7:00pm | Ash Wednesday Service
Eucharist & Imposition of Ashes
12 Noon | Friendship Circle
10:00am | Bible Study
9:00am | Choir Rehearsal
12:30pm | AGM
The annual meeting of the parishioners of the Parish of St. John’s Cathedral will be held in the John West Hall. All members are entitled to attend and to vote.
Journey together with Christ to the cross where our sin is put to death, and to the empty tomb,
where we are given new life in the risen Christ.
Lent is from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning “springtime” and so is to be understood as the holy springtime of the soul, a time for preparation, planting, and growth. Like the father of the prodigal son (this story is one of the Lenten gospel readings, next year), God the Father invites us to return home. Lent is a time for self-examination and repentance, but repentance always understood in its most graceful sense: a turning away from death, and death-dealing habits and lifestyles, and a turning toward life, the abundant life given in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Lent is the holy springtime of the soul, a time for preparation, planting, and growth.
From a very early time in the history of the church of Christ, Lent was a time set aside for those people preparing for baptism (and originally they were almost all adults) to undergo instruction in the mysteries of the faith. They were then baptized at the Great Vigil of Easter, the first service of Easter, after sunset on Holy Saturday – in the Jewish worldview the new day begins at sunset, and so for the earliest Christians, all of them Jewish, Easter actually began on Saturday night.
The season of Lent is a period of time set aside to help all Christians prepare to remember and celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord. Lent prepares us for the great events of Easter, the centre of our faith. Lent is not so much a chunk of the calendar as it is an opportunity for pilgrimage, for all of us who are baptized into Christ to remember that baptism and examine closely its relationship to our lives, to journey together with Christ to the cross where our sin is put to death, and to the empty tomb, where we are given new life in the risen Christ.
Signposts on the journey include the disappearance of the Alleluia and the Gloria, to remind us of the solemnity of the season. Traditionally, flowers are not included in worship spaces for the same reason. The colour of the season is violet or purple, for repentance. The season is 40 days long (excluding Sundays), even as Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness preparing for his ministry, and the people of Israel wandered 40 years in the wilderness, preparing to enter the Promised Land.
Lent is a time for self-examination and repentance, but repentance always understood in its most graceful sense: a turning away from death and a turning toward the abundant life given in Jesus Christ our Lord.
In the Hebrew Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament, ashes are used over and over again as a sign of humility and repentance. People know that they have sinned before God and so they mark themselves with ashes. Ashes, in a Jewish and Christian context, suggest judgement and God’s condemnation of sin.
When we hear the words from Genesis 3, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” we are reminded forcefully of our mortality and the words of the committal in the burial service, “…earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” One day those words will be said over us; that doesn’t need to be morbid, but it is a powerful reminder that we are not God, and so Lent is time to give up our idolatry, even, maybe especially, of ourselves.
Clear away the clutter of the past and in doing so, enrich the ground for a new future.
Ashes were once used as a cleansing agent in the absence of soap, and so they remind us that we need to be cleansed of our sin, as indeed we are in baptism. A further example of death and renewal is the custom of burning fields so as to destroy the old and prepare the new, to clear away the clutter of the past and in doing so to enrich the ground for a new future.
The cross of ashes reminds us vividly that in baptism we were signed with the cross of Christ, forever. We belong to Christ.
Baptism is a primary emphasis of Lent and ashes have sometimes been understood as penitential substitute for water as a sign of baptism; as water both stifles and refreshes, drowns and makes alive, so the ashes also tell of both death and renewal. Perhaps more importantly, the cross of ashes reminds us vividly that in baptism we were signed with the cross of Christ, forever, and that we always bear that sign on our brows. We belong to Christ, and so there is joy for the journey, not just of Lent, but of life.
Connecting with and supporting those in our churches who have someone on the ‘inside’ and encouraging those who visit people in remand or one of the correctional institutions.
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church
600 Cambridge Street (Cambridge & Corydon)
Winnipeg, MB
If you or a loved one is, or has been in prison, if you do prison ministry, or have an interest in visiting those inside Bishops Elaine Sauer and Don Phillips welcome you to participate in this free event.
Please RSVP by March 13th to:
Tom Collings 204-772-2892 or tomjulie at mts dot net
or Ken Kuhn 204-885-2821 or kenkuhn at mts dot net
Celebration of New Ministry & installation of Dean The Very Rev. Paul N. Johnson, Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 4:00pm.
St. John’s Cathedral will welcome the Diocese, Lutheran Full Communion partners, and many guests, for this joyful Eucharistic service of thanksgiving and celebration. Please plan on being part of this event if you possibly can! Remember, it’s our ministry we’re celebrating. Thanks be to God.
Become aware
of God’s presence
and action
in your life.
6 pm to 8 pm
Tools for Responding to God:
Reaching Out
with Nancy Phillips, Facilitator
Do you have a longing to explore a deeper connection with God? Deepen your awareness of God at work within us and the ways in which God may be calling us to respond to the world around us.
Please join us for what promises to be a lively growing experience! Open to everyone!
Brown Bag Supper at 5:30 pm (optional)
12 Noon | Friendship Circle
9:00am | Sewing of Choir Gown Scapulas
The sewing of choir gown scapulas takes place in the choir room on Fridays at 9. Please join us if you are able to help out. Many hands make light work!
10:00am | Bible Study
4:00pm | Celebration of New Ministry
Celebration of New Ministry of the Very Rev. Paul N. Johnson as Incumbent of the Cathedral Parish of St. John and Dean of Rupert’s Land.
Notice is hereby given that the annual meeting of the parishioners of the Parish of St. John’s Cathedral will be held in the John West Hall on the 26 day of February A.D. 2012 at 12:30 in the afternoon at which time and place all members signing the Declaration of Church Membership and who are of the full age of 16 years are entitled to attend and to vote.
DATED February 2, 2012
The Very Rev. Paul N. Johnson
Convenor
The Very Rev. Bob & Janice Osborne have sold their house in Winnipeg and are moving to the Ottawa area to be closer to their daughter and her family. They will be leaving our diocese at the end of January.
Bishop Donald and Nancy Phillips are hosting a reception to bid them ‘farewell’.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
St. Peter’s Church, 755 Elm Street (corner of Grant & Elm)
from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
All Welcome!
6:30 pm | Ministry of Property Management Meeting
The Arrival of The Very Rev Paul N. Johnson,
New Dean of Rupert’s Land
12 Noon | Friendship Circle
10:00 am | Bible Study
On the first Sunday in Advent, we lit a candle for Hope.
On the second Sunday in Advent, we lit a candle for Peace.
Last Sunday, the third Sunday in Advent, we lit a candle for Joy.
Today we light a candle for Love.
As this flame begins to burn, O God,
let your love warm our hearts as Mary’s love welcomed the Christ child
into the world so long ago in Bethlehem.
Let your Spirit burn in our hearts;
let your Light shine in our world;
and as our Advent time of waiting for the baby Jesus’ birth comes to an end, let the Flame of Your Love warm the place where the Christ would be born today. Amen.
Christmas time can be a difficult time of the year. Find hope and comfort in knowing that you are not alone.
“When Christmas Hurts” is a time when we can join with others in acknowledging the feelings of sadness that some folk have at Christmas time, along with the reasons for these feelings, and offer them to God.
In late December, we experience the shortest day and the longest night of the year. This time has been called the “dark night of the soul”, “the winter of our discontent”, in which memories of past experiences and the pain of present experiences can become overwhelming. For some, Christmas Day is most difficult; for others, Christmas Eve, or New Years Eve, or the beginning of another lonely New Year.
In this service, there will be some singing appropriate to the Christmas Season, recognizing that this is not a season of joy for everyone. We will invite those in attendance to reflect on the pain, the loneliness, the sadness they may be feeling, and offer this to the Christ Child. We pray that those attending this service will find hope and comfort in knowing that they are not alone.
All are welcome to attend.
