Parish notices

• Services this week
• Thank you!
• Bishop writes for Times Colonist
• God is More Involved With You Than You Think!
• Singing circle
• Spring Into Action Food Drive
• Contemplative Prayer
• Thursday Eucharist schedule
• May 3 - World Labyrinth Day

Looking Wider

• Cemetery Tour at St. Luke's
• GVAT Presents: Communities of Care-Listening Action
• St Luke's Cedar Hill - Vintage Fashion Show & Tea
• Prayer in the style of Taizé
• Hope & Belonging! Benefit Concert

This week in prayer
Useful links

4 May 2025 - Easter 3

8am Holy Communion

9am Community prayers downstairs in the youth room

9.30am Eucharist, in-person and live streamed via Facebook Live [LINK]

• Celebrant & preacher: Fr. Allen Doerksen
• Altar Guild: Beth Macdonald, Kathy Fyfe
• Usher: Daniel Varga
• Music leader:  Shannon Carmichael, Stacy McGhee
• Readers:  Bonnie Bailey, Mike Pipes
• Prayers of the People:  Sharon Richmond
• Powerpoint & slides:  Clayton Savage
• Facebook Live: Karishma Iyer
• Children's ministry: Melinda Weicker
• Youth ministry: Ruth McGhee
• Coffee:  Barb Britton, Barb Evans-Ehricht
• Offerings counters: Betty Davidson, Mike Pipes

Please note that Fr. Allen will be away Mon-Thurs this week at the mandatory annual diocesan Clergy Conference.

6 May, Tuesday 10.30am Contemplative Prayer

8 May, Thursday Morning Prayer followed by Bible study.

Thank you to everyone who stayed after the service last Sunday to help take down the Easter lanterns. It was lovely to have them up through Easter Week, and many hands made light work.

- Judith Armstrong

Following the recent liquidation of the Hudson's Bay Company, Bishop Anna Greenwood-Lee has written a piece for the Times Colonist's Spiritually Speaking blog about the HBC's role in colonizing and selling off land on Vancouver Island. Bishop Anna writes about how our diocese profited from this sell off and the dangers of the church becoming entangled with empires. To read the full piece, click below.

The Christian faith is not so much a system of beliefs (though particular beliefs are important) as much as it is a life: a life of habits and attitudes, a life that involves cultivating “habits” that carry over to our relationships, our use of resources, our sense of what it means to live with purpose, and what it means to flourish.  Prayer is central to all of this but not so much prayer as particular words, but prayer that notices God, prayer that grows in awareness of God as present in our daily affairs, thoughts and feelings. 

In this four-part series, Fr. Allen will teach the basics of the Examen and encourage us to share our learning and struggles as we practice various aspects of the Examen together and on our own.

Schedule - 2 parallel sessions:

• Wednesday evenings, 7-8.15pm, online via Zoom: May 14, May 21, June 4, June 11
• Thursdays following the 10am service, 10.30-11.45 (approx), in person in the church: May 15, May 22, June 5, June 12.

Please sign up to register interest for either session, on the sheets in the narthex or online:

Register for Examen Wednesday evenings on Zoom

Register for Examen Thursday mornings in person 

Enrolment is already at 6 for Wednesdays and 5 for Thursdays! Wednesday needs a few more in order to run. Do sign up for the Thursday session even if you are a 'regular' and/or plan to attend the Thursday morning service as well, so that we have a contact list for sending out info and readings before the series starts. And if you're planning to attend the Thursday Examen study, please consider attending the 10am service immediately before it as well, as it creates an important spiritual context.

Photo by Jeremy Yap on Unsplash

This is an invitation for people of all ages to enjoy a time of informal singing and making music.

Chris and Alix Harvey would like to invite people with or without instruments to join us at the church, and at a time that is determined to be convenient for participants. Your musical preferences and talents are not crucial- we will construct a song bank based on what you want to sing. This may be a one-time event or if there is enthusiasm, we are keen to continue.

If you are interested and would like to take part, email Chris . <flashharvey@gmail.com>

Photo by Tomás Robertson on Unsplash

From April 1 - April 30, 2025 (but it's not too late to bring contributions this Sunday) the  Shelbourne Community Kitchen  will be gathering non-perishable food donations to keep our Pantry Program shelves full and continue making healthy food accessible for the people in our community looking for additional support. At this time our most needed items are baked beans, pasta sauce, canned tomatoes, canned protein, and granola bars.

Please join us on Tuesday mornings, 10:30 - 11:30, meeting in the choir area of the nave (at the front of the church), for a 20 minute contemplative sit with a time of prayer following. 

Photo by Dawid Zawiła on Unsplash

The book study following Thursday Eucharist will resume in May with Fr. Allen leading a "deep dive" into the Ignatian practice of Daily Examen Prayer. Thursday services coming up:

• 8 May 10am Morning Prayer followed by Bible study
• 15 May 10am Eucharist followed by Examen session 1
• 22 May 10am Eucharist followed by Examen session 2

Photo by James Coleman on Unsplash

The rich soil of the Shelbourne Valley enticed farmers, florists, and gardeners to settle in the Cedar Hill and Gordon Head areas. St. Luke’s picturesque churchyard is the final resting place for many of these pioneer families. Yvonne Van Ruskenveld, Barb Prescott and several descendants of St. Luke’s families will join together for this tour. Springtime is the perfect setting for this tour, with the camas and other flowers in bloom. 

As described by the Old Cemeteries Society in their 2025 tours listing.

Cost is $5 per person.

Things are looking tough right now. Greater Victorians are facing an extractive housing market, collapsing climate, lack of access to healthcare, financial insecurity and more. All of this can feel overwhelming against the backdrop of capitalism, colonialism, threats to our national sovereignty, and genocide we see every day in the news and online. But we have a plan to build power to change the world, and it starts with you. Will you join us? Our plan is to:

• Organize people from diverse backgrounds around problems in their day to day lives to build power and capacity
• Overcome insurmountable problems by cutting them into issues, and training organizers and leaders to act on them
• Strengthen our civic organizations through building the communities of care we need to create the good life.

Join Greater Victoria Acting Together (GVAT) and allies for a night of storytelling, community building, and creating a common narrative. In times of intersecting and multiplying crises, building communities of care to weather the storm is essential.

What to expect:

• Powerful stories from local community members
• Engaging table talk conversations across the different parts of our Alliance
• Beginning of a consensus building process around GVAT's future direction

Click below to register.

In honour of St. Luke’s 165^th anniversary, Vintage Fashion Showcase will present Local History Through Fashion from 1860 to 1980.

Afternoon Tea will be served, featuring a selection of delicious baked goodies. There will be door prizes.

Tickets are $25 per person, purchased in advance by e-mail from events@stlukecedarhill.ca.

Broad View United Church 3703 St Aidan's Street, 6pm Friday April 25, May 16 and 20 June

All welcome.

What a great combination of good causes! REACH does such good work providing opportunities for disabled folks to participate in music. 

- Dave and Zita Conway

On May 24th, a very special concert will take place in Victoria for a very important and worthy cause. We're sure the audience will be inspired. We'd also love for you to come and experience this firsthand yourself.

The HOPE AND BELONGING Benefit Concert is to support the amazing work of VICCIR (Vancouver Island Counselling Centre for Immigrants and Refugees - co-founded by Adrienne Carter)  www.viccir.org/ .  The work they do with newcomers to Canada who have experienced trauma (and sometimes torture) is truly life-changing. However, like other agencies serving newcomers, VICCIR has recently experienced major funding cuts from the federal government.  So we're trying to help and have lined up more than 60 amazing performers in a show sure to bring joy and hope to those who experience it. 

Full information and tickets online are available at: https://hopeandbelonging.eventbrite.ca   

Printed tickets may also be purchased at VICCIR (by cash or cheque) at #100 - 850 Blanshard St., Tel. 778-404-1777.

Advanced tickets are recommended.  (They are less expensive and concerts produced by REACH! sometimes sell out in advance.)

You can see a past performance here:     https://www.westcoastreach.org/shows.html

• Live Streams:  via Facebook Live [LINK]
• Service outline: for those viewing the live stream, the coming Sunday's 9.30 service outline is online here
• Listen to a past sermon only: click here, choose a sermon, scroll down & click "jump to sermon". Now featuring audio-only as well!
• Service recording & sermon audio: choose any past Sunday here (listed most recent first)
• More news & events from our church neighbours and wider community: click here
• Previous parish newsletters: click here and click "Recent issues" near top left for a drop-down menu
• Parish Council minutes: click here , see under Downloads
• Staff contacts: via the parish website
• Liturgy for the Islands and Inlets: click here for full text
• Salal + Cedar (Diocese of New Westminster): click here
• Book of Alternative Services: click here
• Anglican Church of Canada lectionary: click here
• Revised Common Lectionary: click here
• Diocesan Comings & Goings: read latest
• Inclusive Christians at UVic: read latest
• Faith Tides: click here for latest issue
• Contemplative Society: latest news
• L'Abri Canada: read latest
• Sorrento Centre news: click here
• PWRDF updates: read latest
• KAIROS Canada: read latest
• Anglican Church of Canada news: click here
• Anglican Journal: click here for latest articles

The Welcome pew leaflet, weekly parish news, current Anglican Journal, & Faith Tides, recent Parish Council minutes and more are all available in print in the narthex. Please let Anna know if more print copies are needed, on Sundays or for sharing with those who don't use email.

Candles: S. Hermann & F. Richter, NoName_13 on Pixabay
Footer painting: Caitlin Ambery, 2007

Cover image: Photo by Bianca Ackermann on Unsplash