The Church Mouse - New Sunday School Cirriculum

     The Compendium of the Church Mice is a creative year-long Sunday school curriculum that weaves in the Marks of Mission.  It is one of several projects emerging from General Synod’s Marks of Mission initiative.
     For more information see the Anglican Church of Canada website: http://www.anglican.ca/churchmice/

The story behind this resource

     The Compendium of the Church Mice is one of several creative projects that have emerged from General Synod’s Marks of Mission initiative, which encourages Canadian Anglicans to see their many ministries through this framework.

     In August 2011, General Synod launched a church school contest, calling for teachers to submit curriculum ideas that integrated the Marks of Mission. 

     Four winners—Kate Saunders of Richmond, N.B.; Janet Cress and Nancy Wilcox of Binbrook, Ont.; and Kate Newman of Vancouver, B.C.—gathered for a weekend workshop in Toronto in November 2011. The workshop facilitator was Susan Graham Walker, a strategic planner, educator and coauthor of God, Kids & Us (ABC Publishing, Anglican Book Centre).

     Over the course of an intense weekend, the group created an outline for a year long curriculum that would showcase the Marks of Mission and engage different age groups.

     Kate Newman, a workshop participant, was hired by General Synod to develop the curriculum in detail. Ms. Newman, who has wide experience in theatre, film and puppetry, is the youth, children, and family ministry coordinator at Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver. She holds a Master of Education degree from the University of British Columbia.

     The Compendium of the Church Mice was released in June 2012 on www.anglican.ca, with the support of staff from the Communications and Information Resources department.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity - Jan.18-25

cf. www.anglican.ca

ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA

cf. - http://giopski.hubpages.com/hub/WEEK-OF-PRAYER-FOR-CHRISTIAN-UNITY

January 09, 2013 -

Canadian Anglicans will mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Jan. 18 to 25, in many ways: joining other Christians for special ecumenical services, cooperative mission or evangelism work, and pulpit swaps.

Liturgical materials is available, jointly prepared by the Vatican and the World Council of Churches, this year under the guidance of a delegation from India.

Stated in 1908, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is one of the oldest ecumenical activities.  It predates the 1948 creation of the World Council of Churches and all the Anglican Church of Canada's bilateral dialogues.

The Anglican Church of Canada engages in dialogues with the Roman Catholic Church and ecumenical councils and has re-engaged the United Church of Canada.  Its work with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada remains exemplary.

Since 2001, the two denominations have enjoyed a full communion relationship that includes exchanges of clergy and mutual recognition of baptismal vows.  They will hold their first joint national assembly in Ottawa, July 3 to 7, 2013.

• Week of Prayer resources are available from the Canadian Council of Churches
• Week of Prayer resources (including versions in Spanish and German) are also available from the World Council of Churches
  
• Learn more about our church's ecumenical relationships

An Unexpected Christmas

     Thanks Jan for putting me on to this video of children from St. Paul's Church, Aukland, New Zealandalian - amazing!  Be sure to check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM1XusYVqNY

     About the video -

Published on Dec 13, 2012

The story of Christmas told by the kids of St Paul's Church, Auckland, New Zealand, including footage from our films "The Christmas Story" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWq60oyrHVQ) and "Good News of Great Joy" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttInl1ewJVo). 

The script is based on the book "An Unexpected Christmas" by our friend Simone Graham, whose kids are also in the film.

The music is an original score by Nathan King (humstudios.co.nz) and has not been published separately. The closing song is a re-arrangement of the title track from St Paul's album 'God w/ Us' (https://itunes.apple.com/nz/album/god-w-us/id553097183). 

Anyone is welcome to show this film publicly, but not publish/broadcast it, nor change it in any way, nor make money out of it.

You can download this film  here:https://dl.dropbox.com/u/69160583/An%20Unexpected%20Christmas%201080.mp4.zip

And you can download the transcript here:https://www.dropbox.com/s/goivhwaihuzt47j/An%20Unexpected%20Christmas%20-%20T...

Unless there are too many downloads, then you'll need to wait a few days.

Prayer - CBC Radio Tapestry Program

     I listened to this program on Saturday afternoon - it was very interesting!  Here's the link - I found it very interesting!

http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/episode/2013/01/04/prayers-the-small-but-mighty/

Season 18: Episode 17

     For Hindus, Buddhists and other eastern faiths, it's the single-syllabled Om.  For Jews, it's the six words of the Shema. This week we look at prayers of few words - the small-but-mighty sayings that inspire and sustain millions.

     Pandit Roopnauth Sharma is a Hindu priest and leader of Ram Mandir temple, a community of 3,000 families in Mississauga, Ontario.   Earlier this year he shared a wonderful story with us about his struggle to release his father's ashes, as per tradition, in public waters in Canada. You can hear A Son's Journeyhere. 

< This is the symbol for Om - the one-word prayer that is packed with so much meaning

    Rabbi Joseph Meszler leads the Temple Sinai congregation of Sharon, Massachusetts.  He is the author of several books including Witnesses to the One: The Spiritual History of the Sh'ma by Jewish Lights Publishing.

     When the novelist J.D. Salinger died in 2010, much was said about Salinger' s reclusive nature - and his classic book 'The Catcher in the Rye'. But, here and there, you could find Salinger tributes by people who said his work changed their lives. They spoke of his novel Franny and Zooey, which introduced countless readers to a short prayer, The Way of a Pilgrim, often called The Jesus Prayer.  It's just nine words long:   

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

Rev. Andrew & Janet's Christmas Letter

     I'm a bit late posting this.  Click on the letter and it will enlarge for easier reading.

What is life suppose to be like?

The following was in last week's Parish bulletin.

What is life suppose to be like?

     Colossians 3: 12-17 gives a beautiful description of how we were meant to live together in love, peace, and perfect harmony with kindness, humility, patience, forgiveness, gratitude and wisdom as the characteristics defining our relationships, singing praises to God and doing and saying all in the names of Jesus our Lord.
     We are to clothe ourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  And let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, to which we were indeed called in the one body.  And be thankful.  With gratitude in our hearts we are to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to God.

Image cf. http://pdfcast.net/colossians3-12.html

Happy New Year

The following is from the website: Praying Each Day

1  It has been said that “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.”

2  The end of the old year offers an opportunity to look back and be grateful. We may even see some negative things in a better light, as we look back with the advantage of time.

3  Let’s pause to give thanks for what has been good, naming some of the people and events and circumstances of the past year…
(Pause…)

4  Dag Hammarskjöld, once the Secretary General of the United Nations, said: “For all that has been -Thanks! For all that will be - Yes!”

5  Let us pray: 
God our Father, we give thanks for all that has been and, trustfully, we place the past into your hands. 
We ask you to inspire us in the year ahead to seek and fulfil your will. 
May we truly look on each new day as the start of the rest of our lives. 
Enable us, with the power of your Spirit, to remain positive and confident, and live fully and joyfully with those people you have placed into our lives. 
Lead us to bring out the best in one another that we may all grow as the as the people you call us to be.
Amen.

6  At the end of one year and the beginning of another, we appreciate that we have “moved on”. Yet, in another sense, we have returned to where we started. The poet, T.S.Eliot, writes: “We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.”


7  Let us pray:
Lord, you call us not to get too set in our ways, but to be trustful and faithful, seeing the need for the on-going process of being renewed and re-vitalised.
Repeatedly you call each one of us to be ‘born again’, to start anew, to ‘repent’, to review priorities
and re-orientate the direction of our lives.
Give us the fullness of your Spirit that we may live as you would have us live.
Amen.

cf. Praying Each Day- http://www.prayingeachday.org/Dec31.pdf