An Easter Letterby Gordon Finney

Mar 24: Palm Sunday 8:15, 9:30, & 10:45 a.m.

Mar 25-28: Holy Week Noon Hour Services at St. Andrew’s United Church

Mar 28: Maundy Thursday Supper & Liturgy at 6:00 p.m. Potluck supper followed by Holy Com-munion

Mar 29: Good Friday 10:00 a.m. Liturgy of the Cross with Good Friday Anthems.

Mar 30: Holy Saturday 7:00 p.m.; a joint service at All Saints Anglican Church.

Mar 31: Easter Day 7:00 a.m. Sunrise service on the Court House Hill. Services at St. John’s 8:15, 9:30, & 11:00 a.m.

April 7: One worship service at 10:00 a.m. followed by a potluck fellowship lunch and a Vestry meeting on the issue of Deacons in the Church.

Easter Services

Dear Friends,

During Lent, we have walked in the wilderness with Jesus. It has been a time of reflection, self-denial and prayer. People have gathered to walk in the city, to think about their prayer life, to hear what God did and said as the people made their way from bondage, through the wilderness to the Promised Land. Folks from All Saints’ and St. John’s gathered weekly to reflect on what it means to embrace a life of meaning. The poor were fed on a daily basis from our church, and found a place of rest.

Now we come to Holy Week, and all of these threads are woven together as we gather to walk with Jesus toward the Cross. We will shout “Hosanna!” with the children on Palm Sunday. We will gather in the Upper Room on Maundy Thursday in order for our feet to be washed and to hear Jesus’ command that we should love each other. We will reflect on the agony of the crucifixion on Good Friday as all the broken-ness, pain and death of the universe descend onto the Lord of Love.

All the Anglican parishes of Peterborough will gather at All Saints with Bishop Linda on Holy Saturday to celebrate the Easter Vigil as we rejoice at Jesus’ victory over death.. Easter is the Feast of the Resur-rection of our Lord and calls us to live as people of life and hope as we proclaim in word and action the Good News that Jesus is alive and we are called to be agents of his Kingdom.

Join us as we celebrate these events. They are the cornerstone of our faith.

In Christ

Gordon+

A Local Honourwith content from the Anglican Journal & The Peterborough

Examiner

Adele Finney, Executive Director of the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) and a member of our congregation, played an important part in the enthronement of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. He is the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury. The enthronement was held at Canterbury Cathedral in England.

Adele was the church’s representative from the Americas to the ceremony and was one of approximately 2,000 invited guests at the ceremony. She brought a pottery pitcher of water from the Yukon River in the Northwest Territories; Lake Ontario representing the Great Lakes that

border Canada and the United States; Lac St. Louis in Quebec; Pasadena, Newfoundland; the Atlantic Ocean near St. John’s, Newfoundland; and water blessed during a March 16 vigil of the church’s Council of General Synod.

She also brought a small pottery vessel from the Six Nations First Nation near Brantford which contained water from the Old Man River at Piikani First Nation in Alberta. Adele poured this water into the pitcher when she reached the altar.

Adele was very excited to be a part of the enthronement and feels that it represented a meaningful service. She was surprised at the invitation and was very pleased to be able to meet Anglicans from around the world.

He is risen indeed!

Grocery Card Programby Sheila Hanwell

In the Fall of 2003 a group of parishioners gathered to brainstorm ideas to raise money for the church. The idea of selling grocery gift cards was presented by James Neufeld. James had a friend whose church was using this method of fundraising.

We agreed to start this program using the Loblaws’ chain of stores. We contacted James’ friend for de-tails started in October of that year, purchasing the cards from Morello’s Independent. We had to have a minimum of $2,000 to start, so the parishioners present agreed to be the first to join. Our first order totaled $4,125 and our profit for the three months of that year was $765.

Since then, the Loblaw’s program has grown to in-clude 51 subscribers, including 17 who subscribe to both and the Sobey’s programs. Our profit to date is $33,916.60.

A few years after beginning we added cards from the Sobey’s chain, with Walter Dyer, then Connie Swinton and now Kathy Clysdale doing the hon-ours. Yearly totals have not been kept but in the last few years’ profits have totaled over $2,000 per year. Thirty-three parishioners subscribe to this program, including the 17 using both chains.

Don Watkins does our banking for both programs

and so is also able to catch any errors in our figures.

How It Works

You, the parishioner, would order in advance cards representing what you would spend on groceries for the month. The cards are ordered, picked up and distributed on a designated Sunday each month. The church receives a discount of one to five percent of the amount ordered. Loblaw’s chain cards come in denominations of $10, $25, $50, $100 and $250. Sobey’s come only in $25 and $50.

You use the card just like cash. When you pay for your groceries with the card, the amount is de-ducted from the card’s value. The card is returned to you if there is a balance left; otherwise, the store keeps and destroys the card. They are not refill-able.

This is a very easy, painless way to help the church financially. You can also donate the cards to the Rector’s Discretionary Fund. Tax receipts are given only for those donated to that fund.

To subscribe, or for more information contact:

Kathy Clysdale for Sobey’s chain at kclysdale@cogeco.ca or 705 742-8756;

Don Watkins at 705 743-7693 or Sheila Hanwell for Loblaw’s chain at kit-wit@sympatico.ca or 705 745-7603.

The Groveby Brian Harvey

What is it?The Grove is the educational arm of the Anglican Church in Peterborough. It began a few years ago as a vehicle for delivering courses to the parishioners of St. John’s and has worked well in that capacity until now. It has delivered courses that address the spiritual and theological needs of our congregation.

How we are changingOur church environment is a little different now. Our churches in Peterborough are gathering together to form a city-wide parish. Our relationships with other denominations have become more solid. It has become a time for change in our educational delivery to change as well. The Grove is becoming more formal in its structure and procedures, allowing us to become more inclusive and to better deliver learning opportunities that serve our community. We will offer more defined periods of delivery as well as clear registration and communication procedures. There will be more opportunities for feedback on the courses and input from you about what will be offered.

Another way we are changing is to offer more practical learning opportunities that are applicable in our daily lives. The Christian teachings of the courses we have offered are excellent in telling us how we should live our lives. We would like to expand our opportunities to include those that will help us to do so. There are many areas we struggle with daily. These include finances, computers, and writing. There are also those areas that help us to become more rounded, such as art, poetry, and creative writing.

How you can helpA learning organization must listen to its constituents. We want to know what you want to learn. We cannot promise that every suggestion will be offered; we may not have the resources or instructors to do so. We will, however, listen and consider every suggestion.

We also need your feedback on our courses and our procedures. Do you enjoy how they were delivered? Is there anything that could be improved? How are the delivery times and venues? Improvement comes only through direction. Without feedback, we have only limited amounts of information to use in steering the organization.

To this end, we ask for your input into our Spring term (and all terms thereafter) relating to what learning opportunities you would like to see offered. As well, we welcome volunteer instructors.

Send your suggestions and feedback to:

thegrove@bbharvey.comGive as much detail as you can about what a course or workshop should cover, its suggested length and, if you have a suggestion, who could teach it. If you are volunteering to teach, please give us an idea of the areas in which you are expert and when you are available to teach (we know that we all have busy schedules).

Continuous learning is a way that we can all improve our lives and stimulate our minds. It offers social opportunities and a chance to exchange ideas and opinions. Let’s get together and improve ourselves and our world.