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Sunday, November 6th we are Celebrating All Saints Sunday

Parish Council and Executive  Council meets Tuesday, November 15th at 7pm in the rector’s office.  Executive meets this Wednesday, November 8th at 7:30pm in the rector’s office.  

Tri-Parish Quiet Morning – In preparation for Advent and Christmas, a quiet morning will be held for the 3 parishes of St. Helen, Epiphany, and St. Michael on Saturday, November 19th at St. Michael’s.  The quiet day leader will be the Venerable Stephen Rowe, rector of the Church of the Epiphany.  Arrival time is 9:30am for coffee. The program will run from 10am to 12:30pm.  So we can plan for the numbers, if you are planning to go, please speak with Father Steve or with Fil Sotana.  

Words and Music for Advent and Christmas Last year we had a wonderful response to this service that featured readings and carols sung in a variety of languages of our congregational members.  On Sunday evening, December 4th, we will pray together in word and music as we enter the Advent season to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Christ Child.  We would like to include as many of the languages of those who call St. Helen’s their spiritual home as we reasonably can on that evening.  If you would like to participate, please speak with Father Steve, our choir director, Lynn Turner, or one of the wardens.  

Christmas Bazaar –The big event is on Saturday, November 26th.  Your help is needed.  See the posters, letters out and around or speak with the bazaar coordinator, Lynn Turner to find out how you can help.  Raffle tickets are available from Judy Nicholson.  Lunch tickets are from Wendy Russell.  

Surrey Food Bank – As you all know we at St. Helen’s are trying to make a concerted effort to help the Surrey Food Bank on a very regular basis.  To begin we invite people to make a special effort to bring a donation of food on the Second Sunday of each month.  Of course, you can bring it any Sunday but we would like to make it a focus on the second Sunday.  Next Sunday, November 13th is the second Sunday of November so please bring along items that will be taken to the food bank that week.  Each Sunday, when our offering is brought forward, food items that have been donated will be brought forward at that time as well as the bread, wine, and our financial offerings. Please see the poster in the hall for a list of needed items.  

Mission, Ministry, and Outreach Working Group – In order to build on our work in and around the community, it is important for St. Helen’s to have a small working group to keep us up to date on the needs of the community.  This team of people would be able to see how our faith community could be of help in the neighbourhood.  Are you interested in working on such task group?  It is a great way of turning our prayers into action.  Please speak with Father Steve or one of the wardens.  

Surrey Urban Mission – It was great to have Mike Musgrove the executive director to speak to us last Sunday.  A few of us were able to go along on Thursday this week for the ‘Soup de Jour’ bowl of soup and conversation.  We met up with a few friends of St. Helen’s and are making way in re-establishing a stronger relationship with SUM.  There will be updates of their needs and how we might be able to help.  Mike says these are the immediate needs:-Some to help with pick up and deliveries, especially a Cobb’s Bread pick up on Monday nights. This requires a SUV, mini van or a pickup and can be done on a rotating schedule. -Volunteers on Tuesdays to lovingly interact with our guests and help with lunch service. Perhaps a group of folks that could come in and just sit, share lunch with our guests and hear their stories once a week -Someone with a pickup truck who is available during the day, there are times we need to drive stuff to the dump  

St. Helen’s Refugee Working Group – It has been a few years since our refugee committee has been in operation.  Now is a great time to re-establish this working group as we continue to wait for Esther from the refugee camp on the Burmese-Thai border.  If you are interested in being a part of this working group, please speak with Father Steve or one of the wardens.  

Textile/Clothing Drive We have now received our totals for this which was 1303 lbs of textiles and $156.36 profit to us. In addition to this Fil Sotana took quite a number of bags of winter clothing over to Surrey Urban Mission this week. Thank you to all who made this possible!  

ACW SW Fraser Area Meeting:  On Tuesday, November 15, our ACW will host and welcome the Diocesan ACW Board, the Rev. Sue Foley-Currie, and ACW members from Surrey, Langley, and Delta.  They are pleased to have The Most Rev’d. Archbishop Douglas Hambidge as guest speaker.  

Dates for Your Calendar
Nov 12 – 2pm - Celebration of Life Service for Louis Gatterell
Nov 15 – 7:00pm – Parish Council
Nov 19 – 9:30am – Tri-Parish Quiet Morning at St. Michael’s
Nov 25 – Set up for Christmas Bazaar
Nov 26 – Christmas Bazaar
Dec 4 – 10am – Holy Eucharist – Advent 2              
            7pm – Words and Music for Advent and Christmas
Dec 6 – 7pm Executive meets
Dec 11 – 10am – Holy Eucharist – Advent 3
Dec 13 – 7pm Parish Council
Dec 18 – 10am -Holy Eucharist – Advent 4 with Bishop Melissa  

Readings for Sunday, November 13th  – Remembrance Sunday
Isaiah 65:17–25;
Isaiah 12; 2
Thessalonians 3:6–13;
Luke 21:5–19

Some things to think & pray about this week… From ‘For All the Saints’ – a book published by the Anglican Church of Canada to help us remember the lives of those who have worked in the Lord’s Vineyard through the yearly round.  

November 7th St. Willibrord – An Anglo-Saxon who left England to be a monk in Ireland but in 690AD left there with a number of other monks to preach the Gospel in the land of the Frisians and did for 40 years. He died in 739AD in his 81st year having establishing the church in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.  

November 8th – Leo the Great – Bishop of Rome for 20 years from the year 440AD was considered a great negotiator and reconciler.  At a time when the humanity and divinity of Jesus were once again a hot topic of discussion his view was not so much trying to explain how this could be absolutely, but to help bring about a deeper conversation when he said: “God the Word assumed the form of a servant without the defilement of sin, and enriched what was human without impoverishing what was divine. For the self-emptying by which the Invisible caused himself to be visible, and by which the Creator and Lord of all things willed to be mortal, was a bowing down in compassion, not a failure of power.”  

November 12th – Charles Simeon – Anglican priest who died in 1836 who was the vicar of Holy Trinity, Cambridge, famous for his passionate preaching which was considered vulgar by many academics and townspeople.  His services were often interrupted by rowdy students but he pressed on and had a deep evangelical influence in every corner of England and beyond.  The churchwardens even locked him out of his church for a time!  Now that is what we would call critiquing the sermon.  

What can you do this week? Preach the word by your actions of compassion and outreach, give something away for the love of Jesus. Be an instrument of peace and reconciliation in a situation or in the life of another.  Meditate on what it means for Christ to be both divine and human.  Stand your ground for justice in the love of God even when things get rowdy.  

Also, pray for the American People – As the American people go to the polls on Tuesday, remember them in your prayers for wisdom and reconciliation.