This Week at St. Andrew's

We are experiencing a heartwarming level of ticket sales for the Music of Mardi Gras Jazz Concert being held on Sunday, February 14th at 7:00 p.m. to benefit the PWS&D Haitian Earthquake Relief Fund and our 88 Keys grand piano campaign. While we have discontinued website-based sales of tickets for the Pancake Dinner being held at 5:30 p.m., you may still purchase tickets to the Pancake Dinner & Jazz Concert package at Bide-a-Wee Coffee Hour on Sunday, or you may reserve tickets by calling the church.

Tickets for the concert will be available at the door and online at: www.standrewstoronto.org/jazz

"24 Hours that Changed the World"

Lenten Midweek Meditations

Wednesdays from February 17 - March 31, 2010

Please plan to join us on Wednesdays at noon during the season of Lent for our annual Lenten Midweek Meditation series. A number of powerful guest preachers will be joining us to help us to reflect on the important events in the last 24 hours of Jesus' life.

Our weekly meditations begin at 12:00 pm with a short organ recital; the presentations are offered from 12:15 - 12:45 pm, and everyone is invited to share together in a light lunch following the meditations.

All are welcome!

We will be holding an orientation meeting tonight, Wednesday, February 3rd, at 7:00 p.m. in the Board Room for those who are interested in becoming members of the St. Andrew's congregation. The group will discuss what it means to be a Christian, a Presbyterian, and a member of St. Andrew's Church.

New members will be received on Sunday, February 21st. If you are interested in becoming a member, or in learning more about life at St. Andrew's, please contact Rev. Ingram, one of the Elders or Judy Neal in the church office.

As noted in previous editions of "This Week at St. Andrew's", there is a wise and friendly chap who sells one of the street newspapers on the corner of King and University, named John Singh. Every week, John prepares a little devotional thought that he kindly shares with people who are passing by. The following is this week's handout:

Jesus used the metaphor of fruit to give us the proper criteria for judging. "By their fruits you will know them". We are to judge people (including ourselves) by the quality of fruit they produce. This fruit cannot be judged by earthly values, such as how good we look. It must be judged by heavenly values -- the fruit of the Spirit produced within us - love, joy, peace (Galatians 5:22).

Our tendency is to judge by appearance. But God judges by what we produce, and so should we.

The Compassionate Hearts Gala, supporting the Heath and Dental Clinic at Evangel Hall Mission, is being held in the Imperial Ballroom, Fairmont Royal York Hotel, 100 Front Street West. The evening begins at 6 PM; dinner at 7 PM with a live band and dancing to follow. Tickets are $150 per person, all proceeds will go towards the operating costs of our clinic.

For guests who prefer to stay overnight, the Fairmont Royal York Hotel has generously offered a special room rate of $149 for those attending the Compassionate Hearts Gala. To take advantage of this rate please call 1-800-441-1414 and mention that you will be attending the Compassionate Hearts Gala in support of Evangel Hall Mission, or give the operator our group code EVAN0210. Please note that our group code can also be used for bookings made online.

In the interest of environmental stewardship and postage costs, we are now making our congregational newsletter, Catalyst, as well as announcements of upcoming educational events, available by email. Many people have already signed up and have received their first electronic, full-colour issue of Catalyst.

To 'sign up' for this online Catalyst, please send an email to catalyst@standrewstoronto.org and be sure to include your name in the email in case your email address does not include your name!

To receive electronic notification of Christian Education events such as Supper Seminars, Sunday Forums and seasonal noontime meditation series, please send an email to education@standrewstoronto.org. Again, please include your name in the body of the email.

Have you ever wanted to visit an elderly friend or relative in a retirement or nursing home, but have been hesitant out of a fear that you will do or say the wrong thing?

In the coming months, St. Andrew's will be establishing a "Friendly Visitors" programme in order to strengthen our connections as a congregation, particularly with those who cannot regularly join us because of a decline in health or mobility.

On Wednesday March 3, 2010 at 7:00 pm, the Rev. Don Matheson, Chaplain at the Belmont House Senior's Home, will be joining for an evening workshop which will seek to address and help all of us to better visitors and caregivers for those in troubling times. There is no cost for attendance at this interactive and informative workshop, and all are welcome.

As the date draws closer, we will be asking people to indicate their intentions to attend so that we can make the necessary provisions for refreshments.

The "Alpha" course is a ten-week interactive introduction to the meaning of the Christian faith, and has been very successful in helping those with little or no religious or spiritual background to explore their questions about the meaning of faith.

This particular version of the Alpha course is being intentionally developed for young people between 20 and 40. The meetings, which begin on February 16th, will take place on Tuesdays from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the "Irish Family Room" at Fionn MacCool's Irish Pub on Adelaide just east of University. For more information, please visit www.alphatoronto.ca/pub

It was a quiet evening Monday night with an unusually low number of guests. 201 people came through our doors, with the last arriving at about 8:40 pm. I know 201 seems like a lot of people, but that is only a 5% increase over last year and not our usual 25-30% increases.

We had a wonderful meal for them: Tomato Soup, Corned Beef (Brisket) and cabbage served with mashed potatoes and peas, Vegetarian was pasta with mushrooms, zucchini, spinach and tomato. Dessert was apple crisp with whip cream.

Along with the dinner we served a Soda Bread, home made by Maureen's chef of the day, her stepmother. She made 21 loaves of this special bread and sent it to OOTC to be served with our typically Irish dinner. Our thanks go out to this generous lady.

Our guests' comments were, as usual, very good. One guest proclaimed "Wow brisket, that's really good". Another saying the "price was right". Other comments were exceptional, wonderful and yet another guest proclaiming that the pasta was the best in downtown Toronto.

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.

Tickets for our 180th Anniversary Dinner, which is being held on Saturday, March 6th at the Delta Chelsea Hotel, will be available during Coffee Hour after worship until February 28th.

Our guest speaker will be the Rev. Dr. Cameron Brett, former Senior Minister at St. Andrew's.

Tickets are $50 each. The reception starts at 6:00 p.m., and the dinner begins at 7:30. Be sure to get your tickets early for this very popular event!

Our gifts to Presbyterians Sharing... help International Ministries equip leaders to share the gospel in Ghana and Malawi. Three Presbyterian Church of Ghana lay training centres - Ramsayer, Nsaba and Tamale � each receive annual grants of $5,000. Zomba Theological College in Malawi, an ecumenical seminary that trains ministers for the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian, receives $10,000 each year. Theological Education by Extension (TEEM) in Malawi, which provides theological education for lay people and clergy in remote areas, receives $3,000 yearly. Our gifts are helping ministers and lay leaders to share the good news in Ghana and Malawi. Let us pray for teachers and students in theological schools around the world.

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!