Ash Wednesday Online

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Our journey to Easter begins today. The season of Lent commences with Ash Wednesday, when we acknowledge our mortality and turn anew to the Holy One.

This year, a collection of Christian communities have joined together to offer a series of Lenten services beginning today with Ash Wednesday. These Ecumenical Worship Partnership services can be found at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWRlJZoKQxFCSk0V_Gl_xQQ

Today’s Ash Wednesday service will be available from noon, and is offered by Princess Street United and St. Paul’s Sydenham Anglican Churches.

Other services:
– Maundy Thursday (Thursday April 1)
offered by St. Mark’s Lutheran and Chalmers United Churches
– Good Friday (Friday April 2)
co-ordinated by Faith United and St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Churches
– Holy Saturday (Saturday April 3)
offered by St. James Anglican and Sydenham Street United Churches
– Easter 2 (Sunday April 11)
co-ordinated by St. James and St. Paul’s Anglican Churches

Sunday Feb 14, 10:30 a.m. – ‘Patrons of Love’

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The Mess at home in Gill Hall of St. Andrew’s Church

St. Valentine’s Day! A perfect day on which to receive a special message of Christian love-in-action here at St. Andrew’s.

On this is Mission Sunday we highlight an outreach that finds a home in Gill Hall of St. Andrew’s Church – The Mess. Our speaker will be the wonderful Sandi Dodds, Executive Director.

The doors of the sanctuary will be re-opened. For those who are able and wishing to attend in person, please review the mandatory protocols detailed in the previous post and in the link found under ‘Special Events’ to the right, ‘Re-Opening the Sanctuary’.

The service will be broadcast live beginning around 10:20 a.m. with an organ prelude, and available afterwards, at https://youtu.be/79AS4gEKB1I . Recordings of previous services can be found on our Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzEy41z3sqfRm8X_lLfKGUA 

You are invited to have a look at the printed Order of Service below, and the announcements, including several online opportunities for Christian growth. These include two studies and a series of joint online services of worship during Lent.

Of particular note this week is :

– Tuesday evening, 7 p.m., the first of the St. Andrew’s winter study sessions, exploring gospel themes as embodied by characters in Les Misérables (email [email protected] to receive the Zoom link) https://www.standrewskingston.org/winter-study-series-les-miserables/
– the joint church Ash Wednesday service to be available from noon at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWRlJZoKQxFCSk0V_Gl_xQQ 

‘Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God’ (I John 4:7)

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Re-Opening the Sanctuary

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While online participation will continue to be offered, the sanctuary of St. Andrew’s will be re-opened for morning worship this Sunday February 14. The Elders are thankful to extend a welcome to all for whom this is appropriate.

Great care has been taken to ensure guidelines of public health authorities are followed, and it is imperative that everyone attending worship respect these requirements out of care for others. Please see below a letter that was distributed to the congregation providing full details. In summary, these include …

– two doors only will be open for entrance to the church: along Clergy Street, the door at the top of the stairs by the canon; and along Princess Street, the door at the top of the ramp for those with accessibility challenges
– keeping physical distance from those in front, once in the door you will be asked to sanitize your hands and provide your name (and contact information, if visiting)
– the wearing of face masks at all times in the building is mandatory
– you will be ushered to a seat, filling the front pews first: please proceed to the centre of the pew to allow others to sit near the aisle
– there will be no congregational singing or choir: hymns and scripture passages are included in the bulletin
– you will be asked to leave from the same door in which you entered, beginning from the back pews: please wait for your cue
– we are asked to leave the sanctuary directly to avoid close proximity to others in the narrow aisles at the back or in the foyers, and we will have no opportunity for conversation within the church facilities

For all the limitations and constraints involved, the Elders are thankful that God has brought us thus far, and we are able to offer this opportunity. The few who are able to gather in the sanctuary will be joined by many online, and together we will be one in praise and worship.

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Sunday Feb 7, 10:30 a.m. – Embracing Grace 5) A letter of Christ

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Do you notice something out of the ordinary on the Communion Table? Yes, it is envelope with the label ‘A letter of Christ’. The phrase is found in one of Paul’s letters to the Christians of Corinth (2 Corinthians 3:3). ‘A letter of Christ’ offers a wonderful way to consider the Lord’s Supper … but it actually addresses another dimension of Christian life, the other side of the proverbial spiritual coin.

Join us to learn more and celebrate together. Prepare a slice of bread and a glass of juice for a time of sacrament following the prayers, hymns, reading of scripture and sermon.

The service will be available online just after 10:15 a.m. at https://youtu.be/FMaIX7FpmSs. Recordings of previous services can be found at our Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzEy41z3sqfRm8X_lLfKGUA 

You are invited to have a look at the printed Order of Service below, and the announcements, including several online opportunities for Christian growth. These include two studies and a series of joint online services of worship during Lent.

‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you’ (2 Corinthians 13:13)

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Sunday Jan. 31, 10:30 a.m. – Embracing Grace 4) The Tree

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Zacchaeus and Christ. Hildesheim Gospels, Germany, probably 1170s. Tempera colors, gold leaf, silver leaf and ink on parchment, 11.1 x 7.4 inches. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles / Google Cultural Institute

I love certain dimensions of this scene as imagined in this medieval manuscript of the Gospel according to Luke. Beyond the sheer beauty of colour and style, what I love most is the way the curling branches convey a dynamic of life involving wondrous movement. As we will explore in the sermon, the gospel of grace involves a going up (from Jesus to Zacchaeus hiding in the tree) and a coming down (of Zacchaeus to Jesus and a new life in home and city), a dynamic we know in our own lives.

We may not be able to gather together in the sanctuary this Sunday, but we will begin this week together in praise of God. Classic and contemporary hymns sung by our cantor Paul Payne (from ‘Stand up and bless the Lord’ by James Montgomery to ‘Will you come and follow me?’ by the Iona Community) along with a contribution by the Hall Family Quartet will help our souls to sing. And three passages of scripture centred on ‘trees’ will speak of God’s grace, from the Abram and Sarai under the oaks of Mamre hearing three strangers declare that they would have a child (Genesis 18:1-15) to the story of Zacchaeus climbing a sycamore tree to see Jesus (Luke 19:1-10).

The service will be available online just after 10:15 a.m. at https://youtu.be/V_uy7wSvGi0. Recordings of previous services can be found at our Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzEy41z3sqfRm8X_lLfKGUA 

You are invited to have a look at the printed Order of Service below, and the announcements, including several online opportunities for Christian growth. These include two studies and a series of joint online services of worship during Lent.

May the grace of Christ be with you! 

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Sunday Jan. 24, 10:30 a.m. – Embracing Grace 3) Marked, for Life

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‘Cain’ (c. 1899) E. Roscoe Mullins

 

‘The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.’
These words from Lamentations will greet us this Sunday morning, words that we need to hear when we feel the despair portrayed in this statute, words that can reanimate and renew our lives, words that point us to the fullness of the grace of God we are exploring these weeks of Epiphany.

We may not be able to gather together in the sanctuary this Sunday, but we will begin this week together in praise of God. Classic hymns (from ‘New every morning is the love’ to ‘God moves in a mysterious way’ and ‘You that know the Lord is gracious’) along with a contribution by the Hall Family Quartet will help our souls to sing. And three passages of scripture will speak of God’s grace, from the mark of Cain that preserves life even for the life-taker (Genesis 4) to Paul’s thanksgiving that in Christ … ‘we do not lose heart (for) our inner nature is being renewed day by day’ (2 Corinthians 4).

The service will be available online just after 10:15 a.m. at https://youtu.be/lTh72vYqPy0. Recordings of previous services can be found at our Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzEy41z3sqfRm8X_lLfKGUA 

You are invited to have a look at the printed Order of Service below, and the announcements, including several online opportunities for Christian growth. These include two services celebrating the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, one Sunday afternoon and another early Monday morning.

May the grace of Christ be with you! 

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Sunday Jan. 17, 10:30 a.m. – Embracing Grace 2) in Creation

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Coming from Evening Church (1830) by Samuel Palmer (1805-1881)

Samuel Palmer was deeply moved by the seven years he spent as a young man living and painting in rural Kent, England. His canvases were not critically appreciated at the time, and at his death his son burned those that remained to save the family name from ‘humiliation’. 

But since the middle of the twentieth century, Palmer’s early works that survived have begun to be treasured. Their sepia tones speak of a mysterious realm of earth infused with the divine. I like this painting in particular – the people leaving one sanctuary of brick to return to life in another, that of creation. It all speaks of grace, which is the theme of the sermons this Epiphany.

We may not be able to gather together in the sanctuary this Sunday, but we will begin this week together in worship! The service will be available online just after 10:15 a.m. at https://youtu.be/3GkCs0Swoug

Recordings of previous services can be found at our Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzEy41z3sqfRm8X_lLfKGUA 

Our service of worship will be available Sunday morning by 10:15 a.m. at a link that you will find here.

You are invited to have a look at the printed Order of Service below, and the announcements, including several online opportunities for Christian growth.

May the grace of Christ be with you!

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