Priscilla Williams, Lancaster PA www.glorygazing.com

This Sunday we begin our journey towards Easter, under the banner ‘Mending the Heart’. It is not easy for us to admit, but many of us are living with broken hearts … as we see others suffer, as we struggle in our own relationships, as we acknowledge our failures and yearn for a sense of purpose, as we witness creation itself being compromised. How good it is to be reminded that healing and renewal are possible, by the grace of God.

This morning we locate ‘mending the heart’ first and foremost in God. Our lives are renewed as we place our broken hearts within God’s great love known in Jesus. Healing and renewal is not found in being ‘holy’ (as in doing or believing certain things) but rather in being willing to be embraced within the great beating heart of the ‘Holy One’ (Mark 7:1-23).

I thought this painting by Priscilla Williams accompanies this gospel text perfectly. This artist of Lancaster PA has explained of her painting ‘Safe Place’ that the broken heart at the centre is shown to be held within God’s greater heart, and even while broken it bears some of the orange ‘glow’ of God’s life. God’s heart itself is located within three circles representing the triune community of love that God is, Father Son and Holy Spirit. And the strong diagonal lines behind speak of the strong, sovereign character of God, and God’s love. https://glorygazing.com/inspired-paintings/inspired-paintings-group-2/safe-place/ 

If you are in the area, we warmly invite you to join us this Sunday morning. Certified child care is offered during the service and a programme for young children also. There is free parking on the streets around (please note that the time-of-day restrictions on Clergy Street north of Queen are not in effect on Sundays) and in the surface civic lot just behind the church off Queen Street. There is a wheelchair lift inside the doors to St. Andrew’s Hall from the church parking lot mid way along Clergy Street, and hearing assist devices are available upon request from an usher. 

Have a look at the Order of Service and bulletin below, and consider each hymn and prayer and announcement a personal invitation to join us in Christian worship, community and service.

Download (PDF, 521KB)

Next Sunday we will continue with ‘Mending the Heart: Accepting the Challenge to Change (Mark 7:24-30)

Kume Bryant, Jesus Walking On The Water, 2016

Kume Bryant, Jesus Walking On The Water, 2016 – Used with artist’s permission

This morning we arrive in the Gospel according to Mark at another scene of the disciples struggling upon the water (Mark 6: 45-52). As I searched for a painting that would help me delve the various dimensions of this scene, I came across this wonderful work by Kume Bryant. Kume describes herself as a Korean American artist living and working in Tucson Arizona. She writes ‘I want my art to cheer the hearts’ and ‘When painting biblical stories, that time is spent in God’s presence. Feeling closer to Him.’ (http://www.kumebryant.com) With all its colour and movement, this painting certainly cheers my heart, and has helped me to acknowledge God’s presence  … feeling Jesus closer, just as he came to the disciples of old in their time of distress.

If you are in the area, we warmly invite you to join us this Sunday morning. Certified child care is offered during the service and a programme for young children also. There is free parking on the streets around (please note that the time-of-day restrictions on Clergy Street north of Queen are not in effect on Sundays) and in the surface civic lot just behind the church off Queen Street. There is a wheelchair lift inside the doors to St. Andrew’s Hall from the church parking lot mid way along Clergy Street, and hearing assist devices are available upon request from an usher. 

Have a look at the Order of Service and bulletin below, and consider each hymn and prayer and announcement a personal invitation to join us in Christian worship, community and service.

Download (PDF, 750KB)

Next Sunday we will continue our journey through Mark and gather to celebrate the Sacrament of Holy Communion.

Vincent Van Gogh, 1890 – ‘The Fields’, said to be his last painting. ‘It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow’ (1 Cor 3:7)

This morning we pause our journey through the Gospel according to Mark to welcome the Rev. Prudence Neba of the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon. Prudence has served nine years as Minister of Word and Sacrament, most recently as Associate Pastor to a congregation in Douala, responsible for up to 4000 people on a given Sunday. Prudence is completing her doctorate at Presbyterian College Montreal and McGill, and has travelled to share with us something of her perspectives on Christian faith and ministry.  And after the service, a lunch together in the church hall!

If you are in the area, we warmly invite you to join us. Certified child care is offered during the service and a programme for young children also. After the service a time of fellowship over tea or coffee, so please linger if you can and allow us to introduce ourselves more fully. 

There is free parking on the streets around (please note that the time-of-day restrictions on Clergy Street north of Queen are not in effect on Sundays) and in the surface civic lot just behind the church off Queen Street. There is a wheelchair lift inside the doors to St. Andrew’s Hall from the church parking lot mid way along Clergy Street, and hearing assist devices are available upon request from an usher. 

Have a look at the Order of Service and bulletin below, and consider each hymn and prayer and announcement a personal invitation to join us in Christian worship, community and service.

Download (PDF, 636KB)

Next Sunday, we will look at Mark 6:45-52 (and hold our AGM!)

Jesus Mafa Art – Northern Cameroons, West Africa

We arrive at two revealing scenes this Sunday in our journey through the Gospel according to Mark.

In the first, Jesus is rejected by the people of his hometown (Mark 6:4). Might familiarity be an enemy of faith? For many of us raised in the Church, this possibility comes as a challenge.

In the second, Jesus sends his disciples as partners in his mission of extending the healing and embrace of the Holy One. And he declares that they need to travel light (Mark 6:8). For many of us in the Church, accustomed to frameworks of support from creeds to physical sanctuaries, this exhortation comes also as a challenge.

As I consider these scenes, I find this painting by the Jesus Mafa community in northern Cameroon helpful. It is just one of dozens that date back over 50 years and an initiative to make the gospel real in a particular region of this West African nation. A team of a church leader, a theologian and an artist would read a particular gospel passage and invite people of various villages to enact what they heard. Photographs were taken of the skits and tableaux, and the artist would eventually paint a canvas. It was a tremendous project, one that prompts the question … what might the gospel look like in my community? What does it mean for me/us to go in the power of the Risen Lord ‘lightly’?

If you are in the area, we warmly invite you to join us. Certified child care is offered during the service and a programme for young children also. After the service a time of fellowship over tea or coffee, so please linger if you can and allow us to introduce ourselves more fully. 

There is free parking on the streets around (please note that the time-of-day restrictions on Clergy Street north of Queen are not in effect on Sundays) and in the surface civic lot just behind the church off Queen Street. There is a wheelchair lift inside the doors to St. Andrew’s Hall from the church parking lot mid way along Clergy Street, and hearing assist devices are available upon request from an usher. 

Have a look at the Order of Service and bulletin below, and consider each hymn and prayer and announcement a personal invitation to join us in Christian worship, community and service.

Download (PDF, 547KB)

Next Sunday, we welcome the Rev. Prudence Neba of the Presbyterian Church in the Cameroon to St. Andrew’s.

Five Loaves and Two Fish – John Larson, UK 2011

“A miracle is when the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. A miracle is when one plus one equals a thousand”
(Frederick Buechner, The Alphabet of Grace). Or rather, in the scene we arrive at this Sunday in the Gospel according to Mark … a miracle is when 2 + 5 = 5000 (Mark 6:30-44). 

As I reflected upon the passage, I explored a myriad of paintings that have emerged from the contemplation of his scene through the ages. Many highlight Jesus, at the centre of the miracle. Many emphasize the crowd in number and hunger. In the end, I selected the contemporary painting above because it narrows the focus to the five loaves and two fish – completely inadequate and yet transformed into abundance, with the human dedication multiplied by the divine intention to work good.

So much to explore in this scene, in the dynamics of human life, and in the challenges and surprises of faith! It is a particularly appropriate passage to consider as this is the Sunday we are asked to pray for the work of relief and development we support through PWS&D http://www.werespond.ca. What are our modest contributions in the face of global hunger and injustice? As with the loaves and fish, they are declarations that we believe in the impossible, by the grace of God, that we believe hunger can be met, that all can be gathered in life of body and soul.

Albert Einstein once said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” As Christians we are a people who are ‘other’!

If you are in the area, we warmly invite you to join us. Certified child care is offered during the service and a programme for young children also. After the service a time of fellowship over tea or coffee, so please linger if you can and allow us to introduce ourselves more fully. During this service we will celebrate Holy Communion, and all are welcome ‘who love the Lord a little, and yearn to love him more’.

There is free parking on the streets around (please note that the time-of-day restrictions on Clergy Street north of Queen are not in effect on Sundays) and in the surface civic lot just behind the church off Queen Street. There is a wheelchair lift inside the doors to St. Andrew’s Hall from the church parking lot mid way along Clergy Street, and hearing assist devices are available upon request from an usher. 

Have a look at the Order of Service and bulletin below, and consider each hymn and prayer and announcement a personal invitation to join us in Christian worship, community and service.

Download (PDF, 621KB)

Next Sunday we will consider a challenging passage in which we are told Jesus could not perform a miracle! (Mark 6:1-6)

Winter is a time of faith,
a time of quiet,
a time for going within.

Winter is a time of expectation and hope.
It is a time of waiting.

Its days are full of promise
and we eagerly look for and welcome
each sign of new life.

p.s. this is a double-sided print document file, so the formatting on your screen may not be ideal.

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The Raising of Jairus’ Daughter Gabriel Max, 1878
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

I remember the first time I saw this painting in Montréal, and how moved I was. As I stood before the canvas and took in the scene, two things in particular struck me … the fly on the arm of the lifeless girl, and the gentleness of Jesus taking her hand in his. Is this the moment just before the words ‘Talitha cumi’ are spoken? This morning we arrive at two interwoven stories (Mark 5: 21-43), one of a girl and one of a woman. Both involve a healing touch. Both demonstrate how the power of the Holy One flowed through Jesus to individuals vulnerable and on the periphery. The first generation of Christians who treasured these stories did so to communicate their own experience of the Risen Lord in their midst, their own experience of the struggles and joys of faith. And so this Sunday we continue to explore what it means to be a Christian today through this journey of the Gospel according to Mark. If you are in the area, we warmly invite you to join us. Certified child care is offered during the service and a programme for young children also. After the service a time of fellowship over tea or coffee, so please linger if you can and allow us to introduce ourselves more fully. There is free parking on the streets around (please note that the time-of-day restrictions on Clergy Street north of Queen are not in effect on Sundays) and in the surface civic lot just behind the church off Queen Street. There is a wheelchair lift inside the doors to St. Andrew’s Hall from the church parking lot mid way along Clergy Street, and hearing assist devices are available upon request from an usher.  Have a look at the Order of Service and bulletin below, and consider each hymn and prayer and announcement a personal invitation to join us in Christian worship, community and service.

Download (PDF, 561KB)

Next Sunday, Mark 6: 30-44!