Highlights November 22, 2015 We re all looking for the light... 3255 Edgemont Blvd. North Vancouver, BC V7R 2P1 604-980-6071 www.highlandsunited.org churchoffice@highlandsunited.org
Highlands Upcoming Events and Programs This list does not include rooms booked for outside rentals (Guides, AA, Alanon etc). Highlands Event Calendar can be viewed on our web site at: www.highlandsunited.org To book a room, contact the church office at: churchoffice@highlandsunited.org Sunday, November 22 9:30 am Welcome Café in the Welcoming Space 10:00 am Sunday Worship Service with Rev. Cari Copeman-Haynes 11:15 am Newcomers Orientation, meet Colleen Blair in the Narthex 11:15 am Bell Ringers Rehearsal, Room 201 12:00 pm Fiddler Cast Meeting, Sanctuary Monday, November 23 9:00 am Highlands Quilters, Choir Room 9:00 am Sandwiches for First United, Kitchen 1:00 pm Prayer Shawl Ministry, Choir Room 7:00 pm Fiddler Rehearsal, Sanctuary 7:00 pm Guitar for Fun, Faith Room 7:30 pm Badminton, Gym Tuesday, November 24 9:30 am Staff meeting 9:30 am ESL/ELL Beginner Class, Room 202 9:30 am ESL/ELL Class, Room 201 11:00 am Property Committee meeting, Choir Room 6:30 pm M & P Committee Meeting, Faith Room Wednesday, November 25 7:30 am Men s Breakfast, Eighties Restaurant 10:00 am Seniors Drop-In, Welcoming Space 4:00 pm Tai Chi, Gym 4:00 pm Finance Committee Meeting, Choir Room 6:30 pm Be You! Art Journaling Course, Room 202 7:00 pm Fiddler Rehearsal, Sanctuary Thursday, November 26 9:30 am ESL/ELL Class, Room 201 9:30 am ESL/ELL Beginners Class, Room 202 10:00 am Healing Hands, Chapel & Choir Room 11:30 am Nativity Exhibit Set-up in the Lower Hall 12:30 pm ESL/ELL Speakers Group, Room 201 3:30 pm Nativity Exhibit set-up in the Gym 5:30 pm Thursday Community meal, Gym 6:00 pm Developer Open House, Welcoming Space 6:00 pm Genesis Too Choir Rehearsal, Sanctuary 6:30 pm God s Free Spirits Choir Rehearsal, Choir Room 8:00 pm Spirit Singers Choir Rehearsal, Sanctuary Friday, November 27 6:00 pm Opening of Nativity Exhibit and Craft Fair, Lower Floor Saturday, November 28 8:45 am Tai Chi, Sanctuary 10:00 am Nativity Exhibit and Craft Fair, Lower Floor 1:00 pm Saturday Lunch, North Shore Neighbourhood House Sunday, November 29 9:30 am Welcome Café in the Welcoming Space 10:00 am Sunday Worship Service with John Pentland 11:15 am Newcomers Orientation, meet Colleen Blair in the Narthex 11:15 am Advent Chinese Lunch, Gym 11;15 am Bell Ringers, Room 201 4:00 pm Advent Communion Service, 2 Sanctuary or Chapel
*The North Shore Global Climate march begins at 11:20 at the south end of Taylor Way at the Spirit Trail, and will join the main Rally at the Art Gallery at 1 p.m. 3
Creches (Nativity Scenes )Needed! Please consider loaning your family creche (3 dimensional, any style/type, or hanging nativity pictures) for our Nativity Exhibit on Friday, Nov 27 and Saturday, Nov 28. You will be able to pick them up anytime from Nov 29 after church service. We carefully record each set and keep them under lock and key - we know how precious they are to you. You may bring them to the church office any week day, or on Sundays, place them on the table in the choir room or ask someone at the nativity table in the welcome space. All scenes need to be in by Sun. 4 Nov. 22nd!
Advent Chinese Food Lunch Sign up for the annual Advent Chinese food lunch being held after worship on Sunday, November 29 th. This lunch has become a fun tradition and whether you re here to see or clean up after the Nativity event, put up Christmas Lights, on your way down to the Vancouver Art Gallery for the Global Climate March at 1:00 pm or just looking forward to an opportunity to gather around the table for conversation and connection, please join us. Unlike other Sunday lunches, we must ask that you sign up for this event in advance, indicating how many people will attend. Our Chinese food order will be based on the number that sign up! Let us know you are coming by signing up by Friday, November 27 th. You can do any of the following: Click on this link: Chinese lunch sign up form OR Sign up at the action table OR Email colleen.blair@highlandsunited.org Cost is $7 per person or $25 per family. Children under 4, free. Kids Only Store! - Message from Gillian Irwin & the Spirit Singers You may recall from past years that the Spirit Singers have held a "Children Only" store on the Nativity weekend, where children bought gifts for their family and friends at very low prices. They also had a chance to wrap them and write gift cards with an adult's help so all their Christmas shopping was done in one easy trip. However, this was only possible because many of you were kind enough to rummage through your closets to find all those little things that you may never have used...gloves that were the wrong colour, scarves that didn't go with anything, Christmas socks that you were afraid to wear, candle holders, gardening tools (but you didn't have a garden), jewelry that didn't suit you, sleeves of golf balls, Christmas mugs and plates, etc. The children came and loved your cast-offs and we made some money to put toward the work that the Spirit Singers do. Well, we are holding the "Children Only" store again this year, Friday Nov 27 and Saturday Nov 28, so we would love it if you could attack the next closet (or your neighbour's closet) to find new treasures for the kids to buy. There is a box in the outer office area marked "Kids Only". If you can find anything you can part with you could put it in the box and I will pick it up. Thank you! 5
Seniors Connection Downtown Vancouver Christmas Tea and Lights Participants in the Wednesday Seniors Connection Programme are invited to join us on a bus trip to experience some of the beautiful Christmas lights and excitement in Downtown Vancouver. The bus will leave Highlands at 1 p.m. and return by 5. We ll have tea and dessert in the Pan Pacific Hotel and a stroll outside along the Canadian Trail to see the historic Woodward s windows and other seasonal displays. Time permitting, we will see Gingerbread Lane at the Hyatt Hotel. Our drive home will take us past festive downtown lights. Cost will be $35 and is due by December 2 nd. Register by calling 604 980 6071 ext. 27 or emailing colleen.blair@highlandsunited.org or sign up at the Action Table. (If there are more interested than seats on the bus, we ll have a lottery!) 6
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Interested in Bellringing at Christmas time? Practices will be Sundays after church and into the early afternoon, and performances are during the Advent services. Contact Roz Hollett at (604) 929-6925 or roz_hollett@hotmail.com for rehearsal and performance details A Message from Highlands Ministry Profile and Search Committee: The MPS Committee has finished its consultative process, and the MPSC report is complete. This report was approved at the Leadership Board meeting on Thursday November 12, and now requires approval by the congregation as a whole. To that end, notice of a congregational meeting is hereby given for Sunday December 6 immediately following worship. Following congregational approval of this report, it will be forwarded to BC Conference for final approval and an immediate vacancy for a Lead Minister at Highlands United Church will be declared. A copy of the report will be available to the congregation in the week prior to the meeting. 8
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Syrian Refugee Family Needs Help In response to the Syrian refugee crisis, all of the North Shore United Churches are working together to sponsor a family of seven. As a private sponsor group we will financially support this family for 12 months, and help with their English language learning skills and adapting to life in Canada. This is in effect a family reunification sponsorship since the father of the Syrian family has a brother who is a long-term Canadian resident living in the Lower Mainland, whose children are Canadian citizens. Here is a bit about the family from the point of view of the mother. Our life prior to the conflict was well settled. We had good jobs, a happy life and a nice home. My husband and I have four beautiful girls and a little boy. The children enjoyed school and our eldest was learning English. The civil war in Syria is complex, there are several conflicting factions fighting one another, this means it was dangerous for ordinary citizens like us. We felt compelled to abandon our home in northeastern Syria after several violent attempts by one faction to coerce my husband into fighting with them. In March 2015, we packed up what we could carry and found smugglers, whom we paid, to assist us to escape from Syria into Iraq. We travelled mostly at night, occasionally in unlit cars on unpaved roads, often on foot, through fields and along a trench to get through the border. We descended a treacherous mountainside and were ferried in small boats across a wide river. It was often terrifying; it was always risky. We have been living in a UN refugee camp since early spring; it is a very dirty and rough way of life. We are greatly encouraged and grateful that caring people are helping us to be reunited with my brother-in-law and his family in Canada. *In order to respect the family s privacy and security we are unable to publish names, ages and specific locations. Please consider making a donation. Next Sunday, we will have special envelopes for donations (make cheques payable to Highlands United Church with a note indicating Syrian Refugee appeal). 10
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Christmas Food Hampers for Saturday Lunch Guests Every Christmas, for the past 4 years, the Saturday Lunch team, with the help of others in the community, has given each of our guests a substantial hamper of food, toiletries, a hat, gloves and socks. We plan to do the same this year on December 19th. The items we include are listed below. We like all the gift bags to be the same, so if you are able to donate, please consider giving multiple items of the same thing. For example, last year, one donor gave all the chocolate bars, another, gave 20 cans of fruit. Some donors gave money so that we can purchase missing items, during the week before we give the hampers out. If you can be a donor please call Ruth Kershaw at 604-929-0421 or email her at ruthkershaw@telus.net and tell her what you'll buy. She will keep a tally so we don't end up with 100 of one thing and none of another item. If you wish to donate money, please make the cheque payable to Highlands United Church noting Saturday Lunch Food Hampers. You can bring your donation to the church, clearly marked Saturday Lunch Hampers. We need all donations in by Sunday, December 13, but would be grateful to have them sooner. Blessings to you and your family for a wonderful Christmas. Wendy Grant, Dave and Judy Thomas, and Ruth Kershaw Items needed for each of the 65 gift bags: Cans of Salmon and Tuna, Cans of Chunky soup, Cans of Baked beans, Dry soup packages (Knorr, Lipton), Cans of fruit, Small Bottles of Jam, Kraft Dinner, Crackers, Boxes Cereal, Small Bottles Peanut Butter, Small chocolate bars, Small bottle instant coffee, Tea bags. 30 pairs dark Men s socks, 35 pair Women s socks, Touques, 30 Men s Black or navy Thinsulate, 35 Women s variety of colours; Gloves and mitts 30 dark, 35 variety of colours Shampoo-Conditioner (all in 1)350ml Home baking: Small Christmas cookies like shortbread or gingerbread. Please call Judy Thomas at 604-984-7503 12
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Community Events Socks for First United Thank You! The recipients of the socks, the First United staff and the Highlands Local Connections Committee say a big THANK YOU to everyone who responded so generously to our Socks for First appeal. 1100 pairs have been delivered to First United and we have more than that number to take over in the weeks ahead, so needed on the cold, wet days of winter. Your response has been amazing and truly appreciated. Other Needs: coffee mugs; men s small & medium tee-shirts, casual pants & casual shoes (in great condition!); Bars of soap; Towels, blankets & sheets! Also long underwear and leggings, sleeved casual shirts & sweatpants, mitts, gloves, scarves & winter hats, & heavy coats. Also winter boots and rain boots. Call or email Jerri for more information: 604-700-7385 jerri.morrick@firstunited.ca Handel's Messiah Cap Classical & Choral The BlueShore at Cap Sat, Dec 5, 2015 @ 8pm & Sun, Dec 6 @ 3pm Tickets: $30/$25/$10 Click to buy tickets) Conductor: Lars Kaario / Capilano University Festival Chorus and Capilano University Singers with professional instrumental ensemble and soloists What better way to bring in December than with this timeless masterpiece? Professional orchestra and soloists will join the 150-voice choir in the complete version of Handel's Messiah. With soloist Geordie Roberts 14
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Higher Ground Women s Ensemble Christmas Concert Higher Ground Women's Choir will present an eclectic group of winter-themed music from Rhineberger to Macdonald on December 8 at Highlands United Church. Our favourite vocal jazz pieces, as well as your favourite Christmas songs--it will all be there! Don't miss this kick-off to your holiday season! 16