The Citizen, 2006-12-07, Page 24Dec. 10: iNilainchi 3
"Saints' Preserve:
100% Pure Fruit"
Free skating at
Blyth Arena
Friday 3-4 pm
EN angelical Missionary Church
Luring Water
Chistiaa reilmsfiip
10:30 a.m. - Worship & Sunday School
at Blyth Public School,
corner of King & Mill
Mondays 7:30 pm - Power of a Praying Woman ND.
Tuesdays 7:30 pm VVIngham Small Group
Fridays 7:00pm - Youth Group
Pastor: Ernest Dow - 519-523-4848
getlivingwatenorg
I THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA
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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10
Trinity, Blyth
9:30 a.m.
St. John's, Brussels
11:15 a.m.
The Rev. Tom Wilson, B.A., MDiv. 519-887-9273
Please join us for worship
SUNDAYS
Morning Service 10:00 am
Evening Service 7:30 pm
This week's message: Message from God
BRUSSELS - ETHEL PASTORAL CHARGE
UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA ,
Sandra Cable, Worship Leader
Church Office 519-887-6259 E-mail - bepc@wightman.ca
Sunday, December 10
Ethel United Church
Worship Service & Sunday School
9:30 a.m.
Brussels United Church
Worship Service & Sunday School
11:00 a.m.
December 10 - Brussels & Community
Choral Concert 7:00 pm
Celebrating our Christian Faith together in worship
11-
FOR ALL AGES
SUNDAY - 9:45 to 10:45 am
WORSHIP SERVICE AT 11:00 am
Phone 519-440-8379 308 Blyth Rd. E. - Pastor Les Cook 519-523-4590
Looking for a Great Of a ft
—we! Sunday School Experience?
THIS IS IT!
301
Community Church
Nittux 'United efundi - gelytcwe
efaxiattnea
December 10 11 a.m. - White Gift Service
led by the Sunday School
- Advent IV
7:30 p.m. - Christmas Eve Worship
HURON CHAPEL
EVANGELICAL MISSIONARY CHURCH 0
SNG A SON OF Auburn - 519-526-1131
_ ,CtitSe PASTOR DAVE WOOD
& PASTOR DON PLANT JR.
Sunday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Friday
9:30 a.m. - Sunday School
10:30 a.m. - Morning Worship Service
7:30 p.m. - Evening Worship Service
7:30 p.m. - Youth Bible Study
6:30 p.m. - Olympians (JK to Grade 6)
7:00 p.m. - Adult Bible Study
7:30 - 9:30 p.m. - Drop-in Youth Centre
Emmanuel Bible College presents "The Watchmen Quartet"
live in concert on December 9th at 7:30 pm
Dec. 10 - Sunday School Christmas Program at 7:30 pm
Dec. 24 - Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at 7:30 pm
MELVILLE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
BRUSSELS
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10
11:00 am - Sunday School Presentation
Sharing the Good News of Jesus' Birth
9:30 am - Sunday Belgrave Service
7:00 pm - Community Choral Concert
Sharing the talents of this community
at Brussels United Church
December 17 - 11:00 am
Choir Presentation Sharing in song Peace, Love, Hope and Joy
December 24 - 11:00 am
Christmas Service Sharing the music that tells of the wonder of the season.
7:30 pm - Joint Christmas Eve Service at Brussels United Church A.
4.1 Sharing fellowship and family time
Wheelchair accessible - Nursery care available
Rev. Cathrine Campbell - 519-887-9831
PAGE 24. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2006.
From the Minister's Study
Lineups, longings and the true meaning
By Pastor Ernest Dow
Living Water Christian
Fellowship
It was a strange and unexpected
camaraderie, born in a stall - being
stalled, that is, in a long lineup at a
check-out.
On the first Saturday in December,
my wife and I had made our annual
hour-long pilgrimage to the self-
proclaimed `supercentre' of the
Wicked Arch-enemy of Local
Merchants And ReTailers. Our
mission: to obtain stocking-stuffers
and check off the remaining names
on our Christmas gift list.
It was still early enough in the
shopping season that we hoped to
avoid the _rush. However, several
hundred other shoppers apparently
had the same prompting that day.
So when we arrived at the
checkouts, we found ourselves
alienated from the cashiers by a long
line of other shoppers with laden
carts.
Over the course of the subsequent
large portion of an hour standing in
line, we exchanged the occasional
pleasantry with adjacent shoppers. A
young mother with toddler in cart
ahead of us realized after 10 minutes
she'd forgotten something, so
relinquished her spot to go get it. I
felt sorry for her, knowing she'd
have to start the process all over
again.
Behind us was a 50-something
gentleman in a toque who piled other
purchases around a two-litre
package of ice cream, in gradually
diminishing hope of keeping it from
melting. He commented on the long-,
lines and admitted he wouldn't have
bothered shopping except he had a
sick grandson at home who really
liked that ice cream.
The .next aisle was not open, but
after awhile another man received
service there although the cashier
did not turn on her light. We joked
with our neighbour in the toque that
this must be a 'special case' - maybe
the manager's cousin. I whirrisically
wondered aloud if, in view of the
fact that I happened to live about a
dozen kilometres from a place called
"Walton", I might qualify for special
treatment, too. He laughed.
As we stood there, one couldn't
help but fall to pondering how far
removed this materialistic
commercial bedlam was from the
supposed Reason for the Season - a
poor young couple giving birth to
the Hope of the Nations in a smelly
stable out back of a crowded inn two
millennia ago in Bethlehem. How
many other young couples today
would be enslaving themselves to
credit card debt for months to come,
misled by the myth that 'stuff'
makes people happy? How many
fragile families would discover that
hundreds of dollars expended for
gifts under the tree simply cannot
substitute for family bonding time
eroded by our busy lifestyle and
double-income pressures?
Postmoderns and 'Gen-Xers' have
become suspicious of the 20th
century habit of throwing money and
resources at a problem (especially a
relational problem) in hopes of
making it go away.
Christmas would be very different
for us as parents this year in that, for
the first time ever, not a single one of
our four offspring would be able to
join us for Christmas Eve or
Christmas Day. Two are on the far
side of the planet (South Korea and
Australia) teaching English or
pursuing studies: The other two are
working at homes for the: disabled in
Ottawa and, being low staff on the
totem pole', found themselves
obliged to fill the shifts on Christmas
Day.
Now as parents we are starting to
understand how Christmas can be
`blue' for broken families or those
who grieve loved ones. Nothing you
can put in a shopping cart will help
fill that gap.
Where to find a Saviour, if not in a
store? Who can salve our hurts and
brokenness when we find ourselves
alone? Is the story behind Christmas
still relevant today?
That evening, as we headed back
home, CBC Radio offered us a
School of Rock featuring K'naan, a
Somali-born poet and hip-hop artist
who now calls Ontario home.
Featured was his song "I was
stabbed by Satan [on the day that I
was born]".
The artist explained that the title
springs from an idea of Islamic
origin - that when a child is born,
Satan 'stabs' him as an introduction
to the pain of being alive. Some
welcome to the world.
Yet who cannot relate to the reality
of pain in their existences And who
can offer us relief from 'Satan's
stab'?
The next song in the radio line-up
was introduced as Devil's Eyes. At
that, my wife inserted the one CD
we had in the vehicle: Robin Mark's
. Revival in Belfast. Belfast, Northern
Ireland - one of the sorriest spots in
Christian history, a crystallization of
Catholic / Protestant enmity in the
past: can faith really bring healing
and 'revival', as churches there have
Continued on page 26
Blyth United Church
Corner of Dinsley & Mill Street
Sunday, December 10
Worship Service, Sunday School & Nursery
11:00 a.m.
Minister: Rev. Robin McGauley
.411 7Veleoffee
Office: 519-523-4224
God so
garejlis
loved the world thatfie
only Son. john 3:16
9:30 a.m. Worship Service
10:45 a.m. Coffee Break
11:00 a.m. Sunday School
Brussels Mennonite
Fellowship
- Pastor Brent Kipfer
519-887-6388