Notices for the Week of August 13th - 19th

  Notices for the Week of August 13th -  19th

4th Annual Corn Roast & BBQ spearheaded by the Lewis family (Dino, Pat, Sabrina & Nadine) will be on Saturday Aug. 26th from 5 - 7pm. Tickets of $10 per person to enjoy your 1st plate (and for those with a hearty appetite 2nd plate $5) are available today from Dino. Tickets include burgers, roasted corn, salads & dessert. Cash bar serving wine and beer, all with a background of music provided.  Bring your friends!  

Yard Sale and Textile Drive – The Summer Yard Sale will take place here at St. Helen’s next Saturday, August 19th from 9am to 2pm.  There will be someone here at the church on Friday, August 18th to receive your good and useable items for the sale. In addition, we will have a textile drive, so if you have any clothing, coats, shoes, and all those kinds of items please bring those along as well.  They will be picked up on Sunday, August 20th after the Sunday service.   Please speak with People’s Warden, Fil Sotana or with Kelly Foulds for more information.  

Christmas Bazaar - Yes, that's right you heard it correctly.The date has been set for Saturday, November 25th for this years Bazaar.  Jams, jellies, pickles, and preserves are needed for this.  There will be a focus on Blackberries this year.  If you need jars or can supply jars, please speak with Jacquie Stinson.  

Readings for Next Sunday, August 20th Pentecost 11
Genesis 45:1-15;
Psalm 133;
Romans 11:1-2A, 29-32;
Matthew 15:21-28  

PWRDF Please remember to donate to the Fire Relief fund through PWRDF.   

Holy Days and Commemorations this Week Jeremy Taylor 13 August
Bishop of Down and Connor, Spiritual Teacher, 1667 - Memorial In the middle of the seventeenth century the Church of England suffered greatly from civil war and revolution, and many of its people sought guides who could help them find spiritual order in their own lives. Today we remember the finest of these Anglican spiritual teachers, a bishop named Jeremy Taylor.  Almost all of Taylor's writings were designed to help people to develop and keep a rule of spiritual practice. He understood how hard such a task can be, and he did not seek to make it seem easier than it is. He taught that Christians have a fearsome personal responsibility for choosing the way of Christ in all their actions. He also believed that holiness involved training in the deeper and more difficult rule of love” love for God in prayer and love for other humans in the works of everyday life. In the end, Taylor's strictness as a spiritual teacher had a purpose of joy such joy as can be tasted only by those who accept its cost and practise its duties.  

Saint Mary the Virgin 15 August - Holy Day Mary is honoured because she was the Mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and because the Gospels testify that she was a virgin when she conceived and gave him birth. Their witness to such a wonder has generated much of the devotion that is paid to her. But it is not the only reason, for the evangelists also portray her as the archetype of all the people of God and the person who leads their praises of the Almighty.  In Luke's account of the Annunciation, Mary was perplexed by the meaning of God's word to her and yet chose to accept the wondrous service which it ordained her to accomplish. After the birth of her son, Mary continued to be puzzled whenever she met with a further sign of his divine origin or with hints of what he was meant to do. But she was always patient in her puzzlement; in Luke's words, Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.  The fruit of her pondering may be reflected in the fact that all the evangelists say that she followed her son from Galilee to Jerusalem and stood with the small company of women who witnessed his crucifixion. The Book of Acts adds that, after the resurrection, she shared in the disciples community of prayer and watched with them for the corning of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  An ancient tradition testifies that Mary was taken up in glory as soon as she died, and Christian devotion has never begrudged her the place of highest honour in the presence of God. It has delighted in the conviction that she who responded to God's perplexing call with praise must already enjoy the reward of faith and that she who gave the Son of God his human life has received all the fullness of the eternal life which he was born to give.  

Holy Women of the Old Testament 16 August - Memorial When the Church honours the Blessed Virgin Mary, it is often inclined to view her in isolation and to forget that she was a Hebrew woman. The evangelists, especially Saint Luke, did not make this mistake, but saw her in the light of a long line of women mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures. Sarah, whose husband was Abraham; Miriam, the sister of Moses; Deborah, one of the Judges of Israel; Hannah, the mother of Samuel; Ruth, the legendary grandmother of King David; Bathsheba, the wife of David and the mother of Solomon; the widow of Zara ephath, who trusted the prophet Elijah and received mercy in the time of her grief; and the mother of the Maccabean martyrs, who encouraged them to keep faith with God and perished with them because she would not join in pagan sacrifices.  These women all had one thing in common: they were people who first appear as living on the edges of their society. For instance, Sarah and Hannah suffered the reproach of being childless in a culture which counted a woman's worth by the number of children she bore; while Ruth, Bathsheba, and the widow of Zara ephath were all foreigners in Israel, women from other nations which worshipped other gods. But all became the vessels of God's mercy and crucial symbols of the salvation that God sought to make for Israel. Indeed, the very fact that they came from the edges of society made them bearers of Israel's truth before God. For Israel itself was a society on the edges of the world, a nation easily scorned by the more powerful kingdoms round about, repeatedly invaded and oppressed. What set Israel apart was, of course, its covenant with the one true God and its tenacity in faithfulness to this covenant. Thus, the holy women of the Old Testament symbolized Israel's faithfulness to God in a hostile world. For just as each was vindicated for her faith in the God of Israel, so they became models of Israel's vocation and living testimonies to the vindicating power of God. That is why we specially remember these holy women today.  

John Stuart 17 August Priest, Missionary among the Mohawks, 1811 Commemoration
Today we honour the life and labours of John Stuart, Anglican missionary among the Mohawks and the first resident priest in Upper Canada, who died in 1811. Stuart was born in Pennsylvania and raised a Presbyterian, but entered the Church of England while at college and was ordained to the Anglican priesthood in 1770. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel assigned him to its mission in northern New York, where he quickly won the trust and affection of the Mohawk people. Six years later he and his native flock were overtaken by the American Revolution, and Stuart had a large part in keeping the Mohawks loyal to the British Crown. As a result he suffered many indignities at the hands of the rebels and in 1781 he fled to Canada with his family. Four years later he settled at Kingston, because he was chaplain to the regiment stationed there and it was near a band of loyalist Mohawks. In due course he also became rector of the Anglican parish in Kingston, though for many years, as the only priest in Upper Canada, his pastoral responsibilities extended as far west as Niagara. Even after other Anglican priests came into the province, Stuart still rode a circuit of two hundred miles several times a year, ministering the gospel among the Mohawks and in the scattered Loyalist settlements round about. His preaching was plain and, as the saying goes, straight from the heart; and he was ready to celebrate in the roughest conditions when he saw that the people truly desired the Word of God and the sacraments of the Church. He once wrote that all he wanted was “to lead a good life, preach sound doctrine, and to be industrious and zealous in the discharge of the functions of an honest and upright clergyman.” He more than surpassed this modest ambition, so that today we may join his contemporaries in hailing John Stuart as the father of the Episcopal Church in Upper Canada.