Sunday Morning
Services
10:30 am
 |
What's New at St. John's |
||||||||||||||||
 We Celebrate the Freedom to Love. St John's congregation members showed their pride at the Annual Gay Pride Parade in Halifax on Saturday July 24, 2010. Loving our neighbours. The Chaudhrys — a local family of five — are being threatened with deportation to Pakistan. To learn more about their story and how you can support them, please visit http://chaudhrysolidarity.wordpress.com/. You can also speak to April Wise-Gillap, or email her at ap.gillap@gmail.com. 
To Celebrate the 85th Anniversary of the United Church of Canada, a group led by Joanne Wise gathered very early in the kitchen of St. Matthias on Sunday June 6 to bake bannock bread. The bannock was used for communion in our service that followed at 10:30am. 
Congratulations to our former Student Minister, The Honourable Yvette Swan on her graduation from the Atlantic School of Theology. She graduated with honours and received the Barbara Rumscheidt Award. Very well done, Yvette! Now You Can Skype the Minister! Trying to connect with the minister but can’t leave work? the kids? other obligations? There may be another way.  Reverend Linda Yates will be available via Skype at lunch hour (Noon to 1:30 pm) on the second and fourth Thursday of every month.
Call Linda at 423-8498 or email lindayates@eastlink.ca to set up a Skype chat.
Linda's Skype name is linda.yates5  Our Mitten Tree. The Social Action Committee collected 77 pairs of mittens, 2 pairs of gloves, 1 scarf, 1 pair of socks and 7 hats on the Mitten Tree this past Christmas. All will be warmly appreciated by lots of cold hands, heads and feet! A hearty thank you to all who contributed. A Note about KAIROS: Many of you are aware that Kairos, a Canadian ecumenical development and social justice agency that does development work all over the world has been de-funded by the Harper government. 21 different denominations/churches/orders (Roman Catholics, Mennonite, United Church, Presbyterian etc....) support the work of KAIROS and for that reason alone, it is an organization that tries very hard not to be involved in "politics." The chilling effect of both de-funding and then publically smearing, by association, the 21 supporting churches by labelling them in an international forum as "anti-Semitic" is unheard of and unprecedented in the history of Canadian politics and church history. For more information about Kairos, you can refer to http://kairoscanada.org/en/ There you will find a strongly worded letter to International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda. Please take the time to express your concern to your local MP and to Conservative MPs.  The St John's Triptych. Artist Catherine Ewer and a dedicated group of folks from the congregation began work on our Triptych in March 2009. Gary Dunbrack built the wooden frames. Plaster strips, paper mache, string and finally paint filled the spaces. Catherine, who facilitated the making of the piece, said she was excited by the vision and creativity of everyone involved. Our Triptych was dedicated on Sunday, September 27, 2009. The three window panels represent the past, present and future of St John's United Church. Read more about the Triptych on Catherine's blog Nettle's Notes: http://nettleknits.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/triptych-dedication/ Walking in Solidarity to End Violence. Members of St John's United joined Cornwallis Baptist Church in a peace march to the Commons on Sunday, September 27, 2009. The proceedings were led by Reverend Rhonda Britton of Cornwallis Baptist, accompanied by Mayor Peter Kelly, our own Reverend Linda Yates, and clergy representatives from other congregations in Metro. Songs and prayers were offered in the hopes of racial reconciliation and the end of violent crime in Halifax. This Picasa slideshow features highlights from the event: AST Magazine: Two Articles on St John's United. The Spring/Summer 2009 issue of The Atlantic School Of Theology's Magazine featured two articles about St John's. Click here to read them (pdf). Implementation Team member Louisa Horne discusses the challenges our congregation has faced in 'Transformational Leadership'. Reverend Linda Yates wrote 'Transformational Ministry: A Glass Darkly' after being approached by the Atlantic School of Theology Advancement office with the question: "What is involved, in terms of 'on the ground' labour for clergy when a congregation is involved in Transformational Ministry?"
Click Here to download the audio file of CBC Radio's Maritime Magazine documentary on St John's which aired in February 2009.  You need Real Player installed on your computer to hear the program. After we announced our intended relocation to the Maritime Conservatory late last year, Reverend Linda and our Implementation Team Leader Brian Jay were inundated with requests from individuals outside the congregation to make documentary films, videos and photo essays of the relocation/redevelopment process. There were many concerns about their intentions, privacy issues and the amount of time they would require from our already overburdened clergy, staff and volunteers. Still, we knew that our redevelopment story is an inspiring one, and inspiring stories must be told. The Communications Team approached Pauline Dakin, a broadcast journalist and a member of our congregation about the possibility of CBC doing a radio documentary about St John's. Pauline enthusiastically embraced the idea and got to work!  Your Stories ~ St John's United Church Oral History Archive: Longtime members of our congregation share their personal reflections of lives lived within the family of St John's United. Click here to visit the archive: http://stjohnsoralhistory.blogspot.com/  Prayers
of the People is part of our regular order
of service, following the singing of "Send your holy spirit." These
prayers offer the concerns and thanksgivings of our congregation.
Prayers of the People are now being written and presented
by St. John's members and groups, rather than by the ministers. These prayers have met with such an enthusiastic response that we have decided to post them with permission of the authors. Here is a selection of recent POP's in pdf format:
There are two ways you can be part of this. First, send your prayer requests. Call in, bring, or send your prayer requests to Marilyn in the office. Second, you can write and present the Prayers of the People. Click here to go to 'Instructions for writing prayers'. If you have thanksgivings or concerns to be included in Prayers of the People, bring or email them to Marilyn at stjohnsunited@eastlink.ca. Remember that we must have the permission of anyone we mention by name in Prayers of the People. Are you on Facebook? Well, WE are! St John's United Church now is an official Facebook Group. It allows us to meet online, post photos and videos, have discussions, promote events and services, and most importantly, to celebrate our connection with each other. Please log in at www.facebook.com (and create your account if you don't have one). You can search for St John's United Church to find our group. There are several St John's churches listed, but you will recognize our church photo in our profile. Please join up and start interacting! Would you like to find out what is happening in our very active, vibrant church on a weekly basis? Please send your e-mail address to Marilyn Peacock at the church office- stjohnsunited@hfx.eastlink.ca ...We will add you to our mailout list and you'll never have to miss the news! | ||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||
