Notices for the Week of September 23rd
Notices for the Week of September 23rd
This Week at St. Helen’s
Tuesday - Here Our Prayer – 7pm in the church. (see notice)
Saturday – Harvest Decorating -10am in the church
Saturday – Cemetery Service – 1pm in the cemetery or if it is raining in the church. Please bring your own lawn chair for the service.
Flowers for the Altar on Sundays
Every Sunday the altar is adorned with flowers. The flowers are placed on the altar in memory of loved ones who have died or in thanksgiving to God for reaching milestones in life, as anniversary celebrations, graduation, etc. If you would like to make a donation for the cost of the flowers on any Sunday, please let Heather Herd know. Your name and the reason for the memorial or thanksgiving will be placed in the Sunday service sheet. People do ask how much a donation should be for the flowers. The simple answer is that we spend approx. $35 each week for the flowers and we hope that the flowers pay for themselves overall but please make your donation as you feel appropriate. Your donation may be put in the offering plate on Sunday. You will receive a phone call a week before the notice goes in the service sheet as a reminder to be there on the Sunday you have sponsored the flowers
News on the Typhoon in the Philippines – The rector was in touch with Father Joey Napat-a at Holy Apostles Church, Abatan, in the Philippines early last week to ask how everyone was doing there after the typhoon had passed through. This was Father Joey’s response: "We are fine father.... We thank God that we are all safe; no casualties within the community; damage is cleared and things have already been restored esp. communication tower and electric poles. It is already100 percent restored with in our province. We have had 6 die, all from one family. Their house was washed away by landslide...it is sad. They are members of our congregation at St Timothy in Dantay Bontoc. We just buried them yesterday at St Michael and all Angels in Tadian. Thanks for your prayers. We are all safe now. Have a good day ahead."
So let us here at St. Helen’s continue to pray for all people affected by the Typhoon there and the hurricane on the eastern seaboard of the US and do what we can to help the relief efforts especially through PWRDF, the Red Cross, and other aid agencies.
Readings for Next Sunday, Sept. 30 – Harvest Sunday
Joel 2:21–27;
Psalm 126;
1 Timothy 2:1–7;
Matthew 6:25–33
Harvest Service Next Sunday – Please bring along donations of the harvest to be shared with Surrey Urban Mission for Sept. 30th.
Saints Days and Commemorations this Week
Sergius 25 September Abbot of Holy Trinity, Moscow, Spiritual Teacher, 1392 — Commemoration Lancelot Andrewes 26 September Bishop of Winchester, 1626 — Commemoration
Saint Michael and All Angels 29 September - Holy Day
For more about these Holy Days please do visit the website ‘For All the Saints’ at: www.anglican.ca/about/liturgicaltexts/ and click on ‘For All the Saints’. Here you will find a short biography of the particular person or info about the Holy Day as well as readings and prayers for the day.
St. Helen’s Prayer Circle – Did you know that we have a prayer circle here at St. Helen’s. We are intentional about how we pray for one another and hold each other up before God. If you have a prayer request regarding a loved one or for yourself or would like to offer a prayer of thanksgiving, please be in touch with Judy Nicholson at 604-594-8562. She will contact those on the prayer circle so that they may pray for you or your loved one for any kind of circumstance. The prayer requests are kept confidential to the prayer circle so you can be assured that the request will only be shared with those who need to know so they can properly pray for you.
Sunday School Teachers – We have a number of teachers this year but we still need one or two more to help out about once a month. If you think you would like to offer yourself for this ministry, please speak with our People’s Warden and Sunday School Coordinator, Fil Sotana.
Servers Guild – We have 6 people presently training to serve at the altar for our Sunday Eucharists. If you think you would like to be a part of this ministry, please speak with our rector, Father Steve. You could expect to act as a server about once a month. There are one or two sessions to train and then the rest is ‘on the job’ training where we ease you in until you are comfortable in the knowledge of what to do at the services.
Forthcoming Events and Activities
Here Our Prayer – Tuesday, September 25th at 7pm
An hour of prayer and praise in the form of Evening Worship will take place once a month in the church. It will most often be the 4th Tuesday of the month. Here, we will pray for one another, our church and community. Everyone will have the opportunity to give their prayer requests and of course, everyone is invited to come along and participate. Come and put your toe in the waters of prayer. You will be glad you did.
Cemetery Service - Saturday, Sept 29th At this service we will remember all whom we have loved but who are no longer with us. Our cemetery has been an important place for many people over the years and we wish to honour the memory of those who have been a part of our church family and wider community. If you know of family and friends of those buried at St. Helen’s, please let them know so that they may attend. More information will be forthcoming. The service will go ahead rain or shine. If it is raining, then the service will take place in the church. Refreshments will follow the service.
Harvest Celebration - Sunday, Sept. 30th Our Harvest Celebrations on Sept 30th will include a pie sale. If you can make pies, buy pies, and eat pies, this is the sale for you to contribute your talent and flair or just simply enjoy the eating of the pie. The church, will therefore, be decorated for the Sept 30th Harvest service and will remain so until after the Thanksgiving Weekend Celebrations. Historically, Harvest and Thanksgiving were two different celebrations, so we are not doing anything new at all. We hope this will give many more people the opportunity to see the wonderful Harvest and Autumn colours adorn our church.
Thanksgiving Sunday Service Sunday, October 7th We will of course, continue our Harvest Celebrations right through the Thanksgiving weekend at our Sunday Eucharist as we give thanks for all the ways in which we have been blessed
Blessing of Animals Service – Saturday, October 6th at 1pm Our blessing of animals, and all God’s creatures, pets, farm, and other domestic animals as well as the wild variety (from a little further away) will take place on the Thanksgiving weekend. The time is yet to be determined as we want to consult with those who usually come to this service.
Spiritual Formation for Young People We are planning to implement a once a month gathering for young people to grow deeper roots of faith and spirituality. More information in early September.
It’s Jams and Jellies Time! – That’s right, in prep for the Bazaar you are invited to make jams, jellies, chutneys, pickles etc. If you would like jars to put these in, please speak with Jacquie Stinson.
Would you like or do you need Church Offering Envelopes? At St. Helen’s we are able to give people income tax receipts for their financial donations to the church. At the end of the year you will receive a receipt for your donations given over the course of the year. If you would like a set of envelopes please speak with our Treasurer, Mareen Matthew or one of the wardens, Fil Sotana, or Jacquie Stinson. They will make sure you get a set.
Deadline for Sunday Notices – Please note that the deadline for notices to appear in the Sunday sheet is the Wednesday before the Sunday you would like to have the notice published. You need to send the notice to the office email address in the wording you would like it to appear. We might edit it to fit onto the sheet. The email address is: churchoffice@shawbiz.ca