This Week at St. Andrew's

This Coming Sunday

Sunday, January 3, 2010

10:30 a.m.

Second Sunday after Christmas

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Psalm 147

Ephesians 1:3-14

John 1:10-18

Reader

David Wishart

Greeting Elder

Mary Maiden

We have had a fantastic year at the church, in what has been a challenging time. Not only were we able to complete the West Tower Renovation project, but we were blessed with a generous bequest which helped with these extraordinary costs.

However, we are still slightly below our targeted income from congregational givings -- but there is still time to make up the difference!

To be eligible for a 2009 official charitable donation receipt, donations must be received by the church in 2009, i.e. TODAY! St. Andrew�s will be required to retain the envelope in which the donation came to be able to prove via the cancellation date stamp that the donation was received on or before December 31, 2009.

However, if you would like to make an online donation today, they can be received by clicking on the following link. Thanks for your support!

The church offices will close at noon on New Year�s Eve and will reopen at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, January 4, 2010.

The annual Epiphany Pot Luck Lunch will be held on Sunday January 10, 2010. There will be sign-up sheets in the Great Hall following the service this Sunday, so you can choose what you want to bring -- main dish, salad or dessert. Please bring your contributions to the kitchen by 10:30 am, especially if they need to be cooked or re-heated.

The Sunday Morning Bible Study group will next meet on Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 9:30 am.

The deadline for submitting articles and information items for the February issue of Catalyst is Sunday, January 10, 2010. Please be sure to let the editors know about important milestones in the lives of your family members (births, deaths, marriages, special achievements, etc.) so they can be included. Kindly email your items to the editors (Kristen Stout at kwmathewson@rogers.com and Jane Martin at janemartin@pagemartin.com).

Joe-Anne Roberts, who writes a wonderful weekly summary about each Monday night's dinner, reports:

Menu: Tomato Soup, Meat Pies with gravy, Squash, Peas, Baked Potato.

Vegetarian: Vegetable Lasagna

Dessert: Banana with Ice Cream and Caramilk Sauce.

We served 222 guests and we, on the door, thought there must be a full moon. I looked at my watch at one point expecting it to be after 8:00 pm, and it was only 7:20pm at which point close to 200 people had come in.

We made Jocelyn's day, with our menu, as she cheered and said it was her favourite meal. We also made Jeannie's day, as when she came through the door we were able to hand her the photos our Christmas card volunteers had taken of her and John. So thank you to those volunteers who made this possible.

However, we also disappointed Jeannie as she arrive too late to get a boutique ticket, and thought last call would be too late to get anything.

The comments on the food were as usual, very favourable. "Thanks for the amazing meal". "Real good dinner." George very kindly telling us we were "doing a real good job here". The soup was a great hit, just not enough of it as everyone wanted more. Liz's comments were: "The soup was superb. The meat pies, okay. The baked potato was not quite cooked enough. The peas cooked to perfection." All in all she gave us a B+ almost an A. One chap told us the food was good and he enjoyed the floor show. Being on the door we are not quite aware of what that was, but I heard later that one of our guests started playing the harmonica and preaching loudly. He had to be calmed down as he was upsetting some of the other guests. We had one inebriated gentleman who was spoken to and given a second chance to stay. He did so and behaved himself for the rest of the evening.

Thanks to all the volunteers who work in the boutique. Things are so controlled in there now that we don't get any stories from them anymore�.

Well, that is a day in the life of St. Andrew's OOTC. We look forward to seeing you all next week when the adventure continues.

Have a Happy and Safe New Year all.

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.

CANADA: Presbytery of East Toronto...Our gifts to Presbyterians Sharing support the Ecumenical Chaplaincy at the University of Toronto.

Heather Paton, a student at Knox College who volunteers with the chaplaincy, says that life for students can be very stressful and overwhelming. �People may not have friendships, and they can be isolated from their home congregations. They need to find a place to connect in terms of their spiritual life and their faith. I think the chaplaincy provides a good starting point for that - it can connect people with different opportunities for worship and faith community.� Chaplain Ralph Wushke says, �This is an important ministry and an important opportunity for national churches to be in ministry with students who either are the church today or to some degree can still become the church today as they seek out their spiritual paths.� Let us pray for the Ecumenical Chaplaincy at U of T and for the thirteen other University chaplaincies supported by Presbyterians Sharing.