Sunday, July 29, 2012

COMING SOON!!!!!!!!!!!!

MONDAY AUG. 6TH 
TO
FRIDAY AUG. 10TH
from
9:00 am 
to 
11:30 am

ALL AGES WELCOME!!

See you there !!!


Sunday, July 15, 2012

New at the Farmer's Market!!!!





We have coffee, tea, dried fruit, chocolate, sugar and a number of other Fair Trade and Organic products available at very reasonable prices.

We feature a selection of products from Level Ground Trading (British Columbia), Just Us (Nova Scotia), Green Bean (Manitoba) and NOW Bean North (Yukon).

Our selection ebbs and flows weekly as we discover and introduce new products and new items ... the NEWEST item to be included in our weekly Farmers' Market Booths are "Love Thy Neighbor" t-shirts that challenge all of us to live the Biblical Call to faithfully love our neighbor without conditions or hesitations!!

Come on out and check out our Fair Trade Booth:

MARKDALE FARMER'S MARKET 
(Old Firehall on Toronto St, Markdale)
Fridays from 2pm til 7pm

FLESHERTON FARMER'S MARKET
(Arena-Library Parking Lot,Flesherton)
Saturdays from 8am to 1pm

See ya there !!!

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Order of Service for July 1st 2012 (Canada Day)


Gathering Music:
Welcome & Announcements:
*Anthem:       O Canada                

Lighting of the Christ Candle:

*Introit:         What a Friend                         

Call to Worship:
            One: Let us Worship God. Let us pray:
Almighty and everlasting God,
who are always more ready to hear
than we to pray, and art wont
to give more than either we desire or deserve:
ALL: Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy;
forgiving us those things whereof
our conscience is afraid, and giving us
those good things which we are not worthy to ask,
but through the merits and mediation
of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. AMEN.

*Hymn:          I Love to Tell the Story                      Hymnary #504  


Our Personal Confession:
           
One: Almighty and most merciful Father;
We have erred and strayed
from thy ways like lost sheep.
ALL: We have followed too much the devises
and desires of our own hearts.
We have offended against thy holy laws.
We have left undone those things which
we ought to have done; and we have done
those things which we ought not to have done
and there is no health in us.
But thou, O Lord have mercy upon us,
miserable offenders. Spare thou them, O God,
which confess their faults.
Restore thou them that are penitent;
According to thy promises declared
unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And grant, O most merciful Father,
for his sake; That we may hereafter
live a godly, righteous, and sober life.
To the Glory of thy Holy Name.                                         
AMEN.          
                       
                                    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,
and the power and the glory,
                                                            for ever and ever.      AMEN

*Hymn:          I am Thine O Lord                              Hymnary #490

Childrens’ Time:

*Hymn:          Jesus Loves Me                       Songs of the Gospel #59

Special Music: Larry Magee & Cathy Brown
THE LESSONS
Psalm 130
2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
            2 Corinthians 8:7-15
            Mark 5: 21-43

*Hymn:          All the Way my Saviour Leads Me.   Hymnary #445

Reflection: The Gifts of the Past: The Generosity of Faith.
                                                            The Reverend Shawn Ankenmann

*Hymn:          Softly and Tenderly,                           Hymnary #494


OFFERING

Offering Hymn:Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow

Praise God from whom all blessing flow; 
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. AMEN.
Hymnary 625
Offering Prayer:
Prayers of the People for Others:


*Hymn:          Pass Me Not O Gentle Saviour           Hymnary #503

*Benediction:
*Closing Hymn:         Onward Christian Soldiers     Hymnary #401

Sermon for July 1st (Canada Day) 2012 !! Eh!!??


Our readings this week in the lectionary cycle are ALL about the love and care that is embodied in our relationships with one another in community.
David lamenting the deaths of Saul and Jonathan, Jesus offering the miraculous healings to Jarius’ daughter, and to the woman who simply reached out and touched the hem of his cloak … the expression of love is revealed in the depth of feeling and the breadth of generosity that is being highlighted and celebrated.
Being faithful means being generous.
Being generous means recognizing that there is not only enough, there is more than enough … there is more than enough to SHARE !!

Making the rounds on the internet this weekend is a picture of the waters pouring over Niagara falls festooned with an image of the red and white Canadian flag projected into the front of the falls … a nice image for our Canada Day celebrations! But as I looked at the image on the facebook pages of numerous friends, I couldn’t help but wonder what it must have been like for those first explorers who arrived at the Falls after slashing through the brush and the undergrowth, and having spend hours hearing the thunder of the water pouring over the brink of the falls.
The falls are still pretty impressive today after you drive the six lane highway to get there and make your way past all the gaudy tourist shops and boorish museums and attractions, and finally hear the roar of the cataract over the din of Clifton Street … but what must it have been like 200 years ago – 500 years ago when there was nothing there but the trees and the wildness of a largely untouched wilderness and the thunder of the falls?
What feelings of awe and wonder and perhaps even terror, gripped the hearts of those hearty explorers and intrepid first nations guides who stood gasping at the sight of the Falls the way they once were?
I remember taking to young women to Niagara Falls when I was a university student. Rulah and Rannah had grown up in a little village called Bethlehem in a very dry desert country … they had come to Canada to study at the University of Waterloo and we decided to take them to Niagara Falls to see the majesty of the falls … Rulah stood her mouth open in pure wonder and awe as she stood looking at the falls … “This is more water than my country will see in my ENTIRE life time!!” She gasped watching the water plunge over the edge into the midst.
A little later standing on the bow of the Maid of the Mist Rullah and Rannah closed their eyes and savoured the water and the mist as we approached the falls … they were completely blown away.
Later, as we drove home they talked glowingly about the incredible abundance we have all around us in Canada … how could they describe to their families back in the Occupied Territories what these two Palestinian student s had just witnessed and experienced? How could they even begin to describe the falls and ALL they offer?
This sense of awe and wonder was repeated for me when I was privileged to experience Canada with my friend and colleague Garth, who had come to study at Queen’s Theological College from Jamaica. In the year we spent as students in Kingston, Garth opened my eyes to much of what we take for granted …
I remember his excited call on October afternoon when the first whisps of snow were floating in the air – “It’s SNOWING mahn!!!” he yelled in my ear as I answered the phone. I looked out my window and said – “Dude, that’s NOT snow!!”
A few short weeks later we couldn’t convince him to leave his apartment when a full blown snow storm hit Kingston … “No way mahn,” he protested, “I’ll die in THAT!”
Experiences like a snow ball fight, ice skating, and even driving from Kingston to Stratford became events of awe and wonder … our drive from Kingston was done in 30 minute stages. About every thirty minutes Garth would say “Pull over …” And he would get out and walk around in the ditch and stretch and say – “In Jamaica you can drive almost anywhere in 30 minutes mahn!!!”
Garth declined to join me for the five day drive to BC I was about to undertake that summer to begin my first Student Internship on the very northen tip of Vancouver Island. His exact words were – “NO WAY MAHN!! I’d be paralyzed before we got out of the Province!! And I’d be dead by Saskatchewan … wherever that is!!??”
A few years later Garth came to Manitoba for a visit and marvelled at how flat it really was … how cold it was (it was 24C the week he was there and he spent the WHOLE time in a hoodie and sweatshirt!!) … and he declined the offer to take a few days to drive to the Mountains … but over and over Garth and others have taught me to appreciate the wonder that is ALL around us, and the necessity to not only appreciate it, but to remember to share and celebrate it.
I remember walking up to a barn on the farm of a friend and Garth gasped in horror saying “Look at the size of that cow!”
We looked around and wondered what cow he was looking at – the yard was full of Simmetal calves. Garth practically ran for the car when the momma cow stepped out of the barn … he wasn’t used to the big cattle we see in our fields every day. And of course there was the close encounter with a Buffalo Bull in Riding Mountain National Park when he rocked our little minivan and stared in the passenger side window at Garth, who for his part said “Nice fellah …” as he put up the window … “and what’s that going to do?” I asked “make me feel safer” he replied.
Over and over, I have had my eyes opened to the wonder and the splendour that is ALL around us, and over and over I’ve learned to truly marvel at how incredible it really is.
We live in a great country that is abounding in beauty and everything imaginable. Places like Niagara Falls with their abundance of water, or the look out on Mt Baldy, or standing on the vast prairies watching your dog run away for three days like WO Mitchell said, reminds you of who much there really is around us …
Yet, in the Church we tend to live defensively and miserly … we overlook the abundance and instead see what we feel we lack …
We could look at yesterday’s yard sale and pancake breakfast and instead of marvelling at the 300 to 400 people who wandered in and joined us, say – “if we could only get those people to come to Church …”
They came to Church.
They came and sat in our chairs at our tables and enjoyed OUR food, and bought our stuff, and came to Church.
There were at least a dozen kids who asked their parents if they could go and look inside the Church – and they went. They came in the doors and looked around at this beautiful heritage building we call home …
THEY CAME to CHURCH in droves!!!
But, we have conditioned ourselves to not see that … we’ve conditioned ourselves to NOT see the splendour and wonder and abundance all around us … we’ve conditioned ourselves to no longer be friends who share THAT abundance generously …
A few weeks ago a video was making the rounds again on the internet, and in it a school administrator addressed a graduating class by daring to say “you’re not special.”
Before the Graduating class of Wellesley High School in Wellesley Massachusetts, one of the teachers offered a powerful commencement address that reminds the students that no matter what they may have been lead to believe they are no more special than anyone else. He ends his speech (one I recommend highly and that is easy to find on the internet – google search Wellesley High School and you’ll find it) The teacher ends his speech with the following challenge to his students:

The point is the same: get busy, have at it.  Don't wait for
inspiration or passion to find you.  Get up, get out, explore, find it yourself, and grab hold with both hands.  (Now, before you dash off and get your YOLO tattoo, let me point out the illogic of that trendy little expression-because you can and should live not merely once, but every day of your life.  Rather than You Only Live Once, it should be You Live Only Once… but because YLOO doesn't have the same ring, we shrug and decide it doesn't matter.)
          None of this day-seizing, though, this YLOOing, should be interpreted as license for self-indulgence.  Like accolades ought to be, the fulfilled life is a consequence, a gratifying byproduct.  It's what happens when you're thinking about more important things.  Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view.  Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.  Go to Paris to be in Paris, not to cross it off your list and congratulate yourself for being worldly.  Exercise free will and creative, independent thought not for the satisfactions they will bring you, but for the good they will do others, the rest of the 6.8 billion-and those who will follow them.  And then you too will discover the great and curious truth of the human experience is that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself.  The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you're not special.
          Because everyone is.
          Congratulations.  Good luck.  Make for yourselves, please, for your sake and for ours, extraordinary lives.


          Our readings today, in the context of Canada Day, remind us to live our live abundantly recognizing the splendours around us and knowing that our God is generous and will pour out blessings upon us. But more importantly, our readings remind us that we are called by faith to live out our days by seeking a fulfilled life – a life seeking to serve the good of others and striving to be selfless rather than selfish. 

          The abundance around us reminds us that we live in a pretty amazing place full of awe and wonder and full to bursting – our task is to share generously the love and wholeness and grace that is part of ALL OF THIS. Our task is to rediscover that reminder that selflessness is the best thing we can do for ourselves, and for each other … 

May it be so … thanks be to God … Let us pray …

Order of Service for June 24th 2012


Gathering Music:
Welcome and Announcements:

Lighting of the Christ Candle:
*Introit:          How Great Thou Art                         HFG 2

Call to Worship:
             One: God never fails us
All: In testing times God is there.
One: God gives us strength.
All: In our moments of weakness God is there.
One: God is our companion.
All: When we feel alone, God is there.
One: God is to be trusted.
All: Great is God’s faithfulness to us. AMEN.

Our Personal Confession and Silent Prayer …
            Silent Prayer
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, and the power and the glory,
                        for ever and ever. AMEN

Prayer of Approach:
One: Creator God, you touch our lives in a myriad of ways. You lift us
when we feel discouraged, you ground us when we feel uncertain,
you inspire us when we feel lost, and you journey with us
when we face our day to day lives. Be with us in this time of
worship, and be with us in the coming days as we move into
our days and our lives. Come to us and be with us in the most
unexpected of ways. These things we ask in your blessed
and holy name. AMEN.

(E)*Hymn:     Jesus Loves the Little Children (repeatedly) HFG 15
(E) Story Time:
(F) *Hymn:    Eternal Father Strong to Save                         HFG 679

WE LISTEN FOR A WORD FROM GOD

I Samuel 17:1a, 4-11, 19-23, 32-49
Psalm 9                                                                 (VU pg. 732)
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
            Mark 4:35-41

*Hymn:          God of Grace, God of Glory                          HFG 528

Reflection: Fear Transformed to Faith …the Resurrection  Revealed!!

WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORD

(E)*Hymn:     Eternal Father Strong to Save            HFG 679

Minute for Mission:
Offering:
Offering Hymn: “Praise God From Whom …”                   HFG 382
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below,
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost AMEN.

Offering Prayer:

Prayers of the People:

(F) *Hymn:    Jesus Loves the Little Children                      HFG 15
(F) Story Time:

* Hymn:         Great is Thy Faithfulness                               HFG 98

(F)Choir:        Go Out and Serve Him

*Benediction:
*Choral Response: Amen, Amen, Hallelujah, Amen           (VU 974)