First Presbyterian Church News

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1 First Presbyterian Church News 17 Royal Road South, Portage la Prairie, MB First Presbyterian Church NEWS Page 1 John Zondag, Minister October 2017 Raymond Reichelt, Clerk of Session Telephone: Margaret McNutt-Reichelt, Organist Minister s address: jzondag@mymts.net Church address: firstpc@mymts.net Sunday Worship at 10:30 a.m. Church Website: luck FROM supper THE at 6:00 MINISTER p.m.) and Good Frid has come to face the facts, and to decide Each new year in the life of the congregation brings new challenges and opportunities. One task that lies before us this fall is to find new coordinators for the Soup Kitchen, to take the place of Tricia Chiponski and Margaret Dunn, who have served in this position for the past ten and eleven years, respectively. In the spring, Tricia and Margaret gave notice that they would step down as of the end of December. We commend and thank them for the excellent work they have done, and for overseeing a ministry that has been steadily growing. Let us pray for the search for new coordinators, that we may find people who are equally committed and capable as Tricia and Margaret. In other ways, the congregation s life continues on as usual. In September, many of us return to the tasks we were doing the previous year, while others step down from some tasks, and still others take new ones on. It is worthwhile thinking about how many tasks in the congregation s life and work are done on a voluntary basis by people using the gifts and talents God has given them. This is the way it should be in the church. The contribution of each person is valuable, and is much appreciated. May God guide, equip, and encourage us for a new year in his service. OUR SYMPATHY We extend our sympathy to the family and friends of Bernice Tashiro, a life-long member of the congregation, who died on the 27th of June.

2 First Presbyterian Church NEWS Page UPCOMING EVENTS AND MEETINGS a) Regularly-scheduled events: - Men s Breakfast - Alternate Saturdays at 9:00 a.m., dates TBA - WMS meetings - 1st Wednesday of the month, 1:30 p.m. - Prayer Time - 1st Thursday of the month, 1:30 p.m. - Finance & Maintenance Committee - 2nd Wednesday of the month, 6:30 p.m. - Saturday evening service - 2nd Saturday of the month, 7:00 p.m. (starting in October) - Sunday breakfasts - 3rd Sunday of the month, 9:15 a.m. (starting in October) - Meal-in-a-Bowl Supper - 4th Wednesday of the month, 5:00 p.m. - Session meetings - 4th Thursday of the month, 7:00 p.m. (except September) COMMUNION Join us as we celebrate the Sacrament of the Lord s Supper on Sunday, 1 October. Following that Sunday, John Zondag will be available to conduct Communion Services at home for any of our homebound members. If you would like to have Communion at home, please speak to your elder, or call John at the church, and we will arrange a suitable time. b) One-time events: - Thursday, 21 Sept., - 7:00 p.m. - Session meeting (a week earlier than usual) - Friday, 29 Sept., - 12:30 p.m. - Great Presbyterian Pie Sale - Sunday, 1 Oct. - COMMUNION SUNDAY - Sunday, 8 Oct. - HARVEST (THANKSGIVING) SUNDAY - Sunday, 15 Oct. - Fall Supper - Sunday, 22 Oct. - HONOR SUNDAY - Sunday, 29 Oct. - REFORMATION SUNDAY - Sunday, 5 Nov. - Daylight Saving Time ends - Sunday, 12 Nov. - SOUP KITCHEN SUNDAY - Sunday, 19 Nov. - Deadline for submissions for the December Newsletter - Sunday, 3 Dec. - FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT - Sunday, 10 Dec. - INVITE-A-FRIEND SUNDAY and Hanging-of-the-Greens service - Sunday, 17 Dec. - COMMUNION SUNDAY

3 First Presbyterian Church NEWS Page 3 ENDOWMENT FUND Contributions to the Endowment Fund from January to the end of July totaled $160 in envelope givings, $ in memorial donations, and $95 in honor gifts, totaling $ Many thanks to all who have contributed to the Endowment Fund this year! REVENUE: FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ENDOWMENT FINANCIAL STATEMENT - AUGUST 2017 Y-T-D Honour Gifts Interest Bank Investment Interest Investment Redeemed , Memorial Gifts Offering Envelopes Finance & Maintenance TOTAL REVENUE: , EXPENSES: Bank Charges Investment Purchase , Miscellaneous Finance & Maintenance , GST TOTAL EXPENSES: , BANK: Opening Balance: January 1, , Total Revenue Year to Date 29, Total Expenses Year to Date 28, Closing Balance: JULY 31, , INVESTMENTS: DATE BANK INVESTMENT AMOUNT PURCHASED Jan. 31/17 Scotiabank GIC Due July 31, 1.5% 5, Jul 1/17 Stride Credit Union GIC - Westbourne Fund - Due October 1, May 25/17 Stride Credit Union GIC Due May 25, 1.5% 21, Oct. 14/15 Stride Credit Union GIC Harvest Term Due October 14, 1.90% 30, Stride Credit Union Share TOTAL INVESTMENTS 58,695.72

4 First Presbyterian Church NEWS Page 4 FROM THE SOUP KITCHEN For 17 years First Presbyterian Church has been home to the Soup Kitchen. In those years there have been many changes. Some of the changes: The average number of meals served from 30 to 50. From needing approximately $5,000 a year to cover expenses to about $15,000. From washing all the dishes by hand to having a dishwasher. From having a fan to cool off the kitchen to having air conditioning. From having one leader and two volunteers each day to one leader and three volunteers. From being open four days a week to five days a week and even some holidays. From using donated meat ends for sandwiches to paying for rolls of ham or bologna. From having one refrigerator and one freezer for storing food to one fridge and four freezers. From having one coordinator to two. From receiving the soup from the Women's Jail to having it provided by several Hutterite colonies. New things at the Soup Kitchen: Once a year there is a Soup Kitchen Sunday. Several of the volunteers and both coordinators have taken the Food Safe Handling course. The leaders meet a few times a year with the coordinators. There is a Soup Kitchen Day at the MCC Thrift Shop and Furniture Plus. Letters are written to local business to raise money. The coordinators meet once a month. With all these changes, the one thing that remains the same is the fantastic volunteers!

5 First Presbyterian Church NEWS Page 5 TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION CALLS TO ACTION: To date I have written of 2 calls of action that involve the church. There are 2 others specifically aimed at the church. 60. We call upon leaders of the church parties to the Settlement Agreement and all other faiths, in collaboration with Indigenous spiritual leaders, Survivors, schools of theology, seminaries, and other religious training centres, to develop and teach curriculum for all student clergy, and all clergy and staff who work in Aboriginal communities, on the need to respect Indigenous spirituality in its own right, the history and legacy of residential schools and the roles of the church parties in that system, the history and legacy of religious conflict in Aboriginal families and communities, and the responsibility that churches have to mitigate such conflicts and prevent spiritual violence. Knox College offers such courses as: Decolonizing Preaching and Doctrines of Reconciliation. Presbyterian College offers the course Aboriginal Encounters. 61. We call upon church parties to the Settlement Agreement, in collaboration with Survivors and representatives of Aboriginal organizations, to establish permanent funding to Aboriginal people for: i. Community-controlled healing and reconciliation projects. ii. Community-controlled culture- and language- revitalization projects. iii. Community-controlled education and relationship-building projects. iv. Regional dialogues for Indigenous spiritual leaders and youth to discuss Indigenous spirituality, self-determination, and reconciliation. We had a group come to the church a few years back about a project, unfortunately nothing came of it. However, as a church we are called to be open to possibilities. These 4 calls make up the section CHURCH APOLOGIES AND RECONCILIATION which includes the calls numbered OUR CHURCH WEBSITE Please note that the address for our congregation s website has been shortened to Many thanks to Raymond Reichelt, who manages the website for us! Meal in a Bowl Due to scheduling conflicts Meal-in-a-Bowl has been cancelled for September. It will resume in October.

6 First Presbyterian Church NEWS Page 6 STEWARDSHIP VISITATION Many thanks to everyone who took part in and supported our annual Stewardship Visitation in early May in particular, to our elders, who did the visiting! Thanks also to Charlie Clifford, Mardine Garnham, and Lisa Sneesby, who served on the team that organized the Visitation. The special Visitation offering received was $1,210, slightly more than the amount anticipated in the 2017 budget! Twelve individuals/households responded to the Interest and Service survey. THE REFORMATION 31 October will be the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation. On that day in 1517, Martin Luther posted a notice on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, inviting people to a debate on the church s penitential practices, which included the sale of so-called indulgences. That act sparked a chaotic and violent period of reform in the church that lasted for approximately 130 years a period in which many of the teachings, traditions, and practices of the church were challenged. The leaders of the church sought to suppress the reform movement at first, but many reformers received political and military support from local rulers, which allowed the reform movement to continue. Unfortunately, the reform movement itself was divided, as various reformers disagreed with each other. Instead of there being a unified reform movement, then, it was badly fragmented. By the end of the Reformation in 1648, there were, instead of one reformed church, four new branches of the church alongside the Roman Catholic Church: the Anglican Church, the Lutheran Church, the Reformed Church (of which the Presbyterian Church is a part), and the Anabaptist Church. Leaders of the Reformation included Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Knox, among many others. Remembering the Reformation reminds us that The church is in constant need of reform, because of the failure and sin that mark its life in every age (Living Faith 7.1.6). SESSION NEWS Highlights of the June and August Session meetings: - Following the addition of Pat Mullins to the Session, a new elder s district was created for her, consisting of a few people who were moved from other elders districts. Adjustments were made to a couple of other elders districts at the same time. - Tricia Chiponski and Margaret Dunn gave notice of their intention to step down as Coordinators of the Soup Kitchen at the end of December. We thank them for their faithful years of service, capably done! - Permission was given to Shelly Burton to hold a Soup Kitchen Christmas Dinner on Saturday, 30 December. - It was agreed to see if we could line up a couple of mission speakers in 2018 one in the spring and one in the fall. - John reminded the Session members that he will be serving as interim moderator for Knox - Zion Church in Carberry until the end of next June.

7 First Presbyterian Church NEWS Page 7 COMFORT DOLLS and INFANT CAPS SHIPPED to NEEDY CHILDREN Shown above are 217 Comfort Dolls and 61 Infant Caps that were sent to COMPASSIONATE RESOURCE WAREHOUSE this summer. For the past eight years, our congregation has been sending these knitted items to ICROSS CANADA in Victoria, BC. The dolls and caps were then used as packing with their medical supply shipment and distributed to orphans at their destination in third world countries. Icross Canada is no longer able to continue this project and recommended that we send our items to Compassionate Resource Warehouse which is a charitable organization also based in Victoria, BC. Volunteers collect, pack, and distribute donated items free of charge to various countries around the world. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about this organization, feel free to contact Gwen Henwood or check out the Compassionate Resource Warehouse website at PICTORIAL DIRECTORY The final information for our pictorial directory was sent to IPC at the beginning of July. We hope to receive our directories later this fall. Everyone who had their picture taken and everyone who submitted their own picture will receive a copy of the directory. Many thanks to Shauna-Lei Leslie, who took over the task of organizing this project following the death of Heather Yeo.

8 First Presbyterian Church NEWS Page 8 PRAYER TIME We hold a Prayer Time once a month - on the first Thursday afternoon, at 1:30, usually in the classroom, downstairs. Anyone who would like to gather with others for a time of prayer is most welcome. Following a scripture reading and a brief meditation, we spend a few minutes listing suggestions for prayer, and then spend some time in prayer together. Those who wish to are encouraged to pray aloud; those who don t wish to pray aloud pray along silently. If your schedule doesn t allow you to participate regularly, feel free to join us whenever you can. We generally meet for 40 to 60 minutes. FINANCES: FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH JAN AUG 2017 FINANCES: INCOME RECEIVED: 63, EXPENSES PAID: 65, SURPLUS (DEFICIT): (2,658.55) PRESBYTERIANS SHARING Total Allocation for year is $3,000.00: DONATIONS RECEIVED: 1, FUNDRAISING: INCOME: 12, EXPENSES: 3, SURPLUS: 8, A summary of the surplus from the following events (the amounts are included in the above year to date fundraising information): Burns Dinner Spring Dinner Catering 3, Meal In A Bowl 2, Breakfast Spring Concert 1, Thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of these events.

9 First Presbyterian Church NEWS Page 9 HAPPENINGS IN 1 ST CHURCH Summer service June 18 th at the Sneesby s It seems everyone enjoyed the food & ice cream!! Margaret Dunn Debbi Miles, John Zondag Isabelle McLean Brian Yeo, Barb Pappas & Christina Robertson & Shauna-Lei Leslie John & Isabelle Roberta Muirhead, Betty Blyth, Charlie Clifford Gwen Henwood, Keith Kelly in back & Kellee Bousquet Ruth Buan & Carlee & Brooke Sneesby Margaret Dunn Kiara Spratt

10 First Presbyterian Church NEWS Page 10 GREAT PRESBYTERIAN PIE SALE First Presbyterian Church (Downstairs) SEPTEMBER 29, :00 2:30 pm. All Pies $8.00 Come and enjoy a Piece of pie and beverage $3.50

11 First Presbyterian Church NEWS Page 11 Fall Supper Sunday, October 15 th, :00-6:30 p.m. First Presbyterian Church 17 Royal Road South Adults $ & under $ & under - Free Everyone Welcome!