News Letters (Page 3)
July / August 2025 Newsletter
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One Bowl Chocolate Cake
Ingredients Chocolate Frosting (Optional) Preheat oven, prep pans, and combine dry ingredients: Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter or spray and dust with flour two 8-inch round cake pans. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add wet ingredients: Whisk in eggs, buttermilk, water, vanilla, and oil. Move batter to pans and bake: Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake until tops spring back when lightly pressed, about 30 minutes.
You Have Voice Male – a Review
Oh, what a night!!! Nothing prepared me for the initial sight of the curtain rising and the stage being filled to the brim with row upon row of men prepared to sing their hearts out. With the first notes of the first selection, I was wrapped in the warmth of those wonderful voices as they sang one of my all-time favourites, Homeward Bound. After performing 3 pieces “en masse”, we then got to hear each choir individually. They were not…
Clara Barton, Angel of the Battlefield
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead With help from an essay by Joanna Strong and Tom B. Leonard, from The Book of Virtues, edited by William J. Bennett. The year was 1862. The Civil War was raging in America. In the battlefields of the country, men were dying, left maimed and bleeding on the field until the battle was…
A First-time Observer’s Experience at General Assembly
It’s hard to use a single adjective to describe the General Assembly for a young observer. While it was a very valuable and eye-opening experience to see how the church operated, admittedly it was also quite dry and confusing at times. I’m very grateful that a pastor helped get me registered as an observer and that GA was close enough this year for me to attend. What I enjoyed the most were: getting a better understanding of our church as…
Happy Canada Day!
Since you-know-who took office you-know-where, Canadian patriotism has been soaring. In honour of Canada Day 2025, and in honour of Simcoe Day, celebrated in Ontario on the first Monday of August every year, let’s find out just who Simcoe was. John Graves Simcoe was a British army officer, politician and colonial administrator who served as Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada (Ontario) from 1791 to 1796. He founded York, now Toronto, and was instrumental in introducing courts of law, trial by jury,…
Morning Has Broken – Eleanor Farjeon
Kathy Twynam Morning has broken, like the first morning;Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird.Praise for the singing, praise for the morning,Praise for them springing fresh from the Word. (Interesting note: I looked up the lyrics on the internet in two different places, and in both cases the last word of the first verse was “world”. Our hymnbook uses “Word”, which I believe is the correct version, but requires some knowledge of Christianity to understand.) At our May Outreach meeting,…
Outreach – May & June
On Monday, June 2, Outreach had its final meeting before the summer. The short “wrap-up” meeting was preceded by a pot-luck supper at the church – a first for our Outreach Committee. It featured great food, as all pot-lucks do, great conversation, and general good fellowship among its hard-working members. Our esteemed leader, Sheila Thomas, celebrated her birthday that week, and to mark the occasion Jean Ross made a birthday cake, which was our dessert. The cake was magnificent, so…
Welcome Dr. Glen DeLine
On June 8, our new organist/choir director, Dr. Glen DeLine, began his leadership of the musical portion of our worship services. He comes to us with a wealth of experience and has many ideas on how to improve and expand our choir. Welcome, Glen, and we all look forward to musical expertise which will, no doubt, enhance our worship every Sunday. Attention all bell ringers! Glen is starting a new Bell Ringers Choir. Anyone of any age can join. No…
The Witch and the Wardrobe – But No Lion
On May 21, Bob and I went to Niagara-on-the-Lake to see the Shaw production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first book in C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series. I went with trepidation, because the Narnia series is very dear to my heart and I was afraid the stage production would ruin it for me, just as the Mirvish production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child managed to ruin Harry Potter. (My opinion only –…
July 2, 2025 – Weekly News
Download the PDF July 2, 2025Today we are faced with yet more unrest in the world. Turmoil in the US, Iran vs Israel, Israel vs Palestine,Russia vs the Ukraine and the list goes on. My neighbour told me about this prayer at noon phenomena whichhas been going on for quite a while. It is a noon-tome prayer for peace. You do not have to be in a church. Youdo not have to be with a group. All you need is…
June 27, 2025 – Minister’s Message
This past June, I had the opportunity to attend my very first General Assembly of The Presbyterian Church in Canada. While new to me in a church context, the structured format—plenary sessions, debates, networking, and reports—felt surprisingly familiar due to my prior years participating in business conferences and seminars. It was a full and often intense experience, but one that left me reflecting deeply on the future of the church in our country and the resilient hope God continues to…