Every congregation is made up of saints, who are all sorts of people. On the Sunday nearest All Saints’ Day (November 1) we remember members of our congregation, and families and friends of members, who have died in the preceding twelve months. We take time to give thanks for the gifts they were to us, and the legacies they have left to us. We light memory candles. We celebrate Holy Communion. Everyone is welcome.
We’ll try something different this year. Our annual Pumpkin Party will be held on Sunday, October 27, after worship. As always, we;ll have pizza for lunch. Carvers of ALL ages are welcome. Big hands can also help little hands. You can bring your own pumpkin to the church or carve a pumpkin that we’ll provide for your use.
Every summer we welcome friends from Portland Place, Evangel Hall, and Out of the Cold to a barbecue. This year we’ll fire up the grill on Sunday, August 25.
Can you help? Would you like to be a host? Contact the Church Office or Norma McIntyre if you’d like to participate in this wonderful event.
We serve around 6:00. Helpers are needed before that.
After supper we go to the sanctuary for a time of prayer and praise. Then we serve dessert!
Our 10:30 service on June 16 will be a special time of celebration. We will present Bibles to Church School students who have passed Grade Three. We will ordain Linda Sutherland to the Eldership and induct Elder Dan Melhem for another term of service on Session. Come and join in the celebrations!
AN INVITATION FROM OUR NEIGHBOURS AT ST MARK'S PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, DON MILLS
Our Casavant Organ is 90 years old. We decided to commemorate the anniversary. Since the organ originally resided in Glenview Presbyterian Church, we have invited Glenview to share in this festivity. Glenview, who had provided seed money to help establish St Marks, were replacing their existing organ and very generously offered their organ to St Marks. It was moved to St Marks in 1963. This priceless gift has served us faithfully for 55 years! When the plan to celebrate its 90 anniversary evolved, St Marks approached Glenview with an invitation to join us for a special organ concert. The concert will feature joint participation of Peter Merrick, the music director of Glenview and George Heldt, the music director of St Marks. Following the performance light refreshments will be served. There is no formal admission to the event. A freewill cash offering will be collected. The proceeds will go to establish an Organ Fund for St Marks and to support a Growth Project for Canadian Foodgrains Bank. We hope to see you there!
Sunday, April 28 will be Holy Humour Sunday at Glenview. For centuries the week following Easter Sunday, including "Bright Sunday" (the Sunday after Easter), was observed by the faithful as "days of joy and laughter" with parties and picnics to celebrate Jesus' resurrection. Churchgoers and pastors played practical jokes on each other, drenched each other with water, told jokes, sang, and danced. The custom was rooted in the musings of early church theologians that God played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead. "Risus paschalis - the Easter laugh," the early theologians called it. In 1988 the Fellowship of Merry Christians began encouraging churches and prayer groups to resurrect Bright Sunday celebrations and call it "Holy Humor Sunday," with the theme: "Jesus is the LIFE of the party." Stay after worship for a “Laugh, Lunch, and Learn” with Jim and Laurence.
What is Natural Church Development (NCD)?
NCD is both a process and a tool that has been employed in over 70,000 congregations in 84 countries since 1996. With encouragement from our Regional Minister for Congregations, the Rev. Dr. John-Peter Smit, Session has chosen NCD to help prepare for Glenview’s future. Session believes we need to clarify and update our vision and mission before we decide how best to fill ministry staff positions.
NCD begins with a survey of a focus group of members and adherents of the congregation who regularly attend worship and serve Glenview in other ways. Only these people, who represent a cross-section of the active congregation, will be surveyed at this time. If you’re not asked to participate, don’t worry. There will be opportunities for you to share the experience.
NCD isn’t a general, fact-finding survey. It’s not a process of identifying deficiencies and problems. It will draw our attention to the strengths of our congregation as we perceive them. The results will also suggest areas for improvement in our ministries. Survey input is becomes part of the NCD database (anonymously) and the results for our congregation are compared with others. Session will then receive a report, which will be added to information we already have on record from earlier visioning work.
Sharing with, and listening to everyone in the congregation who wishes to contribute and participate will be important in our effective use of NCD. John-Peter Smit will continue to work with Session. He will also visit Glenview and preach on Sunday, March 24.
A basic assumption of NCD is that quality precedes quantity. Every congregation wants to grow. NCD identifies qualities of growing congregations.
“The eight quality characteristics summarize the net finding of the NCD research, by highlighting the principles that are, on average, stronger developed in growing than in non-growing churches:
· Empowering leadership
· Gift-based ministry
· Passionate spirituality
· Effective structures
· Inspiring worship
· Holistic small groups
· Need-oriented evangelism
· Loving relationships
While the way in which churches in different cultures or denominations put these principles into practice may differ considerably, NCD claims that the underlying principles are the same worldwide.” (From About Natural Church Development)
You can learn more about NCD through these links:
https://ncd-canada.com/about-ncd/
http://www.ncd-international.org/public/natural_church_development.html
If you have questions, please speak to Laurence DeWolfe. If you receive an invitation to complete the survey you can do so online or on paper.
