Ordination Assessment Weekend
Last weekend in a retreat centre just outside of Toronto, 14 candidates met with the ANiC examining chaplains to discern whether or not they would be considered for ordination. Seven were recommended for ordination, including:
Anson Ann from Artizo and Good Shepherd
David McElrea from Artizo and St. John’s Richmond
Keith Ganzer from Artizo and St. John’s
Tripp Prince from Artizo and St. John’s
Aaron Roberts from St. John’s
Please pray for these 5 men as they take the next steps towards ordination.
Daily Bible Reading – Nourishment for our souls
Today in your bulletin, you will find a copy of the Bible Reading Guide for the next 9 weeks, Dec 6, 2009 to Feb 6, 2010. This guide is an abbreviated version of the Book of Common Prayer Table of Lessons (pp xvi to xlv), which was written with the assumption that a person would pray and read two passages from the Bible morning and evening. We choose one of those four readings for this little Guide. If you don’t have a Prayer Book, Norah Johnston (604.224.8986) would be glad to provide you with one at cost. There are two readings – one from either the Old or New Testaments and the other a Psalm - May God bless you as you read His word.
Parish Family News
Condolences
Many of you will remember Dr. Kerry Telford. Prior to her marriage, she attended the evening service here at St. John’s, was an active member of the evening service choir, and was well loved by all who knew her. She was tragically killed, along with her 6-month old infant daughter, in a plane crash off Saturna Island on Monday. She leaves to grieve her husband, Patrick Morrissey and a 2 year old daughter, Claire. Please keep the Morrissey family in your prayers. A memorial service was held yesterday.
Community News
Genesis Vancouver
Genesis is a ministry that offers a long-term recovery and reintegration program for sexually exploited women with children, who are seeking a way out of the sex trade. Two different opportunities in support of Genesis are currently available to you.
Genesis’ Gift Catalogue – there are copies of this gift catalogue available at the church entrances. Please pick one up and consider purchasing a gift for someone on your Christmas list.
Benefit concert – an evening of chamber music featuring Schubert will be held at Grace Vancouver Church, 1696 W. 7th Ave on Saturday Dec. 12, 2009 at 8:00 pm. Admission by donation.
Office Space Needed
Urgently needed! Do any of you have a meeting room, or office space which I could use every Tuesday at noon to conduct a woman’s Bible Study? We need space in the downtown area – hopefully in the Pacific Centre/Hornby/Georgia area. If you are able to help, please call Edie Rittinger at 604.731.4966 ext 24 or email Edie@sjvan.org
Nativitas
Friday, December 11 - 8 pm, St. Peter & Paul Catholic Church: The Monteverdi Symposium presents a concert of 16th-century Christmas motets performed on period instruments. Let Michelle Koebke (soprano), Jake Doherty (baritone & theorbo), Sarah Tippett (viola da gamba), and David Poon (organ) transport you to another time and place with beautiful sacred music.
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Dear Church Family,
On Wednesday, November 25th, we received the judgment from Justice Stephen Kelleher. Since then, our legal team, St. John’s leadership, and the other ANiC (Anglican Network in Canada) church leadership with our Bishops, have sought to understand the judgment and determine the options before us. There have been many meetings, thoughts, and discussion to help clarify things. It is clear that we need to discern God’s will and leading, both as churches and as the greater ANiC body.
To do this, we will be entering into a period of discernment to determine God’s will; where he is leading us, and ultimately how our actions can be in the best interest of the Gospel. In this time, we need to understand the options before us, and why, as individuals, we would lean to one way or another and then we need to allow ourselves to be challenged and convicted. Our goal as we do this will be to humbly come before our Lord Jesus, individually and as a body, so that God can continue to lead us.
Going forward together in unity means we can have different opinions and yet submit to a final direction together so that we can move forward with the Gospel as one body. The foundation to this is prayer. We need to be praying as individuals, in our small groups, and as a larger body for discernment, unity, and care. The following are opportunities for corporate prayer in the next few weeks. Please come and pray together. If you have never come before, it is a wonderful time to spend together with God.
Dec 7th, 7:30pm Parish Prayer, in the Trendell Lounge
Dec 14, 7:00pm “Expecting Emmanuel” (Keeping Company with God), in the Church
We will also be holding parish discernment meetings starting this week and continuing in January. In these meetings we will pray, we will seek to understand what discernment and unity are, we will explore the options before us, and we will listen to God and each other. The dates for this week are:
Dec 9th, 7:30pm in the Trendell Lounge
Dec 10th, 5:00pm in the Trendell Lounge
I encourage you to plan on attending a couple of meetings if you can; one in December or early January and one in mid to late January. The reason for this is to allow time for your own personal discernment with God.
God is again giving us a wonderful opportunity to entrust ourselves, our church and our future into his hands. He will lead us by his Holy Spirit as we commit our ways to the Head of our church Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:5-7)
Warmly,
Dan Gifford
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