In accordance with Diocesan Canon 25, The Right Reverend Sandra Fyfe is applications for the positions of the following:

Rector, Full-time, for the Parish of St. James Anglican Parish, Mahone Bay
Deadline for submitting applications is Friday, January 15th, 2021 at 5:00 pm.

Thursday, December 17th - Staff Check in & Meetings
Friday, December 18th - Meetings
Monday, December 21st - Day Off
Tuesday, December 22nd - Meetings in office
Wednesday, December 23rd - Meetings in office

Virtual appearances in St. Paul's Charlottetown and St. Luke's Dartmouth Christingle Service

Thursday, December 24th - Christmas Eve at Cathedral Church of All Saints (livestreamed)

Primate calls on Anglicans to ring bells at Christmas

"[On Christmas Day,] let’s share with the world that despite all the restrictions and losses we are facing, Christ is born and hope is renewed."
Read more...<https://www.anglican.ca/hope-rings-out/>
Links for social sharing are: https://www.facebook.com/canadiananglican/posts/10158457858868751, https://twitter.com/generalsynod/status/1338837225925185543

A national broadcast of Lessons & Carols is available for download this Friday, December 18 at 9pm Atlantic time. Watch from home or offer this as a Parish Service to give your leaders a break from planning worship over the Advent/Christmas season. 
Web link: https://www.anglican.ca/lessonsandcarols/ 
Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/canadiananglican/posts/10158459986748751
YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_6YoNOiQDk
 
Is Your Parish offering a Blue Christmas service online? 

If your parish is offering a Blue Christmas service online which is open to others across the country, please let us know so that we can share the links and information across the Canadian church. With Covid-19 restrictions in place for faith gatherings across the country, it will be difficult for many to attend a Blue Christmas service in their own community. At this time of year, and in light of the added stress and isolation caused by the pandemic, there is a need for opportunities to share with others who are finding this a dark and difficult time. Thank you for planning these important worship experiences for your communities and beyond. Please send details to bishopsoffice@nspeidiocese.ca As collected we will post a link from the front page of our website.

Please note, due to the upcoming holidays, the submission deadline date for PAYROLL with regards to the pay date of December 30th will be December 17th.  Late submissions will be adjusted in the first pay of January or the last pay of January for Priest-In-Charge.

Please note, the submission deadline for PAR changes effective January 1st, 2021 will be December 17th. 

Tammy Cummins

Payroll Administrator

Diocesan Heating Oil Program

The Diocese of NS and PEI Heating Oil Program with Irving Oil offers Churches of the Diocese and eligible Diocesan Clergy and Diocesan Staff a discounted rate based on non-profit status. This rate is not offered to individual Anglican parishioners. For more information, please contact: The Centralized Commercial Account Manager for the Diocesan Heating Oil Program, Ms. Jennifer Bishop by name at 1-888-310-1924 or by email at Jennifer.Bishop@IrvingOil.com

The Furnace Oil price for the period December 12-18, 2020 for: 

Nova Scotia                     $0.6122 plus applicable taxes

Prince Edward Island        $0.5983 plus applicable taxes

Please note that the Synod office will be closed for the Christmas Break from end of day Wednesday, December 23rd, reopening Monday, January 4th, 2021.

The following are the Services for the month of December  2020, all which will be held at St. Edward the Confessor Anglican Church, 1650 Highway No 1, Clementsport, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, all are most welcome to attend bearing in mind the Church is being fully sanitized/Social distancing is being respected…. Our Parish would like to wish all a most Blessed ChristmasTide

Sunday                 06th December 2020              1000 hrs.               Holy Eucharist          BCP
Sunday                13th December 2020              1000 hrs.               Holy Eucharist          BAS
Sunday                 20th December 2020              1000 hrs.               Holy Eucharist          BCP
Thursday              24th December 2020              7 PM                      Holy Eucharist          BCP
Sunday                27th December 2020              1000 hrs.               Holy Eucharist          BCP

JANUARY 3
 

As we come to the first Sunday of the New Year, we say special prayers for our Bishops and their families of our Diocese:

For Retired Archbishop Ron,, and Marianne

For Retired Archbishop Arthur, and Elizabeth

For Retired Bishop Sue, and Bruce

Christmas services:

3pm Christmas Eve Children's program. Walk through several scenes inside the church. Your family will laugh and learn their way through the Christmas story while maintaining COVID safe protocols. Register online or Drive in and register your family at the front step. You will be assigned a number and will wait in your car until your number is called. Come join our Christmas search for the greatest gift ever!

7pm Carols and Lessons Service. Drive in and tune in on your radio or join us remotely on Zoom through the church website (StNicholasAnglican.ca). We will sing a wonderful selection of Christmas tunes while hearing the development of the Christmas story.

10pm Evening Prayer with Caroling. Join us on Zoom through the church website  (StNicholasAnglican.ca). Light a candle, sing wonderful Christmas carols, hear the Christmas story and pray with us as we give thanks for the gift of Jesus - Love here among us.

NEED TO BE REVIVED?

Battle the winter blahs. Put the joy back into January. Join with friends online and explore the series REVIVE. 

This module with seven sessions is called Communicating with God and unpacks a variety of practical approaches to prayer. This is a safe, small-group setting, where participants will gain a refreshed perspective on spiritual disciplines and deepen their faith, as well as develop friendships with other like-minded people.

REVIVE was written by a Canadian Anglican with Nova Scotia roots. The Rev’d. Canon Dr. Dawn Davis designed this truly dynamic course to be a gift to long-time parishioners. She asks, “How do we go from doing ministry for the church to being in a relationship with this life-giving empowering God? ... Revive aims to provide a supportive structure and community to help that relationship reignite and come alive!”

REVIVE runs Wednesdays starting January 13, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on the Zoom platform. 

The program is free. Registration is limited.  
INTERESTED? Sign-up now:  E-mail lvaughn@nspeidiocese.ca 

Your prayers are requested for Geoff Ferrey, the father of the Rev’d Will Ferrey, Rector of the Parish of Amherst. Geoff is seriously ill at this time in Alberta and Rev’d Will has asked for the prayers of the Diocese for his dad and the Ferrey family. Thank you for your care and support of each other.

For this meeting, we spent the entire meeting on Zoom, as meeting in person was made tricky by the current restrictions in the HRM.  We had a fairly full meeting, and below are a few highlights of the things that we discussed and decided.   

See File Attached Below.

http://www.astheology.ns.ca/con-ed/2021.html  

More Than One Story

Date: January 12 from 3 to 5 pm AST

Facilitator: Peace practitioner and international mediator, Paul Hutchinson

In this interactive and practical workshop we will explore the challenge and liberation of multiple narratives.

Register below:

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/leading-from-the-inside-out-facilitating-change-for-a-world-in-crisis-tickets-125011965153

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY IN DOWNTOWN HALIFAX PARISH:  

St. Paul's Anglican Church, (1749 Argyle St., Halifax, NS, B3J 3K4) is accepting applications for a part-time Parish Sexton.  The chosen candidate will be responsible for a variety of weekly tasks (sweeping, vacuuming, polishing, dusting, garbage removal) as well as general overseeing of the church building and Parish House under the general direction of the Property Manager.  Opening/closing of the buildings when necessary, and minor maintenance duties are occasional tasks as well as setting up for meetings (moving tables/chairs).  The position requires 16 hours/week with compensation of $14/hour. 

Please submit your resume & references to the parish office at our address noted above or email (office@stpaulshalifax.org).  You may call 902-429-2241 for office hours to pre-arrange a drop-off as well.

This year, Advent and Christmas promise to be unusual, so we at PWRDF challenged ourselves to think a little outside the box. This year's annual Advent resource is reminiscent of an Advent calendar. 

We will count down the days until Christmas, opening a window to PWRDF's work each day.  
 

There is sooooooo much news from the DEN, that we're adding this permenant spot in the Anglican NetNews for one stop access. Visit the DEN now at: /environment-network

Supporting Parents: Stories That Matter

There is a short, informative video on the Mothers’ Union’s Positive Parenting Program that is the focus of the Anglican Church Women Annual Project 2020/21. This video is available on both webpages for the Anglican Church Women and Mothers’ Union (Click on the Ministries tab of the diocesan website: www.nspeidiocese.ca to find both the Anglican Church Women (ACW) and Mothers’ Union webpages). The poster for Supporting Parents: Stories That Matter can be viewed on the ACW webpage.

Christmas Gift Basket Raffle

The St. Catherine’s Anglican Church Women Group for the Cathedral Church of All Saints is offering a Christmas Gift Basket Raffle to raise funds for its ministry / outreach projects. Tickets are available at $2.00 each, 3 for $5.00, or a book of 13 for $20.00 (that’s 6 free tickets!). The value of each of the 2 baskets is $300 plus. Draw Date: Dec. 20, 2020 @ 11:00 am, just in time for Christmas! Delivery of tickets can be arranged. Contact Margy at margy.rawdon@bellaliant.net or Cynthia at 902-858-2350 or cjp2320@gmail.com 

Emmanuel Church, Spryfield

All our Christmas services this year will be online, livestreamed on our Facebook page and website.  Here is the schedule: 

            Dec. 20, 10 am: Advent 4 Eucharist as usual

            Dec. 20, 7 pm: Compassion and Hope (Blue Christmas)

            Dec. 24, Time TBA: Informal children’s service with the crèche, Christmas story and some carols.

            Dec. 24, Time TBA: Christmas Eve Eucharist.

            Dec. 27, 10 am: Carols and Devotions

Child Poverty in Nova Scotia

Almost 1 in 4 children (41,370) in Nova Scotia live in poverty

The Nova Scotia chapter of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released their Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Nova Scotia for 2020 on 9 December 2020. (https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/2020-report-card-child-and-family-poverty-nova-scotia)

The Report Card shows that Nova Scotia has a poor track record in reducing child and family poverty. In 1989 the Parliament of Canada voted unanimously to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000. In 1989 the child poverty rate in Nova Scotia was 27 % for children under 6 and increased to 28.5 % in 2018, the only province or territory where the rate has increased over that period. In Prince Edward Island the child poverty rate has decreased between 1989 and 2018.

Without government transfers like Canada Child benefit the situation would be worse.

Readers are encouraged to read the Report Card and consider the recommendations suggested for alleviating child and family poverty in Nova Scotia. Other provinces have a better track record including all the other Atlantic Provinces.

Homeless Memorial Service Cancelled for 2020

The organizers of the annual Homeless Memorial Service normally held on the Winter Solstice, the shortest and darkest day of the year; regretfully announce the cancelation of the Service for 2020. The number of persons needing a home has increased through COVID-19 public health constraints on shelters, evictions from low rent housing, loss of jobs and increased family violence. This increase has greatly increased demands on the Memorial’s sponsoring organizations. Also the usual format of the service that pulls the community together to remember loved ones who have died is not possible within the present public health constraints on gatherings and the likelihood that they will not be relaxed significantly by Monday, December 21, 2020. The organizers hope that the Service will be able to be held in 2021.

On Sunday December 20, the Advent Sunday themed for Love, you are invited to pray for those who are without a home or shelter. We can also pray for the exhausted staff of those organizations who strive to provide services to those needing a permanent and safe home.

Hear our prayer today for all women and men, boys and girls who are homeless this day.

For those sleeping under bridges, on park benches, in doorways or bus stations.

For those who can only find shelter for the night but must wander in the daytime.

For families broken because they could not afford to pay the rent.

For those who have no relatives or friends who can take them in.

For those who have no place to keep possessions that remind them who they are.

For those who are afraid and hopeless.

For those who have been betrayed by our social safety net.

For all these people, we pray that you will provide shelter, security and hope.

We pray for those of us with warm houses and comfortable beds

that we not be lulled into complacency and forgetfulness.

Jesus, help us to see your face in the eyes of every homeless person we meet.

Empower us to work for justice and peace through words and deeds,

and through the political means we have.

Give us open hearts to greet and meet the homeless people in our neighbourhoods.

in your name we pray.  Amen.

Copyright Carol Penner www.leadinginworship.com

Loving God, lift up those persons working and volunteering for community organizations who are striving to give comfort and hope to those who are without a permanent home. We know that in these times made more stressful by the pandemic that they are weary but they continue to provide service and support despite their exhaustion. Give them strength to continue their work and clear sightedness to continue to see the humanity in every person they serve. In the name of Jesus who taught us to love God and our neighbour. Amen

For information on this month's activities at the Cathedral Church of All Saints, click the EVENTS tab on the website: www.cathedralchurchofallsaints.com