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Notices for the Week of September 17th - 23rd  

For Those Who Were Not Here Last Week - Our Eucharistic celebration included two special aspects of our life together.  First, we commissioned our new Organist and Choir Director, Mr. Matthew Ma. Second, we made a special welcome to The Rev. Gregory Law Lah whose priestly credentials have now been recognized by Bishop Melissa.  She has given Father Gregory a license of "Permission to Officiate". This license is usually given to clergy who have retired or who have arrived in the diocese and are living here in retirement.  It means that permission is given to officiate at services and to help out in their priestly role when they are called upon.  Father Gregory is not licensed particularly to the parish of St. Helen. He may minister in a variety of areas when he is called upon anywhere in the diocese.  We know that he may be very helpful from time to time particularly where other members of the Karen community may need help with translation as they prepare for baptism or marriage.  

Examining Chaplain  Our Rector, Father Steve has been appointed by Bishop Melissa as an Examining Chaplain.  He will be a priestly member of one of two teams.  Each team is made up of a priest, a deacon, and a lay person.  The role of an examining chaplain is to examine by interview, candidates who have applied to be accepted as postulants for Holy Orders; that is, to be a deacon or a priest.  

A Huge Thank you to those who came to help pour concrete for the base for our new Container Shed which should be in place over the next few weeks. Thank you Les Foulds, Roy Francis, Anil Richards, Bill Schwarz, Ian Blake, Fil Sotana, Ku Thay, and Cherry's husband

Forthcoming Dates for St. Helen's
Tuesday, Sept. 19
7pm Parish Council Meets (upper hall)

Wednesday, Sept 20
7pm ACW meets in the upper hall

Saturday, Sept. 23
9am Tri-Parish Quiet Morning at St. Michael's

Saturday, Sept. 30
Blessing of Pets and Animals at 3pm

Sunday, Oct. 8
Harvest Thanksgiving Festival at 10am  

Recruiting Choir Members Would you like to add your voice to our choir and be a part of the music ministry?  If so, please speak with any choir member to get more information.  The choir rehearses on Sundays after our coffee and fellowship time and we are done by 1pm.  

Summer Giving Catch-Up We hope you have had a relaxing summer.  As you now begin to gear up for the autumn, if you find that you have not kept up to date with your contributions for the various ministries of the church, your offerings to help cover our shortfall over the summer would be very much appreciated.  

Tri-Parish Quiet Morning A quiet morning for our three parishes of St. Helen's, St. Michael's and Epiphany will be held at St. Michael's next Saturday, September 23rd.  Coffee and registration at 9am with the programme beginning at 9:30. The morning concludes at 12 noon but those who wish to bring their lunch may do so and enjoy further fellowship by eating lunch together.  

Christmas Bazaar 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, September 17th -  Pentecost 15
Exodus 14:19-21; Psalm 114; Romans 14:1-12; Matthew 18:21-35  

Please Pray this Week for: All those affected by the Hurricanes in the Caribbean; religious persecution in Burma/Myanmar; the political tensions between the US and North Korea; for school children starting school; the people of our parish and our ministries  

The Story Behind the Hymn  Guide Me O, Thou Great Jehovah
Indelibly associated with Welsh Male Voice Choirs and Eisteddfods, this hymn was originally written in Welsh by a Methodist preacher William Williams (1719-91), a pioneering hymnist who (in the words of S W Duffield) 'did for Wales what Wesley and Watts did for England.' In 1771 it was translated into English by Peter Williams, no relation, and Williams himself. The verse was tinkered with several times in the course of the 19th century, and the hymn is still often sung as 'Guide me, o thou great Redeemer'. It can be heard sung in Welsh in John Ford's Oscar-winning movie of 1941, How Green was my Valley.  Williams' words have been much admired for their plain yet majestic dignity. 'The grandest re-enactment in modern hymnody of the Israelite journey through the barren wilderness to the Promised Land, which is the type of all spiritual pilgrimage', assert Marjorie Reeves and Jenyth Worsley; while J R Watson judges it 'one of the greatest of evangelical hymns, mainly because of its understatement.' The tune, 'Cwm Rhondda', sung in the trenches and mines as well as at numberless rugby matches, was composed in 1905 by John Hughes for a singing festival legend has it that he wrote it in chalk on a tarpaulin (though why he should have done so has never been explained). The repeated high notes of the verse's last line are a gift to Welsh tenors keen to show off their larynxes and can be drawn out to awesomely vulgar musical effect. Credit to Rupert Christiansen The Story Behind the Hymn In the Telegraph Newspaper  

Other Holy Days and Commemorations this Week 
Founders, Benefactors and Missionaries of the Anglican Church of Canada
18 September - Memorial
On this day in 1893 the first General Synod of the Church of England in the Dominion of Canada closed its deliberations with a Service of Thanksgiving. The Canadian Church was no longer three separate provinces, united only through their common obedience to the archbishop of Canterbury. It was now an autonomous national Church, united in itself as a full member of the Anglican family of churches throughout the world. Today we commemorate this historic event in the life of our Church, and take the occasion to give thanks for all those men and women who contributed in various ways, both great and small, to building the Anglican way of life in this nation of Canada.  We may well feel like the author of the Letter to the Hebrews who, as he reckoned up the heroes of faith, finally had to confess: And what more shall we say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets. Just so, time would fail us now to tell of all the founders and missionaries who settled the Church and the gospel among us Charles Inglis of Nova Scotia, George Mountain of Quebec and Francis Fulford of Montreal, John Strachan of Toronto and Benjamin Cronyn of Huron, John McLean of Saskatchewan, George Hills of British Columbia, and William Bompas of Athabasca. And what of all those who never held high office in the Church all the faithful clergy and people who joined together to build the churches and nourish the parish communities that dot this land: time would certainly fail us even to begin to tell of them! We may use this feast to reflect upon the history of our own parishes and to recall with thanksgiving the founders, benefactors, and missionaries who, having laid the one foundation which is Jesus Christ, went on to raise, adorn, and sustain the Anglican household of faith in our own corners of Canada.  

Theodore of Tarsus 19 September Archbishop of Canterbury, 690 - Commemoration
Today we remember Theodore, who became archbishop of Canterbury in the year 667 and brought peace and new order to the troubled English Church.  Theodore was sixty-five years old and a refugee from Tarsus in war-torn Asia Minor, when the Pope chose him to rule the Anglo-Saxon church. Once he arrived in England, he found an institution in disarray. A number of bishops were flouting a recent synod, where those who followed the customs of the older Celtic tradition agreed, for unity's sake, to conform to Roman usages. Theodore also found that many dioceses had to be reorganized, or new dioceses set up, just to meet the pastoral needs of the people. He attacked these needs with the energy of a man half his age. He was unyielding in his use of authority wherever he found irregularities, but generous beyond measure towards those who combined true holiness of life with a genuine concern for unity. The Venerable Bede says that Theodore was the first of the archbishops whom the whole English church consented to obey. His skills as an organizer, and his wisdom in setting policies, made the Church a truly national and unifying force in a country still divided into many kingdoms. When he died on this date in the year 690, he left the Anglo-Saxon Church so strong and at peace that it was able to spare many of its best people to lead the advance in the conversion of the Germanic peoples in continental Europe.  

September 20 - John Coleridge Patteson; Bishop of Melanesia, and His Companions - Martyrs, 1871  Commemoration

September 21 - Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist - Holy Day  

Biographies and info regarding Holy Days and Commemorations come from the book ‘For All the Saints’ published by the Anglican Church of Canada. The book may be viewed freely in pdf format on the ACC website at: www.anglican.ca/about/liturgicaltexts Then click on: For all the Saints