April 29, 2022 Newsletter
Minister’s Message
A couple of years before the pandemic, around 2018, St. Andrew’s realized we needed to engage in a comprehensive process of discovering God’s new vision for us. To help us accomplish this immense task, the Session prayerfully engaged with the denominational office and began New Beginnings. However, as we moved through the season of the pandemic, the leadership determined that the New Beginnings program would be difficult to restart, and the report that was produced early was significantly outdated.
During the pandemic, many members stepped up and “pivoted” helping the church to adapt and accommodate to the new rules of living in a pandemic. Many of these new programs and outreaches were celebrated at the last annual congregational meeting as we shared what we had done well and are proud to have achieved.
Also at the annual meeting, some discussions centred around the question, “What is our church most concerned with?” Among some usual responses such as lack of younger families and children, loss of members, and weak communication, the topic of worship appeared as a concern for many.
For several years, there have been some differences of opinion about some aspects of our Sunday morning worship. In 2016, one of our music directors resigned; rather than hiring another music director, we opted for someone who could accompany the congregation on the organ and piano in our worship services. In doing so, we neglected to use that opportunity to re-consider and, perhaps redefine, the purpose and goals of worship at St. Andrew’s. Without clarity in those aims, we can easily become divided.
Allow me to cite an example. Going back well more than a decade, the St. Andrew’s “Accessibility Building Project”, which resulted in a new addition, was an amazing and remarkable time in our church's history. The clarity on the goals and purposes - knowing the “why” brought
Ukrainian Outreach ~ How May I Help?
Some members of your Outreach ministry team had a wonderful hour long video chat with Natalie. We were fortunate to have a young Ukrainian man living in Lindsay translate for us….. so helpful.
We thought you would like to know more about the family, Here are a few details that we got during our chat:
~ Natalie or Natalia as she is known in Ukraine has two little boys.
~ Oleh is five years old and she is anxious to get him in school soon after they arrive.
~ Mark is one and a half years old.
~ Natalie’s mother, Svitlana, who is coming with her, is a retired physician.
~ Natalie’s husband is fighting in Kharkiv.
They are currently in Bucharest awaiting their papers to come here. There are many Ukrainians also seeking their papers so progress is slow. They will await papers for all four of them before leaving.
Natalie is anxious to find work when she arrives and we will have more information later about her work experience. She is very thankful to us for reaching out to find a path to bring her here.
On behalf of Outreach & Missions I want to express our deep gratitude to Marnie Nelles for opening her home to receive Natalie and her family.
At the moment, the best way to help would be to make a financial donation. You can mark your envelopes “Ukraine Family” and leave them at the church office or donate via e transfer to standrewslindsayfinance@gmail.com with ‘Ukraine Family’ in the message section. A separate account will be set up to receive donations as we believe there will be community donations as well and the support could be required over a period of time until the family is settled.
Thank you to everyone who has offered support in any way. There will be lots of opportunity for other ways to help as we move forward.
Dianne Dalton ~ Outreach & Missions
a great sense of unity and spirit. However, prior to defining the purpose of the project, there was disunity and even fear among our members. It took some time for the leadership to properly communicate what was being proposed - and the all-important “why”! We now need to apply what we learned then to the consideration of our worship services.
As we think about worship and creating a job description to hire personnel for worship, we need to do some hard work of discovery. The work of discovery begins with questions such as “What is God summoning His people at St. Andrew’s to do?” and “How can we respond most effectively to meet those goals?”
To help us prayerfully explore such questions concerning worship at St. Andrew’s, the leadership searched for someone who had the skills and experience to lead us in such a process. We are grateful for Session’s approval to ask Lynnita Weber to lead us through her proposed “discovery process”.
Lynnita is not new to the Session. A few years ago, she led our Session retreat, and everyone was very satisfied with the ways in which she helped us and delighted with her manner of doing so. The church will meet Lynnita as she will be the guest speaker for the Church Anniversary service on June 5, 2022.
You will be hearing more about this in the next few weeks. The document titled “Renewing Worship: A process of discovery, engagement, and dialogue for an enduring way forward” will be distributed. It is our hope and prayer that you will prayerfully participate in the process. We trust that God will lead us every step of the way to discover His will as we continue to live out His commands.
Blessings, Rev. Linda
We're adding another way of offering our thanks and praise at St. Andrew's! There is a jar in the hall accompanied by some colourful "post-it" notes, and we invite you to share your praise with us! You can come in, write down your praise and add it to the jar when you visit, or you can call, message or email your note and we will add it for you!
Easter Treats
On Easter Sunday, Shirley, from Ye Olde Little British Sweet Shoppe in Little Britain, dropped off some goodies for our children!
Thank you!
Golf Season is Here!
Jim Noble is organizing the St. Andrew’s Wednesday Golf Group to begin on Wednesday May 4 at 10:00 to continue every Wednesday at Deer Run Golf Course. All are welcome!
Please contact Jim at: 905.435.2842 or jimnoble76@gmail.com.
Liam very much enjoyed the craft and treats that were dropped off by the Junior Sunday School teachers. He has just started the Easter activity book that was also included in the package.
After two long years, APCH is returning home!
Join us for the ribbon cutting and naming ceremony of our new emergency shelter located at 64 Lindsay St. South on
May 28th, 2022 at 2 pm.
Please RSVP to info@apch.ca by May 23.
