This year’s congregational celebration is available at https://youtu.be/SGlw9emTjc8
With thanks to all who contributed … in order of appearance Andrew, Audrey, the Rob Roy Highland Dancers, Christina, Lori-Kim, John and Walt, and special thanks to Christopher as video editor.
This Sunday we begin a new church year. The first of the seasons is ‘Advent’, derived from the Latin, ‘the coming’. We look forward to Christmas, and our celebrations of how the Holy One came among us at Bethlehem. But the Christ who came promises that he will come again, to complete all that he began. Advent is the time when we look far beyond the horizon of four weeks and into the glorious promises of ‘the kingdom of God’.
We will hear the gospel dimensions of Christian hope not only read from scripture but also sung in classic hymns of the Church … beginning this Sunday with Charles Wesley’s ‘Lo, Christ comes with clouds descending … God appears on earth to reign’.
We invite you to join us in Christian worship either in the sanctuary (following COVID protocols of safe distancing, mask wearing and refraining from singing) or by live-stream at https://youtu.be/TKOcmsnpNFI Sunday morning. Organ preludes will begin around 10:25 a.m. and the service will commence at 10:30 a.m. Previous services can be found on the St. Andrew’s Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/StAndrewsPresbyterianChurchKingston
Elisha and the Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4:8-10) by Jim MacDonald, 2021.
At the beginning of a new week of grace, we focus upon the exhortation ‘Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received’ (I Peter 4: 10). And we welcome Jim MacDonald of Stewardship Ministries of the Presbyterian Church in Canada to offer the sermon.
The service will include a variety of hymns, from a classic like ’Take my life and let it be, consecrated Lord to thee’ to more contemporary selections like ‘Jesus’ hands were kind hands’ and ‘Called as partners in Christ’s service, called to ministries of grace’.
After the Benediction, Jim will offer a presentation about legacy giving (which, like the service, will be live-streamed).
We invite you to join us in Christian worship either in the sanctuary (following COVID protocols of safe distancing, mask wearing and refraining from singing) or by live-stream at https://youtu.be/OYhd_12cu3g Sunday morning. Organ preludes will begin around 10:25 a.m. and the service will commence at 10:30 a.m. Previous services can be found on the St. Andrew’s Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/StAndrewsPresbyterianChurchKingston
Soli Deo Gloria
The signature is that of Johann Sebastian Bach. But do you notice the ‘SDG’ above the signature?
This Sunday our Director of Music has prepared an hour that offers to support our worship with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685-1750. His compositions are just one wavelength within the great spectrum of music, but one that has moved many into the presence and promises of God.
The service will include special contributions by guest cantors Holly and Gordon Gwynne-Timothy and violinist Andrew Dicker – Wachet Auf from Bach’s Advent Cantata, and Et Exultavit from his Magnificat in D, and two preludes by John Hall at the organ. Our hymns will be sung to tunes of the Bach repertoire, including ‘O sacred head, sore wounded’. And the sermon will focus on those three letters added by Bach to his compositions – SDG, Soli Deo Gloria, ‘Glory to God Alone’!
We invite you to join us in Christian worship either in the sanctuary (following COVID protocols of safe distancing, mask wearing and refraining from singing) or by live-stream at https://youtu.be/WhGowxkc-JY Sunday morning. Organ preludes will begin around 10:25 a.m. and the service will commence at 10:30 a.m. Previous services can be found on the St. Andrew’s Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/StAndrewsPresbyterianChurchKingston
The Cenotaph, London: July 1919
This is a solemn Sunday. We pause to remember. With a Lament played on the bagpipes and silence and Reveille on the trumpet, we remember the loss and suffering of war.
Many of my formative years were lived in Hamilton Ontario. I did not realize then that the cenotaph at the centre of that city was practically an exact replica of one raised in London England almost immediately after WWI (as are those found at the centre of Montréal, Toronto and many other communities across our nation). This year it spoke to me anew, as a I considered the words with which the apostle Paul concludes the twelfth chapter of his letter to the Romans … ‘Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good’. I look forward to sharing my gleanings … of the cenotaph (from the Greek kenotaphion, ’empty tomb’) and the gospel!
We invite you to join us in Christian worship either in the sanctuary (following COVID protocols of safe distancing, mask wearing and refraining from singing) or by live-stream at https://youtu.be/I3drIeVt56U Sunday morning. We will be celebrating the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, so you are invited to prepare with some bread and a cup. Organ preludes will begin around 10:25 a.m. and the service will commence at 10:30 a.m. Previous services can be found on the St. Andrew’s Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/StAndrewsPresbyterianChurchKingston
Peace, Be Still. He Qi. 1998
He Qi is one of the most admired and respected Christian artists of our time. He was raised in the wake of the Cultural Revolution in China, and his first major work as an artist was of Chairman Mao. Over time he dedicated and developed his artistic skill to communicate the Christian gospel for the Chinese context, blending Chinese folk customs and traditional Chinese painting with European art forms past and present. This canvas communicates the scene found in Luke 8:22-25, and illustrates the sermon themes of ‘The Storm of Life’ and Jesus as the Lord of all life, even the storms!
This morning we will be welcoming to the pulpit Wilson Eyong, a student at Presbyterian College Montréal. Wilson is originally from the Cameroon West Africa and fled the country in 2000 due to political instability. After years in Ireland, he and his family are now in Canada, and we thank him for making the long journey to be with us this morning to share something of his life and faith with us.
We invite you to join us in Christian worship either in the sanctuary (following COVID protocols of safe distancing, mask wearing and refraining from singing) or by live-stream at https://youtu.be/_VZKAcVFGDk Sunday morning. Organ preludes will begin around 10:25 a.m. and the service will commence at 10:30 a.m. Previous services can be found on the St. Andrew’s Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/StAndrewsPresbyterianChurchKingston
Uncredited Internet Image
Not much of the Harvest Thanksgiving display remains in the sanctuary, our thanksgivings just continue to multiply. But how do we translate ‘thanksgiving’ from a thought or feeling into a life?
As we read through Paul’s letter to the Romans chapter 12, we hear exhortations not to be conformed to the ways of this world, and to ’think’ the faith, and this morning our attention is shifted to the Christian practice of life. Paul suggests our ‘thinking’ the faith is truest, and our thanksgiving in response to the grace of God is deepest, when we are sensitive to and care for … others. He writes that the focus of life in Christ is … the community: ‘love one another’ (Romans 12:9).
The image above may be unattributed to an artist, but wonderfully illustrates the attributes of Christian living according to the apostle. At the centre of being ‘in Christ’ is the dynamic of ‘one another’. And making ‘one another’ a verb is brilliant – ‘one another-ing’!!
Our worship will include some wonderful hymns that lift up the theme of love from the Christian context – ‘New every morning is the love our waking and uprising prove’, ‘My song is love unknown, love to the loveless shown’, ‘God is love, eternal love’. Have a look at this Sunday’s Order of Service, lyrics to hymns, notes from the Director of Music, and many announcements, each an invitation to grow in Christian faith, community and service.
Join us either in the sanctuary (following COVID protocols of safe distancing, mask wearing and refraining from singing) or by live-stream Sunday morning at https://youtu.be/gzD0r7A3YBw. Organ preludes will begin around 10:25 a.m. and the service will commence at 10:30 a.m. Previous services can be found on the St. Andrew’s Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/StAndrewsPresbyterianChurchKingston
A formal congregational meeting will follow our worship this Sunday, to consider a recommendation of re-purposing the church manse to assist the community in dealing with the current deficit of affordable accommodation. Participation will include members in the sanctuary and by a Zoom link distributed to members.