Christmas Services

Join us for Christmas Eve Services. We have two services. The first is at 7pm which is our family service and the second is at 11pm which is our traditional service.

We also have a 10am service on Christmas morning.

We hope to see you there! Merry Christmas and may the blessing of Jesus be with you on this his birthday.

Welcome to Advent!

We lit the first candle in our Advent wreath yesterday.  Here's a fast-paced 2-minute intro to this very special season :)

From the diocese:

Modelling Compassion, Courage and Reconciliation: Last week, the Diocese of Edmonton was privileged to host Fr. Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest and restorative justice advocate from South Africa. While facilitating a workshop at King’s University College on Saturday, Lapsley described his role in the movement to end apartheid, which led to his exile by the South African Government in 1976. He spent 16 years as a chaplain for the African National Congress (ANC) in Lesotho and Zimbabwe.

In 1990, upon returning from Canada where he toured the country to help Canadians understand apartheid, Lapsley received a parcel deceivingly labeled as religious magazines. The package exploded, destroying his hands, blinding him in one eye, and damaging his hearing. The sinister act rendered Lapsley “as helpless as a baby for months”. “There were times I thought it might be better to be dead,” he says. “But God was present with me”. Prayers, love and support from people around the world – especially Canadians – lifted his spirits and incredibly, one year after the letter bomb attack, he was able to return to Canada to say thank-you for the “avalanche” of support.

Thus began Fr. Lapsley’s journey from victimhood to survivor. Eventually he would come to view himself as “more of a priest with no hands, than I was with two hands”. This courageous and compassionate man now runs the Institute for the Healing of Memories in Cape Town, where he seeks to accompany others on their journeys to healing and wholeness. He leads Healing of Memories workshops, which provide participants with a safe and scared space to share their stories and begin the journey to healing.

“When something terrible happens to us, it either causes us to diminish or to grow, but never are we the same,” he says.

Fr. Lapsley began his workshop in Edmonton by acknowledging the First Nations people that first walked this sacred land and the pain they carry from generation to generation. In fact, many of the people attending the workshop were local representatives of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, established in 2008 to tell the history of Indian Residential Schools and guide a process of reconciliation. Sadly, Lapsley pointed out that South Africans actually modelled their system of apartheid after the Canadian Indian Reserve System. “As people of faith, indigenous people and Canadians, we have gifts to give one another, and I hope we can learn from the mistakes that were made,” he said. “Healing is about integrating into ourselves the full reality of what has happened and to be at peace,” he says. “The scars are still there, but they are not bleeding.”

Read more about Fr. Lapsley’s visit to the diocese in the January issue of The Messenger. For information about the Institute for Healing of Memories, visit: www.healing-memories.org.

Who knew you could see Saturn from Nazareth

For future reference, if you want to know where the fun is, it is at Messy Church! Last weekend we visited the home town of Jesus. We had fun looking at what life was like in rural Israel in the time of Jesus. For instance, did you know that families would build large dwelling for a large extended family? They had two levels; the family slept all together on the top level and in the bottom one would be the storage and it is where the animals would come in for the night during winter. Jesus would have fallen asleep to the grunts and rustling of is animals. We also ate flatbread and other middleeastern food and had a great time trying to recreate the village of Nazareth where Jesus grew up. What it lacks in historical detail it makes up for in imagination. Each of the children had a "plot" on which they could draw roads or plants. We tried out our carpentry skills by hammering togetehr the houses and painting them, and them modeling animals and other things. Here are some of the plots. Take a look!

Messy Church tonight

Bring the family to Messy Church tonight to learn about Jesus as a kid!
4:30-6:30 in the basement.
Good food, fun crafts, kid-friendly worship.

Soup & Theology this Wednesday

Our Soup & Theology series continues this month with the topic of God and Aging.
This session is for everyone: from those just beginning to think about aging grace-fully to those looking for the silver lining in their golden years.
Please join us for good food and a lively discussion.  Suggested donation for dinner is $3 to help cover grocery costs.

All Saints' Cathedral College

We are excited to be part of this new initiative from the diocese.  University-level courses may be taken for credit through the Graduate Theological Foundation or for interest by anyone and everyone.  The college hopes to make a wide variety of theological education opportunities available.  Three courses will be offered in the upcoming winter term:
2000 Years of Mission: A Survey of Church History with our own Rev. Stephen London
Church, Mission & Gospel in the 21st Century with the Rev. Dr. Myron Penner
Christian Implications of Globalization with the Rev. Dr. Joanne Neal
An open house will be held tonight, Tuesday October 18, at 7:00 at All Saints' Cathedral.
Check them out!

Bishop Jane's annual youth day

The Bishop’s Annual Youth Day, for youth in Grades 7-12, will be held October 15th, from 10 am–10 pm, at St. Paul's Anglican Church, 10127-145 Street, Edmonton. The day will be full of fun, food, fellowship, informative sessions and worship. This is a great opportunity to get to know Bishop Jane and other young Anglicans from around the diocese! The cost is $10/person and includes lunch, dinner and an inspiring speaker. For more info, please contact, Amy Croy: (780) 455-0771 or Lauren VanderHout: lauren.vanderhout@gmail.com  . RSVP by Friday, October 7th. 

Marion Engels: May She Rest in Peace

Yesterday we said goodbye to a long time and well loved parishioner. She attended St. Michael's for well over 50 years and active in many different way. She was a kind and grace filled women and we will miss her alot. It was a good service at St. Matthews in St. Albert where her children and grandchildren paid her a wonderful tribute. May she rest in peace, and let light perpetual shine upon her.

First Soup & Theology this Fall

Our popular Soup & Theology series starts up again this Wednesday, Sept. 28, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.  This month, we will be tackling the question of God and Other Religions: Is everyone right?  Is anyone right?  Are there different questions we should be asking?
We're asking $3 each to help cover the cost of food.
Join us for a good meal and big issues (and see the new data projector in action... :-p)
If you let us know you're coming, we'll make sure we set out enough bowls and bring plenty of homemade bread.

Youth Group

Don't forget this Saturday from 6-8 we have our first Youth Group of the fall!

Win Morris

This week we said good bye to a beloved long time member of the congregation, Win Morris. She sang in the choir for years and was such a spark of life and joy. Her funeral was both joyous and sad. We will miss her. May she rest in peace, and may light perpetual shine upon her.
Her obituary is here.

Join us for our Welcome Back this Sunday

This Sunday is our combined service welcome back for the fall season. There are a lot of great things planned for the new year. Come and find out what we are doing. This is the last service of the summer with the 10am time. Please bring a dish to share!

The Pancake Breakfast was awesome!!!

Thanks to all who participated. As you can see from the photos, we had a great time.

Pancakes! Pancakes!! Pancakes!!!

It's that time of year again.  Our Fifth Annual Pancake Breakfast will be held this Saturday, July 30th.  Our wonderful team of tent-setter-uppers, table movers, pancake flippers and egg scramblers (thank you all!) will be there early getting ready to host our neighbours from 9:00 until 11:00 a.m.  As always, the food is free.

Blessing The Flag

Today we blessed the Peace Flag that had been donated to us by Ottawa for our 100th anniversary. The flag arrived last year and turned out to be much larger than I had anticipated. I think that it is actually about as large as our church! Gill Pye graciously volunteered to put it in a frame for us, and she did a terrific job as you can see from the picture.

To me the flag is a great symbol for three reasons. First off it is a central Canadian symbol and it fitting because we are proud to be a part of the Canadian Anglican church. Second, it is a great symbol of peace which is an essential value of the Christian church. We continually work and pray for the time when there will be no more war. And third, it is an acknowledgement of the fact that we are 100 years old. It will truly be a pleasure to hang it in our church.

This Week at St. Michael's

July 11-17

Monday

7:00 Roots (gardening) If there is no rain or mosquitos!! :)

Tuesday

1:00-3:00 Craft group

Wednesday

10:30 Weekly service at Dickensfield Extended Care

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

10:00 Holy Communion

Sheila Hagan- Bloxham as guest preacher and celebrant

Time to get out your favourite recipe!

...And bring it to tomorrow's parish pot luck picnic.

Don't forget church starts at 10:00 a.m. beginning this week.

Help us kick off the summer season at St. Michael's!

Garage Sale

Today was the first day of the garage sale, and I think that it went really well. There were lot's of people and we seemed to move a lot of stuff. Thank you so much to everyone who donated items for us to sale as well as to all of the people who helped out with the selling. We really appreciate it!!!!

Doris Nelson

We are sorry to hear of the death of longtime parishioner Mrs. Doris Nelson early Sunday morning.  Her memorial service will be tomorrow, Thursday June 23, at 2:00 p.m. at St. Michael's.  Refreshments will follow the service at Emmaus Lutheran Church.  Please note that the date has changed since it was originally announced.

You can read the obituary online here: http://www.legacy.com/can-edmonton/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=152129073

This Week at St. Michael's

Blogspot isn't letting us edit this week's calendar for some reason, so I'm posting it here.


June 20-26

Monday

7:00 Roots (gardening)

Tuesday

1:00-3:00 Craft group

Wednesday

10:30 Weekly service at Dickensfield Extended Care

6-8 drop off priced garage sale items

Thursday

2:00 Memorial service for Doris Nelson
Reception follows at Emmaus Lutheran Church (one block south of St. Michael's)

Friday

2-8 Garage sale day 1

Saturday

10-4 Garage sale day 2 with BBQ lunch

Sunday

10:00 Holy Communion

Pot luck parish picnic -- bring your favourite dish to share!

Victoria Matthews

For many of you Bishop Matthews will be a familiar name. She was our Bishop in the Diocese of Edmonton for 10 years I think. She is now the Bishop of Christ Church, NZ, and has had to lead her Diocese through some terrible times with the massive earthquakes they have had. Please keep her and her Diocese in your prayers. Here are some of her reflections in a recent article from the ACC:

In the wake of yet more big jolts in Christchurch, Bishop Victoria Matthews says she fears her clergy are facing "exhaustion of spirit." 

"People are tired. They have been more than magnificent. Let me say that clearly. But I am hearing of a deep weariness of the soul, and I'm having to ask people to reach deep into their resources to meet yet another crisis."

The Anglican World

I have many goals with the blog, some internal to the church and some external. One of them is to introduce people who may not be familiar with the Anglican presence on the internet with some of the wealth of the materials out there. The first one I would like to mention is Anglicans Online. (Just click the name to go there.) It has to be the greatest resource out there, and a week doesn't go by without me looking at the new material. If you follow the various links you will find a compilation of the latest Anglican news; you can find web pages for parishes and dioceses all around the world. It is really fun to look at all of the things people are doing. You can look at theological resources, humour pages and much much more. It is worth a few hours of exploration.

New Weblog

Welcome to the launch of the St. Michael's parish blog. This blog is meant to be a resource to back up the main webpage which will also be launched soon. On that webpage we will have specific information about the parish and blurbs about the many groups and on-going activities that we have. This page will be the place where we update the news about the parish as well as have reflections, news from the Anglican church and other tidbits as we find them. Please check back once a week as we update this page.