Thursday, November 26, 2009

1)  Jazz Vespers this Sunday!

The second "Jazz Vespers" service will be taking place at St. Andrew's Church on Sunday November 29th at 4:30 pm. 

The theme for this Sunday's service will be "A Note of Hope" and will offer us a wonderful way to begin the Advent season.  Please plan to be here -- and bring your friends!

For more information, please visit www.standrewstoronto.org/jazz

2) Christmas Pageant & White Gift Sunday
 

The St. Andrew's Christmas Pageant will take place during the worship service on Sunday, December 6th.  This is a very special event in the season, and a wonderful chance for our children to shine.  All children in the congregation are welcome to participate!  Rehearsals will take place on Sunday, November 29, following the service, and on Saturday, December 5th, beginning at 9 a.m.  If you have not already confirmed your child's participation or if you would like to volunteer to help out, please contact Elizabeth Forster at elizabeth.forster@cbc.ca.  Please note that the nursery will not be open during the pageant.

Sunday, December 6 (the same Sunday as the Christmas Pageant) will be our annual White Gift Sunday.  Traditionally, members give items for Christmas gifts for our Out of the Cold guests:  gloves, underwear, toiletries, etc.  Thank you for support for this outreach initiative.

3)  Out of the Cold - weekly update

Joe Anne Roberts, who writes a weekly summary about each Monday night's dinner, said in this week's email that: 

The final count last night was 240.  (Last year at this time was 188, but the cheques were out.)  We had 145 people through the doors in the first 10 minutes and had to stop them from coming in so that dinner could be served. We are very fortunate that we are having such an extended Fall.  When the weather turns cold, it won’t be so pleasant standing outside.

Well on to the important part.  What was the dinner like?  Well one guest left quite quickly saying; “I'm leaving, I don't like stew".  However, those that did stay enjoyed the meal saying it was awesome, delicious, fantastic, wonderful!  Need I go on?  One of our guests, Mark, rubbing his stomach and looking very satisfied, said "we live in a good country".

 Mike, giving out the boutique tickets, witnessed a guest answering his telephone, listening, and simply answering "no".  He turned to Mike and said "Can you imagine?  They wanted me to come into work right now.  There is no way I am going to miss out on the good dinner at St. Andrew's!" And there was Joseph, who quietly asked if he was still eligible to come as he now was working.  (He was assured he was welcome.)

Liz, enjoyed the dinner so much she said she was going home to write her food critique column.

Oh yes, I forgot.  The comments on the soup were excellent as well.  And one of the comments was that they liked the fact that last week's Chicken Rice and this week's Corn Chowder were not pureed.

All in all, another successful evening!

Financial donations to support the program are always welcome, and can be sent to the church office.  Please make cheques payable to "St. Andrew's Church" and show "Out of the Cold" in the notation line.   St. Andrew’s covers all administration costs and all financial donations go directly toward the purchase of food and supplies for the program.  

For information about corporate participation please speak to the "Out of the Cold" Coordinator Lorraine Irvine.    Please feel free to share information about the "Out of the Cold" programme in your workplaces if there are requests for suggestions about corporate charity donations.

If you would like to donate new or used warm winter clothing, books (not romance novels, please) or magazines, please bring the items to the church or contact Judy Neal in the church office.

4)  Advent Noon Meditations

The Rev. Dr. George Vais has arranged for three incredibly gifted speakers to join us for this year's Advent Noon Meditations, which focus on the theme of "Peace on Earth".  The Noon Meditations will be held on three consecutive Wednesdays, starting on December 2nd. 

If you're in the heart of the city at noon on these special Wednesdays, please plan to join us for an organ recital by our Director of Music Emeritus, Douglas Bodle, starting at 12 noon, meditations starting at 12:15, and sandwiches in the board room at 12:45.

This year's speakers, and their topics, are:

- December 2:  Peace is Desired, The Rev. A. Harvey Self, Moderator, the Presbyterian Church in Canada

- December 9:  Peace is Needed, The Rev. Dr. Anne Simmonds, Adjunct Faculty at Emmanuel College

- December 16:  Peace is Offered, The Rev. Dr. Malcolm Sinclair, Metropolitan United Church, Toronto.

5)  SAGA Meeting - November 27

This is SAGA's last regular meeting in a year ending with a single digit.  It has been 10 years since the millennium bug scare.  What have you learned in the last 10 years?  Maybe we can share one or two events that happened in the last year that indicated that we are indeed older and wiser!  Everyone is welcome...we gather at 5:45 p.m. in the Great Hall, have a pot luck dinner at 6:30 and discussion begins at 7:30 p.m.

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6) St. Andrew's Book Club - Thursday December 3, 2009 - "Through Black Spruce" by Joseph Boyden

The next meeting of the St. Andrew's Book Club will take place on Thursday December 3, 2009 at 7:00 pm.  The book for discussion will be Joseph Boyden's recent novel "Through Black Spruce", which won the 2008 Giller Prize.  The book is set in Northern Ontario, the streets of Toronto and the streets of Montreal. 

This will be the fifth meeting of the Book Club, which first met in the early part of 2009.  Since then, we have enjoyed a number of thoughtful, engaged and wonderful conversations.  All are welcome!

7)  St. Jamestown Ecumenical Coalition - Volunteer Opportunity

St. Andrew's Session recently approved a $2,500 grant from our Mission and Outreach budget to the St. Jamestown Ecumenical Coalition.  In response, Rosedale Presbyterian Church, a member of the Coalition, has sent the following message:

Volunteer Opportunity:   Thank you to the Session and congregation of St. Andrew's from Rosedale Presbyterian for your generous donation to the work of The St. Jamestown Ecumenical Coalition.  We are in the midst of starting a new initiative in the neighbourhood.  Beginning in November on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6-8 p.m. we will be offering a high school program using space donated by Rose Avenue Public School.  Recreational games will be held in the gym and homework space will be provided in a classroom, and we need you to make it a success.  We are looking for volunteer tutors who would be able to help in any subject at the high school level.  If you enjoy working with teens and building relationships we would love to talk to you.  If you are interested and would like to discuss the possibility of volunteering, contact Mike Burns at 416-925-3468 or at outreach@rpcc.ca.

8) The Annual Rugby Carol Service at St. Andrew's - December 18, 2009

On Friday December 18 2009 from 7:30 – 9:00 pm, the 36^th Annual Rugby Carol Service will be taking place at the church.  For years, members of one of the local Rugby leagues, and their families have been having the caroling evening at St. Andrew’s and have “passed a hat” for the Out of the Cold programme.  It is great evening – all the old great Christmas carols sung with gusto in a relaxed and fun atmosphere.

This year, it is our intention to begin a new tradition of having a great participation from the people of St. Andrew's as well.   Arrangements are being made for childcare for kids up to age 4 – and kids of all ages are welcome to join in the caroling.   Every year, there are a few kids from the Rugby community and they are invited to join in the caroling with everyone else.

One of the reasons why this would be such a great evening for the kids is because it will give them a chance to hear, learn and sing many of the old Christmas carols that we do not have a chance to gather to sing in many other contexts.  Please plan to be here -- and bring your friends and family members.

9)  Catalyst Newsletter

The Advent & Christmas issue of the Catalyst newsletter will be distributed to the congregation on Sunday, November 29th.  If you are here on Sunday, please pick up your copy from the table in the narthex or in the Great Hall.  Copies not picked up will be mailed on Monday.

10) Christmas Decorations for the Sanctuary

The co-conveners of the Flower Committee, Ruth Dicerni and Beverly Graham, have already started planning this year's holiday decorations for the sanctuary.  Ruth has already placed two beautiful decorative urns at the top of the steps at the front entrance.  On December 1st Ruth and Beverly and the rest of the decorating team will be placing lovely Christmas wreaths and evergreen garlands on the balcony railings, and Jim Callan and Arnaldo Dos Santos will be erecting the Christmas tree, so the sanctuary will be all decked out in time for the Christmas Pageant.  Closer to Christmas a mass of beautiful fresh poinsettias will be arranged in the chancel.

Once again we ask for your generous donations to the flower fund so that we can continue our tradition of beautiful holiday decorations in the sanctuary.   You may specify that your donations are in memory of loved ones, and, if you wish, we will show their names in our Christmas bulletins.  Look for the donation envelope in the bulletins for the next three weeks.

11)  Presbyterians Sharing...  in the Presbytery of Northern Saskatchewan

12) Group Discount Rates for the ROM Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit

We are organizing a group to take a self-guided tour of the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit on Sunday, December 12th.  The group will qualify for the group discount ticket prices.  If you are interested in attending, please contact Kristen Stout at kwmathewson@rogers.com.

This very special exhibit runs until January 3, 2010.  If you can't join our group but would like to go at a different time, you may obtain the discount price for 1-10 tickets by purchasing online with your credit card.     For details click here, please see the following:

1) Go to: http://www.rom.on.ca/visit/group/index.php

2) Click on the button for "Buy your tickets online"

3) In the "Corporate Clients" box, click "Buy Now"

4) Select "Dead Sea Scrolls + General Admission"

5) Choose your date and time

6) For the "promo code", enter STANDREWS and click submit

7) At the next screen (which should display the discount prices), select your tickets

8) Submit your credit card information, and print your tickets

Enjoy the show!

13)  Online Donations

We are pleased to announce that donations to the Church, and to ministries such as the 'Out of the Cold' programme, can be made online.  To learn more, please click on the button below!