St. Mark's, February 27th, 2011

Unto us all a child is born!

Proud Grandpa!

Mom, Sarah with Katherine Joan and grandmother, Sally.

Thanks Margie for the great work you are doing accompanying our choir while Al is away!

New Board for St. Mark's

St. Mark’s United Church Congregational Board
February 2011 - February 2012

St. Mark’s Nominating Committee
Camille Chapman, Hayward Hollett, Barb MacIntyre, June Oliver

Executive
Past-Chairperson . . . . . . . . . . Annabel Butts…625-0741
Chairperson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Malcolm Matheson…625-3891
Vice-chairperson . . . . . . . . . . Dave Chapman…787-2610
Secretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ruth MacRae...625-2424
Treasurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gladys Knight…625-2707

Worship & Pastoral Care
Annabel Butts
Lucille Evans
Vida Hood
Marie Horton
Mary MacIver
Julia MacQuarrie
Archie Noseworthy

Trustees & Finance
Clark Brander
Dave Chapman
Ingram Fowlie
Hayward Hollett
Gladys Knight Treasurer
Angus MacRae
Terry Morrison
Andy Palmer

Christian Education
Camille Chapman
Bonnie Dawson
Heather Hart
Barb LeLacheur
Brenda MacInnis
Joyce Snair

Mission and Outreach
Lorna Harvey
Ruth Laskey
Beverley MacInnis
Barb MacIntyre
Irene MacIsaac
Lana MacLean
Dorothy MacAskill

Presbytery Representatives
Irene MacIsaac
Julia MacQuarrie

ST. DAVID’S ANNOUNCEMENTS

PLEASE NOTE: The deadline for information for the bulletin is twelve noon on Thursday.

Sunday, February 27th– Annual Congregational Meeting following Worship Service. Lunch available.

St. David’s U.C.W. will be distributing Lenten Cards to the congregation again this year. We ask that you help us meet our Mission & Service commitment by adding a coin to the card each day during Lent and returning it on Palm Sunday or Easter Sunday. The Sunday School children are invited to participate in the Sock It To M & S which was explained by Rev. Lockhart and by Karen Wagar in Misison Moment 2 weeks ago. If you have any questions about Sock It To M & S please contact Lisa Rhynold or Susan MacKinnon

March 8th – 4:30-6:00 p.m. – Pancake Supper at St. David’s. Free-will offering. Money goes to M & S Fund.

ST. MARK’S ANNOUNCEMENTS

Sock it to M & S Fill your “sock” for the M & S Party on Palm Sunday, April 17.

The deadline for information for the bulletin is twelve noon on Thursday. No exceptions.

The Youth Group will be held the first Sunday of every month from 7 - 8 p.m. in the St. Mark’s Church Hall. Please Contact Heather Hart 625-0031 for more information.

Unto us a child has been born:

Unto Us a Child is Born
On Monday evening, February 21st at 9:45 p.m., God broke into in our life in a new way with the birth of a granddaughter, born to Sarah and Trevor Boudreau. She will be known as Katherine Joan and carry the name of her maternal great, great grandmother Katherine Bearman and her great grandmother Joan McElroy.

Into Katherine Joan, God has breathed the breath of life. She is, as every child is, one of a kind. She is a unique creation of God. She is made in the image of God. Through her God blesses our world.

As a baby, she has begun to fulfill her high calling as a child of God. Through her, God is inviting us to experience the joy of loving, loving those who are helpless. Left alone, she would die. Katherine is that helpless.

As a baby, less than 24 hours old, all of her senses are at work taking in information about the world around her. At this stage, it seems that all she does is nurse, poop, pee and cry. Yet, she is learning from us and we are starting to learn from her.

She has started her journey of faith. Can she trust us to care for her? Can she trust we will help her grow in body, in wisdom and in faith? While Sarah and Trevor may have a lead responsibility in caring for Katherine, they do not have sole responsibility. She has been born into the world as a citizen of the world. She has also been born into the church. Collectively we all have a responsibility to look after her. Collectively we have a responsibility to care for every child born into the world.

It seems to me that all too often we are like the priests and the Levites in Jesus parable of the Good Samaritan. We pass by on the other side of the road when it comes to caring for many of the children born into our world.

We allow children and their parents to live in poverty while celebrities and heads of companies are granted multimillion dollars salaries. We look for ways to cut expenses in education while building bigger prisons knowing that those who most often come into conflict with the law have poor social skills and education. We worry about declining membership and participation in the life of the church but seldom ask what kind of role models we are as a follower of Jesus Christ. We seldom ask: "What do we need to do to fulfill Jesus’ commandment to make disciples in the 21st century?" It is easier to place that responsibility on someone else.

Holding Katherine Joan, I am aware my time with her will be limited. In time, the breath of life, God gave to me will return to God. Over time our roles in life will change. In time I will need to be held by Katherine or by a child who is not of my generation. It is the way in which God has designed the universe. We receive and give and receive.

Unto us a child has been given. This week God has given our world thousands of children. It is my prayer we will receive each child as a gift and that we will live up to our high calling as a servant of God to help each and every child grow in body, wisdom and in faith.

St. David's Announcement

February 27th – Annual Congregational Meeting following Worship Service. Lunch available.

St. Mark's Announcements

St. Mark's Christian Education Committee will have a meeting in the parlour after church on Sunday, February 20th.

Feb 22nd – Congregational Board Meeting: 6:30 p.m. executive; 7:00 p.m. committees; 8:00 p.m. combined board

The Youth Group meets on the first Sunday of every month from 7-8 pm in the St. Mark’s Church Hall. Please Contact Heather Hart at 625-0031 for more information

The voice we do not always hear.

The voice we do not always hear

As I sit to write this week's blog, it would seem Mother Nature has found here voice in the wind that whips the snow across the fields and through the streets of Port Hawkesbury and Port Hastings.

The people of Egypt have found their voice. As events have been unfolding in Egypt, I have been thinking about the struggle that took place centuries ago between Pharaoh and Hebrew people in the book of Exodus. God said to Moses: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry…I know their suffering…I have come to deliver them. …I send you to Pharaoh and I will be with you. (Exodus 3:7-11)

I wonder, is the invisible and mysterious hand of God at work, once again, in the countless numbers of men and women who have taken to the street in protest and a call for a regime change?

It is worth noting that Moses, Aaron, Miriam and the Hebrew slaves suffered many setbacks before they were able to get out from under their harsh taskmasters. Those who are in power never let go of their positions or their privileges without a struggle. “But Pharaoh, “Who is the Lord, that I should heed him and let Israel go?” (Exodus 5:2) Maybe, just maybe, during these past two weeks we have been witness to a “parting of the sea” once again in Egypt (Ex. 14). We pray for the people of Egypt as they journey to a good and broad place where everyone and not just the few are able to enjoy “milk and honey”.

Closer to home, February is Black History month in Canada. Black History Month was established to give voice to the experience of Black people in their long historic and continuing struggle to be recognized as valued partners in the building of this country.

As a student in high school and university, I loved reading Canadian History. I now realized how selective, narrow and limited my reading was. For example, I learned that Champlain is credited as being the first European to explore this country. But what I failed to learn was that Mathieu Da Costa, a free black man acted as an interpreter between the Mik’maq and the French. Which raises the question, did Da Costa explore this region and learn the local language before the French arrived? Why do we remember and honour Champlain and not Da Costa?

I failed to learn that slavery was a legal institution in Canada from 1628-1793 when The Abolition Act made a safe haven for blacks in Upper Canada. Or that Oliver Le Jeune was brought from Africa and given the name of his owner a priest in 1628. Or that between 1800 and 1865 approximately 20,000 blacks escaped to Canada from the United States via the underground railway. Or that the land allocated for black settlers in Nova Scotia was by design swampy, barren and unproductive thus forcing blacks to become a source of cheap labor in the Province. Why were these events left out in my texts books or why did I fail to remember them if they were included?

While I may have learned that Grace Annie Lockhart was the first women in the British Empire to receive a university degree in 1875 from Mt Allison, I did not learn that Rev. William White was first black person to receive a B.A. from Acadia in 1903 and went on to serve as the first and the only black chaplain in the entire British Army during World War I.

“Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint.” (Psalm 61:1) I wonder what other voices, do we fail as a church to hear?

( Bridglal Pachai, “The Nova Scotia Black Experience through the Centuries”, Nimbus Publishing 2007, (29.95) is an excellent introduction to Black History in Nova Scotia. Or simply type in Black History and follow the various links on your computer.)

St. Mark's Congregational Board Meeting canceled

Due to the weather, St. Mark's Congregational Board Meeting which was scheduled to be held tonight (Tuesday, February 15th) Is canceled and has been rescheduled for Tuesday, February 22nd.

Executive: 6:30 p.m.
Committees: 7 p.m.
Combined Board: 8 p.m.

“Finding a voice”

Finding a Voice

It will soon be three weeks since I was asked if I would consider writing for St Mark’s “blogspace”. Without much thought I said yes. Like Peter, the disciple, when I open my mouth I need to consider more carefully the consequences.

Never having written a blog, the next task was to consider what is a blog? How do you write a blog. While I have written many sermons and articles and drafted numerous reports for various committees in and outside the church, from the little research I did on blogs, it would appear blogs are different in nature. They range from being “part journal” to “part rant”. It would seem that ‘blogs” provide a “voice” for an organization or a person.

The question then follows, to what do I want to give a “voice”? Where do I begin? In preparing for weekly worship, I have consistently turned to scripture as a starting place to listen for “God’s voice”.

I have always been intrigued that when Jesus invited Simon Peter and Andrew to come with him he asked them to build on what they already knew how to do –fish. Maybe the lesson in this for me is to start with the skills God has given and use them in new ways.

So for me this “blogspace” will be for me an opportunity to see how I can give expression, voice, to the skills and interests God has given to me in a new way.

In the Psalms, we have a book of prayers and hymns that have been used by Jews and Christians for generations to give voice to their feelings toward God, to praise God and to raise their fist in anger toward God. In the gospels, over and over again Jesus uses the Psalms to give expression to his feelings. From the cross he quotes the Psalms as he cries out in agony, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” (Mk. 15:34)

The Psalms are an excellent resource, which help give “voice” to the feelings we have within-feelings of joy, loneliness, frustration, anger and rage. A voice of joy: “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Ps. 118:24) A voice of hate: “Let burning coals fall on them! Let them be flung into pits, no more to rise!” (Ps. 140:10). A voice of examination: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Ps. 139:23).

So the journey begins- in finding a voice via a blog space.

Bob Lockhart, St Mark’s and St David’s United Church. Feb. 9th, 2011.

ST. DAVID’S ANNOUNCEMENTS

February 27th – Annual Congregational Meeting. Lunch available.

Hall Cleaners for February: Irene Wheaton and Beryl Mac Leod

ST. MARK’S ANNOUNCEMENTS

Feb. 13th – 6:30 p.m. - Annual Congregational Meeting

Feb. 15th – Congregational Board Meeting: 6:30 p.m. executive; 7:00 p.m. committees; 8:00 p.m. combined board

The Youth Group for ages 10 and older meets on the first Sunday of every month from 7-8 pm in the St. Mark’s Church Hall. Please Contact Heather Hart at 625-0031 for more information

St. David's Annual Congregation Meeting
Sunday, February 27th after the Church Service
Lunch is available

St. Mark's Annual Congregation Meeting
Sunday, February 13th at 6:30 p.m.