We are in need of canned goods and other non-perishable items such as pasta, cereal, & peanut butter for our Thursday delivery of food. For more information speak to J Charbonneau.
New Office
November 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
We are now comfortably situated in our new office & meeting space next door! Office hours will continue to be Mondays, Wednesdays & Thursdays from 9 a.m. – noon.
The office is address is:
St. Hilda’s ANiC Anglican Church
1492 Wallace Road, Unit 5
Oakville, ON L6L 2Y2
Located here.
Syl Apps Gift Bags
November 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
It is that time of year once again when we remember the youth at Syl Apps in a tangible way by providing Christmas gift bags for them. As with other years, practical gifts could include:
Clothing – shirts, hoodies, caps, gloves, scarves, socks, sweaters Candy (no gum), Puzzle books, Playing cards, Easy reading books, Toiletries, Jigsaw puzzles, Journals (not coil bound), Board games, Word search books.
Items are to be placed in a gift bag, and brought to our service on Sun. Dec. 9 so they can be delivered to Syl Apps that afternoon. This expression of love is often the only gift that these young people receive, so bless you in Jesus’ name!
Advent: Save the date
October 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment
During this Advent season as we celebrate the new relationship between God and his people, may that be mirrored in our renewed relationships with spouses, children, family and those near and dear to us. May we speak tenderly to each other amidst all the rush of the season and transform the shopping days till Christmas into the true Advent of Christ.
Join us on Monday Dec. 3rd for an Advent Movie and start your Advent.
Christmas Dinner: Sunday Dec. 16th
Commercialization has obscured the meaning of Christmas. The commercial has become more important than the carol. What man has to sell more important than what God has given.
More information to come!!
______
Sharon Jenkins
The Father’s Love Dream
October 25, 2012 by 2 Comments
As in anything in our secular and spiritual life we go through difficult times. In the year 1989, at our first church, I was going through one of those rough patches. That summer I had a significant dream where I believe God spoke to me.
(You be the judge).
Pre-amble:
ONE SUMMER JOANNE AND I WENT ON A CAMPING HOLIDAY FEELING REALLY BURNED OUT. AS WE WERE DRIVING TO THE CAMPSITE, I SAID TO MY WIFE THAT I WASN’T SURE ABOUT BEING A PASTOR ANY MORE. I WAS DISILLUSIONED AND FELT THAT GOD WAS FAR AWAY. I WASN’T EVEN SURE IF GOD LOVED ME ANY MORE. I WAS NOT SURE IF I SHOULD EVEN BE MINISTERING ANY MORE. JOANNE DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING TO ME AT THE TIME. LATER ON I DISCOVERED THAT SHE WAS SILENTLY PRAYING THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT WOULD SPEAK TO ME, EVEN IN A DREAM AS HE PROMISED IN JOEL 2, AND IN THE BOOK OF ACTS WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS BEING POURED OUT.
THAT NIGHT I HAD ONE OF THE MOST VIVID DREAMS I COULD REMEMBER:
IN THIS DREAM I WAS OUT IN A FIELD AT NIGHT WITH A FEW OTHER PEOPLE I DIDN’T RECOGNIZE. I WAS WATCHING THE NIGHT SKY, WHICH WAS CLEAR AND FILLED WITH STARS.
SUDDENLY THE SKY WAS FILLED WITH SHOOTING STARS, OR COMETS. THEY WERE EVERYWHERE FILLING THE SKY. WE WATCHED METEORS THE ENTIRE NIGHT.
(NOW I HAVE TO BREAK IN AT THIS POINT AND SAY, THAT WHEN I WAS A CHILD, I USED TO PLAY THIS SILLY GAME WHERE I WOULD TO SAY TO GOD, “IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME, SHOW ME A SHOOTING STAR!”)
EVEN WHILE I WAS HAVING THE DREAM, I AM REALIZING THE FATHER IS SHOWING ME HIS LOVE. AND SO ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT, THESE SHOOTING STARS FILL THE SKY. BUT THEN SOMETHING STRANGE HAPPENS TO THEM. THEY START TO FORM TOGETHER, AND SHAPE THEMSELVES INTO FETUSES. A KIND OF “NEW BIRTH”, OR BORN AGAIN THING. AGAIN EVEN IN MY DREAM I AM THINKING ABOUT THIS NEW CREATION OR RE-CREATIVE THEME. THE SHOOTING STARS CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT IN MY DREAM UNTIL THE MORNING COMES. IN MY DREAM I AM IN AWE OF WHAT I HAVE EXPERIENCED AND SO LATER ON I AM DRAWN BACK TO THE FIELD. I WALK AROUND THE FIELD SEARCHING, NOT KNOWING FOR CERTAIN WHY.
AS I AM WALKING IN THE FIELD I MEET A MAN.
A FATHERLY SORT. HE LOOKS TO ME THE IMAGE OF A PERFECT FATHER. HE IS BALDING SLIGHTLY. HE HAS A TWEED JACKET WITH THOSE PATCHES ON THE ELBOWS AND WIRE RIMMED GLASSES. BUT WHAT CATCHES MY ATTENTION IS THAT HE IS NOT WEARING ANY SHOES OR SOCKS. IN FACT AS I GET CLOSER TO HIM, I NOTICE, HE HAS HOLES IN HIS FEET AND HIS HANDS.
AS HE APPROACHES ME HE TAKES ME INTO HIS ARMS, AND ASKS ME A FEW QUESTIONS.
AND AS I AM THINKING ABOUT MY RESPONSE, HE STARTS TO SHOW ME MY LIFE IN THE PAST. ALMOST AS IF I AM WATCHING ONE OF THOSE NEWS REELS. PAST EVENTS I COULDN’T EVEN REMEMBER, DOWN TO THE SILLIEST “PETTY” SINS. WHERE I HAD DONE OR SAID SOMETHING WRONG. ONE INSTANCE WAS A TIME I HAD LIED ABOUT MY SISTER AND SHE GOT INTO TROUBLE. I SAID TO THE FATHER, “I DON’T REMEMBER.” BUT HE DID, AND IT WENT ON AND ON. THE FATHER SHOWED ME ALL THIS, AND I STARTED TO WEEP AND CONFESS ALL THE THINGS THAT HE WAS SHOWING ME. TEARS OF REPENTANCE AND CONFESSION. DEEP, DEEP REMORSE OVER THE PAST.
THE MAN WAS TENDER, YET HE WAS FIRM. GRACIOUS AND LOVING, YET TOUGH ,FAIR AND HOLY. WHEN IT WAS ALL OVER, HE DID SOMETHING STRANGE.
HE STOOPED DOWN AND STARTED TO MINISTER TO MY FEET. I AM NOT SURE WHAT HE WAS DOING, BUT SOMEHOW IN MY DREAM I KNEW THAT I WAS TO BE PART OF THE PROCESS. IT WAS SIGNIFICANT. EVEN IN MY DREAM I AM THINKING ABOUT JOHN 13.
SUDDENLY IN MY DREAM I WAS TAKEN TO A MEETING HALL. IT WAS A MEETING FILLED WITH NAZI WAR CRIMINALS IN GERMANY. ALL TYPES OF PEOPLE. WOMEN, MEN, YOUNG, AND OLD.
I STOOD UP IN THE FRONT AND STARTED TO PREACH AND SHARE WITH THEM ABOUT JESUS.
THEY WERE INSTANTLY TURNED OFF. THEY TURNED AWAY, MADE ANGRY FACES, SOMEONE EVEN POINTED A GUN AT MY HEAD, BUT I STILL PREACHED THE MESSAGE. I SINGLED OUT ONE MAN, WHO I THOUGHT WAS SOMEHOW TOUCHED BY THE MESSAGE. HIS NAME WAS OTTO, OR ORSEN, OR SOMETHING, I AM NOT SURE. AND I PREACHED EVEN MORE ENTHUSIASTICALLY AT HIM. HE WAS IN TURMOIL, BUT SOMETHING WAS HAPPENING TO HIS HEART. I CHASED HIM AROUND. THE OTHER PEOPLE CAME TO ME AND STARTED TO SHOW ME PICTURES OF HIS PAST.
TERRIBLE THINGS, TERRIBLE IMAGES OF HIS SIN. PREJUDICE AND HATRED AND VIOLENT IMAGES. I SAID TO THEM, “IT DOESN’T MATTER, COME TO THE FATHER IN THE FIELD.”
I WEPT BITTERLY FOR OTTO IN COMPASSION AND PAIN. I WAS IN AGONY BECAUSE I WANTED HIM TO MEET THE FATHER. SUDDENLY HE DID COME! AND I BROUGHT OTTO TO THE MAN IN THE FIELD. WE STOOD IN LINE AS OTHER PAIRS WERE BEING BROUGHT TO THE FATHER.
WHEN IT WAS OTTO’S TURN I WAS ABLE TO SEE HIS “NEWSREEL” OF HIS PAST. I WATCHED AS THE FATHER SHOWED HIM HIS LIFE. NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMPS, ABUSE, TORTURE AND HATRED WERE ALL EXPOSED TO OTTO BY THE FATHER. TO MY AMAZEMENT OTTO RESPONDED IN REPENTANCE AND HEARTFELT SORROW OVER HIS SIN. AND TO MY AMAZEMENT THE FATHER EXTENDED FORGIVENESS AND GRACE. I UNDERSTOOD MY TASK, I WAS TO BRING PEOPLE TO THE FATHER’S LOVE AND HE WOULD SHOW THEM THEIR SIN.
“IT IS HIS MERCY THAT LEADS TO REPENTANCE.” ROMANS 2:4
THEN I WOKE UP.
I REALLY BELIEVE THAT GOD IS CALLING THE CHURCH TO BE DILIGENT IN PROCLAIMING A MESSAGE OF COMPASSION, MERCY AND TRANSFORMATION TO THE LOST AND THE BROKEN. IT IS MY HEARTFELT PRAYER THAT THE CHURCH WILL RECEIVE THIS MESSAGE.
EVER SINCE THIS DREAM IN 1989 IT HAS BEEN MY MAIN THEME IN TEACHING AND PREACHING. IT IS ALL ABOUT GRACE.
Pastor Paul
Men’s Breakfast
October 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
MEN’S BREAKFAST
ADVANCING WITH JESUS SHOULDER TO SHOULDER
Saturday November 3 @ 9 a.m.
Red Crest Golf Club 17700 Keele St., west of Newmarket (just north of Hwy.9, east of Hwy. 400)
Full Hot Breakfast
$20 per person
Speaker: Rev. Garth Hunt “Recovering our Stolen Identity”
Please reserve in advance with Walter Marshall by e-mail at
walmar1@rogers.com by October 29. More info: 705-999-2911
Notice of Special Vestry Meeting
October 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
NOTICE OF SPECIAL VESTRY MEETING
The purpose of the meeting is:
1. To appoint and elect St. Hilda Executive Council members for 2012/2013
2. Ratify ministry committees
3. To elect ANiC Synod delegates for 2012
4. To present a financial update
This special vestry meeting will be held on Sunday November 4, 2012 following the 10:30 a.m. service at the Knights of Columbus Marian Hall, 1494 Wallace Rd. Oakville, ON.
What Pastor Paul does on his day off
October 12, 2012 by 2 Comments
My Sabbath Days
On my Sabbath I try to not work – that’s the key. I try not to be productive. I have no agenda except to spend the day with Jesus or Jesus and my family, doing whatever we want to do together.
My Sabbath may include sleeping in, that I rarely do. I want to begin my Sabbath day with ample time to be sure to, “Do nothing… Don’t try to make anything happen.” In fact, my goal is to get into this disposition of rest starting at sundown the evening before my Sabbath.
On a Sabbath I usually fast from media. Keeping Sabbath is itself a fast from work.
I especially like to spend some time in God’s Word on my Sabbath day. The most restful way for me to do this is to slowly and deeply meditating on a verse from my One Year Bible. Also I often will journal my prayers, meditations, and, especially, the things I sense God saying to me, which are the most precious entries in my prayer journal! I don’t always do this perfectly. I miss some Sabbath days and sometimes fill it with too much stuff to do around the house. The Hebrew word sabbath means “to stop” or “to desist,” and so during Sabbath time, we stop our work, we desist from our frantic scrambling to get more done. Like God, who “in six days…made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day” (Exodus 20:11), on the Sabbath we take time to rest.
Sabbath is far more than a day on which we restrain ourselves from working. Some of us may have childhood memories of Sundays hedged by rules of what we couldn’t do, and now we wrestle to figure out what’s “allowed” on this day. With such a perspective, Sabbath-keeping is flattened into a series of restrictions, and God begins to seem like a referee ready to blow the whistle when we make an error. For others of us, Sunday may feel like a “day off.” We’ve worked so hard all week that now we only want to “veg out” in front of the TV, our minds idling in neutral. In this context, we are hardly “keeping” Sabbath or anything else, and God seems remote and unrelated to our activity. Both of these two extremes, however, miss the heart of the Sabbath. Biblical Sabbath-keeping is an act of trust, a recognition that we can cease our labors for one day a week and the world will not come crashing down around us. It is a reminder that we are small and limited, but God is infinitely big. Keeping Sabbath is a way to affirm that our lives depend not on our own efforts and strivings but rather on God’s grace and care. And so, freeing us from the burden of devoting all our time to getting ahead, Sabbath makes space for us to notice and reflect on instances of God’s grace in our lives and in our world. Sabbath also calls us to celebrate this divine grace-through worship and prayer and through play and enjoyment of God’s creation. Just as God crowned six days’ work of creation by looking around and exclaiming “How very good!” so we, too, need time to revel in what God is doing for us and through us. Pastor Paul
A Guided Sabbath
By Sarah MacDonald & Jay Sivits:
Eugene Peterson has described Sabbath-keeping as woven from two essential threads: praying, “the action by which we attend to God,” and playing, “the action by which we explore our humanity.” Marva Dawn, in her book Keeping the Sabbath Wholly, uses four words to unfold the meaning of Sabbath: ceasing, resting, embracing, and feasting. Clearly, the concept of Sabbath, developed throughout the Bible and in Jewish and Christian traditions, is rich and multi-layered.
Try this experiment:
Ceasing. The first movement of the Sabbath is to turn away from our own anxious striving. Sabbath frees us to choose rest over further activity.
Nor does it depend on the polish of our image or the cleverness of our words. Sabbath invites us to choose silence over speech. We can pause from our attempts to produce impressive words, listening instead as God reassures us, “You are my beloved child, with whom I am well pleased.”
How then, today, should we practice Sabbath ceasing? We urge everyone to spend at least 15 minutes to an hour in silence and (as far as possible) solitary rest or reflection. Turn off your cell phones, computers and TVs.
you might spend some time with the reflection questions that appear at the end of this Sabbath guide. If you’re feeling tired, take a nap. If you’d like to take a walk outside do that.
Seeing. When we take a break from work and worry, a space opens in our day. Sometimes we rush to fill this space with leisure activities that require little of us but give little in return. Yet Sabbath calls us to choose genuine renewal over “filler,” and we are much more likely to find ourselves renewed when we engage in activities that bring us face-to-face with God’s grace. The second movement of Sabbath, then, is to open our eyes and our hearts and pay close attention to how we’re seeing God at work.
And there’s so much to pay attention to, beginning with our own lives. Ask yourself, “Where and how has God been at work in the events of my life?” Take time to remember.
Sabbath celebration comes in many forms. Your celebration might take the form of play-of engaging in physical or social recreation. It might take the form of artistic creation;
Ideas for how to use Sabbath time:
Use the following reflection questions to guide you in a time of meditation and/or journaling.
Keep an hour (or more) of silence. Reflect on how you’ve recently heard God speak to you.
Take an unhurried, attentive walk outside.
Take a nap.
Read a nourishing book.
Exercise or go swimming, and rejoice over how good it feels to have a body.
Memorize a brief Scripture passage.
Write a psalm of thankfulness to God. Write a note of encouragement and appreciation to a friend.
Ceasing
1. In some Jewish families, it is customary to have a Sabbath box to hold items not needed on the Sabbath, such as car keys or wallets. Someone stands at the entrance of the house, holding the box, and as people come in for the start of Sabbath observance, they place in the box whatever items they know shouldn’t accompany them into the sacred space.
You might find it helpful to imagine your own “Sabbath box.” What preoccupations or fears or undone work do you need to leave behind as you enter the sacred space of this Sabbath? Visualize placing all these things into a box. You might then want to visualize handing this box to Jesus to hold for you while you are on Sabbath retreat.
2. Spend some time meditating on Matthew 11:28-30.
What heavy burdens are you or have you been carrying?
What kind(s) of rest do you long for?
Ask Jesus to give you such rest during your Sabbath today.
Seeing
1. In Deut. 5:12-15, the stated reason for the command to “Observe the Sabbath day” is that God brought the Israelites out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt, and so the Sabbath is to be a day of freedom for everyone-whatever one’s social status. In the gospels, we see Jesus pick up on this theme of freedom, particularly as he performs many healings on the Sabbath.
Read the story of one such healing in Luke 13:10-17. Now reread the story, imagining yourself in the shoes of one of the characters.
What do you see and hear as the story unfolds? What surprises you?
What emotions do you feel? How do you want to respond to Jesus?
2. Take some time now to reflect on your own life.
What has been going on recently in your journey with God? In your relationships with others? In your work?
What insights, experiences, or Scriptures have become channels for God’s love and grace to you?
Are there areas in your life that you need to bring to Jesus for his healing touch?
Celebrating
Read Psalm 92, which is titled “A Song for the Sabbath Day,” and notice how it calls us into rejoicing.
What reasons do you have for giving thanks to the Lord? How have you been experiencing and witnessing God’s steadfast love and faithfulness?
Compose a prayer or psalm to express your thanksgiving and joy to God. Include specific examples of what God has done for you, and try to create imagery that captures your feelings. Pray your psalm to God; if you’re alone, read (or sing) it aloud.
Is there someone with whom you can share your psalm and so multiply praise to the Lord?
These are just a few ideas, so get busy and rest.
Happy 90th Birthday, Dorothy!
October 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Thanksgiving Sunday
September 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment
On Thanksgiving Sunday we will be accepting non-perishable food and toiletries for our Food for Life program:
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