(Modified 2021-07-04: Added audio recording of service)
THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
![](https://www.stmarysregina.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image002.jpg)
JULY 4, 2021
10.30 A.M. Holy Communion
THE HYMN: 381 Praise My Soul the King of Heaven.
Continue reading “Trinity 5, 2021 – Holy Communion”St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church, Regina, Saskatchewan
(Modified 2021-07-04: Added audio recording of service)
THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
JULY 4, 2021
10.30 A.M. Holy Communion
THE HYMN: 381 Praise My Soul the King of Heaven.
Continue reading “Trinity 5, 2021 – Holy Communion”(Modified 2021-07-04: Added audio recording)
So I think we can all agree that human beings are pretty messed-up. I used to feel pretty smug about my identity markers. I’m a girl – that’s definitely better than being a boy. I’m Canadian, and that’s better than being American. Like a lot of people I thought of us as America Lite, the kinder, politer version of America, with all the good things like democracy and human rights and diversity and much less of the bad stuff like prejudice and arrogance and hyper-nationalism.
And I was smug about having Christianity as my identity marker in terms of the world’s religions. The worst thing people ever seemed to accuse us of was the Crusades, and since those ended 700 years ago I thought we were doing pretty well on the problematic waging-war-and-murdering-people-in-the-name-of-God front.
Feeling smug about your identity markers is mostly a young person’s game. If we are not actively deluding ourselves, life soon disabuses us of our illusions about the rightness of our own tribe compared to everyone else. Someone you trusted to tell the truth lies to you. You find out an institution you belong to has been hurting people. A political party you believe in gets caught up in a scandal, and won’t admit to being wrong. The longer we live, the more times we are disillusioned by our tribe, and by our own behavior, the more we realize that all human beings are pretty messed up. No one has a legitimate claim on virtue.
Continue reading “Trinity 5, 2021 – Sermon”THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
JUNE 27, 2021
10.30 A.M. HOLY COMMUNION. Claude Schroeder preaching.
LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.
GODLY PLAY for children 3-6 years via zoom at 1:30 pm. Today’s story is ‘Jairus’ Daughter’ Matthew 9:18-26.
PASTORAL MINISTRY OF ANOINTING WITH OIL AND LAYING ON OF HANDS WITH PRAYER FOR HEALING follows the celebration of the Holy Communion today.
GOSPEL IN THE GARDEN UPDATE. Thank you to all who donated plants, seeds, and bulbs for our Gospel in the Garden in the project. Soil will be delivered to the raised beds on Tuesday morning , to be followed by a planting bee. Please contact Yvonne if you can help and have plants to donate.
ST. MARY’S OUTDOOR YARD SALE will take place on July 24th. We will start accepting items starting July 18th. Household items, clothing, treasures, jewelry, toys, tools, books (no Encyclopedias or Reader’s Digest). More information to come. Volunteers of all ages welcome! Please call Clara with questions.
ST. MARY’S ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH which worships at St. Mary’s on Saturday mornings celebrated Holy Baptism on Saturday.
(Modified 2021-06-27: Added audio recording of full service including sermon.)
THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
JUNE 27, 2021
10.30 A.M. Holy Communion
INTROIT
Bless the Lord my Soul, and bless God’s Holy Name.
Bless the Lord my soul, who leads me into life.
THE HYMN: 393 Immortal Invisible God Only Wise
Continue reading “Trinity 4, 2021 – Holy Communion”(Modified 2021-06-27: Added audio recording of sermon.)
St. Mary’s Anglican Church, Trinity 4, June 27.2021 Revd. Canon Claude Schroeder
Sermon on Mark 5. 21-43
“The moment is coming when, having done the ‘right’ thing all along, your round peg will not fit in the hole that’s next presented to you. The time is coming when you will be on the outside: a divorce, a bankruptcy, a felony, a betrayal, a cancer, an addiction, a death. Well, yes, death.” (Timothy Kimbrough)
I don’t think there is a person here doesn’t know what it’s like to find yourself on the outside, when the round peg that is your life doesn’t go into the square hole that is presented to you. Divorce, bankruptcy, crime, betrayal, cancer, and death, well yes death, sooner or later come calling.
The sooner one realizes this, the better. “It is good”, writes the author of the Book of Lamentations,” for one to bear the yoke in youth, to sit alone in silence when the Lord has imposed it, to put one’s mouth to the dust (there may yet be hope), to give one’s cheek to the smiter, and be filled with insults.” (Lamentations 3. 27-30). It’s why if at all possible, you should try have your nervous breakdown early in life, in your youth, and learn what it means to place your hope in God. It will hold you in good stead for when things really get difficult later in life.
Our Gospel lesson for today from St. Mark tells the story of three people, whose round peg did not fit the square hole that had been presented to them.
Continue reading “Trinity 4, 2021 – Sermon”THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
JUNE 20, 2021
10.30 A.M. HOLY COMMUNION. Nathaniel preaching.
GODLY PLAY for children 3-6 years via zoom at 1:30 pm. Today’s story is ‘Jairus’ Daughter’ Matthew 9:18-26.
WEDDING BELLS. Congratulations and blessings to St. Mary’s parishioners Derek and Li who were united as husband and wife in a service of Holy Matrimony yesterday at St. Mary’s! See sermon attached.
GOSPEL IN THE GARDEN. This week raised beds for St. Mary’s Gospel in the Garden Project were put together. Many thanks to Terry for all his work. Top soil will be delivered this week. We will now be in need of vegetable seedlings, and flowers to fill the earth! Please contact Yvonne in the office if you can contribute!
ST. MARY’S OUTDOOR YARD SALE will take place on July 24th. We will start accepting items starting July 18th. Household items, clothing, treasures, jewelry, toys, tools, books (no encyclopedias or Reader’s Digest). More information to come. Volunteers of all ages welcome! Please call Clara for questions.
“This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory; and his disciples believed in Him.” (John 2.11)
I guess that first thing that strikes us about our Gospel lesson today where at the wedding at Cana in Galilee, Jesus miraculously transformed something of the order of 180 gallons of water into wine, is that there was obviously no public health order in place forbidding the serving of beverages at religious ceremonies!
“Wine”, according to the Scriptures, “makes glad the heart of man.” (Psalm 104.15). How natural that the wedding guests at Cana in Galilee were found to be drinking wine. Would you raise your glasses for a toast to the bride! Would you raise your glasses for a toast to the groom!
But then, as we heard, they ran out of wine. We all know what that means. When the wine runs out, the party is over, and it’s time to go home.
This for us is the real point of identification with our story today. These last 15 months of COVID the wine had been running out all over the place. It’s been running out on our jobs, it’s been running out of on our friendships, it’s been running out on our marriages and families. When the wine runs out, the party is over, and it’s time to go home. And then, what? As many have been doing under COVID, we go and buy a puppy dog.
Continue reading “Derek and Li Wedding Sermon”(Modified 2021-06-20: Added audio recording)
THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
JUNE 20, 2021
10.30 A.M. Holy Communion
THE HYMN: 560 God Whose Almighty Word
Continue reading “Trinity 3, 2021 – Holy Communion”(Modified 2021-06-20: Added audio recording of sermon)
Third Sunday after Trinity, June 20, 2021. St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church, Regina. Nathaniel Athian Deng Mayen
Brothers and sisters, I submit to you a brief overview of the interpretation of suffering and loss of different kinds from Apostle Paul’s teaching before we can spend some time with the Gospel of Mark in some kind of Bible Study preaching.
The greatest distortion to the gospel message comes from the ‘prosperity gospel’ preachers who teach a misguided view of Christianity that the individuals who have been blessed by or have faith in Christ do not (should not) suffer. In this context, God’s blessing for and faith of the believers are sold as some kind of commodity whose outcome is individual ‘happiness’, good health, and prosperity.
Continue reading “Trinity 3, 2021 – Sermon”THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
JUNE 13, 2021
10.30 A.M. HOLY COMMUNION. Beth preaching.
GODLY PLAY for children 3-6 years via zoom at 1:30 pm. Today’s story is ‘Calming the Storm’ Mark 4: 35-41.
WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENT! This Saturday, June 19 at 2:00 p.m. at St. Mary’s, Derek and Li will be joined together as husband and wife in the service of Holy Matrimony. All members of St. Mary’s Parish family are warmly invited. Please let the Rector or the office know if you plan to attend.
LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.
ST. MARY’S OUTDOOR YARD SALE will take place on July 24th. We will start accepting items starting July 18th. Household items, clothing, treasures, jewelry, toys, tools, books (no encyclopedias or Reader’s Digest). More information to come. Volunteers of all ages welcome! Please call Clara with questions.
VESTRY UPDATE. At our meeting on June 1, the Vestry appointed two delegates for the Synod to elect a new Bishop: Bob and Andrew. Ben agreed to be an alternate. Vestry also received and approved Rev. Nathaniel Deng Mayan’s Ministry Covenant, and formally recognized Nathaniel as an Associate Priest at St. Mary’s. Nathaniel’s duties in the parish will be primarily liturgical and pastoral, though he will also continue to chair the Refugee Sponsorship Committee. This position is non-stipendiary, but St. Mary’s supports Nathaniel’s M.Div. studies at Wycliffe College through the Hipperson Trust Fund. We are grateful to Nathaniel for his commitment to sharing his gifts and ministry with our parish, and we give thanks to God for Nathaniel and Yar, Nyamoun and Nyang, and the bright gift they are to St. Mary’s!
Vestry also reviewed the current status of Saskatchewan’s current pandemic health orders. As of May 30, we may have 30% of capacity (i.e. 60 people) for in-person worship, as long as we can maintain 2 meters’ distance between households. The last couple of Sundays we have had between 30 and 40 people attend on Sunday morning. Greeters continue to note who attends on Sunday mornings, in order to facilitate contract tracing, should that become necessary. Masks remain mandatory indoors. We do ask that parishioners be careful about maintaining physical distance when entering and exiting the church. The April financial statements have been finalized. Income for January-April 2021 was $70,090.60 or 34.8% of our budget for the year. Expenses for January-April 2021 were $84,850.48 or 40.5% of our budget for the year.
Beth, People’s Warden
DIOCESAN QUESTIONAIRE. As part of the preparations for the election of a new Bishop, a “profile” of our Diocese is being prepared to be distributed to all potential candidates. To that end, parishes of the Diocese have been asked to respond to a questionnaire. (See attached document). Please pass on any thoughts and comments to Beth.