Another Christmas has come and gone. Luckily the season will last a little longer. Jim and I had a great Christmas morning which started by face timing with the grands on the east coast. and later a call from the west coast and the grands there. We ended our day being joined by friends to have a turkey supper. Lots of laughter and good food.

As the year ends and our temperature drops it is once again Sunday morning and we are gathering at the church at 10:30 today for the service of the Jesse Tree. Come and join us and rediscover the stories you learned in the bible. The Jesse Tree is a service where we read scripture from creation to the birth of Jesus and hang ornaments on a simple stick tree. It is very meaningful. The Jesse tree is a very old Christmas Tradition and first started in medieval times. They are used to help tell the story of the Bible from creation to the Christmas Story. The name comes from Jesse who was the Father of the great Jewish King David. I always thought that the Jesse Tree was only an advent service but it seems it can be used any time. I am hoping it will become a tradition in this church to celebrate this on the Sunday between Christmas and New Year. So come join us.

Christmas Blessings

It's Friday afternoon, 6 days before Christmas and I want to say thank you too all the people who make our life so wonderful here in Saskatchewan. We moved here 4 years ago and haven't looked back. We love it. Although we miss our families and friends back east and out west, we are happy to say that Eston is a wonderful town full of amazing people. The people who have helped us are too numerous to name but you know who you are. So this year, my prayers is that each one of you may be surrounded with people who care about you, family or otherwise and that you have enough. Enough food to keep away the hunger, enough heat to stay warm, enough love, dreams, hopes and courage to fill your homes and hearts. Enough pain to know you are truly blessed for without our struggles we would never know how truly lucky we are. So know you are a blessing to our family. Take care of each other and remember that the Holy dwells in you and in me, in all of creation and no matter where we go, we truly are not ever alone.

Merry Christmas
Barb

Cantata today!

You know if there was one gift I would covet it would be the gift of music. I love music, I love to hear the piano and I love to sing. I just do it badly. I am envious of anyone who can sing a song full of feeling or sit at a piano and just play the music there. Perhaps some practice would help me with the piano but not the voice. Anyway, that`s my confession of the day. We are told not to covet your neighbours anything but here I am coveting...

Today is the Christmas Cantata here at St. Andrew`s and our choir under the direction of Ed Jackson with the musical gifts of Doris Etter, will share with us some beautiful music. There will also be some readers, perhaps some younger folk as well. The Cantata is a tradition here at St. Andrew`s. There are two a year. We have stopped buying actual cantata`s and are using music Ed chooses along with readings or poems that I choose. It seems to work well at a time when our choir has so few voices any more, but we are grateful for each and everyone of them.

Our Children today, under the care of their teacher Ashley Hamilton will be thinking of Joy and what it means to them and practising for their Christmas Program next Sunday during our regular service. We will also have communion and our family Sunday lunch then.

Today is the Sunday of Joy in our Advent Season and it is with great joy that we enter into this day.

Peace

Today is the second Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Peace. In church we will explore how we think of peace. What do you think of when you think of the word peace. Is it world peace, peace in your heart, peace in your soul, peace and quiet. whatever it is, it is the focus of today.

It has been a busy week this week and last. I am not sure why but things just seemed to steam roll. Ever have one of those weeks. Hopefully this coming week will be a quieter one. I met with a group of women one night this week and we read from Joyce Rupp's book, called "Prayers to Sophia". The word Sophia is the Greek word for Wisdom. So when we read of Sophia in scripture, we read of the feminine side of the Holy or the Divine Feminine she is sometimes called. However you understand the divine, she is an important part. The prayer we read was entitled 'A New Beginning'. We read this because we started a new year in the church last week and any day is a good day to begin again. This prayer brought me great peace and I want to share part of it with you this morning...

Faithful Guide,
you sit at the gate of my life,
inviting me to eagerly enter
the newness stretching before me.
As I attend to the old burdens
that have weighed me down with worry,
I look ahead with hopeful expectation
to what my heart most needs.
I also recognize the absolute necessity
of living in the present moment.
I choose to direct my daily attentiveness
toward what will give my life greater balance.
I seek to let go of what keeps me unloving.
I long to contribute to peace in this world....

And it goes on from there but what powerful words for us to read on this Sunday of Peace. May peace surround you and yours this Advent/Christmas season.