Christmas Eve, 7:00 p.m. – ‘The Embrace’

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William Kurelek

Carols, readings and candlelight!

And also another wonderful painting of William Kurelek, inviting us to make the birth of Christ real in our cities, in our lives. Notice how the infant reaches out to the one homeless beneath the Parliament Buildings at the heart of our nation …

Have a look at the Order of Service and if you are in the area, we warmly invite you to join us. (The document is set up to have a fold in the middle, with the second page being therefore the first … but I am sure you will figure that out!) There is ample parking available in the city surface lot just behind the church off Queen Street, and along the streets adjacent, particularly north of Queen Street.

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And next Sunday morning, 10:30 a.m., we will hear again the beautiful Song of Simeon as he holds the Christ Child (Luke 2:22-40).

Sunday December 22, 10:30 am ~ Journeys of Grace 3) to Bethlehem

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This painting by William Kurelek comes from his collection entitled Northern Nativity.

During the Depression of the 1930’s, William was 12 years old. When he later looked back to that year, he remembers it as a hard time, with men riding boxcars, searching for work to send back support for their families, lining up in soup kitchens and knocking at doors for food for themselves. He also remembers how that year at school they had started rehearsing for the annual Christmas concert and how at Sunday School he had heard again the Christmas story … and Throughout that December when he was 12 years old William had these Christmas dreams. A few were long; others were more like pictures that flashed on very briefly. But they all started and ended with the questions – If it happened there, why not here? If it happened then, why not now?

From these childhood dreams came this wonderful collection of paintings. This particular canvas is entitled In The Mountains. It is a very Canadian scene, set amongst the majestic Rocky Mountains. There is a lodge, with skiers enjoying their Christmas vacation on the slopes, receiving group lessons, and on the balcony conversing. And in the foreground, Mary and Joseph are arriving on a difficult mountain trail. On this Fourth Sunday of Advent, this painting caused me to ponder anew the journey of Mary and Joseph to ‘the inn’, and also the unwanted journeys of challenge and struggle in our lives.

If you are in the area, we warmly invite you to join us. Certified child care and a programme for young children are offered during the service and there is free parking on the streets around (please note that the time-of-day restrictions on Clergy Street north of Queen are not in effect on Sundays) and in the surface civic lot just behind the church off Queen Street. 

Have a look at the Order of Service and bulletin below, and consider each hymn and prayer and announcement a personal invitation to join us in Christian worship, community and service. If you have any questions about forthcoming events and opportunities, please call the church office Tuesday – Thursday, 9 a.m. – noon, 613-546-6316, or email [email protected]

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And join us Christmas Eve, 7 p.m., for an hour of carols and readings in the beauty of the historic St. Andrew’s sanctuary. At the conclusion of the service, as the lights are dimmed, each person holds a candle with the flames dancing as stars in the cupola overhead, and together we sing ‘Silent night, holy night’.

Sunday December 15, 10:30 am ~ A Service of Lessons and Carols

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An hour of God’s promises in scripture and God’s worship in music, lead by the Choir of St. Andrew’s. A time to be still, to reflect, to be renewed. If you are in the area, we warmly invite you to join us. Certified child care is offered during the service and there is free parking on the streets around (please note that the time-of-day restrictions on Clergy Street north of Queen are not in effect on Sundays) and in the surface civic lot just behind the church off Queen Street. And after the service, please linger for an informal congregational lunch in St. Andrew’s Hall – it is potluck so bring something if you can … but your presence will be the best contribution! Have a look at the Order of Service and bulletin below, and consider each hymn and prayer and announcement a personal invitation to join us in Christian worship, community and service. If you have any questions about forthcoming events and opportunities, please call the church office Tuesday – Thursday, 9 a.m. – noon, 613-546-6316, or email [email protected]

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And join us on Sunday December 22, 10:30 a.m. for a service for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, which will include a contribution by the children and youth of the congregation.

Sunday December 8, 10:30 am ~ Journeys of Grace 2) Mary to Elizabeth

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Here in Kingston it is a beautiful snowy winter day. We have procured a mini shovel with which to greet our one year old grandson when he arrives next week – he has work to do!

It is a season when we can be overwhelmed by all the work that is ours. It is not just the shovelling or the preparations for the gatherings of friends and family that can fill these weeks. We are all aware also of the work that is ours as neighbours and global citizens – from advocating for the unhoused in these winter days when the city shelters are full, to exploring ways we can encourage a transition into a culture and an economy that will respect this world sufficiently to leave it intact for the next generation (and to the glory of God). It can be overwhelming.

It is exactly at a time like this that Christian faith comes to the fore. Many of us in the Presbyterian Church in Canada are joining together in reading daily devotions by Walter Bruggemann, ‘Celebrating Abundance’. The emphasis is on rejecting the contemporary emphasis on ‘scarcity’ and living into the ‘abundance’ of God’s promises and provision for us and for all. As I turned the pages this past week, I thought about how Bruggemann once said to a group of ministers … ‘Few of our people imagine God to be an active character in the story of their lives’.

We may believe in God, but we treat God as somewhat detached and passive, involved perhaps just at the end of lives, on the periphery between this world and another. Generations of God’s people before us have thought of God very differently. They declared that God does things, that God is constantly at work among us, for good …

 

Corby Eisbacher

This sense of wonder and joy that God is at work is what Mary and Elizabeth share when they meet. Mary makes clear that it is not just the child growing in her womb that God is working, but a new humanity and new world through that child/Christ. We can hear her she sing to this day … ‘God has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts and put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree. God has filled the hungry will good things and the rich God has sent empty away’ (Luke 1:46-55) and so much more. God is at work, and in that work of God we find assurance and strength … to work with God. 

That big shovel belongs to God. That little shovel is mine and ours.

If you are in the area, we warmly invite you to join the worship of God. Certified child care is offered during the service and there is free parking on the streets around (please note that the time-of-day restrictions on Clergy Street north of Queen are not in effect on Sundays) and in the surface civic lot just behind the church off Queen Street.

Have a look at the Order of Service and bulletin below, and consider each hymn and prayer and announcement a personal invitation to join us in Christian worship, community and service. If you have any questions about forthcoming events and opportunities, please call the church office Tuesday – Thursday, 9 a.m. – noon, 613-546-6316, or email [email protected]

Download (PDF, 489KB)

Join us next Sunday as we continue our journey to Christmas and light the third candle of Advent during a service of Lessons and Carols led by the choir of St. Andrew’s.

Sunday December 1, 10:30 A.M. ~ Journeys of Grace 1) Gabriel to Mary

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The Annunciation – John William Waterhouse, 1914

As I was preparing for this season of Advent, it struck me how much movement there is in the initial chapters of the Gospel According To Luke. Gabriel coming to Mary, Mary going to Elizabeth, Joseph and Mary going to Bethlehem, the shepherds going to the manger, the child brought to the Temple in Jerusalem …

Life is full of journeys, of course. For some of us, they may be journeys of geography. But for all of us there are journeys of heart and mind and soul, of relationships and understandings and of faith. And so, accompanying the journeys that marked the incarnation of our Lord, these weeks of Advent we will explore the journeys of our lives.

We begin the journey of Gabriel to Mary (Luke 1:26-38). There are a whole host of wonderful works of art that take up this scene, many communicating the stillness and strength of the moment when a young woman was confronted by a heavenly messenger … and she responded with such amazing trust and commitment ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word’.

What I love about the particular canvas above by Waterhouse is something else – Mary is not at her devotions inside but outside spooling wool, and her raised hand captures an ambiguity of the instant, as she struggles with whether to accept or dismiss this divine commission. We may not have the experience of an angel standing before us, but have we not all received the call of Christ? And the challenge of the moment, of the life? 

If you are in the area, we warmly invite you to join the worship of God. Certified child care is offered during the service and there is free parking on the streets around (please note that the time-of-day restrictions on Clergy Street north of Queen are not in effect on Sundays) and in the surface civic lot just behind the church off Queen Street.

Have a look at the Order of Service and bulletin below, and consider each hymn and prayer and announcement a personal invitation to join us in Christian worship, community and service. If you have any questions about forthcoming events and opportunities, please call the church office Tuesday – Thursday, 9 a.m. – noon, 613-546-6316, or email [email protected]

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Join us next Sunday as we continue our journey to Christmas and light the second candle of Advent, exploring the journey of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth.

November 24, 10:30 A.M. ~ Mark 10) Who then is this?

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Presbyterian congregations across Canada this morning will be greeted with this image on the cover of the Orders of Service. It is a portion of a great stained glass window found just as you enter the sanctuary of St. Andrew’s Kingston from the main doors through the bell tower. And I find it quite stunning.

Around the perimeter are pomegranates, which must have evoked a sense of wonder in the late 1800s when this window was installed in this far corner of creation. The fruit hang from branches that evoke the Tree of Jesse, from which God had promised to raise up a new leader, a Messiah, for the people of God. At the centre is a crown, heralding the King of Kings, with rays of golden light streaming behind. Both point us to Jesus the Christ. This depiction is exactly as we would expect and can fully celebrate.

But of course there is a backstory that is critical to understanding. The background of the crown is blood red. The rays of light from the crown are in the form of a cross. It is the embracing life and sacrificial death of Jesus that define how he rules. This is known as ‘Christ the King’ Sunday, and we still ask, as did the disciples of old, ‘Who then is this?’ (Mark 4:35-41). 

If you are in the area, we warmly invite you to join the worship of God. Certified child care is offered during the service and there is free parking on the streets around (please note that the time-of-day restrictions on Clergy Street north of Queen are not in effect on Sundays) and in the surface civic lot just behind the church off Queen Street.

Have a look at the Order of Service and bulletin below, and consider each hymn and prayer and announcement a personal invitation to join us in Christian worship, community and service. If you have any questions about forthcoming events and opportunities, please call the church office Tuesday – Thursday, 9 a.m. – noon, 613-546-6316, or email [email protected]

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Join us next Sunday as we begin our journey to Christmas and light the first candle of Advent, singing ‘O come, O come Emmanuel’

November 17, 10:30 A.M. ~ Mark 9) The Dynamics of the Kingdom of God

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James B. Janknegt – Used with permission   www.bcartfarm.com

I attended the annual Kingston Interfaith Community potluck dinner at the City Hall last night. Ten different faith communities of the city (with St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church representing the Christian community this year) presented contributions in word, song and dance from their faith traditions around this year’s theme of ‘hope’. I was moved how deep sincerity was matched with mutual respect, as we shared spiritual dimensions of hope.

As Christians our hope is rooted in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and the promise that what God began in the earthly ministry of Jesus God will complete for the good of all who follow him, indeed for all humanity … the holy city, a new heaven and new earth, the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom or Reign of God is the focus of Jesus in the parables we will hear this Sunday … with an emphasis upon the assurance that our faithful acts of service as small mustard seeds can be grown by God into something wonderfully lively and life-giving for others (Mark 4:30-32). Isn’t this an inspiring painting by artist James B. Janknegt? Do you notice the ‘Seed’ store on the left side of the town? I wonder to what that might be referring?!

If you are in the area, we warmly invite you to join the worship of God. Certified child care is offered during the service and there is free parking on the streets around (please note that the time-of-day restrictions on Clergy Street north of Queen are not in effect on Sundays) and in the surface civic lot just behind the church off Queen Street. And this Sunday all are invited to linger afterwards for a congregational potluck!

Have a look at the Order of Service and bulletin below, and consider each hymn and prayer and announcement a personal invitation to join us in Christian worship, community and service. If you have any questions about forthcoming events and opportunities, please call the church office Tuesday – Thursday, 9 a.m. – noon, 613-546-6316, or email

Download (PDF, 528KB)

Join us next Sunday as we continue our journey through the Gospel According to Mark, hearing how Jesus stilled a storm (Mark 4:35-41).