Prepare the Way

 The link for this week's live-streamed service is here..

The choir anthem on Sunday contained the line "Jesus is coming, prepare!" A crew of volunteers had prepared the sanctuary on Saturday. The Advent Wreath was in place, ready for the lighting of the first Advent Candle on Sunday.

The tree was up and decorated. Lights shone along the walls.

Nativity scenes graced the narthex and the hall as well as the sanctuary.

Angels and sheep statues marched along the upper window sills.

Candles and poinsettias added the festive touch to the sanctuary. 

The front door announced the season.

And the candles and messages of Advent shone from the roof!

Decorating the sanctuary takes many hands.

And lots of laughterI

  And some muscle and elbow grease

 And patience!

When I got home the voice on the radio was talking about Advent as a season of waiting and listening and anticipation. My wish is that, even when we are all super busy with the preparations for the "holiday season," we find time to Prepare the Way of the Lord!

The Giving Season

The link for this week's live-streamed service is here.

Friendship coffee met this past week, the last get-together before Advent. As usual, good friends, good conversation and good goodies filled a couple of hours on Thursday morning. 

In the "olden days" neighbours used to gather around a pot-bellied stove at the General Store to swap stories, catch up on the news, and bind the community

together. I think Friendship Coffee is reminiscent of that long-ago practice. The longing for human connections and close friendships goes back centuries. The venue changes but the desire for a "village" transcends the times.

A glance at the calendar shows Christmas racing toward us. I had a momentary panic last week as I considered my "to do" list and the short number of days in which to do it.

Fortunately, the charitable donations part is quick and easy. I can send a cheque through the mail, go on-line and click the "donate" button, or I can drop my envelope into the collection plate at SPPC.  

This time of year the letter mail and the e-mail is flooded with requests for donations. If you haven't already picked which to support -- none of us can do it all!-- SPPC is collecting for the Saanich Peninsula Lions Food Bank. Foodstuffs, money, toiletries, personal hygiene products, and baby needs are all requested. There are collection boxes in the narthex of the church, and, you can enter a draw for a Christmas plant every time you drop off a donation. Win-win, as they say.

The Compassionate Resource Warehouse is an overseas mission supported by many churches, including SPPC. They went into recess during the pandemic and have been slow to re-open, but now, November 2025, they are building a shipment for a large orphanage in Ukraine. There are 250 residents ages 3 - 18, plus 50 staff. As you can imagine, they need everything.

Here are some specifics:

• toothbrushes and toothpaste, hairbrushes and combs
• balls and boardgames (checkers, chess, snap, snakes and ladders)
• reading glasses, sunglasses
• needlework supplies, art supplies, beading supplies
• socks and underwear, leggings, slippers, gloves
• bedding, tableware

This list is anything but complete but it is a start. 

If possible pack your donations in paper or cardboard (plastic is difficult to recycle) and drop it off by the donation box in the narthex at SPPC.

Last week, Rev. Irwin encouraged us to reflect the light of Christ in the world around us. A box of supplies for war orphans in Ukraine will send a beam of Christ-light into a very dark place.

In Transition

 The link for this week's live streamed service is here.

 This week at SPPC has been one of transition. On Tuesday many of us attended Remembrance Services in the area. I went to the one in Sidney and found Leading Cadet Abigail handling the ropes for the raising and lowering of the flags. 

I also saw our clerk of session place a poppy-covered cross at the memorial on behalf of the congregation.

By Thursday, we were moving into the Advent season, with the choir preparing anthems to celebrate the birth of Christ. 

               

Rev. Irwin's newsletter contains many, many announcements of upcoming Christmas events.

 I'd like to highlight the "Great Peninsula Shortbread Bake-off and Christmas Carol Sing and Bake Sale." It is quite a mouthful, I know, but how often do you get to sample several types of shortbread in one sitting? 

Not only that, but you can purchase a plateful of your favourite cookies at the same time. AND you get to sing Christmas carols! 

All of this for free at 2:00pm on Sunday, Dec, 21, at SPPC 9296 E. Saanich Rd. N. Saanich. Call 250 656-2241 for more information.

 Ed. Notes. 

To request your favourite carol, use the sign up sheet in the narthex or call the  the church.  

 

*Non-members of SPPC are welcome to enter their best shortbread in the bake-off.

*Judges are not needed. Honours will be "people's choice."

Remembrance Day

 The link for this week's live-streamed service is here.

This Sunday, the closest to Remembrance Day on the 11th, we began our service at SPPC with a formal moment  of Remembrance. These moments of silence and remembrance are an odd mixture of emotions. We bow our heads in sorrow and regret for the lives lost and the hopes shattered by war. 

On this day I remember, in particular, Cpl. Nathan Cirillo and WO Patrice Vincent. This year marks the eleventh anniversary since they were killed -- not in some distant battle, but on Canadian soil. 

Cpl. Cirillo was standing sentry at the tomb of the unknown soldier on Parliament Hill in Ottawa when he was shot and killed by a deranged gunman. What happened that day breaks my heart.

But the rest of the story, fills me with national pride. When they should have run for cover -- the gunman was still on the loose -- Margaret Lerhe, a nurse, ran toward the fallen man. In an attempt to save his life, she performed CPR and applied pressure to his wounds. Barbara Winters, a lawyer, also rushed to help. She held the dying man's hand offering words of comfort, assuring him that he was loved and that he was brave. Other bystanders surrounded the scene, doing what they could to protect the soldier from prying eyes, and offering medical aid.

When the silence of remembrance ends with the stirring Rouse, it is those acts of bravery and compassion that lift our spirits and fill us with a defiant resolve. We will "hold high the torch" and we shall not "break faith with those who died, in Flanders Fields."

Where Cpl. Cirillo died eleven years ago, another soldier stands guard today.

Here at SPPC our own Abigail has been promoted from Able Cadet to Leading Cadet and will take part in the flag raising ceremony at the Cenotaph on Tuesday. Well done, Abigail, and thank you.

Regular readers of this blog know that the late Stuart McLean is one of my favourite story tellers. Usually his tales make me laugh until the tears roll down my cheeks. But he can also stir the heart and evoke the other kind of tears. He has a story titled "Remembrance Day." You can listen to it here. It is worth your time.

In this season of Remembrance, let us all take a moment to honour those who served, and sacrificed, for the sake of others.

 

More than Socks

 The link for this week's live-streamed service is here.

The month of October was a very busy one at SPPC and included our "cozy toes" campaign. You can see in these photos, Christian love in action.

As noted previously, we've gone beyond socks in this program and now collect personal items as well as coats, sweaters, underwear, and  boots. 

It is all gathered and sent on to The Mustard Seed. This marvellous, compassionate organization has been helping the vulnerable on our streets since 1975. 

In the past four or five decades nearly all of the agencies in our area have evolved and expanded. The Open Door began in 1986 with a peanut butter sandwich and a sympathetic ear in an upstairs room at Metropolitan United Church. The Upper Room, founded in 1967, was a simple coffee house, offering a meal and shelter to those living rough on the streets of Victoria. Eventually, those two organizations joined forces to become Our Place, which now serves over half a million meals per year, provides hot showers, medical care, clean clothing, and help with housing.

Cool Aid began in 1968 as a hostel for transient youth travelling across the country. It didn't take long until they realized there was a need for more and added medical and dental clinics 

In 1975, Rev. Gipp Forster set up a prayer stool in a closet in his shop and The Mustard Seed Street Church began. Anyone could come to pray and receive spiritual and practical care. For a time he had a broadcast on local radio. I remember the homilies began with "I'm Gipp Forster and I'm a street pastor." Today the Mustard Seed provides family support, maintains a huge food bank, operates "Hope Farm" in Duncan, offers hospitality at a drop-in centre and conducts services and offers spiritual guidance in their church.

For all the growth and expansion the passing years have wrought, they have never forgotten their core values, including, 

Christianity: knowing that love comes from Christ and redemption is the way of God’s Kingdom, we serve and lead as a response to that love, shared with our neighbours, a love that pervades everything that we do and are.

If we were to look at these agencies, along with the plethora of soup kitchens and clothing drives operating out of church halls and service clubs, we would say the "industry" is thriving. Their customer base expands year after year, their budget increases, community buy-in is huge, their payrolls expand. . . . Sadly, this "success" is not the aim. Nothing would make these "helping ministries" happier than to be out of business, in a city where hunger and homelessness do not exist. 

Until that day, they spread the love of Christ amongst the disadvantaged and vulnerable in Victoria.   

At SPPC we are privileged to add our gifts -- a warm sock, a thick coat, a tube of toothpaste -- to their larger ministry.

Glorious Food

 The link for this week's live-streamed service is here.

This week began with food -- the Fall Sunshine Lunch. Joan and her team put on a bang up meal. I hear there was beef on the menu as well as pudding. Word must have spread in advance of the feast because there was a bigger turnout than usual. 

The week ended with more food, as the congregation held a potluck lunch after service on Sunday. 

We often have a "welcome back" event in September following the summer holidays, but that timing didn't work this year. So Sunday's lunch wasour "welcome back" or "welcome in" occasion for this term. 

 We had about 50 hungry people filling their plates.

 I took this picture to show how much food was left over after everyone had eaten their fill. 

  This was also an opportunity for  Rev. Irwin and Diane to share with the congregation some highlights from their recent trip to South Africa. They shared wonderful pictures of the scenery, the animals, and the buildings. The trip also allowed Diane to reconnect with her birthplace.

Thank you, Irwin and Diane, for bringing your special moments to the congregation. We're glad you had a good time and we are really glad you are back with us.