Please join us for coffee, tea and Birthday cake in the Hall following the service.
5:00- P.M. EVENING PRAYER
First Lesson: Micah 4:1-7 (Pew Bible page 164)
Psalms 65, 67
Second Lesson: John 9 (Pew Bible page 102)
The Sanctuary Lamp burns this week to the Glory of God
and in Loving Memory of Mrs. Florence Alexander.
The flowers on the organ are given to the Glory of God and to honour John Lingley for his birthday (last Wednesday) given by Howard and Esther and family.
“Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord,
and let light eternal shine upon them”
Roger LeBlancDavid BeersJohn Alberts
Beulah CochraneSgt. Mark GallagherYvonne Martin
Doreen WeaverKaren Wilson
Layreaders
8:00 P.M. – Roy Boutilier9:15 A.M. – Nichols Saulnier
11:00 A.M. – Norm Dupuis
Lastcall for Confirmation Classes!
The Bishop is planning to come in June, so Confirmation classes for youth and adults will begin in a couple of weeks. For more information, or if you would like to be included in the classes, please call Debbie Ritchie at the Church Office 855-5209.
Wok with Faith will be held next Sunday beginning at 4:30 P.M. in the Church Hall. This program is designed for middle and high school girls including preparing a meal and sharing. Please feel free to come and bring (or make) a friend.
Dear friends of PWRDF,
We want to share some information with you about the relief and fundraising efforts that you are supporting.
In the chaos of aid distribution, Action by Churches Together (of which PWRDF is a member) are managing to get food, temporary shelter, water purifying materials and expertise to the Haitian capital. One of the largest alliances working on relief in Haiti, ACT Alliance has four members working in-country and is being supplemented by relief from others. For example:
Christian Aid reports it has started distributing food and tents, hygiene kits, blankets, jerry cans and water purifiers to 15,000 people in eight communities, targeting areas getting little help from other agencies. It has also sent in a medical team through a specialist healthcare organization.
Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe has programmed delivery of 15 tonnes of food relief together with Caritas Germany.
Lutheran World Relief plans to send a shipment of food products.
Norwegian Church Aid is prioritizing water sanitation equipment and psychosocial work. It has sent a team of water engineers, a communicator and a logistician.
There has been a lot of social solidarity, with people helping rescue each other from the rubble. Christian Aid's country manager, Prospery Raymond, was pulled from the wreckage of the CA office by a passerby. A large number of people, perhaps 100,000, have left the city to stay with friends and family in other parts of the country. Prospery has neighbours staying in his front yard.
Horrific images of destruction in Haiti are flashed across on televisions and newspapers, but stories of hope and solidarity such as the one above are also emerging in Haiti and Canada.
We at The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund are the recipients of the generosity of Anglicans in Canada. As of noon (EST) on Tuesday, January 19 we had received more than $188,000 in donations primarily from individuals.
Not only are Anglicans contributing financially to PWRDF, they are praying and singing and applying their creative talents to support relief and rehabilitation work in Haiti. Please send us your ideas for fundraising, let us know about your planned events and keep up the good work!Ann Walling (PWRDF Rep for our Diocese)
Our Annual Meeting will be held on February 8th at 7 P.M. in the Church Hall. Anyone wishing to serve as a Vestry person or Warden should please speak to Rector.
Bolts of heavy, blanket-type cloth are available from Heritage Textiles (formerly Humphrey Mills) free of charge. (Contact person: Mr. Rob Norris 857-9756). Any simple blanket patterns out there? Anyone to instruct? Anyone interested? Blankets for Haiti or for ReConnect…
2010 Pasta Challenge
A scout group from PickeringOntario has put out a challenge to all other scouting groups across Canada to collect dried pasta, and then donate it to a local food bank. 1st Moncton-St.George’s scouting sections have agreed to take up this challenge, and challenge all other groups in South Eastern New Brunswick to do the same. If you would like to help us, we are taking donations up until February 28th, at which time a presentation will be done to a local food bank representative after our Baden Powell Sunday service. All donations can be dropped off in the church hall. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
This Week in the Parish
The Daily Offices of MorningandEveningPrayer will be prayed in the Chapel at 8:30 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. Monday – Friday, respectively. In addition:
Monday Mattins & Eucharist8:30 A.M.
(The Conversion of St. Paul)
Tuesday Bible Study at the Rectory10:00 A.M.
Study on the Book of Jonah7:00 P.M.
WednesdaySpencerHome Eucharist10:00 A.M.
Grief Share7:00 P.M.
ThursdayHoly Eucharist10:00 A.M.
Please keep in your prayers Haitian Foster Children of members of our parish: Kimberly Guillame. We thank God for finding out that Chantale Simon is safe and well. Donations towards this disaster relief may be made by adding it to your offering envelope on a separate line, marked Haitian Relief Fund.
The Reading Group will begin to read the little Old Testament book of Jonah this Tuesday evening in the Ladies Parlor. Everyone is welcome!
The Rector’s Corner
Praying in times of trouble
This past Friday morning CBC Radio broadcasted a live telephone conversation with Nurse Danielle Levesque of the GeorgeDumontHospital presently in Port au Prince. It was heart-warming to hear of her work in the make shift conditions and of the hope of the Haitian people in spite of their terrible circumstances. Thankfully there was some progress last week in distributing food and water and medical supplies. And thankfully, there are many qualified people like Danielle, who made themselves available in this crisis. Still, however, just as the emergency in Haiti is far, far from being completed, so are our efforts.
“But what else can I do?” someone might ask. “I already gave my donations, and I am planning to give some more.” Excellent – as we heard in last week’s Epistle, “distributing to the necessity of saints (i.e. other Christians)” is our Christian duty and a proper use of God’s gifts. But there is something else – prayer.
In last week’s Epistle, St. Paul also instructed the Church in the city of Rome to “weep with them that weep”… and to “condescend to men of low estate.” “Condescend” means “to stop”, “to make oneself low”.” So, the question is, how can we do that as the initial shock of the disaster in Haiti fades?
Of course there are all kinds of possibilities: you could watch CNN throughout the day for the latest developments; you could follow the relief efforts in the newspaper or ‘on-line’; you could try to connect with one of the 60 students from Haiti at the University of Moncton . At best, however, these efforts are one dimensional and linear. I’m not saying that they are useless, but, let’s face it, they are limited. Is there something we can do in addition to these things? Something that would have a direct impact on many Haitians and relief workers all at once? Yes! Well, what is it?...Prayer.
Specifically, prayer through the Litany, and the Supplication (see pages 30-37 in the Book of Common Prayer). “Are you kidding?” someone may ask. Not at all. You see, the Litany provides us with a thorough, ordered, reverent and Biblical series of prayers that are especially helpful in times of trouble. When we are tired; or overcome with emotion; or when we are doubting; or when we just don’t know how or what to pray, the Litany provides us with the words. In it we ask the blessed and glorious Trinity for His Mercy and Deliverance. And we do so by appealing to the Life and Saving Work of our Lord Jesus Christ. “By thine Agony and bloody sweat; by thy Cross and Passion; by thy precious Death and Burial,…Good Lord, deliver us.”
Just think, dear friends, the Lord Jesus Who has delivered us from the powers of sin and eternal death is with the people of Haiti in all their miseries; and He alone can help them now by His Spirit. He will use many people, governments and agencies to meet their needs, but He alone, as our Great Physician, is inspiring and directing the work. If you believe that, what better thing can we do but pray?
More than a hundred years ago, the Rev. Canon W.C.E. Newbolt was also encouraging people to pray the Litany, and to make it a weekly offering unto God. In doing so he said,
“Before we kneel down to say a prayer like this, it means that we have made up our minds that God hears, and God knows, and that God loves; He is no creature of human fancy, Who sits aloof from man…unmoved, untouched, unthoughtful, as the awful wail of this suffering world beats against the fast-closed door of Heaven. It is a prayer addressed to the One Who has power to do all things, and the heart to listen to any petition, however humble.”
Originally composed in 1544 by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer at the direction of King Henry VIII, the Litany was the first part of the Book of Common Prayer to be offered up to the Church in English. The purpose of it was to seek God’s unity for the Church in light of “the miserable state of Christendom, being at present…so plagued with hatred and dissensions.” Just under the title of ‘The Litany’ on page 30, you will notice (in italics) that this is to prayed “on Wednesdays and Fridays and Rogation Days.” Why? Because the Lord Jesus was sold by Judas Iscariot on a Wednesday, and murdered on a Friday. Each and every week brings a reminder to us of these solemn days, and the Litany provides us with the appropriate expression of our thoughts and prayers. In a similar way, it will hep us to pray for Haiti.
We beseech Thee, O Lord, to succour, help and comfort all that are in danger, necessity and tribulation…especially thy people in Haiti.”
Drop Inn Ministries, which operates a Thrift Store at 84 Barker Street, is always looking to receive household items and furniture in good condition, and ‘pick ups’ can be arranged by calling 872-4107. The Thrift Store is also in need of portable electric or kerosene heaters. If you have one to give or to lend, please call Mark, the store manager. Finally, Drop inn Ministries supports 30 pastors in Haiti and requests our prayers for them.
Saint George's Anglican Church
