SUNDAY NEXT BEFORE ADVENT
November 20, 2022
GLORY BE TO JESUS CHRIST! GLORY BE TO HIM FOREVER
LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.
Parish Life Notes
CELEBRATING SAINT NICHOLAS UPDATE. This week we received the good news that the Regina Ladies Choir will be bringing an ensemble of singers to provide musical entertainment at the Christmas Café, and will be joined by our own Terrance and Kelsi. The baking team continues to bake Christmas goodies for sale, and home crafters are also preparing items for sale. The St. Mary’s Ethiopian Congregation have committed to running a table at the market. Last Sunday parishioners received invitation cards and posters to distribute. Terrance is spearheading our advertising on social media.
Today’s call:
- Please continue to pick up invitation cards to distribute to your social circle, and posters to pin up.
- Further volunteers to bake and make crafts for sale are welcome. Please speak to Angèle.
- Lend us your Christmas trees, garlands, lights, and decorations to decorate the hall, and be sure to label them!
- Please pray. ALMIGHTY God, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst give commandment to the Apostles that they should go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature: Grant to us whom thou hast called into thy Church, a ready will to obey thy Word; and fill us with a hearty desire to make thy way known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
ST. MARY’S DINNER THEATRE OUTING on Wednesday, November 30th for Evening Prayer at 5.30 p.m., Potluck Supper at 6.00 p.m., and Regina Little Theatre’s of C.S. Lewis classic work, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” at 7.30 p.m. If you have season tickets to Regina Little Theatre, and would like to join the group, you can change your ticket. Phone the box office (talk to Melissa or Erin) and give them your confirmation # on your ticket.
CANADIAN CHURCH CALENDARS have arrived. The profits from the sales go to St. Augustine’s Anglican Church. Calendars will be available at $5.00 each after today’s service. Please see Norma for payment. Thank you!
THE SEASON OF ADVENT which begins next Sunday marks both the beginning of a new year in the Church calendar, but also a season of preparation for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Advent collect describes how Jesus came to us in great humility. He was born of a woman and laid in a manger. God in the flesh! This is what we will celebrate at Christmas. Over the course of this coming year we will seek to grow in our response to the Incarnation by learning to love more deeply the world Jesus came to redeem.
But the coming of Christ is not simply to be understood as something in that occurred once in the past. He comes to us here and now in and through His Holy Spirit, who draws us into union with God and with each other, and so in Advent we renew our intention to live as members of the Body of Christ with peace and joy and all the gifts and fruits of the Spirit!
The coming of Christ also has a future aspect, as we declare in our Creed, “He will come again in glory to judge both the living and the dead.” Advent teaches us to look forward with hope and expectation to that day when “we shall rise to the life immortal” in the new heaven and the new earth where God will be all in all. As we look forward to the Advent of Gods kingdom, we seek to live now as worthy citizens of that kingdom.
The colour of Advent is purple, representing penitence, hope, and expectation, with which we prepare for Jesus ‘coming. As John the Baptist prepared the way of the Lord by calling people to repentance, so Advent is a natural time to renew our spiritual lives through the practice of prayer, stillness, meditation, and confession.
Worship This Week
Morning Prayer
- Tuesday, Thursday, Friday at 8:30 am
- Wednesday at 9:00 a.m.
Evening Prayer
- Wednesday at 5:30 pm. followed by light supper in the Upper Hall.