Notices for the Week of May 7th - 13th
Notices for the Week: May 7th – 13th
Friday– Executive meeting
Flowers on the Altar Just about every Sunday throughout the year there is the opportunity to make a gift to supply the flowers on the altar. Flowers symbolize new life and the colourfulness of life for us all. Most often flowers are given in memory of someone who has died. But flowers may also be given as a thanksgiving for an anniversary, a milestone birthday, celebrating the birth of a child, graduation. The reasons are limitless really. If you would like to make this offering, please speak with Heather Herd. Heather is the keeper of the weekly log. These reason for the gift of flowers is noted in the prayers and in the service sheet each week.
Grooming the church grounds – Over the course of the spring, summer and early autumn there is always work to be done on the windstorms etc. We have beautiful grounds and buildings and it is important that we keep these looking well. We need people who are willing to give an hour or so here and there to work as a part of a team of people who have undertaken to keep the grounds looking pristine. We are asking people to consider offering some of their time either on a regular basis or once in a while. If you think you can participate in this, please speak with Roy Francis or Anil Richards.
Food Bank Sunday is next Sunday May 14th. Our Surrey Food Bank are thankful for our participation in helping to provide food supplies. They particularly welcome canned proteins such as meats, fish, beans etc. Keep an eye on sales that feature these, things no matter what day of the month. Stock up & make it a win, win for our brothers & sisters in Christ. Thank you.
New Hymn Books Needed – We need to get some new hymn books for the church of the large print variety. The cost is $30 per hymn book. If you would like to make a donation toward the cost of these new hymnals, place your donation in an envelope marked hymn books and place it in the offering plate over the next few Sundays. Donations of $30+ can be noted on overleaf in ‘memory/celebration’ of a loved one.
Rides to Church – At this time there are a number of people who receive rides and give rides to our parishioners to church on Sunday mornings. The parish council discussed that it would be good to be able to coordinate this more so that everyone who needs a ride to church is able to get that ride. We hope there may be a few people out there who might be able to give a ride as well. There is a sign-up sheet at our coffee and fellowship hour for people to sign up to get a ride and give a ride. If you would receive a ride or give a ride, please do put your name down. Even if you are doing this already please still add your name to the list. It would be helpful to know who needs rides and who can give rides.
Disabled Parking Spots – For some time we have only had one parking spot assigned for disabled use. The parish council has decided to increase this number to 4. There will be 2 additional spaces allocated alongside the current space and 1 allocated on the angled parking space as one enters the parking lot proper. The signage will be up in the next week or so. Please take note you may need to use another spot to park your car. As a courtesy, if you are able bodied, use parking spaces further away from the church so that those who are less able have less distance to walk.
Personal Belongings Left in Cars – Please do not leave anything in sight in your car. Thieves do operate in this area and it has been known for thieves to walk through our parking lot and break a car window or two for something they see left in a car. Bags, boxes, and other items should be placed in the trunk of your car or brought into the buildings with you. Especially do not leave purses, mobile phones and the like out for anyone to see.
Days of Prayer – The Archbishop of Canterbury has invited the whole Anglican Communion to participate in 10 days of prayer from Ascension Day to the Day of Pentecost. St. Helen’s is going to join others in the Anglican Communion by participating in this time of prayer beginning with 2 services on Ascension Day, Thursday, May 25 at 11am and 7pm. There will be something on many of the 10 days. Synod is happening during that times so please do pray for the delegates to our diocesan synod particularly on May 26 and 27. No one is expected to attend everything of course but we are all encouraged to take in at least one of these times of prayer. The other opportunities of prayer will be worked out this week and noted in the bulletin next Sunday and posted on our website.
Dates for Your Calendar
May 25 – Ascension Day services at 11am and 7pm
June 3 (Sat) – 3:30 – 5:30pm -Messy Church celebrating Pentecost
June 10 (Sat) – 8:30am Tri-Parish Men’s Breakfast at Denny’s on 120 St.
June 18 (Sun) – Tri-Parish Picnic Service at Bear Creek Park with Bishop Melissa. This is followed by
a ‘Bring and Share’ meal. St. Helen’s is taking on the children’s activities during the
service this year
June 24 (Sat)– Strawberry Tea. More info to come later
June 25 (Sun) – Closing of Sunday School for the summer
Readings for Sunday, May 14th Easter 5
Acts 7:55-60,
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16,
1 Peter 2:2-10;
John 14:1-14
Special Days and Events this Week:
From -For All the Saints
Julian of Norwich 8 May -Spiritual Teacher, c. 1417 — Commemoration Julian (or Juliana) was a fourteenth-century Englishwoman who is known for one book, The Revelations of Divine Love. This work records sixteen visions which were granted to her on May eighth and ninth in 1373, with the fruit of twenty years’ reflection on their meaning. Written in the English dialect of fourteenth-century Norfolk, her book is one of the undisputed masterpieces of mystical theology. Little is known about Julian herself. From hints in her work, it is possible that she was once married, and she may also have been a mother. There is nothing to suggest that she was a professed nun or ever lived in a convent. In The Revelations of Divine Love she tells us that she experienced her visions when she was thirty years old and they came to her during an illness which brought her to the brink of death. Sometime after that, she took up the life of a recluse, living alone in a hovel attached to the parish church of St. Julian and St. Edward, Coniston. It was from the title of this church that she took the name Julian; and other contemporary documents attest that she was still living there in the second decade of the fifteenth century. The heart of Julian’s visions was the knowledge of God in the crucified Christ. Because the Saviour bore and nurtured a new humanity on the cross, she took up an image often employed by other spiritual teachers in the Middle Ages and likened him to a mother. This image of Christ, and all else in her book, found fulfillment in the divine love. For in everything that God showed her, Julian wrote, “Love was our Lord’s meaning. And I saw for certain, both here and elsewhere, that before ever he made us, God loved us, and that his love has never slackened, nor ever shall.”
Florence Nightingale 12 May -Nurse, Social Reformer, 1910 — Commemoration We remember Florence Nightingale chiefly for her work during the Crimean War, which took place between 1854 and 1856. Hearing the voice of God and animated by the spirit of service, she organized the first modern nursing service in the British field hospitals at Scutari and Balaclava. In the midst of appalling conditions she was tireless in her efforts to relieve the sufferings of wounded and dying soldiers. Her solitary vigils in the hospital wards led the popular press to call her “the Lady of the Lamp” and “the Angel of Scutari.” Within four years of her return from the Crimea, Nightingale’s health broke down, and she eventually became a house-bound invalid. But she continued to influence public policy, and her labours helped to disperse the age-old prejudice against nurses, giving their profession high respectability. Her example also helped to liberate middle-class women from their subordinate and passive role in society. By the time of her death at the age of ninety, her reputation had assumed mythical proportions, and to this day she is still honoured as the founder of the modern profession of nursing.