St. Aidan's “By the Way” Newsletter: June 2015

ST AIDANS ANGLICAN CHURCH: BY THE WAY NEWSLETTER

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1246 Oxford St W London ON N6H 1V7

(519) 471-1430 [email protected] www.staidans.net

Summer ~ June 2015 Edition

essage from the ector

Join Us On The Journey

The Revd Canon Dr. Kevin George

Summer is here! It is an exciting time.

The kids are out of school, cottages are being visited, time on beaches, in

forests, and in lakes has all hit full swing. God gifts us with Sabbath with rest. I pray that you all find the time

needed to rest, rejuvenate, and restore your spirits. This year as you travel we

are asking that you bring something back

with you. We have provided, at our Welcome Desk, containers to collect water. They are compliant with

airline travel requirements. The Worship Team as asking us all to bring water from the various places we visit and we will por them in the font when we worship together on September 13.

That service will be held in our beautiful back yard! This will allow us to see the many places we have brought the Love of

Jesus and the many places in which we have witness the beauty of Gods creation. If you are tech savy take a photo when you collect your water and tweet to @canonkevy or post

it to the St Aidans Facebook Page or email it to me at [email protected] and I will post for you. Lets see where in the world the people of St Aidans have been. While there will no doubt be many of you travelling this

summer, I am also sure many of you will be here in London, perhaps with family and friends paying a visit. We want to invite you to make St Aidans a part of your summer plans. If you have some folks visiting this summer, introduce them to your church community.

In the past we moved out 1030 am Service up to an earlier start time. After three summers

SUMMER EVENTS

SUMMER SERVICE Sundays @ 8am & 10:30am

SACRAMENT ON THE SIFTON

BOG July 24 @ 7:30am

August 24 @ 7:30am

VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL Ages 5 10

July 20 24, 9am noon See Sandy Harle for details


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ardens eport

of listening, watching and prayer, I have with the support of the Worship team and the

Parish Council asked that worship stay at 1030 for the duration of our year. Many of our young families expressed their difficulty in making the earlier time. We also heard consistently every summer from a number of seniors that they could not make the early

start time. I realize that for the early birds among us, this may be a disappointment. I pray that you are able to continue to come through the summer at 1030 am as you have doing

from September to the end of June every year, and see this shift as an act of compassion and hospitality for those who are unable to join us at the earlier time.

It has been a very fun filled time here at St Aidans. In the past few weeks we have hosted a great Paella Dinner and a fantastic gold tournament. I would like to thank Chris and Sandy Harle for organizing a great night! We look forward to this event being on our calendar

again next year. Speaking of Chris Harle At our parish golf tournament Chris nailed a HOLE IN ONE! It was a great moment on a great day. Jim and Susan Smythe once again

planned a terrific day for us all. It should be noted that we have had two golf tourneys we have had a hole in one at each one! This place is awesome!

Thank you all for your commitments to this great community. I look forward to seeing you over the summer and hearing about all of your travels.

Jim Smythe

It seems that time has passed very quickly since we last reported to you as life at St. Aidans continues to move in powerful and positive ways.

Since last Novembers edition of By The Way we have welcome many new faces to our congregation and sadly, have had to say goodbye to a few. We have also welcomed two new staff members: Christine Krickhan, our administrative assistant has been doing great work

on a daily basis at the office and Sandy Harle is bringing a renewed vitality to our Children and Youth ministry.

Many thanks to several anonymous donors who have helped spruce-up our narthex with new furniture and a very useful welcome desk. Other un-named donors responsible for

having our windows cleaned after the winter months, spring plantings and bench replacements outside the Church have helped make St. Aidans the welcoming environment we all strive for. The kitchen renovation is proceeding a little slower than we would like but we are still


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outh & hildrens inistry

hopeful that a contractor can be selected from existing construction bids and the work can take place over the summer months in time for a Newfoundland kitchen party in the fall. We have contracted a company to take care of our winter and summer outside maintenance. After this past severe winter with many close-calls with an icy parking lot and a lawn mower requiring more maintenance than it is worth, this company will take care of

our basic winter and summer outside needs.

Our Volunteer Ministries Sunday on March 1st not only showcased the numerous volunteer ministries here at St. Aidans but resulted in a renewal of our individual commitment to these activities that are the Church.

Two Jazz By The Bog concerts, a fine evening of Paella thanks to the Harle family and the upcoming golf tournament round out our fundraising activities over the past few months.

As Kevin mentioned in a recent sermon, there seems to be a number of unexpected financial challenges right now as our Church roof needs attention as well as a bathroom

repair at the Church house. Meeting our fundraising budget will be crucial in solving these unplanned-for expenses.

Your continued support of our leadership group is felt by all of us. Please dont hesitate to communicate with us regarding the wellbeing of St. Aidans as we move forward into the second half of 2015 with Gods help. Your Wardens: Doug Wilson-Hodge, Pam McKenzie, Wendy Kilgore & Jim Smythe

Sandy Harle

I feel very privileged to be a new part of the wonderful group that is the Children and Youth of St. Aidans. Alex Strong moved on to work closer to home, in December of last year. I would like to extend an especially big thank you to Jen Aston, Megan Andersen, Mary

Townsend, Chloe Harle and Suzie Dann for all that they did to ensure continuity for our Sunday School children.

We are lucky to have a dedicated and talented group of Sunday School teachers. I would like to invite anyone, if they would consider becoming part of our team, to join us

downstairs on a Sunday morning for a visit. Spending time with the children is an

extremely rewarding experience. The more teachers we have, the more possible it is for our current teachers to also have time where they can take in the full service upstairs on a Sunday.


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Jen Aston has started studying bees with our children and we plan to continue to explore the wonders of Gods creation in different ways. I am looking into options for a possible field trip for our children during July and also one or two other ways in which we can meet

up and celebrate the joys of summer together.

We are looking forward to our Sunday School Picnic Pool Party on Sunday June 13th. This will be a chance for parents and grandparents to mingle and our children to enjoy the friendships that they are developing. It is heartwarming to watch them together. As Barbara

Brown Taylor says, friendship plays an important role in our spiritual life. On July 8th, we will be taking part in a joint venture with our Silver Saints, called Book Ends. We will kick things off with a BBQ and social event in order to pair up our secret pen pals. If you cannot make it on July 8th, and you have a child or children who would still

like to be paired up with a secret pan pal, please let me know. June 19th will see the first of our summer events for the Youth of St. Aidans. Parents will join us as we meet to share a meal, get to know each other and look ahead to spending more time together. In the fall the Youth, and the Children, of St. Aidans will be looking at ways of becoming more involved in our community. Our community involvement will continue the work of the social justice project spearheaded by Jen Aston during the winter months.


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ews from round t. idans

Our Vibrant & Meaningful Community

Financial Update

Andra ONeill

Parish Nursing Ministry Update Pat Ferguson

Philosophy: Recognizing that all persons are sacred and must be treated with respect and

dignity, the Parish Nursing Ministry of St. Aidans will: Empower all to reach their best level of health - body, mind and spirit.

Our major focus for 2015 will be Mental Illness an item ranked high in importance on the Congregational Survey.

If you have any items you would like to see discussed in the weekly bulletin; if you want more information about any health-related issue or if you would like to become

involved in this Ministry, please contact me at 226-270-8862 or [email protected]


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Silver Saints Ministry Update The Silver Saints have held two very successful lunches so far in 2015. In March over 50 people came to hear Kevin talk about growing up in Newfoundland. As we expected, Kevin was both entertaining and informative and so, together with the catered lunch by Remark,

an enjoyable day was had by all. In May our numbers rose even higher when about 60 people came to hear Rabbi Debra Dressler from Temple Israel on Windermere Rd. Her talk on the basics of Judaism and its differences with Christianity was extremely interesting

and taught us a lot about the religion which our own faith is rooted in.

We have the next two lunches planned for July 8th and September 9th. Our July lunch will be a BBQ held together with Sunday School families. At this time we

will launch a joint project with the Sunday School called 'Book Ends' whose aim is to build up relationships between our junior and senior saints. We want to set up secret pen pals

where a member of Sunday School is paired with a Silver Saint but they only know each other through their code names. They will correspond with each other (drawings are fine for those too young to write) for about 3 months at which time we will have an event after

church one Sunday when the secret identities will be revealed and there will be an opportunity to start again with a new friend. We hope at least some Sunday School families will be available to come on a weekday to join with our Silver Saints for a time of fun, good

food and fellowship. This is open to all regardless of whether you plan to be a secret pen pal or not and you can still be a pen pal even if you cannot attend the BBQ.

In September we look forward to Karen Hypes coming to talk to us about her experiences of walking the Camino; a pilgrimage through Spain.

Working alongside our parish nurse, Pat Ferguson, pastoral visits are taking place on a regular basis and monthly Eucharistic services are now taking place at 4 retirement and nursing homes: PeopleCare, Amica, McCormick and Revera at Horizons Place.

All in all the Silver Saints is a busy and thriving community.

I can be contacted at 519-439-1721 or [email protected]

Please note my regular office hours are Thursday mornings from 9 am until 12 noon.


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Disbursement of ACW Funds

On Thursday June 25, 2015, 14 women met for a time of fellowship and a brown bag luncheon and the ultimate reason was for disbursement of ACW funds. We thought in

terms of Outreach, you would be interested in learning that a lot of our funds go outside Canada and some remain in London to help those in need in our City.

Canadian Aid for Southern Sudan (goats) $220.00 Sleeping Children Around the World $220.00

Bishop of the Arctic $220.00 London Community Chaplaincy $220.00 Huron Church Camp $220.00

Teen Challenge Farm $240.00 Mission Services $220.00

Jamaica Self-Help $220.00 Total $ 1780.00

Kevin George came for a brief time and asked that we consider supporting Silver

Saints as this certainly is an Outreach Program that is growing in our community. We agreed to support this Ministry in the amount of:

$800.00 We also decided to put aside an amount for the Kitchen teapots etc. and Altar flowers

($45.00) in the amount of:

$400.00 So as you can see this small group of women certainly are thinking of other folks not

just in our community but also we are reaching out nationally and internationally.

We thought you would be interested to see how we disbursed the money.

Submitted by Katherine Keeling and Sue ODriscoll


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erspectives from arishioners

SOUP AND SANDWICH UPDATE - MAY 11, 2015 Sue and Percy ODriscoll

An update thanks to a 170 people, 29 of whom came from St. Aidans, at the recent Soup and Sandwich Dinner, to raise funds for the Daily Bread Food Bank and Fellowship Centre at St. Pauls Cathedral London (which has been in existence helping the poor for over 35 years), we were able to raise $22,428. We were blessed in that an anonymous donor paid for

the cost of the dinner. Our only expenses were approximately $800 for the mailing. It was indeed a wonderful evening and we thank all of you who were there or couldnt be there but made donations.

First and foremost allow us to welcome you! As a Church, we are more than a building used for celebration; we are a community of faith that

provides support and nurture in the Christian life. We have many opportunities for involvement in our various Ministries. We look

forward to you joining us!

If you havent already Please take a moment to fill out one of our New Member Info Sheets (available on the table in the narthex) so that we can get to know you better! In addition to overviewing your membership interests at St. Aidans, our New Member Info Sheet provides us with the necessary details to add you to our database for effective

communications. *Please place your completed sheet in an envelope in the main church mailslot by the front entrance.*

For your convenience Our New Member Info Sheet is also available ONLINE at: http://bit.ly/1xN6CU2


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ellowship


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Do you have something you wish to share with the parish? An opinion you want to write up or an inspirational story? If so, youre in luck, you can have

a spot in the upcoming newsletter.

For further details, please contact our Editor Stephen Nelles ~ [email protected]


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Rector ~ The Revd Canon Dr. Kevin George [email protected]

226-377-2334

Assistant Curate/Silver Saints Director ~ The Revd Anne Jaikaran [email protected]

Organist & Choir Master ~ David Weaver

[email protected]

Director of Children and Youth Education ~ Sandy Harle [email protected]

Parish Nurse ~ Pat Ferguson, RN [email protected]

226-270-8862

Rectors Warden ~ Doug Wilson-Hodge [email protected]

519-433-5076

Deputy Warden ~ Pam McKenzie [email protected]

519 438-5651

Peoples Warden ~ Wendy Kilgour [email protected]

519-471-8787

Deputy Warden ~ Jim Smythe [email protected]

519-471-0763

Weekly Services: Holy Days Saint Celebrations Weds at 10:30 am; Suns at 8 am & 10:30 am

When you go away from home, the hydro, water and heat still work in your house

When you are away from our church, Ministry still continues

Just as bill paying and paycheque transactions have become easier through pre-authorized withdrawal and automatic deposit, so too is our church making it simpler for you to support our Ministries

even when you are not here!

Make it Easier to Donate: Sign Up for Preauthorized Givings Today!

St. Aidan's “By the Way” Newsletter: June 2015

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