Epiphany Service For September 12, 2021

Image for Sep 12

The flowers in the Sanctuary today are to the Glory of God and in loving memory of  Grandma and Grandpa Plumridge, given by the grandchildren Tom Plumridge and Barb Glaser. 

*Calendars: Bob C. has come up with a great fundraiser idea. Four themed calendars will be available. A kitten, a puppy, a lakes and streams and a majestic sunsets.  Details to follow.  

*Concert featuring Denise Pelley, Stephen Holowitz, and Adam Corrigan Holowitz called To You With Love From Down the Street. Inspirational music from Denise and stories about Manor Park from Adam. Saturday October 2 at 7:30 pm and October 3 at 2:00 pm. Tickets in advance. Seats of groups. Tickets are $25. Proceeds to the work of the Church.

*Tea and Talk begins October 12 at 1:00 pm.

*Bible Study begins with  a Brown Bag lunch at Springbank Park Tuesday Sep 14 at 11:00 am. Contact Rev. Peter for further details. (Phone: 519-681-6076 pjl1946@gmail.com)

*We are invited to attend “Mapping the Ground we Stand on. Contact Jane Moffat at janecmoffat@gmail.com for more info.

*Board Meeting.   Tuesday August 10.  In Church.  7 p.m.  Elevator Available.

*FUNDrive  collection day now moved to November 17.  We are collecting items we normally would have collected for our Spring/Fall yard sale for delivery to Value Village. Value Village will pay us 15 cents a pound for” wearables” (clothing, purses, belts, backpacks, shoes, etc) in green garbage bags and 10 cents a pound for “housewares” in boxes.   (Housewares are things home-related, but NOT furniture).   Thanks Jan for leading in this! Ron (519 472 9142) 

*Please remember to save your cancelled stamps. Gloria Thompson.

*Food Cupboard.     Butch. 519-615-9106. Butch has inventoried our cupboard and come up with a possible list.  But we gladly accept all donations! Uncle Ben’s Rice packets; Canned vegetables, meats, fruit; Juice; Cereal; We still have peanut butter and jam, but it is running low; We have received Soup, pasta, and pasta sauce at this time;  Thank you everyone! 

 *Thank you for your generous love of Epiphany.  Our Church does much good, quietly, without fanfare.   Let’s all keep up our Good Work! Even while we are sheltering in our homes.

*If you wish, our regular weekly donations or special donations may be sent to our Envelope Secretary:

 

Barb Smallman

4860 Whiteoak Road

London, Ontario

N6E 3Y8

 

519-680-0649

 

*Thank you Ron for posting our service on our website, Adam for recording our service To Anusha for the music.  Also Stephen.  Thank you Dan D. for arranging for the flower dedications.  Thank you to you for being part of our church and for all you do everywhere.

 

Bible Readings for Sep 12

• Psalm 19 

• Isaiah 50:4-9a and Psalm 116:1-9  

• James 3:1-12  

• Mark 8:27-38

 

Audio for Sep 12 Service

Opening:

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

and the love of God,

and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,

be with you all.

 

And we respond with: And with thy spirit.

 

Mark 8:27-38

8:27 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”

8:28 And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”

8:29 He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.”

8:30 And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

8:31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

8:32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

8:33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

8:34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

8:35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

8:36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?

8:37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?

8:38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

 

Psalm 19:1-14

19:1 The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

19:2 Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.

19:3 There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard;

19:4 yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun,

19:5 which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy.

19:6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them; and nothing is hid from its heat.

19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the LORD are sure, making wise the simple;

19:8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eyes;

19:9 the fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

19:10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.

19:11 Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

19:12 But who can detect their errors? Clear me from hidden faults.

19:13 Keep back your servant also from the insolent; do not let them have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.

19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

 

Psalm 19 begins  The heavens are telling the glory of God; 

===

As we gather for worship, the first time since December 4, 2020.  

As we gather for worship,

 we hear Psalm 19 saying that nature reveals God for us.   

Interesting since it is as if we have been out in nature  this long time.  God has been near.  We have known God in nature for sure.

==

Shakespeare wrote  the saying “there are sermons in stones”.

 In As You Like It, a banished duke says “There are tongues in trees, books in running brooks, SERMONS IN STONES .”

 

Sermons in stones.

Like the sermon in a butterfly or dragon fly.

Or sermons in the towering trees or flowers or starry nights.

If we pay attention, and maybe write what we find.

===

 Like:

Author  Joyce Rupp who wrote, 

 

One winter morning, 

I awake to see the magnificent lines of frost 

stretching across my windowpanes. 

 

They seemed to rise with the sunshine

with the bitter cold outside. 

 

They looked like little miracles 

that had been formed in the dark of night.

 

 I watched them in sheer amazement, 

and marveled that such beautiful forms 

could be born during such a winter-cold night. 

 

Yet, as I pondered them, 

I thought of how life is so like that.

 

We live our long, worn days in the shadows,

 in what often feels like barren, cold winter, 

so unaware of the miracles 

that are being created in our spirits.

 

It takes the sudden daylight,

 some unexpected surprise of life, 

to cause our gaze to look upon

 a simple, stunning growth 

that has happened quietly inside us.

 

 Like frost designs on a winter window, 

they bring us beyond life’s fragmentation

 and remind us that we are not nearly as lost

as we thought we were, 

 

that all the time we thought we were dormant inside,

 beautiful things were being born in us.

 

A sermon on a window pane. 

Sermons in stones. 

Or flowers, perhaps. 

 

If we take the time to see, to listen, 

And even more if we take the time to try to write 

The insight that is like a wisp of fog so often,

That we would like to grasp…

 

If we take the time to write those sermons….

 

We will find that 

that all the time we thought we were dormant inside,

 beautiful things were being born in us.

====

Jesus took time to find wisdom in nature.  

 

One time long ago  people like us

were worried about how they would live, 

how they would have enough to live on.

 

Jesus said

 “Consider the lilies of the field, 

how they grow; they neither toil nor spin,

 yet I tell you,

 even Solomon in all his glory 

was not clothed like one of these.

 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, 

which is alive today 

and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, 

will God not much more clothe you…” 

See?

Jesus like Shakespeare

 knew Sermons have been placed in nature.

 

Especially if you take the time to try to write the wisdom down…

==

Nature and Spirituality go together, a pairing….

Like a little incident shared by a proud grandma….

 

One lovely moonlit night,

 a young girl and her grandmother went for a walk. 

The sky was magnificent.

As grandmother named individual stars and constellations,

 the granddaughter exclaimed,

 “Grandma, if the bottom side of heaven is this beautiful,

 just think how wonderful the other side must be.”

 

Sermons in nature.

=====

Another person who made a huge difference in life,

Who knew nature 

Is a man named George Washington Carver. 

He lived an amazing life, from 1864 to 1943.

He over came impossible barriers.

 

Carver  was known for developing techniques

 for improving soils 

depleted by repeated plantings of cotton. 

 

 He developed alternative crops 

for poor farmers,

such as sweet potatoes and peanuts.

 

He produced food pamphlets

 that told farmers how to grow food 

for their own families, 

not just cotton.

 

 His most popular pamphlet was

 How to grow the Peanut 

and 105 ways of preparing it for Human Consumption, 

first published in 1916. 

 

Hmm.  

 

Do you think Peanut Butter was in the bulletin?  

 

What is  all the more amazing, 

this man called a second Leonardo Da Vinci,

is that he could not attend school because of his skin tone. 

 

George Washington Carver  

was an environmentalist

 before environmentalism was popular.  

 

He was asked by an interviewer

 what he thought was the most indispensable thing 

for science in the modern age. 

 

Dr. Carver replied, “The capacity for awe.”

 

Indeed. 

 

He said

Awe is what opens our finite minds

 to the infinite intelligence of God. 

Awe is what connects our limited hearts 

to the limitless love of the Lord. 

 

Awe is what helps us to see God’s glory

 in the sea and the land and the moon and the sun.  

 

In short, 

Awe allows us to know the sermons in stones.

=====

To be sure, 

the natural world is not the only place we encounter God. 

 

As the psalmist continues, 

“The law of the Lord is perfect, 

reviving the soul. 

 

The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,

 making wise the simple. 

 

The precepts of the Lord are right,

 giving joy to the heart. 

 

The commands of the Lord are radiant, 

giving light to the eyes.” 

 

Yes, God is revealed in the glories of nature, 

but God is revealed in a very specific ways

 in  the Word. 

 

That is why we gather for worship from week to week –

 yes, we get a glorious glimpse of God out in the world,

 but, in worship, we get,

 in Paul Harvey’s phrase, “the rest of the story.”

===

Scottish theologian George McDonald writes,

 “We should look not only to the scriptures and the church to know God, 

but to creation as well.”

It is all one swirling wisom.

==

There is a wonderful Hasidic story 

about the son of a rabbi 

who used to wander in the woods. 

At first his father let him wander, 

but over time he became concerned. 

The woods were dangerous. 

The father did not know what lurked there. 

He decided to discuss the matter with his son.

 

One day he took his boy aside and said,

 “You know, 

I have noticed that each day you walk into the woods. 

I wonder, why do you go there?”

 

The boy said to his father, 

“I go there to commune with God.”

 

“That is a very good thing,”

 the father replied gently.

 

 “I am glad you are open and listening for God.

 But, my son, don’t you know 

that God is the same everywhere?”

 

“Yes,” the boy answered, “but I’m not.”

===

Sermons in stones.  

 

In a way

We have been out in the woods these last wilderness years. 

 We have found sermons in stones. 

 

Yet also,

 It is good to be coming back to our family in God’s home together.

 

 To be with God together. 

 For the full story. 

 

If you notice?

 That is why and how the Psalm19 goes from  

The heavens are telling the glory of God

 

To our prayer before preaching: 

 Let the words of my mouth 

and the meditation of our hears  be acceptable to you, 

O LORD, our rock and our redeemer.

 

WE pray:

 

God of hope,

Bread of life,

you taught us to put away bitterness and anger,

and with tenderhearted kindness

to share the fruit of our labor with the needy.

Strengthen us by your grace,

that in communion with you,

we may forgive one another

and live in love as Christ loved us. Amen.

 

 

Prayers:

Prayers: Velma H.; Zaden; Kendra; (Gloria); Shirley P.; Helen, Debrah G.,and Regina G (Pat M.);  Zac; Peter T.;  Mark Mc; Dan B.;. (Garfield & Diane);Linda; Dean; Allan; Aunt Frankie; (Brian G.); Linda (Joan C.); Larry R.; Brian; Marcel De C and family; Tara; Jeff B.; Doug T.; Alex,  Gord, (Sandra); Connie C.;  Jim P. Jack B.; Jack and Julie.  Jim M; Mary B.;  Keanna,  Ella D.; Evelyn Mc; Marion R.; (Church) Jade (Carol R.); Dori;  Belinda,;  Kim; Edie K., Ross B., Francis & Bill W.; Jeff G. (Dori & Jack); Michelle P.;(Jim P.)  Pat P; Grant K; Kathy W. (Jack & Julie); Hope (Marilyn B.) ;  Valerie (Carol F.); Shirley P.; Helen, Debrah G.,and Regina G (Pat M.); Lori (Maya) Pat and Tony  (Marilyn B.); Melanie; Marlene H. Pam B. (Barb & George); Bill, Sheila, Jessica, Sonya, Jamie (Peter);    Lynda D . (Mary Beth & Paul); Jean (Bruce J.); Brian (Jeanne); Diana, Ian, Edna, Matthew & Annika;   David & Lyla & Joanna Mac;   Janice L & Darrin R;  Roland & Pansy V;  Rob P;  Pat B & her family;)Clark & Helene (Suzie D)

We remember and pray for Mildred McColl, and all who mourn her passing.

 

 

Loving God,

open our ears to hear your word

and draw us closer to you,

that the whole world may be one with you

as you are one with us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen..

 

As our Savior taught us, let us pray,

 

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name;

thy kingdom come;

thy will be done;

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation;

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

the power and the glory,

for ever and ever. Amen.

 

 

 

Glory to God,

whose power, working in us,

can do infinitely more

than we can ask or imagine.

Glory to God from generation to generation,

in the Church and in Christ Jesus,

for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Blessing from the Book of Common Prayer:

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you, and remain with you always. Amen.

 

Our Parting Blessing Song:

May God’s blessing surround you each day

As you trust Him and walk in His way

May His presence within guard and keep you from sin,

Go in peace, go in joy, go in love.

Go in peace, go in joy, go in love.

Hearts and Roses

Valentine’s Day 2020

First performance of a new song Lyrics by Ron Stewart and Music by Stephen Holowitz vocals by Laurraine Sigouin.

 

 

Services soon to resume

In Person Services to resume Sep 12

Dear friends,
 
As we approach Labour Day weekend, we are all aware that cases of COVID-19 are once again rising in Ontario.  Due to this rise, the diocese will continue to follow the Reopening our Churches Step 3 guidelines for at least the month of September.  The guidelines are available at the link below.  I am asking all parishes to resume in-person worship effective September 12th.  Some may prefer to continue to worship outside as long as the weather allows, some may prefer smaller services at a time other than Sunday morning.  If a parish in a public health unit with a weekly COVID-19 case count of greater than 40 cases per 100,000 population wishes to request a later date for the return to in-person worship, the rector and wardens must seek permission from their Territorial Archdeacon, outlining the reasons for the request.  The weekly case counts may be obtained here or directly from your public health unit.

As Christians, we welcome all in the name of Christ and so the diocese will not be requiring vaccinations for all persons attending worship.  However, those in ministry leadership positions have been entrusted with responsibilities which include protection of the vulnerable. For this reason, the following people will now be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to serve in the Diocese of Huron during this pandemic.

All clergy who are presently in an appointment, interims, those who function as honorary assistants and who do supply
All Licensed Lay Readers
All liturgical leaders including, but not limited to, organists and choir directors, choristers, musicians, lectors, intercessors, Eucharistic Administrators, wardens, greeters and servers over 12 years of age
All Sunday School teachers and youth leaders
All pastoral visitors

To continue in these roles, all persons must have received their first dose of vaccine by September 30th and the second no later than October 31st.

Each parish will maintain a record of the lay persons in these roles with an indication that they have provided proof of vaccination.  A trusted person in the parish is to be assigned to visually check each person’s vaccination confirmation and record the name of each person and the date of their second vaccination.  The record is to be maintained securely in a locked file or password protected computer file.  A warden, Safe Church Coordinator or parish nurse may be good choices for this role.  A person may access their vaccination confirmation here.  Once the new provincial system for verifying vaccination status is in place, parishes may use that system.
 
Clergy will provide proof of their vaccination to Ms. Jennifer McLaughlin jmclaughlin@huron.anglican.ca  if you are uncomfortable sending a copy of the vaccine confirmation by email, please arrange to meet with Jennifer at Church House or by zoom so that she can visually confirm the document.  The information will be kept in a locked file in the HR office. This will not become part of your permanent clergy file.
 
Those who are medically unable to be vaccinated must obtain a written doctor’s note exempting them from this vaccination requirement.  They will be required to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken less than 72 hours before the time they are scheduled to serve in their ministry role.  Stipendiary clergy to whom this applies will be required to send to Jennifer proof of a negative COVID-19 test twice weekly.  Those who have a Human Rights exemption from being vaccinated for COVID-19 are to contact Archdeacon Tanya Phibbs at tphibbs@huron.anglican.ca
 
All diocesan staff will also be required to be vaccinated by these deadlines.  While we encourage the parishes to require this of any parish staff that are not in the categories above, that is a decision of the wardens to make as they are the employers.

Some people may feel that this policy goes too far, some will think it does not go far enough. I pray that it will strike a faithful and safe balance while we continue to gather and serve in this time. Please offer one another grace if there are disagreements, keeping each other in prayer and Christian love.
 
Yours in Christ,
+Todd
The Right Reverend Todd Townshend
Bishop of Huron

 

 

 

 

 

REOPENING OF CHURCH BUILDINGS – STEP 3

https://diohuron.org/df_media/W1siZiIsIjIwMjEvMDYvMDgvMTMvMzcvMDQvMGM5NDBjYjEtMTE2Zi00Y2ZiLWEwZTUtMGY1MTQwZDQyZmQ3L1Jlb3BlbmluZyBPdXIgQ2h1cmNoZXMgU3RlcCAxLnBkZiJdXQ/Reopening%20Our%20Churches%20Step%201.pdf?sha=8e3a3a0ffd8df153

 

Cans for Keanna

Don’t throw out that aluminum. Save it and bring it to Epiphany. Crush it down first if you are able.